#(I LEGIT CAN'T BELIEVE)

[inkskinned]

it is totally okay to be hurt and tired and fed up with the american schooling system but i need you to understand that we need to be better about loudly and routinely defending public education.

yes, many teachers suck, many schools utterly suck. i also got bullied and was absolutely not given the right support for my needs. i am not defending public education because it was kind to me. i am defending it because it needs to exist.

right-wing republicans do not want an educated population. they want kids to be homeschooled or in private school. there is a huge religious undertone to this.

the most common argument is that despite high costs, the "result" is not "good" enough. they point to failing schools as proof that public education is just never going to work out. there will be arguments made here that you actually agree with: that teachers can be bullies, that we taught online for 2 years and still charged the same amount of tuition, that we have no recourse for students to actually have agency or a voice, and that schools are now unsafe for kids due to risk of illness and gun violence.

these are all placing the blame in a fraudulent way, one intended to get your parents to homeschool you. the less kids in a school, the less federally-awarded funding for that school, the less any school succeeds. they will not mention the fact it is their legislation that takes away important funding opportunities, that teachers are living at or below the poverty line, that buildings are not kept up to code, that administration is overpaid and forces specific curriculums, that corporations like (my personal enemy) Pearson Education control certain classroom goals because teachers can't afford other options. they pretend to be ignorant of the gun violence and say "oh just get a gun" - but these are the same people who will be sending their child to a private school with a bulletproof backpack. they don't care if your kid dies, though. they "don't believe" in covid, but they did get their kid vaccinated, because of course they did.

it is a closed loop. conservative parents hear the fearmongering and remove children from the system. frequently these parents are also deeply religious. the kids are raised without access to other media & learn to parrot their parents. you have now created a new generation of conservatives. additionally, one of the parents/caregivers must stay home and homeschool the children, usually for free. i will give you 1 guess which parent tends to stay home to homeschool the children. these parents are encouraged to have many, many children. those children are most likely not getting access to safe sex ed.

we might laugh at fox news suggesting teachers are forcing children to use kitty litter but: first of all, there is kitty litter in the classroom. it's part of an emergency kit in case children are locked in due to a shooter. so that's fucking dystopian, and the fact they've completely reimagined the scenario to somehow make the teachers look bad when it's instead a fucking huge symbol of our failure as a country to protect our children.... it feels a little intentional.

secondly: don't just dismiss the situation. because, yeah, obviously, no teacher is encouraging kids to be a catboy. but the actual undertone that fox news is trying to sew is an outright distrust of teachers and of public education. they rely on the dehumanization of trans people as a common touchstone to hide the fact they're pushing two agendas at once. (which is ironic. because the thing they accuse teachers of. is pushing. an agenda.)

whenever someone tells you they want you to read less, you should be suspicious of that. when someone tries to separate you and your education, you should be suspicious of that. i don't even like incel rhetoric nor would i want my kids exposed to it - but i would not take away my child's (age-appropriate) access to the internet. i would just provide more educational materials, not less. the difference here is that i believe we can resolve ignorance with knowledge; whereas conservatives believe that ignorance is bliss.

they misappropriate funding and demonize teachers. they pull the same trick each time - the same thing we are seeing with anti-trans rhetoric. they do not want you to have access to safe sex ed, so they act horrified, claim sex ed teaches you how to thrust deep, claim that we have no idea what "age-appropriate" means. since the mid-nineties, the united states has spent at least 2 billion dollars on abstinence-only education, even though to quote the above link: "a preponderance of studies has found no effect of abstinence education at reducing adolescent pregnancy". conservatives want you to think less of any person struggling with addiction so they can continue their racist "war on drugs", so they spend up to $750 million dollars a year on the DARE program which has absolutely no effect. acting like teachers "must" be "grooming" children is just the same thing - so they can demand that funding either goes to their causes or the funding doesn't "exist" ("i'm not paying for our kids to learn that thing!")

and they want you to feel uncaring about this. they are aware that you will hate some parts of your school experience. pretty much everyone does. they want to lean into the parts that you hate so that you don't put up a fight about it when they take it away for not being "good enough."

i know i maybe sound like a conspiracy theorist. but truly. truly. it is beneficial for conservatives to reduce your faith in the american public schooling system.

one of the explicitly stated campaign promises of the conservative party: to axe the Department of Education in 2024.

i know we are all tired and burnt out and there is so much else wrong with their entire platform. but maybe just - pay attention to this one.

