Change everything you are
And everything you were
Your number has been called-
Sol | 28 | they/them
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This blog unconditionally supports the freedom of all colonized peoples and the end of every military occupation everywhere.
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Fights and battles have begun
Revenge will surely come
Your hard times are ahead
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@endlessartificer is the Martin to my Jon | @trykster-maraca is the Grantaire to my Enjolras | @sweetevilgoo is the Dys to my Sol
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Best, you've got to be the best
You've got to change the world
And use this chance to be heard
Your time is now
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I tripped and fell into being a Watchmen blog but I do have other interests too. Mostly these fall into the categories of indie horror, musicals, and sci-fi. I'm not really much of a comics person outside of Watchmen.
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I will never post porn. This is due to the fact that I dislike it. I may post occasional NSFW jokes. This is because your obsession with sex is a joke to me. I am an inconsistent tagger due to mostly being a mobile user, but I'm trying to get better.
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Don't let yourself down
Don't let yourself go
Your last chance has arrived
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Glory, Glory, Glory (Amaze, Amaze, Amaze)
LET'S GET ALL OF THIS OUT OF THE WAY FIRST: I AM AROACE, I AM POLYAFFECTIONATE, I AM TRANSMASC AND MULTIGENDER, I AM A TRAUMA SURVIVOR, I AM ALTERHUMAN, I AM A PAGAN WITCH, AND I USE CANNABIS FOR MEDICAL, RECREATIONAL, AND SPIRITUAL PURPOSES. Please assume whatever annoys you most about any of these groups of people is true of me.
I'm Sol. I'm an adult, but not a very adulty one.
If you know me at all, you probably know me from my long-running Star Trek fan-novel about a crew of defective Vorta working under Odo's protection. I am honestly quite burnt out on Star Trek and its fandom and have been for a while, so that's on hiatus until my mental health improves enough for me to forget why I left in the first place.
Currently, I'm posting a lot of Watchmen, Fallout, The Hunger Games, and Project Hail Mary, though my interests are pretty diverse.
My favorite musicians at the moment are Paris Paloma and Seeming, but my all time greats are Vienna Teng, Metric, Florence & The Machine, Bright Eyes, and VNV Nation. On my spotify I have a lot of fanmixes, including one for the Faithful Friends from Samite (a podcast I have normal feelings about. Don't look at my glory tag. Don't), one for Grace and Rocky, one for Harmony Cobel, and one for Laurie Juspeczyk.
(Yes I'm planning on ditching spotify it's just I keep having to pay for other shit.)
I post about shipcourse sometimes. I don't identify with either proship or antiship labels because I hate binaries, but my opinion is that while exploring unhealthy dynamics can be interesting, if you think a fictional relationship has to be abusive to be interesting, you've misunderstood The Ones who Walk Away from Omelas. I criticize ideas, tropes, and themes, not people, and I believe that freedom to express negative or critical opinions about art is an important part of free speech.
I have a lot of sideblogs. Like so many. @aroaceenjolras is my aroace issues blog, and it's usually where I am if I'm not here. @meanderposting is my not-quite-a-kink-blog where I talk about such filthy, sinful things as fully platonic power exchange and the inherent eroticism of having one's personhood completely affirmed. Sick and twisted. @karnak-correspondences is where I answer asks in character as Adrian Veidt. @whataboutyourhumanrights is where I very occasionally laugh at bad "femininity" content from pinterest.
All other sideblogs are personal and related to spiritual practice. Try to be my friend before asking for them.
I will block you if you think what's going on in Palestine is anything less than a genocide. I will block you if you like Harry Potter. I will block you if you are a transmedicalist or a system medicalist. I will block you if you use TME/TMA terminology. I will block you if you are attracted to children. I will block you if you ship something I dislike. I will block you if the vibes are off. I will block you if I fucking feel like it.
