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rampagingpoetReblogged laughteronsilverwingshapalopusFollowThe worst thing that ever happened to LGBT+ discussions was the attempt at creating rigid definitions for diverse experiences that often exist on a sliding scale, or are fluid. Some lesbians experience attraction to men. Some gay men, who were forced to marry women for their own safety, did really love their wives. Some people are man and woman at the same time. Your gender identity and sexual orientation can change over time. In the 70s it was common knowledge that bi women could also be lesbians. Some people defy categorization just by their existence. Some people choose to reject categorization.lazygravezcan someone explain how a lesbian can be attracted to men????? i really dont get ithapalopusIn this line of thinking ‘lesbian’ isn’t an objective pseudo-taxonomic category - it’s a label that people choose to use. Both lines of thinking are valuable, but I think the latter is a lot more useful for community building. When we view ‘lesbian’ as an opt-in label, rather than a category that one is born into, the main question that pops up is “why do people use this label?” The answer varies, but for most it’s due to an attraction to women and a lack of attraction to men. However, ‘woman’ and ‘man’ are categories with a lot of variation within themselves, and very few people can say with 100% certainty that they will never experience attraction to one or the other. If a woman has only been attracted to women her whole life and has joined communities centered around this attraction and has advocated for the rights of WLW, is her lesbian identity negated if she (knowing full well that he’s male) finds a male crossdresser hot? What if she’s sexually attracted to a few men, but could never be in a stable relationship with one, so she only dates women?Labels like this need wiggle-room. If they don’t allow for some fluidity of experience, only a fraction of a fraction of people would ever find them useful, and the communities built around them would be small, weak, and isolated, and full of nothing but echos.vaspiderThe older I get, the more I fall on the side of, “That’s her business, it’s not hurting me.”And it doesn’t. No, it really doesn’t hurt me because “that will make men think that they can convert lesbians.” The men who think that will already think that, and it’s not up to a random person to perform lesbianism (or transness, or… ) “correctly.” That just makes this identity as much of a prison as standard-issue heterosexuality, and no thank you, actually! fozmeadowsAs ever:574,9587,396

rampagingpoetReblogged expiredcheesevaltsvFollowi have a lot of affection for ghosts because they basically want one of two things: attention, or for you to leave their house as soon as possible. both relatable and respectable goals. and they're already dead so what are you going to do about it.34,9856,971

rampagingpoetReblogged fractalfruittreesthebirdroadsFollowthe best trope in media is: “characters turn on the lights, see the monster, and immediately turn the lights back off”birdnerd18GIF by chillicheeseflies-blogdr-algernop-deactivated20220313mandywondering1205,110182,868

rampagingpoetPost I just saw: "Come on everyone, we need to stick together because things are bad for all of us!"Yes! Absolutely!OP in the comments: "Also my identity has it the worst and needs the most help and you all need to address this imbalance even though I just said we're all in this together."... you dense motherfucker.

rampagingpoetReblogged laughteronsilverwingsradiqueerFollowHuman relationships are not transactional but they are reciprocal, which I think many of you with your ‘i don’t owe anyone anything’ shtick are too happy to forgetaromanticduckTransactional: everything has to be exactly 50/50 all the time, pay me back for the £5 sandwich or buy me something worth exactly £5, I refuse to make an effort for you if there’s nothing in it for meReciprocal: you were there for me when I needed help, and I’m going to do the same for you, it doesn’t matter if one of us needs more or is capable of less, because the point is not equivalent exchange but mutual care43,38456,448

