#LIVE SWEEP

[mini-minish]

boy prince has to learn to do the dishes

[once-in-a-blood-moon]

Domestic Witchy Things You and Solomon Do Around Cocytus Hall

Sweeping bad/negative energy out of the Hall.

Hanging bells on the front door knob to cleanse the energy when either of you enter.

Keeping a jar of water on a windowsill overnight during a full moon to charge it and make moon water.

Having a shelf of different types of spiritual waters, such as - moon water, rose water, sun water, florida water, etc.

Using florida water when washing your clothes to energetically cleanse them.

Turning a broom upside down when there are unwanted guests in the Hall.

Having a few pieces of paper with the names of people who have done either of you wrong in the freezer.

Having a pitcher of wild violet lemonade in the fridge.

Candles on the coffee table, candles on the mantle, candles in the kitchen. Candles, candles, candles!

Keeping a large stash of birthday candles for quick candle magic :)

Painting the front door purple.

Bay leaves everywhere.

Sigils everywhere.

Spiritually cleansing anything new either of you bring into the Hall (clothes, trinkets, etc.)

Using rosemary to smudge and cleanse the Hall (Cocytus Hall always smells and feels nice because of this)

Having a deck of tarot cards on the coffee table that are almost never in the box.

Clapping at random times to sound cleanse a room that feels off.

Keeping a large shelf packed full of magic books, boxes holding herb/crystal chip vials, and other little (or big) trinkets.

Putting certain crystals (like black tourmaline) in the corner of every room.

Making your own black salt.

Hanging wind chimes outside.

Stirring your intentions into your coffee/tea each morning together.

[aroaceleovaldez]

What is the PR disaster in question that made Rick announce TSATS? I wasn’t active in the online fandom at that point

Of course! This was awhile ago so it figures people don't remember it/aren't familiar:

Basically a couple years back (2020) the fandom had some posts circulate discussing the ways different characters in the Riordanverse were written poorly or offensively. There was a masterpost that went around tumblr but the two major points people were particularly focusing on were Piper and Samirah (particularly because Piper had featured prominently again in Trials of Apollo recently and the third MCGA book had further emphasized and discussed Samirah being Muslim, since it was supposed to take place during Ramadan). Basically each had multiple posts breaking down the ways they were depicted incorrectly or offensively. The entire fandom for a little bit was VERY intensely discussing this (and it's around this time the "RR crit" tag got very popularized on tumblr - it did exist before, but suddenly was being used VERY frequently - cause it was that wide-spread - though the discussion took over basically every side of Riordaverse social media on different platforms). People really wanted Rick to respond to these criticisms, so he did!

He made two blog posts, one about Piper and one about Samirah. He has since deleted both so the links are to archived versions. The short version: he essentially tried to justify his poor research and double-down that he hadn't written them offensively, actually, people were just being mean to him. The fandom, of course, reacted poorly to this.

[Further elaborated events under the cut since this got a bit lengthy]

(Fun fact, this all happened within a month or so of the time i posted an open letter on aphobic tropes in the Riordanverse that Rick replied to, and then he immediately followed with announcing that Reyna was intended to be ace-coded [which cause a LOT of fandom debate] before Rick dipped for a couple of weeks, and then came back to post the blog posts in response to Piper and Sam stuff. So I like to jokingly refer to this as "The time I imploded the fandom/drove Rick off of twitter." Twas I that set the house ablaze.)

Rick fully left social media after this and the LT Musical social media manager became Rick's social media manager for the time being.

So this all happened June/July of 2020. Tower of Nero would end up being published in October of 2020 and a few months after that Rick would state that he was done with the series and wouldn't be writing any more series installments involving Percy, and also that he wouldn't be writing a Nico quest following Tower of Nero as it "wasn't his place to" and encouraged the community to write their own versions of Nico's story.

