but unless clearly indicated otherwise, i assume everyone online is a woman. like, sorry for assigning all of you a gender without asking, but lowkey i really expect everyone here to be a woman unless and until they literally say they’re not. don’t ask me why my brain does that because i have no idea
so, re the concrit discussion in fic writing that’s been going around lately; there’s one thing i don’t see mentioned a whole lot and that’s newcomers (to the more popular fandom spaces)
obviously, not all and probably not even most of the people who leave unasked-for concrit in comments are newcomers to ao3/tumblr/wherever. but some probably are, and honestly the way authors seem to be getting more and more slap-down and, well, practically hostile in regards to comments with concrit is... it’s not good.
what i mean is that it might be obvious to us who’ve been on ao3 for years (and years) that you should only leave positive comments, but it’s not obvious to people who’re just starting out. they might actually be new to fandom and fanfic in general - their previous experience commenting on stories might actually be classroom critiqueing of other students’ writing. or, better yet, they might be like me and started out on a smaller archive/site where concrit was the default.
like - believe it or not, back when i started on my first fandom forum, the basic attitude there was that every reader was your beta and every reader could and should give concrit on grammar, spelling, characterization, spacing, plot, anything. imagine if i’d transitioned, say, straight to ao3 after i got confident in my english skills and went on to write my first comment? thinking that concrit is what a good reader does for all the stories they read? yeah
so while i personally do like ao3′s say-only-nice-things comment culture (or the attempt to create one, at least), the thing about it is that there’s no pinned post titled “FORUM ETIQUETTE, READ FIRST!!” and newcomers just have to learn the unwritten rules by exposure. and if you’re transition from one type of commenting culture to a new one and haven’t yet clued on, it feels pretty shitty to get hit with an you’re-such-an-asshole on introduction
anyway, that’s my two cents that i think are relevant
what about a wheel of time and the untamed fusion where wei wuxian is basically the jiang’s damane? i’ve no idea how this would work, but it’d be mostly cql-universe with channelers or something of the like somehow existing and being collared by the sects, and just - so much awful.
imagine wwx is thirteen or fourteen when it starts to show. he’s been practically-family to the jiangs for years, he’s the most promising junior in the sect, it’s clear jiang fengmian has been planning to make him head disciple, madam yu is firmly entrenched in her dislike of him, and the whole jealousy-inferiority-guilt complex thing between wwx and jc is in full swing. and then wwx gets collared. he goes from being practically the head disciple to an almost-slave.
i’m going to go with an almost-slave because for anything to stay even remotely close to canon, the damane have to have some status. think highish-ranking slaves in some historical societies.
so, now he’s a bond servant who was practically-family, and it’s a mess. he gets treated well mostly, a bit less like a brother or a son and a bit more like a servant - and also a bit like a pet, sometimes - except by madam yu, who finally has an undisputed excuse to treat him however she sees fit. jiang yanli acts almost exactly the same as before, the other disciple are kind of awkward around him, but jiang cheng - he feels the change in their relative positions accutely and is all over the place because of it. it’s not made any better by the fact that jc is the one who holds wwx’s leash the most.
(jfm, on the other hand... wwx almost feels like a priced horse, a colt that’s being tamed and trained for riding. eventually, jc might clue in on this and it might make some things better)
wwx, being his duty-bound, self-sacrificing, loyal self, just accepts his new place in the world. not without difficulties, no. but he does accept it; it’s normal afterall, and the jiangs are his family - he’d do anything for them.
and then the yunmeng siblings go to cloud recesses and love! at first oblivious sight! i don’t know what happens next but i think eventually, during the three month disappearance, wwx gets out of his collar and won’t - can’t - put it back on because of trauma.
The thing about social bubbles is that they’re insidious. If you're locked in just - or mainly - one bubble, you end up in an echo chamber of opinions and that will change you. No matter how much you know better from the get go, if you hear the same opinions repeated and argued for at least mostly coherently, you’re going to start giving them the benefit of the doubt. Eventually, no matter how slowly, you’re going to start believing them.
And you can only really snap out of it by getting out of the bubble.
Or: today I remembered why I actually don’t believe in punitive justice no matter how much tumblr’s culture tries to sell it to me.
It’s been a year since this template was relevant but after seeing a twitter post decided to mix the two and finally do it.
Small spoilers for the 5.3 dungeon name and one npc you see in it. Plus one other thing but you would only understand if you caught up.
Class Name: Midnight Shepard
Weapon: Antiquated Deathbringer
AI Behavior - O'repse tends to not care about getting hurt as long as she can make sure no one else has the risk of taking damage. Because of this she will run ahead grabbing more then most other tank trust would. If the player takes damage she will pop Blackest Night on them with the only exceptions being she needs it to survive a buster or she ran out of mp giving them the skill.
Her still fresh lack of tail also makes her have trouble moving; sometimes switching to a walk for a few seconds and using plunge to get to the right position. Any knock-back skill she gets hit by will auto add two seconds of 'down for the count' as she must readjust her stance. She always seems to have a crit direct hit bloodspiller after this however to even out the missed damage.
Battle Quirk - Has a small chance of Eos spawning when low health. Eos uses Aetherpact on her until fully healed and one Fey Blessing on party until disappearing. This won't happen if she uses Living Dead.
Dohn Mheg Maze - She starts off going through at normal speed before staggering slightly on the first turn; with a "Tsk, seems I must play by my own rules." she uses plunge to reach the other side.
Tank Dialogue:
Trust Menu Selection - "I shall protect everyone."
