My local area just had its first-ever Pride festival, and while I was there an elderly lesbian couple approached me. They told me they’d been together for 50 years and they were so happy to have lived long enough to go from an era of rampant homophobic violence to having a pride festival right in their backyard.
While I was talking to them I realized that back when I still lived in my hometown, the one I fled five years ago due to transphobic violence, I’d never seen a queer person over the age of 30. The oldest queer person I knew back then was my former coworker, a bi woman in her late 20s.
For the first time in my life I’m seeing real, tangible proof right in front of me that queer people get to grow old. We get gray hair and we have 50th anniversaries and we get to tell the younger generations about how far we’ve come as a community and society. We get to grow old.
Okay, recap now! By Vance! [reminder: these are done in first person!]
He's back home, he met with his Boss, his rent was covered that he paid back in full. He met the new employee, she's okaaay. She might be a plant from Garbargio. Vance headed to the inn and agreed to stay there too. He also spoke with the Magister/Professorship group about keeping Garbargio in check but he'd need to make a money deal. b/c $$ talks.
They decide to go to brunch and we found Carrier wandering around, having almost been abducted by the local weird sex cult. Bri's new favorite word is 'brunch', though she's probably going to hate the word after this.
Vespera ooc: Bri had a new favourite word and a new least favourite word in the span of a morning
Vance brought everyone to work, he made drinks and might have gotten Vespera and Vuokko a little drink. Vespera had fun though. Vuokko got a little vocal and the love triangle is a pyramid about to topple. Brirsayne wasn't really part of it, it was just the mutt and Vuokko. It spilled into the street, then Amir came back say Vuokko wandered off. Vespera went after her.
Between sessions:
Vespera and Vuokko talk. Vuokko tells a curious Vespera about her seasons and how she feels about Amir and Brirsanye in each one. She also tells Vespera about why she and Amir were fighting. Vespera agrees that Vuokko did do right to protect Amir while he is also in the right to be angry.
Vuokko agrees to return to cafe but she won't be speaking to Amir. She also said she'll be summer tomorrow to introduce Vespera to herself then.
Brirsayne is also having a crisis moment about her not belonging.
Gametime!
As they walk back, Vuokko mentions noticing Ves doesn't like touch and wants to know if she can hug her. Vespera says it's just the hands. Vuokko wanders why, but doesn't ask and side hug Vespera as they walk.
Vuokko ooc: Yeah!
Vespera ooc: Yeah!
Bri ooc: I hope those yeahs were in character.
Vespera ooc: It was not for Vespera. She is smoking right now and a little high. She's coping.
At the cafe Amir is finishing his food.
Vuokko apologizes to Vance for yelling at their job. Vance isn't bothered by it, since there's no one else there. She then goes to Bri and asks if she still wants to go shopping. Vuokko's ready to go shopping!
Amir asks 'are we all here?' Vespera is physically here.
Vance says we don't know where to go. Vuokko says something about a 9? Bri says 11. Vance goes 911 67, whatever.
We all oocly have "oh you did noooot"
Vespera ooc: another dragon has hit the mounds
We take the half an hour journey along the train lines. We have to change trains about three times and luckily Vance knows the city very well.
We see in the distance the Machine Markets. Colorful rows of stalls in the primary colors. There looks to be some proper greenary, a little bit more natural, less synthetic trees. They have lights strung up in the trees that would be pretty at night.
GM tells us they had already created what is at the market before we said what we'd like to look for. No Zuiar visors today.
The markets look different from when Vance last visited; there is a collection of sea elves here, taken over many of the stalls today. Many things we've never seen before.
Traders of the day:
Ruos (assamir homeland)
Sabaktos (Pleasure)
Calicem (Mor Choille)
Dragonborn trader (Port Cullis)
Sea Elves
Uncommon for sea elves to come out to Temprea.
GM asks for a nature check to see if we know where sea elves come from and Ves smashes it with a 22. Sea elves come from an inland sea called the Huaka'i Basin. They would have had to traveled VERY far.
