#C. Understands Her.

[emcapi-gaming]

Today's fun fact about Ardwin is The Forbidden Ship.

Which is Ardwin/G'raha.

There was a little spark of mutual attraction between them, especially around the late Shadowbringers patches. He, obviously, has idolized her for literal decades - and now all of a sudden, not only is she right there, he's also suddenly back in a much younger body. Ardwin, meanwhile, has probably been aware of his attraction for a while but now she's watching him be all energetic and bright-eyed and thinking huh, he's pretty cute.

However, there are 2 pretty major problems:

Ardwin has Chronic Tank Brain and can be a bit overprotective of people close to her.

G'raha has a history of not only throwing himself on every single grenade, but being sneaky about it.

And fortunately, they were able to recognize that anything over the line of "strictly platonic" would probably make both of these issues worse, and it was glaringly obvious that the resulting relationship would turn into a toxic nightmare.

(G'raha still seeing her as largely a symbol instead of understanding her as a person was also definitely a turn-off for Ardwin; one of her biggest factors in emotional attraction is people who understand her on a deeper level, and this was mostly a surface-level crush.)

They had to set some firm boundaries and commit to sticking to them for a while. By the time Dawntrail starts, Ardwin has gotten over her crush, G'raha has gotten to know her better, and they've managed to settle into a much more stable close friendship.

[dykedvonte]

I think about the fact Anya locking herself in the infirmary with Curly to kill herself and how it is in way reclaiming a space that was initially hers from Jimmy.

Not to mention how she must've been aware of Jimmy's obsession with Curly and the idea that he would lose his power over the both of them (based on the fact she likely thought they would never get the door open) and having to face the responsibility of two deaths being on his hands as acting captain.

It was her final act of agency stuck on that ship with her abuser and it says something that she chose to die next to Curly, despite his inaction, leaned against him as if they were just in a casual conversation before her death. Despite everything, Anya made the final decision on her own terms and it speaks volumes considering her treatment and demeanor up until that point.

[anghraine]

Speaking of the social context of P&P and Austen in general, and also just literature of that era, I'm always interested in how things like precisely formulated hierarchies of precedence and tables of ranked social classes interact with the more complex and nuanced details of class-based status and consequence on a pragmatic day-to-day level. I remembered reading a social historian discussing the pragmatics of class wrt eighteenth-century English life many years ago and finally tracked down the source:

"In spite of the number of people who got their living from manufacture or trade, fundamentally it was a society in which the ownership of land alone conveyed social prestige and full political rights. ... The apex of this society was the nobility. In the eyes of the Law only members of the House of Lords, the peerage in the strictest use of the word, were a class apart, enjoying special privileges and composing one of the estates of the realm. Their families were commoners: even the eldest sons of peers could sit in the House of Commons. It was therefore in the social rather than in the legal sense of the word that English society was a class society. Before the law all English people except the peers were in theory equal. Legal concept and social practice were, however, very different. When men spoke of the nobility, they meant the sons and daughters, the brothers and sisters, the uncles and aunts and cousins of the peers. They were an extremely influential and wealthy group.

"The peers and their near relations almost monopolized high political office. From these great families came the wealthiest Church dignitaries, the higher ranks in the army and navy. Many of them found a career in law; some even did not disdain the money to be made in trade. What gave this class its particular importance in the political life of the day was the way in which it was organized on a basis of family and connection ... in eighteenth-century politics men rarely acted as isolated individuals. A man came into Parliament supported by his friends and relations who expected, in return for this support, that he would further their interests to the extent of his parliamentary influence.

"Next in both political and social importance came the gentry. Again it is not easy to define exactly who were covered by this term. The Law knew nothing of gentle birth but Society recognized it. Like the nobility this group too was as a class closely connected with land. Indeed, the border line between the two classes is at times almost impossible to define ... Often these men are described as the squirearchy, this term being used to cover the major landowning families in every county who were not connected by birth with the aristocracy. Between them and the local nobility there was often considerable jealousy. The country gentleman considered himself well qualified to manage the affairs of his county without aristocratic interference.