rampagingpoetRebloggedcentrally-unplannedFollowI imagine the right model for the Trump Admin's decision-making on Iran must include at least one prominent figure thinking "Yeah Trump is probably gonna regret this once the political fallout hits, but what do I care, Tehran is well worth a few bad headlines and people will probably forget by November". A lot of things make more sense when you model diverse individual agency like this.no-sharks-on-the-sunit's just not clear to me what "Tehran is well worth [it]" means in this scenario - the mass protests that could've toppled the current government if paired with military force were suppressed and show no signs of reemerging, and if Trump is to believed, the people he wanted for the "same regime different faction" switcheroo he pulled off in Venezuela were killed. so the best case here for this kind of Iran hawk is what... an Iranian civil war, i guess? i understand why Israel would want that, but for everyone else it seems like a losing propositioncentrally-unplannedYou certainly can think this individually - I agree with you - but some people just have different values and assumptions. We don't actually know if "regime change" is impossible - that term for this admin can mean something as basic as the same government now lead by a guy who agrees to drop their anti-Israeli policies and let Trump extract oil tribute or w/e. Maybe they can kill the leadership again! And again! We don't know they can't do that. And on the more extreme end, maybe you can just blow up enough police stations that the people will rise up? That seems much less credible to me, but people have believed dumber things.Note that if you are an Iran Hawk, you might be willing to deploy ground troops, right? Why not? You think the problem with Iraq was like "not going hard enough". And ground troops absolutely have deposed regimes before.More realistically, you don't need to actually depose the regime for the Hawk mindset. You can just bomb Iran's military capabilities and inflict economic damage enough that you set back any real threat they could pose for the foreseeable future. Will they rebuild? Sure, maybe. Then you bomb them again - maybe at that point Israel can just take care of it. You really valued this, right? You though Iran was an existential threat to Israel and maybe the world because they were hell bent on getting nuclear weapons and immediately using them. They funded terrorism across the globe. They are the source of all your problems. You gotta get into that frame, right? Honestly, Trump is something a cartoon villain. The decisive reason he invaded Iran is probably that he likes war, he likes flexing his power and owning the libs. And if we are being real stuff like that is why a lot of people do a lot of things? But most people aren't nearly so honest or nakedly corrupt about it as Trump is. Most of the Iran Hawk Faction believed that Iran is a gigantic threat, that US actions are not a big cause of that threat, there is no mutual escalation dynamic or w/e. Obama was a sucker for signing the JCPOA, and they see Tel Aviv engulfed in a mushroom cloud as a possible future. They will pay high prices to avoid that outcome, and nothing that has happened so far is anything anyone should balk over. There are a lot of worlds out there people live in.phaeton-flierYeah, "Iran devolves into civil war and is permanently economically crippled, unable to project force, and unable to build up force" is a great outcome to these guys! Notice how it does not involve even qualitative judgements about Iranians livelihoods. 2827

rampagingpoetRebloggedthe-evil-skullFollowThe cool thing about death note is you could feasibly explain the basic premise of it like the mechanics of the note and also L and lights weird homoerotic shit and you would have a pretty good idea of what the entire plot is like without ever having to explain the terrifying floating clown monstertotally-cis-officalYeah the terrifying death god who looks like a clown, likes apples, and follows you at all timesderinthescarletpescatarianHe is just hanging outderinthescarletpescatarian#does he actually do anything the entire show#i watched the first episode and it was boring. so i stopped#but from what i coudl tell he really jast didnt do shit everHe really didn't. He will very occasionally do something very minor if it helps him (like when Light's house is under surveillance and he can't eat apples inside any more, he finds all the cameras hoping for a blind spot where he can eat apples), but on the whole it's a massive victory for Light to get him to do anything at all. He really is just there to watch and heckle because he had nothing else going on.101,4612,812

rampagingpoetRebloggedbatmanisagatewaydrugFolloweveryone needs to go read Rabbit Heart by @little-tiny-raccoon-hands right now so when chapter 33 comes out in uuuuuh approximately three months you'll all understand why editing it made me feel like thisgo. go go go. Why a Hitman Became the Villainess, or, Rabbit HeartHitman Hunter Benowitz retired in order to live a peaceful life raising his kid, but those plans are shattered by their untimely deaths. UnwScribble Hublittle-tiny-raccoon-hands2180

