#Individual Assignment

[vomittedsoap]

How characters in AMC The Terror would drink their coffee (/morning drink)

John Franklin: Black, your grandpa's instant Kirkland brand coffee. Either that or 7/11 big gulp that smells like motor oil and piss. Owns a "world's best boss" mug but uses it as a pen cup.

Francis Crozier: black (with whiskey). Jopson makes it for him in one of those plaid Thermos or green old-fashioned Stanley.

James Fitzjames: he takes Starbucks and Dutch Bros very seriously. Big fan of a chai latte as well. Anything with cinnamon sprinkled on it. (insert Larry David Latte joke from Crozier)

Blanky: Same as Crozier but with some sugar and cream

Jopson: owns a French Press that he uses to make Crozier's coffee, drinks his with just a LITTLE sugar but a lot of milk. Also likes espresso sometimes. Drank from a simple white cup or whatever's available.

Hodgson: uses Jopson's French Press (and lost the lid one time). Adds CoffeeMate flavored creamer, pumpkin spice is his fave but hazelenut is fine. Really enjoys stupid mugs so most of the mugs on the Terror belong to him. His favorite is the Rainforest Cafe frog one.

Little: a double-quad-shot of espresso in a Solo Cup means nothing to him. But alas he drinks it anyways. Such is life. Sometimes will have a coffee in Hodgson's mug with a picture of a kitten and puppy playing on it.

Irving: insane amounts of sugar and milk, but will never admit it. One time a shipmate accidentally mistook it for his and instantly spat it out. Irving claimed he didn't know whose it was. The mug changes but says his favorite is the one with John3:16 on it (but actually he covets the Rainforest Cafe frog mug).

Goodsir: actually he's an herbal tea guy. Likes chamomile or things with rose/lavender. Brews them in a mug Hodgson gave him that had some dumb science pun on it, a gift for which he's unnecessarily thankful.

Stanley: black. No fun allowed.

Tozer: regular coffee with french vanilla creamer. Normal.

Hickey: Panera lemonade that kills you. Also takes sips from Crozier, Tozer, or Irving's drinks when they're not looking. ("if you have a milkshake... and I have a milkshake... and I have a straw; see? Watch it. My straw reaches across the room... and starts to drink your milkshake: I... drink... your... milkshake!")

Gibson: doesn't like coffee, but is a big fan of coffee-flavored things.

Collins: espresso with lead and an extra side of lead (with whipped cream)

Silna: Haznelnut latte with which to take her ibuprofin. Lord knows she needs it. Drinks from a baby-blue Stanley Goodsir gave her.

[thepenultimateword]

Types of Confessions : Public Confession

CW: Murder

“I love you!”

For a moment, the entire street seemed to go quiet. Cameras whirred from behind blockades. Nervous feet scraped the asphalt as police shifted, attention briefly moving from Supervillain to the battered hero who had just thrust their way into the line of fire.

Supervillain could only stare, the edge of their knife pressed to the Director’s throat. Just a smidge more pressure, and he’d bleed like the pig he was.

But there was Hero, breathing hard, hair sweaty and ragged in their face, costume in tatters. Supervillain had sent several of the syndicate to hold onto them until this business was over, but apparently they didn’t compare to a legal power user when they really wanted something.

“Don’t do it,” Hero said, stumbling forward another step. They were bleeding through one leg of their leggings. “You do it, and every officer here shoots you down. Or they catch you and dissect your brain until they figure out what went wrong. Why you can still hurt people.”

Supervillain raised their brow. “And if I do stop? What? Mr. Director here forgets I ever threatened him?”

Hero took another step. “I made a deal. I-if you stop. We can leave. Together. They won’t stop you. You don’t have to be trapped in this city anymore. You don’t have hide.”

Supervillain could feel the director’s shoulders relax a little. He was confident that Supervillain would take this out. Exchange all his bitterness for a happy ending.

“This is my magnum opus,” Supervillain said. What I’ve built my career on. You want me to give it up?”

