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liminalpsych-in-teyvat · 1 year

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Notes for A Matter of Duty - Chapter 4: A leaf drifting in the sea

An actual plot-heavy chapter! And is there a thing such as un-porn? Porn that turns you off? (I guess that’s the definition of a squick.)

This chapter took the longest to write so far... in part because it required me to actually figure out more of Inazuma's political situation, and plan out the political intrigue that I've so far been vaguely handwaving. (I'm going to have the Inazuma section of the Genshin Impact wiki memorized at this rate. And Ayato's entire story quest.) Hat tip to my nesting partner who is good at political intrigue plot and workshopped it with me, otherwise I would probably still be stuck.

Also took a while to write because I had to make up an original character, because I couldn't find an Inazuma NPC that fit the role. I planned for Toru to be creepy (his placeholder in my notes until I figured out a name was "Creepy Old Man"), and then learned more about him as I wrote/outlined further, and thought maybe he wouldn't be creepy after all. (Maybe he's just a lonely old man and it was a big misunderstanding?) Aaand then I wrote the actual chapter and never mind, he's rather creepy and writing that scene felt gross and squicky. Might have to just gloss over/summarize future scenes with him because I don't particularly want to sit in that feeling again, but we'll see how things develop. (I'm outlining way more than I normally do with this story, but I'm still ultimately a seat-of-the-pants kind of writer, and it always feels somewhat like I'm following the story/characters where it happens to unfold rather than making deliberate choices. If I try to force it into a different shape than the one it wants to take, it never works as well.)

I know you can't buy miso soup from Shimura's, but it's where you get the recipe, so I assume it's on the restaurant's menu somewhere.

I didn't intend to write the origin story of Thoma's aversion to alcohol in his "Least Favorite Food" voice-line, but it happened anyway. ("As far as food is concerned, I'm fine with anything. If we're counting beverages, though... I'm not very good with alcohol. Don't laugh, and before you say it — yes, I've wondered what this says about my identity as a Mondstadter. But, y'know... too much alcohol is bad for you, anyway. So not drinking is a good thing.")

Also, a note: Gonna be depicting all sorts of varieties of sex work and sex worker in this story. We’re pro sex worker rights and decriminalization around here, SWERFS can GTFO, you probably won’t enjoy this story if you’re here for a “sex work bad / all sex workers are victims / save the poor sex workers” kind of story. A not insignificant number of my friends are sex workers in one capacity or another, from legal licensed full-service girlfriend experience to side hustle passion hobby to cam work and stage work, all across the gender / sexuality / romantic orientation spectrum. I’ve heard a lot of stories and perspectives from them over the years, and my writing’s informed by that. I know it might at first look like we’re going down the “sex worker as victim” plot line, but bear with me and it’ll develop into more nuance over time.

And again, a sampling of my Google search successes when studying up for this chapter:

Japanese etiquette according to a fascinating 1897 article in the Sacramento Daily Union. Particularly focused on hospitality.

Japanese gift etiquette, around giving and receiving gifts.

Visiting etiquette in Japan, according to another 1897 article, this time in the Hanford Journal.

Japanese slipper culture, because yes, there is a technique and etiquette all around the various times to wear and remove different kinds of house-slippers. I'd lay money that Inazuma incorporates this aspect of the culture, because you can find shoes sitting right outside the door of a few different Inazuma houses, even if they don't bother animating it because that would probably be too much trouble.

Etiquette of feudal Japan, covering bowing, speech, audiences, and especially sword or weapon etiquette.

Drinking etiquette in Japan. Why yes, most of my research this time was around politeness rules, how could you tell?

Japanese economic history prior to the Meiji restoration, aka during the Tokugawa Shogunate / Edo period which is the closest analogue to Inazuma. There were... a bunch of other articles on historical Japanese economics, but I won't bore you with them. Let's just say that as brilliant, detailed, well-researched, and cohesive as Genshin Impact's worldbuilding is, they really drop the ball on economy design and government design.

Summary of the fic itself with content warnings, tags, etc below the cut so you can decide if you want to read it or not before you click on the link.

A Matter of Duty

"Back then, I had no choice but to accept the position I was in. While I desperately looked around for powerful supporters, I endured smear campaigns and attempts to exploit me. I had no other choice... I didn't mind what became of me, but my family... No one can ever be allowed to trample over my precious family."

How Ayato secured powerful supporters, endured exploitation, and weathered the storm of the years following the death of his parents... and how Thoma helped him contend with a bunch of self-serving, degenerate public officials.

And how, after much stilted fumbling and well-intended sacrifice, they learned the truth of one another's hearts.

Note: Mind the tags. More specific content warnings will be given at the beginning of each chapter, and the story tags will be updated as needed. All characters involved in any sex scenes are adults.

Rating: Explicit. It's porn with plot. Porn as a vehicle for plot, or plot as a vehicle for porn, you can interpret it either way. (I prefer: porn and plot as a vehicle for ~feels~)

Tags that I'm not actually turning into tags here, but it gives you an idea of what you're in for: Kamisato Ayato/Thoma (Genshin Impact), dubious consent but not between Ayato and Thoma, slow burn, sex ed, first time, self-sacrifice, humiliation, exhibitionism, oral sex, anal sex, bdsm, bad bdsm etiquette, rough sex, breath play, impact play, bondage, service kink, abuse, sadism, codependency, shame, guilt, jealousy, possessiveness, trauma, ptsd, dissociation, political sex work, or sex work for political maneuvering, or political survival sex work if that’s a thing, exploitation, blackmail, political machinations, political intrigue, no aftercare, maybe someday some aftercare, hurt/comfort, mostly hurt for a long time but eventually comfort, oblivious disaster gays, for such socially savvy people they are terrible at personal relationships, dominant Ayato, submissive Thoma, top Ayato, bottom Thoma, Ayato is incredibly parentified, Thoma has no sense of self-preservation, self-sacrifice isn't a contest but don't tell Ayato and Thoma that, it's like the snipe-the-check game at restaurants but with sex and politics, Kushiel's Impact, no really this was in my drafts for the longest time as Kusheline Thomato Fic, everyone's an adult in this timeline except Ayaka, she gets protected at all costs, original characters out of necessity, finding appropriate existing Inazuma npcs for some of these roles was impossible, no beta we die like ayato's parents

Full fic: https://archiveofourown.org/works/47604337?view_full_work=true

Chapter 4: A leaf drifting in the sea: Thoma completes Ayato's deal with the elderly accounts manager of the Kanjou Commission. He mostly keeps his promise to not push himself in the process. ...Mostly.

Chapter contains: sex work (for political favors), oral sex, significant age difference, alcohol, pressure to drink alcohol, drunkenness, more plot than porn. Also general... creepiness/squickiness, I guess? Aka writing this made me uncomfortable and I'm not sure exactly how to content warn for it.

#genshin impact #a matter of duty #AMOD chapter 4 #writing #my writing #fanfic #genshin fanfic #kamisato ayato #thoma #thomato #ayathoma #ayato #ayato x thoma #Kushiel’s Impact #Kushiel’s Dart meets Genshin Impact #not a crossover though #just thematically

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a-god-in-ruins-rises · 2 years

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What's your ideal solution for increasing birth rates?

yeah there are a variety of ways to attack it

offer increased tax breaks for children. alternatively, punish childlessness with additional taxes. "childfree" types always be talking about all the money they save so they can travel and do fun things. well, i want to see them cry when a portion of that money is taxed to subsidize /families/ travelling and doing fun things. a new type of family planning -- an organization where parents (or prospective parents) can go to find a variety of resources to help them in their creation of a family. also i think artificial incubator technology would be a major help so that's something that should be invested in.

build more houses and walkable, safer, close-knit communities; we need people out and about, moving around, being active, mingling with other humans, making connections, stay healthy, etc. reduce the workweek so parents can spend more time with their families. and encourage more flexible work-from-home options. universal basic income (with extra for each dependent). more affordable childcare. generous maternity leave. give parents bonus bay. also, not sure how it would be done, but i feel like there should be some more accessible housekeeping options; either some public housekeeping corps, or a community volunteer initiative, or the government offering some voucher for housekeeping, etc. just something to help parents with household maintenance.

we also need to get people fucking and getting married. young people are living with parents later into life than previous generations. so they need places to fuck. we should build love hotels. we need to incentivize marriage. tax breaks for married couples, government loans for weddings, some kind of family recreation department that organizes and subsidizes couples' honeymoons, offer interest-free loans for first time home buyers. offer a family loan/voucher for newlyweds worth some portion of their annual income and have a quarter of the loan forgiven for each child they have.

but underneath all of this, the core of the issue is cultural and social and spiritual. we need to completely shift away from this current hedonistic, atomistic liberal paradigm toward one that is more wholesome and family/community oriented. one where instant personal gratification isn't the goal. where we acknowledge that parenting can be hard sometimes but it's rewarding on a deeper level and we shouldn't avoid things just because they're difficult. we need to starting thinking about something bigger than just ourselves. we need to make antinatalists and childfree types look miserable and lame (this isn't hard to do). it needs to be seen as uncool (and degenerate) to be an adult child who lives only for themselves. and being a parent needs to be seen as something noble and good and fulfilling.

this would be incorporated in the education system, explicitly. as part of the sex ed and family life classes, for example. we should be giving mothers who have multiple children medals and parades and financial awards. we need to make a holiday in the summer that celebrates the family. make it a three day weekend thing. you know how the pentagon funds war movies? we need to do the same with families. have the government fund movies that are centered around strong families and having children and getting married and that sort of stuff. have government agents spread breeding kink propaganda online (i'm only /half/-joking).

overall we just need to shift to a more optimistic perspective. i think people have more kids when they are optimistic about the future. but i find a lot of antinatalist types are deeply pessimistic about the future and just humanity in general. "why would i ever want to bring more life into this horrible shitty world??" is a common sentiment i see. so i think there needs to be a massive optimistic propaganda campaign. and we just need to get people healthier in mind, body, and spirit. we need to make therapy/counselling more accessible, we need state-mandated gym time (half-joke), and spiritual renewal.

which reminds me: the ultimate solution is to join my cult.

