#as a non-american it also really confused me at first

[repmet]

@rwrbsource & @rwrbmovie’s rwrb appreciation month bingo: alex

[insp] [Henry]

[lime1991]

Sims 2 lore that nobody really thinks about that I find interesting: Olive’s maiden name is Muenda, which translates from Swahili means to “go to” or “you go to” (and I’m getting this from google translate forgive me) her father’s name is Peponi Muenda, which according to google translates to “go to heaven/paradise”

Olive’s mother, Lerato Muenda, has a first name that according to google translate is a word in the Southern Sotho language for “love”, accompanied with her last name meaning “go to”, we can assume her name would translate to “go towards love” or something similar to that, but her first and last name are two different African languages.

What I find interesting about this isn’t even necessarily the names themselves, but the fact that the sims 2 team decided to make Olive Specter non-debatably African, with a Swahili maiden name and everything.

And all of this is really to bring up Nervous Subject.

The Grim Reaper is his father, however Grim isn’t human and therefore has no genes to pass down (ignoring game logic where he needs to have genes) which should essentially make Nervous a clone of Olive, which ig would also make him trans so do with that what you will.

But anyway, I never see anybody talk about the fact that Nervous and Olive are canonically African. The sims fandom feels very White and even if not white, erases the canon cultures of the characters without thinking (i.e “it’s my dollhouse game they can be whatever I want them to be!!!”) and even though I’m not African (I’m a black American) this feels like really interesting character lore that people ignore.

I saw someone on twitter imply that Olive Specter wasn’t black, because I guess her maiden name made them assume she was latina? (Which you can be both lol) but upon looking into it myself I noticed not only is she black, she’s AFRICAN. People see the maiden name Muenda and go “oh that looks like Spanish, she’s latino!” When in reality it’s Swahili! In the lore of Olive’s family, her parents are both African though likely from different areas seeing as her mom’s name implies she’s from South Africa.

But all of this makes it even more confusing why the sims team chose to keep Nervous white for like 20 years? You know he’s not white, even if the Grim Reaper had genes to pass down, Nervous would still be half black. So why did it take until Sims 4 Life & Death for them to actually make him black, when from the start they knew his mother was African? It’s honestly weird and annoying and do NOT let EA brainwash you into thinking it didn’t happen, they absolutely love whitewashing.

[bun-z-bakery]

(Repost from my abandoned account) these are just my personal head canons for dogday. this is a survivor au

(All characters are over 18 btw)

-dogday sometimes has dog like tendencies, like growling, barking etc.

-he doesn't remember a lot about his life as a worker but will share stories he remembers of his human life once you two become close.

-man is like a love sick puppy. First you save him? Give him legs? AND a home?! And his friends are here too?! You really are his angel.

-he's very protective of his angel. He can't have anyone take them away or even hurt them. Plus all those years locked away, he can't loose you, you're his hope.

-this man will most certainly plan his confession, script and all. Maybe you're away at work and this is something he's been working on for a while. He's always bringing you little gifts on his hunting trips (depending on if you like to collect rocks and such) but this dude went out of his way to find the best of the best. Even somehow found flowers beautiful enough to almost rival your beauty, keyword: almost.

-he enjoys spending time with you, poppy and kissy, he enjoys playing outside with you three, even if you guys have been out of the factory for years already. They still enjoy the outside world.

-I know bro is huge, like dude is taller than an American door way (according to some measurements fans have made, hes 9'5) if you're a shorty (like me 5 feet even😭) he will most definitely pick you up and carry you like a dogtoy. He likes the feeling of carrying his angel, it gives him a sense of pride doing so. Even if you accidentally hit the ceiling or he needs to really get down so you don't hit the top of the doorframe, he will always apologize or joke about it.

-he's a cuddler, he LOVES cuddling! He has his own giant dog bed in your shared room, but he prefers to sleep on your shared bed. If you're away from work and he's eepy, he'll pass out on your bed because it smells like you. Your scent keeps him at bay until you come home. Poor guy will shoot up and push anyone out of his way to be the first to get to you! He sits there on the floor waiting for his mandatory headpats and kisses as soon as he hears your keys.

-it takes his brain a few minutes to properly turn on. After all those years he finally gets proper sleep, I can imagine you waking up first and getting ready for the day to prepare breakfast for the group and you poke him, trying to wake him. He'll mumble some random stuff about not letting rats do taxes then fall back asleep only to be woken again by your pokes still talking nonsense. I can also see him sometimes waking up confused, you know like when you wake up your parents and they're mad for no reason asking what's wrong while gasping for air? (Just me?) I can see him being THAT dead asleep bhahsha

-my take on the survivor au is more of a modern take (as in yes the factory closed years also but reader is possibly in early to late 20s sometime in 20xx / non specified year) so they weren't an employee but probably knew someone like a family member who worked there or was dared to enter the factory (we'll see if I ever post my fanfic haha as these hcs kinda tie into that story) so dogday being alive in the 80s or 90s he probably has like the old school idea of love and attempts to swoon you as such. The flowers, cheesy pick up lines.