“I love you!”

“Why should that matter?”

Hero choked.

The director stiffened.

“This isn’t about me. This is about you. This is about us. And everyone this city exploits. And crushes. And pushes under the rug. This place is supposed to be some sort of powered utopia but it’s a scheme. And I like it better when I’m the one behind the curtain.”

“Please. Please I don’t want to lose you.”

Supervillain’s heart pounded. Hero’s words only now just soaking in. They didn’t make a difference. But they felt warm in their chest. Hopeful. Grateful. Regretful.

They might never get the chance to actually kiss them. To hold them. To go on a date with them. To tell—

They could do that part. They’d intended to never say it, but well…

“I love you too.”

“Supervillain…” Hero sounded pleading. They knew it wasn’t the sort of ‘I love you’ that expected longevity.

“We could always do both.”

“Supervillain, no wait— I don’t even know if I— This isn’t how—”

They gazed directly into Hero’s eyes. “Save me, my hero.”

Then they slit the director’s throat.

[withthewindinherfootsteps]

Wei Wuxian and Narrative Agency – Part One

For Xiantober Day One: Genius… albeit stretching the prompt so it refers to MXTX and MDZS itself, but at the end of the day it’s still about WWX – so no harm done!

(Part Two | Part Three | Full version on AO3)

The narrative is a very active player in MDZS’ story. How it presents information, what it chooses to show and omit, often reflects important facets of its themes and characters – Nie Huaisang, for instance, is so good at hiding behind his mask that not even the narrative can hold him accountable; the present day’s storyline as a murder mystery and the slow reveal of information about the past both prompt the reader to think critically about the truth of events, when the importance of thinking critically is an important theme; and the dangers not thinking critically (and instead basing conclusions on rumours without much evidence) are shown by tricking unquestioning readers into the very same trap the cultivation world falls into, as the information given by the title, summary and in-universe rumours – which contradicts how we see actually Wei Wuxian act – turns out to be false.

But nowhere do I love this trait more than in its treatment of Wei Wuxian – and, more specifically, in its way of emphasising his agency. We’re not just told how much his active choices define his character, and we’re not just shown this in-universe through his personality, worldview and the events he causes. I’d argue that this aspect goes a step further, and shapes the structure of the out-of-universe narrative as well.

There are two main ways this happens: one, in how the aspects of Wei Wuxian’s life that are shown and hidden directly tell us what’s important about his character (which is good writing but isn’t necessarily tied to this shaping of the narrative), which is what we’ll explore today; and two, how what’s shown and hidden reflects what Wei Wuxian himself prefers to dwell on, resulting in the narrative respecting his own thoughts and feelings on matters (which very much is tied to it). We’ll explore this at a later date.

But as for now – let’s explore my favourite aspect of MDZS.

(Here, narrative agency will be considered the ability of a character to meaningfully influence their events and the story they’re in.)

Tragedy, Circumstance, Choice

If we simply look at Wei Wuxian’s backstory in a vacuum, it seems almost typically tragic. His  parents died in circumstances beyond his control, he was left alone as a child with nobody to care for him, he was forced to grow up fending for himself on the streets, he was faced with abuse when he finally was taken in… as with all typical woobies, everything simply happened to him, and none of it was good. It’s just another example of the lack of agency being used for sympathy points, right?

…Except there’s one problem with that idea. We don’t actually see any of this.

It would’ve been easy to start the flashbacks during these times. We’re telling the story of Wei Wuxian in (largely) chronological order, and these are likely important experiences for him! But instead of starting in his street days, or evenat the moment Jiang Fengmian took him in*, we start at the lectures in the Cloud Recesses. That’s not even something mentioned in, and therefore something that’s able to disprove, the rumours at the start of the novel. So why is this the case? 

Well, there are multiple reasons – the main one being that MDZS is also Lan Wangji’s (and Wangxian’s) story, and having the flashbacks open with their first meeting is very satisfying. But I want to focus on something else.

