#; zadie's concepts

[onlyjaeyun]

sim "every parents dream of a son in law" jaeyun who never misses his manners when he's with your family, helps around the house when you two visit, buys everyone gifts and spends hours chatting to each of your family members, yet fucks your face and stuffs you to the brim with his cum the second he told everyone to have a lovely night. gently places his hand over your mouth and looks into your eyes to make sure you know you gotta be quiet, he can't have anyone, especially your parents, hear about all the ways he's ruining their perfect angel girl but jake's also one to never let you go to sleep without making you fall apart on his cock. 🥺

[weevmo]

Super silly rough thing for a concept @kmodoposts and I are working on to get some experience for other animations down the road!

Meet Merritt and Zadie, sock puppet besties who have perfectly calm and stable family friendly adventures.

[hadtochangemyurlquick]

it's really late but here's the fic recs for clextober!!!

Day 1: Spirit Week! 

who are you wearing? by geralehane (@geralehane)

is your classic halloween soulmate au that, thanks to the quality of the writing, hits extremely hard everytime. for a simple concept i have layed awake at night thinking about it.

Day 2: Pumpkin Spice & Everything Nice 

A Bit of Clarity by Aphrodites Law (@aphrodites-law)

is a sweet fall themed supernatural au that I'm sure we all know and love but is always worth giving a shout out. everyone begins to get visions of their past lives and it's a coffee shop au. If you like soulmates, read this asap.

Day 3: Annual Fall Festival 

the river's deep (but I swam it) by isawet (@sunspill)

i love isawet's one shots and this collection of halloween prompt fills written in 2017 is some of my favorite that they've done. highly recommend to anyone who wants to stay in the halloween spirit. mostly modern aus and all absolutely perfectly bite sized while still remaining filling.

Day 4: Magical Nights 

oh where do we begin? (the rubble or our sins) by the_crownless_queen

this is one of those lost in the clexa tag one shots that i always think gets overlooked. i always wished they would continue it, but even as a one shot it is so fantastic to think about and adore, and absolutely worth the read.

Day 5: The Other Side 

breathe into my lips the life i do not have by ur_the_puppy (@ur-the-puppy)

ur_the_puppy's ability to put 40k words into one chapter and still have it be not only coherent but heart wrenching and gorgeous is unparalleled. this one follows clarke in a haunted house, falling in love with her roommate. would highly recommend if you need to cry and also feel joy but in the way zadie smith defines it.

Day 6: Vampires vs. Werewolves 

bleeding love by geralehane (@geralehane)

you know, i try to avoid reccing the same author twice in a rec list, but i could not decide between these two, and i gave up. especially since i'm supposed to be doing a reading rn lol. i can't telly ou how many times ive read this goddamn story and lost my fucking mind. it wouldn't be possible, honestly. young vampire clarke and elder vampire lexa fall in love. trust me.

Day 7: Free Day

Shifters by DreamsAreMyWords (@dreamsaremywords)

damw is fairly (and rightfully) well known in the fandom for specifically their ability with craft in the fantastical genre. I like to pick less well known fics for my free day and i have to say, this one is entirely overlooked. i love a zombie apocalypse and this is a total twist on the genre. the line "birth is always violent" has stayed with me not as just a powerful line but as a mantra to remind myself that becoming will hurt but is worth it. would highly recommend you move it up your marked for later lists.

[beardedmrbean]

TikTok star Montana Tucker has been using her platform to spread awareness about antisemitism in the months after the October 7 attack on Israel.

The singer, dancer and social media activist, who grew her social media following to 14 million by singing and dancing videos, recently made her Jewish heritage a bigger part of her content, she told Fox News Digital in an interview. Since October 7, she has recognized the need for more education about the history of antisemitism and Holocaust denialism among America's youth.

Tucker grew up in Boca Raton, Florida, with two grandparents who survived the Holocaust. They often told her about the horrors of the Holocaust and the importance of never forgetting the genocide of six million Jews during World War II. When her grandfather, whom she called Zadie, passed away at 97 four years ago, she felt compelled to continue his legacy by reminding people they should "never forget." 