[someonefantastic]

ANGEL: THE SERIES | 25TH ANNIVERSARY FIRST AIRED OCTOBER 5TH, 1999 ↳ "If nothing we do matters… then all that matters is what we do." (insp)

[thatwavephenomenon]

That quote about 2 nickels and Gay Star Trek Ship that got made canon at the end of 2024 or something

[cosmicdreamgrl]

maknae line x bst performances pt.2 for @jkvjimin

[seonghwasblr]

THIS LOOK *screams into the void*

[unicornpopcorn14]

Ppl don't realize that if you want to write skk's dynamic properly, just picture a cat vs dog fiasco and run with that.

They are the definition of black cat and golden retriever energy. It's literally canon.

(Oda describes Dazai as a burnt black cat. Chuuya gets called a dog every other episode he's in. Asagiri isn't even trying to hide that fact.)

And while I think Chuuya's got more of a chihuahua energy than anything, it doesn't erase the original point of this being my go-to drive force whenever I write them.

Dazai's upset? Think of what your cat would do. Sulk and ignore, give you the silent treatment, either avoid you at all costs or confront you with bared claws and an intent to destroy, depending on the situation.

Chuuya feeling threatened? Let him growl or snarl, bare his teeth, lunge squarely at whoever's imposing the threat. Let him be possessive of who he's protecting, let him be vocal and the loudest person in the room.

What happens when a cat and a dog clash? Yeah, exactly. Disaster.

Yet at the end of the day, when their energies dissipate, you'll find them cuddling with each other, asleep with no care in the world, because they're together.

You're literally writing about a black cat and a ginger Chihuahua, skk writers!!!

[blood-starved-beast]

Melinoe: *Is really particular about keeping an organized room and living situation to the point of neuroticism*

Also Melinoe: *has the Messy Romantic Situationships of all Time. She might've dated Strife Incarnate at one point, who dumps trash all over the place*

[delicioustarong]

"I had to save them"

Rest in peace, Liam. Your sacrifice will never be forgotten. 😔✊

I finally finished this, YAY! This animatic is a mix of digital and traditional art. I definitely learned a lot of tricks while making this (also, can you notice the slight difference between art styles??).

This animatic singlehandedly explains what happened to JD after his mom sacrificed him. He was definitely ready to accept his faith until he discovered Branch's was with him (which almost gave him a panic attack). It was a good thing that everyone decided to help him, and Liam (a troll around his age, maybe older?) helped him escape.

For more context about my au check this post!

I obviously don't own the audio, only the animatic. "Bruno is Orange" by Hop Along featuring Francis Quinlan, so credits to them. Here's the link

[plastikstarz]

Final fight

[astudyinfreewill]

honestly i joke a lot about maggie's crimes of omitting adam from the narrative but let's not forget the real crime here (making us read three books of ronan descending into a morally grey arc / the looming presence of the Lace as a possible apocalyptic big bad only to make her Final Big Bad neither of them but rather an Arab Guy With A Metaphorical Bomb)

[sidewalk-cracks]

Three excellently written animated movies all particularly known for their clever wit and humor.

