I Have Hope For A Better, Kinder World. Deal.

Any good faith i was attempting to go in with (on principle, and to have the most objective criticisms of the material rather than merely taking common FNDM criticisms as my own) has been lost by this discovery.

To me this is far more damning of his character than a shitty fanfic.

https://nitter.net/Raymond_McNeil/search?f=tweets&q=Xel

I was made aware of Celtic's seeming hang up on me after a different friend drew my attention to the Combat video when it came out but I kinda forgot about it right after. Barring a joke about him owing me a kick back for helping him & his hangers on keep the lights lit during hiatus, but I guess my avatar lives rent free in his head, so fairs fair XD

Beyond that and this post, I've never actually noticed him or his works, & I can't tell the difference between him & every other RWDE grifter as none of them warrant any intellectual thought on my part anyway.

This goes beyond being a self-entitled little shit on the internet with a huge ego, this goes beyond spreading misinformation of a show you didn't like because it dared to be different from what you wanted.

This is straight-up abusive and overall a huge asshole thing to do.

Because I can forgive being a shitty reviewer and writer... But I draw the line at jumping one of my friends who never did anything to you, then act like you have the moral high ground.

This just further proves my point on what I said last year about Healthy RWBY Discourse just not existing anymore, because it's thanks to assholes like Raymond dipshit over here who not only spreads misinformation about RWBY, shits on CRWBY for no reason, yet has the gal to act like he's the better man, but also because they want to jump people who DARE to like RWBY for pretty much no fucking reason.

THIS is why the HTDM has to go. This is why we are always so defensive, and this is why the RWBY community gets such a bad rep.

If after ALL of this, you guys STILL think we're the problem, and you're just making shit up, even after ALL of THIS... Then you're an idiot

HAPPY PRIDE! It’s time for our fourth-annual Pride Bundle charity drive! We’ve got three bundles this year: a general imprint bundle with 25 titles totaling 381 pages; an explicit bundle of 15 stories, 237 pages; and an art bundle with 10 artworks, 250 mb of digital artwork! In the first three years of this initiative, we’ve raised over $725 for the charities we’ve selected, and we’re delighted to be back, this time in an effort to raise money for the Queer Liberation Library ( @queerliblib ) and the Transgender Law Center.

The General Imprint Bundle costs $25 USD (60% off normal!). 40% of this sales price will be divided equally between the two charities.

The Explicit Imprint Bundle costs $15 USD (60% off normal!). 44% of this sales price will be divided equally between the two charities.

The Art Bundle costs $10 USD (66% off normal!). 24% of this sales price will be divided equally between the two charities.

How This Works

You buy one or both bundles between now and June 30th, 2026.

We tally up all the proceeds earned and do some math-e-magic to figure out how much we’re donating!

Before the end of July, we divide our total raised amount in half and donate equal amounts to the Queer Liberation Library and the Transgender Law Center.

We post the proof that we’ve made the donation (you can see past proof here, here, and here.)

You get fantastic stories!

We all get that happy, glowy feeling of knowing that money has been well-spent on fantastic causes!

About the Press

Duck Prints Press is a queer-owned indie press, founded to publish original works by fancreators. We’ve been in operation for over 5.5 years, and in that time we’ve worked with well over 150 creators to publish ten anthologies and over 200 other stories, from shorts to novels, and we’ve got more on the works (five anthologies in progress, multiple novels slated for the later half of 2026, an art project, and more). The vast majority of our creators and their creations are queer/LGTBQIA+ (maybe even all, but we don’t out anyone and we don’t ask demography because, frankly, it’s none of our business).

About Our Selected Charities

Note: These charities are not affiliated with the Press, do not know we’re doing this fundraiser, have not endorsed this in anyway and are, as such, utterly uninvolved in this beyond being the beneficiaries of our efforts! Text is from their webpages.

The Queer Liberation Library: “Queer Liberation Library (QLL) is fighting to build a vibrant, flourishing queer future by connecting LGBTQ+ people with literature, information, and resources that celebrate the unique and empowering diversity of our community.”