-I can imagine because he's not up to date with the newer terms and he might be confused while trying to seem cool haha. "Angel what does rizzler mean?" (Poor peepaw)

- Personally I love the theory that DogDay is an ex worker aka Rich. Which is probably why he was the leader of the smiling critters. Because he was mature enough to make sure everyone was in line/well behaved, I also think some other workers were turned into the mascots too (obviously) but maybe they trusted Rich more so they just threw him into the dance circle and hope that he'd be a good leader.

- this one ties into the first one btw! I like the think that maybe he was one of the mascots when he worked there. Like a guy in the costume who worked with the kids (hence the zipper, how else would the workers get into the bigger body suits?)

- I like to think DogDay likes when Angel calls him by his old human name. Maybe once he opens up more about his human life (or at least bringing up some of the memories he still has) he just randomly brings up his name when talking about a memory and hearing Angel repeat his name back, he'd probably like hearing it. It might make him feel like less of a monster in a sense. Granted I think he wouldn't care about what Angel calls him but he would most definitely prefer for them to alternate. Like you know when someone makes you mad and you use their real name instead of their nickname? He'd hate for his Angel to get mad, especially at him. But when living with 3 other people it can get a bit hectic.

"DogDay! Did you bring mud into the house?!"

"N-No!... "

*silence*

"RICH, WHERE ARE YOU?!"

*footsteps are heard and DogDay bolts out the door*

- Now this head canon I have can go either one of two ways, right? Hear me out. Listen up, listen carefully, and listen closely. (Lmk if you got that reference) ok so back to the zipper! I think the zipper just opens to his organs tbh like the zipper was just left functional in case he needed to be "repaired internally". BUT another thought, I also can see there being some sort of barrier! You know those stuff animals who have their stuffing blocked by a barrier so it doesn't fall out but the zipper opens to a compartment where you can store items? I kinda think that's whats there tbh, I mean it makes sense. What if one of the kids opened the zipper by mistake? Surely there would be a barrier just in case.

- as I mentioned in the last hc post, I can see him trying to swoon Angel in the old romantic type of way. I can see him pinning after Angel hard, at first they wouldn't get the hint, they'd probably think he's thinks he's indebted to them for rescuing them and giving the 3 of them a better and new life. But quickly they realize bro is in love. Of course poppy teases him about it too at some point lol. He doesn't really try to hide it either. I can see poppy and kissy thinking it's sweet and first then they get annoyed once you're the only thing he talk about lol.

- You're married. That's all! No but I can see in his mind you two are basically married. He'd probably want to have new custom star collars made for both of you or maybe even a ring for you and a matching collar or something for him to wear and propose. Of course it will bother him a bit because he can't go out with you, take you on dates or show you off but he trusts you (even though he gets jealous when you smell like someone else) he basically tries his best with what you guys have (If only there was a holiday that came once a year where you guys could go out dressed in customs without looking like freaks).

- He looks like the type of guy who would love pasta. I'm not sure why or how this even came into mind but I just feel like that's what he often wants for dinner. Poppy would probably eat fruit for dinner, kissy isn't really picky, but Dogday would probably be asking for either pasta or meat. Also I think Angel would be hesitant to feed certain foods to Dogday because you know, he's a dog (not really but hear me out) but because he acts like one at times I could see Angel being like haha nope you can't eat this!

*Angel eating chocolate cookies*

"May I have some?" *cutely pouts*

"I don't want you dying, love."

"You know I'm not actually a dog...right?"

ok ok you got me there" (they just really didn't wanna share lol)

- tbh this is more of a general head canon for the toys but I seeing as they had to resort to c*nnibalism. They clearly need food and water to survive. I think catcap was probably keep Dogday alive as a "lol now look at you now, look at me" (yes that's a BP reference) moment but only feeds him when he felt like it, since food is basically scarce in that place. I think that their human organs were transferred over but little things like veins, teeth, tongue, blood vessels basically anything that's not a major organ was made artificially and connected in a sense to those major organs making them function as such.

Yeah that's kinda it lol, there might be some more parts to this if I can think of anything else! But yeahhh that's kinda my hc and rambles lol (I tend to ramble a lot especially when I have to give context, I apologize!)

[parasolladyansy]

hello! i've liked ansy's adventure for a while, and i noticed how you play on japanese names for the pokemon, especially for mizumi's and sasmu's. what do you think of the languages in the pokemon world? i can guess hisuian equals japanese, but does sinnohan/kantonese also translate into japanese? or the four japanese-based regions are adapted into english ( or unovan?) i don't know if i'm explaining myself, but how do you view the pkmn languages and their equivalents in our world?

こんばんは! Good evening! Thank you for following along ^o^/

Class is in session lol! Professor Laventon seems to be most comfortable writing in his native Galarian, though he also has various notes in traditional “Japanese”, written vertically & read right to left.