[alphatsar]

Cars ships bc no one can stop me:

-Refuses to elaborate-

[absolutebl]

the sheer audacity of Thailand being like "PitBabe is not omegaverse" and then serving "Alpha" to us on a platter

how dare

but also

what the actual fuck is going on? what world are we living in where a/b/o is LIVE ACTION ON OUR SCREENS? we getting heat, knotting & mpreg next?

apparently this is our reality now

I'm not sure what weird quantum time stream I've jumped into but someone was all,

yes the whole world is hella screwed, but also

Thailand has decided live action mm fanfic is gonna win it the culture wars

and I'm beginning to think they may be right

it's like the platypus of the film industry

[serenpedac]

2024 Writing Roundup

Thank you @lykegenia for the tag <3

words posted: 28703

additional words written: Around 40000 words, most of which are for the poly AU and Ava's car racing AU.

grand total of words: ~69000

fandoms: The Wayhaven Chronicles, one Dragon Age oneshot, and some writing for Yael for our GURPS campaign.

highest kudos: Tales of Fate and Fortune, though that's ignoring the oneshot collections, as well as 'when words', since those only had parts added this year and it's impossible to separate the kudos.

highest hit oneshot: featherstone. Again, this is without counting the oneshots in collections (I know it's not ideal to put those into a single work, but it's better for me).

new things I tried: At first, I wanted to say it was writing Adam/Nate, but since I wrote them specifically for the polymance AU, I'm going to say writing a poly-relationship. Relationships in various forms have been on my mind a lot this year, and I think that's reflected in my writing.

fic I spent the most time on: Including words that are not yet posted, it's the poly AU main fic: touching, tangling, intertwined.

fic I spent the least time on: For Gold and Glory (and Good Wine) --- Just a silly little fic about my Warden and Rook meeting.

favorite thing I wrote: The latest chapter of when words fall silent. It's a scene that I've been thinking about for years, yet putting it on paper was quite hard. It feels good to finally have it written down, though. The writing itself may not be my best (I'm finding it very hard to judge this chapter), but each and every part is there for a reason, and I just have a lot of feelings about this chapter. Here's an excerpt (cw: mention of death):

Dappled sunlight plays across the ground, creating patches of light and shadow and everything in between. A few early butterflies flutter between the tall grasses in splashes of citrine and dusky orange. Nate’s sigh is carried away by the wind rustling through the birch trees scattered across the land, their leaves a soft, light green against the silver of their slender trunks. The place is beautiful. What he wouldn’t give to not be here. His hand goes to his chest, inadvertently, finding the ribbon pinned there. Its frayed edges brush against the tips of his fingers, a reminder of the life torn away before it had a chance to be lived.

favorite thing(s) I read: Since the Friday rec lists focused on Wayhaven, let me put down some other things here:

before you can kill the monster (you have to say its name) by @/inquisimer --- A rewrite of the DATV quest with the Gloom Howler. Isseya is such a fascinating character and Veilguard's handling of her disappointed me, so I'm very happy to get to read this fic that focuses on giving her nuance!

Rosemary and Citrus by @/lykegenia --- Lykegenia's writing is always a pleasure to read, and this Rook/Lucanis fic is no exception. It's wonderful to get to dive deeper into the characters.

Number 5 by stardust_and_sunlight --- A Doctor Odyssey fic set the morning after that one night, with the Max/Tristan content we deserve (also looove Avery's role at the end here).

Remembrance of Earth's Past (The Three-Body Problem trilogy) by Liu Cixin --- Putting these books on here, because my summer was defined by them. As frustrated as I may have been with some parts of it, it's a story that had me in its hold for months and left its mark on me.

writing goals for 2025: Finish 'when words'! Getting better at finishing longer fics in general, tbh. I tend to start fics and then abandon them, which is something I want to work on.

new works:

Farah/Gabi

Meet-cute Neon Pink Tulsi Yellow Like the Summer Sun

Yael/Nate & Susan/Nate (how did I write/post so little Yael/Nate this year?!)

Stockings Tales of Fate and Fortune

Poly AU (Yael/Nate/Adam)

written by your hand featherstone let me show you touching, tangling, intertwined

Other

Metamorphosis A Touch of Friendship For Gold and Glory (and Good Wine)

Tagging forward anyone reading this! And also (no pressure): @evilbunnyking, @nerdierholler, @wayhavenots, @nat-seal-well, @nsewell, @itsmistyeyedbi, @serial-chillr

[stupidvillainousposts]

This is Such a Good Point- I Hadn't Even Thought of That!

Stan, upon Ford's arrival: *Opens His Arms for a Hug and Wags His Tail* Brother!