#i could probably keep going but i think this covers the gist of it

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sarvendara-smg-livebrief · 2 years

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Supermassive Games Live Brief

The Concept

Supermassive Games provided us with a variety of horror content genres and kinds to choose from for the live brief. and also we were told to visualize the "Third Act" of the Story, which we create.

So as soon as the brief went live I started to do my research by watching many horror stories getting their nack of cinematograph and how they used their jump scare in order to get us scared, I took many references from movies and tv shows, in order to formulate a horror story.

The horror film that had the biggest impact was named "Hereditary." This film, which was released in 2018, tells the tale of a household. The daughter and the rest of the family are devastated after the death of the mother. The horrifying reality about the daughter's ancestry soon starts to surface as strange things start happening.

youtube

The transition between the images and the lighting design was both outstanding. I've seen a lot of horror films, but this one really stuck with me because of how the ghost or demon is portrayed without using any unsettling jump scares, just subtle adjustments to the lighting and perspective.

Like we are able to sense the presence in the room but can't see them, so by giving us an eerie feeling of someone watching us from the shadow

After getting inspired by the movies and shows, I wanted to incorporate this idea into my story, so I searched for a hot horror topic and found out that people like good places like Mistry with serial killing like from the movie "Seven." So my initial idea was to do a serial killer's lair, where I wanted to showcase his or her room from an outside perspective, where the antagonist was a killer and they had a day job in order to soured them in this society, so I wanted to capture that idea, but the research for the idea was too much, and I also thought that it could be generic, so I scrapped that idea in the initial stage itself.

And then came the idea of using an existing fear and adding that element to my story in order to give it some depth, and the fear I chose is the "fear of water," especially in deep ocean places like "The Mariana Trench," which is considered to be the deepest part of the ocean that has been discovered.

#Youtube

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hsaenvs3000w23 · 2 years

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Beliefs and Responsibilities Unit 10

A personal ethic representing your underlying values and views is crucial for nature interpreters. Your ethics should reflect your dedication to liberty, responsibility, and justice and should influence how you interact with the environment and other people.

Honesty is among the most significant values I bring to my work as a nature interpreter. My responsibility is to be truthful with my audience regarding the information I present to them. This requires me to be open about my sources and willing to acknowledge my ignorance of a subject.

Environmental justice is another fundamental principle that guides my own ethics. Regardless of race, nationality, or socioeconomic class, everyone should have access to nature and its advantages, such as clean air and water. I understand that historically, marginalized people have suffered disproportionately from environmental degradation and that my duty as a nature interpreter is to strive toward establishing a more just and equitable society.

My ethics as a nature interpreter are based on my conviction that nature has intrinsic worth. Regardless of their perceived importance or utility to humans, all living creatures have inherent value and ought to be valued. This idea is based on the understanding that there are other creatures on the globe besides humans and that these creatures and humans are inextricably linked to one another. As a nature interpreter, I work to show others how everything is interconnected, how vital biodiversity is, and how important conservation is.

Being sympathetic and kind is the strategy that works best for me personally. It's crucial that I put myself in my audience's position and comprehend their viewpoints and experiences. As a result, I must be open to hearing their queries and worries and changing my strategy to suit their requirements.

As a nature interpreter, I must protect environmental integrity and encourage sustainable lifestyle choices. This calls for me to have a thorough understanding of the ecosystems I'm interpreting and a willingness to convey the value of conservation to my audience.

I must inform people about the natural environment and motivate them to take action to preserve it in my capacity as a nature interpreter. This entails keeping up with environmental issues and disseminating this knowledge approachable and excitingly. It also entails setting an example for others to follow by minimizing trash, using sustainable products, and conserving energy. In addition to teaching and motivating people, I support laws and procedures that safeguard the environment. To guarantee that environmental problems are taken seriously, this may involve lending assistance to conservation organizations, participating in public comment periods for environmental legislation, and interacting with local and federal lawmakers.

Nature interpretation can be emotionally taxing since it requires a thorough comprehension of our planet's problems. Take breaks, get help when you need it, and practise self-care as an interpreter if you want to be able to do this job for years to come. I must also take care of myself and make sure I'm not causing burnout or compassion fatigue by engaging in self-care.

The most effective method for interpreting nature from a personal perspective is collaborative and community-focused. This is actively listening to others, incorporating a variety of viewpoints and voices into my work, and providing platforms for other people to share their experiences. Creating spaces where people from diverse backgrounds and experiences may share their knowledge and opinions is crucial, rather than coming off as the authority with all the answers.

Lifelong learning commitment is another novel perspective for me as a person. To keep my work current and accurate, I must participate in workshops and conferences, read widely, and interact with other professionals in the field. Be abreast of the most recent scientific findings and environmental concerns as a nature interpreter, and always be on the lookout for new data and viewpoints.

As a nature interpreter, I hope that via my work, I make others aware of the worth and beauty of nature and motivate them to take action to preserve it. By describing my own philosophy and method of nature interpretation, I aim to inspire people to think about their values and obligations as interpreters and develop solutions for a more fair and sustainable future.

In the end, a nature interpreter still has work to perform. It is up to every one of us to remain aware, involved, and dedicated to having a positive impact as our understanding of the natural world changes and environmental concerns multiply. We can continue to make strides toward a more sustainable and equitable future for everybody with a solid personal ethic and a collaborative, innovative approach.

Finally, nature interpretation must be imaginative and entertaining to engage people of all ages and backgrounds. Finding creative methods to engage people with the natural world, whether through art, music, or storytelling, can be an effective way to foster empathy and understanding.

In conclusion, my commitment to honesty, authenticity, empathy, and sustainability is the foundation of my personal ethic as a nature interpreter. These principles are crucial for establishing trust with my audience and encouraging a better understanding of nature.

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elevatewellness-stpete · 2 years

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Top Rated Acupuncturist in St. Pete

Meet The Doctor | Kim Kuhn

The kind of support you’ve been looking for

Background

I first began my career in the holistic health field over 20 years ago as a Licensed Clinical Social Worker. As a counselor, I always incorporated a holistic model into treating people so that they could get to the root issues and find ways to create change in their life.

Early on in my career, I had an opportunity to be trained to use auricular acupuncture to help patients detox from drugs and alcohol. After seeing the powerful impact of the Acu-detox protocol, I started working collaboratively with acupuncturists to help my patients address many other symptoms and health conditions.

Eventually, I felt the frustration of being limited to traditional talk therapy. This passion for treating the whole person and being able to address the mind, heart, AND body, is what led me to pursue my degree in Traditional Chinese Medicine. I found that I felt too limited just treating one part — I wanted to treat the whole person.

While I continue to find a deeper form of healing in eastern medicine, I also value western medicine and take an integrative approach to health and healing. I strongly believe that all practitioners treating a patient can collaborate so that each patient feels that they are being treated as a whole person. I find that we each add value to health and healing and I love being a part of a patients team in pursuing health and wellness.

Kim’s Area’s Of Expertise

Sports Medicine

If you’ve experienced a sports injury, traumatic injury, neuromuscular pain, or struggled with repetitive strain then acupuncture care could be the best next step in your healing journey. We utilize a variety of techniques, including trigger point acupuncture (dry needling), for a multitude of acute and chronic pain conditions.

Holistic Mental Health

Whether you have been dealing with symptoms of anxiety or depression due to a life event or if you have been dealing with a long term mental health issue, acupuncture and Chinese Medicine can treat many of these symptoms as it recognizes how the mind and body are intertwined.

Dermatology

The belief system behind Chinese medicine used to treat dermatological conditions is that the majority of skin diseases stem from internal imbalances. This means that our skin needs to heal from the inside out and treatment needs to match this perspective in order to gain lasting results in order to offer long term remission, even after treatment has stopped.

Schedule My Free Consult.

On A More Personal Note…

My path to becoming a healing practitioner began with my own personal journey in recovering from health issues that prevented me from living my best life both physically and emotionally. Although restoring my own health and wellbeing was not a simple straightforward process, it taught me a lot about the nature of healing. It also opened my heart to understanding what it is like to be a patient looking to get out of pain both physically and emotionally, and to feel better so that I could continue to pursue what I loved doing in life.

Generally speaking, I would say that I am a pretty healthy person yet my past reflects a hip and knee injury that easily caused chronic pain, migraines from an old injury to my neck, chronic digestive issues, anxiety, and insomnia. At the time, I was aware that these health concerns impacted my life but I really thought I just had to live with them.

