#anceline rambles

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I make silly stuff sometimes

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It’s also great for kids who are still acquiring and developing language because it gives them more opportunities to use and learn more words to express themselves rather than just saying yes/no

probably my most powerful interpersonal communication hack is to, whenever possible, ask either/or questions rather than yes/no questions

for example, when chatting with coworkers, i’ll often ask if they have any fun weekend plans. but let’s be real - we all feel like friendless losers when someone asks that question and we go “uhhhhh… no.” so instead, i phrase it as “so, do you have anything fun planned over the weekend, or are you just going to enjoy having some time to relax?”

phrased like this, there’s rarely any awkwardness. you’ve presented two options & given both equally positive connotations, so your conversational partner has an automatic “out,” so to speak

but it works for higher stakes conversations too!!!! my mom was saying this weekend how she and her neighbor both like walking around the neighborhood & that she wanted to suggest they take a walk together sometime, but was worried about how to approach the conversation

so i said “how about you just say ‘i’ve noticed we both like taking walks! would you be interested in going for one together, or do you use walks for some precious alone time?’”

now Walking Neighbor has an automatic “get out of jail free card” if she wants to say no!!!! which means my mom doesn’t have to worry about the conversation being uncomfortable, because she’s set it up to go smoothly

either/or questions rather than yes/no questions. it is really like magic

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I’m not gonna lie, Griffin using Montrose’s magic “can always tell if you’re lying” power simply to figure out whether Shoebox is telling the truth in her own idiosyncratic way or being sarcastic in her own idiosyncratic way is 100% the best possible use of that power. Incredible. I love it. The way Justin deadpans every single thing Shoebox says so that you literally cannot tell and griffin has to ask every. single. time is peak comedy.

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You know, a lot of Pride and Prejudice makes significantly more sense when you remember that Kitty and Lydia are both approximately 15 to 18 years old.

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Yes hello I am just rotating the Train Gang in my mind again.

I am obsessed with Chet Sapphire today cuz he’s great, but also because I was raised Very Religious(TM) (specifically Christian) and sometimes I am really very struck by religious parallels in media. Even ones that I’m almost certain were not intentional.

Do I think Haley and Gus and Dillin and Dylan and Aram and John set out to make religious parallels in the Off the Rails Story? Absolutely not. I still see them.

Because I see the parallel between Chet, who has to stare his new god in the face before he’s really able to acknowledge that she’s real, and Thomas, the discipline who had to see and touch Jesus after his resurrection to really acknowledge that it is his friend/god risen from the dead. And yeah that’s a fairly obvious connection. But what I appreciate about both the story of Thomas and the story of Chet is that neither of them are deemed lesser for this. Scenda does not love Chet any less than the others once he decides he actually does believe in her. Thomas is not a lesser disciple because of his need for assurance. We all need assurances sometimes.

I love this little story so much. I will continue rotating it in my mind and loving it and rambling about it.

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Oh dear. I thought of Erza and now I’m sad.

thinkin about the chosen one story told from the pov of the person standing next to them again. thinkin about the one who has to stand by and watch the chosen one become a weapon, a sacrifice, an offering to the machinations of plot and can do nothing but make sure they’re fed and rested and soothe them when they wake up screaming from nightmares. thinkin about the fierce devotion that has to exist to follow someone to the end of the world just so they don’t have to die alone. thinkin about the terror they’d feel every step of the journey knowing it’s not their place to change how the story plays out. thinkin thinkin thinkin.

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I was reading up on the prompts for the UC Celebration next week and the prompt go Day One (Favourite Arc/Roll for AU) did get my mind percolating on something which I find deeply amusing:

Arc 11 Off the Rails: Coffeeshop AU

Does this count as an AU? Yes but like only *barely* and that’s what makes it so funny to me.

Some highlights of this concept that make me smile:

- They work at Albion Coffee Roasters. It’s just ✨Fantasy Starbucks✨ including shitty union busting tactics. This is still fantasy world with magic but also with like… cars and cell phones and shit.

- Foq is (obviously) not an employee. He is a trust fund baby who makes everyone else’s life difficult in the best possible way, as usual. Still always dressed in something fabulous but incredibly over the top. Pretends to be a college student, no one believes him.

- Suds was fired for tinkering with the various coffee machines. He was trying to make them better, and probably succeeded but like… it’s a shitty corporation.

- Piper is a harried appliance repair tech because I love her.

