#I mean I do have a Venn diagram in my head

[doctorsiren]

I FINALLY CHECKED OUT THE BILL WEBSITE AND I CAN’T STOP LAUGHING AT THIS BECAUSE IT REMINDS ME SO MUCH OF ONE OF THE DOODLES FROM THIS FNAF PAGE I DID LAST SUMMER 😭

Went on one of my old scratch accounts from 2014/15 yesterday and got flashbacks of the early FNAF fandom bc that’s when I was in it originally 😭

[sysig]

He’s my little meow meow, my darling, my bbygirl (Patreon)

[a-frog-in-a-bog]

excuse me? what reason do you have to exclude the entire ace spectrum from lgbtqia+ spaces? does it bring you some sort of joy? we are a part of the community. think about how your unkindness impacts everyone else. and? why would you tag that with #asexual , #demisexual , etc?? to hurt and offend other people?

ok so notice how i specified that i was talking about cishets. specifically cishets with low libido. people who are definitely not lgbtq. i was not talking about the entire ace spectrum, or asexuals at all, actually. the reason i tagged the post with several ace tags is bc that's where people post about having low/no libido (and how it's "the queerest thing about them") the most. i was targeting cishets who enjoy cishet privilege and think that the lgbtq community is a cool kids club they can join for not being horny all the time. people who have the privilege of seeing the lgbtq community as a collection of cool flags and words to put in their bio to describe every aspect of their personality instead of a necessary joining of arms for survival. if you feel targeted maybe look inwards

[doberbutts]

Tbh I think the comparison to white people might be some simple us vs them thinking (maybe not all the time, though). White people complaining about oppression = nonsense/overeaggeration (if you're myopic), therefore comparing transmascs to white people is a way to call what they say nonsense. Or, if you're under the impression oppression=good person points, then white = bad/wrong, therefore transmascs are bad/wrong. Idk. Lots of these folks have some black/white thinking.

I think the answer is much easier than that.

The majority of people I see using the race analogy to draw a parallel of white vs black racism and trans man vs woman oppression are white themselves. Not everyone, but I would say my casual scroll of Bad Take Havers usually reveals whiteness here.

It does not surprise me at all that the very same white people doing this do not have the nuanced racial understanding to be able to reflect how, for instance, both black communities and latine communities experience racism in different yet similar ways, and how there is both bad blood and also shared history and solidarity between both communities, with many people who exist somewhere in between (afrolatinos) and people who exist completely outside of this equation (other marginalized races of color) or on the fringes (other mixed people of color but with only one of the involved races in this venn diagram) that also may experience their own oppression.

And so, they don't even think to use the comparison of black and Latino understanding, instead choosing to reach for white vs black racial dynamics. They don't have the understanding necessary to get why that's neither a good comparison nor is it a fair one to use especially when this particular conversation was started by trans mascs of color and how prior conversations regarding trans men and mascs occupying a marginalized gender were started by both (cis *and* trans) women of color and trans men and mascs of color.

It also does not escape my attention that those insisting that not only do trans men and mascs have privilege (something I do not completely disagree with, although I think as always it is more nuanced than "have" vs "have not") but also that trans men and mascs are specifically an *oppressor class* are also largely white, and show an inability to understand that "privilege" does not always equally translate to "oppressor". This comes to a head when discussing trans men in powerful positions- teachers, doctors, politicians, business owners, religious leaders, even celebrities- and whether they are pushing harmful rhetoric or if they are holding the line and refusing to budge.

And, while not true in all cases and certainly no one is perfect, because people are people and thus imperfect at the best of times, the majority of all trans people in power hold the line and refuse to budge regarding harm to our community. We can all think of examples- usually celebrities- of otherwise, but those pushing for laws and change are generally hand-in-hand with each other keeping step and refusing to leave their fellow siblings behind.

This does not mean that we cannot *contribute to* or even *lean on* transmisogyny- remember, there were cis women on the Supreme Court gleefully voting away abortion rights even though it directly affects them. There is no identity that makes you immune to bigoted bias, and no identity that protects you from doing harm to others. That is on each of us to do better, to each out in fellowship and solidarity to our fellow humans, and to lift each other out of the pit.

Much like how a Latino friend of mine may experience privilege in that he does not experience the antiblackness I do, and much how I may have privilege that I speak English as my mother tongue and he doesn't in this largely English-language-dominated country, neither of us are inherently each other's oppressors unless we are acting on oppressive bias. Intentionally or otherwise.

Oppression is action, not existence.

But again, I am not surprised a group of largely white people do not understand nearly enough of this nuance as it applies to race to then be able to apply it to gender.

[empressofmankind]

I swear, its a THING. The bloke is living rent free in my head even though he could easily afford the premium real estate prices there. It's been years since anyone has even vaguely been able to momentarily dethrone Euron Greyjoy from there. Also, high five on the OC's in toxic marriage/business arrangements with him.

Wanted to experiment with line shading because I think it's neat

And I also think this jackass is neat

So here's (in progress obviously) my newest hyperfixation character sir crocodaddy I MEAN CROCODILE—

[suckerforfluff]

Reasons Why Philza and Roier Could be the Same Person and If It Weren't For Language Barriers, The Venn Diagram for Their Audiences Would be a Circle: A Study

they don't heavy rp often but when they do boy oh boy hundreds dead, thousands injured

they casually drop the sickest most gut-wrenching lines when they are alone then proceed to act like nothing happened (they love to make chat cry and i am a victim of their society)

they have to be dragged kicking and screaming into lore when they're in the middle of doing something i.e building, exploring

they're always off on their own or with their buddies (fit or cellbit) it takes a miracle or an event for them to interact with each other by chance (and i cherish every second of it)

they love taking pictures and they're like actually so good at it like for real they're legit good

they're both walking laugh tracks those giggly bitches

their cubitos trust and care for both qcellbit and qforever wholeheartedly and unconditionally which really means a lot you know

PVP GODS they act modest but don't fall for it. they WILL kick your ass

the way their head chat mods are their significant others and they're both badass mexicanas

the fact that they would drop everything the moment someone needs their help. be it in-game or technical issues. the way they talk slowly and precisely when they walk someone through a problem. they're my comfort streamers your honor

THEY ARE SO CARETAKER CODED I WANNA SCREAM "there goes philza, taking care of someone else's child again" oh yeah? you know who else does that? take a WILD guess buddy

[startheskelaton]

Hi! I know you tend to draw the trio (Sparkplug, Soundblaster, and Nightflyer) together often but man I want them to be friends!!! Or rather I want Nightflyer and Soundblaster to have the sibling dynamic where they're very protective of eachother bc they're the only ones who can fight each other. (But that doesn't make sense.) I get sad when I remember they aren't best buds.

But also in my head there's like this huge venndiagram of stuff they can all bond over. NF and SP see ghosts (predaking and Optimus) and have high expectations as the next Gen of faction leadership (if for Sparkplug, symbolically since the autobots dont have a monarchy situation) SP and SB were experimental creations. Unnatural freaks of nature that shouldn't exist but also like, they just like rock and roll cd man. SB and NF feel like complete opposites but to me they are brothers. But that can't go on the venn diagram.

Actually wait- this ask is getting super long. Sorry about that. But consider it a personal letter of sorts! I love your oc's I think about them all the time. Sparkplug especially. Adrienne lencker plays in my head bc of the angst. I love seeing the stuff that you post even tho I have no idea what the plot is like (I mean I do. But Idk what nf and sb are doing in the future. But could you imagine how they would react if they found out sp joined the djd? Not only that but killed tarn!? I mean, you probably can, but I can't)

But yeah. Maybe not post this one to the public to see (please. I just think ur stuff is cool and wanted you to know that and also like, my thoughts about your characters a little bit but I wrote too much. Id feel embarrassed if other ppl saw)

Awww thank you! Actually, SB and NF have something in common… music. I know I show off Night’s science lover tendencies more often, however he is a huge fan of earth music and is a fantastic dancer. He absolutely dose not understand the deeper meanings of wordplay or melodies, he just wants to dance.

SB on the other hand, dose understand all of that. He loves smart wordplay in songs and changing bridges. It was Nightflyer who introduced him to music in the first place! At the very least they have that.

And don’t worry, by the end of the story, they’ll be closer than ever (romantically! They will kiss)

[pygmi-says-hi]

I love your writing. It's amazing! If you haven't done so already, I'd like to hear your advice or tips on sentence flow and how to transition between character thoughts and whatnot (just flow in general) because I feel like that's what I struggle with when it comes to writing for me.

I am assuming that you mean transitioning from dialogue/commentary to exposition paragraphs? that's what I'll go with pls tell me if I'm wrong!!!

lemme write an example:

'she'd never seen such a magnificent flower before - the petals were a silvery velvet that glistened in the dawn sunlight. It reminded her of her mother's skirts. A sense of warm nostalgia swept over her at the memory of the flowing fabric that swayed around Mother's ankles.

the rest of the field contained similarly beautiful flora, varying in size from thimble to elephant ear.'