Tucker visited Poland where she filmed a docuseries called "How to Never Forget" that was released in 10 mini-episodes on her social media. The series included a visit to Auschwitz and personal stories about her grandparents, with the goal of educating America's youth about the Holocaust. 

CHAMPION CYCLIST SAYS SHE WOULD SERVE IN IDF RIGHT NOW AMID REMOVAL FROM INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY EVENT

"Antisemitism has always been here, it has always been here," she said. "When I released that series, that was kind of the first time I introduced my followers really to my family's background. A lot of them never knew that I was Jewish. My name is Montana Tucker. My content, at the time, wasn't specifically Jewish content."

"Then a year later, with everything that happened on October 7, I felt that it was my responsibility, it was my duty to make sure that I share personal stories of what was happening," she continued. "This is my people, my grandparents didn't have a voice back during the Holocaust, and now I have a voice and I'm able to stand up for what I believe in and speak out for people who don't have a voice."

In December, Tucker went to Israel to meet with survivors of the October 7 attack and their families. She used the opportunity to spread the message of what happened and share their personal stories, which she said is of upmost importance given some have downplayed or denied certain aspects of the attack or attempted to justify it. 

"When I always heard Holocaust denial, I couldn't believe it," Tucker said. "That's why, with what's going on now in the world with all the denial, even though we were live-streamed what happened on October 7, there's still denial about it or still denial of what is going on. I never understood that concept of people denying something that was so obviously shown with evidence of survivors, but now living in it, people denying what happened on October 7, it's really scary and it's even more of a reason why I keep using my voice."

Tucker also said she has heard from people in Hollywood who've thanked her for what she has done in speaking out for Jewish people since October 7, but explained it makes her upset that people are afraid to share or talk about what they believe in. 

"I've had people in Hollywood come up to me that are, I'm here [motions down] and they're there [motions up], they're on a whole different level than me in their careers, and they come up to me and say, 'Thank you so much for what you're doing, you're amazing, you're really taking one for the team.' And I'm like, 'What do you mean? Like, have you shared anything? Have you posted anything?' And they said they did in the beginning [but] when they got so much hate from it and lost business, followers, whatever it is and now they're scared to post. In my mind I'm like ‘do hear how crazy that sounds?’"

"Especially when there are so many awesome, powerful Jews in Hollywood … I think people absolutely need to stop being scared," she said. "If you're going to lose business over you talking about being Jewish or you talking about innocent lives that were taken, then you shouldn't want to do business with those people. Point-blank."

Tucker pointed to social media as a huge reason why antisemitism has been allowed to proliferate, making it "popular to be anti-Israel" and "popular to be anti-Jew." 

"With Gen Z and younger generations, we live in this day and age of what's trending, what's popular and if you look at popular hashtags on these apps ... #hitlerwasright was a massive trending hashtag on TikTok, #osamabinladen was a massive trending hashtag on TikTok, all pro-Palestine content was super trending, billions of views, versus Israel or anything to do with pro-Israel was like super, super low."

She said a lot of people discussing the conflict on social media aren't educated on the issues, so when an average user comes across a viral video with 30 million views sharing one person’s opinion about Israel or Gaza, "all of a sudden now it's a ripple effect of everyone that just saw that video now believes that because they don't know better."

Tucker said the impact of social media needs to be taken seriously, since it is where so much information is shared and news is consumed, allowing antisemitism to proliferate in the months following October 7. 

"Even with October 7, think about if we didn't have social media nowadays, how different that could have been with what spiraled after," she said. "I think what happened on October 7 was the start, and now we're a hundred and how many days in, and it's only gotten worse with everyone's opinions and everyone's thoughts in these videos … being fed to people every single day [there is] so much propaganda that I see."

"Fortunately, I heard from survivors, but my grandma was 13 when she was taken to the Holocaust, and she's 95 [now], so in a few years, there are going to be no more survivors left," she said. "Imagine the denial that's going to happen then with literally no survivors."

Tucker said one of the ways to combat antisemitism is to teach America's youth about the Holocaust in schools.

