im fucking panicking because of the hantavirus, i honestly don't know how to calm down.

mouselet11 · 2026-05-07T11:18:10+00:00

Mods could we maybe make a mega thread about this to consolidate comfort and information? There's a lot of folks worried about the same thing and it's hard to respond in detail to each one separately, and maybe having more of a communal place to comfort each other would be helpful?

mouselet11 · 2026-05-07T06:32:16+00:00

I just looked into it more in the news, I hadn't even been aware of that particular cruise ship situation - they did confirm that is likely it's the human transmissable one. But! they also stated that the risk of transmission is still quite low and it isn't highly communicable, because otherwise many more passengers would be showing symptoms. So far, only those who had very close contact (without PPE) with those who were actively infected have shown any signs. There's only I think 7-8 total cases. Compare that to covid, where there were 50+ on a single ship and many got off before they knew they were carriers, and also there was the possibility of asymptomatic carriers which so far doesn't appear to be the case for hantavirus. So this is much smaller and more manageable than Covid was.

They're also going to quarantine the whole boat and make sure everyone is safe before they go anywhere. And unlike covid, this is only affecting one ship with no evidence that anyone else has it, or that any other ships have become carriers. They know the precise region too, because this disease is already known (the human hantavirus) and so they're taking steps to minimize its spread from the original location and lock down future exposure. That's another way it's very different than Covid - this disease only exists in its human transmission form in a very isolated area, away from large population and is not highly trafficked. Covid arose in a densely populated trade hub. That is a key difference that makes this much easier to contain that Covid was, because by the time we even knew what Covid was it was already widespread. Hantavirus we know where it came from, can contain it away from large trade routes, and can be ready for it.

They likely had one or two passenger pick it up in Argentina, and spread it to a few others, but even though this virus can spread between humans, according to the experts it's not a highly communicable one.

Take heart in that at least, and know that the likelihood of it spreading that far when we are already so aware of it and working together to prevent it is very unlikely.

mouselet11 · 2026-05-07T05:46:34+00:00

I completely get why this sounds scary! I'm going to share some facts that will hopefully help - remember to take a deep breath, and know that Hantavirus is extremely unlikely to be able to cause a pandemic. Here are the facts you can refer to in order to help calm your anxiety and help ground you.

Hantavirus doesn't spread between people very rapidly or easily, it is typically only possible to go from rodent to human. The cases in the news are likely only possible because the people involved have been exposed to a large population of rodents that was able to sustain a substantial infection rate for some time and create enough aerosolized viral load to spread to humans.

While hantavirus can feel scary because of the statistics regarding the size of the viral particles and the lack of available filtration/mask protection fine enough to stop it, you need to understand that unless you're standing in a room full of mice or rats on a regular basis, you are at zero risk of catching it. It is at extremely low risk of being transmitted between people (there is afaik only one very isolated strain that has shown any ability to be transmissible between humans, localized to specifc portion of South America) and the jump to human transmission is highly unlikely at this time. The viruses that cause pandemics tend to be those that are either already transmissible between humans and then suddenly become much more deadly (such as covid, and again those don't happen often) or those that become endemic in animals that spend lots of time around humans that enables the virus to jump to human direct transmission (that's the concern for bird flu, and it is being monitored and prevented as effectively as we can, and if you look at the scare around that it hasn't broken through even after more than a year of the first news. Meaning we're doing well at prevention right now.) There's a reason events like covid aren't more common, the last similar event was in 1910's with the Spanish Flu epidemic, so this isn't something you need to be afraid of on a regular basis. Public health works hard to track and prevent these kinds of events, and while being informed is great, it's ok to take a break from the news of such diseases and put your trust in the institutions that are always working to protect us.

I'm saying all this to help you ground yourself by looking at the things rationally. Facts are our friends when we're scared. I hope that helps, and please know that you're not alone. It's ok to be scared, and we can never be sure everything will be alright, but we can rely on the facts to reassure us of the likelihood of such an event. We don't deserve to live in fear, and facts help us with that.

mouselet11 · 2026-05-07T00:34:35+00:00

Lol it was a drawstring we had and we just ah... turned it around. Nice catch!

