okay so tiktok isn’t anymore “mostly spyware” than facebook or google and i have yet to hear a single justification for why tiktok is any different that isn’t just sinophobia repackaged into smart sounding political and technological arguments. which isn’t to say that’s great, but like just please don’t fall for weird sinophobic or US nationalist arguments.
also my extremely hot take is that if we’re living in a world where we can at best pick between which government is spying on me i’d in a lot of cases rather pick the government that doesn’t have any impact in my jurisdiction, being watched by the chinese government will forever impact me less than being watched by the US or any european government.
absolutely not at all a pro big platforms or pro government surveillance take, just like a bit of a relative view on things.
A live broadcast captured the moment a cat jumped on an imam, who was leading a nightly Ramadan prayer in Bordj Bou Arreridj, Algeria.
Imam Walid Mehsas was praying Taraweeh, a nightly prayer occurring every evening during the month of Ramadan, when the cat jumped on him and climbed on his shoulders.
i dont think you guys know how much this blew up in Arab/Muslim communities, its at a point now where people are drawing this man and its kinda like a wholesome meme
fae courts like, you know, the fae small claims court
Me, the DM: I actively regret all of the worldbuilding I’ve done on the faewild now because “the fae court of appeals” is a P H E N O M E N A L setting for a campaign.
it WORKS is the thing
the intricate and inscrutable rules. the importance of exact words. once an agreement has been formally made and witnessed it Has To Be Honored even if it’s not fair. beware entering unknown territory without a guide native to the world. things you say will be taken literally even when they were clearly not intended that way. there’s a lot of aesthetic formalities. you win by tricking people into telling the truth.
Essential to this concept is that the aesthetic remains entirely unchanged. The flowers and thorns and fairy circles and forests and thresholds and iron and salt as a ward and the bloody shadow war between courts and the charm spells and the dreams and the changeling stuff and the riddle games and the guardian creatures etc.
like you can still end up eternally bound in service to a fae court by eating food inside a mushroom ring
just also you can get there because you were subpoenaed
In the year 1869, Mr. James E. Singh, Esq. convinced the ruling Queens of both Summer and Winter that the mortal world, too, were ultimately ruled by courts—not quite like theirs, but just as requiring of respect and adherence to the rules of the land. He offered to negotiate a treaty of reciprocal respect and intersecting jurisdiction.
Every since, well, you do still need to be careful about circles of mushrooms, standing stones, horn calls and pounding hooves on moonlit or moonless nights, etc. The boundaries are precisely defined and you cross at your own peril! But you may also be summoned, with a letter delivered by a too-intelligent crow, written on birchbark in script that shines like sunlight or glistens like frost, to testify or even serve jury duty in the Land Under Hill, for mortal crimes may on demand be judged by a jury of peers. Or if the lawyers of our world won’t even hear you out, if the judges turn away and the bailiffs throw you out, you may hop through a fairy circle and request a trial by combat or by quest—but take care! Faerie Laws are often those of stories, and a heroic seeker of righteous justice might be favored, but great and powerful monsters don’t gain their power without breaking a few good heroes first.
And if one of the Good Neighbors is causing you trouble in this world, try tricking them into jaywalking. Thanks to the efforts of Mr. Singh, they will HAVE to pay the fine if formally accused, and they’ll hate it.
I’m usually pretty flexible about player character backgrounds, but I draw the line at “is secretly Rasputin”. If your character is or has ever been Rasputin, they are not welcome at this table.
I have had a player try to sneak a secret Rasputin into one of my games on three unconnected occasions.
The same player, or three different players with three different Secret Rasputins?
Three different ones, though this was admittedly over the course of thirty years, so it’s not like it was frequent – it’s just weird that it happened thrice.
Now we just need a game where EVERYONE’S a secret Rasputin.
Shannon, but you can call me Bramble. Early thirties. They/them or thon pronouns. Sometimes I get the morbs. Assorted fandoms. Lots of complaining about things I like. Strange ideas of what constitutes a cute animal.
