The Emo Kids

REBLOG IF YOUR BLOG IS A SAFE SPACE FOR AROMANTIC PEOPLE AND IF YOU THINK THEY ARE VALID

I want to see how many people actually are willing to say this and not just act like it

Herb's Properties

Basil:  money, luck, prosperity, happiness

Bay Leaf: energy, cleansing, can be charged with almost any intention

Camomile: Caring, kindness, luck, growth, self-love growth, confidence, avoiding negativity, happiness

Cinnamon: passion, quick success, fire magick

Chia seeds: Growth, health, kindness, Property

Chilli flakes:  Pride, confidence, power, strength, Passion

Cumin: Courage, bravery, protection, loyalty

Dandelion: wishes, charisma, success, good luck

Dill: sexual love, luck, protection

Eucalyptus: cleansing, healing, purifying, relaxing, comfort

Fennel:  hate, anger

Flax seeds: Prosperity, growth, new beginnings

Ginger: fiery passion, success, and personal power

Jasmine: love, dreams, sensuality, luxury and kindness

Lavender: love and attraction, purification, relaxation, restful sleep

Nutmeg: luck, Health, Fidelity, Love, Prosperity, comfort, loyalty

Oregano:  comfort, love, warmth

Paprika:  Pride, confidence, power, strength

Parsley: Cleansing. purification

Peppermint: healing, purification, love and energy, cleansing, prosperity

Poppy seeds: protection, intuition, self-assurance, hexing and cursing

Rose: love, beauty, harmony, romance, attraction

Rosemary: cleansing, purification, wisdom, protection

Sesame seeds: Prosperity, growth, health, nurturing

Spearmint: love, cleansing, renewal, blessing

Sunflower seeds: happiness, growth, joy

Thyme: beauty, strength, courage

Turmeric: confidence, creativity, energy

Vanilla: love and sexuality

tip jar

Neverafter Premiere Episode

So, before I watch tonight's episode I wanted to put my thoughts out on the first episode. Firstly, yes I was able to get the subscription for Dropout and I'm already so fucking excited and happy.

Anyway, I'm already loving Neverafter! The horrific and morbid start has me hooked. I can't wait to see how this story unfolds. So far Ally's character is my favorite. The concept of this gay dude being haunted by a giant demonic goose is such an interesting take on Mother Goose.

Brennan's storytelling skills have already captivated me and this season is no different. His narration is so enveloping and the details he brings forward really help build the world surrounding these new lands. I can't wait to see how the intrepid heroes do.

It's wild how many people took Kristen's line of questioning as her saying Tracker isn't taking her religion seriously instead of what I heard her asking which was:

How many of these people would be here if it wasn't religious Coachella?

This is a good thing to bring up. For example, where I live (Southern State plus a small town with less than 1000 for the population) we lost our tiny (volunteer) local library due to water damage of the building and it never recovered. I would have to go to one of the next towns over, which is at least a 20 minute drive, for which I don't have the means of going to as I am unable to drive. So, please be aware as much public libraries are nessacery and need support from the community more than ever- not everyone can get to a library unfortunately.

as a fellow Public Library Enthusiast i am begging people to consider the fact that not everywhere has an accessible public library or indeed public libraries at all. just saying “get a library card” at strangers when you have no idea about their background or their life isn’t very helpful. let them pirate in peace

Misfits and Magic

This was such a fun season! I really love Aabria's style of dming. Brennan's dming always has me hanging off of every word in the way of stunning me like I can't look away or react without missing something. While Aabria's has me reacting and even pausing to have my own little moments. It's so different and I hope to see more of her in future seasons.

I liked that this was through a different system of ttrpg. I've only seen one other game system before so it was nice to see even more. Plus it was fun that they had those advisory tokens. It was a nice touch.

I grew up watching Harry Potter and so this was a fun way of poking fun at the absurdity of that entire world. The touch of the wands! I thought that was so cool and another great way of immersive storytelling/playing.

I really loved the characters and just how they wanted to prove that they could be just as good and even better because they were mixing modern/common sense with magic. It was again poking fun at what was already put into place.

I thought the players were having so much fun. Between kicking some ass at magic and learning all of their specific forms of magic. Which I think was a really nice touch, it brought those characters more to life.

Overall. I thought it was so nice and even thought it was a short campaign it was definitely one of the most fun. I hope to find more of these shorter campaigns just as fun.

To Ragh; or, On Fatness

Hi! Below is an actual play mini-essay. These are written as part of a personal writing practice of thinking critically about actual play. I hope you find this reading engaging and know that all I write reflects my own interpretations rather than as an official representation/canonization of these shows.

