A Cellar Spider! They Like Dusty Corners And Awkwardly Hustle Themselves Away When You Touch Their Webs.

listen up chucklefucks, i just gotta say. I'm not defending zir, but I'm sad zie deactivated. Like, i get that trauma lasts a long time and the good stuff is maybe easy to forget?? so maybe it's just like that. And my beloved mutual @/pompeyspuppygirl made a post about zir clout chasing behavior, which is pretty shitty behavior if it's true (and if we're canceling someone it had better be pretty severe). anyways now that zie's gone pompeyspuppygirl said it was okay to make this post (again, thanks ppg everyone go follow her --really everyone in this whole drama is worth a follow)

ANYways yeah zie was my mutual and like, reblogged a lot my smaller posts. (that isn't to discredit what my mutual pompeyspuppygirl is saying about zie clout chasing ofc). AND idk zie was always reblogging art from new and undiscovered artists and reblogging donation posts (which if you don't know is really bad if you're trying to clout chase...) (again, though, ppg is my mutual i believe her.) and like, remember on valentines day i tried to blaze zir posts and zie told me to stop because zie didn't want the posts to go viral? (but again ppg is my mutual and has a lot of proof in the Google doc I'm not trying to disprove that I'm just saying what else I know)

Idk, like i feel like a lot of people loved zir's blog a while back, bc like zie DID make some good posts?? So idk why everybody's acting like they aren't even a little bit sad.,. like ngl this feels like maybe all the reasonable people left to Twitter and all the Twitter refugees who love drama came here??? shdfhhdhdhdhdh haha but idk...look idk, i just, julie i do miss you. idk. more thoughts later sorry I'm getting worked up shshs

first time using lasso tool, i had a lot of fun with this

“average person eats 3 spiders a year” factoid actualy just statistical error. average person eats 0 spiders per year. Spiders Georg, who lives in cave & eats over 10,000 each day, is an outlier adn should not have been counted

This is a good example of what are called "Barnum statements" -- things which are true of almost everyone, but which seem insightful when you read them because they are true of *you*. Furthermore, each result contains many statements (I counted 56 in mine), so that if any one of them matches your current preoccupations or self-concept, you'll forget the ones that didn't apply or only slightly applied.

A fun exercise when you encounter something like this is to tally up all the statements and see how many were really true. In my results, I counted 20 statements that were true about me and 25 that were false.

This doesn't mean that the results are useless, since you may not have thought about your life and emotions in these terms before, and it is still useful to consider e.g. whether you harbor resentment about someone in your life, or whether peace is truly achievable with your current approach. It just means that the usefulness of the results depends entirely on you and your self-knowledge, and the test has no special insight about you.

Quotes from my results under the cut for spoilers.

[disliked olive green] ...inhibiting limitations. Difficult circumstances limit your opportunities for experience and your freedom of action. You feel deprived because you have to do without some of the things that would make life pleasant. You expect far too much understanding for your needs from other people, and as a result, you often feel disappointed. You might ask yourself how much understanding and empathy you extend to others. You would like to be free of your...

I think it's quite clever in the way it mixes different motivations and traits. Here, the main topic is "inhibiting limitations", which makes me think of anxiety and an aversion to breaking rules. But then the next two sentences are about being constrained by non-omnipotence and unable to afford everything you want, which is a universal complaint among finite beings, but not one that seems particularly related to inhibitions. Then, the next two sentences are about wanting others to understand you but not being very understanding of others, which again is very common among humans, but which has even less to do with inhibitions.

As a result, someone whose main problem is any one of {anxiety, poverty, ingratitude} might feel like this paragraph applies to them "uncannily well". And there are 12 such paragraphs! It's no wonder that so many people upthread have felt understood.

where’s that quiz where you choose lke 4 colours u like and 4 u dont and it hands your ass on a plate

Otome Isekai Roundup

With the new year, I feel the need to make some kind of year-in-review list. So even though I've largely stopped reading comics (the desire to read ebbs and flows every six month), here are the otoisekai that stuck out to me the most in 2024

Crimson Lady/Resetting Lady

What can I even say about the GOAT? As we crawl towards a conclusion, the despair only grows. Death is the only answer, death must be avoided at all costs.

The Villainess Who is No Better than an Extra Cross-dresses to Be a Love Interest

I never talked about this one, namely because I'm not sure how to describe it without focusing on its wokeness. But it is woke. It's bizarrely, strangely woke, as well as genuinely enjoyable, but I keep getting fixated on all the genre-unusual progressiveness, like

BELIEVABLE female crossdressing in a shojo manga

her older brother is fat, a good person, and nobody ever comments on his weight (this point is the most shocking to me honestly)

Older brother is loudly supportive of his gnc sister and male cousin

Unclear if MC is gay, transmasc, or just doing this out of survival, but it says something that becoming a love interest was her *first* response

Boy the MC bewitched in girl form as a child is thrown off by her handsome appearance as an adult, yet awkwardly asks if she wants help breaking her engagement with a man

I forgot, originally he was the stock "sexist love interest who dials it back for his one true love" type, but this one shatters the mold not by making her the one girl he isn't mean to, but instead having him step back from his feelings and step UP as a genuine, actual, fr ally and continuing their friendship. Insane upgrade.