Ford, noticing Stan's yellow eyes: BEGONE, DEMON! *Slaps the Shit Out of Stan*

Fidds: STANLEY! *Rushes to Help Stan*

Ford, holding Fidds back: NO! He's possessed, Fiddleford...! Wait, Fiddleford?!

Fidds, visibly pissed: Yes, it's me! Now let me go b'fore I make ya regret even knowin' me!

Ford: *Lets Fidds Go and Watches Him Tend to Stan* What the fuck?

Mabel: Papa Fidds! He said a bad word!

Ford, suddenly noticing the pups: WHAT THE FUCK?!?!

[daisyswift3]

Cardiac Arrest, CPR, and the Reticent Volcano 🌋🎁

So yesterday I made a very interesting discovery while watching the TTPD (track) lyric vid that led to me having several epiphanies at once. If you watch the vid, you'll notice that for the most part the lyrics are in all caps save for a few lines. Of these lines, one in particular, “like a tattooed Golden Retriever,” caught my attention bc it has 2 capital letters--G and R--that you wouldn't have been able to see if the line was in all caps like the ones just before it. What makes it more interesting is that golden retriever is not a proper noun like a name or title so it shouldn't be capitalized according to English grammar rules.

This led me to search for the TTPD album booklet scans to see if this was also capitalized in the booklet and to see what other words were capitalized. Then after looking at the booklet it hit me--CPR(G)!!! Charlie Puth Retriever Golden. Everyone agreed these lyrics sounded a little odd compared to the rest of her lyrics and the shout out to Charlie Puth seemed kind of random. But now it makes complete sense why she wrote those lyrics. She was trying to draw attention to the capital letters CPR(G) that are repeated throughout the album. In this post I explained that Taylor mentions CPR in So Long, London bc they're all related to each other, they're a family. C=Cassandra=Taylor; P=Peter=her 2nd kid; R=Robin=her 1st kid; G=Gold/Golden=Karlie. If you look at the TTPD tracklist, Cassandra, Peter, and Robin are in the same order as CPR.

Taylor wanted to acknowledge her family in some way on this album and so she represented them w these 4 letters which are likely a stand-in for the Swift-Kloss family crest since I don't believe that showed up on this album. This is the key to deciphering several of the anon messages and understanding why some things are lowercase while other things are capitalized. For example, all of the volcano 🌋anon messages and the last 2 messages from (PR)esent anon 🎁 are lowercase with the exception of the words "Gold" and "Goodbye." This connects these messages to TTPD (track). "Gold" is highlighted like "volcano" to indicate that Miss Gold Rush is going to be a part of the atomic bomb Taylor is getting ready to drop. And the "Goodbye" being capitalized indicates that Karlie is indeed the "neighbor" in this message and in Fortnight as well as "the woman who sits by the window" in Peter that turns out the light/lamp. She is the one who keeps a lit jack-o-lantern 🎃 on the front porch while awaiting Taylor's return home from exile. These things single-handedly prove that 🌋 and present 🎁 anon are indeed legit bc how would a troll have been able to predict these things when The Anthology tracks were surprise dropped at 2am and weren't revealed w the standard edition tracks on Feb 5, and why would a troll even bother w such subtle details?? Plus no lyrics had leaked yet at the time these messages were sent so the only logical answer is that they must've either been sent by Taylor or someone close to her.

