#also i think at this point i ought to tag these posts as

[transgenderfivepebbles]

Tags from @hlghlycorroslve:

#op is fearmongering #A falconry and finance company is NOT a reliable source for things like this #and op has ZERO source for their claims of worldwide pollution #Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has a long article going into the specifics of the chemical released and what the EPA- #the us environmental protection agency who are ACTUALLY QUALIFIED TO BE SPEAKING ON THIS TOPIC #as well as other non-government experts- #actually think about this cloud and topic #and the actual concerns are nothing like what op claims #i despise people who take bad situations and make them sound worse with downright conspiratorial claims #please find that Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article if you want a more in depth explanation bc i certainly am not qualified for it #The title is What is vinyl chloride the chemical released from the East Palestine train cars? #i hope op has a terrible day and a warm fucking pillow tonight for posting this shit

Here’s the article (one of many, in fact – I don’t see much ‘purposeful lack of reporting’ here), for those interested:

TL;DR — The fire was controlled, and used to prevent a potentially deadlier explosion, as well as exposure to the carcinogenic vinyl chloride itself. The plume of smoke visible in photos is the combustion products of vinyl chloride, phosgene and hydrogen chloride (aka hydrochloric acid), which are toxic in high concentrations, but less persistent than vinyl chloride.

“This is a very potent, short-lived and hazardous chemical, but it doesn’t last long. It’s very reactive, but it’s not going to build up in water or food,” he said. “You will not have to sell your house because it’s contaminated. This is a short, unfortunate punch in the face, and we’ll just have to get through it.”

Citizens of areas deemed at risk were evacuated shortly after the derailment, and the EPA had been monitoring levels of the mentioned gases and particulate matter afterward. A few other articles stated that it has since dispersed to safe levels, and residents are allowed back in.

There is no evidence that it will cause significant long-term contamination of air or water, or that it has been killing off animals.

I truly don't have any words about what's happening in Ohio right now. I want to post something like I usually do. Give vocabulary, etc, whatnot. It's important, it's so important. But I don't have words. What could I possibly say about the level of devastation that has happened, is happening, will happen in the future? This is worse than the BP spill. And I don't know how to respond to that with anything other than a shocked numbness.

[fairyhaos]

How To Fucking Write: a guide by fairyhaos

[masterlist]

this post details:

DIALOGUING INTERESTINGLY

hi gays and gals! the first post on starting and pacing a story did really well, so "how to fucking write" is back, with yet more advice and tips for everyone ^^ please feel free to let me know if there's something you want me talk about, because i'll be more than willing to see if i can help. also a reminder that i have a taglist for this series as well, and please reblog if you find this helpful :)

# - HOW TO DIALOGUE.

.. bullet point one : grammar

okay guys, as a native english speaker, i'll be the first to tell you that this language fucking sucks in terms of its grammar, but when it comes to dialogue, understanding how it works even to some extent will help you branch out and vary the way you write dialogue, which makes it so much more interesting.

with dialogue tags (said, asked, etc) if the punctuation mark in the dialogue is not a ! or ? then it should be a comma.

example : [junhui + castle]

as you can see in the first line, a comma is used rather than a full stop, because the sentence hasn't been finished yet. there's a dialogue tag, ('you correct'), that comes after it. and since the pronoun 'you' isn't a proper noun (i.e. a name) then it shouldn't be capitalised, because, again, the sentence hasn't been finished.

with action tags however, (he smiled, he stood up, etc) then it should be a full stop.

example : [i just made one up bc i don't use this a lot lmao]

"I disagree." He stood up, and walked over to close the door. "This isn't safe. You shouldn't go alone."

and now, since there is a full stop, it indicates that the speech is a sentence all by itself. that means the next word ('He') ought to be capitalised.

but the key part when grammar-ing dialogue in order to make it interesting depends on where you put the action and grammar tags.

if you constantly have lines that are just:

"dialogue," he said.

"dialogue," she said.

"dialogue but a bit longer," he said.

... then it can get repetitive, and annoying. by varying your dialogue structure, it can create more interesting dialogue.

example : [minghao + password]

there's a variety of dialogue and action tags being used with each line of dialogue, preventing everything from sounding too repetitive.

the first line starts with a normal sentence, and an action tag. the second is a standalone line of dialogue with no tags. the second has the action tag in the middle of the dialogue. and the last has a dialogue tag in the middle of the dialogue.

by varying the ways in which you write your dialogue, it makes everything a lot more interesting.

.. bullet point two : verbs and adverbs

the easiest way to make dialogue interesting, though, is to use fancy words.

this can be by replacing 'said' with a range of other dialogue tags (see this really comprehensive list for a whole variety of different words), but i'd advise against overusing these. 'said' is your friend! it's the invisible dialogue tag, helps your reader read through your dialogue in comfort, but of course, if you wanna add a nuanced way of describing the dialogue, then replacing 'said' is the easiest way to make your dialogue interesting.

but don't overuse these. for me, i'd focus on action tags and adverbs.

use interesting adverbs that add description to how a character is saying something can go miles. and using action tags that break through what could have been a long section of characters just talking? it helps so much.

i'd recommend having onelook thesaurus open as you write. you don't have to type in just words: phrases, the overall vibes of the word you're thinking of, all of that can be typed into the thesaurus and they'll provide you with pretty good results each time.

it also really helps when you've forgotten a word and can only remember vague bits of what the word should feel like.

.. bullet point three : voices

the best way, however, is ultimately to create a character. write a personality for them, bring them to life, think about the way in which they would talk and then put that down onto paper.

it's difficult, perhaps the most difficult to do, because it's also so tricky to advise someone on how to do this. it's all about the character you want to create, the personality you envision for them, and the only person who can fully write that is you.

however, i would find a few 'ticks' of theirs and use them as indicators in your writing.

for example, in my seoksoo long fic, seokmin's tick is that he always "chirps" what he's saying. and beams. a lot. this identifies his character, makes him unique(ish), and establishes his personality and differs him to the other characters.

but ultimately, it comes down to word choices, when you're writing a character voice.

like, your character describing something with elegant, floral language vs them going "this is so pretty". or perhaps making them stumble over their words when they're panicked vs them simply just going silent when they're flustered.

it's about being specific. about making choices with your words that would have english teachers analyse and unpick your writing, hundreds of years later.

(even if it's fanfic. especially if it's fanfic: because who knows how many fans may join your fandom in the next few years?)

... and that's it ! if anyone has anything else they want advice on (how to structure, how to write dialogue, how to plan etc) then just shoot me an ask, because i'd love to help however i can :)

tagging (comment/send ask to be added!): @selenicives @stqrrgirle @weird-bookworm @eternalgyu @blue-jisungs (tough luck guys btw but youre gonna be tagged in this entire series ehehehe)

[franki-lew-yo]

Mouthwashing and fandom discourse as a whole.

So I recently explored the tag for Mouthwashing after watching two no-commentary lets plays of the entire game. I'm seeing a lot of posts pointing out how annoying it is that this game has a fandom and that this fandom is doing fandom things and stanning/"uwu-ing" characters from this incredibly nuanced, raw and not-fandom friendly piece of art. To paraphrase someone I just saw "you don't want mouthwashing; you want Among Us ocs but darker". And

for a moment I wanna talk a bit about how I absolutely agree with this statement while also talk for a moment about how and why fandom and catharsis fan fics exist and shouldn't be shamed inherently. Or, I guess, not in theory.

The "come on! Stop trying to make everything shippable/cutsey/memey/have a happy AU and face unpleasant emotions someone's trying to tell you about!" is SUCH a vibe with me. I felt this way in the 9 fandom a lot as a kid and that was just 9. Mouthwashing is like 9 on bathsalts emotions and theme-wise. It's a game where you play as both the flawed but caring captain of a doomed ship who's life becomes a Johnny Got His Gun-nightmare, and also a deplorable, hateful piece of garbage who got himself and his friend in that nightmare situation to begin with. Both characters, moreso Jimmy but Curly too, are the causes of their own misery. They're complex dealing with one of the two committing SA and doing nothing really about it/dodging the responsibility and humanity needed to support the victim whom they've wronged.