So, language is a very interesting thing in fiction, & the Pokeverse is no exception! Through the games (& especially the latest ones, Scarlet / Violet) we’ve had a number of characters who spoke in different languages. I remember a couple of NPC’s in BW Unova, there’s Fantina in Sinnoh who peppers her speech with Kalosian (French), & a Hiker on Galar’s Route 6 who spoke what I’m guessing was Paldean (Spanish) rather than Galarian (English). Then in SV, we have Mr. Salvatore who teaches (& uses) many languages (off the top of my head, I remember him teaching how to say “thank you” in Spanish, French, Chinese, & German).

It does get tricky when it comes to the “Japanese” regions of Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh / Hisui, & Kitakami, as those regions otherwise make up one country in our world, but this has yet to have been canonically established (which is why I always put “Japan” / “Japanese” in quotes, as there currently isn’t a name for that one country, same with “America”). I do believe they share the same language - at the very least Hisui & Kitakami have the same written script, & I feel pretty confident that if they were to retcon it, they would have the other “Japanese” regions use it, too (before Legends Arceus, they just used random shapes that didn’t seem to spell anything, which I interpreted to just be placeholder characters).

If there is a common language in their world (& I think is, from characters from different regions being able to talk to each other no problem), I personally would guess it to be “Japanese” - as we look at the other regions, we can see a sort of Japanese flavor that would otherwise not be there (though they clearly did their homework on the various parts of the world these regions reflect!). Of course, Pokémon is from Japan, so it would make sense that they would add some of their own culture to this world they created. For a possible in-universe explanation, the Pokeverse seemed to have started in Japan (specifically in Sinnoh as we learned in Legends Arceus, so I guess their universe actually is geocentric like old astronomers used to think ours was?).

I think that’s about it. In DxP REWRITE, while my own language is American-English (& beginner-level Japanese lol) so I read the characters to be speaking American-English, they are actually speaking “Japanese” while in Sinnoh (which is why I haven’t really been peppering Ansy’s dialogue with Japanese). I have tried to write in the “Japanese” or Galarian scripts for signs & things a couple times:

The sign just says “Gear Station”

Here I (tried to lol) translate Mizumi’s letter to Japanese then wrote it out in in-game characters (in the modern horizontal, as Mizumi is from the modern era writing to someone in the modern era).

Thanks for reading yet another post of me geeking out lol. Feel free to let me know your thoughts in the comments! じゃあ、またね! Until next time! ^o^/

—

PS: For funsies, here’s the (non-canonical, as these were made by fans) references I’ve been using when writing in either Galarian or “Japanese” in DxP REWRITE:

I personally was confused by the “Japanese” script also being alphabetical rather than phonetic like hiragana / katakana (two common scripts in Japan, the first being mostly used to spell Japanese words while katakana is used to spell foreign words - the third script, kanji, is used to write whole words). If that is the case (which is how I wrote it in Mizumi’s letter), “Japanese” is written in what’s called “romanji”, where they write out words in the Latin (aka Roman) alphabet rather than phonetically: “ありがとうご���います” becomes “arigatō-gozaimasu” (“thank you very much”).

Whether it is actually written out that way in game though…? At a glance of the signs I saw in Hisui & Kitakami, it does look like it’s more like hiragana & kanji instead, but this chart is all I got for now. Any Japanese folks or fluent Japanese-readers who can tell me if there’s anything out there in the Japanese fandom about this, please lemme know so I can do right by it into future - as of writing this, I haven’t seen much else among the English-speaking fandom 8u8;

As for the Galarian script, it’s clearly based on the Latin alphabet that much of the Western world uses for our various languages - we see it in Paldea as well as Galar, & according to the trailer in Pokemon ZA, they retconned it to be used in Kalos as well. In universe, I wonder if they were at all influenced by the Unown, being based on the Latin alphabet themselves. Again, who knows? (though I question the accuracy of this particular font / chart: if it is, the first thing Laventon’s chalkboard says “REXBOQ” lol XD)

[lotties-ashwagandha]

BEING STUCK IN A SNOWSTORM WITH THE YELLOWJACKETS (headcanons)

bc currently my town is being decimated by a winter storm and it gave me inspiration . also we aren’t talking about how half of yellowjackets is set in the snow it’s when they’re teens smh this is adult timeline

SHAUNA

gets grumpy bc one of you is going to have to shovel the driveway and it’ll probably end up being her

apart from that she loves the snow

she’ll take a bunch of pictures of it to post on facebook in an unhinged uncaptioned photo dump

she’ll make the two of you an unhealthy amount of coffee or hot chocolate or tea whatever you’re feeling , you’ll develop an addiction to it with the amount she’s giving you . but “you have to stay warm” in her opinion , and also it makes her feel all aesthetic pinterest girl

she’s one of those people that has a collection of heavy knitted blankets that are worth like $500 each and she puts them to use ‼️‼️‼️ you’ll be BURIED in comfort she will make sure of that . no one gets cold in this house

also when it starts to really hardcore snow she’ll just go outside and stand there and watch. you know that tiktok of the woman making fun of american southerners who get a tornado warning and go stand out to see the tornado? that’s shauna with the blizzard