Vespera looks concerned upon realizing this. She tells the party how far sea elves must have traveled to get here, like they have migrated. Vuokko muses that money might be good here, Vance muses they might be refugees.
GM says they don't look like refugees, they all look happy to be here, chatting as they move about. Amir chooses to approach one that looks youthful. He finds one carrying some cargo, dressed with shells and has kept like hair, and Amir asks awkwardly why so many of them are here--while he is new here, he's never seen any of their kind before.
Vance right now, trying not to laugh:
Amir rolls a 14 in persuasion. The sea elf has taken what Amir said as an insult, make a quip at dogs walking around too. Vespera goes to help Amir not be awkward. The sea elf suggests we take a look at the news, passed around by news boys.
Bri finds one and we learn that the Saint of the Sea (Aetum), who has been missing for 100s of years, has returned. She will be coming to speak at the Free Church in 2 weeks. She has invited all those who have been pushed to the sea to share in her message.
Bri moves to speak with our sea elf and tries to save it. She says how she has heard of them from where she lives, but never been down there. She asks (stumbling over her words) about books she could find, maybe about the saint. While books aren't useful in the sea. They get directed to a sea elf with an angler on their head. His name is Silver.
As Vance, Carrier, and Vuokko walk past the merchants (who are talking about the first half of the party), Vance says "as your tour guide, I should keep the dog on a shorter leash." Vuokko laughs out loud at this.
The shop has holy symbols and arcane focuses. The shop keeper speaks about themself as "this one" (x33)
GM says Bri or Amir can roll religion. They do with Amir assisting Bri+guidance. She gets a 23+2 (25!). Bri gets a lot of info about the sea elves religion based on this roll and what she can see on the tablets. Bri has some knowledge about Los/Lows[?] from her growing up in Ruos. She asks how she can find out more, the shop keeper says she can go to the cathedral. Bri wants to buy a holy symbol to donate to the proselytizers.
Shop keeper says they have other wares and Amir asks if he has other--he gets elbowed by Bri. He hid stuff away b/c of ppl with too much coin and asking too many questions. He brings out proper magical items.
An item emitting a chilling aura and another item that is hot(?). The chilling item is 2,000 gold. Bri says she'll have to raise funds. She gives half the party's names. Silver offers her 8 gold for the holy symbol and Amir pays for it. Bri picks out a symbol that isn't too fancy.
Vespera is looking for a gift for her son who likes storms. She is directed to a shop that is selling spells and other other magical things. Ves is looking for something like a Barometer, which the shop keeper has never heard of. She does ask about a spell, Tidal Wave, which is 600 gold. GM has Vespera roll insight check, which she rolls a 6 and a 10… Seems like a good deal.
We go over what items we'd like to pick up while shopping. Carrier wants to sell his Gelatinous Whip, which he rolls persuasion w/ advantage thanks to Vespera (23), and he sells it for 350 gold.
Our new clothes will cost 15 gold each, with +5 gold for anything extra.
New studded Leather armor is 45 gold and we can sell our old armor for 10 gold.
Lots of dice rolling for us to find items on our shopping list. Lots of money going around. Everyone has a base 200 gold from breaking up a platinum bar.
Bri gets a deal to trade The Pocket Cottage for a Tomb of Perfect Constitution, which will allow the user to raise their con by 2 points after studying it for 48 hours over 6 days. It recharges after a century and one could boost their con up to 30! ((We joke that Bri can use it twice then give it to Vuokko at the end of her life xD))
Carrier is looking for something to cast a spell he could use in battle like an Azorius Guild Signet. Both Vespera and Carrier need to go to the Alchemagical institute to get the signet and Ves for her barometer. Ves does an arcana roll with advantage because Carrier is helping. She rolls a 20! Woo. Ves gets her barometer. Carrier can get his signet either by buying it or joining the Alchemagical institute and do jobs for them. [MORE CULTS WANT CARRIER? xDD]
Carrier chooses to persuade, rolling a 23+2=25 (from some psychic power). They will sell it to them for 600 gold. They are able to get it with Bri's help for the gold.
Back to actual rp time.