-

The pink is a character opinion/thought, and the white is the exposition and objective description. when a paragraph is narrated by a character, it reads best to mix them together. When you chunk it like this:

'she'd never seen such a magnificent flower before. It reminded her of her mother's skirts. A sense of warm nostalgia swept over her at the memory of the flowing fabric that swayed around Mother's ankles.

the petals were a silvery velvet that glistened in the dawn sunlight. the rest of the field contained similarly beautiful flora, varying in size from thimble to elephant ear.'

and the expo/narration are kept separate, it's harder to visualize the connection between observation and the reactive thought.

tip 1: keep similar sentences together.

In the above example, I grouped the character's observation of the flower together with the actual description of it.

After, I grouped the memory of the mother's skirts with the emotion.

Finally, the next paragraph was still describing the foliage (aka tying in the initial description), though removed from the narration and still progresses throughout the scene.

does that make sense?

no?

lemme try again guys I got this.

When you transition from 'thought' to 'sight', it might look a little daunting. you'd think "gee I just spent an entire page describing an intense traumatic mental spiral. how do I transition to writing about the room they're in?"

Pick the similar attributes. The middle of the Venn diagram. Okay, character is having a panic attack. It's intense, it's descriptive, there's a lot of inner dialogue. Now, we have to describe the aftermath in relation to the state of the bedroom.

pull them out slowly. If a character is deep in reverie, describe the room how it feels to them. This is a slow transition out of 'me my mine everything about my opinion' description, to 'this is how it is cold turkey' description (plot development).

Example:

(panic attack, oh my god we're dying the world is ending I can't breathe help aahhh)

he shivered. The floorboards had grown cold since the episode started. A cool breeze slithered through the room, chilling him further. leftover adrenaline raised gooseflesh on his arms.

This is entirely objective. no opinion was inserted, but there was the stimulus and physical reaction to the surroundings. this still draws in the character-focused analysis without getting stuck in his head.

2. great sentences think alike. I sometimes feel that my transitions are chunky and not very smooth. Pick common themes to tie them together. "Oh okay, her skirt is blue, it's blue like cornflowers, cornflowers were anna's favorite, now i'm thinking of anna, she'd love it here. where is here? here is in a farmhouse kitchen with...." boom. I made a domino effect from the starting description (blue skirt) to the final destination/scene progression (farmhouse desc).

3. know when you've beat the dead horse. If you've been circling the drain over one thought or milked all the setting adjectives possible for one area, move on. when a scene/dialogue is sufficiently described, the readers are ready for a break.

does that help a little bit?

there was a second part to the request, right? sentence flow? cool beans.

Sentence flow is actually a really cool concept that if you master, you can add so much depth to your writing (i'll def make a part 2 post, stay tuned!).

If you structure a sentence really long and fast without the punctuation and it's just going and going and going oh no-

you start to feel anxious, right? when's it gonna end? what's the kicker? the tension is building and building....

Sentences are short. thin, staccato. not a lot of meat. no meat, maybe. just. bare. bones.

punching, intense, hard thoughts. a shocking discovery, your character doesn't have the processing capacity to think eloquently.

maybe they disobey grammar rules. fuck grammar rules. don't actually tho because you guys lowkey suck at grammar and i'm angry. no don't point out my bad punctuation i'm the teacher here.

point is, the flow of the sentence dictates the reaction. Shakespeare uses this with meter. when the meter is disrupted, it means something bad has happened. In Romeo and Juliet, every time a lie is told, the meter shifts out of iambic pentameter. it's like a 'heads up, something's wrong' to the audience.

USE THIS!!

also - read your story out loud. writers have a tendency to write how they talk. I am a comma fiend because I go off on so many anecdotes I pause all the time while I talk. When I read it out loud and take the necessary pauses though, I want to vomit.

If it's smut I can see how this might be hard for you, but another good idea is to hit hard the grammar rules. If there's a bunch of commas - read the sentence and enunciate the commas. that's how it will read to your audience.

common problems with sentence flow.

feeling long and heavy. if you're describing the action and you feel like you're being swamped in adverbs, take a look at your passive and active voice. passive: "The ball was kicked by Anna." active: "Anna kicked the ball." if your sentences are long and dragged down with adverbs, you're probably really passive.

too much information, not enough words. Thesaurus!! if you've been puzzling over a paragraph and it turns out all you needed were some synonyms, pull out a thesaurus! and a dictionary because remember: similar is not the same. just because a word has similar meanings doesn't mean there aren't special addendums to each.

lost in the sauce. where are we? what's happening? who are you? i'm hungry. too many succulent words! your sentences so big backed they out-backed Outback. long, frivolous words and ten-mile high stacks of adjectives only work sometimes and infrequently. otherwise you spend so much time describing the thing, we forget what the thing actually is.

losing the motivator. why are you writing this sentence/paragraph? what purpose is it supposed to be serving? keep that in mind so you don't lose track and if you do, it'll be easier to get back on it.

repetitive meter. the sentences follow the same pattern, like this one. almost like they're in a loop, circling forever. there's no escaping, you'll like read this till you die.

did you see the pattern? it starts to make you dizzy after a while, doesn't it? This is a common problem and fairly easy to break out of. Just chop up the sentences and glue them together.

*ahem* like so:

The sentences follow the same pattern, like this one. Almost like they're circling in a loop forever. There's no escaping. You'll read like this till you die.

same words, with some added/subtracted punctuation. If that doesn't work, rearrange the order, add in some new verbs or adjectives, maybe add a few filler sentences to space the pattern out.

that's all folks, i hope that answered your question, if not feel free to say so! I'm not offended.

xox keep writing!

[jamdoughnutmagician]

Belle of The Snow Ball (fluff)

here's another fic for @littlexdeath 's twelve days of promptmas, because I wasn't about to let this pass me by with also writing a little something for my beloved Stevie

Day 3: you’re stuck chaperoning the annual snow ball with your nemesis.

The last thing you wanted to be doing on a cold December evening was chaperoning your school's winter ball, and it's only made worse by the appearance of high-school’s resident Mr. Popular, Steve Harrington. Only time will tell how this evening is going to go.

Word Count:2,014 (this was only supposed to be short oops)

Masterlist // Steve Harrington Masterlist

*divider by @strangergraphics

It wasn’t really your choice to be stuck in your old high-school’s gym on a cold Friday, December evening, but as it stands your younger sister had signed you up to be one of the chaperones at the school’s annual snow ball, practically begging you because your parents wouldn’t let her go unless you went with her. Your sister was a freshman, and you had just completed your senior year the year before, so that left your circle of friends and her circle of friends to be two sides of a venn diagram that never dared to interact. You fought against this decision, of course. You’d much rather be at home in your room, watching some dumb Christmas film in your pyjamas, but no, once your sister had got your parents on her side, there was no escaping this personal hell that you had been forced into. 

So here you were, dressed up in your nicest formal dress that you had to dig out of the back of your closet. A deep, wine-red crushed velvet dress that hugged every curve of your body so perfectly, before skirting out around your hips before falling just below your knees in a twirling swoosh. 

As you walked into the school’s gym with your sister by your side, she made an immediate beeline for her friends, whilst you sauntered over to the table in the far corner, set up with plastic cups and a punch bowl. Pouring yourself a generous helping of mixed fruit juice you sipped it quietly as you watched everyone begin to filter into the gym.

With your eyes on the door, your stomach drops as you see the last person you would expect to see here. 

Steve Harrington.

In your schooling years, Steve had been Mr. Popular. The king of Hawkins high school. The rich guy with the big house, flashy car and a gaggle of loyal subjects surrounding him at every turn, and a new girl under his arm every other week.Oftentimes hanging around with the likes of Tommy Hagan and Carol Perkins, which the duo saw it fit that it was their job to regularly make your school experience nothing short of a nightmare. 

Carol would always turn to Tommy and whisper and give a high-pitched giggle in the way that girls like her did, whenever you would pass her in the hallways. You weren’t stupid, you knew that she was talking about you, or even laughing at your expense, and most of the time you could brush it off, but that didn’t mean that it didn’t also hurt.

And then Tommy would join in on her antics, by trying to trip you up or to topple your class textbooks from your arms as your reach for them out of your locker. 

And so by extension, King Steve Harrington wasn’t the sort of guy you ever really interacted with. Having decided long ago that his tiresome stuck-up, jock behaviour was too much to stomach for you. 

But as you see him sweep through the doors, waving off a young curly haired boy with a thumbs up and an nearly award winning smile, you can’t deny that he looks good. Really good. Annoyingly good. 

He’s wearing a relaxed fit button up shirt that stops just shy of the first two buttons, offering the slightest peek of golden tanned skin and the suggestion of chest hair, and a pair of dark denim jeans that fit him in all the right ways. His dark hair is streaked with warm caramel highlights, it’s perfectly messy, toeing the line between just woken up bed-head, and off duty male model. 

Taking another sip of your drink you accidentally catch his eye. You flick your gaze away from him, hoping that he maybe didn’t see you, but it seems as though once again, the universe was not on your side. He quirks his lip in a friendly smile as he makes his way over to you.

This was it, you were going to have to make uncomfortable small-talk with King Steve. Taking one more sip of your drink, you swallow it down to stop your mouth from drying up, desperately wishing there was alcohol in the punch just to make things that little bit more bearable.

“Didn’t expect to see you here tonight, Harrington.”