I fully admit it's groan-inducing seeing people be shipped up Anya with anyone on the ship considering what happens to her. On a pure pr level I think it would be illegal even since romance between coworkers in a workplace is considered conflict of interest/harassment as it so often is. (NOT that what Jimmy did to Anya is 'romance'. I'm talking about the shipping of Anya with the other three guys. I know there's people out there who do ship Jimmy/Anya; you don't have to tell or show me I believe you and also I already hate it.) It's ALSO groan inducing to see people ship Curly and Jimmy considering all Curly does to him- and just the fact that this incredibly tragic, toxic one-way-gone array friendship is reduced to "toxic yaoi teehee". It's annoying AT BEST.

I get the hostility towards fandom-tastic stanning and fandom behavior in general...the issue is it's still hostility and I wish some of you guys got that. Like it or not (you don't have to like it) fandom culture is inevitable to some degree. You can and should complain about your hangups but that's all you can do besides avoiding tags and just not engaging with that side of the fandom at some point. Save your call-outs and rage for when you see active deplorable bs being committed that people are excusing for dumb fandom reasons, like lolicon, hatespeech or harassment. I'm sorry but you can not actively go after and try and take down the innocent people involved in your trigger that aren't directly hurting you by liking the thing that triggers you; ie. people who get all shipping and fandom-brained about Mouthwashing's characters which you find offensive to do at all.

This type of convo is the crux of most 'antifandom' v profandom discourse in general; for Antis I think there ought to be a difference between the people that set you off bcuz of fandom nonsense vs sociopathic 'got mine'-creepiness. There's a difference between someone who draws r34 v Shadbase. For profandom types you out to face the fact that yes- maybe NOT EVERYTHING is meant to be shippable/memed. Maybe try practicing that a bit. Yeah it's most harmless and makes you feel happy, but considering how people outside of your hyperfixation-of-a-hyperfixation is a thing. The thing about the "don't like, don't read" argument is it goes both ways. If you're truly a "good fan" like you say you are than you have to realize that people will not like your problematicisms. Learn to interact with characters and stories without the possibility of shipping sometimes- or at least understand that that's the crux of what makes a story like Mouthwashing engaging, even if you also partake in the fandumb and AUs on the side. You can call Curly your babygirl and ship him or make him happy all you want but PLEASE acoknowledge that the game doesn't woobify him or excuse what he did to Anya as well. You can make some kind of AU scenario where Jimmy gets out somehow and becomes/is a slightly better person for all I care...so long as you PLEASE remember that he is canonically a r@pist and awful. Also, even if I'm okay with your fan decisions, note that myself and others are still going to be critical and be upset that you wrote it at all because of what kind of character Jimmy is. 'Critical' =/= declaring something evil.

Fandom behaviors are not souly a destructive parasocial outcome of brainrot; they're also a natural reaction to what happens canonically and the emotions you have to experiencing a story. It's normal and rational to sympathize and love Curly and despise and hate Jimmy. You can love/like/enjoy a problematic-to-DEEPLY DISTURBED-character based on their complexity in canon. They are fiction. They are not real. The reason you are so invested with them is because of that complexity and yes because they are fiction they are your 'toy' and you can doll them up in any kind of speculative AU crap you make. That's fanfiction, baby. Make yourself a fixit fic if you really want

BUT-

remember: it stays as a fixit fic. DO NOT cross the streams, or insist that your active misreading of the text is the same as the text itself. EVER. You should care about your special interest's escapism as a means of self-care. What you shouldn't do is demand that EVERYONE ELSE LOVE your coping mechanism and that any complaints by people on their own terms on their own blogs is #badfaith or an inherent attack against you. It isn't. You'll know when it is an attack against you and that's when you, the profandom-type, need to be prepared and save your call-out posts and blocklist for.

To me that's the fragility to fandom debates and fandom as a whole. You can not/should not police or control an entire group of people and how they perceive or interact with media. That's not fair and it's definitely not sporting or decent of you in a community. You have to share your community -your fandom- with people who hate ur fav and people who love your least fav. Agreeing to disagree means not tagging your nOTP as their shipname or by tagging your shipname loud and clear. It means filtering out posts with those topics but enjoying and/or reblogging the fandom takes you do share with your fellow fandom-mite that obviously posts abt those topics.

When schmit REALLY goes down and some assface reviewer/fan/SOMETHING is being an assface or doing something amoral under the guise of fandom-ing, that's where you out to put your foot down. Callouts and complaints are for people who did an egregious thing and refuse to take responsibility(lol) for it. They're not for "soandso likes the thing that triggers me, kill them"/"so and so is hating on the thing I'm kinning because it triggers them, kill them". Be an adult.

Your DNI lists should consist of "lolicon defenders" not "proshippers", as those ARE NOT one in the same. Same goes the other way around. List off "bigots, purity culture bs", not "antis and critics". These positions ARE NOT interchangeable. If you make them interchangeable than you're making things a lot harder for yourself.

-sincerely, a message from autistic ADHD/OCD woman who likes horror and media analysis as much as she loves popcorn fanfic schlock.

We don't all have to be friends and buddybuds. I just hate us hurting each other over being different kind of fandom-folk rather than for when someone sincerely mucks up and does something bad. Can't we all stick to our guns and just boycott Harry Potter like god intended?

[hollowed-theory-hall]

You mentioned a few times that you didn’t like Book 7, both from an analysis standpoint and from a structure/pacing standpoint. If you haven’t done so already, do you think you can do a whole post on all your grievances on Book 7?

I never really made a comprehensive post I think.

Like, I mentioned some stuff under the Deathly Hallows tag here, but generally, it seems to me like book 7 made up a lot of new rules about magic that weren't built up earlier. Like people being able to supposedly learn Parseltongue.

In addition to forgetting magic that was already established. Like, I get JKR wanted the trio hungry and miserable, but even if they can't conjour food, they could summon it, steal it under the invisibility cloak, hunt it/fish it? Like, go to a river band and say "accio fish". Something Ted and Dean actually do when they're on the run in book 7:

“There ought to be a few salmon in here, or d’you reckon it’s too early in the season? Accio Salmon.” There were several distinct splashes and then the slapping sounds of fish against flesh. Somebody grunted appreciatively. 

(DH)

Like, I don't get why the main trio couldn't do that. That's all just one example.

I'm not even going to touch what I think about the wandlore in this book since it changes the rules about wands so much.

In terms of characterization, I think Ron's character suffers the most. Like, Ron is written dumber in this book than in any other. He leaves Harry and Hermione and erases his character arc 7 books in. It just, shouldn't have gone like this.

Book 7 is the only one of the books where the trio feels similar to how they are in the movies. With Ron and Harry being a bit useless (especially Ron) and staring in awe at how smart Hermione is. And Hermione seems to be the only one knowing what's up and wanting to push this quest forward while they're camping in the woods. This isn't their dynamic at all up to this point, and the entire camping in the woods section portrays them in this way.

It's not in the entire book too, just like in sections (which makes me feel JKR wrote them very separately, but I digress) — but I hate it.

Like, in general, the character arcs are not really there. At least, not the way I would've liked them to be. I already mentioned Ron who regressed in his arc to something he never was in the books, but it still felt like a regression. Hermione was basically stripped of a lot of her more ruthless streak. Like, Hermione of GoF or OotP would've been willing to steal food to keep them alive. Sure, these people didn't deserve to be stolen from, but she would've understood the necessity. Hermione of book 7 feels off to me, like, she's supposed to be the morally right one more often than not and it feels jarring when the trio had a more equal dynamic up to this point. At least outside of the camping bits she isn't always right in general. Like, Harry still has his incredible instincts Hermione belittles but he ends up being right. That is character-accurate

Harry as well, like, he has some great moments. His doubts about Dumbledore and how it clashes with Hermione's blind faith in him is a great character arc for them and I love it. I just feel that Harry's conclusion of not doubting Dumbledore because he was sick of doubting and how he got to it fell a little flat for me. Also, Harry casts two unforgivable curses easily in this book, and just, no one reacts to it? Not even him? Like, this could've been a fascinating arc and a way better point of contention between the trio than the fucking lack of food. Like, to open the question Lupin brought up at the start of the book, "How far is too far in war?" like, that theme is there, but, like, bubbling beneath the surface.