rampagingpoetReblogged phaeton-flierprokopetzFollowIf you're familiar with the history of tabletop roleplaying games, you've probably heard the story about how the proto-RPG that would become Dungeons & Dragons originally just had fighters and wizards as hero units, and how the third class, the cleric, was introduced specifically to provide a game-mechanical hard counter to another player's vampire fighter in a long-running PvP game.So here's a fun hypothetical: what might D&D's third character class have looked like if that rival player's fighter had been a different sort of goofy 1970s horror movie critter? What does the hard counter to a wolfman or a Frankenstein's Monster or what-have-you look like when generalised into a character class?prokopetz("Isn't that just a" nope – you don't get to reach into the future and back-port a fully formed character class that hasn't been invented yet. Start from first principles!)frustrationinexcelsisOK, let's place ourselves. Proto-D&D grew within the Chainmail miniatures game in the 70s, developing eventually into OD&D by '74. So we want our media environment to be early 70s, late 60s. Let's pick a wolfman/werewolf as our hypothetical enemy player character; what's the state of werewolf stories at this point? The big ones are Werewolf of London from way back in '35 and The Wolf Man in '41. An American Werewolf in London won't be out for a few years yet; by 1981 we're well into AD&D 1st edition, by which time the basic core of Fighting-Man, Magic-User, Cleric, and Thief has already become established. So let's take WoL and TWM as our foundation -- what does "a werewolf" look like in popular conception at this time?Werewolf of London introduced many of the modern common aspects of "a werewolf". They're anthropomorphic wolfmen, and the condition is treated as a form of disease or a physical condition ("werewolfism" or "lycanthrophobia"); the main character catches it in Tibet from a, like, evil Tibetan guy. It is transmitted through bites, and the transformation is induced involuntarily during the four nights around the full moon and can be induced at least partially by simulated moonlight. The transformation be suppressed or undone using the sap of a very rare exotic plant that grows under moonlight, and the werewolf character attempts to use it to self-medicate. When transformed, werewolves are savage beasts compelled to destroy the things they love and only turn back once they kill something, but retain enough intelligence, for instance, to use clothing to disguise themselves. The werewolf is physically fearsome but does not need special implements to kill beyond physical force or a gun; the transformation reverts on death. The impression generally is of "werewolfism" as a very physical, almost scientific thing.The Wolf Man pivots back to a more mystical take on things. Werewolves again transmit their condition through bites, transform involuntarily, do not control themselves when transformed, and retain no memory of their rampages. The plant element is absent here, and silver is treated as the only thing that can harm a werewolf; this seems to derive from some German legends on the topic. Werewolves also have seemingly designated victims in their hunts, and know them because they can see pentacles on their hands when in their human forms. Magic can be used to temporarily revert a werewolf to human form, and the transformation again reverts on death. There's again an association with "superstitious" "backward" lands, with the idea here being of werewolf legends having a long history in rural Wales and being associated with Romani people also (no, that's not the term the movie uses). This movie is much more successful than its predecessor and is what largely makes the werewolf into a stock horror monster.We can see the influence of this in the following years, beginning early. "The Werewolf Howls", published in Weird Tales #36-02 (making it November-December 1941, almost contemporary with The Wolf Man) we see much of the same ideas -- werewolves are associated with superstitious foreign lands (this time rural France), have a humanoid appearance, and are harmed by silver. The transformation is involuntary, traumatic, and occurs with the rising of the full moon. Later entries into werewolf movies, besides various Universal crossover gigs, include The Mad Monster (1942, the werewolf is turned into a berserk wolfman by a special serum made by a scientist furious about being ridiculed, does not control himself, dies in a burning house) and The Undying Monster (also 1942, werewolfism is a product of a hereditary curse, werewolf is killed with regular bullets).So broadly speaking we can say this about what "werewolves" and "wolfmen" are like by the time a bunch of fantasy nerds are sitting down to play customized wargames in the 70s?Werewolves can range from purely magical (family curses, hexes) to purely scientific (diseases, simulated moonlight, serums).Werewolfism is highly physical, and dealt with using physical things (special plants, silver, fire, good old-fashioned violence) more often than with magical means. Werewolves are also physical dangers. They won't enthrall you like a vampire or make evil magic like a witch, they'll mainly tear you to pieces. The exception is that-Werwolfism is infectious. Get bit by one, you're a werewolf too.Werewolfism is transformative -- its defining feature is turning from one thing to another.Werewolves are tough and scary -- if you don't have the right stuff to take one down they'll just keep coming.Werewolfism is not voluntary -- you can't control if or how you transform and often can't control what you do when transformed.So then, what does our hypothetical werewolf PC look like -- that is, how do these things filter through the intent of creating an overpowered player avatar? I think that we can at least downplay the involuntary elements -- that simply does not seem like something you would want to include if you're creating a deliberately overpowered PC. I will assume that the transformation element remains. Let's say then that this hypothetical character is a berserker sort of figure, remaining human most times and turning into a berserk whirlwind of claws and teeth during battle; essentially he gets to benefit from being an overpowered monster slash combat encounter during battle and from being a regular human character in other contexts.And then, what does our hypothetical PC-countering-PC look like? The weaknesses of the werewolf are generally understood as being materials or sometimes rites, and often serve to control or reverse their condition; this plant or that spell reverts their form, that metal cuts through their toughness. Werewolf-fighting heroes tend to be posses of gun-wielding characters, but they're usually outmatched by the wolf -- you need to know their weaknesses to really get them. So perhaps our character-meant-to-counter-another-specific-character is built to deny the werewolf munchkin his ability to turn into or stay a wolf, and perhaps also to use silver knives/arrows/whatever to harm it directly if that fails.So generalizing that into a standard class, I propose that this potential third player type to be the Herbalist, a class that emphasizes the use of special plants, reagents, substances, and potions, supplemented perhaps with some magical words and gestures, to provide benefits to allies and to hurt or depower enemies -- what we'd call a buffing/debuffing class today, maybe, but also picking up the "sometimes healer" shtick of real-life cleric classes and being able to do precise but situational harm to enemies. In later editions, this maybe gets generalized into an Alchemist class to be a general potions/poisons/acid bombs type of figure.434951,063