This period doesn’t have to be shown, because what happens to Wei Wuxian, especially out of his control, isn’t what’s important about his character.

We’re not even at Lotus Pier here, where Wei Wuxian certainly has more agency than he would’ve had as a young child, but where the harm caused by Madame Yu is still completely out of his control. Here, he has agency! Though there are consequences, he is free to act, and what happens to him is a result of those actions and not of circumstance. Yes, he gets punished more than others who also take those same actions (due to classism); yes, it’s not his choice to be picked on by Lan Qiren in class (yet look how he responds, twisting the situation to his advantage and ending up tricking Lan Qiren into letting him leave, which is what he wanted to do. He is not at all helpless here!); yes, these choices have been influenced by his learned mindset from Madame Yu that punishment is arbitrary and will happen anyway, so you may as well do what you want regardless. But there is cause-and-effect here. It’s not circumstantial tragedy.

Therefore, instead of our first impression of past!Wei Wuxian being that of an unfortunate woobie, it’s of someone who has the freedom, ability and will to choose and act (and that’s after these initial tragic events have taken place). This is compounded by the fact that before we see any of his backstory, we get a similar impression of him in the present day.

If the purpose of his tragic past was to earn him sympathy points, to make us pity him due to how much he was influenced by events out of his control, this would’ve been a terrible way of going about it… and it’s this that betrays the true reason for its existence. Because now, the flashbacks instead show us how little these tragedies define who he is! From the very start, Wei Wuxian isn’t someone defined by circumstances out of his control, but rather by who he is as a person and by what choices he makes in the present day (which is both a mindset in-universe, and a nice little out-of-universe detail that lines up! Because out-of-universe, this means he’s not defined by sympathy points from a backstory, but rather by his great character writing… aka, by who he is as a person and what choices he makes). And this refusal to be defined by tragedy is a conscious choice on his part, too – but we’ll explore that more later. 

The important thing is that this idea of Wei Wuxian isn’t because of what exists in his past, it’s because of what parts of his past are shown to us (as well as what he chooses to do, with agency, in the present). 

Now, if this relationship between what’s displayed and what’s omitted was just a one-time thing, I might’ve considered it a cool detail or a nice way to establish a character, but not something the narrative is actively focusing on. But it’s a pattern that continues throughout the flashbacks. What, arguably, are the two other most important times in Wei Wuxian’s life where he doesn’t have enough agency to meaningfully influence his circumstances? His three months in the Burial Mounds (before escaping – he managed to assume some control of the circumstances but not enough to substantially reduce his suffering in his time there), and his loss and death during the First Siege. And we’re not shown either of them! We skip to when Wei Wuxian has emerged from the Burial Mounds and is torturing the Wens, or we skip to the present day – both times he has agency once more, because, again, what he’s like without it doesn’t matter enough to be shown. 

Furthermore, I’d argue this does actually contrast the other tragic events we see in Wei Wuxian’s later life. Things do go horribly wrong, but it’s either due to choices he knows the consequences of (see: rescuing the Wen Remnants in the first place), or instances where he still has some ability to act in the situation and influence it within the limitations. If he’d had no ability to influence circumstances at Qiongqi path, he would have died in the ambush; if he’d been unable to do that at Nightless City, he would’ve died then, too (of course Lan Wangji helped him escape as well). The attention drawn to him losing control of his actions in both instances is very interesting, but intentional or not, it’s still his actions influencing the plot. And that influence happens to be detrimental. The very ability to act and influence, at a base level,  is not taken away (though, of course, that doesn’t make these events any less tragic).

So, so far, the narrative seems to be telling us that the ability to act and choose is key to Wei Wuxian’s character. And it’s doing it through omitting his moments without agency in favour of instead showing us his moments with it. 