This has taken up most of the afternoon and now for something Vance is familiar with. The city moves.
Bri ooc: Wut?
At six PM and six AM the city turns. Sirens go off warning of it, bridges pull up, and ships leave the docks. The city turns. The domb on top of the city is still above, blocking out stars, and keeping the city lit.
We oocly talk about using the mirror at Vance's apartment instead of at the hotel.
However, Carrier oocly disappeared from the call. [Lost power :(]
So we're going out of order a little. This stuff should happen after our visit to the Bastion.
Bri tries to contact her patron and rolls a religion check with disadvantage, hitting a 14. She sends out a "can you still see me?" and she can swear she fells a hand on her shoulder for a moment.
Bri knows she has to tell the others before the professorship brings it out. She also doesn't know why her patron has been watching her. Bri feels a sharp pain from her wings. She also seems to have caught the gaze of something in the trees. Bri uses prestidigitation to light up the area but doesn't see much (perception roll with disadvantage, rolling a 1).
Bri hurries to the group and grabs the first person she can find, Amir. (Vuokko makes a face at her grabbing him xDD). Bri insists Amir comes with her because there is something is the trees, something that is watching her. They don't see anything at first. Amir does an investigation roll with advantage, rolling a 18+4 (22). Amir finds something carved into the tree, the symbol of the Temple of Morals, but upside down. Bri knows what it is, but says it is upside down. Temple of Morals is a different order than what Bri's.
Amir does a religion check, hitting a 25! When it is drawn like this, it means an infernal (fiend) has been there. The two talk about how Bri saw someone at the market from Sabaktos, which is known for fiends…They talk to each other about minor racist things.
Amir casts Detect Evil and Good and he can sense fiends all over the tree line, they seem to be waiting.
Amir ooc: Are there hundreds of them?
Bri ooc: Probably more than two.
GM answers that there's probably double figures of them. They try to back away slowly, watching the fiends but they aren't moving. As they are backing away Bri feels from behind her embrace her on her shoulders for a brief moment. She rolls a 12 on insight so she doesn't know what it was. Amir knows it wasn't a fiend.
The two huddle close, Bri says she was trying to contact her patron when they showed up.
Vespera is also going to contact her patron. She uses her new compass to find north, going to the northern part of the little forest. She opens her grimmore to a blank page, pours two glasses of liquor, then cuts open her palm to drip blood into the page of her book. She then shuts the book. Her lantern is set between the two glasses and she waits in a state of meditation.
She rolls a 16 religion check.
The sound of the city grows quiet around her and darkness comes over her.
"Mothling. You call upon me."
In that exact moment Vespera breaks down a little bit. She tells him she made it, she is alive.
The darkness takes physical from as his face comes from the shadow. It feels as though time stops.
"you grow closer to answers, Mothling."
Ves tells him of the things she found (atlas, map, barometer for the son) and how much she hates this place (its all metal, it moves, and grass is the color of vomit). She tells him one of the hags are dead. She'll show the relic to the professorship.
He reaches a hand out to wipe a tear from her eye. "You grow more powerful. Perhaps this will be the one. I have doubts." Softness forms in his eyes. "I grow weary of doubting you."
She smiles at this and says she trusts him.
He holds her gaze then looks to his lower left, seeing Themocles peeking out of the darkness hair. Vespera reaches out for him and at first they can't touch probably because of the protection from her patron.
Themocles asks where she's gone, she didn't even even get to say goodbye.
Then Eirmaat pops out of the lower right. She tries to cuddle with Vespera and makes an animal cry of longing. Vespera tells both to keep following him a little longer. She'll be home soon.
Vespera says "thank you" to him. You know, an archfey! She knows what she's doing. She tries to read his face and for a second she may see a smile on his face.
Vespera reaches out for a hug and she can feel him sapping her strength, which is in his nature. She can feel herself becoming more weary.
"Soon a choice will have to be made." She nods to this. "This will decide whether you are worthy."
Vespera says she will do as her instincts dictate.
He looks out to the forest and says "As a favor, tell the one with daggers in her eyes that she is being hunted." Then he does a deep laugh before fading away.
