Just A Speckled Dragon

"bomb that kills all-" "I just don't get bi women bringing their-" "pansexuality isn't a real thing-" "all lesbians-" "trans men really are the men of the-" "theyfabs-" "pfft aroace people are cringe-" "nonbinary people are actually all-" Instant block. Goodbye. Not listening. It's for both solidarity with your fellow queers AND to protect yourself, because once a person is convinced to hate one group for their immutable traits they can be convinced fairly easily to hate another too, and thus I do not trust them.

I expect my non-queer allies to have enough of an understanding of queer theory and politics to know a queer person saying "you have to listen to me because I'm x identity, and I say it's perfectly fine for me to hate everyone who is y and use slurs against them, and if you disagree you're the bigot, actually bcs the suffering I've dealt with means it's wrong to hold me responsible for any harm I might do to other queer people" is someone who should be ignored.

Part of socializing and having friends is being a good listener even when you don't actually give a shit about the subject.

Your are hurting other people's feelings when you bluntly respond with "Anyway..." and then change the topic.

It can not always be about your preferred topic.

In 2021, Swarovski (the company that makes the very sparkly crystals you see in certain jewelry, on figure-skaters' twinkliest outfits, on red carpet dresses), decided they didn't want the grubby fingers of small-time jewelers, clothing designers and costumers and crafters on their shiny beads and rhinestones anymore. They decided to limit their sales to "luxury" and couture creators, not girls who sell stuff on Etsy. The tenor of their press release on the subject was snide and insulting. Resellers (like your favorite bead shop) would no longer be allowed to carry their product; the average Jane on the street would not be able to purchase them. You could only get them if you had an authorized business agreement that bound you to very strict brand behavior. And those of us who still had good stock of the crystals would no longer be "permitted" to use the brand's name in our listings for sale.

Every bead shop and craft supply place and many, many small clothing makers--wedding shops, prom and dancing dress suppliers, the sort of salt of the Earth mom and pop time machines of shops that are the backbone of the field--scrambled to find something that could replace them. The last of the stock dwindled quickly, all of us grabbing what we could get while there was any chance of it, and then it was gone and we no longer had any access.

I was Big Pissed about it at the time. It was just so goddamn stuck-up, when wholesalers and indie jewelers had made them so much money, when some people I knew--when *I!*--had been brand-loyal for decades. But with no recourse, everyone pivoted fairly quickly, most of us to Preciosa Crystals. Those are Czech, quite sparkly, and considerably less expensive than Swarovski. The faceting method they use is different, but not worse; any differences are hardly noticeable when you're seeing them as a hundred pinpoints of light.

Well, out of nowhere, Swarovski just dropped this: https://www.harmanbeads.com/swarovski-brand-policy-update

"Effective June 1, 2026, Swarovski updated the distribution and brand usage policies introduced in 2021. Businesses may now purchase Swarovski Crystals without signing a Brand Control Agreement, and Authorized Distribution Partners may once again sell Swarovski Crystals to resellers, including bead stores and online retailers. Businesses may also use the Swarovski brand name when following Swarovski’s Proper Use Guidelines. Designers, manufacturers, artists, brands, retailers, and resellers are now eligible to purchase Swarovski Crystals through authorized distribution channels."

They want us back. A lot of the companies who could have kept a brand relationship with them also have swapped to Preciosa, over the last half-decade, in solidarity with indie creators and out of a sour awareness that it could be them, next. And it doesn't hurt that Preciosa was able to expand their line quite a bit now that everyone who wanted sparkle had no choice but to go to them.

And I'm not seeing nearly anyone who intends to return. The feeling is, "Y'all told us to fuck off! Off we fucked! And now, that's what you can do, too!" I'm seeing a lot of "How many of us did you stab in the back?" comments from the people whose money they're hoping to attract.

.....

Hey! This is a good question, and I have been avoiding talking too much about Taliesin’s past characters because I have either liked them (Percy, Caduceus, Kingsley), respected what he was doing even if it wasn’t my thing (Molly, though see below), or in the case of Ashton felt this was ultimately, again, a DMing issue. However, that does not mean I am without critique of his playstyle, nor critique of how the fandom has at times responded.

Before I get into this however I have noticed that a number of people who started with Campaign 4 (ie, do not have this history) have, in my notes, said “yeah all Bolaire is doing is aura farming” and I think that is worth pointing out in that like, ultimately, the past does not matter in terms of saying “well this character isn’t fucking working for these reasons”. However, I think looking at the past is interesting, and important, and that’s what the question is about, and I love airing long simmering grievances and bursting fanon bubbles so read on.

