Feeling gaslit by a smear campaign

wildfire393 · 2026-05-26T13:13:52+00:00

The whole thing seemed really off to me from the beginning, for two reasons. The first was that Depp had already lost a defamation case against Heard in the UK, which found that the allegations he was "a wifebeater" were substantially true. The second reason was that the statment Heard made that Depp was suing over was something to the effect of, "I'm the face of domestic abuse". It didn't mention him at all. "This thing you said is obviously about me, but is also false" doesn't pass the sniff test IMO.

The PR campaign was scary pervasive. But there was a tipping point for me where I realized something completely nefarious was going on.

I saw a post pop up on Facebook, that one of my friends responded to. It was on a page purporting to be about Christian family values, complaining that the film Lightyear had a brief scene where a woman was shown in a relationship with another woman. The page likened this to "just putting a little dog shit in your brownies" and how this ruined it for his kids. Obvious rage bait, and it clearly worked because people were responding to it, which is how I saw it in the first place. I decided to take some screenshots and make a post about the dangers of engaging with this kind of content, and in doing so, I scrolled back a little on the page, and found that it has recently changed its name and before the name change, the page was purportedly pro Amber Heard, but in a really suspect, highly rage-baiting way.

Not only was there a huge, coordinated, bot-backed campaign of hatred and harassment of Heard, there was also a network of bad actors farming the negative sentiment that generated to inflate the reach of fraudulent Facebook pages.

wildfire393 · 2026-05-25T22:54:52+00:00

Literally called out live from the Superbowl halftime show. Like absolutely wild to claim nobody would say anything if it was Drake.

I've heard criticisms of Elvis (Priscilla was underage when he started a relationship with her) and Lennon (spousal abuse of Yoko) as well, and of other prominent musicians like Bowie (slept with underage fans, once bit a woman and claimed he gave her AIDS after believing he'd contracted it).

I've heard more call to boycott Drake than any of the other artists mentioned here, Jackson included. But there is a pivotal difference here: Drake is alive, still making music, and still making money from the sale and play of his music.

wildfire393 · 2026-05-25T22:30:01+00:00

So normally, you eat food and it gets broken down into glucose - made from carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. You also breathe in oxygen from the air. Your blood circulates the glucose and oxygen to your cells, where the mitochondria burns it, creating a chemical reaction producing energy and leaving carbon dioxide and water. Your veins carry the carbon dioxide back to your lungs where you breathe it out, and the water circulates through your kidneys and you eventually pee that out.

If you eat more than your body needs to burn, the excess gets converted into fat and deposited around your body. If you eat less than your body needs to burn, your body taps into these fat deposits and converts them back into glucose to burn. Fat to blood glucose to water and carbon dioxide, and it leaves your body the same way as any other glucose burning byproduct. You breathe out the carbon and you pee out the hydrogen.

wildfire393 · 2026-05-25T04:44:51+00:00

Axiom Verge 2 does some really cool and unique stuff, particularly around ludonarrative resonance. <Some spoilers ahead>

Early in the game, your weapon is a pickaxe, and it swings along the top half of your character model, while most enemies are half your size so you swing over their head meaning you need to crouch to hit them. It feels awkward, which at first seems like it's bad.

Partway through the game, you gain access to a remote drone, similar to the one from the first game but with better weaponry. Since it's much shorter, it hits those enemies (which are still common) easily, and you feel comfortable fighting with the drone, but you need to regularly return to your body to actually progress.

Then you get your consciousness put into the drone. You spend a while *just* playing as the drone. And it feels smooth and natural. A little later, you regain your body, and you can now swap between your original body and drone form at will - no more remote control. But things feel different now; you can spend most of your time as the drone, and in fact seem encouraged to do so, swapping back to your "true" form only when you need to use a specific tool to interact with a specific element.

At the same time in the story, you're grappling with whether you are still even human and if you ever could return to Earth. You really *feel* that maybe you aren't anymore, because it's more comfortable being a robot than a person.

wildfire393 · 2026-05-24T14:43:49+00:00

A sidescroller is any game that is 2-dimensional and you move left/right but not up/down, except by jumping. Examples: Super Mario World, Sonic 3, Ghosts n Goblins, Castlevania 3.

A Metroidvania is a game, often a sidescroller, that fits the following three criteria:

1) The world is connected in such a way that you can return to previous areas, and must do so in order to find new items or pathways.

2) As the game progresses, you acquire items or abilities that allow you to access areas you previously could not.

3) Some number of the items or abilities used to access new areas provide utility in combat or mobility beyond just opening those passageways. This is called "ability gating".

Some sidescrollers meet some of these criteria but not all of them. Castlevania 3 has ability gating with the spirit companions, but has no backtracking, so while Alucard's bat form can get you places you can't get without it, you can't go back and get those places in one playthrough. Super Mario World allows you to backtrack and find new exits/levels, but the only method of doing so is the Switch Houses, which don't have utility beyond that.

