The Tower

25+. My happy little blog which is fandom hopping. NSFW will be posted and I hope you have fun! Writing Blog: Fandom-Go-Round

[so-much-for-subtlety]

[mackdaddyofthecravate]

Please return us to a world where Notp and squick are used for a ship you don’t like instead of just making up a load of bullshit about how immoral it is or w/e lol 

[sazandorable]

a short selection of concepts and phrases that used to be commonplace in fandom and we’d really benefit from making that a thing again:

NOTP: the opposite of an OTP (One True Pairing). It is a ship a fan strongly dislikes. The word is a portmanteau of ‘no’ and ‘OTP’ and thus is not a contraction of any particular phrase.

Squick: anything that is a deep-seated, visceral turn-off. Squicks may be shared by many fans or be specific to one; one person’s kink may be another person’s squick.

YKINMKATO, or kink-tomato: Your Kink Is Not My Kink, And That’s Okay: used to indicate support for fannish diversity and to distinguish between disapproval or kink shaming and simply having different taste.

DLDR: Don’t Like, Don’t Read: a phrase used to warn against complaints about an aspect of fic or meta. A “live and let live” philosophy of fandom, which places the responsability for avoiding content one doesn’t want to see on the side of the fanwork consumer, rather that on the creator’s.

SALS: Ship And Let Ship: similar to the above specifically about shipping tastes.

YMMV: Your Mileage May Vary: a phrase used to acknowledge that any given individual’s personal opinion on the topic at hand may differ due to their own tastes, standards, values, experiences, etc.

As the OP points out, all of these crucially imply no moral judgment of what they’re designing.

(definitions lifted more or less wholesale from fanlore’s relevant pages)

[shatterpath]

bring the healthy fun back to fandom!

[wokefrogvirus]

let’s have a blast with mama

[oblivioustoast]

photographer credit from the notes!

[augustdementhe]

YAY, CREDIT. Go buy a print from him, if you're so inclined:

SHOP | kunalphotography

[bumpen-underbeds]

Unlike the other aides in the castle grounds, you are not some noble family's child or a minor noble yourself, just a commoner that had rolled the dice and managed to get one good outcome in your life.

Until now.

The watch captain you served was retiring, and the guards he oversaw were being folded into other units day by day, men you'd grown to know quite well are saying goodbye with every new sunrise. This wasn't surprising with the new Lord Marshal coming into office soon, a young Lord Nabil if you understand correctly. However, with each departure your role becomes less and less needed, the other watch captains already have aides helping them or running their missives through the castle grounds, and so, you find your work thinning to the barest of duties quite swiftly.

On what was beginning to feel like your last useful day in the castle you stumbled on a transfer request hidden under empty pages on your small desk, your watch captain's signature on the bottom, and a note from him telling you that he had already arranged for you to be moved to another unit, well before he announced his retirement.

Your old captain was a good man after all.

The new unit you were being assigned too was in the treasury guard, under the Lord Commander Adir. You would not work for the commander himself but as an aide to one of the treasury guard's sub units, a mixed group of Angelkin and Demonspawn that tended to do the more heavy lifting of the treasury guard than the usual vault prowling and coin shifting that the main branches did. More specifically you would be answering to a knight captain by the name Vetra, one of the angelkin if your old watch captains note was correct.

Stepping into the units quarters is strange, no longer are you in the true castle grounds, but more the edges and outer perimeter of the sprawling area that the capital calls the castle. There are horned and winged people everywhere, aides running with equipment like squires and even what you think is a gargoyle in the corner of the barracks room you stand in, but none of this matters as you rush past them all, looking for the room you have been told to report too.

Finally finding the right door you knock, waiting for the approval to enter before opening the heavy latch and slipping inside. You'd expect an office or small working area not personal quarters, when you look up your greeted with what must be Vetras bare back, their broad shoulders and strong back on full display as their wings settle into a more comfortable position, introducing yourself as you step forward you hadn't been prepared for the sight that would greet you as your new captain turns to look at you.

She's breathtaking, eyes like silver, and the thick braid of copper hair hangs across her bare chest.

