Gen Z Has To Reckon With Its Radicalization Problem. You Are Not A Morally Pure And Superior Generation

So if you're in the UK you have probably heard about the proposed changes to disability benefits. If not, here is a BBC News article (link) about it, and the Big Issue (link) have been running basically non-stop articles about it since the announcement.

Crucially, the government is holding a consultation. Will as many of us as possible weighing in change the outcome? Possibly, though it's far from guaranteed. Will not filling it in help the situation in the slightest? No. So let's all have a go.

You can find the full Green Paper here: (link) and the options to respond are at the bottom of it, including the link to respond online, which is also here: (link)

It's also always worth contacting your MP to let them know what you think, if only to get a response on fancy Commons stationery. You can find your MP here: (link)

So, have at it, UK folks! (These proposals don't apply to Northern Ireland as benefits are transferred, but they are still taking NI comments and sharing them with the Department for Communities, so you may be able to influence whether this approach is taken up in NI in future, too)

And if nothing else, please reblog!

Ladies and gentlemen, D.M. again.

Probably the best TRAOD review I’ve ever read. I can’t resist to highlight some awesome bits.

“I cannot for the life of me understand those who felt Core’s Lara had no depth or motivation, especially compared to the wangsty, ham-and-cheese sandwhich Lara of Crystal Dynamics. Jonel Elliot has her limitations, of course, but there is more humanity expressed in the way Lara touches Kurtis after he’s been knocked into the pit with her than there is in Keeley Hawes shouting “WHERE! IS! MY! MOTHER!?” or “No, no, no, my mother’s dead. My mother died a long time ago. You’re not my mother.“ 

“And I loved the interplay between Lara and Kurtis. I understand some people hated it, either because Kurtis has sucky control, because he got grope Lara in the Louvre, or because they object to the notion that Lara could ever have a man play an important role in her life, or that she could age. Just look at her expression when Kurtis disarms her and steals the Obscura painting–say what you want about how ‘mature’ the scene is, but the fact remains that it’s presented to us from Lara’s point of view. She’s ****ed because he stole the painting, but perhaps as much because he didn’t finish what he started. He’s on the same playing field. When he backs away, she’s almost looking at him as if to say, “Now what? You started this.” I think she expresses this when she takes her “revenge” by disarming and searching Kurtis later in the game, though less suggestively. This is the only TR game I’ve seen/played that acknowledges Lara’s sexuality in the sense that she actually reacts to something rather than simply being made the enticing object of our oggling from atop an unreachable pillar. That makes her more human than giving her a wangsty past. Profoundly more so. Just watch her body language during all the scenes in which she interacts with Kurtis. It’s fascinating. “

Agree or disagree with me all you like, but I found their chemistry to be more convincing than the chemistry between Lara and Alex West in the first Tomb Raider movie, and more convincing than chemistry between Lara and Terry Sheridan in the second. Why did it work for me? There was no obligatory banter, flirting, or arguments one would expect. Kurtis very much inhabits Lara’s world, and is just as internally driven as she is. I would have disliked Kurtis if he were a macho stereotype or a braggart (which is why that image of Duke Nukem cupping Lara’s breasts makes me ill, and so do all suggestions that she and Larson had chemistry as well), but instead, he’s a kindred spirit, caught up in the same struggle against the same enemy as Lara, and about as close to a soul mate as she has ever had. Or at least, potentially. Their connection seems to stem, not from something as arbitrary as the attraction of opposites, but something as deep as the symmetry of souls. Once the guns are holstered (and perhaps before), they have an instinctive understanding of each other, and I thought that was fantastic. Kurtis Trent is far and away the best sidekick Lara has ever had, IMHO.”

“Though the game doesn’t make a point of this, Lara is perhaps more invested in Kurtis than she knows, because later on, she does something I have never seen her do once in six games: She forefits the macguffin she has just retrieved for the life of another person. And almost seconds later Kurtis does something similar: He forefits his chance for revenge/justice (and possibly, his life) for the sake of helping Lara. Again, no questions are asked, because the two understand each other.”

Now I’m crawling to a corner to cry and die.

[ Crystal Shaman ] - Tribal Ambient Music - Meditation, Focus and Harmony

After a long hiatus, I’m finally getting back to the writing mindset to continue AoD’s story. Wish me luck! xx 

A few loading screens that I made) I hope you enjoyed it - I, like the whole team, did my best to keep the mood of the original and give it a new lease of life)

This isn't really a question, but I just finished reading all of both of the books of your Tomb Raider: Angel Of Darkness series plus the other stuff on the website, and it's genuinely amazing and some of the most amazing things I've ever read, I'm extremely excited for the third book!:D

Thank you! That's extremely kind of you to say <3 I hope you enjoy the final book when it's finished :-D xxxxxx

So yesterday I started playing the remasters starting with Tomb Raider 1 and this popped up...

"The games in this collection contain offensive depictions of people and cultures rooted in racial and ethnic prejudices. These stereotypes are deeply harmful, inexcusable, and do not align with our values at Crystal Dynamics."

“Rather than removing this content, we have chosen to present it here in its original form, unaltered, in the hopes that we may acknowledge its harmful impact and learn from it.”

Honestly, I don't understand what's wrong with the originals, what's so prejudiced and harmful? Like that's so disrespectful to Core! Why does Crystal Dynamics have to put their two cents in on a project they didn't even make at first!? 😞

It is a general disclaimer for those former products which contain some details that didn't age well, or can be called out, and rightly so, nowadays. As much as we love the classics, everyone knows that what Lara basically does in her travels is to steal cultural and historic heritage from other cultures and civilizations and take them to the First World without consulting the political/intellectual authorities of the countries she travels to.

Most of time she's not that covetous of the artifact itself but of the thrill of getting it, that's why lots of times she just gives it away to museums or renounces to achieving it if the cost is too high and the consequences too terrible.

And there's the detail of having to kill the local habitants of these places most of times - even if in self-defense - to achieve it, so you add murder to the fact of robbing.

I think this is what this disclaimer is addressing. And for once, it's OK. That is what Tomb Raider was in the 90s. Today I'm sure it would be addressed differently, though I don't see many differences with the present reboot - Laraboot's manor is still full of plundered artifacts, even if coming from her father, or am I wrong?

Anyway, disclaimers are fine. Better than to alter the original product, which is what they've done til yet. But let's not allow this wander away from what is: acknowledging the original saga's shortcomings is not cancelling the whole product. And frankly I don't think Crystal either is having the high ground here anyway. I saw more horrid colonialist shit in LAU trilogy as well.

Hello! Ao3 has been part of an unauthorized data scrape for GenAI purposes. If your fic has an ID number between 1 and 63200000, it may be a part of the data set and you can file a DMCA copyright infringement notice on the American sites it was uploaded to. Each of you will need to request a takedown.

Here’s a link to the information.

It is a reddit link, but it has the other links you’ll need in one place.

(Tagging with as many medias as I can remember so it gets to more fandoms)

First time public speaking!

I did a thing 👋 Check it out if you're interested in writing, videogames, novels, stories, or just want to see me doing public speaking for the first time 😆

Yo i have some open slots for headshots portraits (again) so hmu here on via my email if you want a spot :) anastasia.ershova.artist@gmail.com

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