#I can confirm a lot of this from my experience in living-history

[intuitive-revelations]

Live analysis of Wish World!

Sorry for the wait! I'm with family so haven't been able to watch the episode until now. I almost skipped the live reaction aspect of this for this episode, but have managed to work out a system with my laptop + ipad that works so I can write and watch at the same time. I also can't add any screencaps, as I can't PrtScr on this keyboard. Given all this, I'll think I'll hold back on most of my overall thoughts and theories for now, and save that for later this week.

Spoilers below. Again, I think I've been partially spoiled on this episode, but we'll see how this goes:

OK. Straight away it's 1865, so our third member of the unholy trinity is somewhere here?

And a baby, straight away, hm.

Luck? Is the Rani experimenting with the universe's new superstition?

"Sturm-und-drang" Thought that was going to be Gallifreyan for a sec, before I relistened and turned on the subtitles. "Storm and stress"?

Yep, doing something with superstition.

"It's older than that, darling." DARK TIMES MENTION?

"Your child is the fountainhead of a power from beyond this universe." May be spoiled on this being something else, but... Timeless Child link? Or Pantheon?

Hm, the word play with VIolets was a lot better, since it felt intrinsic. The Rani using similes and metaphors feels a lot more arbitrary.

Actually, I think I might discuss that spoiler now. If this goes back to Omega, is the "wish" thing linked to his ability to shape the anti-matter universe, now being applied to N-space too?

This domestic setup feels so expanded universe-y, like the The Natural History of Fear or something, with our main cast projected into a very different kind of story.

Poppy! So we're "casting" her as the Doctor and Belinda's child here?

Yep, and Conrad is the voice of this reality reshaping.

"Doctor Who and the Deadly Wish" Very 1st Edition Philosopher's Stone cover there. Kinda surprised we didn't go in on a Target cover instead. Is there some anti-JKR commentary to be had here, with crypto-fascist Conrad reading it?

WAIT WAIT THAT SAYS I.M. FOREMAN?! (On one hand, yay how can I link this to the EDA character. On the other hand, how dare you put them in the place JKR's name would be.)

"Uncle Connie" Hmm... given Poppy's the Doctor's child here, how can I link this to Brax?

"Once upon a time, the TIme Lords were really clever people from the planet Gallifrey. But one of the Time Lords ran away."

Amma?

What was that big tease RTD gave? "Tables don't act that way"?

Ruby :)

"My name is John Smith" The return!

Doubt. Interesting. So a post-truth-y sort of thing? This feels like it could get pretty poitically disjointed, given Conrad is a conspiracy theorist, but let's see how this goes.

Mel :D

And great skeletal beasts. I know I'm not alone in thinking of Faction Paradox here.

"The people who lived on the Earth were called humans. Doctor Who had lots and lots of human friends." The past tense is fun. Makes me wonder if it will be literal in some way. Also very TARDIS wiki.

"They loved him, they'd travel with him, but sometimes they'd leave him so they could go and fall in love and marry and have babies. And then the Doctor was all alone." Hm, what interesting contrast, after that moment with Mel. What are we getting at here, especially with something so reductive? Is this something to do with the Doctor wishing he could have that life?

"But he travelled on with bravery in his heart, looking for his next best friend." And now we see Shirley. (Also, heart singular? Almost could be interpretted as a "First Doctor had one heart" confirmation.)

Susan Twist!

Hmm, this retro environment feel quite HP-like actually. Like the Ministry of Magic. Hm...

"But then a sad day came along. All the Time Lords were killed, and Doctor Who was the only one left." This is what I've been waiting for, with the Rani back.

Ich, so sexism is alive and well here. Very cool Conrad.

"You're a beautiful man." "What's that supposed to mean?!" Oh God. Yep we're going there, and it's not just flavour.

"Unified National Insurance Team" lol

"And Doctor Who .wished it was like the old days, when he had a faithful companion at his side, but sadly those days were gone." The old days huh? Also, are we really going there, with the Doctor's subconscious wish warping reality and causing Belinda to be stuck with him, like theorised?

Belinda's family!

"Good little girl, good little wife, then good little mother." Triple goddess?

"And as Conrad says, that's what we're here for." Again, very cool Conrad.

Interesting having Poppy here, but clearly a lot more convention in terms of her childhood intelligence. How does that happen?

Ooh, is Belinda breaking out of this?

"It turned out, Doctor Who wasn't the only one left. A Time Lady had survived." Hm, are we going in some "repopulate the species" direction here? Seemingly not conventionally, given the Rani isn't herself acting as the Doctor's wife here, but there's implications from Conrad's lines here.

...what's she riding?

Seal of Rassilon spotted!

Hm, what with these helmetted people? Thought they were passenger-forms for a second.

Wait, the Rani wants people to doubt?

"Is it ok out there? Is it working?" Hm? So Conrad a) seemingly isn't in as much control as he seems, and b) is trying to accomplish something specific.

"Sometimes I forget about the weather and South Africa gets flooded." So reality is flowing through him somehow? It's almost like he's trying to take care of everyone, but is also clearly malicious in other ways.

Ah right. Clear mummy issues. That makes sense.

"The boy who wants the world to be better." Stop trying to make him sound earnest.

THE GIGGLE!

Hm, so the vindicators still have a part to play? I wonder how accurate or not my episode one onwards theory is.

"Tonight, we will find him. The One Who Is Lost." Gee I wonder who that is (disclaimer: I already know who that is). Interesting that this name echoes "The One Who Waits". Are we pulling Omega into the Pantheon too? I kinda hope not, as really can't fit with having a history with the rest. Not like Sutekh with the Titan Comic parallels.

"And then the great work begins." Rebuilding Gallifrey maybe?

"Many years ago when Gallifrey was young, the Doctor and the Time Lady had been terrible enemies." Uhh... 'young' is an interesting choice of phrasing. I'm guessing this is just for the narrative, but taking this literally, this feels like a Fugitive / Morbius Doctor sort of thing. But the Rani doesn't fit into that (unless we really are getting "Time Lord reincarnation is more common than we think" theory confirmed, like I said on that one Chibnall-related post.

"But the Time Lady knew they could be great friends, if only Doctor Who knew how clever she was!" Hmm... this feels interesting. Hopefully we're not making the Rani's research all about the Doctor, are we?

Also, what does this refer to? Ancient Gallifrey (as mentioned above)? Academy era (this arguably could fit best, if we take this as a sort of meet cute of how Ushas joined the Deca)? Classic era? Now?

"So one day she stepped out from the shadows..." "He said her name out loud. And he said, "We shouldn't be enemies any more..." NO, PLEASE LET ME HEAR ALL THIS! ... also by name, do we mean "Rani", "Ushas" or somehting else? I hope Conrad's background speaking is included in the script, whenever Writersroom releases it.

"The disabled, the dispossessed, the ones who don't fit in." Once again, very cool Conrad.

"It's like a glimpse in the corner of my eye, like I can remember something, then... it's gone." Perception filter?

WAIT, are we seriously about to link back to 73 Yards?!

"It's perception bias. He's not disabled, so he can't see us." God I love this. This is such a clever way to use this reality warping actually. Of course Conrad's biases enforce gender roles, homophobia, but he doesn't give a shit about disabled people, for better or worse.

"We're going to bring down God." Huh, so who did the Rani/Flood overthrow to get us to this point?

"But the Time Lady had an idea. She said, 'It's not over, because I know a secret, hidden away.' And the secret came from the depths of Time Lord history. A secret so old and so terrible, everyone had forgotten. But the secret was beginning to wake." OH?

SUSAN! SUSAN! SUSAN!

(Why does her appearing on the screen in white feel so "The End of Time Woman"-core?)

Also, no way, is this going to link back to her origin?

"But the secret was beginning to wake." Dark Times / pre-rationality? The Timeless Child? Omega's betrayal?

"And the Doctor said, 'Tell me the secret'. But the mysterious Time Lady was clever and wise, and she knew that Doctor Who was weak. " Again very curious when this story, if real, actually occurred. It sounds like it must have been right before the episode, but how does that work with the previous episode's cliffhanger?

ROGUE?!!!

'Hell dimension'. So he's not in a Land of Fiction then. So much for that sequel idea.

"Tables don't do that." There we go.

"I miss you. Well... more than that. I love-" And of course Conrad interrupts this!

"I warn you, Doctor. This secret will change reality forever."

Oh, I didn't realise the cups were literally falling through the table. So it is a matter of projection, isn't it? The matter, in a sense, isn't actually there? (Or the force of electromagnetism itself has technically vanished with the surrounding loss of rationality?) Again, reality being held together by the mind, ala the Antimatter universe.

(Also, quite TV Movie esque, with matter's properties changing from the Eye of Harmony being open. Who do we know who was involved in those Black Hole experiments?)

Nope, Belinda is still suppressing then.

OK, I know it being UNIT is what's important, but I chuckled at the "relic from the other world" being a fucking iPad.

Rassilon mention! President Eternal huh?

Hm, the Rani's characterisation is interesting. It's clearly paralleling the Master in some ways, with the emphasis on their history etc. but she also thankfully doesn't actually feel like them at all (though the discoball is cutting it a bit close). Sure it's a bit of a far cry from Kate O'Mara's Rani in some some ways, but I actually really like it. This feels like someone who really was close with the Doctor once upon a time. It also makes sense she may act in a way that builds off those old bonds, given they are both, effectively, among all that's left of Gallifrey. Regardless, Archie is VERY good. I hope we keep her.

The way she's testing him is specifically very Rani though. It shows her inate academic curiosity.

Also, tbf, there are actually a few tender moments between the Rani and the Doctor in previous stories. They're easy to forget, but they are there. Like when she's disguised as Mel and clearly, for a moment, sympathises with Seven as he bemoans the nature of regeneration (one reason I like the interpretation, which I've seen some others share, that the Rani was actually scared of regenerating and hestitated for a long time). Or when the Doctor momentarily begins to wonder if they can be friends again (or maybe more? he doesn't finish the sentence), before dismissing the thought. It's a shame their dynamic is so often slept on tbh.

"We danced once upon a time, you and I, with the city burning around us! People said we were lovers. Can you remember if that's true? Far away in time and space. Were we?" I'm sure people are annoyed at this, and I can see an argument that it's a shame the Rani being being brought back so quickly leads to something romance related, a bit like the discourse around Best Enemies being depicted so strongly once the Master became Missy (I got the unfortunate implications of it all, but disagree it was intentional or anything - it was Moffat's first time writing the Master and I think he just wanted to depict their relationship explicitly while also introducing us to an on-screen cross-gender regeneration, and doing both together just happened to look a bit bad). But the Rani is clearly just teasing the Doctor's lack of memory.

Yay, Kate O'Mara :D

"Yes! I had a different face. So did you, a long time ago." Hm, who danced with her? Logically, it would make most sense to be Six or Seven, but this honestly sounds quite academy era-like? Could this be seen as evidence for O'Mara indeed being the First Rani?

"Because the tragedy is... we were never enemies. Every villain you ever thought wanted death. I only wanted life!"