And I'm not the first to mention how bizarre it is that Hermione cooks when Harry spent years cooking at the Dursleys while Hermione's got no clue what she's doing.

I also feel like more should've been done with the Horcruxes. Like, with how great of a villain the diary was in book 2, it just feels like wasted potential. I wanted more from the locket and the cup and we didn't get time with the diadem at all. I would've liked maybe more of a showcase of cool magical protections on the cup, maybe, and, like, delving deeper into magical theory the way Dumbledore had to to understand the locket's cave. Idk, I just wish there was more.

The Deathly Hallows themselves are another thing. Like, I feel they or the elder wand should've at least been mentioned prior to this book if they were the plan all along. Like, have someone comment Dumbledore won the allegiance of his wand when he defeated Grindlewald or something. Like, a little hint. Because I love the concept of the Deathly Hallows themselves (and Dumbledore's backstory is great and makes complete sense to me with what we know of his character), I just feel the Deathly Hallows the book is literally named after aren't that big of a deal in the book. Like, most of the book should be called "Harry Potter and the Hunt for Horcruxes", the Deathly Hallows, which, again, I love, feel more like an afterthought.

I did like the theme of grief and death that existed throughout the book and it felt in line with talk of things like the Resurrection Stone. I love that that's the hallow Harry chose (actually I like that scene and which hallow each of the trio chose). Like, Harry and Hermione going to Godric's Hallow was great. Harry's grief and pain were amazingly written there. It's one of my favorite parts of the book and I loved seeing the messages of support left for Harry to show what is going on with the rest of the world. I could've done without the super convoluted plan of having Nagini wait there, that made literally no sense, I don't know why Voldy thought that was a good idea.

The romance is another weak point in this book. Since I don't like how Ron and Hermione are written (I think their dynamic was at its most compelling in GoF) and I don't like Harry and Ginny's romance in any book, but book 7 is bad for them. Like, hinny fans talk about how sweet it is for Harry to look at the map to look for Ginny, but he doesn't open the map for Ginny, he does it for Ron:

Meanwhile Harry had started bringing out the Marauder’s Map and examining it by wandlight. He was waiting for the moment when Ron’s labeled dot would reappear in the corridors of Hogwarts, proving that he had returned to the comfortable castle, protected by his status of pureblood.

(DH)

And that's what leads him to see Ginny and look at her name, but he didn't open the map for her, she just happened to be there.

Similarly, when they arrive at Hogwarts, Harry is reacting to Luna more than to Ginny. And Ginny doesn't trust him enough to send him with Cho to Ravenclaw which is so stupid (I just read that scene last night and I have grievances). Like, Harry didn't even want to kiss Cho when he thought he had a crush on her, Ginny has literally nothing to worry about.

I also would've loved to see more of Voldemort. Whenever Harry goes into Voldemrot's mind it's great to see what he and occasionally the Death Eaters are up to. I would've liked more Voldemort for the final book. (If the Horcruxes weren't so underused we could've had more Voldemort, or, at least, pieces of him)

Then there's the pacing. Now, I think I'm in the unpopular minority who likes the wedding scene. I just love Aunt Muriel. She's such a vibe, and I love her gossip. And there are a lot of other scenes I like. I like breaking into the ministry, I love all of Dumbledore's backstory. Everything once they get to Hogwarts gets better. I actually don't like the Gringotts Heist much (as I reread it recently), and the scenes in Shell Cottage leading up to it, but that's my opinion.

And like, that's the thing about book 7 and its pacing that makes it kind of a mess.

There are sections I love that are well-written and fun. Like, the high notes from book 7 are pretty high (this is why I like it more than book 1. Philosopher's Stone is much more cohesive and has better pacing and character work, but the high notes of Deathly Hallows are much better than the high notes of Philosopher's Stone). The problem is that they feel much more disjointed than they usually do. And, like, the whole flow isn't there. The book doesn't flow.

Reading book 7 is like driving at high speed down a road, and then you get stuck in traffic for an hour and then the road magically clears up, like all the other cars disappear in a snap and you're hurtling in speed again and then BAM another traffic jam that appeared out of nowhere. Instead of having the ebb and flow the books usually have, where you go from one plot point to another relatively with ease, book 7 feels like you start, then have to stop, then start again. The different levels of quality and slightly off shifts in characterization between sections also add to this start-stop-start feel I mentioned. Like, the book just doesn't feel cohesive enough.

Then, of course, there is the epilogue, but I already talked about my problems with it (here and here).

That's like, the things that bothered me most in this reread, I think.

[jerich0two]

While I'm at it, here's a belated

Intro Post

because I've been more active on Tumblr than I thought I would be (which is always the way!)

Also, a quick "before you ask" section!

You can repost my work on other sites if you want, but ideally please credit me there so people can find my page if they like my work ^^

You can use my fanart for personal stuff! (e.g., profile pics, wallpapers, banners, etc.) Credit is appreciated but not necessary. But please don't try to profit off it or claim you made it yourself.

(I've given my intro post a bit of a revamp now that I've spent some more time on Tumblr!)

Hey! I'm Jeri. I use any pronouns. I'm happiest when you use whatever you like on me, no caveats, no rules, totally up to you. Mix it up or stick to one. Ah, the marvel of choice!

I'm aroace, and I post content relating to both spectrums now and then. My personal experience is no attraction of any kind in either respect, but I try to read about other experiences too ^^

I mostly post fanart on this blog, with the very occasional, once-in-a-blue-moon fanart-adjacent post. I like to experiment with new brushes and techniques each time I draw, so my art doesn't end up looking all that consistent. The primary fandom I make art for is Hazbin Hotel, but I'm also a big fan of Lackadaisy! Along with a scattering of other things that I'll mention if it ever seems prudent.

I don't do commissions at the moment, but I'm considering mayyybe opening them at some point during the summer, once I figure out how I'll take payment! Fanart requests for the fandoms I'm in are A-OK through asks, but no promises I'll get them done.

That seems about it for things worth knowing!

(If I think of anything else that I ought to put here, I'll edit it in.)

(P.S. I don't consider myself a furry, the fox is just my mascot, and, not at all coincidentally, my favourite animal. AND (while I'm sure the concept is as old as time) I was inspired to make the little intro drawing after seeing the one @/nouverx made! Remove the slash if you'd like to check him out, I don't want to bother anyone by tagging them /lh)

[ach-sss-no]

I feel weird giving out unprompted permission statements because I'm making a big assumption that anyone's going to want to use my work. That said I also know people do like to build on other people's art and can't always work up the nerve to ask, so: Anyone is free to use this design if they want to for any reason- I don't own this character anyway. (Although I am hopeful that you do not, you know, monetize it, because i cant do that and if you do that its not fair ;_; ) Feel free to remix, improve, use as basic inspiration, etc. I would appreciate a tag/mention if you use it so I can see what you did!

This design has evolved a little since I first started drawing it, and I will see people reblogging the original design notes and think 'oh no! those are out of date and I don't have new/accurate ones!'

Reblogging the old one is still an honor- and the first take on a design just sometimes has a different appeal because it's less refined and more chaotic (especially with a character that should be chaotic), so I suspect some people will just prefer the older drawings & they'll still get shared, which is great! But I felt as if the project was a little bit incomplete without an update, since I think I've reached the point where if you see that old post & then come to my blog and look at my current content, there's a noticeable difference.

Also I kind of like making design notes.

If anyone's wondering why things changed, the answer's really simple- 90% of it is just the result of him settling into having more consistent anatomy and facial structure so that I can keep him looking accurate across different angles and poses. If you look at the old drawings you may notice that Gollum has an inconsistently shaped squishy head. That's fine for a concept post but doesn't work as well for maintaining him across different comic panels or in an animatic, at least not the way I work.

