#it ain't

[s-wave-entertainment]

Hi. Sometimes I think about this.

Ahaha!! Haha...

[trials-of-a-spirit-worker]

Witchtok can be Right...As a treat...

I know, I know, after all the bullshit I've been talking about witchtok, hear me out just once.

I'm sure we know about the Kendrick and Drake beef going on. Someone on witchtok said, that Kendrick's song Euphoria is going to be perfect for witches.

And they're absolutely fucking right.

It's always been about love and hate, now let me say I'm the biggest hater I hate the way that you walk, the way that you talk, I hate the way that you dress I hate the way that you sneak diss, if I catch flight, it's gon' be direct

Those lines alone are full of vitriol and unadulterated hatred and anger. You don't think those words so full of emotion and energy can't be used?

It's gonna be used.

For what you ask? Let me give you some examples:

Keep your name out of my mouth spell

General Hexes (the emotion giving your hex power)

General Curses (the emotion giving your hex power)

Return to sender (with a little smack of fuck you attached of course)

Intimidation Spell (In case you don't want someone to fuck you over and give you strength to remain strong)

Honestly, it's just a way to help you get the anger you may have out of you if you want to cleanse

And anything your creative minds can think of.

Witches aren't like the wizards and shit who come up with words on the dot. At least not all the time. We borrow words from others and each other all the time. That's completely valid and Kendrick's stuff is ripe for the taking at this point.

Kendrick done served up an incantation ready for the hex friendly while he was busy verbally beating the dog shit out of Drake.

That's all you'll get out of me about the Kendrick and Drake beef.

[loquaciousquark]

A (late) state of the garden, part 1!

After a very terrible year thanks to frost, the perennials seem to be coming back with a vengeance. The encore azaleas in the front bloomed for what felt like ever, and the viburnum I planted last year seems to be overjoyed in its current location. I'm considering going back to get two more for the same place, since it's a little bare. (The red camellia I bought at the same time died hard over the winter, tragically.) The golden azalea Mom planted the year I moved in has also done well; after six years it's finally getting some real body to it!

The pink azaleas next to the house and my neighbor's massive Japanese privet both also had good years; I set up a patio table and chairs where the privet overflows my fence so I could sit out there some mornings with coffee and just bask in the smell.

Mom planted several heritage irises in the front a few years ago, and this year I got my first very purple bloom! Neither she nor I could remember what color they were, ahaha. Hoping for more blooms next year.

The confederate jasmine I planted last spring has done incredibly well and is trellising wildly over the fence. I planted a honeysuckle vine in the left corner next to it at the same time, but that thing looks worse than a weed & I'm considering tearing it out.

Finally, all four trees in the backyard are doing well. Two years ago, I sourced and planted two Shumard oaks myself, start to finish. They both did pretty badly & one had bad root girdling, so last year I asked a different company to come out (no way I was digging more of those holes myself, thanks), replace one of the oaks, move one of the current oaks to a different spot, and add a fresh oak & a magnolia in the back corner to eventually provide some privacy for my backyard neighbors. All four trees are doing great, even the relocated Shumard, and the magnolia even managed half a dozen blooms this year, which I completely forgot somehow that magnolias did and which literally made me shout when I first saw them. Here's hoping they put on some major height and body this summer!

[epickiya722]

It really does annoy me that people are so gung-ho about proving that their ship is "the right one" or "better" compared to other ships.

It. Is. A. Ship.

You cannot be serious. If you're really that pressed to tell others they shouldn't ship their ship because "it's toxic" or "this character is straight" (which with the direction the world is going that is so unlikely), you have too much time on your hands.

Stop investing your time into putting down other ships and put it into just making more posts about why you like your ship... WITHOUT THE NEED TO BRING IN OTHER SHIPS. You can still gush about your ships to others, even better if they are interested and invite you to talk about them.

Seriously, go write some fanfics. Go draw your ships. Do something other than trying to debate on ships like it's politics. At the end of the day, people are just gonna ship what they like. Trying to stop them to is just... don't waste your energy like that.

[thechekhov]

You wouldn’t happen to be related to Anton Chekhov would you?

Haha no

[blueskyscribe]

Time to roast Pokemon Gen 5

I was really looking forward to playing Pokemon Black / White (Gen V) because everyone said it was the Pokemon gen with the best story.