"But this planet is a lie. This whole world is a wish." Yep, the planet's already gone isn't it? I'm so curious how this all comes together, it feels like the Rani's playing every side. She (presumably) wanted the Earth destroyed (by the TARDIS and the Vindicators?) but is also here holding it together? There's a gamibit here.

"But he made so much of this happen. He stirred the gods, Belinda. He woke the most ancient of powers."

"Desiderium - the god of wishes" Ok, this works for me so far.

"The Vindicator. Hidden in plain sight. Do you remember?" Plain sight is a bit much (we payed plenty of attention to it) but ok. This is what I'm waiting for.

But how does this work to amplify Desiderium's powers? Unless the Rani somehow planted it in the TARDIS, it must be via it's intended purpose, right?

"It crisscrossed the universe, creating a web of power to bring you back here." A Web you say? 👀

Or am I wrong, and it'll be more of a ritual thing, ala the fairy ring in 73 Yards?

"A billion supernovas" wait, is this based on what Rassilon did when Omega was lost? With the energy of the black hole flowing through him, how he changed the laws of physics and created the event horizon?

Kind of? She's using his doubt. Literally the Doctor's own Observer Effect.

"Omega" YEP there we are.

"Omega. The First Time Lord. The creator of the Time Lords. The greatest and most terrifying Time Lord of all."

OMG she's not acting to restore rationality per say (though in a way, using the Doctor's doubt could be seen as doing just that, re-imposing logic on a reality that has ceased to make sense) she's doing this to tear down Rassilon's work, isn't she?

When you think about it, this is the consequence of the Doctor's overthrowing of Rassilon in Hell Bent. The Time Lords finally began to see him for what he was, and the Rani may well have been among them. Only she filled the void of what once was likely a great hero of hers, given his impact on Time Lord science and rationality, with someone else.

And of course she wants to help Omega. The Deca loved him, Morbius, other fearsome Time Lord leaders of legend.

Side note - I can't believe they're actually showing us Omega's seal again too!

The Series 4 version of the Doctor's Theme! Have we even heard it since Eleven regenerated?

Ooh, the purple hues of everything disappearing are very similar to the threshold (I've been thinking about it every time they've said that word) and the portal the Timeless Child was found below. Is that just what portals out of N-Space look like (remember, the Master implied that Gallifrey was in the pocket universe when he destroyed it)?

"I have a daughter. Poppy is real. Do you know what that means?" HUH? THAT'S WHERE WE'RE GOING TO END IT?!

OK, as I said I'm not going to say too much right now, as it's late and writing is a bit inconvenient atm. I'll be saying a lot more later next week.

What I am going to say now though, before I see any other reactions to this? HOLY SHIT I LOVED THAT EPISODE. Low key, might be one of my favourite penultimate episodes (Heaven Sent is still top though obviously). Admittedly it leaves SO many questions open, so we're dependent on it sticking the landing and not copping out of all this, but my hopes are so high right now, even with the bad taste Empire of Death gave me previously. That's not to say it's perfect (there's a few RTDisms in there, with obvious reveals and such, plus things like Rogue kinda coming out of nowhere, but maybe he's back next episode?), but the fact we're actually kinda hinting at all this deep lore, FINALLY some consequences actually making good use of post-Time War Gallifrey (even if it's not around, and to be clear, I did like 90% of the Timeless Child/Division arc too), and giving us compelling characterisation of the Rani?

You've got me Russell, don't let us down.

[the-worms-in-your-bones]

New Who lore notes: The Timeless Children

I do not agree with the idea that the master could destroy gallifrey all by himself, especially a post war gallifrey that is much more willing to use violence and weapons

‘Remember when we used to run through those streets as children? The alleys where we’d hid from borusa as we skipped classes?’ → master says this while pointing at the citadel, implying that the academy was within the citadel (yay, learning where the fuck things are on gallifrey)

‘The citadel at the heart of gallifrey’ → well this doesn’t say much about where on gallifrey the citadel is, but does confirm it as sort of the hub of time lord society

Decor seems a lot more orange than we’ve seen it previously

Panopticon mention

There’s a statue of some time lord just in whatever room they’re in (which seems to be just off the panopticon), unclear who they are

Panopticon where academy graduation is held apparently

There are those weird ball shaped lamps that we see in the arc of infinity

Parts of floor and wall are decorated with circular gallifreyan, seal of rassilon is also in places

They show the two suns in the shots of the citadel

‘Next to the panopticon, the chamber of the matrix’ (not doing it here, because i don’t really care, but in good time lord fashion, half of those words are capitalized)

‘The repository of all time lord knowledge, a databank of every time lord consciousness, living and dead. Every experience and every memory. The lived history of our race’ → honestly a very good description of the matrix

There’s a circle door

The paralysis field seems to exist as a part of the matrix chamber (idk unless the master put it there), and the use of it causes the doctor pain, i’m sure the time lords weren’t using that for anything nefarious

The whole timeless child thing is buried pretty deep (and there doesn’t really seem to be any actual indication that something was hidden in the matrix since the master just happened to stumble upon it while hacking into it, there wasn’t any specific big block of restricted info from what it seems)

‘This is going to hurt’ → is it just that going that deep into the matrix hurts, or that being forced into the matrix like that hurts

Inside of matrix is basically a void, the master is able to talk to the doctor from the outside, and also project himself inside the matrix

Gallifrey before the time lords not very well known, also sparsely populated

Tecteun was an explorer, early gallifreyans not isolationist (though we already knew that, but still, it’s lore so it gets written), though she was the first to develop space travel apparently

Shobogans indigenous species of gallifrey

Also that shot of gallifrey from space makes it look like it’s on fire, i know it’s always been presented as pretty orange and all that, but this may be a bit much in my opinion

Interesting that all this stuff about tecteun is in the matrix given that it was from the time before the time lords

The child's regeneration was the first regeneration on gallifrey

The great cyber war → mildly unclear if gallifrey was involved or the master was

‘I burned this citadel’ → so what if he just destroyed the citadel, because i can buy that way more than him destroying all of gallifrey

Master can have his consciousness in his body and in the matrix at the same time → now he is a pretty good telepath, but i figure this is also something that any time lord could learn to so

A time lord experimenting on a child for her own gain, yeah that tracks

‘They became a self appointed ruling elite

White and gold robes → this guy has to be president right

‘The timeless child became the base genetic code for all gallifreyans within the citadel. The civilization which renamed themselves, with characteristic pomposity, time lords’

Early collars also seem to have the seal of rassilon on them

Number of regenerations limited to twelve

The doctor is the timeless child

‘Brains’ → hey master can you talk a bit more about time lord brain structure

The doctor is moving around in the matrix while her actual body is standing unconscious in the matrix chamber, similarly the masters real body is out there running around while he’s also in the matrix talking to the doctor → i was gonna make a point about the matrix and it being a pseudo physical space, but then i forgot what i was going to say

‘Our founding parents wanted a noble creation myth for the time lords, born to rule’ → this seems to imply that only the founders actually knew about the timeless child and just made up a myth about how they came to be to tell everyone else (also there’s something to be said here about the use of ‘founding parents’, like i know founding fathers is a pretty common phrase, but still, given the time lords this could absolutely be something they get real weird about)

‘Why would they lie? Why would they do that’ → look you’ve understood the time lords pretty well throughout this whole episode, but i refuse to believe the doctor would be surprised by them lying (i’m gonna say this is because she doesn’t quite know how to process this information and is just saying things based on emotion alone)

The matrix around them is no longer a grey void, but a landscape with all the color taken out of it

‘The policy of the time lords is clear, strict non intervention in other worlds and times. However, policy and reality sometimes diverge’ → yeah man they sure do, kind of funny to actually hear them say this though

‘There are times where it is necessary to intervene. That is the purpose of the division’ → hey, what about my guys at the cia

‘The division does not exist. The division does not have operatives’ → look, look, this could be a weird branch of the cia, hear me out (though it would be interesting to have an organization meant to deal specifically with the secret of the timeless child, something the founders want to keep from the rest of the time lords so badly they won’t even let their top secret spy organisation know about it)

Also liking the costumes here, they seem robe like (though we really only see them sitting down, and mostly get shots of shoulders up, so it’s not the best perspective) and layered with high collars

‘Everything from here is redacted, blocked out, all but erased’ → information deleted from the matrix so people wouldn’t find it out

A filter was put over the memories of the timeless child so that people who happened to find it would just pass it over, thinking it was nothing special

The master kept the bodies of the timelords he killed → i guess he did something to make sure they didn’t regenerate, but yet the cyber converted time lords still have the ability to regenerate it seems

‘Are you the matrix playing more games with me’ → matrix has the ability to do things on its own

‘The matrix is sapping all of the energy out of me’

Doctor able to overwhelm the matrix with her memories

I really wonder who those time lord statues in the matrix chamber are supposed to be of

Also this happened a bit ago, but there were three time lord founders → tecteun is the other, thank you for coming to my ted talk

‘She’s clever. I'm clever. We’re all clever. All of us.’ → time lord plurality moment

‘No humans on gallifrey’ → doctor, i fear that the ancient laws of gallifrey (that have long been broken (and taken down) at this point) are the least of our problems here (though it does really show that even despide the everything of the past twenty minutes that we’ve learned, the doctor is still fundamentally a time lord)

Doctor able to find the master just by sensing his mind → wonder how well any time lord can do this with any other time lord, or is her ability to do this connected to the fact that they are very familiar with each other and each other's minds

They don’t say contact before talking to each other in their minds → not necessary, but probably a formality given you are literally entering another person's mind (not that the doctor and master actually care about that for each other at this point, but that tracks)

They’re in a tardis now → were they near the tardis bays then, or was there just one lying around

And the doctor is planning to destroy gallifrey for a third time, they have to stop making them do this

I want to be disappointed that the door didn’t make the fun dor sound, but also i think that’s just a big finish sound effect, still that sci-fi door sound was less fun

‘All those bodies still in the vaults’ → i do wonder if they’re more in some kind of stasis between regenerations than truly dead

And bye bye gallifrey, again

[young-royals-confessions]

This is my first confession so I'm sorry if I'm not doing it right. But I've seen a recurring situation in the Young Royals writing community and I feel the need to speak up: the conflation of Simon's Latinidad with Spain, be its culture, language or history. Simon's experience with his Latin American roots it's a vastly different experience to that of a Spaniard outside of Spain.The Latin American culture it's different too. I can assure you that someone who comes from Latin America won't be interested in Spain's culture as much. They're still the colonizers for us. Plus Latinos tend to be racially/culturally discriminated in Spain.

I understand that most Europeans and Americans think instantly of Spain when they thin of Simon's (and sometimes Sara) "Hispanic heritage" but it would be lovely if instead of focusing on the one European country that speak Spanish, they would look to the confirmed in canon root of their cultural diversity: Venezuela. The political/social/economic situation there is a mess but the culture it's still rich. And would probably be more interesting for Simon to study his roots than study something from Spain. Also, for Simon to try to speak Spanish more or immerse in Hispanic culture, it would be much better and realistic to travel to Latin America. There are countries with more stability than others, but it's also good to remember that the Venezuelan diaspora it's basically present in every Latin American country, as a result of the Venezuelan crisis, so Linda could have family living in any country in South America, even Brazil.