LOTTIE

you have to literally beg her not to go fucking “give the wilderness blood” bc girl sees one snowflake and is like omg il veut du sang

that being said lottie matthews is at heart a rich girl with 10,000 pinterest followers and when it snows , sunshine honey wellness center becomes a place of AESTHETICS

im talking the two of you will be laying in bed with heavy blankets and a record will be playing and lottie will have 3 or 4 candles lit

the two of you reading classic novels in bed <3

she sees heavy winters as very spiritual. a time to recharge and reset and be calm. she’ll coerce you into doing a couple of guided meditations with her that are themed on spiritual guidance and recharge

when you lose power tho she has a complete meltdown. not that she uses electronics much but when she realizes the stove doesn’t work and that the blender for her smoothies won’t work things go downhill so fast. you have to hook up the generator just so she can make a smoothie for her anxiety that came because she couldn’t make smoothies. girl is a mess

TAISSA

you’ll be taking care of her all week because she gets sick every winter without fail

doesn’t matter if she got a flu shot, covid shot, you name it . first snowflake comes down and she’s off to the doctor

but it gives you an excuse to sort of hold her hostage at home and cuddle with her and watch movies you’ve been meaning to watch together but haven’t since she’s been busy with the campaign

she actually gets kind of excited in the snow storm if the power goes out because it feels like camping. she will get frustrated with no TV tho , but if sammy’s there with the two of you she’ll go all non deadbeat dad for once and the two of you will make a blanket fort with him and all the other shit kids like to do

will try to order you guys a pizza and then get confused when the pizza place doesn’t answer. you have to remind her there’s no power before she goes on a tangent about stores having weird hours and how everyone’s so lazy

VAN

will NOT go out to shovel snow. you’re going to be doing that thanks she’ll be re sorting her movie collection to find some good blizzard themed movies for the two of you to watch

she’ll also go all autistic about the history of snowstorms and you’ll come back in from shoveling and get a lecture about some random snowstorm in some country you’ve never heard of from fucking 500 BC.

her house has a shitty heating system so you spend most of the time under blankets together but that’s not such a bad thing <3

she makes you watch her favorite winter movies, and if the power goes out and you can’t then the two of you will spend the night playing drinking games or playing cards or something like that

she won’t outright tell you to wear her jackets but she loves when you get cold and grab one of her sweatshirts/jackets to wear. she also does that 2000s movie boyfriend thing where you get cold and she’s like oh here take my jacket and while it’s so cliche it’s cute when she does it

NATALIE

tbh girl probably learned abt the snow storm bc she woke up covered in snow somewhere and was like oh it’s snowing huh

but anyway

she’d probably spend the duration of the snowstorm at your place because can you imagine staying out a blizzard in a motel??? no thanks

she’ll raid your booze and you’ll get drunk together by the fire. she might have some weed on her too if you’re lucky

you’ll listen to music together, she has better taste but she will still listen to your music, you take turns playing each other different songs you think remind you of each other

she WILL throw balls of ice at any kids that walk by. you will be having a lot of angry parents at your door the next day.

MISTY

is lowkey a prepper so she doesn’t care that much if there’s a snow storm. if the power goes out she can think of 50 different ways to get it back on

she loves to watch it snow out the window and show caligula

she’s definitely the one you want to spend a blizzard with

she absolutely will not let you leave the house until you’re wearing 20 layers of clothes

she’ll try to write poetry about the snow storm but it just sounds like a daunting ancient prophecy. when she shows you tho you obviously say it’s amazing and you love it because she worked so hard on it

[olderthannetfic]

So I had a question, it's not exactly related to fandoms but it's how I found out I guess?

(Tw :incest mention, actually first and second cousins irl )

(if you don't want to answer or read this I completely understand, it was just something I really feel bad about and wanted to know an outsider's opinion I guess.)

I live in a country where first and second cousin marriage is accepted and happens. Not that much but you can see one or two in families, usually. Basically, my culture doesn't see cousins as close enough to consider it incest. ( Anything closer is of course not allowed). So when I entered fandoms I saw a lot " if you think incest irl is OK dni " and I was like of course it's not ok and moved on. That's till I found incest to most of Tumblr ( or Americans? I checked the world map and it seems cousin marriage is allowed in most places but not in some places like some of America and some countries like China , Korea ) include first and second cousins too. Now I feel confused. There is of course a biological risk for their children but they usually go to doctors to check if they can have children or not. So I have not managed to think it's wrong of them to marry. Should I force myself and change my opinion on this? I read somewhere that cousin marriage is not considered incest in some places (BC of their culture) and people should accept that, but I don't think people are willing to do that?

Idk , I really feel bad about this .

(also from what I gathered most religions are not against this , which didn't help me to get an answer either)

Again I understand if u don't answer.