In the same vein, while my art is still & will always be heavily stylized, I started giving him more structured semi-sorta-realistic anatomy so that he wouldn't look entirely out of place next to less bizarre-looking characters such as Aragorn. (I feel that's also helpful in nudging Gollum into the uncanny valley where he ought to be, rather than leaving him so abstractified that there's a risk you won't see anything wrong with him having noodle arms.) He also acquired the new-style 'garbage bag' outfit because I found a reference in LOTR to his arms and legs being bare/exposed (it's in one of my favorite passages, the 'an eagle would think Gollum was dead if it came by right now' passage in The Two Towers):

Not even an eagle poised against the sun would have marked the hobbits sitting there, under the weight of doom, silent, not moving, shrouded in their thin grey cloaks. For a moment he might have paused to consider Gollum, a tiny figure sprawling on the ground: there perhaps lay the famished skeleton of some child of Men, its ragged garment still clinging to it, its long arms and legs almost bone-white and bone-thin: no flesh worth a peck.

[cnestus]

(tagged on this post)

@notahorseindisguise sure, just like a general guide on insect pinning? i can do that.

the nice thing about insects is that once they dry they'll stay exactly as they were positioned indefinitely, so the trick is to pin them when they're still pliable. if you're trying to pin an old, dried insect, you can rehydrate them by putting them in an airtight container with some wet paper towels or sponges for 12-24 hours but probably not much longer than that or you'll risk them molding. i spray some ethanol in there too to be safe. as an example, here's my rehydration box with some bee samples:

once your insect is ready to curate, put the pin through the thorax to the right of the midline like in my previous post. now, i'm of the philosophy that if you're pinning an insect, you ought to curate it as best as you can so that its death wasn't in vain, so while the specimen is still pliable, secure it to a thick piece of foam and use more pins to position all the legs and antennae into as pleasing an arrangement as possible. here's a botfly i arranged:

besides the aesthetic reasons, this will also help with future identification if that's a possibility since often insects die curled up with important diagnostic features covered up or otherwise hard to see, so at least unfurling the legs a bit and making sure the wing venation is visible on insects where that's important is a good idea.

sometimes you get a longhorned beetle with very long antennae. this is why you want to have a lot of pins on hand:

for insects that are too small to pin without risking obliterating their thorax, you'll want to point-mount them, which means gluing them to a small paper triangle and pinning that:

i rarely see people do it but you can sometimes curate point-mounted specimens too if they're the right size, though you'll want to do it under a microscope:

then let your specimens set in a nice dry area for at least a day or two:

after that you just need to label them (probably for another post. this one is long enough) and they're good to go. once they dry out they're pretty much good to last forever as long as you keep them protected from mold and pests, so the preservation part is handled just by keeping them in an airtight container if possible or at least one with desiccants/pesticides as needed. at the very least try to toss the specimen box in a feezer for a few days at least a couple times a year. otherwise your nicely curated specimens will end up as dermestid shit:

i think that about covers it! it is worth noting that some soft-bodied insects will shrivel horrible when they dry out. small soft insects like silverfish, termites, springtails, most kinds of larvae, etc should go into a vial of alcohol rather than be pinned. same goes for most non-insect arthropods like spiders and centipedes and millipedes which will also fall apart when they dry. also some larger semi-soft insects will need to be stuffed to keep their abdomen from shriveling up, primarily larger grasshoppers, crickets, stenopelmatids, mantids, and stick insects. i made a post about how to do that here.

[rayasland]

You ought to learn how the tags on this website work, the definition of pedophilla, and how to prevent trivialising acts of pedophilla against children. Focus your efforts on real children, instead of bitching about authors aging characters up, ie. Imagining them as fictional adults and not thinking about abusing fictional children.

Your behaviour is not productive, and not benefiting anyone. Advocate for real children being sexually abused, it will be a far better use of your time. + Puritanism is inherently bad and hinders on depriving us of our rights.

ok

[edit] oh mb i didnt actually read it gimme a sec b4 i reply

[edit2] the excessive use of the tags were on purpose, just scroll if u find that annoying or send someone asks whos constantly doing it

im aware of how they work, it was just a way to get peoples attention cuz we all know nobody would see it without them. im also now aware of the fact i may have over done it with the tags, i didn’t register how many i “clogged up”

u couldve moved along instead of wasting UR time writing this

even if its not real its just… weird to do theres nothing more to say

the post wasnt meant to say “pedophillia against real children isnt as important as aging up anime kids and we shouldnt pay attention to them” just seeing how many people agree with me abt whats on that post and if u dont or js dont think its important dont bother interacting please🙏🏾

i do agree w u that we should advocate for real children going through sa which im pretty sure a lot of people are already doing, but i wanted to bring to light how normalised js writing smut for minors(although fictional) is and how justifying it by saying “its a character” or saying “i aged them up” is strange

part of my point is writing smut involving underage anime characters, even if they are "aged up" or fictional, is still inappropriate and can contribute to the normalization of harmful behaviors irl as well as minors objectification because even if they’re “aged up” in your head it doesnt erase the fact you’re fantisizing over a fictional character who is meant to be treated and viewed as a child

also idfk what puritans rlly are only that they’re a different version of catholic which i dont know of either so idk what u mean there

this was written late at night if sum doesnt make sense lmk have a great day

btw im adding tags AGAIN to spite u 💋(referring to all that went in my asks to complain abt it)

thats all im saying for now im going to bed 🫡

[boyfridged]

Do you have any more thoughts about Alfred and how to make him a more interesting character? And there's this tag "Alfred Pennyworth is a Saint", got any opinions about that? And what about some different portrayals like the Gotham Tv version, the multiple versions from comics (usually either harsh, sarcastic and emotionally repressed stoic or openly affectionate, offering actual advice and kind), or the super nice and kind ones from the various movies (live-action and animated)?

there's a lot of contradictions when it comes to alfred's character, even within the scope of individual works (that including current canon... post-mortem too): he's supposed to be both harsh and kind, extremely competent and yet - out of picture to a degree, both fundamentally against the idea of batman (mocking it at times) and supportive of it, professional and a parental figure, conservative in appearances but progressive in acts... most importantly, he plays a role of a "sage" -- he is supposed to be simply right.

but you probably already know -- i'm very interested in characters being wrong.

and i'd say the best angle to approach alfred is simply based on the question of who he needs to be in bruce's story for it to work at all. and one of these requirements is that he is not really there. he cannot enter the action too often, even if writers want you to believe he's invincible. he cannot truly make the residents of the manor a family -- there ought to be some distance, because it's bruce's job to be a father (this is interesting in moench's pre-crisis run also... where it is very clear that alfred leaves raising jay to bruce.) and, most importantly, for bruce to become batman -- alfred ought to fail him to some degree.

and i reckon that's why we don't see much of bruce's childhood. there are some conflicting narratives irt leslie and alfred, even in the 80s - on the one hand, it is suggested that they *both* do not know how to handle bruce as a child; on the other hand, you're supposed to believe that there was no way to do that (and to absolve them of their fault). but i'm interested in a compromise... in acknowledging that none of them were equipped nor ready to take that responsibility, but also realising that there was more they could do. because i think that, for example, alfred's conservatism did intrude on the task of providing care. for example -- in some versions of bruce's childhood (isn't it fascinating that we don't even have one official version at this point in canon... it's always so elusive. but that's a topic for another post) he is sent to a boarding school. and that works. he's an old british guy, of course he'd think sending a child even at age 8-10 would be not only normal but also a good idea.

also -- alfred at times comments on bruce's inability to perform house chores, which is obviously a comic relief. but it's interesting because it's alfred who raised him. if bruce does not do his own laundry, or can't cook - that's quite literally on alfred. and again, i do believe it is plausible that alfred would not teach him any of these things. once more, the reason for that is his conservatism.

what i just said does not negate that alfred is a father to bruce and family to other children raised in the manor. however, i think that his own realisation that it is the case should come with some regret... &that his biases and the role of bruce's enabler are flaws that could make him interesting if it was take seriously.

however, there's still plenty of gaps that are hard to fill - for instance, why alfred is a butler at all, given his background (there were obv some attempts at explaining it -- i wouldn't say they were very successful). i know some of it is simply a matter of editors and writers throwing bits of amusing/surprising lore into the story without really considering the wider picture, but it is frustrating. his development was, after all, quite strange -- if you read first issues of batman/tec, you will notice he himself was mostly a comic relief. the whole concept of his links to military, for example, came later... so i had quite high hopes for pennyworth (the show) in that regards, but it did disappoint me. i wish we simply got a well-written mini?

a complete sidenote -- i also quite like how close alfred & damian grow to be. it makes a lot of sense (i do think alfred would be partial to the "biological" child + the way alfred carries himself & the routine he sticks to would be comforting for damian i think...)