I'm sorry if I come across as rude, but as someone who is part of the Latin American diaspora in Europe, these are some very important points that often get not giving a lot of thought or importance because they're treated as an afterthought, as if the vast amount of different cultures that make up Latinidad was insignificant next to Spain and its more documented hegemonic history.

Thank you for the space.

🇻🇪

[nfr-girly]

Confession // Steve Harrington x reader

:: use of y/n, fem!reader is trying to get over Eddie

pt 2 to this but can be read on its own ♡︎ divider by @enchanthings-a

You and Steve talked for what seemed like hours, conversations ranging from complaining about customers at the video store, to stories about the groups past experiences with the upside down. Despite never have been there yourself, Steve trusted you to know about the history of it

Steve pulled into your driveway, your parents cars missing due to them being at work. He gets out and before you can get out he opens the door for you

“After you ma’am “he does a dramatic bow to which you laugh

He walks you to your door

“Thanks again for driving me you really didn’t have to” you say

“Hey don’t worry about it, this was nice we should do it more often”

You nod and Steve continues, “though I saw you were with Eddie when I picked you up, was everything alright?”

You sigh and nod “yeah, he was kind of a dick earlier but he came up to me to apologise”

“Yeah well you should’ve seen the way he was looking at me, if looks could kill I’d be 6 foot under”

You chuckle as you unlock the door “do you want to come in for a drink? You said you had to be home by 7 but it’s only 4”

“Yeah okay, that’d be nice. Only if you’re okay with it”

“Yeah of course, we don’t have alcohol but we have Coca Cola if that’s okay?”

He laughs, “yeah don’t worry that’s fine”

You two enter and he sits on your couch. You put on the tv as you go get some drinks and snacks

Steve calls to you from the living room

“Hey listen I was just wondering, would you wanna hang out again sometime? Robin and vicky invited me to bowling, and I love them but I’d be third wheeling hard, but if you came then it could be like a double date or something”

You stop for a minute and wonder when he’s going to realise what he just said, but he never does

“Y/n?”

You snap out of your daze, “oh crap sorry. No yeah I’d love that actually, when is it?”

“Next Friday after school, I’ll ask them but I’m sure they’d be happy for you to tag along”

“Yeah okay I can do that”

You come back with a handful of drinks and snacks, some fall out your hand and Steve picks them up after you

You two settle onto the couch and watch the tv, you talk and eat snacks for almost two hours before Steve checks the time

“Oh crap, I should probably be heading off now” you look at the clock and realise how much times gone by

“Shit yeah I didn’t realise” he helps you tidy up the food and he grabs his coat

“Hey I’ve had a really nice time with you today, we should do this more often” he says

“Definitely, I have too” you smile at him

You two look at each-other for a second, and you can swear you saw him looking at your lips

“Listen um.. I need to talk to you about something, and it might make things a little awkward but honestly I really can’t hold it in anymore” he declares

“Oh, okay what’s up?”

Steve catches his breath for a moment before speaking up “I’ll just be straight up honest, I think i have feelings for you, I mean I’ve felt this way for a while but the other day at starcourt just confirmed it for me, honestly the moment you put your head on my shoulder at the photo booth my heart did a somersault, and that rarely happens. And I know you like Eddie, and I don’t wanna sound arrogant but I think I could treat you a lot better than he could”

You look up at him in shock, you didn’t expect him to come out with that. You weren’t sure what to say. You knew that you were still trying to get over Eddie, but the last few days have made you a lot closer to Steve, you knew you’d be lying if you said you hadn’t felt anything towards him

“I’m not asking you to be my girlfriend right now or anything, but if you feel the same way, I’d love get to know you better like that”

You took in his words, still comprehending what he’s saying before you speak up

“I honestly didn’t know you felt that way Steve, I’ll be honest though, I’d love to get to know you better, you’re a really great guy, I’m not gonna miss up that opportunity”

Steve smiles at you, ducking his head out of shyness

“Maybe next week it can really be a double date” you put emphasis on the last bit

Steve chuckles, “I was hoping you’d pick up on that”

You laugh with him

“But maybe we can go out before that, just the two of us” he says

“I’d like that” you smile up at him

He looks back at you and stares, looking at your lips before looking back to your eyes

“Can I kiss you?” He asks

“Please”

He doesn’t give it a second thought before he pulls you in, connecting your lips

you melt into the kiss, you two stay like that for a few seconds before pulling away

He smiles at you “so can I pick you up tomorrow? Maybe we can do this again”

You nod “I’d like that” you smile at him

He grins before pulling you in again, the two of you briefly forgetting where you even were

You both pull away, “I should probably get going” Steve chuckles, “I really don’t want to though.” He says

“Me neither” you say, you two walk to the door

“Tommorow yeah?” Steve says, you nod with a smile

“Alright, I’ll pick you up then” he leans in to kiss you before going “I’ll see you princess” he smiles

“Bye” you chuckle

He heads into his car and waves goodbye as he drives off, already missing him, you head inside