"I grew up in Florida, which is one of the states that did have it, thankfully, and my grandparents used to speak at all the schools … But there are a lot of people who don't," she said. "It's hard to blame these kids that just genuinely don't know better because they weren't taught it in school."

"Then they come across this TikTok video that denies the Holocaust or says Jews are terrible … and that's all they're going to know and that's all they're going to believe," she said. "If their favorite rapper or their favorite athlete spews out antisemitic comments, they look up to that athlete, they look up to that rapper, they're going to say, 'That must be true.'"

Tucker encouraged Americans to do their own research and continue to learn about the long and difficult conflict in Israel and the Middle East. She also said people should be easier on each other because there is "so much hate" in the world and in the U.S., specifically. 

[thirdity]

The Clock is a twenty-four-hour movie that tells the time. This is achieved by editing together clips of movies in which clocks appear. But The Clock is so monumental in intention and design that even the simplest things you can say about it need qualification. There isn’t, for example, a clock visible in every scene. Sometimes people will only mention the time, or even just speak of time as a general concept. Mary Poppins does less than that; she glances at her wristwatch, the face of which we cannot see, then opens her umbrella and flies, to be replaced, a moment later, by a man, also flying with an umbrella, who soon floats past a clock tower, thus revealing the time. There are many moments like this, and when you first notice them their synchronicity and beauty are a little unnerving. They reveal a creative constraint even larger and more demanding than the one you had assumed.

Zadie Smith, "Killing Orson Welles at Midnight"

[dykefever]

hi ridi @steelycunt thank u for the tag i love you....

book that pleasantly surprised you: i think i saw one of the mutuals say this but the captive prince series! i was expecting it to be a bit goofy and cringe but the author is so intentional with all the characters - the developing relationship between damen and laurent was so well done and i just found it a super addictive series despite its heavy themes!

book that disappointed you: the secret history donna tartt....sorry to the mutuals that ik love this book. the idea of this book the concept of reading it and having read it is more interesting than Actually reading it... i’ve spoken about my issues with it here before so i shant say more..

your current read: just finished these violent delights about to read zadie smith on beauty (one of my op shop finds!!) + demonglass rachel hawkins (ren’s influence......)

top 2 books on your tbr: frankenstein and i’m desperate to read stone butch blues (coming 2 accept i will have to read it as a pdf)

an author you’re loving: haven’t read heaps of one author lately but audre lorde...brilliant woman i picked up the master’s tools will never dismantle the masters house the other week so i will be reading that soon!

rec a book to the person who tagged you: feel like i get all my recs from my beloved ridi but umm the sweet evil series (this is my hex hall) BUT also girl woman other by bernadine evaristo!

tagging: @drmthieves @emerqldv !!

[theforesteldritch]

writing an essay on being intersex for English class,,, might even post it here after it gets turned in and graded because I feel like it’s pretty good for putting my thoughts and feelings into words. The target audience is more perisex people especially since I’m not expecting my teacher to be familiar with intersex activism and stuff but I think it might be decent writing, we’re supposed to be weaving in some stuff from Zadie Smith into it so I reference some of her essays and tie the concepts they talk about in a lot.

[wooglebear]

For anyone wondering why this post is so late

Anywho, have my OC evil Team, Team Zephyr!

This OC team is a love letter to the Pokémon Franchise and I came up with them after hearing that Archie and Maxie used to work for a third team.

There's, like, zero canon information about this team, and there's no official art of what it even looked like, so it's hard to tell if they were like this. I was just having fun with the concept

With that out of the way, let me introduce them.

Team Zephyr is mostly made of girls, but there's one boy. Their uniforms are white and mint green. Their team symbol is a small glittering butterfly.

Their leader is a young woman named Goldie. I named her that to keep the naming structure of Maxie and Archie, given that the Zadie name didn't sound particularly imposing, and her appearance would be basically that in this picture I made in SV

I can’t draw to save my life, but I made reference pages for some of the Team Zephyr outfits to help me get a better sense of the character.