On a physical level, I have always been into athletics and different outdoor activities – such as yoga, pilates, dance, mountain biking, rock climbing, hiking, soccer, and many other outdoor activities. While I would immerse myself into each of these sports, I found that these injuries often held me back from taking each of these activities to the next level. I would continue to do it and would find ways to work around these injuries the best I could but I was always trying to “manage the pain.” I found I had to be careful of how hard I could challenge myself as further injury had the potential of setting me back even further. After hitting a point of frustration of feeling limited, I pursued a variety of holistic modalities, including acupuncture, herbs, nutrition, chiropractic care, and focusing on forms of exercise that allowed me to build strength in a way that decreased pain. This approach worked in a way that addressed the root of my symptoms and the results were significant for me. This was further reinforced after dealing with a bout of chronic fatigue after getting mono (the Epstein Barre Virus) as an adult. Acupuncture and herbs helped me recover so that my energy was back up to what I was used to, allowing me to have the energy to get back to doing all of the things that I loved.

On a mental health level, I had a life long struggle with anxiety and insomnia which also impacted my quality of life in a number of ways. Again, I found that western medicine only offered solutions with medication that caused me to have a number of negative side effects that made me feel worse. Personally, I found healing when I sought counseling from a therapist that took a heart centered and holistic approach to healing while also combining this internal work with acupuncture, herbs, and other holistic approaches to healing.

I came to understand that Western medicine—while miraculous in its own right—had limits. I knew that complete healing would require more than just treating the symptoms. Being able to find treatment providers, that saw me as a WHOLE person and by addressing the root imbalances was a turning point on every level, setting me on a trajectory to find profound healing.

Now, I love to hold this space for my clients knowing that they don’t have to keep treating symptoms…they can have the solutions to get out of pain and get back to living their life.

Get Started With Elevate Wellness St. Pete

Pick Your Treatment

Whether you’re looking for acupuncture, cupping, a holistic way to manage anxiety or depression, Elevate Wellness St. Pete is here for you and your sports medicine or dermatology needs.

Schedule Your Free Consult

Schedule a free consultation below by filling out the form including what services you want more information about, you can also include any questions you may have. We will then contact you to schedule a 15min chat and we’ll get back to you within 24-48 business hours.

Get Your Life Back

Chronic pain, migraines, insomnia, allergies, athletic performance issues — we work with you and what your body needs to get you back to doing what you enjoy most in life.

Schedule My Free Consult.

#Acupuncturist in Tampa #holistic mental health care

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writingwithcolor · 3 years

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What Does Our "Motivations” PSA Mean?

@luminalalumini said:

I've been on your blog a lot and it has a lot of really insightful information, but I notice a theme with some of your answers where you ask the writer reaching out what their 'motivation for making a character a certain [race/religion/ethnicity/nationality] is' and it's discouraging to see, because it seems like you're automatically assigning the writer some sort of ulterior motive that must be sniffed out and identified before the writer can get any tips or guidance for their question. Can't the 'motive' simply be having/wanting to have diversity in one's work? Must there be an 'ulterior motive'? I can understand that there's a lot of stigma and stereotypes and bad influence that might lead to someone trynna add marginalized groups into their stories for wrong reasons, but people that have those bad intentions certainly won't be asking for advice on how to write good representation in the first place. Idk its just been something that seemed really discouraging to me to reach out myself, knowing i'll automatically be assigned ulterior motives that i don't have and will probably have to justify why i want to add diversity to my story as if i'm comitting some sort of crime. I don't expect you guys to change your blog or respond to this or even care all that much, I'm probably just ranting into a void. I'm just curious if theres any reason to this that I haven't realized exists I suppose. I don't want y'all to take this the wrong way because I do actually love and enjoy your blog's advice in spite of my dumb griping. Cheers :))

We assume this is in reference to the following PSA:

PSA to all of our users - Motivation Matters: This lack of clarity w/r to intent has been a general issue with many recent questions. Please remember that if you don’t explain your motivations and what you intend to communicate to your audience with your plot choices, character attributes, world-building etc., we cannot effectively advise you beyond the information you provide. We Are Not Mind Readers. If, when drafting these questions, you realize you can’t explain your motivations, that is likely a hint that you need to think more on the rationales for your narrative decisions. My recommendation is to read our archives and articles on similar topics for inspiration while you think. I will be attaching this PSA to all asks with similar issues until the volume of such questions declines.

We have answered this in three parts.

1. Of Paved Roads and Good Intentions

Allow me to give you a personal story, in solidarity towards your feelings:

When I began writing in South Asia as an outsider, specifically in the Kashmir and Lahore areas, I was doing it out of respect for the cultures I had grown up around. I did kathak dance, I grew up on immigrant-cooked North Indian food, my babysitters were Indian. I loved Mughal society, and every detail of learning about it just made me want more. The minute you told me fantasy could be outside of Europe, I hopped into the Mughal world with two feet. I was 13. I am now 28.

And had you asked me, as a teenager, what my motives were in giving my characters’ love interests blue or green eyes, one of them blond hair, my MC having red-tinted brown hair that was very emphasized, and a whole bunch of paler skinned people, I would have told you my motives were “to represent the diversity of the region.”

I’m sure readers of the blog will spot the really, really toxic and colourist tropes present in my choices. If you’re new here, then the summary is: giving brown people “unique” coloured eyes and hair that lines up with Eurocentric beauty standards is an orientalist trope that needs to be interrogated in your writing. And favouring pale skinned people is colourist, full stop.

Did that make me a bad person with super sneaky ulterior motives who wanted to write bad representation? No.

It made me an ignorant kid from the mostly-white suburbs who grew up with media that said brown people had to “look unique” (read: look as European as possible) to be considered valuable.

And this is where it is important to remember that motives can be pure as you want, but you were still taught all of the terrible stuff that is present in society. Which means you’re going to perpetuate it unless you stop and actually question what is under your conscious motive, and work to unlearn it. Work that will never be complete.

I know it sounds scary and judgemental (and it’s one of the reasons we allow people to ask to be anonymous, for people who are afraid). Honestly, I would’ve reacted much the same as a younger writer, had you told me I was perpetuating bad things. I was trying to do good and my motives were pure, after all! But after a few years, I realized that I had fallen short, and I had a lot more to learn in order for my motives to match my impact. Part of our job at WWC is to attempt to close that gap.

We aren’t giving judgement, when we ask questions about why you want to do certain things. We are asking you to look at the structural underpinnings of your mind and question why those traits felt natural together, and, more specifically, why those traits felt natural to give to a protagonist or other major character.

I still have blond, blue-eyed characters with sandy coloured skin. I still have green-eyed characters. Because teenage me was right, that is part of the region. But by interrogating my motive, I was able to devalue those traits within the narrative, and I stopped making those traits shorthand for “this is the person you should root for.”

It opened up room for me to be messier with my characters of colour, even the ones who my teenage self would have deemed “extra special.” Because the European-associated traits (pale hair, not-brown-eyes) stopped being special. After years of questioning, they started lining up with my motive of just being part of the diversity of the region.

Motive is important, both in the conscious and the subconscious. It’s not a judgement and it’s not assumed to be evil. It’s simply assumed to be unquestioned, so we ask that you question it and really examine your own biases.

~Mod Lesya

2. Motivations Aren't Always "Ulterior"

You can have a positive motivation or a neutral one or a negative one. Just wanting to have diversity only means your characters aren't all white and straight and cis and able-bodied -- it doesn't explain why you decided to make this specific character specifically bi and specifically Jewish (it me). Yes, sometimes it might be completely random! But it also might be "well, my crush is Costa Rican, so I gave the love interest the same background", or "I set it in X City where the predominant marginalized ethnicity is Y, so they are Y". Neither of these count as ulterior motives. But let's say for a second that you did accidentally catch yourself doing an "ulterior." Isn't that the point of the blog, to help you find those spots and clean them up?

Try thinking of it as “finding things that need adjusting” rather than “things that are bad” and it might get less scary to realize that we all do them, subconsciously. Representation that could use some work is often the product of subconscious bias, not deliberate misrepresentation, so there's every possibility that someone who wants to improve and do better didn't do it perfectly the first time.

--Shira

3. Dress-Making as a Metaphor

I want to echo Lesya’s sentiments here but also provide a more logistical perspective. If you check the rubber stamp guide here and the “Motivation matters” PSA above, you’ll notice that concerns with respect to asker motivation are for the purposes of providing the most relevant answer possible.

It is a lot like if someone walks into a dressmaker’s shop and asks for a blue dress/ suit (Back when getting custom-made clothes was more of a thing) . The seamstress/ tailor is likely to ask a wide variety of questions:

What material do you want the outfit to be made of?

Where do you plan to wear it?

What do you want to highlight?

How do you want to feel when you wear it?

Let’s say our theoretical customer is in England during the 1920s. A tartan walking dress/ flannel suit for the winter is not the same as a periwinkle, beaded, organza ensemble/ navy pinstripe for formal dress in the summer. When we ask for motivations, we are often asking for exactly that: the specific reasons for your inquiry so we may pinpoint the most pertinent information.

The consistent problem for many of the askers who receive the PSA is they haven’t even done the level of research necessary to know what they want to ask of us. It would be like if our English customer in the 1920s responded, “IDK, some kind of blue thing.” Even worse, WWC doesn’t have the luxury of the back-and-forth between a dressmaker and their clientele. If our asker doesn’t communicate all the information they need in mind at the time of submission, we can only say, “Well, I’m not sure if this is right, but here’s something. I hope it works, but if you had told us more, we could have done a more thorough job.”