--

Dumb, terminally online children in fandom care about this.

Normal people who've read a 19thC novel ever or looked at actual US laws know that even in the hives of the worst "GASP! EVERYTHING IS INCEST!" views, actually, lots of people don't give a fuck about cousin marriage.

This is a complete non-issue, but you should pre-emptively block anyone who whines about cousincest because their other opinions are probably also worthless and annoying.

[zadig-fate]

For those wondering about the origin of the Bojan "Nie Wieder Berlin" story mentioned in my last post (since @punknoodle-4 asked), it's a reference to the 2004 American sex comedy film Eurotrip, specifically this scene:

For non-German speakers: the English subtitles are not accurate (in many ways). When the truck driver says "Nie wieder Berlin!", it actually translates to "Never again Berlin!" ("Nie wieder" / "never again" is a common expression in German.)

Bojan apparently loves this movie (I guess the whole band does?? that tracks though ngl it seems like their humour) and this scene seems to be the first thing that pops into his head when he hears "Berlin".

So when I first met him before the Halloween show in Vienna and asked if they had plans to come to Berlin, he immediately asked if I'd seen Eurotrip (I had) and made a joke about this scene. If that was all, it wouldn't be much of a story, but...

A month later in Wrocław, I happened to be standing nearby when another German girl asked Bojan if they were coming to Berlin, and then he asked HER if she'd seen Eurotrip (she hadn't), and he tried to explain this scene to her and make a joke about it, but he didn't remember the correct German phrase so I think he just confused her lol. So when I talked to him next, I taught him the expression "nie wieder Berlin" and what it actually meant (since the subtitles weren't quite correct) and he thought this was really funny and kept repeating it because he's silly like that hahaha 😅

Then a few days after THAT was the Prague show, which was kind of a disaster, from the pre-midnight queue drama to the show itself, which started really late, then electricity went out a few times, and they also had to stop the show because a girl passed out. After the show they went pretty much straight to their bus but still passed by us, so I called out "what do you think Bojan, is it nie wieder Prague now?" and he laughed and hugged me (this man hugs everyone, no wonder he's constantly sick) and said "no, it's definitely wieder Prague!" (= "Prague again").

So last week when the band actually DID come to Berlin (where I live), I took inspiration from @izpira-se-zlato 's infamous Hojan shirt and decided to make Bojan a "nie wieder Berlin" shirt, which I gave to him during soundcheck, and he loved it 😅

And we even got a post-show selfie 🫶🏻

So yeah, that's the full story behind the "nie wieder Berlin" reference (and I've seen people making "nie wieder Berlin" bracelets so I guess it got around???).

Now when Bojan sees me hanging around outside after their gigs, he greets me by shouting "NIE WIEDER BERLIN!!" and I guess there are worse things I could be known for 🤷🏼‍♀️

[destiny-in-the-universe]

Pride Headcanons

It’s June 1, y’all which means I can write about my silly little blorbos being under the rainbow all I want! Not that the headcanons were somehow different before hahaha but anyway!

I’m going to be using the Secret Quartet because I can- and honestly they are my biggest comfort and hyperfixation right now, so why wouldn’t I write with them?

Danny Phantom;

👻 Danny is trans. I mean look at him- but no, this just fits with his character. Honestly I could talk about this in a completely separate post but genuinely he would be FtM

👻 In canon, he seems to prefer women more than men, but Danny is somewhere in the non-het umbrella. He gives me pan vibes, like it’s genuinely the last thing he cares about and it’s more about chemistry than anything else

👻 Danny’s parents are 100% supportive if he ever chose to come out. There is no homophobia in this household, you cannot convince me otherwise

👻 Overall, Amity Park is accepting. In no universe would they ever turn someone away for being not-cishet

👻 Danny used to bind using ace bandages and completely forget he was wearing them- based on an old comic I found, I like to imagine that if Vlad were to find out, he would immediately pay for Danny to at least have a comfortable binder. You also cannot tell me he wouldn’t try to offer paying for Danny’s bottom surgery (with a price of course)

👻 None of the ghosts would ever deadname Danny. Ever. Not even Dash would-

👻 Much like Danny, Jazz is definitely non-het; she’s bisexual- gender is the least of her concerns when it canes to romance, but she also seems to be a bit more sapphic leaning. I said what I said /lh

👻 Danny would never forget someone’s preferred name. He makes it an entire point to remember them and use it correctly- let alone pronouns

American Dragon: Jake Long;

🐲 Jake is cis- i don’t see him as being anything other than cisgender unfortunately but he’s an ally and I will stand by this until I disappear from this earth-

🐲 He doesn’t really care for labels and will never use them, but Jake isn’t exactly heterosexual. Gender is the last thing on his mind when he’s dating, but he’s only really dated Rose so I think he’s ever so slightly confused at the moment on his preferences

🐲 Jake would attend Pride. 100%

🐲 If Jake ever came out to his family, they would 100% be understanding- they’re many things but assholes isn’t one of them. They would likely sit him down and make sure to know how to most make him feel comfortable but other than that, neither Jonathan nor Susan would ever make Jake unhappy

I honestly don’t have as many headcanons for American Dragon, but- this is the best I could come up with!