Vespera downs her own glass she poured. She is unsettled by the laugh and returns to the inn to look for Brirsayne.
the way teenagers are treated these days is wild. when i was a teenager we were all watching porn, jerking off, and going to horror movies with 3000 gallons of blood. Nowadays they make kids get a permission slip to watch anything darker than Barney the Dinosaur. Insane.
& then for some reason people fixate more on "ugh these teenagers just want to be treated like babies!!! teenagers are to blame for the rise in puritanism!!!!!" than how this is a very obvious example of ageism and the increased control over a socially vulnerable and exploited group
I think a commonly overlooked part of this coddling is that it teaches kids and teenagers to be afraid of things they don't need to be afraid of, which is exactly how they end up as "puriteens". I remember as a child being terrified to change the channel on the tv because I had ended up with the impression that seeing even seconds of an R rated movie or tv show would give me nightmares. And then as a tween every time I saw swearing I felt sick to my stomach because I had been taught such a thing is bad and harmful. I think I would have suffered less if I hadn't been raised with everyone around me acting like mature media was so bad. By the time I was a teenager I had figured out this was bunk, but understandably a lot of people don't. By making this whole system worse and stronger you have teens who have been told that seeing explicit or dark media Will Harm Them, and so they act in ways that would be appropriate if it really was the info-hazard it's implied to be.
^^ never heard anybody specifically talk about this but yeah. parents acting like sexual or any "dark" content in a story or show was going to put bad things in my head that were going to be there permanently just gave me a deeply distressing sort of contamination anxiety
The best part of that video is that the owner found the ORIGINAL plush later on the beach and took another video with it after their grandmother stitched it back up
me and some of the other ‘dari are going to take turns hanging off of lord illidan’s nipples like leeches or perhaps remora later if you wish to join us.
Some people are legitimately so sensitive I can’t comprehend how they do anything and I don’t mean this in a “i miss when comedy wasn’t illegal due to WOKE” way I mean there’s people who are employed complaining about misandry on the internet
well you know what they say. when you've invested billions of dollars into hammers every problem looks like a nail and you keep handing these hammers to your users and they go "i don't really think i needed this hammer" and "but i don't have any nails that need hammering in right now" and "this is not a nail this is a glass vase that will break if i hit it with a hammer" and "didn't you used to have, like, other tools avaliable that might be better suited to this job" and you tell them to suck it up because you've replaced all your screwdrivers and wrenches and box cutters and crates and ladders and paint with hammers because your shareholders need to see an increase in value from your hammer investments
Actually Steven Moffat is basically just this sentiment given human form.
A version of this happened with The Magicians, tbh. Though instead of expectation: men, reality: women it was expectation: smug nihilists, reality: mentally ill queer folks.
Arguably Game of Thrones.
If we broaden it outside of television…I think Star Wars falls into this, at least the sequel trilogy. Maybe the MCU as well. And I can’t help but think of every band that’s ever complained that their fanbase is mostly women. 5 Seconds of Summer comes immediately to mind.
In general, most white male creators seem to have this massively entitled mindset where they want–and think they deserve–the time, attention, and enthusiasm that creative fandom (i.e. the side of fandom more dominated by women) is known for.
They want our eyes for ratings, our word-of-mouth for free publicity, our metas for social media buzz, and our spending power for merch and cons. But they don’t want us. And they don’t really want the responsibility of telling a story to a thoughtful, engaged audience, regardless of that audience’s demographic makeup. They just want to be praised for whatever schlock they cough up.
And like any other spoiled brat, they will break their toys before they share them.
It goes all the way to the top for kids shows. Toy sales will crash a show. Makes sense, but if those toys are gendered for boys instead of the female viewers, they won’t usually switch up the marketing and move them to the girl aisle. They cancel the show outright.
Mind you it is perfectly possible to make the switch in marketing, but execs would rather throw it all out than have something that doesn’t perform well with male viewers. For example the Rey merch was not expected to be popular, for some reason, there had to be public outcry to get merch of one of the main 3 protagonists. A PROTAGONIST. The fact that she wasn’t a huge part of the 1st launch says a lot already.