Answering questions without context is hard, and asking for motivations, by which I mean the narratives, themes, character arcs and other literary devices that you are looking to incorporate, is the best way for us to help you, while also helping you to determine if your understanding of the problem will benefit from outside input. Because these asks are published with the goal of helping individuals with similar questions, the PSA also serves to prompt other users.

I note that asking questions is a skill, and we all start by asking the most basic questions (Not stupid questions, because to quote a dear professor, “There are no stupid questions.”). Unfortunately, WWC is not suited for the most basic questions. To this effect, we have a very helpful FAQ and archive as a starting point. Once you have used our website to answer the more basic questions, you are more ready to approach writing with diversity and decide when we can actually be of service. This is why we are so adamant that people read the FAQ. Yes, it helps us, but it also is there to save you time and spare you the ambiguity of not even knowing where to start.

The anxiety in your ask conveys to me a fear of being judged for asking questions. That fear is not something we can help you with, other than to wholeheartedly reassure you that we do not spend our unpaid, free time answering these questions in order to assume motives we can’t confirm or sit in judgment of our users who, as you say, are just trying to do better.

Yes, I am often frustrated when an asker’s question makes it clear they haven’t read the FAQ or archives. I’ve also been upset when uncivil commenters have indicated that my efforts and contributions are not worth their consideration. However, even the most tactless question has never made me think, “Ooh this person is such a naughty racist. Let me laugh at them for being a naughty racist. Let me shame them for being a naughty racist. Mwahaha.”

What kind of sad person has time for that?*

Racism is structural. It takes time to unlearn, especially if you’re in an environment that doesn’t facilitate that process to begin with. Our first priority is to help while also preserving our own boundaries and well-being. Though I am well aware of the levels of toxic gas-lighting and virtue signaling that can be found in various corners of online writing communities in the name of “progressivism*”, WWC is not that kind of space. This space is for discussions held in good faith: for us to understand each other better, rather than for one of us to “win” and another to “lose.”

Just as we have good faith that you are doing your best, we ask that you have faith that we are trying to do our best by you and the BIPOC communities we represent.

- Marika.

*If you are in any writing or social media circles that feed these anxieties or demonstrate these behaviors, I advise you to curtail your time with them and focus on your own growth. You will find, over time, that it is easier to think clearly when you are worrying less about trying to appease people who set the bar of approval so high just for the enjoyment of watching you jump. “Internet hygiene”, as I like to call it, begins with you and the boundaries you set with those you interact with online.

#PSAs #asker concerns #diversity #motivations in writing #writing with diversity #blog housekeeping #internet hygeine #asks #WWC

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slightlyrebelliouswriter23 · 4 years

Note

Writing smut without cringing the whole time? How do you do it.

Writing Smut 101: Overcoming Smut Shame

CONTENT WARNING: NSFW RELATED CONTENT BELOW.

The short answer, nonnie, is: you don’t.

That is to say, writing smut is always kind of cringe—especially if you’re new to it, or simply “not in the mood” to write.

But rest assured, feeling embarrassed is completely natural. The trick is learning how to overcome the cringe when it does happen, instead of letting it deter you.

I’m going to break this up into a few sections: 1) Why you might be feeling this way, 2) How I, personally, combat the issue, and 3) Some more tips that might help you get the ball rolling.

1. Why You “Cringe”

It’s important to find the root cause of any form of writer’s block so you can pull the weed out instead of just trimming it back. Smut writer’s block is its own special brand, and generally, the main issue writers have when it comes to smut is stigma.

Speaking openly and honestly about sex, in Western society, is still very much a taboo.

No matter how “progressive” we like to think we are, the inherent shame surrounding pleasure-seeking experiences, and the detailing/consumption of them, has been ground into us since we learned how to understand the concept of gratification.

And I’m not just talking about sexual gratification. This applies to everyday things, as well. Eating, shopping, relaxing (or doing virtually anything in capitalist society that does not directly contribute to capitalism).

So it makes sense that you would feel any amount of embarrassment, awkwardness, or “cringe” when writing smut. It’s something our society teaches us is wrong to want. Unfortunately, that shame translates to writer’s block when we sit down in front of the computer.

A lot of this blockage might stem from not giving ourselves permission to write the thing.

We’re staring at the blank document, knowing we want to write smut, and suddenly the thoughts start streaming in: This feels wrong, is this wrong? What if someone comes in and looks over my shoulder while I’m writing? Am I describing this right? Is this too unrealistic? I have NO idea what I’m doing, and everyone is going to know it.

These are all perfectly normal thoughts, and definitely ones I still have from time to time. But they’re also probably the direct cause of why you feel so blocked. Luckily, I have some bits of advice to give you on how to unblock yourself.

2. How I Combat Smut Block

✦ First, when the intrusive thoughts occur, instead of ruminating on them, think of each one as an impermanent object. You can use any metaphor, but I like to use the imagery of leaves:

Each negative thought is a leaf floating down the river of your mind. If you focus only on the leaf, you’ll exert a lot of energy running to try and keep up with it, consequently miss everything else around you. But if you acknowledge that leaf as a temporary part of the scenery, and let is pass, you can process and appreciate the beauty of your surroundings a whole lot better.

Remember: you are separate from your thoughts. You are not defined by them. The things you think sound stupid might be incredibly exciting to someone else.

If you can string a sentence together, you can write smut. This is all part of giving yourself permission to write the thing that makes you feel uncomfortable.

✦ Second, I’d suggest giving good thought to how you personally experience embarrassment, how you experience excitement (of the sexual variety), and how those two might sometimes commingle or feel similar.

For me, they are very comparable, like different shades of the same emotion—but there are differences which are important to note.

If I’m making myself blush from excitement, this is a very good thing for writing smut. It means that what I’m writing feels real enough to evoke something in the reader, even if the reader, like me, knows what’s going to happen.

If I’m making myself cringe, however, it may be time to take a step back and readjust my perspective.

✦ Third, ease yourself into it! Don’t jump straight in the deep end and expect to know how to keep your head above water if you’ve never swum before.

The way I eased myself into smut was first by writing “Steam”—a category of fic I made up because the current vocabulary lacked an efficient term for fics that straddled emotional romance and explicit content.

Essentially, steam is smut-adjacent but not explicit, and here’s a step-by-step example of how I transitioned myself smoothly from one genre to the next:

I first wrote my fics Wicked Game and You Are (both of which feature either a heavy make out session or teasing + lots of sexual tension) with this “steam” concept in mind.

I wrote the first chapter of Fine Line, which has brief but explicit descriptions of fantasies, framed by a very sexually charged scene.

I released my fic Crashing, which is probably more of a bridge between Steam and Smut, and features soft-focus fingering. Nothing in it is explicit—it focuses more on the emotions than explicit detail—but it’s very clear what is happening.

After I wrote those, I felt just confident enough to make that final stride over the threshold into smut. I wrote my fics Holy, King, and the second chapter of Fine Line all within weeks of each other.

And trust me when I say, once you get the momentum going and receive that validation from people who’ve read your work, it becomes SO much easier to sit down and start writing.

You just have to finish that first piece.

✦ Finally (and I know I’m going to sound cliche when I say this), just like any other skill, the more you practice the more confident you will feel and the better you will get.

So practice, practice, practice!

If you’re nervous about posting smut for the first time, have a trusted friend/mutual Beta read it for you. It’s the online equivalent to someone holding your hand before jumping off the cliff, and works wonders for the nerves.

3. Keep The Smut Rolling

Now that you have some tools to help get you past the blockage of writing smut, here’s how to keep the inspiration flowing.

✦ Start by incorporating smutty fanfiction/erotic fiction into your regular reading rotation-

Of course AO3 is a fantastic resource for smutty fanfiction.

If you’re a fan of TFOTA or ACOTAR and want some of my personal fic recs, visit my fic rec masterlist.

In terms of erotic fiction, my personal favourites are anything Anais Nin (specifically Henry & June and Delta of Venus), The Thornchapel series by Sierra Simone, The Godwicks series by Tiffany Reisz, and The Original Sinners series by Tiffany Reisz.

There are also sites like Literotica and sexstories.com, which play host to explicit short fiction (not fandom based).

✦ Next, I’d recommend having a designated digital space for smutspiration-

This can be a list of “smutty” words/phrases kept on a separate document on your computer, for those days when you just can’t think of the right way to describe something.

Or you can create a private side-blog or Pinterest board for your favourite smutty fanart or other kinds of visual smutspiration.

✦ For that matter, try following some smutty/18+ blogs (ONLY IF YOU’RE 18+) here on Tumblr-

Many of them have a plethora of what I like to call “lemony snippets”, a.k.a. short text posts that describe (usually in conversational language) explicit scenarios.

This is useful because it will normalise the concept of sexual fantasies in your brain, making it less weird for you when you try to come up with ones of your own to write into smut.

Not to mention, your dash will be rife with inspiration.

✦ I would also suggest checking out 18+ ASMR on YouTube (AGAIN, ONLY IF YOU’RE 18+).

My favourite account is Professor Cal Official, but Auralescent also has some good content.

Headphones are highly advisable for this, as their stuff is very dangerous for work.

So, nonnie, I hope this has provided you with at least one helpful tip. Whether you took anything away from this or not, just know that the feelings of embarrassment when it comes to writing smut are entirely normal. And the best way to keep those feelings at bay is to confront them head on.