Miraculous Ladybug;

🐞 Marinette is more than likely cisgender- she’s still an ally; that would never change. She makes sure to protect trans folk and everyone in between

🐞 I like to think Marinette doesn’t care for labels, and just dates depending on personality and compatibility than attempting to assess it on gender

🐞 She would never forget someone’s pronouns or preferred name. Sometimes there are accidental slip-ups because, well- it’s Marinette with ADHD (I will talk neurodivergent headcanons in a separate post) but she always apologizes if she messes up!

🐞 Marinette has attended Pride events as both her civilian persona and heroine identity to help support those who need it- this is canon now

🐈‍⬛ Adrien is trans. This is not up for negotiation (/lh). There is just something about him that screams trans

🐈‍⬛ He has no idea if he likes men, women, both or anything in between. Adrien is a little bit sheltered, give him time he’ll come around

🐈‍⬛ Honestly, Adrien would be an ally first before realizing he’s trans or non-het. He would be allowed to attend Pride events because Gabriel isn’t that much of a horrible person- at least not with Pride. Gabriel is not the type, in this essay I will-

🐈‍⬛ Adrien finds being Chat Noir completely freeing- it’s almost like binding in a way,

🐈‍⬛ Adrien was given his first binder buy Nino. He eventually received a second one from Marinette, and he cherishes both dearly- but sometimes he forgets to take them off

Randy Cunningham: 9th Grade Ninja;

🧣Randy is trans-coded. I can’t explain why, but there is no way that boy is cis- (Howard likely knew before he did, I was there obviously. I was uh, Randy’s coat /lh)

🧣He’s unlabeled when it comes to sexuality and romantic orientation. Randy doesn’t know because he has only ever crushed on girls so far but he also keeps smiling like an idiot at Howard and gets ridiculously flustered. He doesn’t know what to make of it-

🧣Randy has never attended a Pride event- at least not yet. He hopes to one day

🧣Randy binds- he does use a binder as Howard actually bought one for him as a birthday present; before that he used to wear ace bandages which wasn’t ideal in the slightest but he was dealing with horrible dysphoria at the time and didn’t want to accept he was only a kid

🧣Being the Ninja somehow helps him cope with his dysphoria

🥷 Finja- is he cishet? Hahahah no, absolutely not. Cis? Maybe. Heterosexual? This man gives asexual vibes! This is canon now ~ a fellow ace

🥷 I don’t think Finja would have used labels in his youth. Especially if it wasn’t entirely the norm back then but if he were in present times- he might’ve, though I think he would just vibe

🥷 Finja honestly might be on the aromantic spectrum, but more so demiromantic or grayaromantic than not dating at all!

🥷 Oh you can bet Finja would be completely accepting of Randy being trans

(author’s cut: more will be written for Finja later! I simply have words stuck in my brain that won’t fully come out!)

📕Nomicon - or “Nomi” - is agender! They do not associate themself with a gender and use literally any pronoun- including neopronouns

📕Nomi would be completely accepting of gender and sexuality- and anything in between- they are completely supportive of Randy coming out

📕Nomi is however, asexual! I do think Nomi would be aroace but you can headcanon whatever you want- though when you’re a centuries old sentient book, well, things change

📕If Nomi was human, they would 100% be attending Pride- this is not up for debate. They would

📕Nomi is fiercely protective of Randy- in my human AU’s, it is 100% guaranteed anyone who displayed transphobia or any other form of bigotry toward him would immediately be roundhouse kicked in the face

📕Human! Nomi would give zero fucks and decide to wear dresses- but honestly, they wear outfits that reference the book version of herself. They wear whatever the hell they want, do not care in the slightest

Additional Headcanons;

Howard doesn’t openly seem to care about Pride because he’s a stubborn little shit, but everyone knows better than to mess with Randy- because those who do are met with a fiercely protective, homosexual totally-cis Howard Weinerman

Whatever the fuck McFist and Viceroy have going on isn’t straight-

McFist would host Pride themed events specifically during June and seemingly forget about it for the rest of the year- does he do this to be homophobic? Nope! He just genuinely doesn’t flaunt being not straight that he also isn’t aware of

Viceroy is bi. This is not up for negotiation

Mort is straight but completely supports his children in whatever they want to do with their life

Sam Manson is completely unlabeled. She doesn’t care

Tucker? You can’t tell me that boy is cis

Alya makes blogs in support of Pride and does make them year-round because she is an ally and I will stand by this until the day I cease to exist (which is never)

Gabriel does do Pride events but much like McFist, he doesn’t them 24/7 or year-round- the only difference is I’m pretty sure Gabriel’s cishet

I can’t think of anything else tbh! Enjoy the mess that is these headcanons-

[arcielee]

Interview With a Writer

It is that blessed time when the wonderful and talented Miss Maggie, @inthedayswhenlandswerefew, gives us some behind-the-scenes insight to her latest brilliant narration. [Feel free to check out the Spotify playlist of all the songs mentioned and let me know if I forgot one!]