The Transgender Law Center: “Transgender Law Center is the largest national trans-led organization advocating self-determination for all people. Since 2002 we’ve been organizing, assisting, informing and empowering thousands of individual community members towards a long-term, national, trans-led movement for liberation.”

About the Bundles

We are offering three bundles: general imprint stories, with 25 works; explicit imprint stories, with 15 works; and art, with 10 works. The shop listings include details about and excerpts from all the stories and previews of all the art. Purchasing book bundles gets you access to the e-book (in ePub and PDF formats) of each title included in the bundle. Purchasing the art bundle gets you access to high-quality print-ready images, sized to print clearly at 8.5 in x 11 in (21.6 cm x 27.9 cm) (FOR PERSONAL USE ONLY!). Here’s what you’ll get!

Works in the General Imprint Charity Bundle:

Farm to Table by Andi Rigby

The Problem with Wishes by Annabeth Lynch

Of Loops and Weaves by Catherine E. Green

Starstruck, Adrift by Cedar D. McCafferty-Svec

Let the Solstice Come by D. V. Morse

Red Ink, Black Water by Dei Walker

Old Books, New Friends by Genevieve Maxwell

A Galaxy Run in 30 Minutes or Less by J. D. Harlock

Seal Island by K. B. Vimes

Quintessentially You by Len Amin

Sonic Boom of My Heart by Linnea Peterson

Night Birds by Max Jason Peterson

Snow Day Memories by Merlin Grey

Sarisa by N. C. Farrell

Wolven Dance by Neo Scarlett

It’s Witchcraft! by Nicola Kapron

Living Room Beauty Shop by O. E. Hendrickson

One Moon at a Time by R. L. Houck

a name to call by Rascal Hartley

Nycticorax by S. J. Ralston

Bubble, Bubble by Sage Mooreland

The Wayward Timekeeper by Terra P. Waters

To Fill My Cup by Violet J. Hayes

Tincture of Clarity by Willa Blythe

Chrysopoeia by Zel Howland

25 stories. 381 pages. 130,140 words of fiction! Price: $25.00 USD

GET THE GENERAL IMPRINT BUNDLE

Approximately 40% of the list price of this bundle will go to charity.

Works in the Explicit Imprint Charity Bundle:

Snowbound and Love Sick by A. L. Heard

Heart’s Scaffold by Alec J. Marsh

Heated Desperation by Aria L. Deair

A Safe Place to Land by boneturtle

Can’t Let Go by Dei Walker

Like it Sharp by E. V. Dean

then, too, at sea by ilgaksu

Sinking by Lyn Weaver

We the Hunters by Lyonel Loy

Goals by R. L. Houck

Easier Than Expected by Samantha M. Piper

Worlds Apart (but Still Close)by Sanne Burg

Taken at Sea by Shea Sullivan

Warm Anything You Want by Tris Lawrence

Allay the Burning Fever in My Blood by YF Ollwell

15 stories. 237 pages. 80,768 words of fiction! Price: $15.00 USD

GET THE EXPLICIT IMPRINT BUNDLE

Approximately 44% of the list price of this bundle will go to charity.

Works in the Art Charity Bundle:

Devour by Aaron Kotze

Warm by Aceriee

Aurora by æonswinter

Forever Halloween by Max Jason Peterson

Demi Dragon by May Barros

Bar on the outskirts. by MizuShiba

old truths, new patches by radicalhoodie

The Riddle by Shea Sullivan

[untitled] by swev.art

Another Spring by Zel Howland

10 artworks. 247 mb of art! Price: $10.00 USD

GET THE ART PRINT BUNDLE

Approximately 24% of the list price of this bundle will go to charity.

Check out our bundles for charity now, and help us help others!!