Goldie is wearing a long sleeved sweater vest, mint green in color, emblazoned with the emblem of Team Zephyr on the left side. This sweater vest is over a white dress skirt. She wears a black skirt. Black Mary Jane shoes with white knee socks.

She has a purple hair clip in her hair, which is where she keeps her Keystone.

Goldie seems detached from the world. She thinks the world can be better, and as a result actually forgets that she wants to cause people to suffer. She's also a bit of a pageant queen, and she can pinpoint anyone’s emotional vulnerabilities after being in the pageant circuit for so long.

Her Grunts are all female. They wear mint green bodysuits, with knee high white boots and mint green gloves. The bodysuits have white highlights.

The grunts all have black hair in twin tails.

And then there's Admin Zach, Goldie's new right-hand-man.

Zach has freckles and golden blond hair and bright blue eyes and always has a “I’m better than you” smirk on his face. He wears round rimmed glasses, and wears a special variant of the Team Zephyr Grunt uniforms. This variant has the mint green and white inverted. But a pink bowtie is added to this outfit.

He acts kind, shy, sweet, gentle. And smart. Whenever someone calls them an all girls team, he's gonna have a snappy comeback.

Of course, that’s just a facade. Beneath his sweet exterior there is a narcissistic, sadistic, and tyrannical person who wants to be in charge of Team Zephyr. He hates Goldie.

He has Baby Pokémon, which he never evolves, and a Dark Type one (Asbol), to foreshadow his villainous nature.

For Admin Judy, I envisioned a character based on Darla Dimple from "Cats Don't Dance". She is a bit of theater kid, but she's evil. She watches Goldie's pageants, so she actually knows quite a lot about the world of fashion, sewing, hairdressing, etc. she is much more of a strategist. She's quite mean and spiteful.

Judy has smoky pink hair tied in a ponytail with a white hair tie, and violet eyes. She wears a mint green and white polka dot dress, white stockings and white Mary Janes. She has a pair of white gloves on her hands.

She actually favors Bug/Flying types, which signify her preference for strategy over brute force.

Admin Luna has short neck length brunette hair with a red streak and red eyes. She wears a white dress shirt, a mint green ascot/cravet, a red pleated skirt, and knee high leather boots.

She is a daydreamer, and a bit of a tough girl. She likes to be friends with everyone, but it's not easy to be friends with Goldie.

She's the only nice member of Team Zephyr.

She prefers big Flying Pokemon like Tropius or Gyarados, which fits her preference for brute force.

When they meet Maxie and Archie, most of them are not in their Zephyr Uniforms. Goldie shows up in full pageant girl glory, Judy is in a slightly more muted set, Zach is in a tuxedo, and Luna has, like, a hairclip or something.

Goldie even has her own Pokémon: A Crobat, A Mightyena, a Skarmory, a shiny Flygon, a Vivillion Pokeball Pattern (which she got from a trade in Kalos) and a Sableye (which can go Mega).

She's misunderstood, though

As for her backstory?

Let's put it this way: Archie and Maxie used to work for another organization known as Team Zephyr. They used to be friends, and they were both actually nicer than what we saw in ORAS. Maxie was actually Goldie's former right-hand-man. And Archie was Goldie's former flame, before she broke up with him.

Eventually, and this took place after the Hardenshipping hookup, it was clear neither wanted anything to do with Team Zephyr anymore. By this point, there was no stopping Maxie and Archie. Eventually, one of them just went "I quit!" and did so.

Since this AU has the ORAS versions of Archie and Maxie, and I don't think a man of science like Maxie would have been angry enough to do that, it means that Archie does. And Maxie followed suit when he quit.

That was basically the straw that broke the camel's back. Their breakup did horrible things to all three of them, making them mean and bitter.

In Goldie's eyes, Maxie and Archie are MIA, and it isn't until she meets them again that she reunites with them.

Archie hates Goldie, considering he hasn't broken up with his boyfriend Maxie yet.

Goldie is a bit fond of Maxie, seeing as he was her former number one aide.

Goldie herself is neutral on Archie.

