When Ur Mutuals W/ Some Cool Ass People Rb If U Agree

stop playing it cool, just be passionate and intense and insane and whoever sticks around is meant for you

Jaheira ✧ Baldur’s Gate 3

getting my yearning surgically removed tomorrow

Not a gaming post; I just love H. neanderthalensis more than anything. I’d like to think there was a functional purpose for their occipital bun such as supporting their thick shoulder and neck muscles for spear and atlatl throwing. But what do I know?

The thing is that the portrayal of Neanderthals as having been inherently grotesque and alien to H. sapiens is something we will never have proof of. But we do have proof that, in different locations and in different populations across time, we all found eachother desirable. We saw eachother and wanted to touch. And the offspring were held by their mothers and raised and had their own offspring in turn.

When you look for the first proof that H. sapiens found Neanderthals repulsive, you have to wait until the Victorian era, when the white masters of empires were busy portraying Neanderthals as stupid, brutish, and (of course) dark-skinned.

In more modern times, we’ve had people arguing that instead of seeing Neanderthals as Benighted Savages, they should instead be seen as Noble Savages, (allegedly) cruelly destroyed and driven from their lands by H. sapiens. Which one of their two you believe says more about your modern political views than it does about ancient H. sapiens.

And, whether we construct Neanderthals as Savage or Noble Savage, the fundamental assumption we project into the unfathomably distant past is still that H. sapiens saw Neanderthals as an Other, with the language we use being almost explicitly that of modern racial dynamics.

But we have no proof of any of that. We have no proof of hostilities. We know we co-existed and we had sex. That’s it.

Humans obviously have sex with some humans and kill others. We also know that, when small groups of humans occupy vast spaces with infrequent contact with others, unique cultures will always form, some more hospitable, some more neophobic/xenophobic. But many cultures of small settlements placed among huge unpeopled landscapes place supreme emphasis on hospitality to strangers. Plus, we fucking love other social animals, as evidenced by how we befriended wolves.

I’m a humourless weirdo and a wet blanket about popular constructions of Neanderthals as “monstrous”, and I freely admit it. But that’s because it’s tied up in legacies of imperialism. Not only that, but it also privileges one culture (yours, mine, modernity’s) as being most human by implicitly assuming we can project it onto people in the past. Since you don’t pretend that all global cultures share exact same values as you do, it doesn’t take more than a few moments’ reflection to realise you can’t do that to the past.

"Did You Miss Me?"

It was one month since the battle of Baldur's Gate, one month since everything. Kethric Thorm lay dead at last, Orin and Gortash were defeated and the crown of karsus lay lost in the Chionthar.

Jaheira still wasn't used to it, being back in the city after so long away. Even before the battle, she'd been camping out in The Elfsong with that merry band of adventurers. She'd grown accustomed to their noise despite not being with them for long. That warm feeling of being part of an adventuring party once more. They were all gone now, back to whatever lives they'd lived before the nautiloid or carving out new ones: Gale back in Waterdeep, Shadowheart searching for a home with her parents and Lae’zel, Astarion doing some sort of vigilante work within the city (she'd met up with him a few times) and Minthara, Wyll and Karlach back in Avernus. Jaheira almost wasn't used to the silence. Maybe that's why she found herself in the Lower City sewers, checking in on an old friend far more often than she had in the past. Sure, Jaheira may have retired from the Harpers so the inner workings of the Guild were hardly any of her concern anymore. But, well, Minsc and Nine-Fingers were working together now (sort of?). She may as well be checking in every so often to make sure they hadn't killed each other.

Jaheira glances over at Astele. They're sat across from each other, Astele behind her desk wading through important looking paperwork and Jaheira on a little stool in front of it. They'd been sitting together like this in silence for what felt like an hour. Comfortable silence. Jaheira had bought a book with her to read (some novel she'd started before leaving for the shadow cursed lands, she hadn't gotten the chance to go back to it until now) just listening to the scratching of pen on paper and Astele's gentle humming.

“Did you miss me?”

Nine-Fingers barks with laughter, not even bothering to look up, “You seriously think I've had the time?”

Jaheira just hums in response. It made sense; between dealing with the Steel Watch, Bhaal's assassins, the Stonelord and a failed coup by the Zhents it was unlikely Nine-Fingers had even had time to think of herself. Let alone her enemy? Ally? Sort-of-friend-maybe-more? Jaheira still wasn't exactly sure what their relationship was at this point.

“Besides,” Astele finally looks up, meeting her gaze, “I knew you'd come back.”

“Ah, your offering to Kelemvor would imply otherwise.“

“Somehow I'm sure not even death could keep you away.”

“match my freak” how about you match my poetic misery instead

It is May 1st and it’s already 88°F here (31°C).

I’m s w e a t i n g help

i am a lover. but underneath that i'm a hater. and then underneath that i'm a lover again

writing is just sitting in front of a computer and making up problems for imaginary people while ignoring your own. fun and casual hobby.