It's hard not to stare as you take her in, mouth slightly parted and hand still halfway outstretched as you unintentionally rake your eyes over her form. There are countless scars and burn marks across her waist, collarbones, and even one that curves up her chin and across her cheek, but these hardly seem to change the fact that she is like sunlight after a dark winter. It's only when you look at her again that you realise that she is in fact half naked as well, the wide legged linen pants and a wide belt the only clothes she wears, flustering quickly you turn away and apologise, covering your eyes as you stumble through apologise for your improper behaviour.

Your role under this new Knight Captain may be harder than you'd thought, especially as the sight of her is burned into your mind even well after she is fully dressed and finished laughing at the response you'd had to seeing her half naked.

Already, she is calling you some kind of pet name, clapping you on the shoulder as she passes and coos into your ear.

'Come on Tibu, it's time to introduce you to the rest of the knights...'

[mistflarden-deactivated20200816]

“In Europe they–”

WHERE in Europe??!? WHERE??? You mean Iceland?? Azerbaijan? The Netherlands? Liechtenstein???? THERE ARE 50 COUNTRIES IN EUROPE. ALL WITH DIFFERENT CULTURES. SO PRAY TELL ME, WHERE IN FUCKING EUROPE.

[eldriitchmurmurs]

in europe they got antisemitism

[number-one-malloc-appreciator]

[homunculus-argument]

Randomly remembered seeing this random old black and white photo from like the 50s, pretty sure it was from Sweden. A picture from a morgue, of a tall blond man in some kind of an uniform approaching another man standing beside an opened coffin, clutching something to his chest while looking at the approaching man with a look of wary insult on his face. The caption explained that this was an incident of a police officer stopping a man from putting a bottle of beer in his father's coffin (his own father, not the cop's father) because for some reason doing that was against Sweden's burial laws.

I don't remember the details but I recall how the guy had the looks of a rough life written all over him, ragged clothes in contrast to the police officer's pristine uniform - though obscured by motion blur as he was rapidly approaching with hateful intent - and the much finer burial clothes of the deceased. A small, skinny man with black hair, holding onto the bottle that's about to be confiscated like it's something precious to him.

I felt like something wasn't adding up and went to the comments to see if there was additional context that was missing from all this, and there was: The son and the father were Romani, and at least at the time it was still very much a tradition in Swedish Romani culture to bury the dead with little gifts - not necessarily extravagant or expensive, but things that the lost loved one would have liked.

This wasn't about a mourning son being stopped from playfully paying his respects in a way that someone else thought indignified. This was about a man being prohibited from performing his own peoples' funeral rites.

[vvlpecvlae]

Had to go find the photo, it's indeed Swedish. Taken by Åke Borglund and photo of the year 1958, apparently.

Source: https://digitaltmuseum.se/021016531349/arets-bild-1958-tagen-i-stillhetens-kapell-tid-uppstandelsens-kapell-i

[homunculus-argument]

Holy fuck you found it.

I misremembered, it wasn't a morgue, those are empty church pews.

[vvlpecvlae]

After finding and posting the photo above, I did some more research and found out where it was originally published. Long story short, I now own a 1958 issue of Se, which was a Swedish magazine for photojournalism, inspired by Life and other similar publications.

The photo comes from an article on a Swedish Romani funeral in Karlstad (a city 300 km west of Stockholm). The text is pretty exoticising and othering, I won't bother translating the whole thing. But I will relay the most interesting information.

First of all, the deceased man is Josef Dimetri (1903-1958), who was a Romani chief. From what I can tell from the Swedish censuses, he left behind a wife and six children, ages 18-31.

Which means that the photo is a bit deceptive on its own - the chapel is still empty there, but the article states it was taken shortly before the rest of the guests arrived. Because there were plenty of guests - and there are more photos of them!

The article doesn't explain why the police was there, but it says they had to step in and break off some fighting and arguments that broke out between guests, which is more likely what they were there for (rather than just inspecting bottles). They can also be seen talking to spectators in the last photo, so staving off curious or hostile people might also have been a reason.

And most important, perhaps: While the policeman did try to stop him from leaving the bottle, the son shook him off and protested that "he needs it, he needs it", and "the tactful policeman" (as the article calls him) did not insist further. So it seems Josef Dimetri was in fact laid to rest with his bottle of beer.

[flareonfloof]

it's so hard to be socially conscious and also maintain a friendly relationship with people i work with

[flareonfloof]

like there's only so many times you can say "hey don't say that, that's rude/bigoted/a dogwhistle" before everyone just stops talking to you. nothing changes except you're alone now. ask how i know.