[alexis-royce]

Y'know thanks to you I've seen probably a hundred Fallen London tagged posts and it's the one fandom(?) that I've gleaned absolutely nothing about. Just no idea even what the premise is or what's going on.

Just every once in awhile I see a post like "Going to the Wonder Emporium to spend 500 golden candelabras in order to convert my 52 cursed weasels into 51 Slightly Less Cursed Weasels and 51 Minor Weasel Curses before my elegant masquerade dinner with Mr. Rodents and Mrs. Phantasmal Goop" and it's always tagged Fallen London. I understand nothing but I also sorta feel like that's the point.

I think the main thing that's stuck with me is "Ex-disgraced Academic" is just such a good character name/title(?). Like there's so much intrigue baked in there, I wanna know more about that funny lil guy

To start: That is a better encapsulation of FL writing than I would ever be capable of, I cannot possibly express to you how much I love that center paragraph.

To sum up: In February 1862, the city of London fell beneath the surface of the earth, stolen by bats. In our current year of 1902, folks have adjusted to the horrors of living amongst devils, talking rats, and other chthonic entities.

Fallen London is a comedy gothic horror browser game. It ranks high in both comedy and horror, and it’s been running for fourteen years, so the world and mechanics have matured like a gorgeous scotch. You can play for free, but it is not meant to be binged! You can only do a very little every few hours. This bothers the hell out of plenty of folks, but for me, the slow pace is positively sumptuous. It gives the world time to breathe, and me time to ponder an abundance of esoteric and haunting mysteries. A lot of the characters in FL have appellations instead of names: “The Jovial Contrarian,” “The Loquacious Vicar,” “Jack-of-Smiles,” or “The Implacable Detective.”

Speaking of! Thank you for the compliments on The Academic’s title! Often I wish I had something less clunky for them, but I am pleased with the way it effectively communicates their fall from grace and return to prominence. I need to update it and ought to make a better write-up, but their toyhouse page is over here, and their introductory comic and stories are over here!

[rhondafromhr]

So I started writing that Max and Steph roleswap AU and I wanted to post this little snippet I have so far and hear everyone’s thoughts because I’m not 100% happy with it yet…idk i feel like it might be too exposition heavy if that makes sense?? Like the backstory is important but idk I feel like I just kind of dumped it and maybe could weave it throughout the story better?? Lmk if you have any thoughts :)

Also Max and Richie’s relationship is going to be platonic in this (bc once again I’m weak for aroace Richie and the power of friendship being treated with the same narrative weight as romantic relationships).

Finally shoutout to tumblr user @idk-imrambling-idk who said in the tags of the original post that Max and Steph give sibling vibes in this au because I was like you know what, I love that, yes they do!! And it really inspired their dynamic and relationship in this

Here it is :)

Stephanie learned what it meant to be powerless at the ripe old age of nine. She sat next to her father in the crowd, watching the blindingly bright spotlight shine down upon her mother and beaming with pride as she was crowned Honey Queen. The applause was uproarious, every last townsperson’s gaze fixed solely on her. She’d always known her mom was the sweetest woman in Hatchetfield, but now it was official. Now she had the beautiful, ornate crown upon her head to prove it. As her mother was whisked away to what she assumed was some sort of super special, secret ceremony, her father insisted over her protests that no, they couldn’t go with her, she needed to go home and get to bed. It was a school night, after all, and she’d see her mother soon enough. She didn’t. Her mother never came home that night and with each passing day, Stephanie’s hope that she ever would dwindled even further.

Every woman who’s ever won that pageant has left Hatchetfield and never looked back, but back then, she didn’t know that. She just knew that one day, her mom was there to fawn over her drawings and point out all the little details she liked and put her spelling test up on the fridge and say how proud she was that Steph worked so hard and got more words right than last time and the next day, she wasn’t and there was nothing Stephanie could do about it. She wondered what she did wrong that her mom was so eager to get away from her. To this day, Stephanie doesn’t know where she ended up. She went through a brief phase where she spent hours a day fervently researching online and following every crumb of information she could find, desperate for any answers, but the very few flimsy leads she was able to find turned out to be dead ends. Not long after her twelfth birthday, Solomon told her she really ought to stop digging, because she wasn’t going to find the answers she was looking for and if she did, she wouldn’t be able to handle them. She rolled her eyes at his usual weird, cryptic nonsense, but for once, she didn’t argue with him. She never did figure out how he knew what she was doing. She only did her sleuthing when she was home alone and always made sure to use incognito mode.

As she got older, the list of things she had to do and wasn’t allowed to do and people she couldn’t hang out with grew exponentially. Everything always came back to the next election and how her behavior might reflect on her father. There was to be no hanging out with the smoke club kids, because he didn’t want the public thinking she was some kind of drug fiend (as if they were doing actual drugs. They were seventh graders. They may have upgraded to the real stuff now, but back then, Stephanie’s confident their vices of choice were, in fact, cloves and oregano, whether or not they were aware of it). If there was an option for honors or AP in a given subject, she had to take it, regardless of her interest or aptitude. He didn’t want her looking like some kind of slacker. Ironically, she credits that with how she became one. It was embarrassing trying so hard, only to still struggle to understand the material and receive abysmal grades in return, but it was equally embarrassing to admit to this and ask for help, so she figured the easiest route would be to stop trying. She made sure to keep her grades just barely high enough to keep her dad off of her case, but refused to do anything more. These days, she doesn’t have to sweat it. If she’s really in a pinch, she can just threaten some nerd into doing her homework for her.

As if that weren’t bad enough, the summer before Freshman year, one Greg Jägerman followed in his wife’s footsteps and vanished without a trace. That in itself was nothing out of the ordinary, but it did raise the question of what to do with the son he left behind. Solomon wasn’t doing so hot in the polls and Miss Tessburger decided that taking in the guy’s now-orphaned kid would make Solomon look kind and charitable, two of the last descriptors most voters would apply to him. Of course, nobody asked Steph her opinion. She was just stuck with this annoying pseudo-adopted brother one day and expected to be cool with it. Well, more accurately, nobody cared whether she was cool with it or not. The worst part was that he totally bought into this stupid fake family thing. He still won’t stop calling her sis.

What really infuriates her is that he gets the freedom she’s long been denied. Solomon truly couldn't care less what he does as long as he stays out of major trouble, doesn’t completely flunk his classes and shows up for all the public appearances and family photo ops. To this day, he still calls Solomon Dad as if he has any right to, as if Solomon sees him as anything more than an unfortunate consequence of a bold PR stunt, as if he’s had to put up with a fraction of what Stephanie’s endured from him. Solomon is not his dad and he is not a Lauter, no matter how many people mistakenly call him that. Solomon even praised him once. He came home from his latest lacrosse match and proudly said that they’d creamed Sycamore or whoever. Solomon, nose-deep in the latest poll and survey results Miss Tessburger had sent him, absently said, “that’s nice, son,” and waved him off. Sure, it was insincere. Sure, it was dismissive. But it was still far more than Stephanie had gotten since she was literally nine years old and more than she’s gotten since. It made her blood boil. She’d been jumping through hoops like some kind of goddamn show dog for her father for years and never got so much as one half-hearted compliment. It was just expected of her.

Still, she continued to jump through those hoops. It wasn’t like she had much of a choice and at this point, it was all she really knew, anyway. Unsurprisingly, Solomon still demanded more and just before she went into high school, he decided she was going to do sports. If there’s one defining trait that all of his constituents in town share, it’s their bizarre obsession with high school football, so this was a surefire way to impress them.

“Why do I have to?” she’d protested “Max already plays volleyball and lacrosse, doesn’t that satisfy the sports kid requirement?”