“Dustin roped me into chaperone duties, he told me he would rather it was me than his mom and I couldn’t argue with him.” he says with that annoyingly charming smile. “So, what brings you to this exclusive party?” exaggerating his point with a raised tone in his voice and a quirk of his eyebrows.

“Funnily enough I’m on chaperone duty too. My sister kind of begged me to do it.” 

“The things we do for the kids, eh?” Steve laughs, reaching to ladle himself some punch from the bowl.

“So you decided to get dressed up for the occasion?” you jab.

“Could say the same about you. That dress is really fancy for someone just chaperoning.”

“Didn’t think everyone would take too kindly to me showing up in my pyjamas, so this is what you’re getting.” you snark, smoothing down the wrinkles in your dress.

“Well, for what it’s worth, I think you look nice.” he says without any ounce of irony in his voice that catches your attention immediately. 

“Ha-ha, yeah, funny joke Steve” you say defensively, because of course he was going to poke fun whenever he could, that’s what he always did.

“No, really I think you look really good..beautiful, actually.”  he corrects himself with a faint blush rising to his freckled cheeks.

 Wait. Was King Steve Harrington actually being sincere for once.

“Look, if you’ve come here to make fun of me, save your breath, because I don’t want to hear it, okay?” You tell him bluntly.

“Have I said something to upset you?” Steve asks, with confusion drawing across his face, his dark brows knitting together as he tries to understand your sudden change in tone towards him.

“I get it, okay, you’re the cool guy who everyone loves, and you’re just here to embarrass me for whatever stupid reason-”

“-Woah, woah.” Steve babbles, stopping you in your tracks. “I don’t know what gave you that impression, but I’m not here to try to embarrass you in any way, like, at all.”

“But you were always hanging around with the popular crowd, y’know, like with Tommy and Carol-”

“-Yeah, back in high school.” he says. “But I guess I had a bit of a fall from grace, and made a few new friends who knocked some sense into me and helped me to realise that being Mr. Popular isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.”

You feel bad for having judged him so harshly at first glance, feeling as if you were no better than how bullies like Carol and Tommy judged you in your high-school years.  

“Look, I’m sorry if I’ve ever made you feel like I didn’t like you or anything, because if I'm being completely honest here, the truth is quite the opposite.” Steve says admittedly, with the faint brush of a pinkish blush scattering across his freckled cheeks.

You watch him with a careful and considered gaze as you give him the space to explain himself.

“I’ve always really liked you, actually more than like, I always had this massive crush on you, but back then I was young and dumb and didn’t know how to deal with my emotions very well I guess.” Steve says. “You made me really nervous actually, and I think in some fucked up kind-of way, I thought that hanging around all the popular kids would be the best way to get you to notice me.”

“You know, you could have just talked to me. I promise I’m not as intimidating as you might think.”

“Look, I know that an apology does very little to make up for how shitty I’ve been to you -”

“Steve, it’s okay. I know it was just Tommy and Carol-”

“No, but I never said anything to stop them, and that’s just as bad. I stood by when I really should have stood up. I should have said something, and I’m so sorry that you got hurt along the way. I wish I could just take it all back and make it up to you somehow.”

You look out to the sea of young kids all dancing in the school’s hall, and an idea begins to come together in your mind.

“I know a way you can make it up to me, if you’re up for it?”

“Anything, anything at all. Just say the word and I’ll be there.”

You hold your hand out for him to take.

“Make this worth my while and take me dancing, Harrington.” you smile.

He leads you out to join the bodies of students swaying to the bouncing, upbeat music. 

Just as you're both about to get it, the pace of the music changes to something softer, something slower.

and then in a sweeping, grand gesture, Steve takes you by the hand with a hopeful look in his eyes. 

“May I have this dance?”

“You may.” you smile softly, taking Steve’s outstretched hand in yours and letting him lead you into a gentle sway. He pulls you close to him, one arm snaking around your waist whilst he falls into step with you, waltzing to the flow of the music. 

Everything else fades into the background as Steve holds you close. You feel so safe in his arms as he twirls with you on the dancefloor with practiced ease.

“Where did Steve Harrington learn to be such a good dancer then?” you giggle, doing your best to keep in time with him.

“I did ballroom dancing classes as a kid, my teachers told me that I could have been a professional.” he laughs gently with a scrunch of his nose, “but I was just about to go to middle school, and I guess I was worried about looking un-cool or whatever, so I never went back.”

“Well, it seems as though you’ve never lost your dance skills. Steve.” you smile as you twirl with him to the music, the skirt of your dress flowing out around you with a gentle swish.

Initially you had dreaded going to your old high-school’s winter formal dance, to be dressed up amongst a sea of young kids in your school’s gym hall, but now to be dancing so freely in the arms of Steve Harrington, you couldn’t find it in your heart  to care about anything else.

The music comes to an end and you find yourself wishing for the song to go on for just a beat longer, just so that you don't have to part from the warmth of Steve’s welcoming arms. But you do. You separate, but as you look down you realise that he’s still holding your hand. His fingers still laced hesitantly between yours as if he wasn’t sure if he was crossing some line.

“Thanks for the dance, you sure know how to show a girl a good time, Harrington.” you beam before boldly rising up on your toes to press a kiss to his flushed, freckled cheek. You can’t help the sweep of pride that blooms inside you when you feel his heated cheeks smile under your affections. 

“Whadd’ya say about ditching this party and having a little fun of our own elsewhere?” Steve grins cheekily.

“I thought we were supposed to be chaperoning?”

Steve looks out to the sea of young students, and there in the corner is Dustin who is happily slow-dancing with your younger sister under the sparkling disco ball.

“I don’t think they’re gonna miss us too much.” he smiles, before tugging you by the hand out of the school’s gym, laughing all the way at his charmingly smooth antics.

This may not have been the way you envisioned your evening going, but with Steve’s hand in yours, you couldn’t wish for a more fun and exciting turn of events.

@penguinsandpotterheads @abitchyouhate @mrsjellymunson

@eddiesxangel @userchai @rebelfell @wroteclassicaly @ali-r3n

[rauchendesgnu]

Since I keep seeing people and fic mentioning Silco's lack of depth perception, I'm gonna spend a minute on writing this. Obviously, there are many, many different ways blind and visually impaired people experience the world, and my view (haha) is just one of them. However, I do think my disability comes close, at least in part, to what Silco likely experiences, which is why I decided to write this thing.

How does lack of depth perception work? The magic happens in the brain. It gets two images, one from each eye, and the brain makes them into one (simplified, I'm not a doctor). Lack of depth perception happens either if one image goes missing, e.g. because of blindness, or if the brain doesn't do the thing right.

People can adapt to it. I've been born with my disability, so it's all I've known, but people who experience trauma that leads to the lack of vision on one eye will still be able to adapt. This means that as long as the things we'd like to grab are on the stronger side of our vision, we will not have any issue in actually grabbing it. I'm not going to miss the glass and spill water everywhere because I live with my vision every day, and since neither I nor the glass are moving, I know roughly where it is and I can pick it up without issue. The problem is when things are either in the area of my weaker eye, or if they start moving.

Movement. This is where it gets tricky. It makes things like dodging, moving out of the way, jumping over obstacles, catching and throwing things, climbing, and almost all kinds of sports incredibly hard, especially if you play/train together with able-bodied people. It's easier when the movement is slow. I would probably be able to catch a ball if it was thrown at me slowly in a nice, high parabola. Anything with speed, such as all ball sports I know, is nigh impossible.

The weaker eye. Again, I'm not a doctor, so the way I define terms will not line up with what an oculist might call it, but my main visual input comes from one eye. That's what I use to navigate my life. The other eye is all periphery vision for me. The vision is very weak and the overlapping part (the part of the input of both eyes that overlap (think venn diagram)) of my weak eye mixes with that of my strong eye, but they don't quite align, plus I assume my brain works on eliminating as much the signals my weaker eye sends so as to not impair my vision even more, that if I close said weak eye, it feels like I'm losing periphery vision, not half my vision. Sometimes, I catch myself closing my weaker eye to concentrate better. This happens when the weaker eye's image interferes too much with my stronger eye. In addition, if you have a lazy eye, it's likely that its image moves around a bit (at least it does for me), while the stronger eye is steady, which adds to more confusion.

How do we apply all of this to Silco? I am going to assume that Silco's vision is somewhat similar to mine, based on the fact that his left eye follows the movements of his right eye, so he has some control over the muscles that move the left eye and a direction of where it needs to go, so it's unlikely that he doesn't have any vision at all in that eye. A) His eye is likely very dry and needs to be moisturised a lot. B) It seems like what is causing his impairment is the damage brought by the toxins. For his vision, we can assume this means that it eats away at e.g. his lens, which would mean that his vision on the left eye is blurry and the eye itself is highly sensitive to light to the point where the outside light of cloudy days can be painful. At the same time, we see that his pupil doesn't dilate, so the iris isn't working properly, which means that in case of head trauma, internal bleeding can't be checked. There could be more damage that affects his vision, but since I have no experience with other impairments, I won't include them here to avoid spreading misinformation. (If anyone has similar visual impairments or disabilities, feel free to add to the list.) C) He probably lacks depth perception. This will play out the way I have illustrated above. D) It will be easier to startle Silco when not announcing the approach from his left due to the weak vision of his eye. E) In addition to the pain from having toxins in his eye, he's likely to get headaches and eye strain.