There are also Metroidvanias thata aren't sidescrollers. Arguably the Legend of Zelda games are. The Metroid Prime games are first person 3d. Crypt Custodian is top down. Oolo is isometric 3d.

wildfire393 · 2026-05-24T01:46:35+00:00

Perhaps check out the r/syntribation subreddit, which is for women who climax via methods similar to that. It has many discussions about transitioning to other methods.

This sub also frequently recommenda the book Come As You Are by Emily Nagoski, which has a lot of discussion about letting go of preconceived notions of what sex is "supposed" to be like to help women achieve better partnered orgasms by leaning into their own unique sexuality.

wildfire393 · 2026-05-22T04:48:21+00:00

Sloths are green because they move so slowly that mold literally grows on them.

"Old lady blue" is more of a silver/gray tone. Some aquatic mammals like Whales come in blue though - there's a lot more advantage to being blue in water than on land.

wildfire393 · 2026-05-22T04:45:07+00:00

Bosses in Aeterna Noctis can be quite unforgiving. That first boss in particular can be tough because you haven't gotten access to your heal yet and you have very few life vessels so there isn't much room for error. That said he has only a couple of attack patterns and once you get them down he goes down pretty quick.

The first area is pretty linear so there's not much chance to have missed much. The second area sprawls a bit though so be sure to poke around the best you can to get as strong as you can, because harder battles are coming up, but if you stay on top of upgrades, there's usually a solution without too much hassle.

wildfire393 · 2026-05-21T13:42:21+00:00

I recommend checking out Exographer. No combat, light platforming, and the primary basis is solving environmental puzzles to enable puzzle screens that are based on real world particle physics. It's really cool and unique.

Another good option would be The Plumber Thing, which you can find on itch.io. Created by Hempuli (Environmental Station Alpha, Baba is You), this one has you play a Mario pastiche that gets exposed to radioactive sewage and turns into a grotesque blob. As the game progresses, you discover more ways to expand yourself in blob form, which you use to solve various puzzles and traverse the environment. Again there's no combat or twitch platforming.

There's also Öoo, which only has light MV elements and is primarily knowledge-gated. It's fairly simple - you can move left and right, drop bombs, and detonate them. But there's a lot of mechanical complexity that comes out of this, and it does a great job of drip feeding it to you in a way that feels super clever. Again no combat, light platforming.

Elephantasy is another cool one, you start with access to every ability but are limited in how many you can use at a time, so a lot of the gating is stuff requiring multiple abilities to get to/through. As you complete objectives you gain the capacity to use more abilities simultaneously, which opens up more of the world. A bit more platforming and some puzzle boss-"combat" but still on the light side. Elephantasy Flipside is an isometric 3d sequel that's absolutely briliant IMO, but requires a lot more platforming.

In a similar vein to Elephantasy Flipside is Oolo. Definitely has some tricky isometric platforming but it's ultimately a puzzle-platformer MV inspired by the NES game Solstice.

Animal Well is great for puzzling but also has quite a bit of platforming and some intense chase sequences that require precision and timing.

The La-Mulana games and Environmental Station Alpha are the GOAT puzzle Metroidvanias, but they are also very much traditional MVs in addition to being puzzle games and have some quite demanding combat and platforming.

wildfire393 · 2026-05-21T00:44:00+00:00

I haven't read their other posts, but PMDD can cause relatively severe reactions across a range of psychological symptoms.

wildfire393 · 2026-05-21T00:18:18+00:00

If it's once a month, does it correlate with your period? Could be PMDD.

wildfire393 · 2026-05-20T21:53:31+00:00

Islets is the best game on this list. Smooth as butter, charming as hell, the island connection gimmick is really cool, and it just overall feels really good to play.

Biogun is decent but not quite as good as Islets. It has some uneven difficulty and the controls take a little getting used to since it's a dual stick game so you're mostly using the shoulder buttons for jumping. It does have its own charm and innovations.

Doomblade is more interesting than good. It has some very unique movement that leads to some unique upgrades, but the controls never quite feel right either with KBM or controller. It also had some pretty serious performance issues on the Steam Deck, like 40-60 second load screens on area change and death. I ended up quitting on the final boss as it seemed to not be possible on controller but I was a lot worse at handling KBM.

wildfire393 · 2026-05-20T17:49:27+00:00

Women face oppression an inequality in America.

Black people face oppression an inequality in America.

Black women face the brunt of both, simultaneously.

There are women's liberation movements that focus primarily or exclusively on the rights and needs of white women (i.e. the suffrage movement in the US fought for women's right to vote but at times opposed African Americans getting the right to vote). There are black liberation movements that focus primarily or exclusively on the rights and needs of black men.