"...The next great layer in society is perhaps best described the contemporary term 'the Middling Sort'. As with all eighteenth-century groups it is difficult to draw a clear line of demarcation between them and their social superiors and inferiors. No economic line is possible, for a man with no pretensions to gentility might well be more prosperous than many a small squire. There was even on the fringe between the two classes some overlapping of activities ... The ambitious upstart who bought an estate and spent his income as a gentleman, might be either cold-shouldered by his better-born neighbours or treated by them with a certain contemptuous politeness. If however his daughters were presentable and well dowered, and if his sons received the education considered suitable for gentlemen, the next generation would see the obliteration of whatever distinction still remained. The solid mass of the middling sort had however no such aspirations, or considered them beyond their reach.

"...This term [the poor] was widely used to designate the great mass of the manual workers. Within their ranks differences of income and of outlook were as varied as those that characterized the middle class. Once again the line of demarcation is hard to draw..."

—Dorothy Marshall, Eighteenth Century England (29-34)

(There's plenty more interesting information in the full chapter, especially regarding "the poor," and the chapter itself is contracted from a lengthier version published earlier.)

[silusvesuius]

nnnnnnnnnnnnno maa'am

[spop-romanticizes-abuse]

oh btw Gravity Falls also did sibling rivalry and the whole golden child and scapegoat dynamic a lot better.

Stan was the scapegoat, the troublemaker, the good-for-nothing. just like Catra, he was the one who didn't try enough at school and who constantly caused mayhem.

and Ford was the golden child, the gifted kid, the smart twin. just like Adora, he followed rules and had ambitions set by his parents, but he also had a desire to deviate from the norm and try something new.

but the difference here is that their flaws were balanced out.

Stan was jealous of Ford and saw himself as dumb and unworthy, but he still deeply cared about Ford. unlike Catra, Stan didn't take their falling out as an opportunity to torment Ford as much as possible.

when Ford called Stan after several years of them being apart, Stan still went to see him. and after Ford got sucked into the rift, Stan worked tirelessly to bring him back.

Catra on the hand? she was the one who willingly opened a rift so that Adora would die. when Adora needed her help, Catra abandoned her and then cried about Adora not choosing her over the safety of the entire world.

Stan may have been mad at Ford and he may have been jealous, but he never let that dictate his actions. he was a con artist and a criminal, he was a bit grumpy, but he wasn't a toxic person. at the end of the day, he cared more about his family than anything else.

and the whole "they both made mistakes" worked in this situation because Ford wasn't perfect either and he had actual flaws that played a role in his falling out with Stan.

[lichenbug]

seahorse jumpscare !!!!! RAHHHH !!!!!

omg she took hrt heres her pre-hormone photo

[hanzajesthanza]

i’m sure i said this already but regis swearing when quoting angoulême’s phrases is too dangerous. he could bypass his social etiquette, if only he prefaces it with “as our darling young angoulême says”

[charlietheepicwriter7]

"I'm telling you, she's the best bloody runes expert this side of the Mississippi," John Constantine told the other members of the Justice League as he raised his hand to knock on the old screen door. He hadn't expected his ex-wife to stay here, in the middle of bum-fuck nowhere, but Spittoon, Arkansas, was the hill-billy hole it was when he last left. "If anyone can decipher the ritual to summon the ghost king, it's her--"

The door disappeared before he could knock, and a shotgun was shoved in his face. John smiled the best he could. "Hey, sweetheart."

Alicia Walker glared back at him. "Constantine."

*******************************************

This is the "John Constantine used to be married to Danny Fenton's Aunt Alicia" AU. Some idea's I've had:

Maddie introduced them. Maddie had dragged Alicia into studying ghosts, but Alicia ended up fascinated by the occultism of ghosts, more metaphysical than scientific. Maddie, wanting to support the sister that was supporting her, found Constantine, introduced the two, and they got along enough to bang.

it was a shotgun wedding. Alicia got pregnant and damn if she was going to let her baby be born without a father, so John ends up marrying her. He doesn't really mind since Alicia's nice enough and the sex is good, but he isn't exactly an attentive husband.