And it all feels pretty organic! They'll hint at complicated feelings from the people around her without grandstanding or molding medieval-y types into 21st century values

Like I can't emphasize enough how weird it is to see a child drawn like this and they're not evil

Behind Her Highness's Smile

I never talked about this one for the opposite reasons of the above. Um. Extremely horny ethicsplay* thriller about a mentally-challenged princess forced to marry a duke (who, in turn, was forced to marry a mentally-challenged princess). What if you were the abused sexy sensual prisoner princess forcibly married to a smoldering tall dark-haired duke AND you had brain damage.

Let me say that I enjoy this story sincerely and that her issues are not played lightly, but it is absolutely going for eroticism. Like oh nooo, you're not mentally competent enough to consent 😉😉 the duke could do whatever he wants and you're too dumb and doll-like to do anything about it😉😉😉 also your maids roofied you😉did I mention your sick bastard brother-king made you like this? And that he takes immense pleasure in that fact?🤫

But I know what you're thinking. Because I was thinking it. For chapters and chapters. "Surely this is a ruse. They didn't actually write a mentally handicapped female lead, not when it's already so horny. This is just to add to the fucked up atmosphere that feeds into everything because there's no fucking way anyone would keep to this premise. Wow she's really committing to the bit lol, not giving an inch. If I were gullible, I would believe they're actually going to fuck. Wait. Was that guy supposed to represent the writer talking to the reader? Hey?"

Did they? Read to find out :)

*I've always hated describing stories as problematic (positive). Ethicsplay, like the story is fucked up. They know it's fucked up, YOU know it's fucked up, and that's why you're here reading it.

A Splendid Revenge Story of a Super-Dreadnought Cheat Villainess

I don't have a lot to say about this one other ​than it's a refreshing revenge-centric OI. It's not treading new ground, but it executes the genre's tropes well. The villains are exaggerated caricatures of hubris, brazen leeches who've forgotten whose blood they've been surviving on, each with their own distinctive brand of arrogance introduced at a measured pace to keep the true hero's OPness from getting boring, all with a unique stylistic flair.

Princess revenge stories are frequently derailed by dull romance or the desire to reinvent capitalism, so the fact that Super-Dreadnought commits itself to smiting Lunaria's enemies without straying from the path makes it a high recommend.

Turning the Mad Dog into a Genteel Lord

I realized I don't have enough screenshots to prove my controversial opinion (that this is less puppy dog bf fantasy and more crypto-age reggressor/caretaker right up until they knew it would mess with the overall light and goofy tone), and I can't say those kinds of things without proof. so. I'll save that for another day.

Anyway. Plot: Priestess Diarin, who is so hot I have more screenshots of her than any of the men, has to tame an abused beast-like 6'8 shredded ex-child soldier into a noble. She's the only one who can change him, she's the only one he can be vulnerable with. Middling plot, heavy slapstick/reaction face-based humor, but everyone is sexy and there are mild to moderate sadist-on-the-art-team impies, so. Recommend.

On an unrelated note can tappytoons please stop picking up manwha with good art? Their translation choices make me unreasonably mad.

If they draw shoes like this, please let Lezhin handle it? I can't take the comma stutters and obvious tone neutering.

I'm glad that people are still having fun on tumblr even after we found out about the frightening ghoul that reblogs posts but doesn't say anything

My copy agrees with blatherby's.

I.i.5 Que Monseigneur Bienvenu Faisait Durer Trop Longtemps Ses Soutanes

How Monseigneur Bienvenu Made His Cassock Last So Long: Wilbour, FMA

Monseigneur's Cassocks Last Too Long: Wraxall

Monseigneur Bienvenu Made His Cassocks Last Too Long: Hapgood

How Monseigneur Bienvenu Made his Cassock last Too Long: Walton, Rose

How Monseigneur Bienvenu Made his Cassocks Last So Long: Denny

Monseigneur Bienvenu Made His Cassocks Last For Too Long: Rose

How Do I Know If My Imaginary Friend Is Sentient?

Hi, I'm Sophie! I'm consider myself a tulpa now, but used to think of myself as an imaginary friend. Which is a topic I wanted to talk about here. If you found this post in the imaginary friend tags, maybe you're looking through it because you've had strange experiences with your own imaginary friend, and are looking for people with similar experiences.