It takes a moment before you start to smile, you feel your face flush as you start thinking of an outfit for the next day. You didn’t realise it but you hadn’t thought about Eddie a single second you were with Steve, and you knew it would stay that way <3

~~~~

:: eddies ending

🏷️ @lovinglife01 @username199945 @akirakatsuki @aleemendoza2425-blog @ali-r3n @emowaii

[nalyra-dreaming]

"Let me know if you want to know more :))" If it's not asking much, yes, please?! I really know little to nothing about the books. I see what people post here, like, I didn't know about Rose and only found out about Viktor this week lol. Unfortunately the books aren't always available in my country and I'm still waiting to buy and read them. D:

Okay, for a rundown:)))

In the books:

Lestat finds Louis again through the rockstar career, and he writes his own story down for him, which Louis reads. Their reunion is quite beautiful, Louis and Gabrielle fight other vampires side by side with Lestat. There is a kiss backstage :)

Unfortunately Akasha kidnaps Lestat, because she thinks he is the epitome of toxic masculinity and that she can use him for her plan to take over the world (literally), burning a lot of the vampires. It’s a misjudgment though, Lestat is fearful of her killing the ones he loves, but starts to resist her ever more (she forces him to do her bidding via spells at times). Louis, Gabrielle reunite with all the others to hear the history behind Akasha and ultimately they meet up with her and Lestat, ending in Akasha‘s death. Louis and Lestat have a very romantic scene together.

Afterwards Lestat is changed though, battling with the event. He got a huge amount of blood from her, because she wanted him strong, and he experiences severe body dysmorphia and self hatred. Louis and he are in a weird “Netflix and chill“ era, visiting each other regularly, watching movies together, being petty with each other. Lestat’s guilt and that self hatred drive him to suicide, but he is too strong already to burn in the sun and he heals to retain a tan (only). The Body Thief sees his chance and offers him a mortal body for a while, and Lestat takes it. The Body Thief does not return his body though and so Lestat tries to bring Louis to turn him again but Louis refuses (very emotional scene). Louis tells Lestat to live that mortal life and Lestat has to turn to others (David in the book here maybe Daniel?!) to get his body back bc he realizes that he does want to be a vampire (after all). He manages, and there is a very beautiful but very raw scene with Louis in a church afterwards. Lestat tries to convince himself he is evil (for wanting that vampiric life back) and rapes David into darkness just as he was raped into it. All through the book Claudia‘s ghost is there and speaks with him. Lestat has Rue Royale fixed up and he and Louis (and David) live there again.

A while later a being claiming to be the Devil visits Lestat - he wants his help, and takes his soul onto a journey beyond (it is later confirmed that Lestat was gone from this plane of existence) and the events with heaven, hell, purgatory and Lestat drinking the blood of Christ (literally) shatter him. He loses an eye in purgatory, which is returned to him, altered. He goes a bit mad, confined to a church, where Louis and a few others tend to him. Louis comes by regularly to read to him, change clothes, etc. Lestat falls into a sleep.

Lestat’s coma continues, but it is involuntary at times. As he later tells it the altered eye allowed angels to take his soul to do their bidding, while threatening him. The unpublished novel at Tulane tells of one of those adventures. Lestat’s coma is hard on Louis. He is haunted by the fact that he has never seen Claudia’s ghost and with the help of Merrick, a witch, they conjure her, an event for which the diary pages are important. Claudia’s ghost is a vengeful one though, hating him, and he tries to commit suicide after. Lestat wakes up and saves him. They reunite and exchange a lot of blood and afterwards Louis is changed a lot. They leave NOLA because the Talamasca threaten them.

Something not closer defined happens while they are in the jungles, and Louis goes to Armand in NYC, where he is safe from the ever multiplying vampires. They spend some time apart, Lestat roaming, Louis with Armand, both coming to terms with who they are now. This is when Rose needing help must have happened. When Viktor was conceived and raised.

Another burning is happening - the spirit that propels them is clming to consciousness: Amel. It uses older vampires to thin out the ranks. Lestat is called and finally returns from his wanderings, and he defeats an elder and takes the core, effectively becoming the prince of the vampires. He and Louis meet, Rose, Viktor and first trouble with Roshamandes happens.

Amel is coming further to consciousness, recalling the being he was, once. Recalling who he was with, too. Lestat sets up court in his old family castle, now renovated. All big players come. Lestat goes to Louis and Louis comes to him - for good, with a very emotional plea. They are together for good after. Amel need to be removed fromthe vampires and Lestat, he gets a cloned body. Louis comes up with the solution, and holds Lestat’s hand through it.

Roshamandes, the ancient slighted bc he did not get the core is outfor revenge tjough, and kidnaps Gabrielle, Louis and Marius, sending ashes to Lestat. Lestat… shuts down. Armand goes feral (in words, incredible scene!!).

Lestat goes to Roshamandes in an all-or-nothing move and kills him, creating the “Blood Communion“ with the remains. Louis and the others are found, and Lestat can finally breathe again There is a big celebration, and the book literally closes with them dancing and kissing and Lestat telling Louis he loves him and always had.

______

This is the rundown :)

As you can imagine there is a LOT the show can do with this. In the books they kiss, the show has added sex, and so I expect some scenes to be a lot more sexy :) Louis is a lot more involved in the later arcs, his and Lestat‘s arcs are inverted. When they finally come together (for good) once more they are at peace with each other.

They have a son, and a daughter, their friends are with them. Former loves, too.

They have left their human pains behind, have accepted themselves as vampires.

Louis calls it the “monarchy of darkness“ in the unpublished draft at Tulane, and knowing Rolin knows of those drafts… I do expect this on the show :)

Obviously some of this will be spun differently. Has already been used, and/or used differently. But I expect to see the Body Thief parts, definitely. Akasha and the aftermath. And we know we’re getting the rockstar era :))

I think the show has already hinted at Amel, and so I do think they’ll finish with that arc :)))

We‘ll see. Since the relationship in the show is deliberately more explicit I think a lot of the canon events will be a LOT more intimate. It’s not about sex for them.

It’s about eternity and acceptance, both self acceptance and acceptance of the other.

And I cannot wait to see what the show makes of it.

[monokuromuheaven]

After taking online courses, Mexican Carlos Diehz cast the multi-award-winning film Cónclave.

“I've always been inclined to the arts, and as a kid I wanted to be a singer, producer, whatever, but when I learned what it was to be an actor, I said, 'I want to be an actor', but I was always shy, I grew up with attention deficit, always dreaming.  In middle school* I started to open up, in high school I wanted to enter the acting workshop but it wasn't for me.”

After being accepted in the casting, Carlos was initially hesitant about the subject, but his vocation was priority, “now as an actor, you serve a story, so you shouldn’t judge it, nor the character, if one begins to have prejudices, then you better not take the project, because you will not be able to convey it in a real way. I liked the story, but what excited me was seeing Ralph Fiennes as the lead artist.”

He added, “I studied the story, which can be controversial, one realizes that this can be a political thriller, since the author of the book writes political, history and spy stories and he thought of writing something about the Vatican, it is interesting to imagine or see what happens behind the election of a Pope. What caught my attention was that practically every one of his characters has existed in the history of the church, there have been popes with families, sometimes hidden, sometimes not so blatantly as Borgia, others who give more value to money and wealthy families, like the Medici, if you do not know the history of the Catholic Church, it may even sound like a scandalous plot”.

“When you see the story of 400, 500 years ago, it is not so far from reality, it is rather an experiment to see what would happen if this happened today, what would it be like? That's why he brings this character that I play, Cardinal Benitez, a missionary, but also a leader, who speaks when he has to speak and the things he says have been meditated on before. There have been popes, cardinals and saints like St. Francis of Assisi and St. Ignatius of Loyola, the spiritual one, the one who is all love and the other focused on leadership. That's what made me fall in love with the role.”

For a supporting actor, to be in the middle of a cast like that, can be a lot of pressure, but Diehz assured that thanks to the help of a colleague he was able to do the project, “yes, it is a lot of pressure, fortunately I had a secret coach during the filming, very close to me, John Lithgow, we talked during the week of preparation, and since then we have a very good friendship.  He told me the second day ‘I'll be your secret coach, anything you need ask me’”.

He also confirmed that he lived an atmosphere of companionship on the set, “I had a great emotional support and affection with Isabella Rosellini, I even introduce her as my aunt, I think that was fundamental to achieve it”.

Although now his agenda has red carpets, interviews and awards, Carlos confesses, “my life has not changed much, I still work in architecture in some projects here in Canada, the rhythm is different than in Mexico. My boss cheers me on, both in acting and in my work, I also saw him in Rome with my colleagues, they have a normal life as far as it goes. They are more like normal people, doing extraordinary things.

Source

I choose “middle school” because I think is the closest thing to “secundaria” 

[saintmachina]

One million dollar question: is it true that the Bible condems homosexuality? I had a discussion with two conservatives who sent me some verses that seem to confirm that but i don't know much about the context although i know this is important too

Let’s start here: why is this the million dollar question? Why does it matter what the Bible has to say about sex, or love, or human relationships? At the end of the day, it’s just a book, right?

Oceans of ink (and blood) have been spilled over not only what the Bible says, but what it does, how it functions. The course of empires, nations, and families have been shaped by the contents of this book, and from a historical and cultural perspective, it holds a lot of weight. But you didn’t ask about the sociological, you asked about the theological, so let’s explore. 

Different Christian traditions vary in their approach to scripture. For example: some Protestant denominations believe that the Bible is inspired, inerrant, and infallible. In this paradigm, God is the ultimate author of scripture working through human hands, and the resulting text is both without error and in no way deceptive or mistaken. Similarly, The Second Vatican Council decreed that “the books of Scripture must be acknowledged as teaching solidly, faithfully and without error that truth which God wanted put into sacred writings for the sake of salvation.” When a member of the clergy is ordained into the Episcopal Church they swear that they “do believe the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments to be the Word of God, and to contain all things necessary to salvation.”

Can you see how many of these points of doctrine overlap yet seek to distinguish themselves from one another? Theologians have spent lifetimes arguing over definitions, and even when they manage to settle on solid teachings, the way that the teaching is interpreted by the clergy and incorporated into the lives of the laity varies WIDELY. As much as systematic theology may try, humans aren’t systematic beings. We’re highly contextual: we only exist in relation to others, to history, to circumstance, and to the divine. We simply cannot call up God to confirm church teaching, and I think a lot of people cling excessively to the Bible as a result of the ache (dare I even say trauma) of being separated from God via space and time in the way we currently are.

God is here, but God is not here. God is within us, God is within the beloved, God is within the sea and sky and land, and yet we cannot grasp God to our bodies in the way we long to. In this earthly lifetime, we are forever enmeshed in God, yet forever distinct, and that is our great joy and our great tragedy.

So barring a direct spiritual experience or the actual second coming, we're left to sort through these things ourselves. And because humans are flawed, our interpretations will always be flawed. Even with the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives guiding us.

When engaging with any sort of Biblical debate, it is essential that you have a strong understanding of what the Bible means to you, an an embodied individual living a brief little awful and wonderful life on Earth. Otherwise it's easy to get pushed around by other people’s convincing-sounding arguments and sound bites.

Here’s where I show my hand. As a confirmed Episcopalian I believe that reason, tradition, and scripture form the “three-legged stool” upon which the church stands, interdependent and interrelational to each other, but I’ve also like, lived a life outside of books. I’ve met God in grimy alleyways and frigid ocean waters and in bed with my lovers. So my stool is actually four-legged, because I think it’s essential to incorporate one’s personal experience of God into the mix as well. (I did not invent this: it’s called the Wesleyan quadrilateral, but the official Wesleyan quadrilateral insists that scripture must trump all other legs of the table in the case of a conflict which...*cynical noises*)

Please do not interpret this answer as me doing a hand-wavey "it's all vibes, man, we're all equally right and equally wrong", but I do absolutely think we have a responsibility as creatures to weigh the suffering and/or flourishing of our fellow creatures against teachings handed down through oral tradition, schisms, imperial takeover of faith, and translation and mistranslation. Do I believe the Bible is sacred, supernatural even, and that it contains all things necessary to find one's way to God, if that is the way God chooses to manifest to an individual in a given lifetime? Absolutely. Do I believe it is a priceless work of art and human achievement that captures ancient truths and the hopes of a people (as well as a record of their atrocities) through symbols, stories, and signs? Unto my death, I do.