And what happened when female fans got too invested in the Sequel Trilogy? The entire writers room didn’t necessarily lash out, but they sure forgot how to behave.
Young Justice
Paul Dini: Superhero cartoon execs don’t want largely female audiences
#WhereIsRey (initial)
#WhereIsRey (ongoing)
The older, male generation of 'Star Wars' fans may be losing interest in the franchise, but female fans are stepping up.
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker was designed to be the opposite of The Last Jedi
#SONS OF ANARCHY!!!!!!!!!!!!!#LITERALLY SONS OF ANARCHY IS THE BIGGEST EXAMPLE OF THIS LIKE EVER#kurt sutter wrote that show for MEN and ended up with an overwhelmingly female audience#because he’s actually a good writer and knows how to develop characters well and wrote excellent female characters#but once he realized that his audience was almost entirely women he literally took it out on tara and gemma in the show#but like tara specifically#he resented her character for being a huge draw for female viewers so he tore her development to shreds and killed her#in the most brutal gut wrenching way possible#kurt sutter you will pay for your crimes#i actually wrote a manifesto about this on one of my old blogs i should try to find it sldkjsldfjsdljf#long post (via@m-oonknight)
OMG YES. I LOVED Sons of Anarchy, especially the women and then I got to season 6 and it was like - everything was just tossed in the trash? And like, why did Sutter hate that Tara drew tons of attention? That should have been a good thing! He should have been like “Hey folks, this girl’s getting us more viewers, let’s put her in more scenes!” It just doesn’t make sense to me. MEN don’t make sense to me.
The 100 too. I’ll never forget how Jason Rothenberg would attacked female fans on Twitter and mock them in interviews, and then post links to male fan discussions on Reddit to praise and thank them. In his goodbye letter to the show he SPECIFICALLY thanked Reddit and it was so disgusting.
Star Trek from TNG on was also a boy’s club, even though the TOS fans were mostly women. Women, in fact, who literally created modern fandom with their zines. But after TNG it was all, “Women don’t understand Star Trek, only smart men hur dur.”
(though it could probably start to make some sense if you follow the money past audience bases to maybe a couple of investors or like a rich patron … 🤔)
Stooooop I just wrote a masters thesis on this shit. Media creation and distribution is a means by which dominant power structures consolidate their hegemony. Dominantly situated creators get upset when the audience they attract isn’t the audience they wanted, because they view the whole creation and sharing of the fiction as an exercise to sustain kyriarchal conditions that benefit themselves. When the audience is Other, they see it as a failure of those efforts and lash out.
Simply, they’re trying to assert a particular worldview via fiction, and upon getting confronted with something else, begin foot stamping. It’s not just men wanting male attention and gatekeeping. It’s that the fiction in the first place was an attempt to curate dominance and whoopsie! they miscalculated.
(anyway if anyone wants to read 35k words of philosophy about this, hmu)
I think a lot about an interview I heard with Bo Burnham a few years ago, where he talks about this phenomenon with his own work. He gained a large audience of teenage girls, and people in comedy spaces would look down on him for that or say what a shame it was, but he responded differently:
“The real truth is, I would perform my show and I would meet kids after and young girls would come up to me and they understood what I was expressing in that bit onstage way more than guys my own age. Way more. So if there was a bridge between us that I had to cross to write the movie [Eighth Grade], it was built to me by them. I felt understood by them before I presumed to understand them.”
Instead of trying to change his comedy, he decided to lean into and celebrate the audience that he actually had by making a movie specifically about the experiences of a teenage girl. It’s fascinating to hear him talk about how he got there, but also to acknowledge how rare that reaction is.
Slight tangent - all of this is true of the sports (and related entertainment) industry as well. Female fans drive so much of the event attendance, media hype, and revenue, but it’s still viewed as Just For Men.
gameshow voice: is it gay subtext or are the writers just so catastrophically bad at writing female characters that the only relationships in the entire story that feel human are the ones between the men.
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