She wants to improve Hoenn by any means necessary, and tries to set up the parameters for Perfect Hoenn's existence but it goes sideways in some way

[sroloc--elbisivni]

"ghosts of boston" is delightfully vague

that one's an original fic story! i've got some ideas kicking around my head for an urban fantasy series grounded very much in Boston and interweaving a lot with...ghosts, travel, history, presence, the way Boston is very much a come-and-go city for businessmen and students and travelers but you never hear much about the people who live and die there, and also how the MBTA is so fucking haunted. Older/younger protagonist duo, who I will explain below:

Zady: -narrator -obligatory newbie -nice jewish boy (sarcastic) -eighteen? nineteen? -going to community college at his mother’s insistence -grieving his dad but good fucking luck getting him to admit that -short for Isaiah. In both senses of the word George (? name potentially subject to change): -obligatory old hand, mid/late-forties -old boston irish -psychopomp. kind of works for minor god Charlie. kind of works for the MBTA. kind of symbolically married to minor god Charlie. don’t ask, especially when Charlie’s around. -went to Catholic seminary and maybe made it as far as being a priest before deciding she’d had enough and leaving -but i mean the realizing she was a woman thing didn’t help either

I've got more 'hey that would be cool' concepts than actual plot, so for now it's just a couple scenes and a pipe dream and some weird emails to the Peabody Essex Museum.

“Can a service dog be haunted?” I asked as soon as George picked up the phone.

“I’m going to need more context,” she said, after a long pause.

“There’s someone with a dog here and the dog looks…” I squinted. “Wrong.”

“Like one of those chihuahuas?”

“No, like...spooky stuff wrong.” The girl with the service dog seemed to notice I was staring, so I quickly averted my gaze to the wall and talked quieter. “There’s a glow.”

“Trust your instincts,” George said, completely unhelpfully. “But you realize glowing isn’t necessarily any of our business, right?”

“Well, yeah,” I said, even though I felt like someone whose side job consisted of wandering into weird stuff just to see what it was ought to have a little more investigative spirit. “But can a service dog be haunted.”

“Anything can be haunted if something wants to haunt it,” she said, which was another classic Georgeism to go in the list living on my phone’s Notes app. “I personally have never met a haunted service dog. Let me know if it tries to dig up a bone.”

“You think this is funny,” I accused her in a hiss.

“Maybe a little. Have fun at class.”

[onlyjaeyun]

ceo! jongseong leaving you expensive vitamin drinks and snacks because he doesnt want to overwhelm you 🥹 and because tbh... he hasn't really dated anyone before so this should be a nice not burdensome gesture right??

however, secretary!yn thinks he's leaving her them as a "work harder, u need to have more energy" message so she overworks 😭 and she worries that he thinks she's been slacking 🥹 whilst he's wondering why his pretty baby's been looking nervous when she's doing tasks and also looking sleepier...

OH when he catches her dozing off while standing and wonders "am i stressing her out?? did something happen outside of work??" 😭

🎀

AAAAAH THIS MADE ME SO POUTY 🥺

Secretly crushing ceo!jay wouldn't even hesitate to send everyone away as soon as he notices just how sleepy you are, telling all of his employees that the meeting has been postponed only to pull you into his office and sit you on the couch, asking why the fuck you've been working so much. "your warnings were pretty clear, sir", is the only thing you mumble, hair a little messier than usual, eyes sleepy snd lips pushed into the sweetest pout as you look at him and try to hide just how much you're enjoying the view. jongseong is absolutely shocked at your response and looks at you with confusion written all over his face, reaching for your hands before he moves closer to you from his sest on the little coffee table. "i left those on your desk to make surr you know how good you've been doing, pretty girl", jay clears up and meets your gaze, his heart aching as soon ss he sees the way you've already teared up and if it wssn'r for just how exhausted and anxious you've been, you would have managed to stay composed a lot better. "i'm so sorry i didn't make that clear enough", he continues and pushes the hair out of your face all while managing to suppress the urge to take care of you and fuck you to sleep the way you deserve it, "now be a good girl, go home and get the rest you need yeah? i'll be okay. call me if you need anything." he has his men bring you to your apartment and one of them waiting in the car to make sure you get home safe, keeping him updated every few hours, sending you groceries and flowers to make up for the misunderstanding, only for you to "accidentally" send him a little voicemail of your little mosns and whimpers of his name in return 🥺🎀🧸