-Em 🖤🗡

Writing Advice Masterlist

Writing Masterlist

2K Celebration!

#writing #writing advice #writing tips #smut #fanfic #writeblr #ao3 #writer things #em's 2k celebration #smut 101: overcoming smut shame #fluff #angst #writer's problems #asked and answered #em answers #nonnie #anonymous smut cringe

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ravasheencc · 4 years

Text

My Response To EA’s Letter

This is not what I typically post about or get involved with... but the recent letter from the EA really infuriated me. Initially, I was a big defender the gurus because I know what it is like to work in a big corporation with deadlines/budgets and approval processes. However, my perspective changed after watching the livestream when the gurus were going over the Knifty Knitting pack it became clear to me that they do have quite a bit of flexibility in what they design.

Then came the letter from the gurus this past week and, well, I needed to get this off my chest so I can let go of the anger.

My response in red.

=======================

Hi Simmers -

We want you to know we’ve been seeing all your feedback and we hear you.

In one ear and right out the other.

As we always have been, we’re committed to growing The Sims as a game and as a community, so instead of trying to respond to a variety of tweets we wanted to consolidate some thoughts and updates in one place:

We are working on adding significantly more skin tones before the end of the year, and will share news on our progress soon. Beyond that, we’re committed to continuing to expand representation in The Sims 4. This is not one step, but a journey.

About time.

On upcoming content - when we consider something for addition to the game we consider what it will take to update it meaningfully.

What is there to consider? At this point you could literally add bunkbeds or improve babies in ANY way and simmers would be happy. Why does is take years to consider this?

This is just as true for babies as it would be for cars, bunk beds or any other number of feature requests.

Yet you found time to consider and implement spaceships and murphy beds?

Sometimes there is foundational technology we need to work through and sometimes we need to dig into designs more deeply to make sure we understand your expectations.

I have two responses to this. Your excuse that you need to work through some foundational technology is just invalid and completely false. Modders and CC creators have been able to implement many of the features you refuse to add with the existing technology and code.

What don’t you understand about our expectations? Well, apparently there is a lot you don’t understand but your team has had YEARS to better understand the simming community requests - they aren’t new. Again, you could literally implement any of the main requests in just about any form and you would make simmers happy. Luckily, you have set the bar so low any improvement would be considered drastic.

This work takes time, and we don’t update you on these projects until they become more real. Game development in general can feel like a long process and, like most of the world, we are adjusting to a continued state of working from home.

Many modders and CC creators have fulfilled the simming community’s needs and requests on our free time, with no budget, no team, and in much faster timeframes.

In just a matter of weeks we’ll be sharing more about our next Expansion Pack, which we’ve been working on since last year. I want to set expectations now, though, that cars, babies, farms and bunk beds are not part of this EP. We understand how important these features are to you but we want to be honest that they are not part of this upcoming pack.

Do you mention you have been working on it for the past year to give us the impression there was no way you could have incorporated the requests into this game pack? The major, main requests aren’t new and certainly came before you started this upcoming EP within the last year. This is just deflection and not taking responsibility.

And it is apparent that you DON’T understand how important these features are to the community. Or maybe you understand and just don’t really care.

As a team, we are going to make more of an effort to communicate what’s coming with more regularity and transparency so that you continue to feel in the loop about new features, experiences, packs, and general information.

This is a step in the right direction. I will believe it when I see it.

That’s it for now, and you’ll be hearing more from us soon. In the meantime, all we ask of you is to be kind, engage in constructive conversations with each other, and continue to celebrate what makes the Sims special to YOU.

We have been engaging in constructive conversations with ourselves. The community has been constructive not only in conversation but also taking action - ever heard of MCCC, Slice of Life, and the countless other mods and CC that fill in the voids you refuse to fix? The problem is YOU don’t engage in constructive conversations with US.

And I can assure you that we will continue to listen, continue to invest in The Sims 4 and continue to engage with you.

Continue to listen? You haven’t listened. You need to start listening.

You don’t engage with us. You only engage with large youtubers that help you advertise the game. You don’t really even engage with the Game Changer community unless they are a huge influencer.

We could not do what we do without our players.

You wouldn’t have a job. So maybe show us some respect and start sincerely caring and acting on our requests.

SimGuru Lyndsay & the Sims Team

Sincerely, RAVASHEEN.

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thorraborinn · 4 years

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I know you've probably been asked this question a million times and have answered it just as many but I'm curious about your thoughts on Loki?

I know there seems to be a split in the Heathen community about Loki. But based on your research and studies, what do you think of Loki? Do you feel him to be as worthy of worship as the other gods like Odin, Thor, or even Freya? Or do you feel he's more of a problematic figure that has his role but not necessarily someone to be worshipped? And what do you think of the proposed ideas that Loki was a later invention and addition into the Norse mythos?

Regardless of the answer, I do look forward to your response - I do enjoy reading your answers to questions, and even if I don't necessarily agree with, I do learn something from them.

Well, as I’ve said before I think the greater danger than any deity is letting people tell each other who they should and shouldn’t worship. It might be an impulse endowed in me by Loki himself but nothing makes me want to venerate him more than someone telling me I shouldn’t. I hail Óðinn til sigurs, Freyr and Njörður til árs og friðar, and Loki til bölvunar. This got real long. I also wrote it in more of a stream-of-consciousness style than I usually do so I go back and forth between, like, mythology and personal stuff, sort of randomly. I would normally rearrange it at this point but I don’t really see the best way to do it.

I know we as heathens keep going back to the semantic discussions about words like "worship" and "venerate" and it can get tiresome. I haven't talked about that much on here, and I kind of just use those terms without putting a lot of thought into it. But it bears repeating and refinement and maybe hopefully incorporating better vocabulary. I do "venerate" and "worship" Loki in a way that isn't quite how I do the other gods, nor is it quite how I do jötnar like Jörð or Þorri, nor landvættir or ancestors. But then, within those categories there is also a difference in how I approach them. So I don't think that Loki stands out here, exactly. Like, I don't approach Njörður the way I do Óðinn either. So this isn't a yes/no for me, the only question I can think of that can get us anywhere is "how do you approach [god/being]?" When we read saga accounts of religious practice, at least the ones that inform modern heathenry the most, it's usually big public gatherings, often with official, legal implications. As I've mentioned before, I'm also influenced by non-Scandinavian cultures (without identifying with them -- i.e. what I learn from Buryat Mongols doesn't make me more Tengriist, it makes me a Scandinavian pagan with a broader perspective and a more international web of relations). If we look to the Baltic pagans for example, who draw more heavily on unbroken or at least more recently-attested folk practices, we see a variety of forms and contexts for worship of different gods, and not only a binary differentiation between what we might call "positive" or "light" gods like Dievas, Perkūnas, Saulė, etc. on one hand and gods pertaining to darkness and death like Velnias ("the devil" in later Christianized view), Ragana ("In the Baltic pantheon, no Goddess inspires fear quite like Ragana" (Vilija Vytė in Of Gods and Holidays 1999)), etc; but also within those categories to the point of demonstrating that binary categorization to have rather limited explanatory power anyway. Baltic pagans often worship gods in completely different settings, so that the entire form of worship of Perkūnas might be completely inappropriate for worshiping Laima, for example.

For most of us modern heathens everything is interchangeable, you just switch out some associations and say a different name after shouting "hail!" or have stuff from a different column on the correspondence chart on one's home altar. But I believe that for our ancestors this was not really a question of yes/no.

As I've mentioned before, the author/translator of the life of Pope Clement into Klements saga around 1220 seems to believe that Loki had been considered a god, as he includes him in the litany of gods who Clement denounces (Þórr, Óðinn, Freyja, Freyr, Heimdallr, Loki, Hǿnir, Baldr, Týr, Njǫrðr, Ullr, Frigg, Gefjun).

I've tended to pray to him mostly when I've gotten myself into a situation I have no business getting out of, or when I'm doing something high-risk in general, and for what it's worth I've escaped those situations unscathed every time so far. My kindred is favorable toward Loki and I hail him with them. The odds of me making an offering to him on my own have decreased over time, not because I feel differently about him, but because there's just... a lot of gods.

My thoughts and feelings about Loki are probably also colored by my having what is most likely a different conception of Óðinn than most heathens seem to. When people say “Loki isn’t the Norse devil,” to me that’s only half of the statement, the rest being “because Óðinn is.” Not to say that Óðinn is bad or evil either (being unchristian I have no particular objection to the devil... and to be clear here, I’m talking about the folkloric devil who taught Robert Johnson to play guitar, who went down to Georgia, who comes in early morning and who goes by many names), but the point is that most of the reasons people cite for why Loki shouldn’t be recognized as a god apply to Óðinn as well, but the idea that Óðinn should be excluded from recognition as a god is unthinkable to us. Much of this also applies to my conception of Gefjun, who is prominent in my practice. Most people consider her [generic agricultural earth deity #89745] but I not only think that that's wrong and a product of lazy (and misogynist) scholarship, but I actually see her as dangerous and crafty in much the same ways that Loki and Óðinn are (maybe even moreso, as she managed to convince even most of modern Norse academia of her innocence and incapability from a thousand years in the past), and I think that's good. I wrote about Gefjun here.