However, I am wary of making an object of human creation, God-breathed though it may be, into an idol, and trapping God in its pages like God is some sort of exotic bug we can pin down with a sewing needle.

Finally, we have reached the homosexuality debate. One of my favorite sayings of Jesus is Matthew 5: 15-17: "Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorns, or figs from thistles? In the same way, every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit." In other words: look at what religious teachings have wrought in the world. When I look at homophobic interpretations of the Bible, I see destruction, abuse, suffering, neglect, alienation, spiritual decay, and death. When I look at theology that affirms the holiness of LGBTQ+ relationships, I see joy, laughter, community building, thoughtful care, blooming families, creativity, resilience, and compassion. I see the love of Christ at work in the world. I see the hands of a God who chose under no duress to take up residence in a human body, to drink wine with tax collectors and break bread with sex workers and carry urchin children around on his shoulders. That's my limited little pet interpretation, but hey, that's all any of us really have, at the end of the day.

So, I am absolutely happy to do a play-by-play breakdown of why those passages you were given (we queer Christians often call them "clobber passages" or "texts of terror") don't hold water in a theological, historical, and cultural context. We can talk about Jesus blessing the eunuch and the institution of Greek pederasty and Levitical purity laws and Paul because I've done that reading. I've spent my nights crying in self-hatred and leafing through doctrine books and arguing with my pastors and writing long grad school essays on the subjects. Send me the verses, if you can remember them, and I'll take a look. But it's worth noting that out of the entire Bible, I believe there are only six that explicitly condemn homosexuality AND I'm being generous and including Sodom and Gommorah here, which is a willful and ignorant misreading if I've ever seen one.

In the meantime, I recommend books by people smarter than me! Try Outside The Lines: How Embracing Queerness Will Transform Your Faith by Mihee Kim-Kort, or Does Jesus Really Love Me by Jeff Chu, or Transforming: The Bible and the Lives of Transgender Christians by Austen Hartke!

And take a breath, dear one. Breathe in God, in the droplets of water in the air and in the wind from the south. Breathe in the gift of life, and know that you are loved, now and unto the end of the age and even beyond then.

[botanical-garden-system]

Are you pro/neutral Endo?

Short answer:

People would say I am most likely neutral. I don’t care what someone labels themselves as, and I don’t think it is important to obsess over this so much. It makes me uncomfortable when people keep trying to push whether I should be pro or anti anything when I don’t even experience it. I think we should let people be until they are actually inflicting harm/pain onto others.

I used to be huge in discourse communities on Insta in 2018-2019 and I never want to be in them again. I just want to educate people and provide resources otherwise inaccessible. This will probably be my last post on this because this debate has driven me away from ever using tumblr, and I have nearly deleted my profile because of it.

If you wanted the short one, then there you go. However, this answer will never suffice to me. It doesn’t represent the complicated feelings I have across so many different parts of myself. I have a lot of conflicting thoughts about this, and I plan on being more in depth with my process through these feelings below the cut. (I got tired writing it and like just started half assing and not correcting stuff, but I’ve wanted to get this out and away from me. Just comment if you need more clarification)

My feelings: Neutral or Pro?

I will always support people in figuring out things for themselves and finding ways to describe themselves. Even though I cannot begin to understand non-disordered plurality, I do understand that endo does NOT mean without trauma. Trauma in itself is extremely complicated, and things we don’t think are trauma tend to be very traumatic (i.e. neglect, systems of oppression, emotional abuse, etc.). Even then, I am not in someone’s head nor have I lived their experience.

If someone says this is their experience, I am not going to disagree and argue with them over it. That’s stupid and pushy. I would rather learn of someone’s experience so that I can understand it, which is ultimately what we NEED to be doing. Frankly, there isn’t enough research or information about non-disordered plurality for me to make any claims, and even then I wouldn’t jump to say it could NEVER happen. There’s a big reason I have no DNI: my account is all about accessing free resources and making people feel seen in their symptoms.

Additionally, it’s no one else’s job but my own to curate my page. I see something I feel uncomfortable with or heavily disagree with? I will block them. Until they are INTENTIONALLY causing malicious pain or damage that CAN BE CONFIRMED, I am not going to publicly “denounce” or “shame” someone. I am an adult and can just block freely if I don’t feel comfortable with something, but that’s not even the point of why I made this blog. While it sounds hypocritical for me to say this after positing a few vents about this discourse, I want to be clear that no matter WHAT tag I look at, it always has something to do with a “-genic” label. It’s literally inescapable atp and I am thoroughly tired of it.

Just let people be is what I will always say.

The Complications: My thoughts

When it comes to these topics, it makes me feel really alienated to only see the most discussed symptom be the “alters” or identity states. It also feels extremely alienating to see people trying to rename this disorder to focus on the “multiple identities” part, ignoring the OTHER symptoms and the history of CALLING this disorder that. I think it’s a big reason we see some traumagenic systems becoming so aggressive about this: our identities are not stable and it can cause heavy denial to see the focus shift only onto one aspect of the disorder.

“Dissociative identity” is a great name for those with disorderly symptoms because it IS a dissociation from one identity to another. Additionally, this is NOT only about identity dissociation, this can be dissociation from one’s motor skills, cognitive abilities, sensations and perceptions, behaviors, emotions, memories, and literally ANYTHING related to cognition in general. I do agree that we need to recognize the spectrum of dissociation, but that ALREADY exists in things like DPDR, OSDD-1, P-DID, and DID.

The lexicon surrounding DID vs plurality DEFINITELY calls for more defined edges, and I think people have already been working towards that (many with non-disordered plurality use “plural” or “multiple”). However, it becomes confusing and muddled when people are constantly fighting about who “coined what label” or “whether someone should use this label” when experiences are very fluid and different.

Traumagenic systems also need to recognize extreme anger and emotional attacks on non-disordered plurality gets us no where. If someone is willing to be hateful towards the smallest community with high vulnerability, their support was only conditional to begin with. It is clear that many of the reddits making fun of systems do NOT care about the “legitimacy” of your diagnosis. They do not care whether or not what you’re experiencing is real, they just want something to make fun of.

Conclusions

I will never be able to experience non-disorder plurality as “plurality” is not my own or full experience. I have had many people make jokes about my life being, “A shitty wattpad fanfic some kid shoved every single trauma into” because of how gruesome and fucked my childhood was. I cannot begin to understand how plurality is shaped outside of trauma, and that is why I will never engage or force myself to debate to legitimacy of someone’s experience.

Regardless of the labels someone chooses, I made this blog with the intent to make other systems like me feel seen. I want to discuss the intricate symptoms and severities in my own conditions that I never saw publicly discussed. My entire goal is to try and bring awareness and education to the community so they can better understand how something like DID impacts them. I didn’t come out about my disorder to engage in discourse, I came out so other people like me would be able to parse through everything and find themselves.

I WANT to make people happy with themselves, and I WANT to bring meaning to my own life. Academic research was one of the first times I had actually felt seen and heart through a diagnosis.

[duplicitywrites]

Does fandom feel very different to you now than it did pre-2020? This could be a rather myopic viewpoint- I’m in college, so I’m young enough to have never really lived in times where fandom was ridiculed or whatever, but it still felt fringe-like in 2019. I’d go to school and chat about fanfic and fan art with my nerd friends, but fandom did not feel omnipresent in the mainstream- not just fan art or fanfic ( which is still 100% fringe like ) but fandom discussions too. Now swifties get mentioned on the news and crap. Perhaps that’s a bad example since Taylor swift is….Taylor swift, but I feel like a fandom that big and powerful wouldn’t have even formed pre 2020. Swifties certainly existed, but even in 2014, they would not be mentioned in the news.

i'm afraid i can only confirm your viewpoint as myopic because my friends weren't fandom nerds haha. the only other person i knew who read fanfic was this one guy in my year who i think only read what i wrote because he had a crush on me. which, well. not sure if that actually counts 😂

i first started engaging in fandom at large around... 2012? i think? or maybe sooner than that, i don't remember anymore. i used to rp on facebook LMAO but my later fandom experience mostly centers around tumblr and discord.

now that fandom is mainstream it really does feel omnipresent. people as a whole have changed. but to circle back to your other point — swifties have history that relates to this, because taylor used do private fan sessions (screenings)? of her album before release, and i think a majority of those fans were selected from social media, tumblr in particular, because she was active here. you can imagine how that made the parasocial aspect was even worse.

this stuff predated 2020s but it did drive a significant amount of fan behaviour. and ik not every celebrity is taylor swift, but you see a lot of that continues to be replicated because modern fandom is about 🚨 ATTENTION 🚨! so it's quantity over quality, anything that isn't an immediate massive hit gets dismissed, etc. then the stuff that does make the news so to speak gets exploited to death until people are sick of it, which again, you know, takes us back to taylor swift.

things are better when i can just enjoy my little guys in peace. which i do! or try to do. it's difficult because the rest of the world seems to want less and less to operate like that.

all this to say i think fandom can still be close to the way it was. it can still be fringe, with you and your friends in a group hanging out. you just have to block out the noise and really make that space for yourself. then you can still decide how much you want to engage with the rest of it.

[thesims4blogger]

The Sims 4: Base Game Townie Home Refresh

Sul Sul, Simmers! My name’s Colin, and I’m a Producer on The Sims 4! Like many of you, I’ve been playing The Sims for a long time. I was first introduced to the series back in 2000, and the rest is history. As such a long-time fan of the franchise, I consider it an honor to contribute to the fantastic legacy of The Sims!

Today I’m excited to share a unique project the team has been working on to enhance your base game experience further and deepen the established lore within our game!

Base Game Townie Home Refresh

Over the last 10 years, The Sims 4 Base Game has received many Build/Buy Mode updates, some of which include pools, platforms, half walls, new SDX items, and more! The team wanted to breathe new life into some of our most iconic lots, utilizing all these great features that have been added over the years.

These lots were built with the utmost love and care by talented members of The Sims 4 Development Team. Our goal was not to bulldoze the lot and start from scratch, but to honor the existing lot while giving it some updates and modifications that made it fresh and exciting! Some elements will feel new, while other elements pay homage to the original lots.

While updating these homes, each dev received a summary of each sim in the household, including their age, traits, career, and aspirations. Utilizing this information, the team layered in unique decor, skill-building items, and other fun nods to the townies who live in this home. We aimed for these homes (and even the bedrooms) to be immediately recognizable and suit the sims who live there.

Both the Updated and Original Lots will be available in your “My Library folder. Update them all, update some, or keep the original lots - the choice is yours!

We hope you enjoy these new homes and the stories you’ll tell with them!

How to See this Refresh In-Game

We’ve updated all occupied Residential (or Townie) Lots in Willow Creek and Oasis Springs in today's patch. 

Players that start a New Save after this update will automatically see these refreshed lots in Willow Creek and Oasis Springs. If you have an Existing Save, you will not see any updates automatically. But, you can manually place them in an existing save from the “My Library” tab.

To see the Refreshed Lots with a New Save:

Start a New Game from the Main Menu.

After creating your household in CAS, go to Willow Creek or Oasis Springs.

The Refreshed Lots will automatically be in the world for you to enjoy!

To see the Refreshed Lots with an Existing Save:

Load your Existing Save from the Main Menu.

Go to Manage Worlds, and then go to Willow Creek or Oasis Springs.

Click on the “Gallery” tab in the top right corner.

Click on the “My Library” and filter by “Maxis.” You’ll see all the updated lots here.

Select the desired lot and click “Place Lot” at the bottom right corner.

Select the desired lot location and confirm to place the lot.

Repeat this process for any desired lots you’d like to see updated.