[melodiousvoid]

Ok, so bit of a long-winded flip-out coming under the cut. Trigger warnings for a lot of things: medical settings, child illness, child near-death experience (kinda), nausea, surgery mention, malpractice mention (no detail), gaslighting (kinda?) and general health issues. We also discuss our traumagenic system origins and a few relevant triggers. We accept the risk of this, and fyi, are difficult to trigger in a way that’s actually a problem for us. There’s a TLDR at the end if you want the short version.

For context, my name’s Zadie, and I’m the eldest (chronologically) of our alters. I was both protector and host of this body between the ages of roughly 4 and 13. At this point, we’re fairly sure that our system initially split from medical trauma, as most of our historical triggers and compensatory reactions have to do with medical things. I front somewhat randomly now, often for several weeks at a time, and have had time to process a good deal of my trauma.

As host and protector, I had one primary characteristic: stoicism. My job, from the beginning, has been to endure. Whatever happens, get through it. I didn’t question it. It felt like a sacred duty, and I treated it like one. As a kid, I had chronic pneumonia, bad stomach issues, and what I now recognize as migraine symptoms (which sometimes, in children, can present more as chronic GI problems than severe headaches). Despite all this, we were a very active and fiercely independent child. The most serious issue we ever faced was an Appendicitis, which I’ll get into later.

Flash forward to today, what we deal with on the daily is constant vestibular migraine symptoms. That started at 19 for idiotic medical malpractice reasons. Prior to this starting, we loved coffee, and drank it regularly. Then vestibular migraines became permanent, and now we can’t drink coffee without being very nauseous. Now today I decided fuck it, fuck me up my beloved bean juice, I’m at a concert and it’s a treat.

Concert ends, coffee is of course fucking me up, and I’m feeling very nauseous while walking up the hill to my car. Without thinking about it, I felt like I made direct eye contact with the physical feeling of nausea in my body, and said “the fuck are you on about?! Coffee never made us sick before, so you can’t be making us sick now! You make no fucking sense, so you don’t exist. Get the fuck out of my gut you loser.”

And the feeling of nausea decreased, like, 60%. I almost stopped walking it surprised me so much. It wasn’t permanent, I had to do it a few more times on the way home, but it stayed effective.

Then, I remembered something that happened at 7-8 years old.

We needed an appendectomy, but didn’t know it. I’d felt sick for two weeks, but it wasn’t normal stomach sick, and the stomach pain didn’t get really severe until the very end. That said, it still hurt a lot. It didn’t make any sense to me, so I just told myself “what is pain? It’s just a sensation, right? How’s it supposed to hurt you? I don’t understand why this sensation translates to ‘ouch, make it stop’ in my head, so I guess I can choose not to translate it that way.” So I couldn’t stop feeling the sensation, but I chose to interpret it as not-pain, not-bad, and not-a-problem. And I went back to running around and climbing trees. Reminder that I was literally 7, had my 8th birthday in the hospital because of this.

Now eventually it got bad enough that this wasn’t ignorable anymore, I got the appropriate medical care, and fully recovered without issue. But this method worked for way longer than it should have.

Apparently I can gaslight myself out of medical symptoms (or at least the sensations of them) by dubiously fact-checking them.

Searing stomach pain? “Pain doesn’t exist. It’s just a concept.” Oh yeah! Pain canceled.

Anxious before a dentist’s appointment? “Why? Physical pain has never scared you.” Oh yeah! Anxiety canceled.

Coffee nausea? “Why? You didn’t do this ten years ago, why are you doing it now?” Oh, sorry. Nausea canceled.

Thing is, we know this kind of logic shouldn’t hold up. Not knowing why something happens doesn’t mean it can’t happen. I think it’s a confidence thing, like scaring off a black bear: you gotta make it think you’re the boss, you’re the bigger animal, and you mean business.

