#nyaore

I have to wonder how much of it was nihilism and how much of it was him being tempered. Still 100% deserves an ass beating of monumental proportions either way.

NAMAZU!! I’m really excited for Pixie and Nu Mou, and I just, really especially like the pixies in general anyway, but good gracious do I adore the namazu with all my heart. <3<3<3

Super unpopular opinion that may get folks angry at me, but here we go:

I admittedly am anxious of anyone who complains about cliques in the RP community, mainly because there’s often this sense of entitlement behind it.  Someone wants to join a specific group or wants to RP with a specific person and they get upset when they find they can’t.

I could understand being upset about being excluded from a group if Balmung was a very small, tiny RP community and the one specific group you were attempting to RP with was the only game in town.  When there’s only one group in a small community that holds all the keys to everything and you find yourself excluded form it - that truly sucks.

However, that no longer holds the same kind of weight when you’re in a massive RP community like Balmung full of all sorts of people who are incredibly eager to RP all the time.  At that point, it feels more like an individual feels entitled to gain access to a specific group or person, and for me, that’s incredibly uncomfortable.

Cliques are absolutely present in virtually any large community you join.  They are also, in my opinion, pretty normal. It’s just a group of friends. What makes them inherently good or bad are the people inside the group and how they treat others outside of it. 

If you punch the word ‘clique’ into google, you get the definition “a small group of people, with shared interests or other features in common, who spend time together and do not readily allow others to join them.”  By that definition, any guild with an application process is a clique.  

Consider for a moment why any guild has an application process to begin with:  Sometimes it is to make sure the people fit the culture of the guild. Other times it’s to make sure they have the same shared interests and views.  And most importantly, it’s sometimes to make sure the new person is safe for your guild members to be around.

If exclusion and making it difficult for others to join is what defines a clique - where do we draw the line between a clique and a safe-space where someone is establishing boundaries? 

I have been hurt very badly by people in the community bent upon acquiring something as arbitrary as internet popularity.  There was a period where I stopped RPing all together because of how battered and broken down I felt from my experiences.  When I finally built up the courage to try RPing again, I created a very deep, expansive plot tailored to my specific interests, made a linkshell and a Discord for it, and then very slowly and carefully began to invite people into it, curating my own little safe-space that was entirely mine to secure.

I selected each and every person inside of it individually outside of a handful of people who were recommended by folks already inside of it. I did not advertise it or and have not spoken openly about it until today. In fact, at first people were told to avoid mentioning it and if they did discuss it, to at least not mention who the leader of it was.  I didn’t want anyone asking me out of the blue if they could join it.

I still don’t.

It’s a very exclusive RP group and it’s exclusive, because it’s one of the few places in the community I feel safe outside my FC. I set down my boundaries and wanted a corner of my own I could feel secure in, where I knew all the people in it were kind, decent people who cared about me for me, and not because they wanted something from me.  I would never have been able to reclaim RP as a hobby again were it not for this place I carved out for myself that let me enjoy roleplay in a safe environment with compassionate people.

I know there are many people out there who will feel like this exclusionary response really sucks and that I should try to be more accepting of the fact that there’s plenty of nice, normal RPers out there who just want to be given a chance and join my crew.  But to be frank - I don’t see why anyone, especially a total stranger who has done nothing to show me they are safe, is entitled to my time and energy when both of those things are already in very limited supply for me to start with.

If for whatever reason, you could not specifically RP with a specific person or group, I am willing to bet that there’s definitely another similar group or person out there with a similar narrative/aesthetic who is looking for RP.

The pet/companion of choice in Honey’s tribe is the Gaelicat. Excellent at pest control and scouting, can be trained for retrieval (if you bribe them with the right treats), and really who wouldn’t love having a bat-winged flap cat come and perch on their shoulder.

@nyaore replied to your post “I think I’ll never understand all those “would you date a XXX”, XXX...”

THANK YOU. THIS HAS BEEN BOTHERING ME AND IS WHY I DON'T REBLOG THOSE POSTS.