The community continued to circulate the tumblr posts and discuss the topics of Rick's offensive character depictions, and this is also where we see the dramatic shift in how the fandom depicts Piper in fanwork (though in most cases it is admittedly not an improvement 😬) because of all this discussion. This is also around the time when the fandom brought Viria under scrutiny claiming that she was whitewashing Piper as part of the same discussions, through the justification that she was drawing Annabeth as having tan skin (which she does canonically), and if Annabeth has tanner skin then Piper then that's whitewashing Piper? Except they were using completely separate images of not fully rendered Piper art versus Annabeth in dramatic lighting, so it's all very awkward and poor logic, and did actually get kind of racist. A lot of people were calling it "Tannabeth Blackchase" (yeah, i know) or similar and a common sentiment you'd see repeated is "Don't draw Annabeth as having darker skin than Piper, because that's offensive/racist/whitewashing." (Note: it was not phrased "don't draw Piper as having lighter skin than Annabeth" - we also won't get into certain offensive depictions of Native Americans, but I digress). But yeah, the Annabeth stuff in all that did not age well at all.

Anyways, in October of 2021 however Rick would announce that he was co-writing The Sun And The Star - with a lot of heavy emphasis on how Mark Oshiro works as a sensitivity reader, and some false advertising from the official social media that Mark Oshiro was the first time a non-Riordan author would be collaborating on the series (disregarding the ghostwriters completely). One of the big criticisms in the breaking down of issues in Rick's writing was his lack of ever seeking a sensitivity reader, and fans claiming that a sensitivity reader could solve a lot of the problems. This was basically Rick's "look! I totally listened!!!!" (though it did little to actually improve things, based on the book) and in TSATS as well Piper gets a large cameo at the end where the text very directly addresses a lot of points made in criticism of Rick's writing of her.

We also then of course got the CoTG trilogy later, explicitly stated to be for advertising purposes for the show.

So basically, short version: Rick came under scrutiny for a lot of offensive writing within the span of two months, made some bad blog posts doubling down about it, left social media. TOA ends. Rick says he wasn't going to continue the series/write what would become TSATS. Community celebrates the end of of the franchise but also continues to discuss Rick's poor writing and the blog posts at length. Rick suddenly announces TSATS and Mark Oshiro's involvement. Everybody gets distracted from being mad. Show announcement stuff also happens and the discussions peter out.

[zivazivc]

my brainrot about these two can be measured in liters

[broareweabouttoviberightnow]

just got an absolutely despicable idea for a Stevepop fic I need u guys to know I am making this exact face

[holy-smut]

do you think hes suggesting something...

...or is it just me...

[onfjre]

TUMBLR PHANNIES

hey everyone!! ive created a survey to compare/contrast phandom experiences by platform....and i really want to hear from you!

its abt a 5-15 min time commitment depending on your answers, but your feedback is invaluable and it's completely anonymous!! (i hope it doesn't need saying but this survey is run without platform bias and the last thing i want to do is pit people against each other! i just need a bigger sample size!)

thank you <3

[justafriendofxanders]

call buffyverse the bermuda triangle because no ship made it out of that shit alive. no marriage finale, no kids, no epilogue. the ideal ending for me where it's just a whole bunch of exes and dead exes in a world where people are constantly coming back to life. multidimensional divorce FOREVER.

[vlarelythere]

went a little insane over the Ancient Rome part of Infinite Realms and spent two days researching Rome oops

The Vlad and Danny piece is based off of Anton Mengs's painting called Jupiter Kissing Ganymede

[statementlou]

Last Requezt, Paolo Nutini cover, SF 2-4-25 (download here)

[darkflierazura]

Bugs

This is inspired by the fact that I have finally played Hollow Knight! I’m only around 14 hrs in, but I know lots of the lore etc around the game I guess. Also def subconsciously (and not subconsciously in a couple places) inspired by @theballadofmars and @poorly-drawn-mdzs who both have made fantastic HK x MDZS(MXTX) AUs.

I think maybe some hollow knight spoilers? Slight close ups and rambling below

Hua Cheng- he’s a butterfly, but I felt that Grim’s aesthetic (if not much else) seemed kinda fitting for him. I like to imagine him as a fake out boss fight before he officially introduces himself

Xie Lian- I really wasn’t sure what to do with him. So I just made him a vessel, though his horns are meant to be reminiscent of the Pale King (no lore reasons)

Lan Wangji- I wanted him to be like, just a bug. But also a wanderer and protector WWX could run into. My second idea for him actually is kinda ooc for him I think (unless the grey mourner has more going on than I realize).