Some highlights:

- implies RWBY is just a shitty attempt at an ATLA remake

- Blake is “beauty AND the beast” exaggerated groan (to indicate that this is…somehow bad writing or something? No reason given)

- “And then Pyrrha shoves Miles into his locker where he belongs—I mean Pyrrha shoves Jaune into his locker where he belongs”

- implying Miles and Kerry are potentially predatory towards young girls

So if it feels inescapable and like evidence of it is everywhere, whether at times or always, that might just because you're in a Western country where you're surrounded by Christians who believe that, fundamentally, in their worldview. And also they talk and make art about it all the time and run the vast majority of news outlets. And spent over a thousand years burning any art or texts that disagreed with them. Etc. etc.

If you're gonna come to as drastic and painful a conclusion as that, at least take the time first to make sure you're not working with biased evidence (surrounded by too many people and cultural products that believe original sin is real)

how often do we find human remains / burials attributable to a peaceful death of old age, or at least to disease / wild animals? and attributable to human violence, i.e. with traces of weapon impacts?

I personally am much more convinced and compelled by newer theories that, if any piece of technology made us human, it was not the weapon - it was the carrier bag, the story, and/or fire. (But not fire with the primary purpose of violence, mind you - fire with the primary purpose of heat and food and sanitation)

Here's a quote on this from one of my absolute favorite thinkers and writers, Ursula K. Le Guin:

If you haven't got something to put it in, food will escape you- even something as uncombative and unresourceful as an oat. You put as many as you can into your stomach while they are handy, that being the primary container; but what about tomorrow morning when you wake up and it's cold and raining and wouldn't it be good to have just a few handfuls of oats to chew on and give little Oom to make her shut up, but how do you get more than one stomachful and one handful home? So you get up and go to the damned soggy oat patch in the rain, and wouldn't it be a good thing if you had something to put Baby Oo Oo in so that you could pick the oats with both hands? A leaf a gourd a shell a net a bag a sling a sack a bottle a pot a box a container. A holder. A recipient. The first cultural device was probably a recipient. . . . Many theorizers feel that the earliest cultural inventions must have been a container to hold gathered products and some kind of sling or net carrier. So says Elizabeth Fisher in Women's Creation (McGraw-Hill, 1975). But no, this cannot be. Where is that wonderful, big, long, hard thing, a bone, I believe, that the Ape Man first bashed somebody with in the movie and then, grunting with ecstasy at having achieved the first proper murder, flung up into the sky...? I don't know. I don 't even care. I'm not telling that story. We've heard it, we've all heard all about all the sticks and spears and swords, the things to bash and poke and hit with, the long, hard things, but we have not heard about the thing to put things in, the container for the thing contained. That is a new story. That is news... It sometimes seems that that story is approaching its end. Lest there be no more telling of stories at all , some of us out here in the wild oats, amid the alien corn, think we'd better start telling another one, which maybe people can go on with when the old one's fin- ished. Maybe. The trouble is , we've all let ourselves become part of the killer story, and so we may get finished along with it. Hence it is with a certain feeling of urgency that I seek the nature, subject, words of the other story, the untold one, the life story.

Fire is literally the reason our brains are larger than any other species of ape's, because harnessing fire meant we spent radically less energy spent on digestion - and those excess resources instead changed the evolution of the human brain.

Also fire is probably the reason we're not fully covered in hair anymore, evolutionarily - because we evolved in equatorial Africa, where not wearing a fur coat everywhere was an evolutionary advantage due to, you know, the temperature of it all. Once we could make our own heat to survive the cold nights and winters, less insulation was a huge evolutionary advance in equatorial regions especially