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You've all been caught up so much in the fandom discourse moralization of Wholesomeness⢠that you forget that it's funny. Like, there's a reason Saturday Morning Watchmen was the most popular animation on Newgrounds for a while, and it's not because people on fucking Newgrounds were so offended at the fact that Rorschach killed two dogs that the only way they could bleach their brains was by watching an animation of him cuddling the dogs instead, it's because the more dark and violent a story is, the funnier it is to subvert it, and there is inherent comedy in the fact that these characters are not acting like themselves.
Please repair your relationship to crack + fluff as a combination I promise you your fandom experience will be so much better.
Every now and again some scientists doing their best will forget to consider the lab equipment and something wild happens that reminds you science is about proving and re-proving your data.
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
The "designated survivor" is one of the weirder aspects of America's (very, very weird) political system.
Each year, during the State of the Union address, when both houses of Congress and the President are all under one roof, a single political figure, in the line of succession for the presidency, is spirited away to a hidden bunker, just in case the US legislative and administrative branches are decapitated in a single, spectacular terrorist strike:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Designated_survivor
Initiated during the 1950s, designated survivors are a paranoid relic of the Cold War, but they're also a relic of an era when America was a less chud-dominated, more technocratic land. It's a longtermist sort of procedure, in stark opposition to vibes-based MAGA chaos in which the Mad King makes daily announcements of new wars, tariffs, monuments, and existential threats to the nation.
America's ruling class have always sought an equilibrium between its pure Id of hatred for labor, autocratic yearnings and apocalyptic fantasies, and its patient, scheming Ego, the author of endless FedSoc judicial nominee listings, Projects 2025, and decades-long schemes to overturn Dobbs and reverse the New Deal.
(Democrats have their own version of this, of course â the endless contest between the McKinsey wing of the party's right and its infinitely embroidered Machin-Synematic Universe.)
The problem is that once the atavistic, impulsive elements of your project escape containment, the resultant turbulence sucks everyone else into their chaotic vortex. How can you plan for anything when you're buffeted by endless stunts, feints, and distractions?
Nowhere is this failure to plan more vivid than in the age distribution of both chambers of the US legislature, its presidential candidates, and its judicial appointments. What's more, this is equally true of the Democrats and the Republicans.
The equilibrium of all of America's key institutions is brittle: legislative majorities are often just one or two seats wide. Key federal circuits and the Supreme Court are knife-edge balances. We keep getting presidential races between septuagenarians and octogenarians.
The question here isn't whether old people can be good at those jobs. They obviously can be. The problem is actuarial: old people are far more likely to die, or suffer severe medical episodes, than younger people. This is a fact of life that every person understands, and the older you get, the better you understand it.
I'm 55. 20 years ago, it was unusual for just one of my peers to die in a given year; now I lose a couple every year. It could be me next (my doctor just informed me that I am cancer free, following excision, radiotherapy and immunotherapy). Anyone who pretends this isn't true is setting themselves and the people around them up for terrible things.
If you're a writer, this means making plans for the smooth management of your literary estate. For the past couple decades, John Scalzi has been my anointed literary executor. He's a great choice: a fabulous writer with a good head for business and a strong handle on my politics and artistic sensibility, whose personal ethics are above reproach. The only problem is that John is a couple of years older than me, which means that he'd be a great executor if I got hit by a bus tomorrow, but not if I keel over with a heart attack in 20 years.
So this year, I added a second executor, Molly White, who is also a fantastic writer, also extremely ethical and also very attuned to my politics and literary sensibilities. Molly is 20 years younger than me, and she has relevant experience: she's also the executor of the literary estate of her great-grandfather (EB White).
In the unlikely event of my untimely death, Molly and John will do a great job running the estate (which mostly will consist of reviewing my agents' recommendations). And if John keels over right after me, Molly will be fine on her own.