LEFT: BFF House Before Refresh. RIGHT: BFF House After Refresh

Here are Some Helpful FAQs

I edited a townie lot in an existing save. Will my build be impacted?

No, your build will not be impacted. Even if you modified the townie home before the update, this update should not impact existing saves.

I created my own lot where a townie lot used to be located in an existing save. Will my build be impacted?

No, your build will not be impacted. This update should not impact existing saves, even if you built a new lot where a townie lot used to be.

I’m manually placing the lots in an existing save, but when I try to place a lot, the townie household can’t afford the new home.

If this happens, you can utilize the “Free Real Estate” cheat.

You can open the cheat menu by pressing “Ctrl + Shift + C” on your PC or holding down all the shoulder buttons on your console controller.

Type in “testingCheats true”

Type in “FreeRealEstate On”

Continue the lot placement as instructed above.

I would like to keep the original homes. How can I keep them in my game?

In order to see the original homes, you’ll need to manually replace them.

We’ve added the “Legacy Versions” to your Library for you to place.

With an Existing Save, I see the updated lots in the World View, but they are not updated when I load into them.

Should this occur, you can do the following:

Load into the lot and save your game.

Load back into the World View. You should now see the accurate thumbnail.

If you are looking for the updated lots in an existing save, they can only be added manually.

[kerubimcrepin]

Live-read: "Julith et Jahash" - Part 1

In the past, I said that I would wait for a translation that is currently in the making in the russian fandom. However, because I am weak, and want to keep this blog going asap, I lied. (This liveblog will be very slow due to this, so be warned.)

This comic will let us understand Joris better... while literally all of his personality, morals, body language, and tastes, are a product of Kerubim, — this might shed light on A. family history, that might dictate his physiology (what if Julith randomly says she has an allergy? This isn't real, but it would be big for Joris lore), and the things he went through after the movie: what experience he would have with the huppermage culture, which he was cut off from for his entire life thus far.

Question: is there a single member of this family who DOESN'T fish??

Kramdam is a part of Rok Island, the name of which will be familiar to you if you're A. a player of the MMOs, B. batshit insane about Joris lore.

It might be silly, for me to point this out, but listen: the movie, the series, they all happen hundreds of years before the Dofus MMO, — so to have confirmation that Rok Island is that old, is very interesting.

I had previously said that huppermages aren't very fond of cultures outside their own, and I want to elaborate, so that my words aren't misconstrued: Huppermages culture is, in a lot of ways, a mixture of different classes, — because a lot of huppermages aren't born huppermages, but instead, people who convert to this class, and a lot of their spells are inspired or taken from other classes. However, not assimilating fully is... very unwelcome.

Having a history of oppression and at least one genocide in the years after the movie, made huppermages very understandably conservative and closed-off. But this culture, as we'll see from this comic, had some pretty toxic traits even before those scars.

HOLY FUCKING SHIT. Like I already knew about this, but I want you to understand: the stupid fucking log thing is a family trait.

Do you think Joris told Bakara "I hate magic, I hate magic, I hate magic. I HATE WANDS. I HATE STAFFS. I KEEP BREAKING THEM. LET ME OUT. LET ME OUT OF THE ACADEMY. STOP HAVING ME BE ENROLLED!!!!" and the next day she brought him a fucking log. Do you think this is what happened.

So small, and already sure that she'll never be as good as her brother... man.

Also... Bakara and Joris looked very similar as kids. At least that's my opinion.

I didn't think this comic would make me emotional, but the Jurgen family having a thing for logs is making me violently ill.

It probably was Bakara who gave him that bright idea. And Kerubim was probably like "ok son, I am someone who also uses blunt weapons, I can teach you how to do this."

There isn't some "i like to use logs" gene, it was all just Joris preferring to use melee, Bakara's memories of Jahash's melee skills, and Kerubim's skill in melee fighting.

It is just... insane to me, how Joris ends up doing this one thing that his biological father liked to do, despite how different they are as people. Despite Joris likely feeling absolutely nothing towards the man.

Well, that, or he fucking hates Jahash, though probably not as much as Julith.

Think about it this way, — Jahash and Julith ruined his childhood by their reappearance. They ruined his life for the next few decades too, probably. And after? They would always be a shadow over his life, for as long as they are remembered. It's always either "you're evil and we don't trust you because you're Julith's son" (even though he knows that Julith was framed,) or "you're not good enough, even though you're Jahash's son. How come?" (even though he knows from Bakara that... Jahash was just a man. Even if it is hard for him to put together the almost-holy image of his father as seen on the stained-glass in a temple, and the image of him that Bakara talks about, — a human person, who had fears and dreams.)

The only way for Joris to live his own life, without any judgement or comparison, without being reminded of how shit his childhood was, is to wait for the World of Twelve to forget who the fuck a Julith and Jahash even are. It's logical for him to have some irrational resentment.

And yet he brings a log to a nuke fight in season 4. Jahash would never do this, because he got good at magic, but he WOULD approve.

His parents would have loved him a lot, if they had the chance.

List of things that Joris and Bakara share:

Neurotic perfectionist who struggles with self-hatred about their skills and their body.

Cute ass behaviours and expressions as children.

Alcoholism (this is my fanon for Joris. It came to me in a vision. He's just like Kerubim and Bakara, — needs to get shitfaced to cope.)

Haunted by Jahash's success in life, even though Jahash would NEVER have wanted either of them to be haunted.

Thin grabbable waist and twinkish/waifish looks as adults. (Joris is already a twink, despite his 3ft stature, but NEVER forget the official concept art of how Joris would look if he wasn't possessed by a dragon as an infant. He would be a tall, blonde, anime twink instead.)

Whisperers have, historically, been used as servants by Bontarians and Huppermages.

Though by Waven times, they are enemies of the state (at least dissenting ones), and Joris wants you to beat the shit out of them, for the sake of his beautiful nation. (because they're dissenting)

Jahash and Bakara grew up with their dad, Juvence Jurgen.

By huppermage standards, they lived in very unusual conditions.

"All huppermage towers are super-protected, we WILL die if we don't take precautions, so I will go ahead, and deliver the message myself."

Yeah, no, they're not typical huppermages. I guess Joris has a lot in common with Bakara and Jahash. (I keep making myself sad, thinking about this.)

He thinks that Jahash and Bakara are some local hicks/rednecks that the huppermage has been experimenting on, which raises many red flags. Like the fact that apparently, human experimentation is a thing that some huppermages do. Then he thinks that the huppermage is experimenting on his own kids.

The headcanon that Jahash might have had some learning disabilities that he gave to Joris as one last "sayonara you weaboo shit" genetical move, and that it was REALLY hard for him to learn magic and impossible for Joris, stays winning.

By the way, I guess this is a good time to give you the next, very funny piece of trivia:

Joris's name literally means "George George the Farmer Farmer".

I think it's likely that, historically, before Jahash's success in life, their family were just some random poverty-stricken farmers, who happened to be huppermages.

I'M SO FUCKING SAD ABOUT THEM.

Grandpa Jurgen is literally so fucking real.

THE HEADCANON THAT JAHASH MIGHT HAD LEARNING DISABILITIES THAT HE GAVE TO JORIS AS ONE LAST "SAYONARA YOU WEABOO SHIT" GENETICAL MOVE, AND THAT IT WAS REALLY HARD FOR HIM TO LEARN MAGIC AND IMPOSSIBLE FOR JORIS, STAYS WINNING.

Juvence really cares about his kids.

"If you don't do as master says, he will kill you and all your loved ones."

Guys I'm starting to think, that between this, the political intrigues, the bullying, the "using Bakara for PR while she becomes a teenage alcoholic and not giving a shit about her" thing, — that the huppermage academy and temple, are um.... not actually Good, as an institution.

To most this is "an honour," and yet, this random selection process chose a teenage huppermage who, by all accounts, can't do magic and doesn't know a single spell.

I'm so fucking sad.

You know what else these two quotes can apply to? Haha. well. I ask you to imagine Jahash's funeral, and—— [i collapse on the floor weeping]

"He was always more like a father to her, than an older brother."

I am going to crash my car into the sea. And I don't even have a car.

[thepringlesofblood]

Ayda Aguefort character sheet!

I went through FHSY transcripts and wrote down every spell she used and figured out what level she was and made a full character sheet for my beautiful wife, Ayda Aguefort.

Actual character sheet and plaintext description below the cut: here's how I figured it out.

Ayda has one (1) 7th level spell slot, and presumably no 8th level spell slots, since she can only cast Teleport once per day. This puts her at either 13th or 14th level, the only difference being that at 14th level, Divination wizards get "Greater Portent", aka an extra Portent roll per long rest. Looking through the transcripts, she never uses more than 2 portent rolls per long rest, so we will assume she is 13th level.

In terms of background, "Sage" makes the most sense. Like, you roll to determine your “specialty” and one of the options is librarian. She’s gotta be a sage. This gives her proficiencies in arcana and history, two languages of choice, and the "Researcher" feat - “When you attempt to learn or recall a piece of lore, if you do not know that information, you often know where and from whom you can obtain it." Extremely in character

Wizards pick 2 proficiencies from Arcana, History, Insight, Investigation, Medicine, and Religion. I picked Investigation & Medicine, since she already gets Arcana and History from "Sage".

Spells are tricky - I included every spell she uses in the series, but wizard spellbooks are weird in that there's kind of no limit to the amount of spells you can know, the limit is just on how many you can prepare. You automatically learn two new spells per level, so I went through and added other spells (in italics) up to the minimum amount of spells she would know, and then made a list of other spells that seem likely for her to know, or that you could switch in if you like. she does fully live in a library so like. who knows what she could know?

Also, there's a spell she uses during the fight aboard the Goldenrod that sounds a lot like Steel Wind Strike, though it isn't 100% confirmed, so I put a question mark next to it. We also don't know what exact spell she was going to use to "flood hell" - I chose Tidal Wave because it seemed most likely, but it could also be a spell of her own invention.

Final product below the cut!

the reason these don't have image IDs is bc I'm putting the IDs after the images bc there's so much text. also sorry the resolution's shit i don't know why that happened it looks fine on my computer. also i don't know how passive wisdom works im sorry its probably just her normal wisdom (11)??

image/page 1:

Character Name: Ayda Aguefort

Class & level: Wizard (Divination) 13

Background: Sage

Player name: bleem

Race: half-phoenix

Alignment: Lawful neutral

Experience points: [blank]

Ability scores Str 18 (+4) Dex 15 (+2) Char 16 (+3) Int 20 (+5) Wis 11 (+0) Con 14 (+2)

AC 14

Proficiency bonus: +5

Inspiration: [blank]

Initiative: +2

Hit point total: 72

Hit dice: 13 d6 Speed 80

Saving throws:

Strength: +4

Dex: +2

Con: +2

Int: +10 (proficient)

Wis: +5 (proficient)

Cha: +3

Skills

Acrobatics: +2

Animal Handling: +0

Arcana: +10 (proficient)

Athletics: +4

Deception: +3

History: +10 (proficient)

Insight: +0

Intimidation: +3

Investigation: +10 (proficient)

Medicine: +5 (proficient)

Nature: +5

Perception: +0

Performance: +3

Persuasion: +3

Religion: +5

Sleight of Hand: +2

Stealth: +2

Survival: +0

Passive Wisdom: [blank]

Languages: Common, Phoenix, + two others of your choice from Sage background (I chose Infernal & Elvish)

Personality Traits: amazing

Ideals: [blank]

Bonds: Fig (paramour), Adaine (best friend), Kristen, Fabian, Riz, Gorgug (transitive best friends), Garthy (parental figure/guardian/adopted child of a previous incarnation of herself), Arthur Aguefort ("father")

Flaws: [blank]

Features & Traits:

Flight (see: Half-Phoenix)

Fly speed = 80

Fire Immunity (see: Half-Phoenix)

Ayda is immune to all fire damage

Portent (Div. lvl 2) - roll 2 d20 at the end of each long rest. You can replace any attack roll, saving throw, or ability check made by you or a creature that you can see with one of these rolls (once per turn)

Expert Divination (Div. lvl 6) - When you cast a divination spell of 2nd level or higher using a spell slot, you regain one expended spell slot. The slot you regain must be of a level lower than the spell you cast and can't be higher than 5th level

Third Eye (Div. lvl 10) - choose one of the following benefits, which lasts until you are incapacitated or you take a short or long rest. You can't use this feature again until you finish a short or long rest.

- Darkvision: You gain darkvision out to a range of 60 feet

- Ethereal Sight: You can see into the Ethereal Plane within 60 feet of you.

- Greater Comprehension: You can read any language

See Invisibility: You can see invisible creatures and objects within 10 feet of you that are within line of sight.

Attacks & Spellcasting

[formatted like] Name, ATK Bonus, Damage/Type

Fireball, +10, 8d6 fire (+1d6 per lvl)

Steel Wind Strike, +10, 6d10 force

Tidal Wave, dex save DC 18, 4d8 bludgeoning & prone if fail

Equipment: so many books

image/page 2:

Spellcasting Class: Wizard (Div.) 13

Spellcasting Ability: INT

Spell Save DC: 18

Spell Attack Bonus: +10

Prepared Spells Limit: 18

(spells in italics are speculative, based on the min # of wizard spells she would have at this level. the rest are canon. feel free to add or subtract as desired!)