- Chet is an employee but no one is actually sure what his job title is because he never seems to do anything that an employee would be required to do. Yes, I know this is not particularly different from the arc. It is just Who Chet Is

- Rian and Atelut are exactly the same in every way as they were in the arc because working as a bartender and middle manager on a train owned by an evil corporation is essentially the same as working as a barista and middle manager in a coffeeshop owned by for an evil corporation. Probably fewer demons and plane shifting at the coffee shop tho. But not like… none.

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The thing is, with very few exceptions, Hercule Poirot is the better detective and person. I love Sherlock Holmes, i do. But Poirot is better.

However! Watson is the better companion. Again, with a few exceptions. But Watson knocks Hastings out of the park every time. Mostly because Hastings appears to have the observation and reasoning skills of a jar of jam. Bless him.

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This is unrelated to reading Sleep No More, but have i ever mentioned my own little pet theory about the 1906 earthquake in the Tobyverse?

Cuz I fully think Amamdine did it.

We know August disappeared shortly before the earthquake, and Amandine would have done nearly anything to get her back.

And a one point in one of the older books (can’t remember which, off the top of my head) Arden says something about how the Last will shake the world, and how her parents could have saved themselves. And also Oleander has said some odd things about Amandine too that sort of line up.

Anyway. That is my theory. Amandine did it.

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It is reasonable only if the parents themselves are reasonable. Unfortunately, as stated above, it is not the reasonable ones looking to restrict their child’s reading.

If your policy relies on people to make the wise an reasonable choice to be fair to everyone, it’s going to fail the people who need it most.

Like I’m a parent and I do obviously care about what my kids read. But I’m not going to stop them checking out certain things, I’m just gonna say « hey are you sure about this one, it might be a bit overwhelming/scary/stressful/whatever for you. » and if they still check it out then I remind them « if you have questions or feelings come talk about it with me and you don’t have to finish it if you don’t like it anymore. » and also this is almost never a problem because most kids are usually interested in age appropriate library books, both fiction and nonfiction.

The « let’s talk about it » part of the warnings also allows us to have discussions about things that pop up in books that we may or may not agree with value-wise at home. Say your kid reads a book which features say, racism, you are then able to talk about that and how that aligns with your own values as a family, which is ultimately better for your child’s development than hiding things from them.

I'm so fucking tired of listening to people carve exemptions for parental privilege out of every single principle they express. "sure it's reasonable for parents to want a say in what books their kids check out of the library, but they shouldn't be able to control what others—" NO! FUCKING NO!! THAT IS NOT REASONABLE ACTUALLY! and the kids whose parents are most invested in having that control are exactly the kids who most need to be able to access those books

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So I’m doing my annual read through of the Toby books, a thing I do almost every summer in preparation for the new book that comes out each September.

And like… y’all… what’s up with Marcia?? Cuz I’ll be damned if there isn’t *something* going on there. But it’s so very very subtle and easy not to notice. Like this is my 10th or so time reading through this series and I’m only noticing it now but something is definitely up. She seems to notice things she shouldn’t, and know things that don’t quite make sense for her to know, and is unbothered by things that sometimes seem like they should bother her. And if it were a different author I might just ignore that but I’ve read enough Seanan McGuire to suspect that’s intentional.

I’m not gonna ask Seanan about it cuz that’s definitely the spoiler zone, but I’m trying to figure out what it might be.

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I Have Acquired… BOOK!

I have started it and oh boy it is a doozy. It starts hitting hard on PAGE 2. They’re little things but like if you know, you know. Damn. I’m excited and also Very Afraid.

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I'm having even MORE arc 11 brain rot. Y'all. You see. I have been thinking about Scenda. I love her. She is wonderful.

I've also been thinking about what she means as a deity. Because to me Scenda is a god of trains, yes, but on another level she is a god of change and transformation. And I love that. I just love it so much and I think Haley did such a good job with her. It makes me think a lot about What Happens After and what it means for the people that devote themselves to Scenda. What does it mean to follow a god who stands for change and growth and transformation? I think there's so many wonderful things to think about there and I will be thinking about it for ages and ages.

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I’m REALLY FAST at knitting. Not just fast, but also fast without the usual accompanying reduction in quality. It still takes me a whole day to knit a hat with a thicker weight yarn, and that’s assuming I’m not doing anything else at all except food and bathroom breaks. And that’s for the most basic single colour hat, with a medium-thick weight yarn. As soon as you add anything at all, like stripes or a texture or cables, or using a thinner weight yarn, that adds time.

Paid hourly for a basic knit beanie? If you’re going by minimum wage in my area, which is $14/hr, then that hat going to cost you $112 and that’s ignoring the cost of materials.