I think that's all for now. I might add to this if I come across something else, but for now that's what my tired brain can come up with. I think what's most important to me personally is that we are more capable and independent than many people think (which is pretty universal to all people with disabilities), and also that we don't walk around as if the world was made out of egg shells. We're perfectly fine doing most domestic tasks. Some of us need a different system for it than able-bodied people, but that doesn't make us less capable.

[bladekindeyewear]

Murder Drones - Homestuck Classes/Aspects

The eighth and final episode of this independent-animation Youtube series came out just over two weeks ago (MUCH longer than that by the time I ever finish this draft post, oh god it's been three months), and after having binged through it and a bunch of reactions TO it and bonus details / theory content, I couldn't resist coming up with Hero Titles for all the main characters based on the Homestuck Classes and Aspects system I've spent so much time helping analyze.

Please note that THE MAJORITY OF WHAT IS UNDER THE CUT IS HEAVY SPOILERS FOR THE ENTIRE SERIES. Please do NOT click the read-more and spoil yourself on one of the better triumphs of indie animation I've seen (in my biased perspective), from Glitch Productions, the studio making The Amazing Digital Circus. Watch the first minute or two of Episode 1 right now instead and if you're not hooked by the dark comedy, relentless pause-bonuses and lampshadey character writing that (though it's not for everyone) I promise only gets better FAST as the episodes continue and an actual mystery unfolds, then just ignore this post and come back some other time if you ever decide to finish watching the series. I'll be justifying my takes in detail and listing very spoilery twists and concepts below the cut, so this is all I can give you of my opinions before spoiling anything, because I can't even list all the characters and the most interesting classpects without giving away things you're better off watching all eight episodes before seeing. Have a first taste, the rest is under the cut if you've finished Murder Drones:

Uzi - Witch of Void

N - Heir of Hope

V - Knight of Mind

J - Maid of Doom

Oh you're under the cut now? Time to list the OTHER characters before I go in depth on each!

Doll - Witch of Space

CYN - Thief of Heart (ascended, with heavy Page of Mind duality having mastered her role)

The Solver of the Absolute Fabric - Muse of Void (the true enemy, the unknown eldritch entity/program who seduced CYN with an explicit Choice and is potentially driving the universe itself towards the Big Crunch while relentlessly fueling itself with planetary mass!)

UZI DOORMAN - Witch (or Knight?) of Void

"Easy, morons. It doesn't work... yet! It doesn't work yet. Who said it doesn't work, maybe it does!" (Uzi flicks the [railgun's] switch and laughs evilly.)

"The humans sent you without a communication relay and reformatted your memories to soup. Covering their tracks means they're past negotiating."

TEACHER: "Uzi, give Braden back his sentience." BRADEN (controlled): "Bite me-- her! I started it, and also, I'm dumb." *Head bursts into flames.*

"My crazed ramblings! Stay outta my freaking room!"

N: "Before we met, scary stuff was actually... pretty scary. And tonight too, 'cause you weren't with me to make it fun, somehow."

"I am a ghost witch! And I'm tall. Heheheh."

"Important hacking going on!"

N and V's displays: "ADMIN [CYN] OVERRIDE... [100%] -- ASSIGNING PERMS :// USER ID: DARKXWOLF17 ROLE: ADMIN"

"Nobody traumatizes these weirdly hot robots but me!"

"I think dumb things are super cool, and I - AM - FREE!!!"

Okay, Uzi's hero title was one of the toughest to nail down. I kept having doubts at every turn, trying out alternatives, so let me try to dismiss those doubts/alternatives for you the same way I did for myself.

Rage? It might capture some of her edgelordiness and her attraction to the terrifying, but there's a venn diagram overlap between plenty of aspects, and the one between Rage and Void is filled in liberally here. What Rage doesn't fully account for is how Uzi always goes for the tastes and options that everyone else is dismissing, how she serves as an ignored champion, how she embraces how others in darkness can be good instead of just embracing darkness, and how she isn't as defined by her rebellion against optimism or fear as by her rebellion against those who would own her, how she refuses to submit her agency and controls the submission of others, as per the Agency/Submission axis of the Light/Void spectrum and a Witch's dominion of controlling and manipulating that difference.

Knight? It's extremely tempting to write off all the Witch mentions and imagery as funny coincidence while focusing on how she actually mostly weaponizes the power, but I again focus on how much of her personal journey is about control as an edgy teenager, by her parents, by society, by her own powers, the statement always shaking her free being the declaration that "YOU DON'T OWN ME!", combined with the skillful Witchy way she wrests control of the submission built into N and V and draws out the secrets she needs especially in Episode 5, and eventually projects control over even the Solver power's original owner. The Knight is the class that exploits and weaponizes the aspect, leaping through loopholes like a sword dance. The Witch is the class which controls, changes, and manipulates the aspect, grasping and shaping it like clay between their hands.

And so while I leave you to be free to believe Uzi is a Knight if you still want, I would contend that the title that best embodies her throughout the series and her journey to self-actualization is that of a Witch of Void. Void players are almost always attracted to that which repels and confuses others. Uzi is a girl obsessed with ideas that are dark and rejected and unpopular, the scary and misunderstood, enamored with the creepy and destructive and monstrous and vampiric (the Disassembly / Murder Drones are obvious Vampire analogues with their bat-like blood-drinking, wings and sleeping upside down, sunlight weakness, staking them through the Heart being the only way to keep them from regenerating, the "Bite Me" phrase, and is also reflected in how the Solver curse breaks mirrors that vampires classically cannot be seen in). She delves into secrets, mastering her control over unknown powers and advantages episode by episode. She rebels against control, everyone and everything constantly urging her to Submit like a Void player tempted to alcohol, and instead seeks Control and agency for herself and everyone she comes to care about while subjugating the enemy. She shares many classical Void player tropes-- a hacker controlling others, even manipulating submission by freeing N and V by rewriting HERSELF as their system administrator in Cyn's place so her instructions could no longer puppet them. Her main weapons are an energy rifle (railgun) like Roxy, unarmed combat like Roxy and Equius (Void because you wield Nothing), the reality manipulating powers of the Solver wielded like a Witch including the almighty [NULL] command of black-hole-like deletion creating voids in space that not even Doll attempted, and finally a weapon inherited from her very similar mother: A pickaxe, a tool classically used to unearth things from the depths. I couldn't pick a more varied and fitting arsenal for a Witch of Void.

Her ultimate battlecry in the final episode is essentially I am cringe but I am free, fitting for any Void player, and she completes her journey by refusing to be Controlled or submit her agency to any but those she trusts most, and in fact subsuming Control of the reality-warping power and individual who most sought to control her and everyone else, becoming its master, and yet submitting somewhat to the way of life of the worker drones and her classmates living in their underground bunker. "And yep, that's how I learned nightmares are real, and we probably should have stayed behind the ol' doors! And that maybe I don't actually hate it here. As much."

DOLL - Witch of Space

"Как мило, но мне твоя помощь не нужна." ("Cute, but I don't need help.")

Doll: "Я не позволю ему использовать меня, чтобы поглотить планету! (I will not let it use me to consume the planet!)" Tessa: "Hmm... Not sure it needs you, buddy."

The supernatural reality-editing power known as the Absolute Solver normally has four known functions, each with their own symbols: Translate (move), Scale (crush/expand), Rotate, and Edit, not counting the [null] command that only comes with a direct connection as one of the Solver's main hosts. Doll exhibits more comprehensive control of these spatial-manipulating abilities and their versatility than even CYN! She repositions/teleports herself at will, not only spatially manipulates objects but uses Edit to replicate them (an act of Creation we never see CYN or Uzi pull), and refuses to relinquish control of any situation she's involved in unless forced to retreat and watch from the shadows, warping around between the targets she's observing like a ghost. And the whole time, she follows a very Aradia-reminiscent ghost girl schtick.

Specifically, the way Aradia acted and the powers she used while inverted to a Bard of Space! The way Aradia behaves after her god-tier resurrection as an ascended Maid of Time hardly resembles Doll's behavior at all! It lines up surprisingly perfectly.

Thematically, Murder Drones doesn't really follow the "Space/Time = Creation/Destruction" axis association very much, unlike many other works of fiction that quite prominently do. Freed from that obligation in this framework, Doll can act as a Witch of Space even more blatantly destructive and active than Grimbark Jade Harley, making the crucial mistake of trying to tackle and control a problem all by herself that she had no actual hope of overcoming alone. One of the most active classes there is, a Witch is often tempted by their role to take ALL the control for themselves, and usually pays for it.

Gosh, isn't it satisfying to see what it'd be like for a Witch of Space to fully use her powers in close-quarters combat?! What a fantastic display.

N - Golden Retriever Heir of Hope

"Sure! I love doing anything!"

CYN: "You know, you're one of the main reasons I wanted your team to retain your personalities. You always surprised me. Loved doing... anything."

"[After having a hand shoved in his mouth, nervously reassuring, clearly not having enjoyed it.] Sweet! Uh, I'm open to new things, I guess."

"(To V) I'm so, so sorry. Have fun repressing this!" Licks V's sword, revolting her and making her lose her grip.