Let’s see if this is echoed in the text itself before we go further – because even with this pattern, nothing would end up mattering if Wei Wuxian’s agency wasn’t actually that important to the story itself. But thankfully it is, and that first impression we get of Wei Wuxian in the Cloud Recesses turns out to very much be accurate! Though there are defining circumstances out of his control that occur, such as the massacre of Lotus Pier, the majority of the important events of his life are due to his own choices. He didn’t happen to be forced to cease traditional cultivation and solely use guidao, didn’t happen to lose his Golden Core in a fight with Wen Zhuliu or due to some force in the Burial Mounds, it was his own choice to give it and his spiritual powers away. He didn’t tragically happen to get targeted by the cultivation world, it was a result of him acting on his morals and protecting the Wen remnants (a choice which he was fully aware of the implications of). He isn’t a protagonist to whom things simply occur, and that activeness and agency is my favourite thing about him. 

That’s not to say that the times Wei Wuxian doesn’t have agency, or feels like he doesn’t have any, don’t exist at all, either – but they are rare enough to have attention directly drawn to them in his internal narration:

Or else what could he do? He could do nothing. He was powerless. Lotus Pier had been destroyed, both Jiang FengMian and Madam Yu were gone, and Jiang Cheng had disappeared as well. He was the only one left, alone, with not even a sword in his hands. He didn’t know anything, he couldn’t do anything! For the first time, he discovered how little his power was. In front of something as large as the QishanWen Sect, it was the same as a mantis trying to stop a chariot. - Chapter 59, EXR translation

(And even in this circumstance, note that he still does force himself to act – to carry on searching for Jiang Cheng, to place his faith in Wen Ning – and does accomplish his goal (albeit with the help of others)! So even in dire situations, he isn’t simply passive. This is actually also the case with his time in the Burial Mounds, almost certainly the First Siege, and even his days on the streets as well (Chapter 20: he did actively fight with dogs to get food despite their danger and his growing fear of them, rather than just waiting and hoping to somehow receive some more). He can’t influence or immediately influence his circumstances, but that doesn’t stop him from trying.)

Overall, although they do influence him, Wei Wuxian is very much who he is in spite of his circumstances, not because of them. We’re shown the importance of his agency both in-universe by the major impacts his choices have on himself and the plot, as well as by narrative presentation – important periods where he lacks the ability to meaningfully influence anything are often mentioned but not directly shown, which suggests that such moments and circumstances aren’t as important to understanding Wei Wuxian’s character as moments where he does have this agency are. And I’d argue this works very well. Depending on the version of the story you consume, you may end up having different interpretations as to how much circumstances were at play nearer the end of his life – but nobody comes out of MDZS thinking about Wei Wuxian, the poor bearer of yet another generically tragic backstory.

(Part Two | Part Three | Full version on AO3)

—

*We are shown this moment in more detail in Chapter 23… but even then, it’s through the framing of Wei Wuxian remembering Jiang Yanli’s narration, not through a flashback proper or even him remembering the experience itself!

[valtsv]

silt verses tarot assignments:

i. the fool - hembry / sid wright

ii. the magician - VAL

iii. the high priestess - nana glass

iv. the empress - the trawlerman & the promised bride

v. the emperor - katabasian mason

vi. the hierophant - hayward

vii. the lovers - mercer and gage* / devereaux and sebastian if you insist on a romantic couple. this podcast doesn't have many options lol.

viii. the chariot - faulkner

ix. strength - brother wharfing

x. the hermit - roake

xi. the wheel of fortune - katabasian roemont

xii. justice - adjudicator shrue

xiii. the hanged man - the children of the woundtree / the many below & dennis duplass

xiv. death - the cairn maiden & stewardess acantha

xv. temperance - sister thurrocks

xvi. the devil - press secretary carson

xvii. the tower - the wither mark

xviii. the star - carpenter

xix. the moon - sibling rane

xx. the sun - vaughan

xxi. judgement - paige

xxii. the world - the god of penda's slake & charity

(*the lovers is not an inherently romantic card, it symbolises unity)

