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Spin this wheel and get your Nirvana in Fire Fuck, Marry, Kill

Please share who you got in the tags and how you feel about it!

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OHMFYDSAHDJFAHSKDJAFJDHFADJKADFKJADFJKADFJKADFKJADFKJ

Stop what you're doing right now and watch this. idc if you're driving a train full of kids just let that shit crash and watch this video instead you will not regret it i prommy

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Lymond Chronicles Exchange Proposal/Interest Gauge (ScotSwap)

Hi Lymond people!

If you were around a few years ago you may remember a fan fiction and art exchange called ScotSwap which was run by Rey (user reynier/gawain-in-green.)

It last ran in 2020 because Rey left Tumblr that year, but we’re still in touch and they have offered to help me run it, and I think I’m (tentatively, if there’s enough interest) going to try that this year!

However, I want to check who is interested and figure out when is a good time for people to participate!

To do this people are matched to exchange works based on a short sign-up form with a couple of prompts (and any DNWs) which can be submitted via Google form. Exchange gifts would be posted to an AO3 collection (and here).

SO.

1. If you are interested COMMENT or REBLOG with something along the lines of “I’m interested” in the tags!

2. What time of year works best for you?

Please signal boost this even if you’re not interested in participating!

Contact me:

@ stripedroseandsketchpads on tumblr

stripedroseandsketchpads on Dreamwidth

scotswap@gmail.com

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I think to the extent those are the same people, yeah, that's uncool, but I think mostly there's just... disagreement in the notes about whether voter fraud is okay? Like, I think the person saying it's disrespectful is Just Wrong, I think voter fraud is very funny and a real sign of passion, but that doesn't mean that person is hypocritical. Especially since it's not obvious to me that they even saw lei's post.

And the notes also contain "hey maybe we should be doing more fraud, how do we do that again", which I think is a much better reaction, personally.

("this looks like shenanigans", otoh, is just correct. yes! there are shenanigans! on both sides! hilarious excellent shenanigans.)

That being said, Avatrice probably is only winning because of voter fraud. It's hard to tell because of how much voter fraud there has been on both sides, but squinting at the graph at points when (probably) neither side was frauding does yield a "ehhhh probably harumichi is going faster".

That just... doesn't matter. "only winning because of voter fraud" is kind of like "only winning because of twitter" or "only winning because a popular blog boosted it" or "only winning because tumblr is full of old people". we can try to control for those things, but at the end of the day, that's the thing we're trying to measure here.

People can complain about it, people can deny it, but in the immortal words of the mods:

If you don't like it, fraud harder.

Top Femslash Ships Bracket - Quarterfinals

This poll is a celebration of fandom and fandom history; we're aware that there are certain issues with some of the listed pairings and sources, but they are a part of that history. Please do not take this as an endorsement of anything included in the bracket, and refrain from harassment.

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watched wicked and I think glinda and elphaba should get gay married

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Like a comet pulled from orbit As it passes a sun Like a stream that meets a boulder Halfway through the wood Who can say if I've been changed for the better? But because I knew you I have been changed for good

Top Femslash Ships Bracket - Round 4

This poll is a celebration of fandom and fandom history; we're aware that there are certain issues with some of the listed pairings and sources, but they are a part of that history. Please do not take this as an endorsement of anything included in the bracket, and refrain from harassment.

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a supportive husband right here🦋✨

(Spent way too much time on the first one…)

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i am re-reading the thief and one thing i adore is how the book takes pains to establish gen as uncool up front. he starts off in prison, and it is not sexy. he has sores, he is weak from lack of exercise, he stinks. he's there because he loudly confessed to a crime in front of a bunch of witnesses. he is genuinely afraid of the magus's threats. he leaves prison and immediately is crying, snot streaming down his face crying, because he hasn't seen direct sunlight in so long and his eyes hurt. he's going to be your favorite most badass character of all time, but he first we have to establish that he's pretty lame, just to balance things out.

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Round 2 statistics!

Most voted for: Marcille/Falin, with 6,838 votes

Most voted in: Farcille vs Pearlina, with 10,419 votes

Biggest sweep by percentage: Harlivy vs Kiyoyachi, at 88.4-11.6, with a gap of 2,795 votes

Biggest sweep by number of votes: Farcille vs Pearlina, at 65.6-34.4, with a gap of 3,257 votes

Closest race: Clexa vs Hanamusa, at 50.1-49.9, with a gap of just 7 votes

Best graph: Avatrice vs XenaGab! Avatrice fans went above and beyond, including twitter campaigning and no small amount of voter fraud, and their hard work and passion paid off— check out the graph below!

Graphs for every race can be found at glittering.world, but here's a few for the most contested races this round:

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The Gävle goat is getting a lot of attention around here, but I would like to make a case for a couple of other Swedish Christmas goats: The Kävlinge "Horny Goats".

It has been a Christmas tradition in the town of Kävlinge since 2015 to put up a pair of goats in a traffic circle. And for just as long, there has been a somewhat more inofficial tradition that someone will move those two goats into a mating position, giving them the nickname "kåtbockarna" (literally "the horny goats", a Swedish term similar to the English "horndog").

One year an unknown person even put up three smaller goats around the two large ones, to indicate that they've had children.

This year, however, the goats have been positioned in a somewhat less intimate position, simply kissing eachother:

Swedish television news did a short feature where they interviewed citizens of Kävlinge about this latest change, and most of them expressed disappointment, apparently preferring the "horny" version.

Considering that "bock" usually refers to males of the species, this means that Kävlinge has had a public display of gay sex each Christmas for several years, enthusiastically supported by its citizens. I think that's a Christmas tradition well worth celebrating.

