#also I mean. he was written by men who are.

[kastalani123]

Not my usual content, but I just. I wanna ramble, ig.

Do you understand how baffled I was about how the vampire book, written by a man in 1897, is essentially a PSA about how important proper communication is?? Even after I scrolled through Tumblr, saw the memes, read people geeking out about the relationships (platonic and romantic) in Dracula, I was still caught off guard, because. Like. Everything in this book is about communication.

Sure, it's kind of a given, considering it's an epistolary novel partially made up of letters between the characters, but. I dunno. From Dracula controlling Johnathan's lettres, van Hellsing refusing to tell anyone shit, the men keeping Mina out of the loop, to Mina using her telepathic link with Dracula, it's. It's literally all about how important actually talking to each other and sharing information is. Fuck, throw in the fact that "Harker", Mina and Jonathan's, arguably the main characters, last name means "to listen"/"eavesdropper", and that the book is Mina's in-universe creation to help compile, organize, and share what they know about Dracula, and the book's very essence becomes centered around information-sharing!

And I just. The narrative punishes just about every secret hidden, every time the characters don't communicate. There's the obvious, Dracula keeping Johnathan from sending out letters for help and Mina getting bitten because the men leave her home alone, but also. Van Hellsing not telling Lucy's mom that the garlic flowers and closed windows and so on are the treatment and she is not to touch them is what kills Lucy and her mom! They maybe could have survived if he just told them what's happening/what he's doing! And even the godsdamned telegram he sends to Seward! If he had just addressed it properly (communicated to the telegram boy properly!) then Seward wouldn't have been late and maybe could have prevented the massacre!

There's also Jonathan's diary right after he finally reunites with Mina, and obviously Mina's whole ✨ thing ✨ with the diary during their wedding is like. Peak romance, but Johnathan doesn't fully get better until Mina reads and shares it with van Hellsing and van Hellsing assures Johnathan that he's not insane. Sure, it's an oversimplification of PTSD and healing and such, but it makes sense, especially if you consider communication and information sharing as a major theme! Only sharing his experiences, reading through them himself after blocking off the memories, is what heals him! He cannot get better without knowing what happened, and without others knowing what happened, because knowing and sharing is important.

Renfield's also an interesting case. I don't have the book with me right now to check, but as far as I remember, he tries to talk about Dracula, tries to get Seward to release him from the asylum so Dracula can't use him against Mina, but is dismissed entirely; as a consequence, Dracula gets in the building, kills Renfield, and bites Mina.

Even the language barriers! The villagers Johnathan meets on his way to Dracula's castle try so hard to warn him of the danger but they can't. They can't, because they don't speak enough of the same language, but they try so hard. But whatever does get through to Johnathan, such as that woman begging him to take the crucifix she gives him — that might've saved him. It keeps him unsettled and wary and he does keep the crucifix, which wards Dracula off. They can't communicate the full extent of the danger, but what they managed is probably responsible for him surviving.

And the whole idea is even mentioned in-text! Sure, Lucy saying that a wife ought to share everything she knows with her husband is definitely sexism-flavoured, but Johnathan says it too! He says that his idea of an ideal marriage is one without secrets! And Johnathan is effeminate, yes, he spends a good chunk of the book as the "damsel in distress", but he is still the hero! He is still the one who kills Dracula (with Quincey), and can therefore be assumed to be an intended role model. The (male) main character and hero of an 1897 novel says that a good relationship relies on communication. Sure, he doesn't always stick to it, mostly by agreeing to keep Mina out of the loop when van Hellsing pushes for it, but that doesn't discount that that is what Stoker set as the ideal.

I just. I love this book so much. It subverted just about all expectations I might've had about it and I'm so glad for it. It's undeniably a product of its time, with plenty of racism and sexism and ableism, but it's also so. Not, at the same time? It's so good.

[aheathen-conceivably]

Hello, my darlings! 🌻

Since it’s been a while since we've last seen our Darlingtons, I thought it would be nice to do a little recap and see where we left our pixel babes. We also have some new folks who joined us during What the Water Gave Me, so if any of you are interested in my historical story, I thought this might be helpful for yall too! I also have a new reader guide, if you're inclined. And as a reminder, I have also added Previous / Next buttons to the 1930s, so if you’d like to catch up on this decade you can begin here.