I have even speculated about whether it's possible that, as Óðinn rose in prominence over time as we suspect he did, starting as a darker, outsider type figure associated with death and perhaps disease, maybe something like the Lithuanian Velnias to the head of the pantheon, perhaps some of his traits that were not suitable for an Allfather god came to be associated with Loki instead (compare also the historical development of Shiva in India). I don't think that it's likely that Loki is a late invention, though I would not rule out that there could have been changes or developments leading up to his appearance in the myths. It's easy for me to believe that the myth about Loki being kept at hvera lundr ('grove of hot springs') and causing earthquakes would have developed in Iceland, though we seem to have bits of myth and even artistic depiction on the Gosforth Cross of him being bound which should be located outside of Iceland.

To explain by way of analogy, I'm going to return to the Baltic area again. It's often said that Lithuanian is an "old" language. That's ridiculous. It's no older than any other living language that isn't a creole or pidgin; it has prehistoric roots but is a fully-functional modern language that is refreshed every day. What it is is a living language that has preserved many archaic features, and yeah, that's really amazing, but we don't need to characterize it as "old" to recognize the value of that. The same is true of a religion's associated body of mythology. The only way a story can become old is when people stop telling it. When we heathens pick and choose what is sufficiently "old" for acceptance, we are actually creating a new mythology, a sort of purist mythological conlang, that responds to our modern circumstances and aesthetic choices. But, being the critic of modernity that I am, I'm not satisfied with the neo-proto-mythology of the modern heathen, I want it all. I am also interested in the historical development of Loki's myths, not because I'm looking for a reason to accept or reject, but because I want to have all of it, of all time, all at once.

It also depends on what we mean by "late." Unambiguously heathen skálds like Þjóðólfr úr hvíni, Úlfr Uggason (presumably converted in his lifetime, but the poem was composed long before then), and Eilífr Goðrúnarson not only refer to him, but refer to him in terms of his familial relations (i.e. he's already the father of Miðgarðsormr, already son of Fárbauti, etc). I don't think that a god and his entire set of familial relations can be invented whole cloth and spread enough to be repeated in disparate sources in a short amount of time. Some heathens, when they say "late," seem to basically mean anything after the Migration Age, and I don't care about that. Yeah, when you have the opportunity to take the long view like that it can be an extra dimension to observe the god over time but the heathens of the 10th century shouldn't be dismissed just because they're more generations away from the Indo-Europeans or something like that. And like I've mentioned before, this standard gets applied in seemingly random ways -- nobody mounts arguments that we shouldn't worship Iðunn because we have no early evidence of her being worshiped. We also do have evidence of cults to gods who, as far as I know, are not worshiped today (Lýtir (*Hlýtir?) and Fillinn; since they are not represented in the mythology, modern people have hardly anything to work with here, so that isn't surprising). And as always, no late innovation will compare in volume to the massive amount that was surely lost when the customs and oral lore were discontinued without being written down.

Recently I've seen some arguments that Loki is meant to be a house spirit (a la later Scandinavian folklore) and should not be considered to have a place in Ásgarðr. This is confusing to me, because Ásgarðr is also a home, so I would expect it to also have Loki. Whether this implies lots of different Lokar is not something I've seen discussed, yet we do know of at least two (Loki and Útgarða-loki, and in fact, two very different images of Útgarða-loki). We run into this problem of scaling also with Heimdallr -- heim- as in 'home' or heim- as in 'world'? Both?

I don't like making poorly-informed guesses in the space left by our lack of information about the past, so don’t take the following to be what I believe is true historically, I'm just doing some straight-up speculation, offering an alternative that I think is just as justified by the evidence as a statement that Loki is a "late invention" or a purely literary figure or whatever, to (as I seem to be saying a lot lately) open up new possibilities.

I generally advocate belief that pre-Christian Norse people had a concept of time that was circular, which broke down toward the end of the heathen period and became more linear. For that earlier time, we might imagine a yearly mythic cycle that was eventually re-encoded as a linear history of the creation, destruction, and rebirth of the world as told in Völuspá. Perhaps during part of the year Loki was bound, but, being a god, he was still able to effect things in the world, causing things like earthquakes or maybe even effecting things in the home like sparks in the hearth fire. Being bound he has an affinity with or some sort of presence in threads (að sleikja rassinn á honum Loka 'to lick Loki's ass' = to moisten a thread with your mouth to make it easier to thread) and knots (literally called loki) and so people who are accustomed to sewing and embroidering (i.e. mostly women) are more exposed him than people who don't do those, though through that knot connection he also is associated with fishing nets in some way. And there's something paradoxical about him, in that he's also related to the dangerous things outside the periphery of civilization. He might be given small sacrifices at home, rather than in big public gatherings, but especially in places where the public religious gatherings occur are also private residences, his presence isn't diminished. Then, at some point in the year, he escapes -- maybe in the spring when you start to see illusions of water on the ground, caused by the warm air near the ground refracting light and causing you to see the sky on the ground like a reflection on water -- this phenomenon is associated with Loki (Lokke) in Danish folklore (this happens in the winter too of course, but in our times that's often thanks to asphalt being a heat-sink). Or maybe with the appearance of Lokasjóður ('Loki's purse,' yellow rattle, which siphons nutrients from other plants like it's stealing cable). Or maybe when Lokabrenna appears in the sky (in which case, maybe there is also a daily cycle involved). At this time, maybe he's remembered as one of the three creators, or at least as a creator of monsters, but maybe he also joins up with Óðinn and Hǿnir, or with Þórr, Þjálfi, and Röskva. And then, at the close of this period, we could imagine some kind of a ritual drama where he's chased down captured in a fishnet, and symbolically brought back into his bound state (which could mean back to the homestead). Some of this is influenced by Algirdas Greimas' (Of Gods and Men, pp. 190-1) description of Lithuanian rituals involving Gavėnas, described as a dirty little man who lives near the furnace and is associated with light phenomena (as Loki is in late Scandinavian folklore), in which a scarecrow (representing Gavėnas) is driven around town in a cart and then dumped into a ditch or snowdrift, then picked back up, put back on the cart, and is driven back into town. Apparently, the turning him "head over heels" (dumping him into the ditch) changes him from a "winter monster" to a "prophet of springtime." Clearly this is not the same, and I'm not identifying the two figures with each other, but I'm basically riffing with the attested examples of duality expressing itself seasonally and the public and private spheres not being always clearly distinct or impassible. Again, I'm not arguing that this ever actually existed (which makes it like my deliberately divergent rune interpretations). I'm offering this as an alternative to the historical narratives that heathens have come up with so far that I think is extremely unlikely, but does technically fall within the boundaries of possibility, only to demonstrate that the evidence we have doesn’t necessitate coming down on either side of a black-and-white position on Loki being a god worthy of worship or not. It accounts for a fair bit of what we know about him, and could be expanded or modified to include other things; and treats him as a god, but not the same way as other gods. It also leaves room for historical development that would have come before, leading up to this situation (such as Anatoly Liberman's belief that Loki was a chthonic deity more like Saxo's Utgarthalocus than any of the other depictions of (a) Loki, for which see "Snorri and Saxo on Útgarðaloki, with Notes on Loki Laufeyjarson's Character, Career, and Name" in Word Heath. Wortheide. Orðheiði, 1994). I find it to be a fairly suitable neo-mythology in comparison to the picking-and-choosing of most heathens (not to mention a fun thought experiment).

Anyway, I have more thoughts but I’m running out of steam, and I haven’t even figured out how to work Baldr into this without more philology than I feel like doing right now (i.e. seeing which parts of Snorri’s narrative can be backed up by poems, theories about the age of those poems, etc). But hopefully this conveys to some degree the way I think about stuff like this.

#ask #poeticnorth #loki #loki laufeyjarson

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animatedminds · 3 years

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Star Wars: Visions - Episode 8: Lop and Ochō

Early reveal for the rest of the review: this is by far my favorite of the films so far (who knows, maybe Episode 9 will extremely wow me, but until then...), for what is actually a variety of reasons that I will probably go into at length. And because there’s nothing I like better than to nerd out at length, there is better time than now to delve into... Episode 8: Lop and Ochō Developed By: Geno Studio Directed By: Yuki Igarashi Another one that uses a brief narration to approximate the opening crawl of the films, again to great thematic effect.

This is also another one with an explicit timeframe. During the rise of the Galactic Empire, we focus on a formerly isolated planet that has reached out to the Galactic Empire in hopes that the Empire’s influence can modernize their society (some very clear Japanese historical subtext here), leading to many aliens immigrating to the planet. This includes Lop, a homeless bunny-girl alien (mildly jarring, since Gamorreans aside animal-people aliens is something you’re more likely to find in Wing Commander) who escaped from captivity and one day bumped into the patriarch of the ruling clan of the planet and his young daughter. The daughter - Ochō - insists on adopting Lop, leading to her father bringing her into the family: and so Lop and Ochō become like sisters.

Years later, strife strikes as the patriarch - Lop and Ocho’s father - realizes that the Empire only intends to exploit their planet and mobilizes a guerilla force to strike back. But Ochō takes the opposite opinion: without the Empire’s influence, their backwards planet is doomed to fall behind no matter how noble their culture is, so they must submit to ensure their own future. This rift explodes as Ochō formally joins the Empire and their father steps up his efforts to fight back, while Lop stops at nothing to stop the fighting and bring her adopted family back together again.