“Stephanie, I’d like to have an intelligent conversation with you. In other words, shut up. You know as well as I do that nobody cares about either of those sports. Clivesdale doesn’t even have a lacrosse or volleyball team and beating them is all these simple-minded hicks seem to care about. If you refuse to bring up your mediocre grades or put your time into any useful extracurriculars or bettering yourself in any way, the least you can do is join the cheer squad. How hard can it be to jump around and do some silly little chants?”

Max was there, too. Of course he was. On the increasingly rare occasions where Solomon was actually home, he was sure to be right there at his side, telling him about his day as if he fucking cared. Calling him Dad as if he had any fucking right to. She didn’t miss the way his face fell ever so slightly when Solomon said that nobody cared about his stupid sports and she couldn’t help but feel smug about it.

“Ha, yeah,” she said with a smirk “volleyball and lacrosse are dumb.”

The brief satisfaction was quickly overshadowed by a more pressing matter. Hell no, she was not going to join cheer. Pep, enthusiasm and silly dance routines aren’t really her style. She wasn’t sure she could do it if she wanted to and she really, really didn’t.

“Well, figure it out,” Solomon told her, looking at her with the usual disdain “it’s either that or football.” He may have said it mockingly, but she decided to take it as a challenge. She breached her own “no putting in more effort than necessary” policy and spent hours a day on the empty football field practicing plays. She’d usually drag Max along with her if he didn’t have practice for whichever one of his unimportant non-sports was in season.

“Hey,” he said during one of these practice sessions as he threw an admittedly decent spiral, his signature dumb, goofy grin on his face “I’ve been thinking about trying out, too. It might be kinda fun to be on the team together.”

She scowled. “No,” was her only response “just shut up and throw the ball, okay?” This was going to be her thing, damnit. He wasn’t going to invade it like he did everything else in her life. He did as she asked and never brought it up again.

She spent hours more at the gym, doing hard cardio until she was as sweat-soaked as that annoying weeb kid she saw around school sometimes and pushing herself to her limits strength training. It all paid off when the day of tryouts arrived and she blew everyone away with her athletic prowess, earning the position of star quarterback. That alone would have been great publicity and the fact that she was a freshman and the first girl ever to make the team in any position were the cherry on top. It spoke volumes that Solomon didn’t have anything negative to say, although he didn’t offer any praise, either.

If nobody could stand up to her before, they really couldn’t now. She wasn’t just the mayor’s daughter anymore. She was the star football player and with every victory she helped them score, especially against Clivesdale, the teachers and the principal became less and less likely to discipline her if anyone complained of her so-called bullying. It wasn’t as if they could do much before, but now they didn’t even care to try. With that, her iron grip over the school was secured and she’s thoroughly enjoyed it ever since. She still can’t do anything about her mom walking away or her dad treating her like some kind of accessory whose only use is to make him look good to potential voters or her stupid not-brother encroaching on her life and taking everything that’s rightfully hers, but she can maintain the delicate balance that is the high school hierarchy she’s created and bring order to Hatchetfield High. Really, she’s doing them all a favor. They don’t know what’s good for them and without her, it would descend into chaos.

Max slides into his seat in AP Calc with seconds to spare before the bell rings. He’s slammed two of those vile tasting sugar free energy drinks and he’s praying they’ll kick in soon.

“Alright, we’re going to have a pop quiz today. Hope you’ve been hitting the books, Mr. Lauter,” Miss Mulberry says. He doesn’t bother correcting her. Maybe if he could wear his letterman that has “Jägerman” embroidered on it, people wouldn’t make that mistake so often, but he’s not allowed to. The letterman jacket is Steph’s signature look. Not even Kyle and Jason get to wear theirs unless it’s a game day and they’re her closest friends. Max doesn’t even get that privilege, so he settled for a navy blue flannel with a tiny nighthawk patch poorly sewn into the pocket and his letterman hangs untouched in his closet. Sometimes, he doesn’t mind being called Max Lauter, even if it sounds a little off. Sometimes, he wants to believe that’s what he is. Other times, he wishes people would get it right. That’s the least of his worries right now, though. His chest feels so, so tight and a wave of nausea overtakes him and makes him wonder if ingesting so much caffeine and chemicals was a wise idea. He’s screwed. He can barely pass a test in this class when he has time to prepare and sacrifices several nights’ worth of sleep to study. He shouldn’t even be here. He knows he’s kind of dumb. Stephanie gleefully reminds him on a regular basis. Solomon doesn’t vocalize it, but sometimes Max will say something to him and he’ll just give him this look as if he’s just uttered the stupidest, most incomprehensible words ever spoken, then shake his head and go back to ignoring him. He’s always had a lot of trouble in most subjects, but math is by far the worst. Realistically, remedial algebra would be more his speed, but it wouldn’t be very becoming of a sort-of Lauter. Solomon took him in when he had nowhere else to go. He’s been a lot nicer to him than his own father ever was. He figured the least he could do is make him proud, but so far, that plan has backfired tremendously. Nobody’s going to be impressed with the D plus that he’s clinging to for dear life and can still feel slipping through his grasp.

He glances to his left and sees his neighbor calmly reach into his backpack and pull out his pen and calculator. The sheen of sweat on his forehead would suggest that he’s almost as nervous as Max is, but his demeanor radiates confidence and excitement. Max wonders why that guy wears so many layers if he’s always so sweaty. They’ve been in classes together since the first grade, but they’ve hardly spoken two words to each other. Max has, however, watched his hand eagerly shoot up whenever Miss Mulberry asks a question. He has watched him answer every equation with ease, solving them without fail, even when it all looks like gibberish to Max. If anyone can help Max out of this jam, it’s this guy. He has no real reason to, but Max supposes it can’t hurt to ask. What’s the worst that could happen?

“Hey,” he whispers “Shitlips, right?” He immediately winces. Fuck, he did not mean to say that. That’s how Steph and her friends always refer to him and he let it slip without thinking. Richie turns to glare at Max, clearly not amused.

“Sorry,” he says sheepishly “I meant Lipschitz. Richie Lipschitz, right?”

“Yeah,” he says, still a little irritated “what is it? We’re about to take a test.”

“It’s just that, uh, we’ve been in school together for, like, ages and I just realized I’ve never introduced myself. I’m Max.”

“Yeah, I know, Max Jägerman. The mayor’s kid. Stephanie Lauter’s brother.”

“She doesn’t like me reminding people, but yeah,” Max replies with a self-deprecating chuckle “I feel kinda bad now. I called you Shitlips and you got my name right on the first try. A lot of people think it’s Lauter.”

This gets Richie to crack a faint smile. “Yeah, I always remembered it because it sounds like Eren Yeager.”

“So, you ready for this test?” says Max with a sheepish grin “‘Cause I’m really, really not. Like, nothing in this class makes even a little bit of sense to me. I’m one hundred percent going to fail. Unless you help a bro out.”

“Oh, we’re bros now?” Richie says with a raised eyebrow.

“Sure,” Max says “we’re Nighthawks, right? We gotta stick together.”

“But won’t we get in trouble?”

“Not if we don’t get caught,” Max says “rules were made to be broken.”

“Fine,” says Richie “I’m willing to tilt my paper slightly so you can see it better. Try to keep up, though, I’m not waiting to turn in my test so you can finish copying. That’ll look suspicious.” That much is true. Richie’s always the first person to turn in his test in this class, usually by a substantial amount of time. “And don’t be super obvious about it,” he adds.

“Really?” Max says, his face lighting up in a way that he rarely allows it to “thanks, dude, I owe you one!”

[marlynnofmany]

“Oh, you write books?”

Yup! And I love it.

Here’s the published list so far, with relevant tags for all the extra content and ramblings that inevitably end up here.

“If you set Dirty Jobs in outer space, mixed in some Mythbusters, and gave Buster the crash-test dummy the ability to sass back like a cross between Bender and Murderbot… you’d get something like this book.”

“Spectacular Silver Earthling” is available wherever books are sold!

Relevant tags: Hubcap the robot Hubcap the Egomaniacal Sassmaster (there’s some crossover there) Spectacular Silver Earthling

“When space poachers release Earth animals on an alien world, threatening a fragile new alliance, they anger the wrong people. A veterinarian, an accountant, and a furious sign-language-fluent gorilla are coming for them.”