And this absolutely doesn’t work if someone else tells us “you’re fine,” in a medical setting or anywhere else. In fact that’s one of my biggest front triggers, someone invalidating another person’s pain, or our own pain, because it makes me furious. I know I’m full of shit, but I’m full of helpful shit. They’re just full of horseshit.

The only person who gets to gaslight me is me, and that’s final!

This doesn’t have much of a conclusion, I just wanted to share a strange experience. I think being (as far as I know) both our first host and first protector, simultaneously, has made my existence a bit weird.

TLDR: For the vast majority of negative physical sensations, I can respond “the fuck are you on about? Idiot. Unfollowed, reported, blocked.” And at least in my perception, the sensation will decrease. Wild.

[seaside-sapphy]

re oc asks: shane 14, zadie 27, jake 9

9 - "Do they empathize with non-sentient things (dolls, plants, books...)?"

Nope--objects are just objects. No attachment to household items, family vehicles, etc. Even with Jake's most valued possessions (hoodie, headphones, skateboard), he's uncomfortable without the first two, but he doesn't necessarily feel a personal attachment.

One of the least sentimental in the main cast. But looking after his siblings has helped him become less judgmental of this mentality. He'll drop everything to help a smaller child find a lost item, knowing they're probably emotionally attached.

14 - "Would they agree with the term 'guilty pleasure'? Do they have any?"

Shane says people should like what they like with no guilt--especially if said pleasures are lowbrow or harmless. He says the concept is pretty stupid. And then hides a fuckton of guilty pleasures behind his back.

His most harmless (and least spoilery) one is the VoL equivalent of Yu-Gi-Oh: Kādō, which combines the Japanese words for "card" and "king." Super into the show during elementary/middle school, and he would play the card game against his siblings then, too. He says he's grown out of it. Do not be deceived.

27 - "Forgiveness or vengeance (or...)?"

Move on. Zadie may not necessarily forgive, but she won't directly seek revenge. Quick to distance herself if possible. She doesn't find vengeance worthwhile or good for the self.

If the wrongdoer is truly regretful and learns from their mistakes, the challenges they face during redemption will be the only pain necessary. If they're not sorry and don't learn, she's certain their behavior will lead to their own ruin--and that's the only form of justice necessary.

But if a wrongdoer has no remorse and continues to thrive while their victim is still suffering, then something needs to be done.

[the1975attheirverybest]

the weed concept was so cute!! I’ve always wanted to try it but I’m so scared that I’m going to feel extremely off kilter and out of control 😭 so i will vicariously live the fantasy through fanfic

Awww thank you 🥹

I totally know what you mean. I’m such a control freak about every little thing, the idea of loosening up drives me crazy. In college I was around a lot of music kids (if anyone here knows about the New England Conservatory of Music, and their reputation…then you know). And they were such stoners. Except of course they’d smoke weed then get so chill that they start doing other, harder drugs hahaha. I never did THAT. Too much of a rule follower. But I do wonder if maybe it would’ve been fun in my younger days. (I sound like a grandma)

ALSO as a bookish queen, do you read/ like Zadie Smith? If so, have you seen that Matty’s friends with her?

[writing-with-zoe]

Luella "Ella" Shaw

Occupation: Thief

Ella was dumped outside the city orphanage within hours of being born. Often teased at how they had to clean the remaining bit of her mother off of her and properly clip her cord, the Beadle made little attempt to find her mother, instead speculating that she was a whore who didn't want to be found. Her treatment at the orphanage brought about a bitterness in her towards the world, especially those better off.

When the orphanage became overcrowded she was sent off to a workhouse, trading hard labor for scraps of food and a place to sleep. No longer wanting to trade her life for the means just to get by, the vivacious teenager entered the life of a thief, preferring to take whatever caught her eye in the moment. Of course, in the beginning she wasn't very good and after getting caught a few times and barely managing to escape with all her fingers, she began relying on her feminine features to get herself out of trouble.

One night she talked her way into the home of a wealthy aristocrat, using the lure of a good time to gain his trust. The plan was to rob him blind and use the money to leave the god forsaken city once and for all and start somewhere new. However, once the old man fell asleep and Ella set to work, she came face to face for the first time with competition. The woman introduced herself as Zadie and before Ella knew it she was taken to the floor and knocked out cold.