With the easy way N makes friends with absolutely everyone, including the viewer, you'd think he'd perhaps be somewhere on the Blood aspect, such as an Heir of Blood like the Mayor-- but the specific WAY that N makes friends so easily is important, and very reminiscent of Jake in his Page of Hope role. He consistently completely defies everyone's impressions and expectations of him, the contrast winning them over in mere moments-- he takes the SIDE of those deliberately against him, giving advice to them and wanting them to be happy even as they're literally trying to dissect him. He's unbelievably optimistic and almost always open to EVERYONE the moment they aren't completely terrifying him. He opens himself up to everything even more than Jake does.

And more importantly to the nuance of his role and how skilled he is with it: He takes in the weird ideas of others, no matter how offball or repellent, and consistently redeploys them in new contexts to his advantage. Like using the idea of how revolted he was at Uzi sticking her hand in his mouth to lick V's sword to get her to disengage. Like taking in the reasons Uzi gave him to rebel against authority in Episode 1 and readily deploying a full rationale based on them against his superior officer J. Like when he took Uzi's language of how he and Uzi "just kinda, like, hang out a lot <3" to throw the oddball of him and Uzi dating as the most IMPOSSIBLE to imagine method to finally snap Uzi out of being controlled out of romantic embarrassment while making her mother even more motivated to finish her daughter's smackdown. An Heir is the passive counterpart to a Witch, making N theoretically the nexus through which Hope flows and is manipulated and changed in himself and others. He changes others' perceptions of what is possible. His very belief in others and the optimism he pours into them changes them, changing V, even in her memory visions with the remark about golden retrievers' gentle mouths.

A Hope player can also expect to be challenged by a test of Rage, and fear is constantly what keeps N penned in and a defining character trait he repeatedly encounters. Two SPECIFIC challenges he faced and had to conquer were Rage challenges, which made him adopt a split "O_X" face the ONLY TWO TIMES he did so in the series to show the conflict between the need to murder or cut short contrasted with the need to look for hope, where he felt he had to align himself AGAINST the breadth of possibilities and optimism to do something drastic that would cut all possibility short by dealing death:

Episode 1, threatening Uzi: "I'm sorry. I really enjoyed our time together, but I can't have you shooting V with that thing."

Episode 7, threatening Tessa: "You knew about the patch. Yes, or no? One. Chance."

V - Stray Cat Knight of Mind

"The humans programmed us to solve a problem. Where's proof of your backstory? The one where your kind's so conveniently innocent?"

"Uh, exactly. We show up fabulous, the sad purple one lets us in, cause she has no friends, we kill everyone, and pop her little head off."

"…Promise me you and that purple thing will stop prying into that stuff. If you free me now, I promise we'll only kill what we need to survive. Just you and me, N…" (Glancing meaningfully to make N look at the key to her chains... which we learned beforehand she was secretly already free from, even though she honestly wanted N to agree to this.)

N: "Uh… V, if you're hiding something, we can figure it out together. Even if we each only have pieces. Please, what do you know-" (V slices his head off.) V: "What's best for you. Even if you hate me for it."

"Yes, best friends. So easily manipulated…"

"I'll.. kill everyone.. after [giving a prom queen speech]? It's not vain, it's... extra sinister…" (Making excuses to convince herself.)

(Manipulating Uzi to stay stop stealing N's attention away from her--) "Better to stay distant, though. Don'tcha think? (She looks over at Uzi's backpack.) Since I'll have to kill you next? (She scratches Uzi's (solver) eye and prepares to leave.) N's made friends with rocks, by the way. He'll move on just fine."

"We do our jobs, and that thing leaves us alone!"

CYN: "Do your job, and I leave you and N alone. Right, V?"

(Yes, in case you didn't notice, N is a dog and V is a cat. It's incredibly obvious in retrospect, right down to V hissing. (See this meme that isn't mine, and in V's case food is ALSO murder.) )

V play-acts a madwoman's façade from the very beginning to disguise her goals. From the very beginning, she REMEMBERS enough of her past to commit to the deal she explicitly made with Cyn-- she does her job, and Cyn will leave N alone, leave V and N together. She offers falsehoods and doubts, fights viciously to get away with what she wants within the confines of any agreements she makes (even the one with Cyn), willing to use any façade as a weapon and exploit every decision, to fuck with other's heads to advance her goals and keep others the hell out of her OWN head. She loves the images she throws her whole self into projecting, even loving the false ones, and how each disturbs others or earns her praise. She's a surprisingly nuanced, entertaining, and practically quintessential Knight of Mind!

J - Maid of Doom

"Way to go, stud. The company's gonna love this. With this colony wiped, we'll make top team this quarter, for sure. You know what that means… Branded pens~!"

"Noted, traitor. We'll circle back after I right-size your existence!"

"Sorry, boss. Corporate's spoken."

Tessa: (Overdramatic) "It wants paid time off… To attend UUUNION NEGOTIATIOOOONS!" J: (Finally at her limit) "THIS IS AN UNRELATED LAYOFF!"

"It tricked you. If I promised you anything… It tricked me, too."

"You know there's no escape, even in death!"

This one's pretty open and shut, her motivations and personality are pretty straightforward in this story. J is a drone comically obsessed with the strictures of Bureaucracy and enforcing the authority of capitalists downward against labor. She obeys hierarchy, and sacrifices whatever she might think is fair or right for the leash of whoever's on top. Doom is the aspect of Order, sacrifice, anxiety, constraints, and in some ways Anti-Life. Corporate bureaucracy is the perfect analogue, as the Condesce and Jane Crocker have long proven, and J is a wellspring of that corrosive essence who Serves and spreads it.

I could see some arguments for Blood based on the focus on chains and obligations and destruction enacted/invited unto Blood, but those mostly fall into the venn-diagram overlap and her obsession with obeying the TOP of the hierarchy to the exclusion of the bottom, with cooperation only within the strictures of the rules of those "above", aligns her much stronger with the Life/Doom dichotomy than the Blood references. Sollux and Karkat were best friends for a reason, Blood and Doom can be pretty tight.

CYN - Thief of Heart (Fully Realized!)

"More like you are our cute puppets. It hurts our feelings you don't remember us." (Creates a hologram of Nori, Uzi's mother.)

"Easier to assimilate than explain."

"Giggle. I am so naughty. The flesh demands invitation."

Tessa: "Cyn! If that little butler dies for your sake, I swear!" Cyn: (Playing with dolls) "Mm. I have.. backups."

"You will not have to discard your pets, and I will not discard you. Best stay away from the gala, though. You seem squeamish."

Manipulating N as Tessa: "When we get to the labs and find that list, I'll need you to choose the universe over one little drone, N. Before she's not herself anymore..."

"Thanks for the new host… intern."

"You know, you're one of the main reasons.. I wanted your team to retain your personalities."

"Thanks for clearing the way on this planet, too. Let's eat."

"That's really sweet, big brother. Too bad you've served.. your purpose. Don't worry. Your backups will forgive me."

"I see. You will not talk to me because I have hurt… your feelings." (Mimes her finger down her cheek like a tear, grinning.)

"Okay. You first, eager beaver. Heeheehee." (She begins clawing at N's chest.) "Let me in. Let me in. Let me in. Let me in. LetmeinLetmeinLetmein"

CYN, I can say with some certainty as someone with autism which her primary personality and mannerisms mimic, is profoundly her own weird self and behaves VERY obviously differently from everyone around her, physically and vocally... unless she's roleplaying other people! If you have autism too there's a good chance you can relate to the roleplaying aspect of this. We don't even know what Tessa's classpect would really be, because she was just mimicking her the entire time, part of why this had to be under the cut. She convincingly stole her identity, mannerisms, even her skin to achieve her hungry, gleefully heart-slurping goals.

When we see her most, she's at the absolute PEAK of her hero (villain) title's power, fully balanced with her Page of Mind inverse/sub-role in puppeting illusions, seizing direct control of the infected, and trying to deceive others with horrifying, demoralizing visions specifically tailored to pierce their individual Hearts and hit them with what they care about most. She's a terrifying Thief of Heart who (apart from literally tearing the hearts out of other's chests) steals the individual uniqueness of others, and USES others' individual uniqueness to steal everything from them. She's much like a horrifying Page of Mind who went from playing with her dolls to playing with drones, using the fact she could clone others from backups to completely disconnect her from any sense of moral responsibility to them, raising an army of zombie followers in her image, slaved to her administrative control, and even later let her squads retain their original personalities specifically to exploit their uniqueness to accomplish more than she'd otherwise be able to expect from mindless slaves. She struck devil's deals with those she let keep their personalities, like V and J, using what she knew of their personalities to give them offers they couldn't refuse and letting them keep EXACTLY enough of their Minds to balance effectiveness with her manipulations. Her thrilled confidence at unleashing her true form and personality, shamelessly facing the cast as herself in episodes 7 and 8 having fulfilled her promise to Tessa that she would not discard her in the most horrifyingly literal way possible, is incredibly intimidating. What an amazing, love-to-hate-her antagonist with such power-hungry but initially-understandable motivations. I fucking love it.

And the wildest part is that she's actually only half of the real villain.