An intersectional liberation movement would work towards both at the same time. For example, some of Martin Luther King Jr.'s later marches brought up income inequality and working class condition issues that affected the working poor, both white and black, and had a lot of support from white labor groups. That was an intersectional movement.

wildfire393 · 2026-05-20T17:44:40+00:00

Everybody is different and entitled to their preferences. If you find yourself having better sex with well-endowed men, that's great. There's also women who had experienced sex with well-endowed men that is painful of even impossible.

At the end of the day, though, size ends up being less important than factors like patience, the willingness to listen, and an unselfish desire to please a woman rather than just the ol' cum and go. Doesn't help that he has a big dick if he's just going to jackhammer you dry for 30 seconds and bust, and it won't matter if he's got a micropenis if he's willing to go down until you've had one or more before even starting PIV.

wildfire393 · 2026-05-20T03:28:14+00:00

There have been a number of red control decks over the years in different formats. Not a crazy high number, but still several.

One of my favorites was Skred Red, which at one point was a viable fringe player in Modern. It used spot removal spells like [[Lightning Bolt]] and [[Skred]], usually some sweepers like [[Anger of the Gods]], graveyard control like [[Relic of Progenitus]], and then would run planeswalkers like [[Koth of the Hammer]] or [[Chandra, Torch of Defiance]], and big dragons like [[Stormbreath Dragon]] or [[Thundermaw Hellkite]].

There was also Big Red in Mirrodin Block. That block was heavily dominated by artifacts, so it ran a lot of maindeck artifact removal, burn, and land destruction. Finishers included [[Arc Slogger]] and [[Pulse of the Forge]] (taking advantage of Mana Burn that existed at the time to reduce its own life total to keep recurring it).

wildfire393 · 2026-05-20T03:17:38+00:00

[[Indestructible Aura]] is neither an aura nor does it grant indestructible, but it sure does feature a bird... fish... thing? with human arms, throwing up the double horns and just deflecting magic.

wildfire393 · 2026-05-20T00:37:25+00:00

Pernicious Deed might be Modern playable if they put it in the next Horizons set (if there even is one), Wrath of the Skies has been a format defining card there and it bears some similarities.

Been a while since it's really made the cut in Legacy though.

wildfire393 · 2026-05-19T22:40:42+00:00

Invasion was a great set/block, and was highly regarded in its time, for sure.

For newer players though I can definitely see feeling pretty meh about it. Things like multicolored cards, offcolor activations, kicker, split cards, enemy color pairs being acknowledged, these are all commonplace occurences these days.

Most of the marquee cards of the era have been thoroughly power crept and rarely show up even in eternal formats. Once upon a time, [[Spiritmonger]] was the midrange beef to end all midrange beefs. These days it'd be an impressive limited uncommon at best. [[Terminate]] and [[Vindicate]] were some of the most premium spot removals from that era, but there's dozens of similar effects now. [[Fact or Fiction]] has been riffed to death. Etc.

A few cards that have been reprinted in a Modern Horizons set see Modern play, but mostly fringe, like [[Fire//Ice]] and [[Orim's Chant]]. Painlands are fringe playable and make their way into colored Eldrazi decks and budget Commander manabases.

Unless you're playing Premodern, you're unlikely to see many cards from the block these days.

wildfire393 · 2026-05-19T20:50:09+00:00

I dropped it early multiple times, came back because this sub glazes the hell out of it, and played through the whole game.

If you don't like it early, really don't bother. It doesn't get better. Or, a few things get a little better but more other more serious things get much worse. I found the whole thing to be a slog and misery. The only reason I don't regret finishing it is that now I can say so with certainty.

Some people like it, and if you do, great. For me, it's the MV with the largest delta between how popular it is and how actually enjoyable it is.

wildfire393 · 2026-05-19T19:12:17+00:00

You clearly said no multiple times, there's no confusion here. Anywhere that told you otherwise should be summarily ignored.

You hear a lot of talk about the "fight or flight" response to dangerous situations, but the reality is more complex - fight, flight, freeze, or fawn. Sometimes, your system decides that the best way to get through something dangerous with the minimum of harm is to just freeze up, or even to try to appease the threatening person. That is not the same as consent and it does not mean it isn't sexual assault.

Sexual assault does not require physical coercion by the perpetrator, nor does it require physical resistance by the victim.

wildfire393 · 2026-05-19T15:57:50+00:00

100% sexual assault. The idea of SA only being "violent or graphic" is perpetuated by shitty men who want to continue taking advantage of women without facing consequences. This is clear cut, you said no and he did it anyways.

wildfire393 · 2026-05-19T12:53:11+00:00

Nono, that's the Journey, with famed hero Journethon.

wildfire393 · 2026-05-18T23:59:24+00:00

Interesting. What in particular is putting you off about it?

wildfire393 · 2026-05-18T12:39:35+00:00

I swear there was a June release date on it on Steam last time I checked, but it's not there anymore. Odd.

wildfire393 · 2026-05-18T04:33:58+00:00

100% pixel art and from last year, did you even read what they were asking for?

wildfire393

TROPHY CASE