Ragh Barkrock may be one of the most beloved NPCs in Dimension20. It would be easy for Ragh, a bloodrush player good enough to potentially play professionally, to be presented as hypermasculine. In fact, the freshmen year art for Ragh, when he was antagonist rather than beloved ally, showed him in a muscular, inverted Dorito shaped body typical of a jock.

He's, obviously, built, and his cut jaw and cheekbones only bolster that image. As Ragh comes to terms with being gay at the end of Fantasy High, his countenance changes. When we see him again, the new art reflects a chubbier, happier Ragh.

The show aligning weight gain with acceptance and happiness already works against prevailing stereotypes that use weight loss as a quick metaphor for improving yourself and being the "real you." Moreover, connecting Ragh's acceptance of his sexuality with what seems like a larger comfort in his own body is a strong indictment of hypermasculine gay culture. As Gabriel Arana writes, gay men "must reconcile their sense of masculinity with their failure to conform to its heterosexuality." Not doing so has negative mental health outcomes, as Arana points out, and contributes to a culture that devalues fat queer people (see the popular "no fats, no femmes, no Asians" that often is touted in masculine gay subculture).

All of this, I think, is why Ragh's art for Junior Year was particularly impactful for me as a fat queer person. If being a gay man (or half-Orc, in Ragh's case) means having to situate your life in relationship to failing compulsory masculinity, then it seems there is an inherent queer aspect to embracing, celebrating, and showcasing a beloved NPC in an explicitly fat and happy body.

Ragh is still strong and he is still fat. His body radiates a commitment to the power of fat bodies to exist in spaces they are often violently unwelcome in, such as gyms. Existing in gyms and sports spaces as fat people means dealing the "impossible standard that rejects nearly all of us" and upholds a diet culture rooted in impossible, Eurocentric and colonial body standards. In TTRPGS or actual plays, there is a unique opportunity to think about how bodies might exist in worlds different from ours, to imagine bodyminds as otherwise. However, as queer critics like Paul Preciado have noted, sci-fi and fantasy representations of cyborgs and other transformative bodies often lean into "fixing" disabled people or moving gender nonconforming bodies more easily towards technologies upholding a normative standard rather than questioning the standard all together.

Spyre is a world that deals with similar issues to ours, even without direct one-to-one correlations, so it, too, is a place where the narrative and artistic choices should be examined in how it helps us interpolate the world the audience resides in. From the Applebees cultish adherence to a deity-based nationalism to the various representations of parental neglect and abuse and every side story in-between, Dimension20's flagship show does not shy away from difficult realities even when recasting them through fantasy. Ragh, as a half-orc gay son of a disabled single mother, then, I see the arc his fat body goes through as meaningful and intertwined with his self-acceptance and queerness. He moves away from the toxic masculinity engineered into his blood rush team to instead pursue coalition comraderie with his friends to the point that he and his mother end up joining a communal living situation with those friends and their parents. Ragh's body expands as his family does, as his ties to community do, and to me, the gift of his fatness is the invitation to expansion that it holds out to us as viewers.

The Unsleeping City: Chapter 2

I just finished this season last night and wow this was such a cool fucking season. The first season was the first campaign I watched for Dimension 20 before I got the dropout subscription and quickly fell in love with everyone.

This season was so heartwrenching and had so many wholesome moments. I'm so glad that all of the characters had such wonderful character arches that really fleshed them out even more than the first season did. Plus all of this insane worldbuilding of this world that both is a real place but also this underbelly of the city going into fantastical realms really just expanded so much this time around.

Also, all of the research that Brennan and the team went into for the sobriety roles that Pete and Sofie were having to do. It was a nice touch for that realism and a bit of a callback for Adaine in Fantasy High. I really love just how much they dive right into research for things like sobriety and it just shows how much they care about showing these realities that everyone faces.

I absolutely love how everything tied up in the end. Between decimating the hold that Gladiator was gaining on New York and banishing Null back to the deeper dreaming really encapsulated just how powerful believing in your community and believing in yourself really is. We always joke and note that Brennan somehow always is anti-capitalist and brings that into the campaigns he DMs, but I think it brings up the best point of it all. How so much stronger the common person is when they have that chance to grab their dreams and goals with the help of others like them doing the same thing than any corporate entity ever could think of doing.

It was a beautiful season and will stand in the spot with season 1 as one of my all-time favorite campaigns thus far.

Now, I am off in the world of mischief and magic with the beautiful Aabria. I can't wait to tell you all about my reaction to it.

Goddesses and Champions

As always, the Irish speak nothing but facts.

How many more innocent civilians have to be killed by Israel before you condemn that for it?

That is a genocide.

That this is a crime on all accounts.

And deserves to be punished to the full extent off the law.