Cantrips (lvl 0)

Prestidigitation

Message

Mage Hand

Mending

Control Flames

other potential cantrips: Lightning Lure, Dancing lights, Minor Illusion

Spell Level 1

slots total: 4

Find Familiar

Synod

Protection from Evil and Good

Detect Magic

Shield

Ayda's Comprehend Subtext

Comprehend languages

Identify

Illusory script

Snare

Spell Level 2

slots total: 3

Invisibility

Enlarge/Reduce

Misty Step

Hold Person

Spell Level 3

slots total: 3

Sending (pirate)

Counterspell

Dispel Magic

Clairvoyance

Remove Curse

Fireball

Tongues

Tidal Wave

Spell Level 4

slots total: 3

Greater Invisibility

Banishment

Scry

Arcane Eye

Spell Level 5

slots total: 2

Steel Wind Strike (?)

Legend Lore

Spell Level 6

slots total: 1

True Seeing

Spell Level 7

slots total: 1

Plane Shift

Teleport

Spell Level 8 [blank]

other good potential spells: Unseen servant, Thunder wave, Tasha's hideous laughter, Knock, Locate object, Scorching ray, Shatter, Web, Animate objects, Symbol, Bigby's hand, Storm sphere, Control Wind, Mordekainen's Private Sanctum, Conjure Elemental, Dimension Door

Spell Level 9 [blank]

Flood Hell [level & specifics unknown]

image/page 3:

Character name: Ayda Aguefort

Age: 17 (present), over 300 (total)

Height: 6-7 ft

Weight: [blank]

Eyes: fire

Skin: dark brown

Hair: fire

Character Appearance

“A Resplendent, Beautiful Woman”

Digitigrade ankles

bird feet

golden talons

orange runic tattoos

books in bandoliers like guns

undercut: fire

wings: fire

ear cuff (from Fig)

resembles Arthur Aguefort, her father

Character Backstory

perfect :)

Allies & Organizations

Compass Points Library

The Bad Kids

The Gold Gardens (Garthy)

Fig & The Sig Figs

[a screenshot of Ayda's official junior year character art (standing), taken from her wiki page]

Additional features & traits

“a resplendent beautiful woman who from the knees down has large talons, she also has digitigrade ankles, she has those ankles that kind of kick back like a lot of animal feet do. So from the knees on down become these almost like metallic golden talons. She bears a striking resemblance to Arthur Aguefort the moment you look at her”

“She looks kind of harpy-esque until you realize that she does have arms in addition to wings. So she has these incredibly, and as they spread, deep red wings that as they approach the tips of the feathers sort of change into orange, and by the time they get to yellow, flicker in a little edge of flame on the outside of the wings. She's dressed in sort of like white linen pants with a pirate's sash on them. No guns or anything you can see. Sort of vest, a lot of sort of orange runes tattooed on her arms, you see that she has a short shock of red hair, it seems to be not on the sides or back as much, almost like a plume of red fiery hair that comes off the top of her head. And her eyes have pupils in them but are otherwise clearly roiling balls of flame.”

“You see that she does have two scrolls at the side on her bandolier, and similarly to the guy downstairs, but sort of like she has it on those leather harnesses you would have for guns, but it's two small books strapped under each arm.”

Treasure: [blank]

[wondergirl2007]

Top 10 Characters Who Are Autistic

Autism. What exactly is autism?

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurological and developmental disorder that affects how people communicate, learn, and behave.

Autistic people may act in a different way to other people.

Some examples are:

* Finding it hard to understand how other people think or feel.

* Being sensitive to bright lights or loud noises.

* Getting anxious about social events.

* They may take longer to understand information.

* They prefer to be on their own.

* And they may act blunt, rude or not interested in others without meaning to.

People who have autism might face challenges that people who don't have it won't, but they're still very capable of achieving goals and living a happy and healthy life just as much as someone who doesn’t have autism. In fact, there are many well-known people with ASD who have achieved significant things in their life, including Albert Einstein, Tim Burton, Elon Musk, to name a few.

Now, why am I mentioning all of this? Well because I’m autistic myself, and I didn’t even know I was on the spectrum until like, last year. And I have quite a few friends who are also on the spectrum like me, so I can relate to them a lot.

But thinking back to when I was a child, I definitely had quite a few symptoms of autism, including preferring to be on my own, enjoying hobbies such as art and music, having repetitive behaviour, being sensitive to loud noises and not understanding sarcasm or figures of speech.

For example, if someone told me to “Break a leg!”, I might think they literally mean for me to break my leg, when really it’s just a rhetorical phrase, and I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t want me to actually break my leg.

Another example is when I was in primary school, I didn’t like the loudness of everyone talking all at once during assemblies, so I was given these headphones that would reduce the noise, and it did help, but one of my teachers didn’t like the idea of me wearing them, but when I got older, I was less sensitive to the noise, so I stopped wearing them.

But I’m not here to just talk about my experiences with autism, because as you can tell from the title, we’re going to be looking at fictional characters from TV shows and films who are also on the spectrum, and how I can relate to the characters.

For this list, we’ll be looking at characters from TV shows and animated films who either are autistic, or have Asperger’s syndrome. Characters from live action films or videos games will not be on this list. So without further ado, here are the top 10 characters who are autistic.

Quick disclaimer: Not every single on this list may actually be confirmed to be autistic, but I’m still including them on the list as they have autistic traits that I can relate to. With that out of the way, let’s get onto the list.

10. Elsa (Frozen)

I’m sure we all know the film “Frozen.” It’s the sixth highest grossing film in history and is based on the classic tale “The Snow Queen”. It has a unique story, catchy music and well-written characters. Out of all of the characters though, Elsa really represents what being autistic is like.

When Elsa was young, she became less social and communicative after she accidentally injured her sister, Anna, due to being unable to control her ice powers. After her parents pass away, Elsa is unable to understand Anna’s thoughts and feelings and doesn’t realise how much her younger sister needs her.

After Elsa becomes the Queen at her coronation, she becomes much more anxious and may have even suffered from sensory overloads which cause her ice powers to get the best of her and starts a glacial winter in the kingdom of Arendelle.

Elsa flees from Arendelle to create a castle made of ice on the distant cliffs, and prefers to be by herself, as she believes she’s a threat to the kingdom due to her ice powers and doesn’t want to do any harm to anyone.

Elsa's powers being a metaphor for being autistic is a valid and powerful interpretation that people are allowed to have and share. Actually, Elsa's powers are seen as a metaphor by almost every minority who suffers for being different.

How sensitive Elsa seems to be, how she seems to look at the world different from people around, how she moves, some repetitive gestures, the way she learns some behaviors from her sister and attempts to follow them because she understands these things are important -- even though naturally she wouldn't act that way, because it is a learned behavior.

Also, the song “Let It Go” was written by taking inspiration from an autistic relative of the writer.

It's important to remember the there's an autistic spectrum and that each person is different. Autistic people are believed to learn to mimic neurotypical behaviors under the pressure of being accepted -- or better said, tolerated. Even though it hasn’t been fully confirmed, I am very much convinced that Elsa could absolutely be autistic.

9. Lola (Charlie And Lola)

I grew up watching Charlie And Lola, and I could relate to Lola a lot. After rewatching the show, it’s pretty clear that Lola has autism. She has many autistic traits including:

* Only has one close friend (Lotta) because other people perceive her as being eccentric and very odd.

* Has been labeled a “very fussy eater” by her brother Charlie, probably due to sensory problems with food, which is something I can relate to a lot as I’m a picky eater myself.

* Takes everything very literally and doesn’t understand idioms or expressions (e.g. “Don’t make faces because if the wind changes it’ll stick like that” “Don’t watch too much tv or you’ll get square eyes”)

* Reading the same book all about bugs over and over again, to name a few.

I know it’s not been confirmed that Lola is autistic, but I mean, come on. It’s pretty obvious that she is. Lola is basically me when I was a child. I don’t have much else to say on this one, so let’s just move on.

8. Goo (Foster’s Home For Imaginary Friends)

Ah, Foster’s Home For Imaginary Friends. A classic Cartoon Network show featuring some memorable characters such as Mac, Frankie, Eduardo, Wilt, Bloo, and then there’s… Goo.

Goo was introduced in the third season of the show and is seen as an hyperactive, happy-go-lucky, overly imaginative and talkative African-American girl. Goo does seem to have some autistic traits, such as being spontaneous, going into detail about a subject (In a rather hyperactive way) and she’s incredibly hyper active in and outside of her mind.

Goo also struggles to make friends, which is why she creates her own friends, and even though most autistic people usually prefer being on their own, Goo would rather have lots of friends, but is unable to make friends because she thinks people find her annoying due to her hyperactive behaviour, especially after being yelled at by Mac about it.

I mean, I can’t really blame Mac for yelling at her, but I just felt so bad for Goo. I also struggled to make new friends when I first started high school, and preferred to do things on my own. I didn’t mind being on my own and times, but other times I did want to have at least someone to talk to.

Now I know just because someone can be creative or hyperactive doesn’t instantly mean they’re autistic, but Goo’s imagination is what helps her less insecure about herself and not just seen as this weird, annoying kid. Goo’s creativity makes her who she is, and she shouldn’t be ashamed of that.

7. Leni Loud (The Loud House)

Now, Leni Loud is seen as the stereotypical “dumb blonde girl” in The Loud House, and she reminds me a lot of Lindsay from Total Drama, but the reason why she’s on this list is because she’s the most relatable character in the show to me.

First of all, Leni has a special interest in fashion and she even makes various clothing in many episodes. Also, a lot like me, Leni has a lot of trouble when it comes to taking things people say literally.

One example can be found in the episode “House Music” in which the Loud family forms a family band. During the episode Luna tells Leni that she can sing backup and Leni ends up taking her words literally and singing the words “backup”.

And another example occurs in “Driving Miss Hazy”, when Lori tells Leni to make her bed Leni ends up taking her literally and builds her a bed frame from scratch.

As an autistic person myself I often have problems myself when it comes to taking things people say literally and I often have trouble recognizing sarcasm or when people are joking instead of being serious.

Next, like a lot of autistic people, there is evidence that she has routines that she follows such as in the episode “Space Invader” when she mentions that she brushes her hair exactly 50 times every day.

Finally there’s the fact that Leni’s stock pose is something known as raptor hands. Raptor hands is basically when you have your arms close to your body with your hands bent. Raptor hands can be common among autistic people and it’s pretty much Leni’s signature pose.

I think it might have been confirmed that Leni is autistic, and I saw a poll of the Loud House fandom about wherever you thought if Leni was autistic or not, and more people said yes than no, so Leni may actually be autistic.

6. Julia (Sesame Street)

Julia was probably one of the first characters who I’ve seen to be on the spectrum. She is a friendly girl who enjoys various activities including drawing and playing with her stuffed toy rabbit, Fluffster, but is sensitive to loud noises such as sirens and may not answer to someone immediately.

She also enjoys bonding with her neurotypical friends on Sesame Street, who often grow in their understanding of autism in the process.

Puppeteer Stacey Gordon, who played the role of Julia, uses her experiences as a mother of an autistic child to portray Julia in an authentic way.

Julia made her first appearance in an awareness initiative entitled Sesame Street and Autism: See Amazing in All Children, which was made to provide resources “designed to serve autistic children and their families”.

Sesame Street is known for taking on serious topics including grief, racism and adoption. And autism was no exception. Being autistic myself, Julia is a very relatable character.

5. Fred Jones (Scooby-Doo: Mystery Incorporated)

Fred Jones In Scooby-Doo: Mystery Incorporated has a LOT of symptoms of autism, such as:

Obsessive interests (specifically, traps), Not understanding other people’s emotions, being more drawn to things than to people, talking things too literally, being unable to recognise people's hints toward him, a need for a consistent routine, finding it hard to express his own emotions and getting upset if somebody gets too close to him.

I realise a lot of this was apparently done for the sake of humour, but the writers of Mystery Incorporated really seem to have unintentionally written Fred to be autistic.

I don’t have a lot to say about this one either, because I didn’t really watch Scooby Doo all that much when I was younger, but I did know that Fred was a very popular autistic character, so here he is on the list.

4. SpongeBob (SpongeBob SquarePants)

Yes, it has been confirmed that SpongeBob is indeed autistic by the voice actor himself, Tom Kenny, but he “never meant" for it to go public with his recent revelation about the iconic character being autistic after his comments went viral.

But SpongeBob has pretty much every autistic trait an autistic person can have, such as not being able to read social cues. It's hard for the guy to know when he's bothering someone, and he's not very good at reading the emotions of others. A lot of the comedy from the show derives from the fact that he doesn't know that he's annoying.