Staring a Pull - "I've got you!"
Using Delirium - "Get out of my way!"
Using The Living Shadow - "Please come to my side"
The Living Shadow Leaving - "Thank you... Esteem"
*Note the dots in her box dialouge are spoken as "Fr-*
Using Living Dead - "Hah...Must stay up... A little longer..."
Activating Walking Dead - "She must not die here!"
0 HP - "I am sorry... My friends..."
0 HP with Walking Dead up - "I have.... failed you..."
Revived 1 - "I owe you my friend."
Revived 2 - "My time to see them again has not come."
Down for the Count active - "Apologizes one moment."
Special Dungeon Quotes:
Holmister Switch:
After Second Boss if Alisaie not in party - "That Sin Eater... Let us pray we brought her peace."
Amaurot:
Starting the dungeon - "This place..."
After Second Boss - "My head... It hurts... No please do not worry I will carry on."
Before Third Boss - "The memory is-! No O'repse this is all but some illusion he concocted to mess with you."
The Twinning:
After First Boss - "Why is so many monsters still in the tower anyway? Ah well, let us take care of this quickly."
Before Third Boss - "Alexa-... No this is but a copy. Let us take care of it."
The Grand Cosmos:
After fighting the knight paintings - "Heh... How ironic I would fight people like THEM again."
The Heroes Gauntlet
After First Boss - "These enemies seem so... Apologizes let us carry on."
Granson appears - "Hmph, seems you were telling the truth about helping, thanks my friend."
i’m gonna gripe about a pretty inconsequential thing that’s been bothering me so please feel to ignore, but:
some years back there was this post about christians and atheists that i really liked. it talked about whether or not christians (or any religious people really) should offer sympathy and comfort to atheist by saying “i’ll pray for you/them/x”, and how atheists should react to that. a few atheists found it offensive; a few christians found them offensive. you know, the usual tumblr thing.
but the comment that i liked the best was this: offering to pray for someone is a genuine and deep show of sympathy for christians who do that (and we’re not talking about the kind of “you need salvation, sinner” praying or the “our prayers are with them” tweets). it’s a really meaningful and sincere offer of sympathy and support -- from a different culture. and atheists should take it as such; no, it doesn’t conform to what they believe, but it’s coming from a genuine place with good intentions and that’s what should matter. well-wishes from other cultures in their own manners and forms are not and should not be thought of as insults.
as a mostly atheist agnostic, i really liked that opinion.
so wait, what am i actually griping about?
well, see. lately there have been posts advocating that christians -- or other people influenced by christian traditions -- using expressions of sympathy and well-wishes, such as rest in peace, should stop doing so when offering them to non-christians because it’s insulting. instead they should use expressions from the other culture/religion. and while i mostly get the sentiment, i just... don’t really agree? like, i understand that people feel more of less insulted or irritated when it happens, so nothing i can do there. but. that feels the same as atheists getting insulted and/or mad because a christian offers to pray for them or their loved ones.
now, i’m not talking about situations where you’re writing an obituary or making a eulogy, or really any other longer offer of sympathy or remembrance. i mean short comments, brief well-wishes -- the kind we say when we want to offer sympathy or support but aren’t in the position for anything longer. like prayers in behalf of atheists, these are meaningful and sincere expressions of sympathy from a different culture.
and i honestly don’t think we should be curbing or silencing or changing them just because they’re from a different culture. people are often the most genuine and heartfelt when they express themselves with their own words, and i think that should matter. especially when they might not understand the connotations and message or even the meaning of a foreign phrase.
now, that’s not to say that using expressions and phrases from other cultures is meaningless. it’s not; i’d say it especially emphasizes messages of bridging differences, meeting others on their terms, and respecting and appreciating other cultures. these are all good messages and i’m definitely not trying to argue against using them! but if what you’re really trying to express is sadness, sympathies, emotional support and so on -- shouldn’t your own words work just as well and ring just as true, if not truer?
and like, this goes all ways. everyone using their own words, whatever they are. it’d be nice to have them all in different languages but at that point we’d probably lose too much understandability.
anyway, i figure that the original criticism of phrases like rest in peace probably has a lot to do with the history of oppression and old -- or new -- enmities and non-christian people within largely christian societies pushing back against that? but these are people’s genuine ways of expressing sympathy and sadness and good-will, and it seems like such a strange target to paint as insulting.
quick thing about the post you reblogged regarding being horny, you tagged it #this does explain cat calling tho; like those idiot aren't just being rude and annoying on purpose; they're incapable of self-control — honestly i find this not only untrue, but insulting. cat-calling isn't a function of someone being horny or turned on, it's a function of them being disrespectful and not caring about the boundaries and agency of another human being. being horny doesn't mean not being in control.
So I didn’t spend any time thinking on my phrasing while typing that tag and it probably came off badly. What I meant was more about how, so far, cat-calling has been a completely baffling thing for me because I could not figure out a motive or reason for it - aside for people simply wanting to be jerks. It’s been in the same category as groups of teenagers yelling insults at passerbyes for shits and giggles. Aka, there’s no reason. The whole thing with the kind of instant attraction that was described explains what incites SOME people - people who already have a problem with not respecting others - to start cat-calling. And why they only do it to certain attractive women, not every woman that walks by.
I wasn’t trying to say that being horny means being out of control or disrespectful, or that all people who experience sexual attraction do that. Obviously they don’t. Sorry for the wording in the tag.
(I’m honestly kind of surprised anyone’s even reading my tags? I’ve always kind of assumed I’m talking into the void here...)