Wei Wuxian- vessel. It just seemed appropriate since the vessel dies and comes back. Im thinking maybe he once had a bigger form (akin to the hollow knight) long ago that cracked, he becomes a shade and eventually reforms or something idk. I was thinking bugs first, rational later. I think that he’d be either be more like Samus and shoot things from a slight distance or just beat people with his flute.

Luo Binghe- beast, or half beast in this case. I couldn’t get the idea of 4-8 big watery eyes out of my head

Shen Qingqiu- idk, the mantis tribe fights deepnest. It also seemed to fit OG Shen Qingqiu well, being a mantis.

I think if I keep playing HK I will revisit and revise this idea, I’m not really satisfied with XL and LWJ current iterations.

[hamletthedane]

Reblog to replace the main character of your selection with Elle Woods.

[anghraine]

It's kind of fascinating to me that towards the end of P&P, Elizabeth has become protective of Darcy and either a) actively tries to insulate him from Situations or b) wishes that she could and gets stressed that she can't.

Darcy deeply loves her and is very ready to do whatever he can to secure her happiness, but narratively, I think the emphasis at the end is very much more on Elizabeth's protectiveness towards him.

It's like:

When Bingley and Darcy first come back to Hertfordshire, Darcy is very quiet and Elizabeth can barely bring herself to say anything—until Mrs Bennet insults Darcy. Then Elizabeth speaks up.

Mrs Bennet enlists Elizabeth to separate Darcy from Bingley with another insult to Darcy. Elizabeth finds this both convenient and enraging.

That day, Elizabeth decides to privately tell Mrs Bennet about her engagement to Darcy, specifically so that Darcy will be spared Mrs Bennet's first unfiltered response.

Elizabeth fiercely defends Darcy's character and love for her, as well as hers for him, to Mr Bennet. She not only says she loves Darcy but that it upsets her to hear Mr Bennet's criticisms of him.

Elizabeth is both relieved by Mrs Bennet's ecstatic reception of the engagement and a bit disappointed by how completely shallow she's being about it, and 100% sure she made the right call in keeping Darcy away.

Elizabeth defends Darcy against Darcy himself, repeatedly.

There's a period where Elizabeth seems to unwind and laugh, but this passes, especially after Charlotte and Mr Collins show up. Darcy manages to stay calm around Mr Collins (I think this is framed as a significant and admirable achievement for him), but Elizabeth does not like him being in a situation where he has to deal with Mr Collins in the first place.

Elizabeth tries to shield Darcy from being noticed by Mrs Phillips and Mrs Bennet, who do seem to make him pretty excruciatingly uncomfortable.

Ultimately, Elizabeth ends up trying to keep Darcy to herself or to shepherd him around to relatives he can handle more easily, and is so stressed at this point that she just wants to get married and escape to Pemberley.

After their marriage, things are actually great at Pemberley and in their married life, despite the occasional complication.

Lydia writes a congratulatory letter to Elizabeth, asking for Darcy to get Wickham a promotion unless Elizabeth would rather not bring it up with him. Elizabeth really does not want Darcy to have to deal with this and handles it by privately setting aside a Lydia fund out of her personal expenses. (IIRC, it's not clear if Darcy even knows about this.)

Elizabeth also is the driving force behind Darcy's reconciliation with Lady Catherine.

This could read as an unsettling, unbalanced dynamic and a very odd ending point for the arc of a woman like Elizabeth, but in the context of the overall novel, it doesn't feel that way. Or maybe I'd see it more that way if I interpreted Darcy (and for that matter, Elizabeth) + their arcs differently? But as it is, I do think that by this point in the story they are genuinely doing the best they can, independently and for each other, and they've both come a long way. They shine in different contexts and support each other as much as they can in the circumstances that do arise.

It seems very them, in terms of their temperament and abilities, that Elizabeth would put all this effort into shielding Darcy, while at the same time, Darcy completely cuts off Lady Catherine for insulting Elizabeth and only ever speaks to her again because Elizabeth wants him to.

[greyxly]

cesshi my boy i will give you the world

[crownedinmarigolds]

Sometimes a take about a character is so bad and so widely accepted by the fandom at large... it drives you crazy sometimes...