Here is masterlist to my Interview With a Writer series and the other talented individuals who allow me to continue this self-indulgent series! 💜 Picture(s) source.

Name: inthedayswhenlandswerefew

Story: 1968

Paring: modern Aemond Targaryen x female!reader, modern Aegon Targaryen x female!reader

Warnings: 18+ mature themes. Be mindful of chapter warnings.

Where did the idea for 1968 come from?

I am a high school social studies teacher by trade, and my absolute favorite class to teach is American History. The 1960s and 70s were actually one of my weak spots when I got my first teaching job back in 2020, so I ended up researching a lot about that period of time and got absolutely obsessed with it. In my American History class, I spend a whole lesson on JUST 1968, because so many important events happened in that year that are emblematic of broader trends and tensions.

One day I was re-reading one of my favorite books, The Other Mrs. Kennedy by Jerry Oppenheimer, which is specifically about Bobby Kennedy’s wife Ethel, but also gives a lot of insight into the Kennedy family generally and what it was like to live through that era. The idea of using this setting as a fic AU occurred to me, and I ruminated on it for a few weeks while finishing up Napoleonville.

Eventually, I had a revelation of the ending of 1968 (true to my usual pattern), and then knew I’d have to write the fic! I was actually really worried about all the political and historical details being too boring and/or confusing (especially for non-U.S. readers), so I was relieved that so many people gave it a chance. 🥰

Honestly, it was brilliant with the similarities to the Kennedys and Targaryens in the story. Were there any historical cameos in 1968 that you enjoyed channeling? Or perhaps struggled with?

I find LBJ super fascinating, and I feel that because of the Vietnam War he really doesn’t get a fair assessment when people look back on his presidency. His work for civil rights and the Great Society (SNAP, Medicaid, Head Start, Job Corps, PBS, etc.) was truly revolutionary, and as someone who grew up in poverty and benefitted from a lot of those programs, I don’t think LBJ’s contributions get the recognition and praise they deserve. I perceive him as a haunted sort of figure, and I really enjoyed his cameos. (To be clear, he was also super problematic and bizarre personally, and I don’t mean to excuse any of that 😂).

As for someone who was difficult to write about…honestly, the George Wallace research I did was super depressing, so while he was necessary to include, I didn’t really enjoy working on those parts!

Was there anything in specific that inspired your Reader portrayal?

Io is a bit of a composite sketch. Ethel Kennedy was known as doggedly committed to her husband’s career above all else (despite eventually being the mother of 11 children!!), and I think that inspired Io’s single-minded determination to help Aemond win the election in the first few chapters. Ethel was traditional in the sense that her husband was the center of her world and made all the important decisions, as was expected of women of her social class in that time period. But Io is also a manifestation of the counterculture of the late-60s. She is young, educated, genuinely progressive politically, and likes to party. She tries to reconcile the expectations of her family/time period and her actual personality by intentionally choosing a husband with whom she can have an equal partnership making the world a better place. And…we all know how that worked out.

[Photo Ethel and Bobby Kennedy, m. 1950]

Can you explain your interpretation of Aegon? How does he compare and contrast to Aemond? What drives them? Why are they the way that they are?

In 1968, Aegon is 40 years old, and so his role in the Targaryen political dynasty is very well-established: once his family realized he couldn’t be weaponized for their purposes, he was largely disposed of, and lives this aimless, uninspired, self-loathing sort of existence. He does have some genuine love for his family—missing Daeron and feeling guilt over him being sent to Vietnam, a vague sort of fondness for Mimi and the kids, distress when Aemond is shot in Palm Beach, an apology of sorts to Alicent by performing “Mama Tried” at her birthday party—but Aegon exists on the periphery, and he knows this, and while he doesn’t want to be a politician the rejection still stings.

At first, he perceives Io as yet another person who makes him feel inadequate and unloved; and in fairness, she is cruel to him, in fact more so than Aegon is to Io in return. It is noteworthy that in Chapter 1, she viciously criticizes Aegon in front of everyone in the waiting room (“if someone had to get killed tonight it should have been you”), but he doesn’t return fire until they are alone (the infamous cow comment), and even then he seems to regret it immediately.

Aegon, fundamentally, is more sad than mean. When in Chapters 2 and 3 Io abruptly reveals herself to be someone who is vulnerable, wounded, abandoned, and kind of a hippie lowkey, Aegon begins to perceive her differently, and she becomes an opportunity for him to be truly understood, protected, and loved for the first time in his life.