“A Swift Kick to the Thorax” is also available everywhere!

This is the one I’ve been posting backstory snippets for weekly, from when the main character was traveling the galaxy working on a courier ship.

There are also comic strips, which take place between the stories and the book. I should really draw more of those. They’re fun.

Relevant tags: A Swift Kick to the Thorax The Token Human (series name; originally just the comics) Robin Bennett (the main character)

Do you long to write fascinating fiction, but struggle to find a concept that feels worthy?

Do you have piles of unfinished stories, and eagerly await the next shiny new idea?

Do you have writer friends to inflict assistance/benevolent torment on?

Good news! I have precisely one bazillion ideas for stories that someone ought to write, and I’ve selected 100 of them to collect in this book. You may recognize some from my old posts here, but not all.

"Story Seeds for Fantastical Trees" promises to grow you a forest of compelling ideas, ranging from wizards both wise and foolish, to aliens seeking dinosaurs, to a robot that lets a vampire into the house (possibly on purpose).

Relevant tag: writing prompts (buckle in; this one is A Lot)

“In science fiction, humans are usually boring compared to other races: small, weak, no claws or tentacles, and no special abilities to speak of. What if instead, we were talked about by the other aliens? 28 authors have contributed to make sure you never think of humans as boring again!”

“We’re the Weird Aliens” is the “humans are weird / humans are space orcs” collection that had everyone excited in 2020.

Relevant tags: humans are weird humans are space orcs (and a bunch of others, but mostly that first one) (and you'll find the Token Human stuff tagged here too)

“An old street sweeper takes on the shadowy invaders responsible for a plague of amnesia, while saddled with a dodgy memory, a mysterious past, and a reflection that talks back and makes fun of him.”

My first published book! I still love it. Magic, memory problems, and walloping ruffians with a broom. What’s not to love?

Relevant tags: Sweeping Changes

And that’s everything so far, as of August 2023!

Not counting the anthologies that other people put together, which I have stories in. (I’ll point you to my website for those.)

I am definitely working on more books. So many more. I write as a way of going on adventures, and I will happily take you with me.

[friend-dogor]

actually wait in relation to the last post about ghibli and how it is aestheticized into bland and toothless images of comfort, it's got me thinking abt Ursula K Le Guin again

The trouble is that we have a bad habit, encouraged by pedants and sophisticates, of considering happiness as something rather stupid. Only pain is intellectual, only evil interesting. This is the treason of the artist: a refusal to admit the banality of evil and the terrible boredom of pain. If you can’t lick ’em, join ’em. If it hurts, repeat it. But to praise despair is to condemn delight, to embrace violence is to lose hold of everything else. We have almost lost hold; we can no longer describe a happy man, nor make any celebration of joy.

(from The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas, 1973, top of pg.2)

i think that the original post is guilty of this to a degree, seeking to refute the idiocy and simplicity of focusing on the "happy" themes of ghibli movies my instead shifting attention to the horrors and pains contained within the text—those which could be seen as intellectual, needing perhaps a more sophisticated understanding of environmentalism and geopolitics.

but, furthermore, i think i'm guilty of it even in trying to defend miyazaki's often returning narrative commitment to hope and environmentalism and anti-war sentiment and kindness—after the last tag, i wanted to add something about "i know that putting kindness above pursuit of power feels like a baby theme for babies" because it Does, to me. "be kind" is, like, the first and simplest rule most of us are taught as children, be kind, don't hit your brother, be kind, share, be kind.

i don't refer to this as one of his more challenging themes, of course, because why should i? we all know to be kind. of course, i refer only to topics of war and environmentalism and grief as challenging. kindness is simple!

(nevermind that one of the biggest challenges for myself and a lot of people i know is how to stop being cruel to oneself after decades of practice and learned examples and instead to learn to be kind and forgiving with one's own mistakes and failures and perceived flaws)

and i wonder two things: 1) is it possible that the self-aestheticization of miyazaki's movies (for example, the rapturous visual attention paid to food, the attention paid to soft chairs, pillows, small and pleasantly cluttered environments, with plenty of natural light, lush plantlife and endearing creatures) contribute to miyazaki's more "challenging" messages, and if so, that there's a degree of success in people remembering the thick-cut bacon and eggs on toast from Howl's Moving Castle before they think of Sophie Hatter's town on fire because of the king's war? Has Hayao Miyazaki succeeded in making war and destruction at once horrifying and banal, but a simple good breakfast fascinating and compelling? ——not to say that people who simplify the movie to Only the aesthetics are right. they still aren't. they exist in dialogue with the destruction and it's ridiculous to sever the two. but is it possible that the majority of people thinking first of the "cozy" elements of Studio Ghibli's work is not nonintellectual and reductive, but rather contributes to a larger point of attention?

2) i ought to find other examples of media which do not treat "happy" themes or "light" themes—(i struggle even to talk about the category i mean without dismissing it entirely as Simple, or mischaracterizing it. i mean things like kindness over power and compassion over fear, things like that) which do not treat the themes as childish or nonintellectual, but also do so without fetishizing violence and suffering as Special and More Deserving of Thought than Simple and Stupid Good Feelings so that i can kind of investigate this concept a little more

[ludiharambasha]

I don't like it when people talk about the hypothetical scenario in which Kakashi actually listens to Sasuke and helps him get revenge, as it is utterly pointless in many ways.

I generally think it is pointless to think in terms of what-ifs when analyzing stories, because, well, you get a completely different one in most cases (there are exceptions, such as when the change would not drastically alter the themes). When you change key aspects of the story such as Sasuke's decision to leave Konoha, you completely change the themes the story carries, as Sasuke is the main carrier of Naruto's themes.

When you say that Sasuke may not have left Konoha had Kakashi offered him to help him get revenge on Itachi you ignore the fact that narratives ought to be read in their entirety and full context rather than in isolated units. You ignore that Sasuke is meant to react to the injustice of the makeup of the whole world rather than just stop at what happened to his clan. His arc neatly goes from dealing with the specific moving on to the general, and his personal involvement motivates him to pursue his goals in the story on both of these levels. What happened to him is not a grave tragedy that happened in isolation but something that is bound to happen in a world as cruel as the one he inhabits. Sasuke is the one who wants to bring a global revolution to the shinobi system precisely because he is the one who was affected by it in a deeply personal way. Sasuke is meant to challenge the legally legitimate with the morally legitimate, and when you play with the idea that Sasuke does not leave sooner, but later in the story, you lessen his narrative weight, as you would make him choose the legal on his first step. He always possessed a rebellious streak, and a rebel and a revolutionary is not one who plays safe.

There are other things to consider as well. Why does it matter whether Kakashi realizes that Sasuke may not have left had he offered his help? Sasuke's choice was something we are meant to see as an inevitability, as he would leave and vow to destroy Konoha the moment he finds out the truth about what happened anyway, sooner or later. The moment Sasuke opposes Konoha, Kakashi would stop his support for him, so what difference does it make for Kakashi to offer his help or even acknowledge that Sasuke may not have left sooner rather than later, theme wise? With this you legitimize Kakashi and Konoha, if only they offer the kids some solutions for symptomatic stuff rather than curing things at their root, then there would be no qualms about anything.

When you do this you also ignore Sasuke's goal in a very careless manner, and that is that Sasuke wanted to be the one to kill Itachi on his own. Kakashi would probably not have allowed Sasuke to seek Itachi out on his own and would have probably intervened at some point, something Sasuke wanted to avoid. Sasuke felt that his duty is to personally bring Itachi to justice, something Kakashi would not have been able to provide him, as we now have to operate on the premise that Kakashi is actually concerned with Sasuke's wellbeing.

I'm not going to mention the issue of Danzo, as there is an amazing post here that goes into greater detail about that (which I am not going to tag here as I am yet to ask the creator of it whether they're okay with that).

Or Sasuke never finds out the truth, and then we would not have this story, but something completely different. Which is fine if you want to write fanfic, but not in the analysis of the work.