But before we jump back into the story in earnest, let's take a look at how 1935 has been going....

We opened with Antoine and Josephine on the road, where Antoine's first tour was such a success that his sister and manager Josephine negotiated a deal for two more. Just like she had previously done, she signed the deal with her former employer Hosa Grove without consulting Antoine, although he didn't hesitate nearly as much as he did the first time (or consult his own wife, Zelda).

When Antoine returns home, Zelda almost immediately senses that something has shifted in him. He returns with a stack of songs he's written, which she's too anxious to admit make her feel as though he's moving on to a new stage of his life, one in which she is notably not included in. His assurances carefully avoid answering her actual question, which both of them notice but neither really know how to address as they each try to defer to the other in some way.

Zelda' question to Antoine continues to echo in his mind after she's asked it. Are you happy when you’re out there? What unveils is something that he doesn't really know how to discuss with her, or anyone other than his own guitar: namely that he's filled with pride at his success, and feels as though he's playing not only for himself now, but also generations of Black men who were never given the opportunity he feels as though he has now. Its driving him back on the road, even if he personally may not find happiness in that life for himself.

The only person who Antoine shares this with in some capacity is his former employer, Abraham Hines. Going back on the road also means formally quitting his job on Abe's ranch, which fills Antoine with both sadness and guilt after Abe offered him the job in good faith. But what began as a professional relationship has turned into warm friendship, especially as their children William and Violette are also now close.

As Josephine and Antoine prepare to go back on the road, a sense of normality returns to the household. Antoine and Zelda choose to ignore the misunderstanding between them in favor of enjoying what little time they have together. Meanwhile, the other couple on the farm, Josephine and Giorgio, reach a point of accord after many years of distrust and dissatisfaction. The root of their tension can primarily be traced to Giorgio’s lie that tricked Josephine into moving on the farm in the first place - a life that made her miserable and feel as though she had lost all autonomy in favor of Gio’s dreams.

The scales between them began to tilt when Jo discovered that Gio had taken out a huge loan on their farm, and that he, Antoine, and Zelda had all been lying to her about it. Her initial deal with Hosa paid off a significant portion of the loan, and she now owns 25% of the farm (with Antoine owning another 25% and Gio 50%). This, and the feeling of freedom that she gets on the road, has allowed her to feel stable, and enjoy the quiet domestic life that Gio had tried to corner her into in the first place. Just before she leaves again he gives her a pair of bright red driving gloves, symbolizing his acceptance of the freedom she wants and the accord they've found in their life.

Only before she returns to the road, Jo’s newfound stability is undermined by her relationship with her former employer, Valcita Grove. After learning of Gio’s loan, Jo had taken a job at Val’s bar, and fostered a close relationship between them in part due to their mutual attraction, but also to get back at Gio for lying to her. Now that the she and Gio are in a happier place, Jo returns to Val’s house to borrow her car, only to still be tormented by the same restless thoughts that she had when she was unhappy. Horrified with herself, Jo leaves for their second tour trying to convince herself that whatever she feels for Val (alongside the nagging sensation that she wants something more) can be blown away by the freedom she feels on the road and the love she has for Gio.

Once Antoine and Josephine leave for their second tour, we are left at the farmhouse with Gio and Zelda, who still has the feeling that her husband is moving on without her. She isn't necessarily unhappy, just stuck with the nagging sensation that something is missing from her life, and she’s ended up in a position she didn’t quite sign up for. Meanwhile, she and Giorgio work the failing fields together as they have for years. With their partners gone, they rely on each other in small ways - Gio's good nature curbing Zelda's anxieties, and Zelda's quiet knowledge keeping Gio from fixating on the fact that his dream is on the cusp of failing.

On a hot Summer day a book truck interrupts the menial life that the two of them are living alongside Zelda and Antoine's daughter Violette. As Violette runs around the book truck excitedly, Zelda immediately gets distracted by it, instantly forgetting her anxieties surrounding parenting her child or the melancholia that her life is missing something. Violette finds a copy of her favorite book, The Wizard of Oz, while Zelda talks to the driver, Alexander Barnes, who gives her his card and invites her to come to his office at the town courthouse.