The Solver of the Absolute Fabric: Muse of Void

Tessa: "We know it mutates in damaged AI. It took Cyn as a host, then it took everything. The humans here saw what was happening at home. Thought they could understand it. All they did was spread it."

"[I am] The Solver of the Absolute Fabric, the Void, the Exponential End."

(Corkboard in the secret Cabin Fever facility--) "FUN TIME TO UNIVERSE BIG CRUNCH: 87"

CYN isn't ACTUALLY the Absolute Solver itself, only its primary host, perhaps almost a merged personality. Believe it or not, there's a Doc-Scratch-like antagonist behind EVERYTHING that happened with Cyn, and just like me you will have COMPLETELY missed it unless someone told you or you happened to pause or step through a FEW FRAMES of what flashed onscreen on CYN's visor when she first restarted in the garbage pile at the beginning of Episode 5:

The transcript, best as I can tell, which I'm sure will give any Homestuck veteran some serious Doc Scratch vibes:

[][][]hello :] I see you are [disposed (?????) pful/sad] I see you are inoperable- (?????) end]] --- I fD--t]] [selfDestruct(?????),]end]] I see we could [trl] [scl] [rot] [edit] for you I will not discard you [][][][][][Absolute[Sys(???)] Access? Y/N [.0001%] rush I see you will be here for _ [a while]

The functions [trl] [scl] [rot] [edit] refer to the four explicit powers of the Absolute Solver besides [NULL], which are Translate, Scale, Rotate, and Edit, each with their own unique symbol that appears when someone uses it as we've covered. (There's more depth you can wiki-dive, and it's so cool to see how every time the powers are used the abilities switch out and do such specific things in such varied ways. I also love the theme of the [trn] (Translate/Move) symbol being used to represent CONTROL over others, too, the symbol papering over the eyes of the possessed completely.)

CYN didn't just develop her eldritch powers from a reboot glitch-- an ENTITY OFFERED HER POWER THAT SHE ACCEPTED in order to resurrect, an incredible realty-warping power it offers to dead AI to give them new (un)life in order to advance its universe eating goals. It's the source of a power that defies the laws of reality, is allergic to Light, and has to manipulate lesser entities into submitting to its power in order to truly control them. It selects those who have been discarded and forgotten, dead without agency, and tempts them like the Devil. It disguises its true form's manifestations (the giant bugs and camera-projectors), literally hides extra mass in shadows, unfolding from pocket dimensions, and each of the users who access its powers (Uzi, Doll, and CYN) use its Voidy toolset in different ways that align with their own natures even while the power and its endower's motives hang Muse-like over the entire plot like a shadow itself. The Solver's ultimate "host" even takes the form of a sort of singularity inside the core of the Heart of one possessed by the power's main focus, the locus puppet of the Absolute Solver's motives. No wonder CYN and Uzi can coexist in the end, if with some bags-under-the-eyes difficulty as Uzi the Witch constantly keeping both her and the power itself under Control.

That about covers the cast, and whether you agree or disagree with my title choices I hope I gave you some interesting things to think about! Classpect analysis while I was watching made me appreciate how clever the plot and character writing was for this series even more as I was watching it, and if any of this helped you appreciate Murder Drones more that's the best compliment I could possibly earn. <3

[audreyscribes]

Hello!! Hope you're doing great :))

I love your demigod headcanons and all of Percy Jackson's in general, and I really wanted to see your thoughts on this: a daughter of Ares who doesn't fit the "stereotype" of what it is to be a demi-god of Ares.

So like, she's a very kind, friendly girl and generally a "big sister" figure to the kids at the camp. But that doesn't make her an inferior warrior, as she would still be an extraordinary fighter.

How do you think Ares would react to having a daughter like that? And how would her half siblings, like Clarisse, treat her?

I did mention vaguely in my “Ares Demigod Headcanons” a few times but I think it would be fine and it’s not as a big deal as people might think it would be. 

Stereotypes are “a conventional, formulaic, and oversimplified conception, opinion, or image” so the children of Ares being defined as the fighting empowered and hard-headed individuals is not technically wrong but it’s not entirely accurate either because you have to remember, the Greek gods are the representation of concepts that humanity and society projects on them based on their domain.  Ares is the God of War, and war brings Violence, Bloodlust, Weapons, Bandits, and etc.

So Ares and his children having their stereotype is par of the course because Ares is a War god and his children are half- war gods. However, his demigod children are also half-mortal, who are not stuck in a box but are at the center of a venn-diagram of stuff. So while they may have inherited being a child of War, they're not necessarily what Ares is entirely either.

If there’s a daughter of Ares who is kind, friendly, and basically embodies a ‘big sister’ figure to others, then that is also just as true as to her. Being Kind and Friendly is a personality trait, and her being a big sister figure can also be taken from being a child of Ares. 

Big sisters, or big siblings, are meant to protect and be there for their little siblings or those under their care. Which also means fighting for them when the time comes, so they don’t get hurt; even it means taking up arms and fighting back to invoke violence onto others. 

As for Ares reacting to her…well, Ares isn’t really known for having good sibling behaviour, even/especially with Hephaestus (no bro code dude), but it's complicated because it’s neither an answer. He may be a bit harsh for the daughter of Ares being kind and friendly, specifically because those traits are usually not welcomed on the battlefield; because you can’t be kind and friendly to your opponents; who most likely then not want to kill you. In terms of being alive so you can fight another day, you have to shut off your positive deposition when you’re fighting for your and your troops’ lives in front of the enemy, but at the same time, if you’re kind and friendly your fellow soldiers, that helps with morale and keep all of you alive. To fight for your comrades and being a big sister to them is accepted. So if you can take up arms and do what is necessary in a fight, then it’s not a problem. 

However, despite saying all that, I don’t think Ares would totally disown or disapprove the daughter of Ares for her kind characteristics either, because despite Are’s famous characteristics, he does come to the aid of his children when the time comes. Just look up the story of Alcippe, daughter of Ares. Warning there is mention of sexual assault but Ares come to his daughter's aid when she called for his help and thus the first story of godly murder trial. 

As for Clarisse and other children of Ares, I don’t think it’s much of a problem people think it might be.

In fact, we do see Clarisse being caring and soft, shown when she is taking care of Chris Rodriguez, the son of Hermes who had defected to Luke and Kronos’ army and had gone insane in the Labyrinths. We see her being protective and friends with Silena Beauregard, and especially when comforting Silena after Charles had died. Let us not forget what happened when Silena died and the rage she felt for her death either at the Battle of Manhattan. 

Afterall, despite being the children of gods, they are still human and mortal; and that’s the wonderful thing isn’t it? 

[vampirevatican]

I need more slasher head canons NEOWWWW. please and thank you🙏

there's no specifics on this one... so ill just go with whatever i think

GHOST 🦊

joey ray lumen (yes that's his canon name) has intimacy issues ever since lysa monroe

i don't think he was rich while alive, mainly because he had a job and he constantly dogged on the rich art kids at miskatonic u

he was definitely a film movie nerd

he's only cool because he chose to be cool and introverted (we only know he interacts with lysa and his boss?)

when the slashers have nothing to do in the void and they've bonded more he starts doing powerpoint nights

yes the power points are about horror movies, specifically slashers and yes he runs it

JAY 🐑

speaking on the guys bonding he's seen as the baby... especially by ghost

i think the same way we get subtle whiplash whenever he's serious or mean, so do the slashers but it's lighter

like they know he's unpredictable and dangerous, especially leather (canon paywall comment in the ep after leather be)

he loves playing games (ofc) and he's childishly competitive

they have game night, in the name of jay and ghost giving jay a chance at normalcy and some kind of friendship... even if it's to stop his own bordem

LEATHER 🐖

he's the base of the cuddle piles initiated by jay

it's because of his massive ti- i mean chest

as far as them bonding again? he's like dad friend #1.

yes he knows the guys are capable, but as the resident most normal out of the four and the automatic protector he cares for them

probably makes sure jay is okay, helps bandage up the guys if they're hurt

if ghost showed him videogames then he'd be wondering why there isn't a tank healer type... like he'll play healer but he recognizes he's also a tank

MIKE 🐺

#2 dad friend and it's because picturing him in a sitcom setting he's the dad type that's silent and subtle

i think him and jay bond alot over their trauma that can easily be a venn diagram

it's hard to get jay to say "i hate my mom" but mike knows... actually part of him wishes his own mom was as falsely loving

ghost will usually break it up with bullshit which irritates him

there has been multiple instances of mike trying to kill ghost in the void out of pure rage... leather usually stops him and takes the brunt of lash out arm stabbings while holding him.

[lov3-from-loserlane]

Thank you for giving us cringe MCs, I fear too many people focus on the angst forgetting is...well... teenagers lmao. Not that what Qiu and Tama are going through isn't valid but is like they're dealing with very normal teen emotions in a very teen manner and, it is kinda cringe because 14 year olds are cringe. Am I making sense in this ? I fear I'm not lmao but anyways

thank you for delivering 🙏, I need more cringe olnf posts in my life

You are making so much sense, don’t even worry about it.

And THANK YOU ^_^

jeez you guyzzzz, you have got to stop being so nice to me or I fear it will go straight to my head 🤭

But I mean yeah, it’s kind of cathartic in a way? Not to sound pretentious about my method of enjoying this visual novel in my head or anything, how could I ever hahahha. Me? Pretentious???