I think it’s rare for anyone to truly instigate their own character’s story, because D&D isn’t a solo endeavor. The Briarwoods showing up doesn’t mean Taliesin failed in not just having Percy go after them; that would be a wild choice. Most of Campaign 1 is in fact Things Happen To Vox Machina And They Respond, so to judge Percy for not instigating is like judging Vax and Vex for not personally hunting down Thordak before the Chroma Conclave, or Scanlan for not realizing he might have fathered some children. Molly died very early in the campaign. I think Caduceus was a character for whom avoidance actually felt very true to who he was; the choices were coherent. I think it’s hard to judge any of the cast for how they handled their Bells Hells characters because the signaling from Matt was so fucked, and as several people have pointed out, Taliesin very much set up a lot of history with the Nobodies and really was never given room to explore it.

And yet. While all of this is true, and I believe all of it, saying “this worked out” or “I get why this happened” is just, well, a statement that in this context, it worked. It’s really possible, for example, that had Molly lived, he would have had an absolutely suck-ass main plot, and we say “it’s hard to judge Molly because he died so early” because that’s the truth, but that’s not actually a statement that the character concept was any good, just that he was gone very quickly. Caduceus absolutely works in the context of Campaign 2, but he is a character who was created after the vibe was established, and if everyone played a character like that the campaign would have been very dull. It’s possible that in a world where Matt was fresh and rested and Campaign 3 was otherwise a work of brilliance that Ashton might still have crashed and burned; we just can’t say for sure.

Tangential to that, and I think this is part of what is driving the strength of the fandom response, is that a lot of fans of Taliesin’s characters have a habit of demanding that everyone else do the work to make his characters have interesting stories. This is a huge problem currently. It’s always someone else’s fault that Bolaire isn’t working, actually. It’s Brennan’s for making such a plot-heavy and fast-paced campaign (except single other PC is firing on at least most if not all cylinders). It’s Liam’s for Hal not continuing the argument (he’s not going to make a scene at the gala where all of the Sundered Houses are coming, and then the assassination plot popped off and the Schemers had to work together, and Bolaire hasn’t come by the Hallowed Round at all and isn’t even coming to the show). (Thaisha and Thimble are just too close to see Thjazi objectively though btw, that conflict doesn’t count for….reasons). Why isn’t everyone else just running the scenes we want with Bolaire instead of doing what their character is interested in? And, of course, so what does this say about Sam and Whitney attempting to do so and getting shot down?

And let’s look back, shall we. I like Caduceus. I really do. I have and will continue to defend the idea that just because his arc was subtle and not very showy and ended with him back where he began it’s still unmistakably a great character arc. Also, I remember Campaign 2 discourse, that’s where I started out, and god it was like pulling teeth to convince the stans that maybe, a lot of characters had checked in with Caduceus, and he kept on pushing them away or making the conversation about their problems as a means of deflecting from his own, and perhaps this is not a matter of everyone else not caring enough but rather his own choices. Or like, look, I am a vocal disliker of every single Liam and Taliesin character ship and I don’t want to digress by getting deep into that, but specifically it has always ground my gears that people act like the fact none have gone canon is because Liam’s characters are refusing the advances of Taliesin’s. If that were true…then that’s not Liam’s fault, that is Liam’s choice in a matter of pretty serious autonomy and comfort that you are getting mad at. Or again, with Ashton, I felt the shard worked out well story-wise and for the character but like, that was not a misunderstanding, that was Matt saying four times “this is not a smart decision” and Taliesin still going ahead with it and fans started nitpicking down to “well, they’re just saying it’s unwise, or it ‘might’ kill them, not that it DEFINITELY WILL” and like. Be serious.

So I think a lot of people have reached the end of our rope in terms of having even a shred of patience for “well, actually, it’s everyone else’s fault” both because we’ve heard it before, and because, again, explain why when someone was like PLEASE PLAY THIS SCENE SO WE KNOW WHAT YOU WANT US TO DO, Taliesin said “no” and that’s somehow anyone’s fault but his.

How They Shaped Our World by

Jennifer Potter

Residents had serious concerns about the project. While companies often win major tax breaks by promising jobs and economic stimulation, data centers bring few permanent jobs and can drain municipal water resources, drive up electric bills, rob cities of tax revenues, and cause damaging noise, light, and air pollution. Already, Wisconsin residents have seen some of these impacts at data center sites in Port Washington and Beaver Dam. Residents in Port Washington have complained about the disruption caused by around-the-clock construction at the new data center. Families near the construction in Beaver Dam have reported that their wells have run dry.

Although the Menomonie City Council voted to annex and rezone the land for the data center in early September [2025], pressure from local campaigners was so great that Mayor Randy Knaack announced at a Sept. 22 city council meeting that he had notified Balloonist that the city would not be moving forward with a development agreement. More good news came in January when the Menomonie City Council voted unanimously to place additional regulations on data center projects.