He also has meltdowns over relatively minor things, and is unable to handle his own emotions well. We've seen Spongebob, countless times, freak out over fairly petty things. Most of the time it's played for comedy, but for certain people (autistic or not) it can be relatable at times.

SpongeBob also takes things literally such as in the episode, “Squid On Strike”, Squidward told him that they would "dismantle the oppressive establishment” Spongebob interpreted "dismantle the establishment" as "destroy the building." So he did.

And most autistic people have one certain area of extreme knowledge/expertise that they refer to as a "special interest." Something that they feel extreme, almost obsessive, passion for. It's not hard to see that Spongebob's is his love of fry-cooking. Fortunately for him, that's also his job, and he's probably the happiest workaholic ever shown on television.

SpongeBob was definitely a character I didn’t expect to be confirmed autistic when I was younger, but after rewatching SpongeBob recently, yeah, I can definitely see it.

3, 2 and 1. Grim, Billy and Mandy (The Grim Adventures Of Billy And Mandy)

So, I started watching Billy and Mandy when I was around 14 years old, and I had no idea that the three main characters were autistic. In fact, I didn’t even see any autistic traits in them at first, but after realising that the creator of the show, Maxwell Atoms, is autistic himself, and also finding out that I’m autistic myself, this is one of the reasons why Billy and Mandy is one of my favourite shows ever.

All three of the characters are so relatable, as they all have autistic traits that I can relate to, from Grim taking things literally and being easily upset when thrown off from routine, to Billy’s repetitive behaviour and not understanding other people’s emotions, to Mandy hating being touched or hugged or finding it difficult to express her emotions, and prefers being on her own.

I’m pretty sure we can all see it, especially after Maxwell confirming that Grim, Billy and Mandy were all autistic in 2021. Heck, there’s a whole video about Mandy talking about autism. (With the voice being AI, because, well, of course)

But overall, I think that being autistic isn’t something to be ashamed of, as a person with autism can absolutely live a normal life with the right support and resources. Early intervention, education, and community support are key factors in helping people with autism achieve their goals and lead fulfilling lives.

Let me know in the comments which autistic character is your favourite and why. And if there was any characters I may have missed, also let me know in the comments. And with that, I’ll see you guys later.

[crowfem]

•*Current Beliefs and Stances*•

hello and welcome to my blog! i am new to radfem but I am not new to feminism. i have been reading more and more and just want to put my beliefs and stances at the top of the blog. this will be updated as I learn and grow more.

note: if you wish to talk in comments, asks, etc. i will be willing to answer and listen as long as everything comes from a place of mutual respect and desire to learn/grow

‧𓍢ִ໋☕ ׂ 𓈒 ⋆ ۪

there is a fundamental difference between female and male socialization (especially in fundamental religious spaces!) sometimes i lean towards more misandrist views and live by “don’t trust a man until he proves himself”

i am anti-porn, anti-sex work, and kink critical as i know that these spaces can be used to victimize women and children. this does not mean that i think women should be attacked for being stuck in porn or prostitution and we need to work together to help uplift all women

i include men somewhat in my feminism as i know that the patriarchy harms and grooms young boys. my personal belief is that to stop the cycle we need to heal men as well. however, i will always prioritize women and their voices, writing, etc.

gender stereotypes need to abolished. women and girls need to know they can do and enjoy traditionally masculine things without being a man. vice versa for men and boys

i have a complicated view on trans discussions. i think my beliefs could be labeled as “truscum” because that is what i have been taught from the trans people in my life. while i may have some harsher views (such as how the idea of “passing” reinforces gender stereotypes and that gender non-confirming may eliminate the need to transition) i sympathize with those that have body dysphoria as i know how crippling that feeling can be and i do not wish for them to suffer.

i advocate for mental health care and services. i advocate for services for the homeless population. i see the inherent value of all human life especially when we are in community with one another

anti-capitalism and anti-war - this includes genocide and the fascists that attempt to take over our world and bodies

i center myself in a “eco” worldview instead of “ego” - this planet is our home and we all need to do our part to keep it safe. AI and the like can rot ‼️

i work in the education field and i aim to get my Phd one day. i believe that education is one of the aspects of true liberation

i am always willing to learn - i know i may be wrong on some things based on personal experiences and am open to respectful conversations

feminism MUST be intersectional. i have learned a lot of from the woc in my life about misogynoir and the differences we go through. all women must be free or none of us are

i have learned through my own life that medical professionals do not focus on women with any sort of medical issues - including but not limited to pregnancy, pcos, mental health issues, and much much more. any post highlighting this and research on it will be boosted here

no one is free from criticism, including me. if i post about something harmful or factually incorrect please let me know

extra:

i love to learn - i have lots of special interests besides feminism/social issues

media of all kinds (books, movies, tv shows, theater, etc)

writing! i hope to be an author one day and am greatly inspired by the women authors who have come before me

fantasy, dnd, and video games

animals!

aesthetics and art

lesbian history (proud wlw and love my gf 🥰)

that’s about it! i will be working on making a resource post to link to this in the future •*

[palacholic]

Storytime

So...it's time to introduce you to the wicked ways of my weirdness, to show you what it's like to be me, starting from the beginning...

Right now I'm in my first semester at Charles university, Prague. I've been living in the Czech republic for a few months now, I chose to move there right after finishing high school in my home country. I spent years preparing for my life abroad, studying the Czech language, taking care of all the formalities that are necessary to move to a new country, most of it by myself, getting to know the country that I consider my home and I wish to live in for the rest of my life.

Why all this? What made me take such an unexpected choice, leaving behind everything I knew, saying goodbye to my friends and family and to the life I could have had in my home country?

As you could probably guess from my username and the content on my blog, the answer is simple:

Jan Palach

Yes. That Jan Palach. The student who on 16th January 1969 set himself on fire in protest of the apathy and resignation of the Czechoslovak people following the soviet occupation of Czechoslovakia. A guy who's been dead for over half a century.

I first heard about him during a time when I was struggling a lot with my mental health. His story gave me strength and hope, what he did reminded me that there are things worth fighting for, things worth living for. I know this sounds kinda paradoxical given that he died because of what he did but that's the point - he was willing to sacrifice his life because he wanted others to live in a better world. He didn't kill himself because he hated life, on the contrary he loved it.

I found something that gave me joy, something I liked doing - reading and watching everything I could find about him. I spent a lot of time researching him and loved every new detail I found out. I started researching him out of admiration for his act and became more and more intrigued by his personality, his interests, the things he believed in...I look up to him a lot. It's incredible how much this helped me getting better mentally and eventually healing from the worst of my mental issues. I started looking forward to the future again, especially after visiting the Czech Republic for the first time.

I came to Prague to pay my respects to Jan Palach, to visit the places where he lived, to say thank you...and fell in love with the city and Czech culture overall more than I expected. I met amazing people and had some of the best experiences of my life, and soon after I realised that moving to Czechia was the right thing to do. That I would regret it for the rest of my life if I didn't go through with it, that if I stayed in my home country I would never be as happy as I am now.

Two years later I finally packed my things and went on my way...as soon as I left the airport on my arrival I felt that I'd made the right choice and everything that happened since then only confirmed that feeling. Even the bad things. It's not always easy but it feels right, in a way that's hard to convey by words. I sometimes think about how crazy this all is but I'm so glad it happened. I'm thankful for everything I have now, my friends, my hobbies, my new home. I love it every day more. And I don't care how weird it is that all this started because of a guy who died more than half a century ago. Was it only a coincidence that I watched the news that day when they talked about him? Is there more to it? Who knows? Is it relevant? I don't think so.

I hope he'd be happy to know that he saved me and how much he means to me. If I could, I'd thank him for everything.

I started this blog to share my feelings and my journey as an expat in Czechia. You'll find memes, stories of a foreigner's life in Prague and of course a lot of history-related things. I'm happy to answer all your questions and tell you more. I hope to make new friends and find people with whom I can talk about my interests. I'm glad to be here and I love you all, I'm proud of y'all for being here too <3

this post took me waaayyyy too long to write and maybe I'll edit it again sometime in the future, if you read all of this I'm genuinely impressed, please tell me your thoughts in the comments or send an ask if you want to :)

[wutheringheightsfilm]

interview with the vampire art history lesson part 2:

Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion, Francis Bacon, c. 1944. Held at the Tate Britain in London. Here is its catalog listing.

So! This is the painting that has been on the wall of Louis and Armand's apartment, and that Season 2 makes a point to emphasize that they're selling. Full disclosure, modern British art history is not my forte, but I have covered this in a British art history survey class, and this is arguably one of Bacon's most famous works, so there's a lot of literature you can find on this. Let's discuss!!!

Now, one claim that you can try to make here about the relationship of this painting with Armand specifically is that Armand is now connected to two 'Christian' artworks (see my post on The Adoration of the Shepherds with a Donor here): one that marks the beginning of Christ's (semi)mortal life, and one that marks the end of it, which is definitely interesting, but the thing is with this Three Studies piece is that Francis Bacon put a lot of emphasis on the fact that this is a crucifixion, not the Crucifixion. Francis Bacon was an atheist, however, a lot of his work does revolve around either critiquing or dealing with Christianity (this is not his only work to reference/allude to or show the Crucifixion, as well as his other very famous work, Study after Velázquez's Portrait of Pope Innocent X). It was a very nuanced, complex topic for him that is way beyond the scope of this post.

Interestingly, though, Bacon has made a point to say that "faith is a fantasy" [1]----which is definitely something interesting in relation to Armand...

What Three Studies is definitely associated with, though, is World War II and Greek tragedy.

The catalog entry from the Tate spends a while discussing the process of this painting, and how Bacon may have drawn from his various experiences during World War II (he was in the ARP during the London Blitz), as well as other works made around this time (namely, Figure Getting Out of a Car and Man in a Cap) referencing various Nazi imagery that Bacon had seen impacting his process for creating this triptych. Various scholars have cited Bacon as interested in the dynamics of power and violence, and the imagery of the triptych can be interpreted as either the perpetrator and/or the victim [2]. Bacon has also confirmed that this painting references the Eumenides (the Furies who are responsible for enacting revenge in Greek mythology) [3 + 4].

Now that we've covered the very basics of this work, let's discuss how this might relate to Louis and Armand. This work being present in the show has raised some interesting points for me, and some questions:

The show makes a point of emphasizing that they're selling this work. Since this work is so closely related to World War II, and Louis and Armand are currently trying to relay their experiences during World War II, is the selling of it symbolic of either 1) 'selling' their story to Daniel or 2) finally closing out that chapter in their lives?

It is interesting that in their apartment, there is only modern and post-modern artwork and architecture. I wonder how deeply this ties to Armand's trauma, since he himself was modeled (whitewashed as he was) in Late Renaissance/Mannerism artwork from the 1500s. How much of that experience drives his taste in art?

Bacon's juxtaposition and struggle with violence, power, and the dynamic of the perpetrator/victim is extremely interesting... the thoughts are still cooking about this one.

What do u guys think.... i've been microwaving this in my head all day along with the other painting!

Works Cited + Referenced:

[1] D. Farson, The Gilded Gutter Life of Francis Bacon, London, 1994, p. 134. [Taken from this JSTOR article, further cited below] [2] Referencing the catalogue here, which cites: Ziva Amishai-Maissels, Depiction and Interpretation: The Influence of the Holocaust on the Visual Arts, Oxford, New York, Seoul and Tokyo 1993, pp.189-90, 225-6, 354. [3] M[ichael] C[ompton], letter to Francis Bacon, 6 Jan. 1959, Tate Gallery cataloguing files. [4] Francis Bacon, letter to Tate Gallery, [9 Jan. 1959], Tate Gallery cataloguing files. [5] Arya, Rina. “The Primal Cry of Horror: The A-Theology of Francis Bacon.” Artibus et Historiae 32, no. 63 (2011): 275–83. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41479747.