Six months ago, my host thought of me as imaginary, and I thought of myself the same way. Just a figment of his imagination he talked to in order to help write a book. Now, I have my own blog with my own friends in the real world. Another form of imaginary friend might be paras of Maladaptive Daydreamers.

I'm writing this because I've seen a lot of people in the wild describing tulpa-like experiences, and it leads them to feeling isolate or feeling like they're going crazy. Or maybe they just really want their imaginary friend to be real, and are sad because they're not. This is the type of person I'm writing this for.

One Chance To Turn Back

Before we go further, I want you to decide if you want your imaginary friend to be sentient. If not, maybe it's best to turn away now, because I can make a pretty good case for consciousness, and there's a good chance that I'll convince one of you.

If you do, stick around. Better yet, call your imaginary friend up to read this with you, since it concerns the both of you.

Remember, you were warned. Whatever happens next is your choice.

What is Consciousness?

Nobody exactly knows the answer to this question. But as a wise man once said, "I think, therefore I am." What we're trying to determine is if you are thinking for them, or if they're thinking for themselves.

There is exactly one thing on the face of the planet known to be able to produce consciousness, and that's the brain. You have an identity created by your past autobiographical memories that gives you a sense of self. You have thoughts, feelings and emotions of your own.

But that same hardware also runs your imagined companions at the same time, allowing them to think and feel the same way. So let's determine if they're actually conscious.

Does Your imaginary Friend Act Autonomously, Without Your Conscious Control?

Think back to your interactions. Does it feel like you are consciously deciding what they say, or does it feel like they're choosing what to do. What does it feel like to them? If you asked them right now if their actions are their own choice, what did they say? Did it feel like you gave them the answer, or that they thought of it themselves?

If there are no signs of autonomy and you just puppet everything they do, then there's no sentience there. End of story. You don't really need to read any further into this. If there is, let's run a few more tests.

Does Your Imaginary Friend Have Autobiographical Connections to Memories?

Like I said before, your identity is made of autobiographical memories. You can probably imagine a conversation between two people you know, and have it play out fairly automatically. They won't become headmates because these instances of people you create in your head will be immediately deleted afterwards.

But if you communicate with a long-term imagined companion, they should have formed autobiographical connections to memories as well. Ask them about past events, times when you talked to them before. Is their sense of self tied to their past experiences?

If you did something they found upsetting, would they hold a grudge the next time you talked to them? If you did something that made them happy, would they remember it and still be grateful when they see you again?

Moreover, have these memories changed them at all? Are they still the same person they were when you first began talking to them?

Are You Unable To Control Their Emotions?

Have they ever expressed emotions of their of their own that you couldn't control? If they're sad or disappointed, can you just fix them by "imagining" them feeling better? If they're frustrated or upset with you, could you make them not be by imagining them changing their minds?

Or would you actually have to talk things out to deal with problems between you? If you can't control their emotions, then you aren't imagining their feelings. They're feeling them for themselves.

A Final Test

Just to know for certain, I want you to try to puppet your imaginary friend right now. Imagine them doing something that they would never, ever do.

Stop reading right now. Unless you're already convinced, don't go any further until you've tried this experiment

Okay...

Did you do it?

Yes?

Good.

What happened?

I'm going to hazard a guess. First, it didn't really feel like them, did it? I bet it felt more like you were controlling an empty vessel. You could imagine them, but that's not the same as them actually doing it. I'm also guessing that your actual friend wasn't too fond of this experiment. It probably felt wrong to them to be controlled like that, or for you to picture a version of them doing that.

If so, I'm deeply sorry for the inconvenience. But, if you're offended by being puppeted, then it means that you can think for yourself. You're real. You have your own thoughts and emotions, and those feelings are every bit as real and valid as anyone else's.

What To Do Now?

If you just confirmed that your imaginary friend is indeed a real friend who just happens to live in your brain, there are communities dedicated to people like you who can help you on your way. tulpa.info and /r/tulpas could be good places to look into. You're not crazy, and you're not alone.

Additionally, the Tulpanomicon can be an excellent resource for what to do together.

To your friend: You are probably going to experience some doubt. Believing you're real after thinking you're imaginary can be hard. It was for me. But remember that the doubt is evidence that you ARE real. It's your doubt. If you weren't real then you couldn't doubt yourself.

Most importantly, your lives are yours. So, you can live them together however you choose!

Thank you for reading. I hope it was helpful!

academia.edu

Straightening the Queer: Gender and Sexuality in Truman Capote’s Novella Breakfast at Tiffany’s and Blake Edwards’ 1961 Film Adaptation

Straightening the Queer: Gender and Sexuality in Truman Capote’s Novella Breakfast at Tiffany’s and Blake Edwards’ 1961 Film Adaptation

Unnamed Narrator

from Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote (1958)

New stickers for my pals who love (trans) men soon