The baby is actually twins! a boy and a girl.

The babies are born without complications, but the baby boy, the first born... goes missing.

In addition to selling his soul to multiple parties, John had also sold the soul of his first born... probably to multiple parties. And he'd forgotten all about it until Alicia calls him, sobbing, saying their son has gone missing.

Needless to say, once she knows, John is divorced within the week.

the newborn daughter is given to Maddie to take care of; Alicia can even look at her without remembering her dead son, she knows she wouldn't be able to take care of a baby the way it needs. she can barely take care of herself.

(Jazz finds out that her aunt is her biomom when Danny is born. She never hates her aunt for giving her up; in fact, it's Alicia's depression and grief that makes Jazz want to study psychology in the first place)

Alicia moves to Spittoon to isolate herself, but the close knit community won't let her self-destruct. They help her rebuild herself in the middle of nowhere and she discovers a love for farming rhubarb.

John only shows up once before for Alicia's help, but the town chases away that nasty ex-husband of hers before she sees him, with his yuppie-accent and dirty clothes. They don't want him around her.

Alicia grows content with her life. She keeps all her occult books locked in the attic, out of sight and out of mind, and while she might regret not having been able to raise her daughter, she loves her niece and nephew and spoils them when they come to visit.

All's right in the world.

Until one day, Jazz and Danny come to her door in the middle of the night, desperate and injured.

Not too long after that, her yuppie ex-husband come around, asking her to look over some nonsense summoning circle. What's Constantine trying to summon anyway, the demon of astrology!?

[erros429]

ok so. marcille stans. very curious (and i do Not want discourse so please don't start any fdjhskfjh)!! please tell me your thoughts in the tags :)

[thenationofzaun]

Okay good, so I'm not completely insane:

Nice to know I'm not the only one expecting more out of certain character arcs this season. Also, Ekko fans deserve financial compensation lol. Truly sorry for what they're doing to your boy.

[mewkwota]

Who really knows, maybe even farther down the line Geo may also follow his father's footsteps. But until then, boy what happened? Alas, it's a super secret future that we're not allowed to see.

[dykedvonte]

Can you talk about trans!Curly a little bit more? I'm curios if you have any headcanons and the like

-💀

It's just such a thing in my mind because it adds a truthful sadness and differing aspect to mouthwashing.

If Curly was trans it adds the horror of the horribly selfish thought he could have easily been in Anya's situation. It could've been him but it wasn't and he so conflicted on the pit it put in his stomach that brings and the shameful relief it wasn't. In this scenario he is friends with Jimmy for a long time still. Jimmy likely knew him pretransition. Maybe he gave Curly weird looks then, maybe they never stopped after, maybe they seemed meaner. They are guys now, bros, both of them are. He doesn't really have to worry what those looks mean anymore, Jimmy just has that face with him sometimes. It's recontextualizing a lot of things for him that he was in denial about or too ashamed to admit. How naive he was being and how he let that get another person hurt.

Specifically with Anya, it's he knows the dread and fear she's feeling. He can understand it because he had to live with it for a good portion of his life, he knows it cause he still does, just in a slightly different way. It makes him think of all the times he's been alone with Jimmy, all the times he's been way more drunk off his ass and not remember the night, Jimmy was always with him the next day. Makes him think of the comments he would laugh off both because that's what guys do but because that part of being a girl says to laugh so Jimmy doesn't do something. It's the selfish realization that he was never safe and he's uncertain now too. Mad at himself for forgeting that feeling, espcially since for a long time he would've been considered the only woman on a crew (with all that implies) for a long time.

He should've taken those blinders off, step back into that position for just a moment and it's so much more painful that Anya likely came to him because he should've gotten it. Those thoughts don't leave his mind after the crash when he's in an even more vulnerable position than she was...

[seaglassdinosaur]

I know we collectively agree that Hiccup isn’t romantically inclined, and his getting married and having kids didn’t make sense in the epilogue, but consider: Hiccup getting married for political reasons.