The very first thing I’m going to focus on here is the choice in how the story opts to approach the setting. Here, instead of getting a Jedi who visits this planet, seeing these people as an outsider does in the way most of the other shorts set up narratives of this type, the focus is on this particualr culture and how its individuals see the Empire’s presence. You are immersed into these people and their ideologies, their history and how Lop and Ocho fit into it all as heirs in the next generation. This is a fantastic way of doing this - you may recall that back during my review of The Village Bride, I commended that short for giving the people of that short a distinct means of looking at the Force, but even in that one the people were secondary: objects of the Jedi’s perspective. Here, Lop is technically an outsider, but that only outlines the prominence of the setting and storytelling as she is then raised alongside this new family and world.

The presentation here is very similar to something like Lost Stars, a book in the current canon that I’ve always seen as one of the best Star Wars novels made in the last few decades. Like Lost Stars, this short uses the characters culture to set up their upbringings and situations, and then applies that to the issue of the Empire: Lop chooses to oppose the Empire - or, more accurately, to try and bring Ochō back home - because of how much her adopted people’s attachment to family has shaped her. Ochō chooses to join the Empire because she sees nothing but the big picture, her good intentions leading her down a draconian path, and as the story goes on her conceit as an entitled heir eventually starts to show itself. The conflict does strike similar beats as the one between Thane Kyrell and Ciena Ree for similar reasons: the story makes sure we know why these characters are going to split before the split happens.

The characterization is good, is what I’m saying. A great example of doing great, distinctive character work in a short amount of time.

I should also get the visuals. This short combines bright, modern character designs with a very classical, painted aesthetic for the world around the characters. This gives it a very classic animation feel, like watching a Miyazaki movie or Sleeping Beauty: the location art of this episode is among the series’ best, and the action animation manages to combine a fluidity of motion with a simplicity of choreography, in a way not unlike The Ninth Jedi - another of the shorts whose action animation stood out.

Back to the plot with another interesting track: the story makes it unclear how strongly force sensitivity plays a role, which also gives it a good contrast to the others which generally don’t just star Jedi, but are almost exclusively about Jedi intrigue and entanglements: Lop is clearly strong with the force, but she has no context for that and her objectives have nothing to do with being a Jedi - she is centered around her people and her family. The lightsaber we see in the short - fantastically - has a backstory similar to the Darksaber we see throughout The Clone Wars, Rebels and The Mandalorian: centuries ago, a Jedi was trained from this warrior culture, and instead of passing their saber down to a padawan or giving it back into the Order, this Jedi instead passed the saber down through their family, again cycling back to the way this short uses the characters’ unique perspective and history to approach the setting rather than the other way around. The people in the short only have legends of the Jedi, and the only thing that’s significant here is that the sword featured is the prized possession of their clan.

This gives the story a lot of room for questioning, especially as the ending is open rather than definitive: is Lop going to learn more about the force, and if so will she do through the lens of her people? Who was this old Jedi, and does the sword have a history like the Darksaber does? And most importantly: the war against the Empire does not end with the end of the short: where will it go from here? Will Lop and Ochō ever be reunited? There is a degree to which this short comes off almost like a pilot for a longer story, which would serve me just fine - for the reason I’m about to get into now: As always, a purpose of these reviews is to look at how much potential these shorts - which are currently non-canon - have to some day become canon, or even at least be followed up on by the studios involved. The potential there comes down a few key factors: the major one being the amount of support these shorts get from the fanbase. But another is in how easily or organically these shorts can be incorporated into the framework of the Star Wars universe.

And are the chances for this short’s incorporation good? ABSOLUTELY. I generally judged the other shorts’ potential on how little they contradicted the world and setting around them. With this one, however, its simpler to think of it from the opposite direction: this is exactly the kind of stories that gets told in the Star Wars universe today. There are several stories I can think of just like this in concept that were made within the last few years alone, or even being made right now: the current canon loves its stories about X culture in one corner of the galaxy and how its reacting to the rise of the Empire, which heroes come from there and why. Where those heroes go in the end. The comics, especially, always seem to be on the lookout for more focus characters to play with, but I also mentioned Lost Stars earlier, and that’s a very good point of comparison: for the same reason Lost Stars makes for one of the best prose installments of the current canon, Lop and Ochō has a lot of open real estate it can waltz into to define its own part of the universe.

Besides a couple superficial stylistic things (the symbols on the lightsaber blade, as I mentioned before, Star Wars doesn’t typically do strictly “animal people” as species - that’s more a Wing Commander thing - but that doesn’t mean they couldn’t if they really wanted to), there’s nothing really stopping this thing from getting canonized. I really hope people make some noise for it, because I’m being serious when I say this of all the films has The Best Chances of being followed up - minus The Duel which, of course, was already getting a followup before the series even released.

All in all, I mean it when I say this was my favorite of all of the shorts. It, pound for pound, has everything that I found enjoyable about this set of films all in one package, ever interesting means of approaching the Star Wars universe that I was looking for, all of the interesting ways of looking at situations we already know that I was hoping for, with a set of endearing characters on top of it.

If we can get more stuff like Lop and Ochō in the future, I would be more than happy. If we can get more Lop and Ochō specifically, all the better for it. I also mean it when I say I hope people make some noise for this one. It’s worth it.

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shutterbug-12 · 3 years

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To “said” or not to “said”? It’s a complicated question.

I have seen many posts floating around that suggest that writers should avoid using the word “said” in their dialogue tags whenever possible. (E.g. “I like apples,” she said.) While this is not by itself a bad suggestion, it’s also not a good one. And I’d like to talk about why that is, just in case there are any writers out there who are interested in the “why” behind writing techniques and tools.

With any writing technique, whether it’s the point of view, structure, imagery, etc., so much depends upon...well, everything else. All of a writer’s choices about what tools to employ must be examined by the writer from a macro as well as a micro perspective in order to ensure tools are being used in the most effective way. That is, a writer shouldn’t choose their techniques piecemeal, but should be chosen to work with the other tools being used and used in such a way that allows the writer to achieve their goals. A written work is a beautiful machine--and it should be made up of all the right parts that function in concert so that the machine can go. I mean, try putting the wrong part in a car and watch that car break down, right? The same is true for all the parts of your writing. And since it is a technique and a choice the writer must make, this includes the use of “said” for dialogue tags.

It seems to me that it’s been very in vogue to avoid using the word “said,” although nobody has been able to articulate a satisfactory reason for this trend. Let me get something out there right here and now, in case any writers need to hear it: if “said” is the only word you use for dialogue tags, it does not automatically mean your writing is boring, or that you are a boring writer. And! If you always avoid “said” and use other words instead, it does not automatically mean your writing is better or more engaging, or that you’re a better, more engaging writer. What makes you a good writer is the ability to consider this choice carefully, understand the benefits and drawbacks of your choice, and make the best choice for what you want to achieve with the story, or even a particular section of dialogue.

“Well,” you might say. “That sounds like a lot of work.” And it is, but with practice it becomes easier. So, let’s get to it.

Let’s talk about using words other than “said” in your dialogue tags.

• Tone/Volume. Other words, like shouted, hissed, grumbled, and whispered, can incorporate volume or tone into the dialogue. Words like this can give us a sense of how the character is speaking in addition to what they are speaking. There are plenty of times this can be useful. There are, however, plenty of times when it is not needed or is redundant. Sometimes the tone or volume is clear from context--the mood already established, the rest of the dialogue, etc. As writers, we should be considerate of the heads of our readers and, you know, not beat them with unnecessary words. So, when you want to use more descriptive tags like this, you may want to ask yourself, “Does this need to be included and, if so, why? Is the tone and volume of the character already clear?” Or even, “Does this accurately capture the manner of speaking I want to describe? Does it contradict or support the character’s body language?”

• Added description. As mentioned, words other than “said” can be more descriptive than “said” alone. Sometimes you want to add this kind of detail in this way, but not always. Piling on descriptive words to writing that is already rich with descriptions may fatigue your reader. However, in a section of dialogue that is already sparse, using descriptive words in the dialogue tags themselves may punch up emotions in a scene. So ask yourself, “Would this description bog down the reader with yet another description? Would it enhance the reader’s understanding of the dialogue or trip them up?”

• Pace. Another thing to consider is the pace of your dialogue, whether it is very bang-bang-bang or slower, or even interspersed with narrative sections, like memories or imagery in the character’s head. The flow of dialogue can do a lot of emotional heavy lifting, but, if executed poorly, can seriously disrupt a reader. If, for example, you have a section of dialogue that moves very quickly, you may consider not including many dialogue tags at all, just to keep the pace moving. (Note: If you do this, it is very important that it is always clear which character is speaking.) But if you chose to use tags, keep in mind that words like “said” are easily brushed over and are a great choice for dialogue that is moving relatively quickly. More descriptive words will slow down the reader. And there are certainly times you want to slow down your reader in a section of dialogue, and using words other than “said” would be a good choice in that case, as would including entire breaks in the dialogue for a character to recall memories or focus on an external object or person. So ask yourself, “What is the right pace for this dialogue? Are the words in my dialogue tags ones that support the pace I want to achieve? Do I want dialogue tags at all for every piece of dialogue?”