[flareonfloof]

it's easier to ignore the slightly offputting tranny than to actually change how you act dontchaknow

[flareonfloof]

right, I'm not supposed to blog about anything serious or I'll get censored or deleted or whatever. how about that world cup, huh

[marcymallows-deactivated2026020]

[normaltemperature]

[timegears-moved-deactivated2025]

twilight princess funniest zelda game ever made

[timegears-moved-deactivated2025]

one of the reoccurring minor plots is that a 3 year old with the mental capacity of an adult is trying to abolish capitalism in the big city. there's a yeti couple living in an abandoned mansion and the guy yeti is like 10 times the size of and more visibly monstrous than the girl yet they made him a malewife. you can collect insects for a little girl that is insane about them and gives you strange and off-putting dialogue about each bug everytime you give her one and practically threatens you if you try to leave her home without giving her bugs she doesn't have yet. one of the modes of transportation in this game is being shot out of a giant canon by a depressed clown and landing on your feet with no injuries. there's a spaghetti western style minigame where the objective is to talk to 20 different cats. a chicken attempts to flirt with link. they made tingle into a sexyman caricature.

[timegears-moved-deactivated2025]

i completely forgot about ooccoo while making this post. this fucking thing:

[timegears-moved-deactivated2025]

and, of course, her son too

[loreleywrites]

Every time someone says that Twilight Princess is too grimdark and serious, I want to point them to this post. It’s a very silly game.

[william-snekspeare]

This is so real

[pixellangel]

HOLD ON I HAVE A GIF FOR THIS

[pixellangel]

yes ive been waiting for my moment

[go-learn-esperanto]

Hey. If people aren't aware, Microsoft admitted they know who you and where you are at all times and will give your info to the police.

They have a Global Device Identifier (GDID) Tracker that functions as a fingerprint for your PC that can surpass VPNs, proxy servers and countries. Although it can't survive a clean reinstall of Windows (it can survive updates), because Microsoft forces you to go to the internet and log in into a Microsoft account, they will be able to get to you.

Microsoft kept it secret and it was only found out when the FBI tracked a hacker thanks to the information Microsoft gave them.

You should be paying attention to this, and possibly consider moving away from Windows. If a government, especially the US government, doesn't like you for some reason, this could be seriously concerning.

This article specifically notes:

For journalism, activism, or domestic abuse situations, skip Windows and use Linux routed through Tor instead of a commercial VPN. A GDID doesn’t care which VPN you use, only that it’s still the same Windows installation.

Microsoft admits Windows 11 has a GDID tracker with no off switch, first documented publicly in an FBI hacker complaint

GDID is the persistent Windows ID that helped FBI trace a Scattered Spider hacker despite VPNs. Here's how it works and how to limit it.

Other important quotes:

What has researchers uneasy is everything else the case reveals. Costin Raiu, a well-known malware researcher, asked on the Three Buddy Problem podcast how much of this exists on other platforms, and whether it is linked more permanently to hardware. Matthew Hickey, another security researcher, called Windows “surveillance software”.

Two things back that up:

There’s no consent screen. A GDID gets assigned when you sign into a Microsoft Account. Apple’s advertising identifier needs an App Tracking Transparency prompt and a visible reset; Android’s works the same way. GDID has neither, and a Windows reinstall only gets you a new number Microsoft can still get back to the same account.

Then there’s activation. Massgrave, the group behind Microsoft Activation Scripts, notes that Windows setup sends hardware info to Microsoft and gets identifiers back, the same tokens later used for Store access and licensing: “It’s impossible to prevent Windows from getting a GDID without breaking activation and UWP app[s].” Anyone who lost a license after swapping a motherboard has already met a smaller version of this.

Here's the complaint filed to the court, the primary source for the case mentioned in the article. You can find mentions of GDID on page 30 of the document or 34 of the PDF.

Thank you @just-call-me-zinnia for finding it!