A sweater takes so so so much longer, AND so so so much more yarn.

I need people to understand…that if you believe in paying people a livable hourly wage…most hand-knitted clothing should cost hundreds of dollars

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Friends I was thinking about the finale of On The Rocks again today and the corresponding Verbal Component and I was struck by the thought that while one of the main themes of both Off the Rails and On The Rocks is “Capitalism, Bad” another connected theme is “caring matters.” I think it shows up more in On The Rocks a bit.

Spoilers below the cut.

I think the part that really got me was the intersection of those two things. And something that Gus and Haley mentioned on the last live Verbal Component really drove it home for me. Gus was talking about how Suds was coping with the difficult reality of a blowing up a building that was full of people, and not very many of them got out. And Haley rightfully pointed out that a big part of the theme of capitalism being bad is the the people who bear the brunt of the bad are the ones who least deserve it.

But I love love love how that intersected with Suds and also Atelut both still caring about people. Both stopping to try and save whoever they could, even though in many ways it could be seen as a waste of time or a failed effort.

It reminded me deeply of that fabulous tumblr post about the RMS Carpathia rescuing the survivors of the Titanic. (Take a minute to read it if you like, but be warned, you will almost certainly cry.) Because here’s the thing, just like the Carpathia, Suds failed. But just like the Carpathia, it matter so so much that he tried!

I think it’s interesting that at the start of the mini arc we have Rian, Chet, and Piper working together to do a terrorism revolution all on their own (sort of) but at the end it’s them AND Suds and Atelut and Foq. It’s a balance, and it’s a really important one.

Team Terrorism Revolution is important to making the revolution happen. They’re the ones that understand that Bad Things have to happen and are willing to do them, even though there’s going to be some collateral damage, even if they feel badly about the collateral. In one of the live Verbal Components the question came up of “what would happen if everyone died except your character?” And for Rian the answer was so clearly “take down as much as he can before they kill him” that it didn’t even matter that Dylan wasn’t there to say so. And Haley said the answer was more or less the same for Piper.

But this is the key bit, they need something to balance that. You spend so much of the mini arc watching how Rian is so focused on their goal that he is balanced on the edge of a cliff and if he falls it’s full on villain mode. His singleminded dedication to the goal can become all consuming in a really bad way really easily. And that’s why he needs the others. That’s why all three of them need the balance of the people that care. They need people like Foq who is on the surface a bit of a fool, but when you get down to it cares deeply about not seeing people hurt or killed when they don’t have to be. They need people like Suds and Atelut who will stop in the middle of a disaster to pull a few people out of the mess because even a few lives matter.

I just love how it ended with those two forces so well balanced. I think it’s a beautiful ending to the mini arc, but I also think it’s a beautiful promise for what happens after. Because as much as you need the people who can make the ruthless choices required to tear things, you also need the people who care about every life to be there to build things back up after.

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Ive been listening to selected arcs of Unprepared Casters with my 12 year old and it’s been fun time. We’re listen to Arc 11 Off the Rails right now and again I am simply overwhelmed by how I love the Train Gang so goddamn much. They are my little darlings and I love them.

Also, on the ré-listen I do catch things that I didn’t necessarily notice the first time, or things that feel so much more significant now that I know the ending. That’s one of the things I love about revisiting different books, movies, podcasts, etc.

Today I am appreciating Atelut and their character development over the arc. Dillin just did such a fantastic job with her. We’re on episode 3 and just listened to the bit where Atelut, Rian, and Chet are having a bit of a team cementing and Chet and Rian are quite bluntly being like « we are so fucked, this is bad, Albion is going to kill us, the boss called you that means things are going to be so bad. » (They have absolutely correctly assessed the situation.) And Atelut is just absolutely fucking cruising down the river of denial. And then Rian asks her if she’s happy.

And the thing that stands out in their response is that she says « I’m successful » not « yes » and in fact weasels their way very hard around to avoid admitting that she is extremely unhappy. Because she is, it’s glaringly obvious.

But by the end of the arc (and also the follow up three shot), it’s clear that Atelut has reached a point where she actually is happy, at least most of the time. Obviously shit still happens because that is life, especially in a story, but there’s clearly been a change in their attitude.

My kids interrupted me while I was drafting this post so I sort of lost exactly what I was trying to say but to summarize: I love the difference between Beginning-of-Arc!Atelut whose devotion to the train and the company is slowly killing her, and End-of-Arc!Atelut whose devotion is bringing her new life and new purpose and joy. I love it so much.