Well.

The plot:

Evil Guy wants to take over the region.

Evil Guy is like "Hee hee I will trick people into releasing their Pokemon, then I'll easily take over with MY Pokemon."

Evil Guy tells everyone that keeping Pokemon in pokeballs is exploitative. He frames this in generic terms (no examples) and this is enough to make the crowd gawp and wonder aloud if Evil Guy is correct. They seem shocked by the idea the Pokemon could be exploited, to which I say . . . do these people ever watch the news? Like we have had four previous games full of pocket monster exploitation by bad guys. Anyway, Evil Guy urges everyone to release their Pokemon.

Evil Guy of course has an Evil Team. And since the Unova region is based on America, of course they are themed as . . . MEDIEVAL KNIGHTS!

But don't worry, this team also has American theming such as Seven Sages, a couple ninjas, and a late game castle which erupts out of the earth.

It's all so generic. It's too bad, because America certainly has a history full of conflicts and villains. All right, there are some topics that I wouldn't trust Pokemon writers to address with enough sensitivity (like racism), but what about "Pinkertons versus unions"? Organized crime and crooked cops? The 1920s had a rash of fake spiritualists bilking people out of their money, what about a team based on them, with Psychic type Pokemon? With a Champion based on Harry Houdini, who loved unmasking fake psychics?

But no, we get store-brand Final Fantasy bullshit.

So anyway, Evil Guy's plan relies on people believing that he means well and is trustworthy. And therefore, Evil Team starts . . . committing a wide variety of crimes! In front of witnesses! They steal pokeballs from children, they kick Pokemon, etc.

"But maybe they still have plausible deniability," you might be thinking. "Maybe people won't believe kids." Well, maybe not, but they also commit crimes in front of Gym Leaders, the most trusted and powerful people in the Unova region. Like, one of the Gym Leaders has a museum, and instead of breaking in stealthily in the night, Team Evil just goes through the front door in broad daylight and steals an item while everyone stares at them.

Let's reflect on some other shortcomings of Evil Guy's plan which, to reiterate, is to guilt people into releasing their Pokemon.

First, if a Pokemon loves its owner, why would it leave just because it was released? Why wouldn't it continue to hang around, like the wild Rockruff that lived in Professor Kukui's house in the anime?

Second, if all Pokemon WOULD rather flee into the woods than stay with their human, then the bad guy is seemingly correct.

Third, what about the asshole trainers who don't care about their Pokemon's feelings? We know they're out there, there's a Pokemon move called Frustration.

Fourth, even if Evil Guy tricked everyone into releasing their Pokemon, there is nothing to stop the populace from catching NEW Pokemon the minute Evil Guy starts using his Pokemon to bully people. Feed Evil Guy's plan to a Trubbish and throw it in the bin, because it's garbage.

On a final note, when looking at the ethics of keeping Pokemon . . . Of COURSE it would be unethical to keep a lot of them irl! Giving children Fire type Pokemon would be grossly irresponsible. Litwick feeds off human souls, you shouldn't keep one. And the Yamask--introduced in THIS GAME--are described as "the spirits of people interred in graves. Each retains memories of its former life."

Now personally I love the weirder Pokedex entries and all the Pokemon with horrifying origins. I love that Pallosand shoots the bones of its victims from its arms and that Phantump is the ghost of a child who possessed a stump. However: Gen V made a beeline for the only rake in the yard and stepped on it. Most Pokemon games sidestep Poke-catching ethics; it's understood that this is all pretend, nothing is actually being captured, and therefore the player doesn't need to worry about such things.

But characters within Black & White bring this argument to the forefront, and without having any rebuttal. This is why the Evil Guy makes generic arguments like "If you don't release your Pokemon they can't fulfill their true potential", instead of telling the crowds "Catching a Yamask means you're enslaving a human ghost" or "Hands up anyone who caught your Pokemon by burning, paralyzing, or poisoning it."

So, yeah. Pokemon Black & White has the second worst story of a mainline Pokemon game. I haven't played Black 2 or White 2, maybe they were better.

[swan2swan]

..........okay, alex, I’m going to pledge this, at least:

I will watch Arcane before Book of Boba Fett. I’m going to at least grant you--and the show--that.