[zeldasadork]

to me mounders are found family but not in a standard siblings-esque dynamic or anything. particularly early on it’s like they have the unshakable camaraderie of like, college dormmates bonded through their mutual befuddlement of what shared teachers they have, or acquaintances stuck in a elevator together, or shipwreck survivors caught in the same stretch of land.

and it’s happenstantial up until they’re maybe a little too loyal a little too giving for what should ultimately amount to amicable neighbors. it’s happenstantial until they start to notice that they choose eachother over and over again, in their own ways. it’s that they care for eachother and they fight for eachother and they mourn for eachother as a whole and individually. and it’s fascinating.

[kacievvbbbb]

Do you think the marines had no idea about the humandrills and so when they pulled up on Kurigina and had to face an army of expertly skilled swordmonkeys they had to reevaluate everything they thought they knew about Hawkeyes.

a Marine writing his report like “unbeknownst to the world government Hawkeyes has apparently been secretly training an army of monkeys to sword fight in his spare time and has proven to be very successful as we lost half our men to them.”

And so now their little Mihawk files, that requires its own filing cabinet, contains the the questions;

Did he teach the monkeys to sword fight or does he control the monkeys like puppets?

How did he teach the monkeys to sword fight?

Some kind of animal control devil fruit?

Hawkeyes can communicate with animals?

Is he actually part hawk? Part monkey???

Marines animal fighting division, when?

Could Garp train dogs to brawl?

Can Garp get his own army of monkeys or steal Mihawk’s? 🥺

[spacelazarwolf]

how do people deal with the cognitive dissonance of seeing trans women be outed as rapists and abusers regularly but then claim that ASAB has nothing to do with violence. It's easy to list off trans women rapists but it's hard to come up with even 3 names for trans men

how do u deal with the cognitive dissonance of being a fucking moron. also i fucked ur dad.

[lemonynuggets]

Having a good art class for the first time in my life is such an insane feeling, all the other classes were just my teachers being incredibly mean, not actually teaching anything and making us do nonsensical assignments and now I have a teacher that actually takes note of the kind of art I’m into and gives me assignments based on things I enjoy and can improve? I made an oil painting of my current blorbo because this way I’d be drawing something I like and still trying a new medium and learning things? My first homework was making concept designs for my OC? My next assignment will be making a scrapbook-esque research about Julia Lepetit from drawfee? Is this even real

[transamus]

sorry for tumblring at you about this but regarding this post https://www.tumblr.com/transamus/770093365484240896/i-do-still-think-itd-be-really-funny-to-put-afab i just wanna let you know intersex people can be assigned a gender at birth but still transition towards that gender direction due to various complicated factors, basically intersex afab transfems do exist and i just wanted to tell you in case you didn't know that, trying to be helpful rather than mean so i hope it comes across okay 🙏

do you know what transgender means

[sysig]

Coding woes (Patreon)

[ariazou]

I don't know if you'd like to know this or not, but genshin has a couple of characters that are heavily coded to be persian~

Not a huge fan of Genshins interpretation of Persian culture D: I understand theyre going for a more fantasy feel but honestly i barely see the inspiration and I've seen people say its a tad orientalist (I dont know that im informed enough to give my opinion on that but its def a take ive seen often of genshin, I'd have to do my own research to be able to really comment on it)

The character that seems to be Persian is a red head with blue eyes 😭 So overall just really not a good representation, so much of her look, including her outfit, is barely Persian, if at all.

Also Azhdaha in Genshin is so disappointingly inaccurate that it makes me so upset :( They made him a bulky rock dragon when he's said to be a long sea serpent type of dragon, that's not my boy! I'm a bit upset that Genshin has probably made people think Azhdaha looks like that when he couldn't be more of the opposite. Also! Azhdaha means dragon in farsi and a few other languages as well, so I could understand the argument that theyre just using the word but still :( why not use that opportunity to be accurate to the culture they are referencing (also making it clear he is a myth within other cultures not just persian!)