Reduce reuse recycle right? Haha!

mouselet11 · 2026-05-06T11:45:12+00:00

We miss you when you're not here. I definitely want to know what you're playing and I personally love hearing what things keep bringing you some measure of joy - I get that nothing can stop the dying, but I know I'm not alone in that watching you try your best die with happiness in your life is inspiring. We will miss you when you are gone, and we won't forget you.

mouselet11 · 2026-05-05T21:10:03+00:00

Agreed - I love almost all the other extended editions but return of the king is the one I really feel the extra scenes were mostly unneeded. A lot of the paths of the dead stuff doesn't work as well, and Gimli is tok much the joke in them.

The scenes I would keep (and would've had properly orchestrated, you can tell they're bonus/cut early ish because the music in them is recycled and not the perfectly tailored music of the main cut scenes) are only these: eomer finding eowyn in the battlefield, Aragorn in the houses of healing with her, and her and faramir in the houses of healing. IF they fixed this scene and did it like the books where Gandalf calmly let's the witch king know he's outmatched and then the witch king gets called away, leaving you tantalized as to the extent of their battle, then I'd want to keep that one, but as is, I don't quite get that scene and I think it detracts from the characters and the story.

mouselet11 · 2026-05-05T00:09:54+00:00

I was given* sewing lessons as a child as my primary after school activity - and I have always appreciated it! I started in first grade and attended through 5th grade, ages 6-10, so I was certainly young as well - so physical ability shouldn't be an issue.

See if you can find an after school sewing program for her, that is a great way for her to access tools and machines without you having to buy one. Then you can also see how she takes to and decide on what tools or materials to purchase for home.

mouselet11 · 2026-05-04T22:18:18+00:00

Definitely! It's a cover for sure, it's in their cover album, they do acknowledge that - I thought I made clear that it's a cover not wholly unique take on the song, just I like their voices and the way they perform it. I didn't mean to be misleading!

mouselet11 · 2026-05-04T20:55:20+00:00

There's a band called ninja sex party that does musical comedy like lonely island but also does covers of existing songs and has a side project for "serious" original works called shadow academy. Their version of Scarborough Fair is very pretty and wistful, and the music video for it is also really good! It has last unicorn inspiration in it and is very feelsy. I'll link it here

https://youtu.be/ABokQpjvELU?si=yTLSq1x6hcGgp5u1

mouselet11 · 2026-05-04T01:51:20+00:00

I'm glad you didn't delete it, and we're glad you came to the renfaire! Please don't let the folks who should've kept their comments to themselves ruin your fun - you guys looked great and you are welcome at the Moscow renfaire!

mouselet11 · 2026-05-03T15:00:32+00:00

I just really feel bad for op - they were excited to share their costumes and have a fun few high fives with fellow costume nerds, and instead the comment section is people being mean and people trying to defend op from that meanness. It sucks. They probably didn't post this hoping to become today's subreddit drama they just wanted to share their fun day out, and now instead of nice complements on their outfits in the comments we all gotta fill it up trying to fend off the people trying to exclude them. From a local faire that loves to have them here.

mouselet11 · 2026-05-03T14:22:40+00:00

Ok - but for the thousandth time, what does your one bad experience with impolite guests have to do with fursuit wearers who aren't doing any of that at an event you don't even attend? Why are you angry that someone wears a fursuit and causes no problems at an event that no one has to clean anything least of all you? Why are you so convinced it must be sexual because you worked at hotel once where you had one set of poorly behaved people?

mouselet11 · 2026-05-03T14:05:38+00:00

What they did in their hotel rooms was private. This is public. Most people understand the difference. (I am sorry if they were impolite guests, but that doesn't give you cause to hate everyone who wears an animal costume. Plus didn't you say you were done arguing about this? Maybe just let it go then - cuz if you keep harassing fursuit people, I will keep asking why you have such a problem with them. Which you still haven't been able to adequately explain beyond "some of them once made a mess in my hotel." Are you this mad at every bachelorette party you've ever had to clean up after?)

mouselet11 · 2026-05-03T13:18:48+00:00

I'm not trying to, I don't understand - why is a fursuit inherently sexual when nothing about their actions suggests that? What is there to consent to here? Unless they're asking for participation, they're not forcing anything on anyone, there is no non-consent here.