Of course, the only reason I need a literary executor is that my kid is only 18. At 18, she's a remarkable, level-headed, ethical young person, but she's not yet fully formed. Literary history is filled with descendants who take over a literary estate and run it in terrible ways. The most notorious example here is Stephen Joyce, grandson of James Joyce and a colossal asshole:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_James_Joyce
The most likely destiny for my literary estate is that I will grow older alongside my daughter, who will mature in ways that make her a perfectly suitable literary executor (in addition to being the beneficiary of my literary estate) and in a few years I'll send a note of thanks to John and Molly and change the paperwork. But in the unlikely, awful event that my kid runs into serious challenges that make me question her judgment and probity, I'll be covered.
That's what planning is all about: thinking through various scenarios, including low-likelihood, high-salience ones that have easy mitigations, and taking appropriate and proportionate steps to avoid disaster.
You know: like squirreling away a designated survivor in a bunker far from DC during the State of the Union.
This is what makes America's political gerontocracy so weird. In their true hearts, the nonagenarian (1), octogenarians (5), septuagenarians (27) and late sexagenarians (7) in the US Senate know that they could keel over at any moment, and that in a 53:47 Senate, this could spell doom for their political project.
Sure, Mitch McConnell might be secretly dead and that's bad and weird. But it wouldn't be exceptional. We're talking about a legislature whose members sometimes disappear for months, only to be discovered in care homes with advanced dementia, while still somehow holding office:
It's a legislature whose most prominent grandees cling to power at the very brink of death's door, long after they can be effective leaders, just so they can anoint their successor during the next election:
Elections have consequences, but special elections, called after the sudden death of an elderly lawmaker, have wild consequences.
Of course, anyone can die suddenly. 15 years ago, one of my dearest friends, a contemporary, went to bed in seeming perfect health and never woke up. He was only 44. I still miss him, every day:
But the likelihood this happening goes up the older you get, and once you cross a certain age threshold, odds rise sharply. If you're part of a political project that's laying and executing long-term plans whose outcomes turn on hair-fine majorities, this should factor into your thinking. The failure to do so can throw everything you've worked for into disarray:
It's not limited to the legislature, of course. The Supreme Court's slide into its role as handmaiden to totalitarianism began when the dying Ruth Bader Ginsburg refused to step down, because she wanted her successor to be picked by the first woman president:
The amazing thing here is that RBG made her name as a master strategist, but when it came to this incredibly consequential matter, she set strategy aside for hubris:
Security practitioners know that anyone can be hacked or scammed, and that the biggest vulnerability of all is to be so confident in your own procedures and discernment that you assume it could never happen to you. If you think you can't get scammed, you are a danger to yourself and others:
By the same token, any politician in their 70s or 80s who thinks that they can't suffer a stroke or heart attack or the kind of lapse that makes you freeze up during a presidential debate is a danger to their party, their politics and their nation:
This isn't about how healthy or robust any given politician is or feels; this is about the cold reality of actuarial tables. The older I get, the more those actuarial tables factor into my own decision-making. The fact that our political classes seem to think that they can choose the time and manner of their passing is baffling.
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the amount of leftists who uncritically support the DSM-5âwielding it online in battles against random individuals who might be âfakingâ a disorderâboggles my fucking mind. you guys realize that the DSM-5 isnât the only diagnostic manual on the planet, right? you realize that we place it at the top of the global hierarchy because itâs american, right? has it occurred to you that the APA shouldnât have so much authority over what counts as a ârealâ mental illness? has it occurred to you that perhaps there are other diagnostic manuals? in fact, there are dimensional models that donât rely on sorting individuals into âdisorder/no disorderâ boxes in the first place. food for thought, lmao
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this is the meanest thing anyoneâs ever said to me in my entire life but I canât even argue with this. what could I possibly say to defend myself in this instance. this was a one hit KO. this was a murder. this was a fucking slaughter and I have only myself to blame
Here's how we can get a mean old grognard like Natalie to move away from D&D: Recommend me a TTRPG system that (1) doesn't have much in the way of lore or a setting at all, (2) is more complex than Powered By The Apocalypse, and (3) is less complex than GURPS. That'll do it.