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okay listen it's very simple. Galinda Upland is a closeted lesbian experiencing comphet who imprinted on Fiyero because he's like a Kinsey 4 demisexual and thus sexually unthreatening. (Fiyero does not know this about himself) (Fiyero has imprinted on Glinda because his self-professed coping mechanism for dealing with his sexuality is that he will keep all of his personal earth-shattering revelations locked in a box that he never looks at and then someday he will die) (also because he's experiencing comphet and she's a lesbian and thus sexually unthreatening) (Fiyero would die twice before realizing that he's not straight except that about seven months into camping in the Fairy Himalayas or whatever the fuck his wife makes a bluntly casual reference to it and his poor nonexistent brain bursts into very existent flames which is concerning to all involved).

Elphaba is just a normal bisexual who thought she had better taste. Unfortunately the [gestures] unusual and exceeding peculiarity has also left her with a wildly insecure self-concept and associated paranoia about any perceived advances crossed with predatory-attraction complex unmatched by anyone who is not the average Earth trans woman.

They would be God's perfect polycule if God wasn't a snake-oil salesman from 1930s Kansas.

Anyway that's why Wicked is good.

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2 genres of fanfiction:

1) put that guy into situations

2) take that guy OUT of situations for the love of GOD let them REST 

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Les Mis Hidden Name Meanings: "Fantine"

Every character's  name in Les Mis is either an elaborate pun or has some deeper symbolic thematic meaning — usually both at once. 

One example of this is “Fantine.” There’s a wealth of hidden meaning packed into to her name, and some of those meanings are explicitly discussed in the original novel. 

The name “Fantine” comes from the french word “enfantine,” meaning  “childike, infant-like.” Her name basically means “Baby.” And obviously this speaks to her innocence and naivety. But also “baby”  is kind of,.,, well, it sounds more like an informal term of endearment than an actual legal name?  

And that’s because– Plot twist– Fantine isn’t her legal name!

 What is her legal name? She doesn’t have one. 

And the reason she doesn’t have one is directly tied to political turmoil of the era she was born into. 

Fantine grew up an orphan living on the streets, without a family without parents. Hugo tells us the origin of her name: 

“She bore on her brow the sign of the anonymous and the unknown. (...)She was called Fantine. Why Fantine? She had never borne any other name. At the epoch of her birth the Directory still existed. She had no family name; she had no family; no baptismal name; the Church no longer existed. She bore the name which pleased the first random passer-by, who had encountered her, when a very small child, running bare-legged in the street. She received the name as she received the water from the clouds upon her brow when it rained. “

This moment is adapted beautifully in the Manga adaptation by Takahiro Arai: 

But now let’s talk about the Directory. 

To wildly oversimplifly a lot of complex history: Before the French Revolution, the Catholic Church’s records of baptismal ceremonies were often used as a  registry of people’s legal names. During the French Revolution, the Revolutionary government– including the Directory– put in place a series of policies we now call “dechristianization,” where they attempted to dismantle the power of the Catholic church. 

Fantine was born during the age of these dechristianization policies. So she was likely never baptised, her baptismal name was never recorded, and so she has no documented legal or family name. She’s slipped through the cracks of the legal system, and ended up completely anonymous.

This sets Fantine up as this anonymous child of the Revolution– a stand-in for everyone who was left behind when the Revolution was left behind, and kings were restored to the throne. 

Fantine’s namelessness is meant to show her isolation. She has NO support system. She has nothing to connect her to other people, nothing to connect her to a support system. 

Finally, the way Fantine tends to “slip through the cracks” is something that follows her throughout her life.  When she’s fired from her job at a factory, Mayor Madeleine never learns  of it– Fantine has this tendency to be overlooked and forgotten in official records.  At the end of the story, she is buried in an unmarked grave, with not even the name “Fantine” on her headstone. She is born anonymous and she dies anonymous.

It ties into the novel’s questions about  which people we consider worth remembering, whose lives are worth being recorded. 

[Thank you for reading! This essay was originally posted as a video here. For more Les Mis talk, you should subscribe to the 2025 @lesmisletters readalong on Substack here, and join the BrickClub Discord server here!]

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can you come collect your freak of a man please. He’s doing things

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When I studied ancient Greek, the big reference dictionary was A Greek-English Lexicon by Henry George Liddell and Robert Scott. Commonly known as "Liddell and Scott".

But there were three editions of increasing size, based on whether you wanted it to fit in your bag, your bookshelf, or your reference podium.

So of course we called them the "Little Liddell", the "Middle Liddell", and the "Great Scott".

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The Jinlintai department for innovations in atypical cultivation has absolutely only the normal amount of things to hide. Don't even worry about it. It's fine.

Questions may be addressed to Lianfang-zun Jin Guangyao, to our disciples Xue Chengmei and Mo Xuanyu, or to Su Minshan-zongzhu if they have to do with his contributions to the program (though of course most official correspondence with Moling Su should be done through their own channels).

CHIFENG-ZUN DO NOT INTERACT

Frankencanon (mostly book as pertains to these guys)

Might or might not canon diverge. Idk depends on my whimsy

The materials of the blog itself are, at best, loosely diegetic

Mod is a JGY apologist. I promise. You gotta trust me.

I'm not mad unless I make an OOC post saying I'm mad

Setting myself a once-a-week minimum for posting (though I might not do them in full color)

BLANKET CWS: The whole thing exists in context of canon-typical abuse, violence, bigotry (esp as pertains to MXY), and corpse desecration

(Particular manifestations of all these will be tagged but this should be taken as background radiation for the whole blog)