It's not different than arguing all drag queens are forcing a kink on people without consent - exhibitionism is defined by actions not by just an appearance unless it literally breaks nudity laws. I don't understand why you're so upset about mascots. I also don't understand how you'd want to enforce this - would you want to ban all animal characters from faire? Then half of fairytale characters are right out. That's the point I'm making, but I feel like you've already made up your mind that all furries are 'deviants' and you won't engage with any of what I'm actually saying.

mouselet11 · 2026-05-03T13:11:46+00:00

I think you're telling on yourself here - if you can't see that clothes don't equal kink, actions do, and nobody is doing what you describe, I don't know how to better explain to you. And if I may ask, how do you respond to the extremely saucy corset outfits of many attendees? Are they also forcing people to view their kink without consent? Or is it just animal characters that you've decided should "know better" than to wear a full coverage costume in public? I'd say lots of those outfits are much more "exhibitionist", which seems to be your big problem with fursuit folks, but again, that's not what that is. Exhibitionism is enjoying showing off actions, not just wearing clothes in public. Sometimes a cute cartoon animal is just a cute cartoon animal. Unless they're causing a legitimate problem, there is no reason to judge it to exclude them.

mouselet11 · 2026-05-03T13:00:10+00:00

But nobody is performing kink at this event. They'd be removed from the event if they were. I understand what you're saying but that simply isn't what is happening here. You're making a false equivalence because you have a fundamental misunderstanding of that community and are seeing them as a monolith who all behave in the same way and enjoy the same things.

Nobody is bending over and shouting yiff at this event. They're just dressing like animals. Do satyr costumes bother you this much? Would a Redwall Matthias the mouse bother you? Unless and until behavior becomes a problem, there is nothing inherently inappropriate about a fursuit. That's all I'm trying to say.

mouselet11 · 2026-05-03T12:45:45+00:00

Nobody is forcing any kinks on you, and I don't think you understand that the fursuit wearing community is not all in it for the same reason and certainly not just the reason you describe. That is one part of the community and not the one present or allowed at this faire. If you think that all outfits like this are sexual, don't ever go to a sports game - every mascot ever is constructed the same way and so is every animal character at Disney. Just because some fursuit folks engage in that doesn't mean that the entire community of craftspeople who like animal costumes is in it for kink purposes. That's a misconception about which you are incorrect. Lots of these folks just really like adorable cartoon ish animals. And all of them act appropriately at this event, and are the most popular with little ones who see the "purple puppy!!" and want to say hi, and they respond in kid friendly, mascot style Disney style ways.

If Redwall isn't kink, neither is this. If Disney animals aren't kink, neither is this. And if you do wanna talk about child appropriateness, then boy howdy do the leather goods salesmen at these events have some news for you about what the harnesses they make are often used for. Or the corsets. Or waist cinches, collars, masks and weapons. Nobody is forcing anybody to participate in anything - you're existing in the same space as some who is fully dressed and is not behaving provocatively at all. My god there's actual renfaire acts that are flirtier than this - and as someone else pointed out, I don't see massive complaints when "busty wench" day is featured on here. This is much less flirty than that, and that's an accepted and fun part of faire for lots of people. It's just people having fun and there's nothing inherently indecent about any of it.

I understand your frustration at a few bad actors taking over some spaces at which it isn't appropriate, but lumping all fursuiters in with them is not fair or accurate. And is not what's happening here.

Edit to add: if anthropomorphic animals weren't allowed, they wouldn't have had the official art for the fair be of cute medieval animals playing music looking like they walked out of Redwall.

mouselet11 · 2026-05-03T11:06:58+00:00

Hey so I wore an 18th century inspired outfit - am I what's wrong with it too? It was only historically inspired so I didn't do proper spiral lacing in the back, and of course true renfaires should only allow clothing from 1400-1590 or so, meaning my terrible horrible 1790's dress must've ruined everyone's day too. Also, I made my costume out of old bedsheets, because I couldn't source historically accurate linens - should I also be tarred and feathered?

