not doomed by the narrative but saved by the narrative. yeah i know you'd rather die than keep suffering but the story doesn't actually care what you want. you have to keep going, even when it hurts. even being erased from existence won't stop you from being salvaged from the wreckage of un-being. get up. keep pushing. keep bleeding. keep living.
Thinking a bit about how AQW has been adressing Zhoom's bounty hunting past and how his actions are something that he still has to deal with, and it's gotten me thinking about Sha'Rae and her actions in Dying Light.
More specifically, what if she had a different motivation to betray us than simply being threatened by Sepulchure.
Imagine that you're a rebel, fighting to overthrow the tyranical lich that rules you land. Imagine that this Lich was served by a skilled and merciless bounty hunter, that many of your friends and even your father had been pursued by him. Imagine that you worked in the inn that this bounty hunter frequented, always careful that he never caught onto you.
Imagine that one day a hero arrived to your home, that with their help you were able to topple the tyrant and free your home. then imagine seeing that hero call the bounty hunter, your boogey man, a trusted friend and count him among the heroes that helped free you. This bounty hunter now entrusted with safeguarding the source of the tyrant's power
Imagine the betrayal that you would feel. He might try to apologise but the pain remains.
Then imagine that someone arrived, claiming to understand that feeling of betrayal. They offer you a salve to your pain, a gift of the power to avenge your fallen comrades and all he asks for in exchange is the Orb of Light.
"The Pharaoh of the Sandsea is recognized by the land itself. If one is judged unworthy, they will feel its rejection. For a time, I was Pharaoh in name only.
The Lotus Tomb's healing waters would not heal me, and sandstorms bombarded Duat." - Zhoom
"But when my friends and I defeated the Umbral Chaos, I harnessed forbidden power that put me on death's door. A Blue Lotus connected its stem to my veins, and purified my body. My friends said this was a sign that I had proven myself worthy of becoming the Sandsea's protector."
"Once upon a time, those flowers would have saved you.
Even if you did win the crown through conquest, I learned that the people welcomed you with open arms. That you came to adore the Sandsea yourself.
Do you really feel nothing for it now?"
"Since when were you sentimental? Remember when you used to work for my spare change?
Honor? Keeping promises? No, you sold the rebels' lives for greed and pride.
If the Sandsea were fair and pure, it would never have accepted you becoming Pharaoh."
"It wouldn't have accepted a despot like me either. Poor, softhearted Neith, kind to every little life in the Dunes, was rejected.
See? The Sandsea saved you because it knows you have the same potential I did. You have the power to spread the dunes into Greenguard and beyond."
"That power will change you until you mistake me for a mirror." - Sek-Duat
"...The "first" Sek-Duat buried a son before his 'second' child ascended the throne. What was he like?"
"Don't be foolish. That doesn't work on me. I mummified myself, so I don't have a heart anymore."
When I was at the natural history museum, the fossil section had stickers on the glass to engage children - things like "Flap your arms like a pterodactyl" or "Measure your hand against the mosasaurus." However the first of these I encountered, which I found alarming and threatening without context, was a sticker reading "Struggle like you are stuck in a tar pit"
I feel like more bright colors, an exclamation mark, or a more whimsical font choice would've also helped here to indicate that it is a Fun Activity For Children. Instead it felt like getting instructed in my inevitable fate by a road sign
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there’s absolutely something to be said about ‘booktok’ books being largely wattpad quality written erotica i’m certainly not reading them however having seen a guy on tiktok make a video like ‘all the women in your life are READING PORN’ about a book he picked up and read in his FEMALE FRIEND’S HOUSE in a tone of scandalised horror and disgust i actually don’t think men should be making those criticisms. he said he picked it up expecting a romance and was horrified it was GOONER SHIT he said specifically like ‘who are you getting your pussy wet FOR??’ in a tone of revulsion. idk man im not sure shes the weird one. i kind of wish you were dead
"a lot of books that are successful on booktok are not very good" and "people can read what they want and we need to stop being so fucking weird about women enjoying erotica" are both correct statements
“Because the truth is, tech doesn’t have an image problem. It doesn’t have a message problem. It has an intention problem. What’s wrong with the axe murderer who broke into my house is not that he hasn’t successfully persuaded me to buy into his narrative. What’s wrong is that he’s trying to kill me with an axe. Similarly, when you launch a product that’s designed to put millions of people out of work, block access to sources of verifiable truth, replace human creativity with slop, and lower the barriers to every sort of atrocity, the problem isn’t that you haven’t told the public a good story about those things. The problem is that you are trying to do them.”
the best fanfiction you've ever read was written by a woman in her 40s before she made dinner for her kids. it was written by a teenager after school when they should've been studying for a history test. and a barista came up with the idea while they cleaned the espresso machine and busser fact-checked it on their break and the post-doc edited between writing grant proposals and the nurse apologized for typos in the notes after a long shift and behind every drabble and one-shot and multi-chapter fic there is a person with a wonderful and interesting and chaotic life and it is such a privilege that we get to be apart of it because they decided to do this thing we all share, for fun.
I actually do genuinely love when people make sincere angst art of children's shows. The depth people create in the things they carry close to their heart always inspires me. Like yknow what? What if it WAS that deep. And even deeper. Take my hand. Let me explore this topic with you
Aro and ace activism is housing reform, is well-funded public housing, is an expansion of affordable housing, is allowing single people to get affordable and public housing, is rent controls to make it possible for single people to be able to afford to live alone on a single salary.
Aro and ace activism is healthcare reform, so that no one needs to rely on a spouse for health insurance, so that healthcare is available to everybody regardless of income, so that no one’s lived experiences or basic dignity are dismissed or overridden by doctors
Aro and ace activism is well-funded and expansive public transit, so that you don’t need to have someone on hand to drive you places if you are incapacitated, so that you don’t have to pay for an ambulance if you need to get to the hospital quickly
Aro and ace activism is disability and elder care services, so that no one needs a spouse to care for them, so that no one needs children to care for them, so that marriage is not a bind for disabled people, so that people on disability who want to and can live alone can
Aro and ace activism is community-building, it’s public events, it’s free social activities, it’s mutual aid, it’s activities that bring community members together without socializing relying on just a romantic partner
Aro and ace activism is developing a culture of believing when people tell you who they are and what they want rather than assuming you know them better than they know themselves
Aro and ace activism means a better world for people without “normative” desires or “normative” social support, which means a better world for everybody