[sephiramy]

me messaging a casual acquaintance: hello, how are you?

me messaging a best friend w/zero lead-in:

[fuckthisshit-ugh]

please read this even if you're not indian. especially if you're not indian.

you've seen the jokes. india is "dirty", indians are "everywhere", why don't they fix their own country. ok. let me tell you why, and what's happening right now while nobody's watching.

first, the history you skipped: britain ruled india for two centuries and drained it. economist utsa patnaik's research estimates around $45 trillion in today's money was taken. the india that got independence in 1947 was one of the poorest countries on earth. every "why is india like this" question starts there. you don't get to profit off a robbery and then mock the crime scene.

now, what's happening RIGHT NOW:

in may the question paper for NEET leaked. that's the national medical entrance exam. over 2.2 million students took it. cancelled. years of studying, families' savings poured into coaching, gone overnight because someone sold the paper. students died by suicide after. these were kids who wanted to be doctors.

and out of that came a protest movement. a gen z group called the cockroach janta party, started by a 30 year old named abhijeet dipke, got 22 million instagram followers within DAYS. they've been doing a sit-in at jantar mantar in delhi demanding education minister dharmendra pradhan resign.

and then there's sonam wangchuk. if you've watched 3 idiots, he's the real engineer the character was based on. built solar schools in ladakh. invented ice stupas so himalayan villages have water. spent his whole life on education. he's 59 and he's been on hunger strike for 17+ days now. reporters went to see him this week and he was too weak to talk. and the troll armies are calling him "anti national" and "foreign funded". a man starving himself for other people's children. that's the thing here, anyone who asks a question is suddenly a traitor.

it's not one incident, it's everywhere you look:

• infrastructure worth thousands of crores failing within months of the ribbon cutting. tunnels collapsing in regions where heavy rain is a guarantee, not a surprise.

• youth unemployment near 10% for ages 15 to 29, 13.6% in cities. in a country of 1.42 billion where more than half the population is young.

• only about the top 3% of indians earn above 10 lakh a year. meanwhile billionaire wealth keeps ballooning and the headlines celebrate it.

• manipur burned for over two years. an ethnic conflict, tens of thousands displaced, and the prime minister barely said the word manipur while it happened.

• journalists raided. critics' houses bulldozed. activists sitting in jail for years without trial under laws like UAPA. our press freedom ranking has cratered.

• even the petrol is a fight now, ethanol blending pushed through while drivers complain about their engines and get no straight answers.

and through all of it, the PM, who came to power on religious polarisation (americans, sound familiar?), travels abroad for photo ops and has not held one single open press conference in over a decade. not one.

what i'm asking:

if you're not indian: share this. our media mostly won't cover any of it because the big outlets are owned by the same billionaires the government serves. the only reason wangchuk's fast is getting any coverage is people refusing to look away.

if you ARE indian: speak up even if you're comfortable. especially if you're comfortable. join the protests. add to this, correct me, translate it. staying quiet is a choice when nothing in this post touches your life.

india is not "dirty". india was robbed, and it's being robbed again, from the inside this time. but it's also the country where a 59 year old will starve for strangers' kids and 22 million young people will rally behind a party literally named after cockroaches, because cockroaches survive everything.

we can still save her. but only loudly.

reblog. share. don't scroll past.

[roczath]

India’s youth-led Cockroach movement vows to keep demanding reforms after police crackdown

Supporters of India’s youth-led Cockroach movement demanding educational reforms and government accountability say they will continue their

AP News coverage as of July 21.

[elaienar]

Explained: How India's biggest medical entrance exam descended into crisis

An alleged paper leak, an unprecedented nationwide retest and mounting political pressure have thrust NEET, India's medical entrance examina

NEET-UG: India students resit intense medical exam after paper leak allegations

Millions of candidates face biometric checks and frisking as air force deployed to secure exam papers.

‘Come back, my son’: Indian exam leak leaves trail of death, despair, anger

More than two million aspiring doctors took India’s NEET examination. However, the test was compromised and cancelled.

Here's some reporting on the NEET.

[ouroborosorder]

”there’s no glory in suffering” and “sometimes the effort is the point” are two ideas that co-exist but god damn if I can ever tell when’s the time for which

[i-point-at-things]

👇👇👇

[urfavhatesterfs]

YOU hates terfs

[switchingtogeico]

[captainhaterade]

[stankpasta]

rb if u hates terfs

[official-pussy-posts-2]

Official ‘terfs get out of my house’ Post

[writingdose]

being a writer is fun

[corrucyst]

dude, this is really scary, and liminal as well. It's like the bathrooms