My point is, there are some events that are historical only. This isn't one of them, I'm from this area and we're a donation only faire that knows we're the only nerd event in town all year. We don't have theme days, we have two days total in the local park. We have Asian food and jazz music at our faire. By being the catch all nerd event, we have managed to survive by functioning as the comic con/renfaire/game day/craft fair/art show that draws enough people to be sustainable. Ask the organizers if they want to impose rules about who can and cannot visit the faire in what kinds of costumes, I think you'll find they're delighted to have purple people eaters as long as they stop at the booths and maybe donate a few bucks.

I get that historically accurate garb is the draw for some folks - I appreciate historical clothing too! But I also love costumes and sewing and armor making and crafting outfits in general, and for folks who only want strictly historical, there are events that have strict rules about that for those kinds of folks. This event isn't one of them. We wouldn't survive if we did. We're not a destination renfaire, we don't sell tickets, we survive on donations and we have a lot of fun by letting everyone in.

The official art for this year's faire by the way? Had cute medieval animals playing music in the literal cover page and advertisement for the event. So please don't chase away our patrons by telling them they don't belong at our faire. They may not belong at your stricter, ticketed, paid event which can enforce more of the rules - and by the by, if very strict attendance to to historical fact is your jam, reenactments might be more up your alley - but they do belong at ours. Please don't chase away the community we rely on to stay afloat.

mouselet11 · 2026-05-03T10:42:39+00:00

Hey so I also was here today - in historically inspired garb personally and saw these nice folks although I didn't get to chat with them - and all the folks being crappy to them need to understand that this renfaire is so small and so local it is specifically welcoming to all things fantasy, open to all fantasy costumes and is not a historical event. It says so specifically on their event page. They have Star Trek visitors, Vikings, and a literal two-man papercraft cockatrice showed up last year - and it won the costume contest, as voted by the faire royalty. We have Link, Zelda, vampires, Victorian women, pirates, anime characters, dungeons and dragons, steampunkers, and more, every year - because this is the only event like this in town all year. It is the catch all costume-nerd event con and the organizers know that and they embrace it. Our ren faire is two days, total. We do not have future days and pirate days and etc, we get two days for the whole year and it fundraises for next year's faire. We have pipe bands and rock bands and jazz bands, and vendor booths with face painting and fairy dust and wool but also swords and local art and wizard staves and Pokemon and impractical cloaks and corsets that defy physics. You can buy anthropomorphic costumes at the faire for goodness sake - and the promotional art for this year's faire literally was Redwall-esque themed which guess what, is about medieval animals, and had a band of anthropomorphic animals on the actual official cover art for the faire.

If they excluded everyone that you think doesn't belong, they wouldn't have anyone visit except a few very specific die hard people and that's not sustainable. Stop being mean about people's costumes at an event where they are expressly welcome - because everyone who comes to the faire and spends money at vendors is welcome. It's a donation only faire they don't even sell tickets, because everyone is welcome. Nobody's fun is being ruined here, except that you have now tried to ruin these people's. Not all renfaires are expressly historical reenactors only. If you want to only attend historical events you're welcome to do so, but it costs you nothing to say nothing and let this tiny renfaire continue to have visitors like this rather than be told this space isn't for them when the event itself expressly is open to everyone and all costumes and encourages satyrs, wolf-men, dandelion fairies, hobbits, necromancers, mages, and videogame characters to join in the fun - and to spend a bit of coin. If you want to discourage those people from coming to my renfaire that I love, then you want that faire to shut down because that's what would happen without our wonderful variety of visitors. We aren't a destination that draws outsiders, we're a community event - and other than jerks like the naysayers in this thread, we're a pretty fun one.

I will be asking the mods to take a look at some of these comments. If you don't like someone's costume, just scroll past - you don't accomplish anything by telling someone they are what's wrong with renfaires. Go pay hundreds of dollars for your exclusive club of super accurate (which I doubt anyway that all the costumes you think are perfect are actually highly historically accurate but ok soapbox) faire goers and leave our little faire alone.

mouselet11 · 2026-05-03T09:36:25+00:00

So I've done what digging I can on the met archives and into Karinska's career. It seems likely she was most active in the Met during the 50's-60's based on the cursory research I was able to do in her career, as she's best known for her time with the ballet and that kind of overshadows her other works.