Accurate and meaningful representation REALLY really matters, I hate the misinformation that spreads from the lack of care from these companies

That being said I really do appreciate people sending me recommendations! I think I just have some frustrations with Genshin in particular and this was a great opportunity to yap about some of them 🐉 and I know there's other cultures that they have used that people have complained about as well, so this is definitely not the only issue

[tiredflowercrown]

Fuck essay writing fuck essay writing fuck essay writing fuck essay writing fuck essay writing fuck essay writing fuck essay writing

[taamlok]

following up on my previous post, a couple years ago when i was in teacher's college one of my professors tried to refuse my accommodations because, and i quote, "if you require accommodations as an adult you are not fit for a professional career. you are required to challenge yourself and rise above your perceived limitations". thankfully he's stupid and put this in an email. i responded informing him of my rights and he told me that he didn't care and is not required to accommodate me if he doesn't want to. i forwarded the whole chain to the dean of my school, who apologized profusely and sent me information on how to file a complaint with the human rights tribunal (he was obviously trying to get on the right side of this immediately, which i respected). i told him that i just wanted to get my degree and leave so as long as this professor didn't communicate with me directly and didn't grade my work i wouldn't file a complaint. anyway the professor was fired ♥️

point is a lot of you remind me of him when you talk about taash's autistic traits, calling them immature and childish and shit for not being good at masking them. very revealing about how you feel about autistic adults who do not conform to your standards of normalcy, not very woke tumblrina of you!!

[misc-magic]

I spend all day sleeping because the tummy troubles won’t quit and then when I am awake, I have the worst headache of my life. I am in pain from an unrelated injury and I haven’t eaten anything all day. I’m hungry but I know anything I consume has the potential to lay me out for the rest of the evening and I don’t want to spend the last of my Saturday in the bathroom.

I have to run a DnD campaign tomorrow, I do not have TIME for this kind of nonsense.

[rewritingcanon]

scorbus is so cavetown coded and jalice is so tv girl coded and tedoire is so cigarettes after sex coded and lilysander is so hozier coded and yolly is so paramore coded and rosphia is so hayley kiyoko coded thanks for coming to my ted talk

[starflungwaddledee]

The height chart gets even funnier when you consider that Rick gives Kirby piggyback rides. Kirby, that hamster is only up to your feet.

i think that for reasons to do with this the earth accurate sizes doesn't actually work very well when you try to extrapolate it out, and i did intend it as a joke!! it's funny and i enjoy it, but it falls apart the second you try to consider them functioning with others 😂

like... is kirby small enough to be comfortably piggybacked by hamster sized rick? then he's too small to be held in coo's claws, let alone to fit in kine's mouth! this would likely be the case even if we just took kirby's "canon" size of 8-9 inches but plonked him in an earth accurate sizing for everything else

then, is king dedede a penguin accurate size (king penguin size: 85–95cm) or is he comparative to a human adult? either way, he'd be smaller than kine, as mola mola average 250cm tall (at least according to wikipedia. other sources say 300cm longs and up to 450cm tall) and easily dwarf humans here on earth.

or does dedede have to be comparative to kirby, who is comparative to rick, who is an 18cm tall hamster, making kirby probably 10cm at best, making dedede probably half the size of a king penguin though maybe closer to a blue penguin (45cm), meaning that kine could easily be up to ten times his height--

in general i kind of just prefer to size them comparatively, starting from kirby, and considering individual characters Bigger or Smaller. as much as i'd love to see an enormous semi-realistic sunfish kine basking happily in the ocean surrounded by tiny friends, i think that it's easier for me to work on a "kirby" size scale and consider them all aliens, at the end of the day 😂

this seems likely, given that female mola mola are apparently bigger than the boys! they can also supposedly spawn an absolutely mindboggling three hundred million (sorry. hang on. three HUNDRED million!?!?!?!?!) eggs at a time, so i hope you're all really really looking forward to seeing a Lot lot more of Kine around.