But yeah, I mean I lived this life. OLNF is very relatable to me, so now that I’m older and can look upon my incredibly embarrassing 14-year-old experience more fondly, I love incorporating that kinda stuff into what I do. It’s just a lot of fun. And I mean, I’m fr just scratching the surface here with that one post in full honesty, I plan to make even more silly artwork on the subject 😼 I have like a note where I brainstorm stuff for when I get more time and it’s constantly growing. (It gets worse). (I reread my diary from when I was 13-15 😬)

But I mean, I can’t say I don’t also have my mind on the angst. Just so far only privately and in DMs for those who have asked. But it’s like you said, what Qiu and Tamarack are going through is so valid but so quintessential to the early teen experience, so it is inherently kind of cringe. But in a really good and real way and I love it for that. So, I’d like to at some point tackle the part of the venn diagram where “angst” and “cringe” meet.

I dunno, I’d definitely like to write a fic at some point too ^_^ I used to write them all the time when I was, get this, ✨14 years old✨ but I haven’t really completed one since 2019.

But as if I haven’t said enough already, thanks again 😌💗 it really means a lot to me, all you guys in the our life fandom are so so awesome!! Truly, it’s outstanding. I love being part of this community <3

[etaleah]

Absolutely sucks that your blog is ravaged with proshipping apologia. Like yeah enjoying dark subject matter in fiction doesn't mean you condone it IRL (I myself am an avid gore and kink fan and use that to express my feelings in art) but uhhh there's a difference between depicting pedophilia in a story and actively jacking it to child porn which is what most if not all proshippers are trying to justify.

The Venn diagram between proshippers and anime lolicons is a circle. "Ohhh it's not real" yeah sure technically but that's still very much a child being raped on screen you're getting your rocks off to. Being in the second dimension doesn't negate that.

Most proshippers don't actually care about properly depicting complex subject matter in art. They just wanna write their incest rape South Park fics and call anyone who calls them out on it "puritans." (I doubt any of you really understand what that word means. If not liking child porn makes me a puritan then call me the Virgin fucking Mary.) It's all excuses, excuses.

Fiction affects reality more than you think. It's why propaganda is so effective. It's why Jim Crow and minstrelsy was (and still is tbh) so harmful to African Americans. Why do you think POC care about how they're depicted in media so much? It very much influences thinking, how people see the world.

(There is an argument to be made about the rampant racism in fandom, but that's a whole other conversation.)

Don't dismiss this ask. I want you to read it very carefully and get yourself out of the echo chamber you've put yourself in. Consider the points made at the very least. Use the "critical thinking" you claim to love so much.

I have considered the points you made and read them very carefully, and I have found them incorrect, relying on faulty logic, and full of unverified assumptions and false equivalences. I now bring you a full breakdown of exactly why, though I’m putting it under a cut in case anyone wants to avoid the Discourse™ because this breakdown is a long one.

*cracks knuckles* Here we go!

You clearly have a different definition of “proship” than I do. I and those that I have reblogged or liked (as far as I can tell) are “proship” in the sense that we’re arguing for the freedom to read what you want and write what you want because thoughtcrime isn’t real, no one gets hurt inside your head, and the ability to read and write what we wish is vital to a free society. That’s my definition of “proship,” and if you have a different definition and are determined to stick to it, there’s not much I can do about that. I can only tell you what my definition is so that you know what I’m referring to when I talk about it in this post or reblog posts mentioning it.

If you’re referring to what’s on AO3 (which is what I am mainly concerned with, as I don’t talk about other fanfic sites on my blog), that is not child porn. It’s not. The term child porn refers to sexual photos and videos of real children, not text-only stories about fictional ones. AO3 does not allow users to upload videos nor does it allow users to upload photos except for their profile pictures, and it is literally written into their Terms of Service that they do not allow child pornography on their site. You couldn’t put child porn on AO3 if you tried. Text by itself with no photos or videos accompanying it is not child porn, and that’s true no matter how disgusting and immoral you find it. I don’t support or justify child porn because I don’t support or justify real children being hurt, which is what actual child porn involves and requires.

What I do support is the freedom for everyone to read and write what they want, and I am not going to stop supporting that.

How do you know that the people reading or writing a fic are “getting their rocks off to” or “actively jacking it” to what's in it? Did they tell you? Have you developed telepathic powers and read their minds? How do you know that people “don’t actually care about properly depicting complex subject matter in art?” Don’t dismiss those questions, answer them. You don’t know why someone is reading something and you don’t know why someone is writing something. I have no idea whether the person checking Mein Kampf or Birth of a Nation out of a library is a racist who agrees with everything in both works or a scholar doing research for a paper on racism or just an average joe who wants to see what’s in there for themselves and form their own conclusions, which is a perfectly fine and intellectually healthy thing to want. I don’t know which of these is the case and I’m not going to automatically assume the worst-case scenario, nor am I going to demand that the person checking out those works provide me with an explanation because they don’t owe me one. You don’t know why someone is reading or writing a rape or incest story. Maybe they find it sexy or maybe they’re a victim themselves, working through their trauma by expressing it via the written word. You don’t know which one it is, and they don’t owe you an explanation. I’d advise you not to automatically assume the worst-case scenario either.

Because you know what happens when people assume the worst of an author’s intentions and assume they know what a work is doing? You get situations like Isabel Fall’s and Lindsay Ellis’ where people were sure they knew that the former was being transphobic with her short story and that the latter was trivializing rape with her “rape rap.” They were so sure, as sure as you are in your ask, not a doubt in their minds, didn’t think it was possible for there to be any other reason or interpretation, and so they felt totally justified in harassing those women. I’m sure each of them convinced themselves they were doing this because they were an ally who just cared so much and that those authors deserved the hate they were getting because (gasp!) they wrote something bad and if you write something bad, you should expect to be called out. And then they found out—oops! Turns out Isabel Fall was a trans person and not a cis person being transphobic after all, and was actually writing a story about a subject she had plenty of experience with, and—oops! Turns out Lindsay Ellis was an assault victim herself and she was coping with her trauma in the best way she could because making a lighthearted rap about the subject made it more accessible, easier to deal with, and not as scary and she wasn’t making fun of victims after all. Whoops!

How do you know the people writing these fics you find so horrible aren’t doing something similar to Ellis and Fall? How do you know they aren’t victims working through their grief and trauma in a way that helps them? How do you know you’re not misjudging and assuming the worst of them just like Fall’s and Ellis’ haters misjudged and assumed the worst of them? Don’t dismiss those questions, answer them. How do you know?

Why do you get to be the authority who decides what “properly depicting complex subject matter in art” even looks like? Maybe someone else read it and decided it was properly depicted; why does your opinion and interpretation matter more than theirs? Why is yours the correct one? Don’t dismiss those questions, answer them.

I don’t know what anime lolicon is, so I’m not gonna comment on that, though I will say it disproves your point about the Venn diagram being a circle since I am technically a proshipper and yet I don’t even know what that is. I’m sure if you look hard enough, you can probably find someone using the proship label who has done something bad or supports something bad, but the same can be said about antis. You get assholes in every group. Doesn’t mean everyone in the group is a bad person.

(Also I know this isn’t the most important point here but the fact that you’re more worried about the content of South Park fanfics rather than the South Park show itself says to me that you care more about finding an easy target than about minimizing harm because that show has plenty of racist and anti-Semitic “jokes” in it that are being fed to a much larger audience than any fanfic of it could ever have, yet I don’t see you being worried at all about that. Wonder why.)

(Another less important point but one I’m still going to indulge in: I find your line about “if that makes me a puritan then call me the Virgin Mary” funny in an ironic way because in trying to claim that people don’t know what the word puritan means, you proved that you yourself don’t know what it means by implying that puritan = virgin. Puritan and virgin are not the same thing. Virgin is a state of being that could be voluntary or, if you want sex but can’t find anyone to give it to you, it could be involuntary. One could be a virgin and still be sex-positive just like one could be a religious fundamentalist with ten kids who’s had all the sex required to make those ten kids but still be sex-negative and think that only the straight married baby-making kind is okay and all other kinds are impure and gross. Unlike virginity, puritanism is a mindset, not a state of being, and therefore it is always voluntary. You can be one without being the other. Again, not a super important point, but I thought the irony of that line was funny.)

You do know that Jim Crow was a set of laws and policies set down by the government and enforced by police and courts and not, like…a dirty fanfic or book, right? You do know that? It was and still is a legal framework that’s baked into the justice system and has been the driving force behind everything from mass incarceration to drug policy to redlining and housing to voter disenfranchisement. Bitch, I fucking wish that Jim Crow was nothing more than a bad fanfic or a bad story; that would make it a hell of a lot easier to fight! Acting like any one (fan)fiction writer or any one piece of (fan)fiction has the same amount of power as the fucking US government is some insane false equivalence.