When she came to, she found herself laying in the back of a pub, one she knew of but had never been to. Zadie brought her out and introduced her to the band of outcasts and misfits that called the place home. The pub provided a safe place for people like Ella, and also allowed her to take on jobs that required her stealth and cunning. Within no time she was improving her skills, especially with the addition of Rayne's technology, and she found a romantic partnership growing with Zadie.

However, Ella found she didn’t always work well with others. Mixing work and pleasure with Zadie left both women angry and brokenhearted. It seemed anyone who made the choice to pair with her often found themselves short an item or twelve. It wasn’t that she didn’t have a conscious, at times she did feel bad for hurting those close to her, but as she learned in the orphanage so many years ago - it was every man or woman for themselves.

Zadie Hammerish

Occupation: Pirate

Zadie never thought of herself as a thief, she only stole things when she needed them. The night she met Ella she was stealing the plans for a steam powered airship, something she really needed. The group she was in had plans of making their own, infusing it with the magic created by Rayne. It would give them the step up they needed to extend their business outside the city. Ella just happened to be an extra addition to the theft in the night, Zadie admired her feisty personality and had kept an eye on the thief for awhile. She’d probably catch hell for bringing home another stray, but Zadie liked collecting talents, women as well.

She carries an abundance of skills under her belt, hand to hand combat, weapons training, she can fly most airships, and her beauty and charisma make her a femme fatale.

Rayne

Occupation: Scientist/Chemist

No one knows where Rayne came from, her past being something she frequently avoided talking about. She would joke that she was raised by tree spirits who whispered the secrets of magic to her. One of the first to find a home in the pub, she spends most of her time working upstairs in her room.

Magic had been a flawed concept when introduced to the world, but Rayne had figured it out. She connected the dots between creating the source and applying it to weapons and armor. Of course casualties came about during the process, but now she was confident that her technology could be worn without harming or killing anyone.

The upper half wanted her secrets to help advance their end of society, but Rayne was reluctant to share her findings. Instead when questioned she would begin talking of the trees and other loony ramblings. At one point her technology was stolen, taken apart bit by bit to discover it's secrets, thankfully Zadia and Ella were able to find and return the item to her. After that Rayne became more paranoid and installed a nifty little feature that would initiate a self destruct if tampered with to her items.

[essercipertuttienonperse]

Pride, I don't find pride a very useful emotion although I understand for a lot of people it is important. I just come from a different perspective, I assume people are, including myself, just deeply flawed and so shame is usually quite appropriate on a day to day level [...] I don't think there's any point in self flagellation and feeling sorry for yourself and thinking how terrible you are, but shame is a kind of productive thing to create change, I guess I do believe in that [...]

to be shameless is to be very very dangerous, I think, in America, our president at the moment [Trump] is a shameless person. [...]

I know it's definitely a Christian emotion though and that's why it's so out of fashion, but I always thought it quite productive in the gospels the idea that you assume that you are entirely in sin, I always assume that because it's almost always true. There are so many kind of small vanities and I don't know, we're always boasting or trying to put something over somebody else, that seems to be our daily practice so I think to have in your mind the idea that you're not as great as you think you are is a useful thought, I find it useful anyways.

Zadie Smith (interview)

[green-and-grass]

https://discover.hubpages.com/literature/the-concept-of-joy-breaking-down-zadie-smiths-joy

Smith goes through her own moments, and she even flips back and forth from one moment being pleasurable, but maybe it was joy, and then she results back to it being pure pleasure. “The thing no one ever tells you about joy is that it has very little real pleasure in it. And yet if it hadn’t happened at all, at least once, how would we live?” (Smith, 6). I believe that joy comes from the experiences that have more than just a pleasurable feeling, it can be actions or a memorable conversation you had, and being able to decipher pleasure from true joy is what will lead those to appreciate life and those little moments more.

“The planet desperately needs more peacemakers, healers, restorers, storytellers and lovers of all kinds.”

— Dalai Lama