To be honest, I dislike most of the TTRPG writing I've seen. I think myself and the average gameswright have divergent, perhaps irreconcilable opinions as to what constitutes compelling worldbuilding and storytelling. You must understand that that thing homebrewers do where they're like "It's D&D but in a setting for which D&D is utterly unsuitable" is how I run Every Game in Every System, and I will not stop. D&D is in this way a great convenience because, while I am Not a fan of the Forgotten Realms, I am sufficiently familiar with the setting that I can easily and speedily get rid of anything I don't like. And I'm hesitant to try out all of these new systems because the thought of going through All That Mess again and again forever is quite daunting. The meaningful (to me) differences between individual systems are entirely mechanical, because we were never going to play in the book's world to begin with.
Just gimme the numbers. Me and the players can source everything else, we just need the numbers.
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Okay so actually letting a serious topic be vague and confusing is much more scary for a child than explaining it in calm language they can understand.
When you are in a safe place, explain the serious topic in a way the child can understand.
The fire alarm went off at school today because of a mistake, but your teachers did the right thing to take you outside to be sure it was safe.
Some people use wheelchairs because their legs donât walk very well. It can happen because they are old and tired, or because they got hurt, or because they were born that way.
Your Uncle Jerod talked to mom and dad, and wants you to call her Aunt Kari now. We will call her Kari too, and we can all practice together if it takes some getting used to.
Anticipate age-appropriate fears the child might have so you can assuage those that are not a threat.
Yes, Kitty died at the vet, but that doesnât mean that itâs not safe for Puppy to go to the vet.
Yes, Peyton and Jo are getting a divorce, but they are both still part of our family and love you very much.
Yes, Grandma has cancer, but cancer is not contagious, so you are not going to get cancer by visiting her.
Anticipate fears that are realistic, and give the child clear direction about what to do, and what happens next.
If someone asks you to get in their car without permission, find Mom, Mama, or a teacher and tell them right away. We will make sure you are safe.
If Sparkyâs sickness makes him hurt very badly, we are going to take him to the vet and she will give him some medicine, and he will die, but then he wonât hurt any more. Because Sparky is very sick, we are going to spend some special time with him over the next few days.
If the fire alarm goes off at school again, follow the teacherâs directions. If the fire alarm goes off and you are somewhere alone, go outside, and ask a grownup to call 911.
Reassure the child that theyâre safe and loved, validate their feelings, and see if they have follow-up questions. Give them the option to take space to process, or to stay near you to feel safe.
Iâm sad about Sparky too. Do you think we could make his favorite peanut-butter treats, while we are spending special time with him?
I understand why Grandmaâs cancer makes you feel angry. It doesnât seem fair that people we love get sick. Would you like a hug?
You were worried about calling 911 if thereâs not a grownup around. I wrote down some important things, like our address, and we can go over these together so you are ready if anything like that ever happens.
These things are principally the job of the childâs parent or guardian, but in some cases directing the child to that caregiver is difficult or impossible (parent refuses/confuses the child, parent is absent, childâs questions are specific and relevant to a situation their parent was not present for, etc.) so I think all adults should be prepared to have these conversations with kids.
Rewatched the Raimi Spider-Man movies recently. They're a fascinating glimpse into a world where superhero movies actually tried to be movies and not just Extruded Entertainment Product #46899b.
Anyway I'm obsessed with that whole sequence that seemed to lowkey just be Sam Raimi getting horned up about wrestling. Which is an understandable thing to be horned up about and I'm not going to complain. But the distracting thing is that after the announcer calls Bone Saw a TITAN of TESTOSTERONE, it's very easy to imagine Peter's mousey little voice (affectionate) saying "I just started testosterone but can I try"
He's so Baby Trans to me. Not every Spidey is in my mind but 2002 Spidey absolutely is and I just wanna squish his lil face and tell him he's doing excellent.