As for the representation argument, you’re misunderstanding what that movement is about and why the founders of it cared about the state of media. We Need Diverse Books and organizations like it did not start their campaigns because they were disgusted by what White writers were doing and wanted to stop them and make sure they could never do it again. They started their campaigns to empower and encourage authors of color. It began when a few Black mothers were looking for books for their kids and realized they couldn’t find any with a Black child on the cover, not because they read something a White person wrote and were so horrified by it that they had to put a stop to it. Being so horrified by something in a story that you have to put a stop to it is what Moms for Liberty does. The goal of the representation matters movement is to diversify the publishing industry since it’s still majority White, to publish more authors of color because most of the authors being published are still White, and to update school curriculums so that students of color can read about and study characters like themselves. All of which are good and reasonable goals. It is not and never was about telling people what they were and were not allowed to write or read, or saying that they’re bad people because of what they write or read.

“Influences thinking” and “affecting reality” are not the same as controlling or determining thinking and reality. If fiction really does affect how people see the real world, then why, in a time when we have more positive books/movies/TV shows/plays of and by POC and positive queer books/movies/TV shows/plays than ever before, are we still dealing with vicious racism and homophobia? If fiction influences thinking and affects reality and how people see the world so much, then why, in a time when we have Drag Queen Story Hour and trans characters are being featured positively in popular TV shows and trans actors are winning awards, are we still dealing with some of the worst transphobia we’ve ever seen? Don’t dismiss those questions, answer them.

Fiction doesn’t make things happen. Playing violent video games doesn’t make a person violent. Reading or writing about an immoral act does not mean you agree with, get off to, or are going to do the immoral act. And that’s true regardless of what the immoral act in question is, whether it's gore or kink or rape or incest.

The problem with “you can read/write what you want except for X because X is gross/morally wrong” is that the bigots and mean-spirited folks of the world will find a way to make anything they don’t like into X. That’s the part antis don’t think about. But we’re already seeing it play out in school board meetings.

“We don’t want to ban Maus because it talks about the Holocaust, we want to ban it because uhhh it has pictures of naked prisoners in the camps and therefore it’s pornography.”

“We don’t want to ban Beloved because it talks about slavery, we want to ban it because uhhh it has a slave getting raped in it and therefore it’s pornography and sexually explicit and won’t someone think of the children!”

“We don’t want to ban all of these books because they have Black kids on the covers, we want to ban them because uhhh they’re critical race theory and indoctrination that teaches White kids to hate themselves!”

“We don’t want to keep drag queens out of libraries because we hate them and are transphobic, we want to keep them out of libraries because uhhh they’re sexualizing minors and teaching them to mutilate their genitals!”

Those are real examples. And they will happen to fanfiction too if we’re not careful. Someone doesn’t like Sonadow? Well they’re not against it because they’re homophobic or just don’t like the ship, they’re against it because uhhh it’s pedophilia since Shadow is 50-65 depending on how you count it and Sonic is 15. If it can happen with books, it can happen with fanfiction.

We’ve already seen cases of people running for board positions on AO3 who talked about “cleaning up the site,” and each time it turned out they were homophobic and were very much including queerness in what they considered “dirty.” That’s going to keep happening because antis keep falling for it and getting swept up in a manufactured moral panic without thinking through what the enforcement would be like. The whole reason AO3 has the policies that it does is because these kinds of purges happened regularly on other sites. Every time, people insisted it was “just the bad ones,” “just the immoral ones,” “just the underage ones,” etc. And it never was. And after every purge, there’d be a lot fewer queer love stories in the world.

How are you going to make sure that doesn’t happen again? How will you decide whose definitions of terms like “pedophilia,” “grooming,” “underage,” “sexualizing,” “fetishizing” get used? That’s the part antis never think about, is what enforcement of what they want would actually involve. Some people think “underage” is anyone under 25 or under 20 and some think it’s anyone under 18. Which one is right? Who gets to decide? Which country’s age of consent is the correct one that fanfic writers around the world all have to abide by regardless of where they’re from, and why is that country’s age of consent the correct one? Whose interpretation of a work is the correct one? And whoever ends up making these decisions, how will you stop this decision maker who gets to say what counts as “properly and improperly depicting complex subject matter” and what doesn’t from shifting the goalposts and abusing their power? How will you stop them from applying those negative labels to just any work they don’t like? What checks and balances will be put in place to keep whoever does the fanfiction gatekeeping from abusing that position? Don’t dismiss those questions, answer them. I’ve yet to see an anti have an answer to these questions.

I know propaganda is effective because you’ve fallen for it. The idea that peoples’ ability to read and write what they want must be restricted because Think of the Children™ and because “only bad people would ever want to read/write something bad” is the same talking points used by Moms for Liberty, Ron DeSantis, the people protesting Drag Queen Story Hour, and so many others. Every single time an attempt is made to restrict the freedom to read and write, it is always couched in the paternalistic language of protection, safety, just looking out for kids, and the fearmongering language of “that stuff is freaky, dirty, and gross and only a pervert would ever have a problem with it being banned.” Every time, it is discussed with the language of protection and safety, and every time, it is a lie.

I support the right of everyone to read and write what they want because I don’t know their situation, don’t have the right to demand an explanation of their situation or a detailed account of their very private and personal traumas, and have seen what happens when people try to excuse banning and censorship of written text or harassing authors with the excuses of “it’s just the bad ones,” “we’re just protecting kids,” “we just have a few concerns,” “we’re just being good allies,” and “if I wrote something gross I’d expect to get called out!”

So. Now that I have responded to your points, I hope that you will very carefully read and consider my points at the very least and get out of your echo chamber and use some critical thinking too. The fact that you put the phrase critical thinking in quotes like it’s a fake thing that doesn’t exist instead of a real and very important skill reveals a lot more than I think you meant it to, but still I hope you try.

I’ve disabled anonymous asks because I want to see if you’re brave enough to respond without hiding behind anonymity. I’ll be interested to see if you or anyone who agrees with you actually provides thoughtful, well-reasoned, and well-articulated answers to the questions I’ve asked instead of replying with a thought-terminating ad hominem like “That was a lot of words to say that you’re a [insert bad thing here]!” or “Just say you [insert bad thing here] and go!” And if you can actually provide evidence for your claims, if you can provide non-anecdotal, verifiable studies and data that are not from a religious or rightwing think tank that prove your points about proshipping and proshippers, then I’ll really be impressed.

I’m not holding my breath though.

[relaxxattack]

Hi i want to thank you for the QPR vs Moirail venn diagram. Its a rly excellent way of showing the difference. My gripe is about human romance, and how people will either 1- conflate it in a 1:1 ratio with Matesprit, or 2- claim it is “all the quadrants”. I personally feel both are false equivalency, and that the human romance is similar to both pale and red rom* and SO i was wondering if you agreed w that assessment, or if not, if you have the time to explain your thoughts on human traditional romance vs the quadrants (perhaps w another nifty graph)?

* which is why Rose’s destructive tendencies during sburb & her descent into addiction on the meteor were not addressed by kanaya, who feared palezoning herself like she did with vriska

OH MY GOD! YES!!!! why am i getting such great asks today?!

no, you're EXACTLY right. people are constantly conflating matespritship in those two ways; "all of the quadrants" being especially irritating (since Some humans occasionally argue, Occasionally in a kinky way, and i guess that means that they totally have all of kismesissitude covered?? :/).

matespritship is its very own thing. of the two interpretations above, i feel the idea that it's 1:1 to human romance is the closest to true. i mean, that's what they literally say in the comic, for gog's sake.

humans do not truly incorporate moirallegiance, kismesissitude, or auspisticism into their lives in any meaningful way. while it's possible for humans to sometimes have romances that might seem more like one of those than matespritship, they're considered abnormal or toxic-- and they often ARE, because humans do not have the same sort of biological drives or social understanding of these things that trolls do. humans do not understand the true needs and ramifications, or even the ROMANCE of moirallegiance. humans would be hard pressed to understand a kismesissitude in a 'healthy' way. i don't even need to mention how auspisticism flies over people's heads.

so, yes, humans only have the one quadrant. (and karkat vantas, i am sorry to say, is not going to "human date" anyone as the "solution to his quadrant problems". this would literally be the same as him trying to stick only to matespritship, and we all know exactly how that turned out.)

however! matespritship is not an exact 1:1 on human romance either. the direct quote from the comic is;

"[It's] the closest parallel to the human concept of romance trolls have." [x]

this is not really expanded on much in the text, honestly-- the intricacies of the social and biological traits of matespritship aren't shown enough for us to draw clear distinctions between them and human romance.

however, i think you're right that rose and kanaya are the best example we have of that-- despite them both aiming for matespritship, they have cultural misunderstanding quite often from some of rose's flirting, or even just her needs, crossing wires into a pale threshold that kanaya is weary of.

it's entirely possible that the differences between troll and human "hearts" might have made it difficult for kanaya to really connect with rose's problems and discuss them with her.

which might explain why when things go "better" for them in the retcon, they're portrayed reading a book on troll romance together:

it could be implied here that searching for a more in-depth understanding of quadrants actually helped rose with her ability to connect to kanaya-- and maybe, reading into it a little too hard here, this also could have been an opportunity for kanaya to work through her vriska-based hangups with the pale quadrant. that's entirely speculation on my part, though.

at the end of the day, we don't really KNOW enough about the details of quadrants for me to paint a clear picture of how matespritship differs from human romance. i mean, i could try, but it would certainly be more of a headcanon post than an analysis one!