Side note: When I first wrote that post analyzing the present 🎁 anon messages, I had thought that the song Robin, and maybe Peter as well, was the gift/present to us kaylors that present 🎁 anon told us to look out for since P's and R's are repeated in the messages. However, I have since figured out that actually the poetry book For now, she slumbers was likely the gift since present 🎁 anon's messages mention the title of the book "for now, she slumbers" and "reticent volcano" which is the author's name as an anagram (see this post). Plus the March 4 message directly quotes the first poem in For now, she slumbers called "Two" ✌️ (If you want to read all the poems in order see this post). I explain in this post that the reason why this poem is the first one in the book is bc it's the key to understanding all the ones that follow and to understanding TTPD. The 2 ✌️ is probably the most important motif in TTPD bc it symbolizes the 2 different versions of Taylor and 2 opposing narratives abt her life that exist. Taylor Swift the brand vs Taylor Swift the person; the boy-crazy maneater that only writes songs abt her ex-boyfriends vs the tortured closeted queer poet that is forced to hide her truth behind metaphors and red herrings. Going back to the CPR of it all, I still believe my initial analysis of the present 🎁 anon messages was correct for the most part since the "reticent volcano" is likely a tell-all memoir that will explain the whole messy story and how and why she kept her family (CPRG) a secret. The purpose of the 🎁 and 🌋 anon messages was to guide us to both the poetry book and to CPR(G) which both foreshadow what her memoir--that she's hinted at w The Manuscript and The Story of Us--is going to be abt.

Now continuing on w the theory, as I mentioned previously, we have Cassandra=Taylor, Peter=her 2nd kid, and Robin=her 1st kid. And if you look at the pg in the booklet w The Manuscript, you'll see that there is a capital G in "Good Samaritan" which completes the CPRG set and is also the only capital G that shows up in this song.

And to tie it all together, if you look at the summary poem/epilogue at the very end, Taylor mentions cardiac arrest. This happens when someone's heart suddenly stops functioning and can be reversed by CPR! "I stopped CPR after all it's no use, the spirit was gone we would never come to." And this connects to You're Losing Me (From the Vault) which is abt the fans not seeing the real her or paying attention to her repeated queer signaling -> "I can't find a pulse, my heart won't start anymore for you, 'cause you're losing me." Taylor has given up trying to get her fans to listen to her (CPR) and has accepted that she may lose a lot of them when she reveals everything (CPRG). She is warning them that they are abt to lose the Taylor that they know, the old Taylor, bc she is going to have to kill her public persona and brand in order to be reborn as the new version of herself and move onto the next chapter of her life.

And to add even more evidence to this theory, CPR is often performed on drowning victims, and where does drowning show up in TTPD? Oh it shows up in The Bolter which just so happens to be sandwiched in between Cassandra, Peter, and Robin! -> "By all accounts, she almost drowned when she was 6 in frigid water...And she liked the way it tastes, taming a bear, making him care, watching him jump then pulling him under...as she was leaving, it felt like breathing/freedom" // "When I was drowning that's when I could finally breathe." Drowning also shows up in Guilty as Sin which I've determined probably represents the acceptance stage of grief so the drowning metaphor checks out (see this post) -> "Drowning in the Blue Nile, he sent me 'Downtown Lights.'" (Also check out this amazing video which explains the Blue Nile and religious connections). This connects to the 8th 🎃 message where Taylor chooses to jump into shark infested waters and sacrifice her image and brand so that her lover doesn't have to. So putting all these pieces together, this means that by giving up on trying to revive her relationship w her fans or to maintain her image (CPR) and by putting her family and her happiness first (CPRG), Taylor will finally be able to be truly free. She is going to let Taylor Swift the brand drown so that she can finally breathe. This connects to The Black Dog where she compares the red herrings/bearding/lavender haze/smokescreen to an old habit like smoking that she's trying to quit -> "6 weeks of breathing clean air, I still miss the smoke."

Now w all this context in mind, it makes more sense why Taylor has been emphasizing capital and lowercase letters and the number 4 recently. The hidden word hunt on Apple Music, thanK you aIMee, imgonnagetyouback, her retweets from 4/21/23-4/24/23 which happened in groups of 4, putting 4 letter words in all caps, etc. And now it's clear that "I keep these longings locked in lowercase inside a vault" is most likely referring to her explosive tell-all memoir, the reticent volcano, she's going to publish since 🌋 anon's messages were all in lowercase. "Restful, reticent, restraint" = locked inside a vault. Rep tv and the folklore and evermore vault tracks may also be included in this since these albums are in lowercase as well.

In conclusion, I think it is safe to say now that all of these anons are probably legit. In my opinion, all of these connections provide concrete evidence that these anons do foreshadow things and have ties to Taylor.