[angst-and-fajitas]

wait what happened with wilbur soot? i haven't been following any of the minecraft twitch streamers closely but i saw your post & now i know i've missed something D:

I'm really not the person to explain this tbh, but I'll try and give you the shorthand for what I've seen going on. My personal recommendation is to go into the Shubble tag, hit Recent, and scroll for a bit.

Another minecraft streamer and youtuber, Shubble, recently spoke up about an abusive relationship she'd been in, because she didn't want to stay quiet anymore. She talks about having been in a relationship with a much more popular male content creator, and discusses all the ways she was abused within that relationship.

She never named him, but pointed out very specific details that people have since realized point quite damningly at Wilbur. One thing she pointed out was a habit of painfully biting people. After Shubble made her statement, on twitter there were other people who'd been involved with Wilbur who also spoke up about the biting thing, including someone who'd worked with his band, Lovejoy. And apparently Niki has spoken before about him and the biting thing.

While everyone can make up their own mind, I've made mine. I think he ought to be deplatformed, even if just to give Shubble the freedom to speak without fear of being attacked. But yeah, I'd recommend watching Shubble's VOD and reading up yourself if you want more info.

[meyerlansky]

twenty questions for fic writers!

tagged by @redbelles AND @inkpot-demigod 🖤💙🖤💙 took me eighteen years but i figured i ought to get it done before the emoji asks >_>

1. how many works do you have on ao3?

39!

2. what's your total ao3 word count?

133,253

3. what fandoms do you write for?

right now it's just masters of the air, because i really only focus on one fandom at a time but i also don't really LEAVE fandoms so much as they go dormant for a bit. in the last year i've at least TOUCHED wips for boardwalk empire and the witcher, and once bachelor route drops i will probably go back to some of my pathologic 2 fics and maybe come up with new stuff. same with HotD s2, although i don't know how much new stuff will come out of that vs finishing up things in metamorphoses.

4. top five fics by kudos

keep safe broad shoulders, warm hands keds and tube socks vestis virum facit denuo

so mostly burakhovsky smut, except for keep safe which is outsider pov nearly-gen lambden (from the witcher and specifically witcher 3) fic, and i have NO idea how it's my most-kudosed fic; and keds and tube socks, which is a long-ass (for me) steddie fic that i WILL finish at some point i am so sorry to everyone who's subbed to that fic /o\

5. do you respond to comments?

I TRY MY BEST ;___; i really like talking to people about fic, mine and others', so every comment i've left unresponded-to haunts me, but sometimes i can't get over my own anxiety enough. the only time it's deliberate is if the only content in the comment is "you have to write more of this" or anything similar and phrased EXCLUSIVELY like a demand, because It's Rude and also i have no idea how to respond to that.

6. what is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

explicitly angsty is probably with my ash-stained palms or broad shoulders, warm hands because neither ryuzo or daniil get what they want in those ones, though i think bswh!daniil would get what he wants eventually. ryuzo, maybe not >_> dancing cheek to cheek (to cheek) is also probably up there, but that's more interesting because it's not angsty on the page! and i WAS planning on leaving it as is, originally! that's why it has the canon compliant tag! but now i'm 8k deep in a canon-divergent sequel so idk if it counts anymore. genuinely i was planning on answering this with "i don't write a lot of unresolved angst" but. hm.

...wait, also hot blood, deep roots. which is the dark mirror nightmare counterpart of bswh and is... definitely worse. and i have something even worse in my wips okay i guess i write more angst than i thought

7. what's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

probably vestis virum facit, since the final section is implied to be far-enough post-plague that they're Gonna Be Okay. but like the angst question, i don't really think of too many of my fics as the And They Lived Happily Ever After, The End type so much as like... they're happy In That Moment and that's what matters

8. do you get hate on fics?

i got put on the patho fandom blacklist for associating with Freaks And Criminals, and then i wrote hot blood, deep roots to cement my spot on it, so if that counts that's the extent of it afaik. i do worry about catching flak for stuff down the line, but honestly haters tend to be cowards, sooo

9. do you write smut?

LOVE WRITING SMUT. LOVE IT WHEN MY GUYS NAIL EACH OTHER. IT'S MY FAVORITE. i had like a year-long stint before stranger things s4 where i only posted genfic and i was SO disappointed with myself, even though the stuff i posted was GOOD genfic

10. craziest crossover:

don't really do crossovers! but entertaining daemon au thoughts is how i know i'm in a fandom deep enough that it's gonna stick for a bit, even though i've only posted daemon au fic for bwe thus far

11. have you ever had a fic stolen?

not to my knowledge

12. have you ever had a fic translated?

also not to my knowledge!

13. have you ever co-written a fic before?

i'm not opposed to spitballing with people, and some of my best bwe work has come out of very long headcanon exchanges with @goatsandgangsters and @therestisdetail in particular, but i am not a consistent enough writer to saddle anyone else with my habits, so that's the closest i've gotten to cowriting anything.

14. all time favorite ship?

L A N S K I A N O. they are my forever boys. nothing will topple them. ever.

15. what's a wip you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

NONE OF MY WIPS ARE ABANDONED THEY ARE ALL GOING TO GET DONE EVENTUALLY DON'T LOOK AT ME LIKE THAT

16. what are your writing strengths?

snappy dialogue and the internal character work involved in a tight third person pov, which is good since a tight third is the only way i like to write

17. what are your writing weaknesses?

speed. if i don't finish something inside of a week of starting it, it will drag out for an infinity and a half and i'll have to chip away at it and hate myself for being slow the whoooooooooole time. i also... i have no idea how to explain this, but i don't consider myself an especially creative person, so i have trouble if i don't have a jumping off point to start with? most of my fics have pretty solid touchpoints in the canon and tend to be one-shots, if not single-scene. coming up with new shit for my dudes to do can be a struggle. which, tbh, adds to the speed thing, especially for stuff that tilts off into canon-divergent territory

18. thoughts on dialogue in another language?

alright, listen, i might have an entire buryat dictionary database downloaded onto my hard drive to spice up patho fic, but i'm in agreement with previous answers on this one: it can get dicey to write in a language you don't know, and if your readers don't know it it will interrupt the flow in a way that's not usually what i'm looking to do in a fic. that said, most of my fandoms have at LEAST one non-english language involved, if not multiple, so i do end up doing a lot of research into those languages, and i'm absolutely not opposed to pulling out single-words or phrases after either a. checking with someone who speaks those languages, if it's a real one, or b. pulling them from their usage in the canon itself and/or sometimes extrapolating out a bit, like the high valyrian i peppered into chrysalis

19. first fandom you wrote in?

boardwalk empire my beloved 🖤🖤🖤 i played around with some stuff prior to that—i think i'd noodled with what would technically be alice in wonderland fic in high school, although i don't remember what happened in it—but nothing substantial enough to count as Actual Fic, and definitely not anything i have access to anymore

20. favorite fic you've written?

MAN. HOW TO CHOOSE. it's maybe a little bit of recency bias to say dancing cheek to cheek (to cheek), but i think it's a tie between that and junkyard dogs, and both for the same reason, which is that i am really proud of the character work they do with curt and eddie, respectively. i'm not SURPRISED jd is as low on the hits/kudos/etc scale as it is since it's genfic and billy is...... divisive........... but i really think i nailed eddie in it. with dctc(tc) it was fun to get to play with curt, who's... look, i'm just gonna say it, i think he gets mischaracterized in a lot of the other fandom stuff i've seen involving him, so it was fun to get how i read him down on the page. it's also interesting to not only develop curt internally but to look at the buckies from an outsider POV, because they are UNDENIABLY the love story at the center of MotA's narrative, but they're both IN IT so they can't SEE IT. i also don't usually do scene breaks? like most of my fics are single-scene but i dragged dctc(tc) out and shockingly it WORKED? so yeah idk i'm just really proud of it.

OKAY. WHOOF. TIME FOR TAGS. let's seeeeeeeeee i will tag @goatsandgangsters @hosseinis @chirpybirdy @sweaterkittensahoy @reiverreturns

@samuelroukin @stoportotouch @notgrungybitchin @adriennefrombrooklyn and anyone else who wants to, but no pressure as always!