Wherever humans have gone in the world, they have carried with them two things, language and fire. As they traveled through tropical forests they hoarded the precious embers of old fires and sheltered them from downpours. When they settled the barren Arctic, they took with them the memory of fire, and recreated it in stoneware vessels filled with animal fat. Darwin himself considered these the two most significant achievements of humanity. It is, of course, impossible to imagine a human society that does not have language, but—given the right climate and an adequacy of raw wild food—could there be a primitive tribe that survives without cooking? In fact, no such people have ever been found. Nor will they be, according to a provocative theory by Harvard biologist Richard Wrangham, who believes that fire is needed to fuel the organ that makes possible all the other products of culture, language included: the human brain. Every animal on earth is constrained by its energy budget; the calories obtained from food will stretch only so far. And for most human beings, most of the time, these calories are burned not at the gym, but invisibly, in powering the heart, the digestive system and especially the brain, in the silent work of moving molecules around within and among its 100 billion cells. A human body at rest devotes roughly one-fifth of its energy to the brain, regardless of whether it is thinking anything useful, or even thinking at all. Thus, the unprecedented increase in brain size that hominids embarked on around 1.8 million years ago had to be paid for with added calories either taken in or diverted from some other function in the body. Many anthropologists think the key breakthrough was adding meat to the diet. But Wrangham and his Harvard colleague Rachel Carmody think that’s only a part of what was going on in evolution at the time. What matters, they say, is not just how many calories you can put into your mouth, but what happens to the food once it gets there. How much useful energy does it provide, after subtracting the calories spent in chewing, swallowing and digesting? The real breakthrough, they argue, was cooking.

-via Smithsonian Magazine, June 2013. Emphasis mine. In the time since this article was published, what was considered a "provocative theory" in 2013 has become a matter of increasing scientific evidence and scientific consensus.

Richard Wrangham lays out his theory as a whole in his 2010 book Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human.

For more current summaries on the history of fire, and scientific and archeological evidence for its role in human evolution:

Evolutionary fire ecology: An historical account and future directions. August 2023. BioScience, volume 73, issue 8, pages 602–608. Permalink: https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biad059, paywall-free.

The discovery of fire by humans: a long and convoluted process. By J. A. J. Gowlett. June 2016. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, volume 371, issue 1696, epage 20150164. Permalink: doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2015.0164, paywall free.

Or, less scholarly:

Current archeological evidence suggests that humans are, if anything, defined by the hearthfire.

By cooking. By our ability to keep ourselves warm. By our ability to provide for ourselves and each other. By humanity's millennia-long quest to beat back the ravages of starvation and hunger.

1) It’s actually really hard to do a post mortem on bodies that old. Did this guy fall and hit his head, or was his head bashed in with a rock? Maybe something stepped on him AFTER he was dead. Who knows, we only have a shoulder and a leg.This is not to knock the work of archaeology, which can deduce incredible amounts of information from bodies, but sometimes there’s simply not enough evidence.

2) You’re much more likely to find a mass graveyard of fifty soldiers than you are to find thousands of smaller skeletons scattered throughout who died of other causes. Mass casualty events and the mass graves they create skew the perception.

3) Place is important. There are places where over half the bodies died from weaponry, and places where none of them did. Was there a war here? A famine driving people to desperation? An easy abundance that promoted a peaceful culture? Humanity’s natural inclination towards violence or peace often proves inferior to the influence of its material conditions.

Scenario: Summer and Raven track down Salem’s hideout. They go to do reconnaissance, see if they can find some sort of weakness before they call in the cavalry. Salem catches them. Summer ends up falling into a Grimm pool. Raven is scarred forever.

Summer now lives as a recluse, similar to what Salem was doing when Oz found her the very first time

she disappeared because she knew that no one would ever accept her as part Grimm, maybe even has to fight against some Grimm instincts

So now she’s like Salem except she didn’t spend as long totally isolated

Creating a really interesting mirror for Salem and definitely a reason for her to be intrigued by Summer

But now, with everything at stake and seeing her daughters message, she finds the courage to come to vacuo

And thus she is the mystery woman in Beyond episode 1 that Neptune and Sun glimpse

And yes I know hiding Summer’s return from Yang and especially Ruby is something that Oz and especially Qrow are dedicated to not doing anymore, but I think Summer being both ALIVE after all this time AND Grimm-y would be enough of a shock and scare that they would at the very least want to be very very sure in how they present it to the girls

So I could see them keeping it quiet for a bit

That series came out 10 years ago but a random edit has intrigued you? Watch it. That film is 30 years old? Watch it. That album thats decades years old? Listen to it. The books - read them!