• Immersion vs. distance. I find that more often than not, writers want their readers to be immersed in their story. There are times, however, that a writer constructs a story--or section of a story--in a way that purposefully distances a reader from a character or the action. Dialogue tags can contribute to (or detract from) the level of immersion you want your reader to experience. This is connected to the point about disrupting or fatiguing the reader (above). If you want your reader to be immersed in the story, it’s important to choose words that won’t trip up your reader or disrupt them. And one word really can do this. One word can make a difference. Sometimes using “said” is a good choice here, if the action or spoken words of your characters are really the most important thing for the reader to focus on. Using a basic tag like “said” or “asked” can truly let your character’s words shine. The questions to consider about this issue are similar to the ones above. “Would this word choice or dialogue tag disrupt or distract the reader from what’s really going on in the scene? Where do I want my reader’s attention and are my words and tags focusing the reader how I want?”

These are only a few considerations when constructing your dialogue tags and choosing whether to use a word like “said” or another word instead. There have been so many great works by great authors that stuck to the basics: said, asked, replied, etc. So writers, please don’t believe you need to regurgitate a thesaurus throughout your dialogue tags to make your writing great. But! Words other than “said” certainly can clarify tone or volume, add description, slow the pace, and do other good work.

Just remember that it is a stylistic choice. And no stylistic choice in writing is governed by a hard-and-fast, bright-line rule. But, with any writing choice you make, you should understand the consequences of those choices and the reasons behind your choice.

In short: use a variety of words in your dialogue tags if those words truly serve the scene, but don’t use them just because. Sometimes “said” really is the best choice.

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thesaltyoceanwaves · 3 years

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Adrien’s Room and Memorabilia: A Sequel Post

Well, I hinted at a similar arc for Adrien in this post, so let’s brainstorm.

CW: mentions of harassment

The major difference between Adrien and Marinette in this instance is that Mari’s room is about her working through her social anxieties and developing meaningful relationships. Adrien’s focus is on his lonely nature, as well as discovering and cultivating hobbies that he really enjoys, and aren’t just forced upon him by his father.

His room starts off with very few photos of his loved ones, namely his parents, Chloe and Felix. These photos are professional in nature, clean, crisp and very much lacking in color. Even Chloe and Felix are behaving for the sake of the photos. Notably, their photos show them when they are much younger, to indicate that Adrien hasn’t spent time with them lately.

There’s a large emphasis placed on the amount of stuff that Adrien has in his room. The video games, the TV, the climbing wall, etc. Everything is completely clean and dust free, because he spends a lot of time in his room, but he doesn’t have anything he’s particularly drawn toward, so whenever he’s done with something, he puts it away and grabs something else. His room is also likely clean due to his strict father demanding he keep up appearances.

The only exception to this are video games, but they are very specific ones: simulators. Particularly, ones that focus on dating and romance. Life simulators, farming simulators, RPGs that offer a romance subplot, etc. Even if the sim only offers the option to make friends, Adrien is fine with that. Stuff like Animal Crossing, Stardew Valley, Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons (the ones made by Marvelous), The Sims, Undertale and so forth are right up his valley. And again, lots of dating sims.

Following his mother’s “passing,” and at the start of the show, Adrien keeps a corner of his room dedicated to her. As more time goes by and Adrien gets closer to his new friends, this will shrink down to a photo of the two of them, and most of her memorabilia will be stored away. This will show that he’s open to the possibility of his father dating someone else, as was shown in “Felix”.

He will often turn to photos of his mother when he wants deeper, more worrying thoughts that he wants to voice and get off his chest, or if he needs advice about something and he doesn’t know who to turn to. S1 would focus more on friendship advice, because in this version, he would need to put in more time and care to make friends (Nino and him would still stay buds, Mari is still crushing on him but is hesitant to approach, and Alya is kind but cautious, with the rest of the class being wary because of his friendship with Chloe). Later on, he’s more likely to ask about plot-relevant stuff, his feelings for Ladybug and Kagami (and romance in general), his growing resentment towards his father, his meet-ups with his friends, and his discomfort with Chloe and Lila’s touchiness. Coupled with Felix’s harassment in “Felix,” this causes Adrien to realize his boundaries are being violated, and to also wonder if he has adopted similar behaviors. He goes to speak with either Sabine, Tomoe or Nino’s mom about the matter (maybe all three to get a variety of perspectives), and then with Ladybug. I would set this conversation sometime after “Frozer,” with him mentioning how he acted there, and apologizing for leaving her in the middle of battle (if the episode isn’t rewritten to include that there).

Overtime, he would start to depend less on talking to Emilie’s photo, and instead talk to whoever he asked for advice. Instead, he would talk to her prior to a larger battle or facing a bigger threat and had something he wanted to get off his chest.

At the beginning of their superhero career, Adrien is into collecting Ladybug merch - he’s likely to even have one of those “Do it for her” boards set up. He has some Chat Noir stuff as well, but it’s not as prominent. When other heroes arrive on the scene, he’ll have stuff of them too. He would even go so far as to recreate the heroes in his games (mostly in what Sims knock-off this universe would have), and roleplay scenarios with Ladybug. He doesn’t fully get rid of his merch over time, but he does likely downsize as he spends more time getting to know Ladybug and the team.

There’s also the obligatory Ladrien scene that I hinted at in Marinette’s post. To recap, Chat Noir, during an emotional moment with Marinette, mentions that he has Ladybug memorabilia in his room, and that he ought to downsize. Sometime later, Ladybug comes to check up on Adrien for plot-related reasons, and discovers that he “too” collects Ladybug merch. Adrien is notably embarrassed by this, but Ladybug replies by saying that she’s a fan of his as well. This will allow two sides of the ship to feel closer to each other and open up about certain things.

Similar to Marinette, Adrien will start picking up little things as mementos from previous episodes to decorate his room with (a class photo from “Reflekta,” a copy of the movie from “Horrificator,” his autographed Jagged Stone CD from “Guitar Villain,” etc). I also imagine him holding onto clothing items such as Nino’s hat or Kagami’s jacket, that get left behind after hanging out. Over time, he is eventually gifted a mannequin to display these items.

I remember seeing a post that called into question whether Adrien’s activities were something he genuinely enjoyed or if they were just foisted upon him by his father. I like the idea of a laid out arc that explores what Adrien might like to do in the future, by having him go through various hobbies (sort of like Daphne in “Be Cool, Scooby Doo”).

One hobby I’d give him from the start is tricking. (For those not familiar, tricking combines moves from martial arts and gymnastics, usually flips and kicks, and can be used to create super cool combos, yes I am biased about this). We often see him showing off stunts in battle and would fit Chat’s tendencies to be flashy. I could also see this becoming a hobby he shares with Nino and Kagami later on, maybe with the three of them sneaking out to meet other trickers at gatherings.

(For those who need visual reference.)

However, I also want to give Adrien a more traditionally feminine hobby. There’s a couple of ideas I had for this, including, again ones that he cycles through as he explores himself a bit more. After meeting Luka and noticing that he paints his nails, Adrien might tiptoe in nail art. I could also see Adrien getting really into writing romance, starting off as a fanfic writer and eventually writing his own novel or comic. Alternatively, he becomes a poet. Maybe he spends an episode learning to sew with Marinette so he can make his own cosplays. Or he starts a cottagecore aesthetic blog, and additionally starts taking care of some plants to give his room some needed greenery.

I think for the sake of irony, it would be interesting to see Adrien eventually take up baking as a hobby. I know there’s a couple of AUs involving this concept already (I forget who it was, though I’m tempted to say @lenoreofraven but correct me if I’m wrong), but I like this idea because it would give him something extra he and Marinette could bond over in the future, especially since he doesn’t want to do modelling long-term. It would also give him a good excuse to visit the Dupain-Cheng bakery, and grow closer to Sabine and Tom. Perhaps they take him up as an apprentice, or give him a delivery boy job alongside Luka (giving that relationship a chance to grow as well, as well as a Delivery Boy shenanigans episode).

When he’s either in between hobbies, in a tumultuous state, or growing distant from his father, his room will appear far messier. In the latter case, it may be an attempt to rebel against Gabriel, saying “it’s my room, I can do what I want!” If he’s not comfortable immediately speaking out against his father, he may rebel in more passive aggressive ways. I could also see him roleplaying scenarios in which he tells his father off or planning escape routes for hero patrol or tricking gatherings. I think he would also have padded mats stored somewhere in he case he can’t leave, and wants to practice, or have his own tricking gathering in the house.

As he collects more mementos, they start filling up the empty spaces in his room, so when his father prevents him from leaving the house, he doesn’t feel as lonely. He starts finding ways where, from the comfort of his room, he can hang out with friends (like in “Anansi” where he uses the facecam to see what everyone is up to). More friendly, casual photos give the room some life. These mementos may also cause him to start downsizing on the Ladybug and Friends merch.

He will only attempt to remove them altogether if his identity is revealed to Marinette, and she doesn’t seem to process it well (at least at first). Anything pertaining to her, as Ladybug or Marinette, he may attempt to remove, until he realizes just how present she is in his life. He would then consult his mother’s photo about what to do.

And similarly to Marinette at the end, when they start dating, he would start to incorporate couple’s photos. I think both of them would have those photo booth strips, but I could also see Adrien commissioning posters of his OTP, LadyNoir, and bringing back some of his merch (in a teasing, well-meaning way).

#ml salt #ml rewrite #ml plot bunny #i'm going to tentatively tag this as #adrien salt #bc i bring up an issue with adrien's character that i have #that i know as of late many people are debating over #however i also attempted to address this issue within this post #so i will also tentatively tag this as #adrien sugar

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elevatewellness-stpete · 2 years

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