It’s a marriage of alliance, which is recognized both by him and his partner, and they enter it without expectations of romantic involvement. Since they’re now married, they live in the same castle, spend time together, and Hiccup finds he really likes his spouse. They’re funny, get along with his friends, and has the same interests and values. They both probably speak multiple languages. She understands why Hiccup is so dedicated to making the Wilderwest better, and holds similar views. She’s a good politician (her job after all, was to be an ambassador). Hiccup likes spending time with them, and the feeling is mutual. They’re not in love, they have their own lives, but they’re dedicated to each other and eventually decide to raise children. They teach their kids how to train hawks and hunt with dragons, riding, history, the Languages, and all the necessary skills of their world. They’re not in love and they’re happy together.

[sometinybees]

I'm going to scream at some arcane season 2 takes I've seen on TikTok the purity mindset is a curse

Like NO ONE is a morally perfect/good person in this show!!!!! They've all made awful decisions that have hurt people!!!!! That's the point!!! And it's okay and so very normal to like a character even if they've done some really bad shit. The amount of "man they want me to like THAT person after what they did?" Type takes are making me want to pull my hair out like YES! BECAUSE THEY ARE INTERESTING AND NUANCED CHARACTERS YOU CAN BOTH ENJOY WATCHING THEM AND ALSO KNOW WHAT THEY'RE DOING IS FUCKED!!!!!! WHY IS THIS SO HARD

[aalghul]

I don’t think it makes sense to assume that Jason was mocking Mia’s past. At all. The thing that got jason painted as violent back in the 80s was his anger against rapists…how does that turn into mocking a victim? and that entire story was written by winick. Do we honestly think winick intended to communicate that? The same writer who made Jason’s first kill a man who was trafficking children? Who had Jason pause in his mission of madness to make sure those kids were found by the right people so they wouldn’t be in further danger?

[eri-pl]

Silm Advent calendar 7: Light

(thank you @edennill for your headcanons, here's a small hc of mine)

Varda smiled, looking at the young Noldo bowing nervously before her. Despite being named “the spirit of fire”, he wore pale blue and yellow, both clean narrow hues, but not too narrow, matching the outer colors of the Treelight surprisingly well for something made by an incarnate.

“I want to show you something, my lady.” There was a tone of anxiety in Feanáro's voice. Why? 

He pulled out an ornate box which shone richly from the inside and opened it—

They were beautiful. A harmony of two lights, resulting in a wide and balanced white, almost like a reflection of the light in her face. This brilliance was the fairest thing ever made on Arda, surpassing the glorious lights made by the Valar, even though it was born from two of them. Three gems in perfect harmony with each other. Almost too beautiful for this marred world, like a pure sound of a violin, narrow, and impossible for the imperfect beings to harmonize with.

She reached for them but stopped, waiting for permission. 

“I love them dearly,” said Feanaro apologetically. “But of course, if you wish to take a look at them, I would be honored… Forgive me, o queen, but I feel— I feel they are so vulnerable, so — they are near impossible to destroy and yet — I do fear for them.” The last part he was almost a whisper.

Varda nodded. Light could only shine where it could be touched, of course. And what could be touched could now also be hurt. Did the Elves not know it? It was difficult to distinguish what was new to them and what they would consider too obvious to even mention.

She studied the scared prince. The best she could do for him was to put some thin glass to protect the light a little and hope for the best. Half-measures, always half-measures. But that was the way with incarnates, wasn't it?

She took the gems and kissed them gently. They were warm and alive, even though unmoving, and they rejoiced seeing her.

No wonder Feanáro loved them.

“Neither evil nor hand unclean shall touch you and stay unharmed,” she said. “Nor a mortal man—” she paused, seeing the Elf’s expression. What was he surprised about? 

Anyway, the blessing was done, for good or for ill.

She kissed the gems farewell and gave them back to the prince. “Thank you.” 

She rarely spoke, indeed, but some occasions were worth it.