Rather than take him up on this offer, Zelda agonizes over her desire to do so. When she goes to pick up Violette from school, she muses on how young and full of potential the children are - mirroring her own feeling that her life path is set and any sort of potential change she may long for is childish and imagined. After enthusiastically agreeing with Violette's teacher that her daughter begin ballet lessons, she turns around to look at the courthouse, imagining that she simply crosses the street to ask Alexander Barnes more about the book truck. But just before her daughter emerges, Zelda decides that it was nothing but a foolish daydream.

Meanwhile, Antoine and Josephine's days on the road stretch out, effecting Violette, who is now almost eleven years old. Always closer to her father and aunt, their absence has made her distrustful, angry, and heightened her sense of abandonment. We see her coping through ballet, as she focuses all her energy into perfecting her steps rather than counting down the days until her father returns.

—

And so we last saw our Darlingtons…

- Antoine following the pull of music, approaching a crossroads where he may have to chose it or his family, but unsure if it even makes him happy at all.

- Zelda feeling restless and left behind, within sight of something she wants for her life but too anxious to follow it in earnest.

- Giorgio willing to give up control and share in Jo’s vision of their future, but perhaps at the end of the line of how much he’s willing to give up quietly.

- Josephine finally finding some sense of peace and happiness, only to still unwittingly feeling a restless pull from deep inside of her that she rather ignore than battle.

- And our heiress, Violette, on the cusp of her preteen years developing her independence and emotional maturity in a warped way. She’s channeling her loneliness into perfecting an art that she was already talented at, and developing an understanding that dreams may always lie just outside of Strangerville city limits.

[athenagc94]

Dear Daddy Long Legs - Chapter 3

Jason Todd x Fem!Reader

Shorter chapter, however, I am also posting this on AO3 now as well. You can find it here.

TW: Mentions of death

First | Prev | Next

Chapter 3

The Board of Foundation at Wayne Enterprises is pleased to inform you that you have been awarded the ‘Jason Todd Memorial’ scholarship that provides full tuition for four years at Gotham University.

You stared at the acceptance letter, hands trembling as you tried to process the news. There was never a question as to whether you could get into Gotham University. You took the tests, wrote the essays, and nailed the interviews. They loved you, but not enough to waive the egregious tuition to attend their school.

You thumbed the paper. It was nice, hefty and stamped with black ink that displayed the Wayne Enterprises letterhead. You flipped it over to hold it against the sickly yellow light in your living room like a cashier would do with a counterfeit bill. This was too good to be true, but some small part of you wanted it to be real.

This scholarship hadn’t been listed when you applied, but it was possible they didn’t advertise it to the public.

The Jason Todd Memorial Foundation...

Who was Jason Todd?

You opened your phone to do a quick search. Jason Todd, once a young boy living in Park Row, was adopted by Bruce Wayne. He had nothing, until he suddenly found himself under the care of one of the richest men in Gotham. It would have been a touching story about the American Dream and how opportunities come to good people but given that the scholarship came from a memorial foundation, you assumed it didn’t have a happy ending.

You returned to the search to do some more digging. And… there it was.

The headline of the next article read: Wayne Son Killed in Terrorist Attack Abroad. Two years after he was adopted. “Shit,” you breathed as you swiped out of the article before you made yourself too sad. A beloved son killed too soon. A scholarship in his honor. It seemed legit, but you were still skeptical. Why wouldn’t they list it on their website? You turned your attention back to the letter.

By accepting this scholarship, you will agree to send written letters regarding your studies on a bi-weekly basis to Bruce Wayne, founder and owner of Wayne Enterprises, so that he may monitor your progress. Failure to comply will result in…

You chewed the inside of your cheek. That was a lot to process. It was hard to believe that the Bruce Wayne gave a shit about my education. He had better things to do like whoring around galas or adopting poor kids off the street… apparently. Someone had to be fucking with you, and you didn’t appreciate it.