rampagingpoetRebloggedjavelinprogramaudiobookFollowAnd that's a wrap!The Javelin Program (Time to Orbit: Unknown #1) (fan audiobook recording) : Derin Edala : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet ArWhen Dr Aspen Greaves signed up for the Javelin Program, humanity's first foray into colonising deep space, they expected to wake up to lifeInternet ArchiveFor anyone curious, the total time stamp comes to almost exactly 18.5 hours. Phew! Enjoy!! I had fun making it! Thank you for giving folks permission to do this, @derinthescarletpescatarian!derinthescarletpescatarianFUCK YEAH AUDIOThank you so much for tackling this project!154134

rampagingpoetRebloggedderinthescarletpescatarianFollowIn Rimworld people keep showing up like "hey I'm on holiday and I love other cultures can I stay at your cannibal encampment" and I'm like "sure you can stay at my cannibal encampment" and then they get sad when I feed them human meat. Sir you came to the cannibal encampment. What were you expecting.wizardsharkamericans looking for mcdonalds when they travel abroadderinthescarletpescatarianUnrelated but my fave thing about Americans looking for McDonald's is that when they come to Australia (we absolutely do have McDonald's everywhere) they always talk about how our McDonald's is so much tastier than their McDonald's. Also our McDonald's makes a point of advertising that they use Australian beef, not that shitty American beef that sucks, because most Australians won't touch that awful subpar beef when we have good beef at home so they need to assure us that even though they're an American chain they're not using it here.derinthescarletpescatarianAnd recently America's been making a big deal about how they are magnanimously agreeing to export tons of beef to Australia and it's all wrapped up in some import deal between our governments and the public opinion had been months of extended bafflement. None of us can figure out why this is happening. We do not need or want their beef. It sucks. darkenedyeastextractThe thing about american beef isn’t even the quality, it’s our biosecurity laws (for mad cow disease) which require tracing of each animal from birth to slaughter. The US is on a continent and has a really integrated intra-continental system for beef so none of this is practically traced. This had been fine until the current government decided that nation-specific trade deficits were bad and argued Australian was “off-loading” beef to the US and not taking enough of theirs in exchange. Quite literally a “steak too juicy” type of complaint as if any one could feed the US ‘too much red meat’ (much to the chagrin of the American Heart Association, probably).Regardless we decided the diplomatic benefit of agreeing was worth any economic or biosecurity impact. As of October last year (roughly the first quarter since the change happened), the import amounted to… 150kg of US beef and 18 tonnes of Canadian beef. In comparison, last year we exported a total of around 1.5 million tonnes globally, 412 kilotons of which went to the US. The ABS has yet to publish more recent numbers about the US imports.7249548

rampagingpoetReblogged derinthescarletpescatariandragon-in-a-fezFollowI understand WHY, ethically and practically, you can't just keep whatever animal you want as a pet, but I also think that I, personally, should be allowed to adopt a colossal squiddragon-in-a-fezI'm glad you asked! it is easier to relocate a human than to relocate a colossal squid, so the plan is for me to walk into the ocean and never be seen again4716,47924,279

rampagingpoetRebloggedwhat-even-is-thissFollowI like it when we can do fantasy that’s not just pseudo medieval Europe. There’s more interesting time periods even within Europe. Somebody set a fantasy series during Neanderthal times. Set a fantasy series in a place like medieval Muslim Spain. Set a fantasy series during the Bronze Age collapse. Set wizards loose on Leninist communist countries. 13362702

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rampagingpoetReblogged someonefromsouthdummy-dot-exeFollowby れれんぢ@rerendi0291210

rampagingpoetRebloggedwhat-even-is-thissFollowToday while reading my own writing out loud I had the horrible realization that fishermen and fisherman are pronounced exactly the same way in my accent and I don’t know how I never noticed this before. 1575