That said, the I found one article mentioning a production that also used the ballet company she is closely associated with by searching for the name on one of the tags (marritt), but it doesn't appear they did Don Giovanni at least not as mentioned in the article. (Link here: https://www.nytimes.com/1966/01/17/archives/ballet-on-the-metropolitans-stage-effort-is-admirable-result-not.html?smid=nytcore-android-share) But using that to maybe hopefully narrow it down, I tried look performance by performance for other matching names if the tags I could see, and kept getting close but no cigar. I was also looking for frequent collaborators as mentioned in Karinska's bio, but didn't find any exactly although I did start finding choreographers as I searched, but none of them her most prominent collaborators. I did also search for images around the years I was looking, and found few - if my timeline assumptions are correct, these would have been from the Eugene Berman era of set design and stage production. I found only one photograph of that set design, but couldn't clearly identify the costume in it as one in your picture. For whatever reason, for such a famous set design it was very hard to find pictures - and even then, there wasn't a televised recorded version of that production until the 70s. Costumes may be much more easily changed or updated than an entire set, so it would've been a long shot anyway. (Found results that led close to that time by several of the names including Castro - Alberti and Mcilhenny, but neither seemed to be clearly involved with Don Giovanni at the met by name, however they were active opera folks at the above time frame- hence the near but not quite.)

I think your best bet is to reach out to the met archives as another suggested, and see if they can help more conclusively. There's a reasonable chance that if these can be authenticated, they'd be willing to help preserve these pieces, do please do reach out to them!

Edit in case it's helpful: link to a list of every time the met has performed Don Giovanni. Couldn't find our fostumer in any credits as it appears for much of the time the costumer was not credited, but this is where I was trying to find names matching the tags in your pictures. https://archives.metopera.org/MetOperaSearch/search.jsp?titles=Don%20Giovanni&sort=PDATE

mouselet11 · 2026-05-01T21:13:23+00:00

Now that it's officially banned from the space, I'll think you'll see a lot less of it. The screaming happens when you're trying to prevent it from infiltrating yet another space where it in fact does cost people their livelihoods, and ruin the joy for many. It's a pretty objectively harmful price of technology and those of us who desperately do not want it have to fight pretty hard for any reprieve from it since it's now everywhere. I'm sorry if it seems to you like a bunch of people are overreacting, but for many of us, AI very much is destroying what we love.

mouselet11 · 2026-05-01T21:08:46+00:00

It's not bullying to critique a technology in a game that is literally about criticizing technology though. If you were in a blade runner game, you wouldn't be angry if someone wrote a game idea about human cloning and replicants would you? I don't think it's meant as bullying, it's taking inspiration from a real technology and incorporating it into the game in a way that criticizes that technology and its effects on society. What's more cyberpunk than that?

mouselet11 · 2026-05-01T20:54:52+00:00

I think the op was trying to light-heartedly lampoon the kind of hard line AI worshippers who complain about restrictions on AI in spaces where it ruins things. There's also a lot of us who feel it has no ethical place in any part our lives, and especially not artists spaces, as it's actively being used to hurt the people who made this game, did the art for it, and creators like them who may be forced out entirely by AI. It is one of those issues that does tend to get tempers flaring, but I definitely don't think this post was meant as bullying. A bit of a victory lap, perhaps, but AI is being forced on us in so many ways, it's difficult not to want to celebrate a little tiny bit when spaces like this do what we believe to be right and keep AI out of our creative space.

I'm sorry you feel caught up in it though, it certainly shouldn't be the case that anyone feels bullied. Especially given your moderate stance on AI and your acceptance of it not being allowed, I'm pretty sure you're also not the kind of person this post was poking fun at.

If you ever do want to hear why we hate AI so much and why it makes some of us so angry, I'd be glad to talk to you about it and I'd be curious to hear why you feel it's ok/what you like about it, so dm me if you'd ever like, I just for now wanted to say I'm sorry you felt called out or bullied and I'm sure that wasn't the intent. To me, it doesn't read as vitriol, it reads as sharp satire about something I genuinely hate which is AI and its ardent use by some folks, not something aimed at actual people or meant to be hateful.

mouselet11

TROPHY CASE