The letter had a number to contact their offices at the bottom, so you did just that. Your phone rang twice before it flipped to an automated message.

“Hello and thank you for calling the Wayne Enterprises Foundation office. We’re happy to answer any question you might have regarding your scholarship or any donations you might be—”

You hung up before the cheery voice could finish, heart thundering against your ribcage. So, they used the real extension for the office. That didn’t mean anything. Anyone could have knabbed it. If you had stayed on the line a little longer, someone could have confirmed what you already suspected.

And yet, you hung up.

Because you didn’t want it to be confirmed. You wanted to sit with the delusion a while longer before reality came crashing back down.

You glanced back at your bookshelf where a small collection of second-hand novels filled the shelves. Among them was a well-worn copy of Daddy Long Legs, its green hard-bound cover fraying at the edges. You had read it so many times that the spine nearly split in two.

A rich philanthropist funding a poor girl’s education… The irony wrote itself, but it failed to sweeten the bitter taste in your mouth.

 You read the letter once more, hoping to glean something more from its contents, but you had exhausted its usefulness. Wayne wanted you to write letters. They even included an address to send them to. Emails would have been easier. Or a paper at the end of each semester. Or…

God, help you.

Trying to find logic in a rich person’s motives was exhausting.

The longer you sat with the letter, the easier it was to stomach. Rich people were weird. They made odd choices all the time. You could handle a few letters over the next four years. Besides, there was a stark difference between you and Jerusha Abbott. She fell in love with her benefactor. You would not.

You laughed at the prospect. No—you would never fall in love with a man like Bruce Wayne. While he was never rude to you or your coworkers, you suspected it was an act. Masks weren’t just for the vigilantes. They could be honed of flesh. Wayne had crafted a near-perfect representation of what society expected of him.

He fooled the masses, but you noticed things others liked to ignore. It was the only way someone survived in this city. You were wary of him, of his generosity and this situation as a whole, but desperation snagged on your resolve.

An opportunity presented itself. If you turned it down, who knows when the next opportunity would present itself.

With Bruce Wayne funding your education, there was no allure, no mystery, no chance you'd ever fall in love with him. This was a business exchange, nothing more. You could live with that, even if accepting his money made your skin crawl.

You redialed the number for the foundations office and followed the instructions until a more human voice greeted you. “Hello, thank you for calling the Wayne Enterprises Foundation, this is Rudy. How can I help you?”

“Hello, I just received a letter about my receipt of the Jason Todd Memorial Foundation. I was wondering what my next steps were?”

[spurious]

What is a headcanon you have about Rodney that may be controversial?

SO I’ve been thinking about this since you sent it while I was cooking dinner last night and I stopped and walked into our room and went “DO I?” But uh. Anyway. I don’t know that my Rodney opinions are super controversial but like.

I definitely think that he’s unfortunately something of a misogynist? I think he was fed a lot of toxic patriarchy bullshit growing up (the whole thing with Jeannie telling him he’s lucky to find a nice girl who puts up with him says a LOT about their upbringing) and he accepted it uncritically as, like, the way the world works™️. I think he calls Sam Carter sexy and a dumb blonde because he’s insulted she doesn’t want to be his friend so his first lashing out instinct is to Treat Her How Men Treat Women.

Do I think he learns and grows during SGA and starts treating women as people much more often? Yeah. I mean, thank fucking god right? Lmao

Anyway a good portion of Live Oak 5 is just…Rodney being something of a misogynist and (as I’ve expressed at length to you my beloved wife audioletter) well I am a little bit worried people will hate me for it lol! But like. This is who he is.

[bayetea]

I don't like the judo flip in moa as much as the next guy but in my eyes it's largely the result of rick not taking female violence half as seriously as male violence (a result of viewing women as weaker and inferior to men such that their acts of violence don't need to be taken as seriously) and not so much anything about annabeth herself. like I do genuinely feel that annabeth is a complex heroine and definitely one of the better ones in the realm of ya action-adventure fiction produced in the past 25 years but she is still a girl being written by a man and all I'm saying is that her writing clearly reflects that sometimes (more in tags)

[pyrotechnicdarts]

so many people give early idw too much credit for leaning into the whole “cybertronians dont have gender” thing. like it was 2005 that was NOT meant for nonbinary representation, it was there because simon furman, the guy whos been complaining about “the raging feminist mob” since the 80s straight up did not want female transformers to exist in idw

[malikson]

.

