Also, The Painter Has Exquisitely Rendered Her Eyes As Reddened And Tear-stained. It Was NOT A Boring

I know I'm not the first to Uno-Reverse the whole humans-summoning-demons thing, but what kind of mundane tasks might an otherworldly being need a summoned human to do? What kind of "powers" might a demon gain from a pact with a human? And what might the human demand in return?

Is spitting on one's hand, then shaking hands, the "humonic binding ritual"?

What happens when a demon calls down that which they cannot send back up?

A. Shipwright on Deviantart: https://www.deviantart.com/ashpwright

DoodLetMeGO on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ashipwright

When Kyana was sitting up on that spire, and Davian flew by in his Hummingbird, and they had a little conversation, I really enjoyed the moment the two characters had. It was one of the most interesting and satisfying one-on-ones in the first campaign.

I like to think that at some point after the Beastlands, Davian visited the Grand Arena, and ended up facing Kyana. Kyana didn't quite roflstomp him -- Davian drew a little blood, from the one hit he got in, and Kyana had it treated nonmagically, so she could bear the scar as a memento.

In near-future speculative fiction story, highly politicized faction refuses to use pronouns completely. Including indefinite pronouns. Including first-person pronouns.

Can conceivably be pro- or anti- inclusivity ideology, small group or large group.

Faction's speech is weird and stilted, although similar to English "brevity wording" found on signs and instruction manuals. Surprisingly easy to understand, considering complete restructuring of speech pattern and grammar.

Same group does not use contractions, but unrelated. Abandonment of contractions pure affectation driven by pomposity.

Blog post is self-demonstrating.

How about hat racing? You can hat race on foot, or with horses or bicycles, or even in convertibles.

Everyone wears the same kind of hat. If your hat blows off or falls off during the race, you're disqualified.

No trying to knock off each other's hats. No adhesives.

This Spring, I reserved a room online, at a Best Western motel, and received a pop-up message that said, "Thank you for submitting."

My apologies for not getting a screenshot.

"Stolas isn't wrong for choosing his own happiness for once after years of abuse and depression"

and

"Octavia isn't wrong for feeling betrayed by her father and fearing she's been only an obligation to him"

are two concepts that can and should coexist.

There are books now that are specifically used as status symbols: people use them to appear to be the person they want others to see them as.

Consumer culture has the distressing effect of enhancing the human tendency to convince oneself that one liked something, for the sake of conformity and peace of mind. People tell themselves that they liked what they were told they should like.

Reviewers often wind up with extreme biases for and against certain types of works, for similar reasons to the above. It's also not too crazy to consider there may be some corruption in the literary review community.

Marketing is now a powerful discipline with cutting-edge psychology behind it. When used by trained professionals instead of incompetent corporate outcasts, it can essentially function as mind control, even for the well-informed.

Also, "Nobody ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public."

TL; DR: Don't feel bad about hating something everyone else seemed to love. There are many reasons why terrible books can get good reviews. And your own opinion is still a valid opinion, even if it's contradictory.

the sense of horror when you finish a book that was Ass Bad and you go to see what fellow haters are saying but all the reviews say it is the best thing they've ever read. feel like i just saw my reflection in the mirror move all by itself or something

This is here because I can't post photos on the local message board. I'm trying to find the owner of these two kittens before the raccoons get them.

@strange-aeons

If I wrote a zombie apocalypse story, guns and ammo would be hard to come by, because all the gun nuts and survivalists and preppers looted them first thing, and hoarded them.

Most of the guns and ammo that remain are rusting away in the zombie-infested ruins of these people's compounds. Most of them made up their own little stories about where the zombies were coming from, and paid the price.