[dirhwangdaseul-archived]

idk if i have stated in so many words before but kinda weird for people not to care about the brown men of the story on account of them being men

like most people did to javi irl what the yellowjackets did in the show lol, dismissed always, no more than the little kid, he was already dead

[capaldiera]

i started reading this fucking out of character thick of it fanfic like a week ago bc even tho i could tell from first glance it was going to be ooc i was just curious and it sounded kind of funny slash tragic. (how are you tagging grief child death domestic violence attempted suicide on a ttoi fic hello?) and i dooo like complaining And for the most part if it weren't supposed to be about those guys it would just be pretty good so im not Regretting it? but i didn't realise how many stories were in the series and im probably 150k words in. and not much more than halfway through

[my-thoughts-and-junk]

what some of the undertale fandom did with grillby fucking fascinates me like my god

[variousqueerthings]

the fun of having put out the "bj's moustache is gay culture" post while also headcanoning first and foremost that whatever bj is, it's not actually gay but something way funnier and more fucked up

[snakecat]

if u see sasuke as anything other than completely whipped then ur wrong. uchihas canonically have their “person” who is their closest friend, their weak spot, etc. sasuke spends the entire original series acknowledging his close bond with naruto and trying to get rid of it cuz he thinks it makes him weak. at the end of naruto, he’s like “man, i wanna die” and naruto says “NO, you’re going to live and help me rebuild konoha” and sasuke is like “ugh fine whatever” and then spends all of boruto avoiding his family, running around saying “where’s naruto” and then proceeding to have secret meetings with naruto in the woods and going to restaurants with him. sasuke is not the coldhearted bitch he wants u to believe he is

[silverselfshippingchaos]

(giggles and kicks legs)

[chaotic-history]

I will die on this hill

[thesmokinpossum]

btw, while I think we can all agree that her chapter contains quite a few...questionable elements, I'm glad Lucy Mancini exists in the universe of The Godfather because thanks to her there's one woman in this book who ends up in a materially better place than where she started unlike litterally all the others so we can at least appreciate that

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

I think a lot of what's currently informing my fellow white people curdling like milk and shitting their pants when asked to interrogate their relationship with rap is the way many people (especially well-meaning white people) still can't help but think of racism as something that you get accused of rather than something that influences the entire world in pernicious ways.

like, I think a lot of people currently posting the most cringe takes about rap right now would very much agree that Racism Is Bad and probably even acknowledge that rap has been and is still widely maligned and devalues for racist reasons.

but that last step, acknowledging that your personal tastes and interests are also influenced by systemic racism, is where a LOT of people stumble. it's very easy to assume that because you consider yourself against racism, then your tastes and interests cannot possibly be at all informed by racist. if you're a white American, that's simply extremely unlikely to be true.

speaking from personal experience, I had to Work to decenter whiteness in my media tastes. when I was like 19 I listened to a podcast where a white Jewish man talked about keeping a spreadsheet of the books he read to make sure he was reading a roughly equal number of men and women, and I started doing the same thing to track how many authors of color I was reading. at the time I took pride in my belief that I was reading diversely, but when the year ended I was shocked to discover that people of color had written barely a quarter of the books I'd read. I had been giving myself way too much credit while still unintentionally prioritizing white authors, because white authors were the ones I knew best. so I started making an extremely conscious effort to seek out books by authors of color, both fiction and nonfiction, that sounded like my kind of shit.

music was extremely similar. I grew up a little white girl in a very white city in a very white state; nobody was offering me an education in rap or r&b or soul or hip hop. as an young adult there were definitely some Black artists I liked, like Janelle Monáe, but I had to take the initiative of seeking out more artists to find out who I fuck with. you're not going to like everybody, which is fine, but are you even giving anyone a chance? are you even looking?

racism has roots everywhere, bro. it's not enough to just acknowledge it, you have to actively get digging.