I think we would all describe Aemond as ambitious and ruthless, determined to prove that he is the best to compensate for deep, lifelong insecurities. He is a progressive politically because he sees a path to build a winning coalition, and perhaps in small part because of the whole Greeks-being-despised immigrants thing. But in 1968 there is a sense that you never fully understand who he is as a person. This is intentional! 1968 is Io’s story, and she never gets to see the whole Aemond. She sees parts of the picture, but never the full image. As awful as he is to Io, there is also a side of Aemond that truly (even if in an…unorthodox way 😂) loves Alys and their child, and there are clues that Alys understands him like no one else can (that Ouija board message… 👀). He’s by no means a good guy, but he is multifaceted. I think the stress of the presidency, and his long separation from Alys, ends up softening Aemond a bit, hence him defending Io’s reputation and ultimately letting her go.

Did anything inspire your other OCs? Specifically "The Ones Who Married In" club?

I didn’t sit down and plan what sorts of characters would be in the “The Ones Who Married In” club. I was possessed by these random visions of them: a perpetually drunk Mimi, a perhaps not too bright but very sweet Fosco, and Malibu Barbie but make her Polish Ludwika, and I was thinking: “These people are ridiculous, this will never work!” But then when I thought about it more, I realized that Mimi, Fosco, Ludwika, and Io all serve strategic roles to help advance Aemond’s career, and so it would make sense that Otto and Aemond cobbled them together and shoved them into the family portraits. I ended up really loving them, but they weren’t a big part of my original outline for 1968. 🙂

How would Io rate them based on her friendship with each of them?

Fosco is definitely #1; they connect on an emotional level that is deep but also largely unspoken. Ludwika is a close #2; she’s Io’s shopping buddy but also witty, supportive, and very feminist in her own way. And then Mimi is a distant #3. Io pities Mimi and feels loyalty to her as a fellow Targaryen, and goes out of her way to try to protect Mimi from her own self-destructive tendencies. But Io, as a collected and self-reliant person, also has difficulty understanding and dealing with someone as messy as Mimi. And of course, once Io realizes she is super into Aegon, that creates some one-sided resentment of Mimi!

Do you have a feeling of what happened after chapter 12? What is the ending you vaguely see with Aegon and Io? What about Aemond and Alys?

Where I end a fic is really the last clear image I see of the characters, so I sadly don’t have a lot of specifics to offer. What I do feel is that Io and Aegon have children of their own (like, several children, maybe even 5+ children) and Aegon is present for their early years in a way he wasn’t able to be for his kids with Mimi. Io is a stepmom to Aegon’s OG kids and has a good relationship with them, but she’s only really close with Cosmo.

I also sense that Aemond has basically no contact with Io or Aegon, which makes sense considering his abuse of Io and the lifelong fury Aegon would therefore have towards him. Aemond is happy with Alys and their son (as happy as someone like him is capable of being); he does the ex-president thing and settles into a largely ceremonial role and advises Democratic politicians, although he is not very friendly with President Reagan.

And then my wild theory is that a Daeron/John McCain ticket ends up winning the 2000 election and the War On Terror plays out completely differently!

And finally... 1968 seemed to pour from you like a fever dream. Does this mean something else might be coming to continue the Maggie's Suffering Sunday tradition?

1968 did seem to fly by, despite it being a longer fic at 12 chapters! I do have something planned for this Sunday... 😉 All I can say for now is that it is very weird, totally unexpected, and tonally a mashup of Comet Donati and When The World Is Crashing Down.

Does that seem impossible?? Think again 😏 I will be reblogging hints until Sunday! I hope you enjoy this new journey 🥰🐍

[k1ranishf4]

Ethnicity in JJBA

I love that Araki decided to use different ethnicities for his characters and I could talk about it all day, to be honest.

Like, it all started with George I, Dario, Jonathan and Erina, and George II and Lisa Lisa as British people and then Joseph decided he likes Italians.

Boom: half-British half-Italian Holly Joestar who married a Japanese musician = half-Japanese, quarter Italian and quarter British Jotaro Kujo.

Jolyne is half-American, quarter Japanese and one eighth Italian and British each.

Josuke: half-Japanese and half-British, just like Giorno.

The only difference is that Giorno’s living in Italy because his mother said “yo I have a thing for European men” and married an Italian who forced Giorno to say goodbye to his Japanese origin.

As for his half brothers, all we know is that their mothers were all American. But I like to think that Rikiel’s mother is/was black, just like I do for the Costello sisters.

I have to admit, I was confused at first when I saw that Gloria didn’t have dark skin or dark hair like Hermes before I realized that they could be mixed, and the same goes for the Pucci children. Plus, it’s canon that Ermes is Mexican (I’m just not sure if half- or fully) and Pucci is Italian or Italo-American, which are also little details that I really love.

One thing that will always have a special place in my heart is Avdol being Egyptian. It has never been mentioned, but I like to think that he’s also muslim. Which is really important to me since I haven’t really seen a piece of media from non-muslim parts of the world that represented muslims accordingly. They’re either shown as terrorists or don’t exist at all. So this was extremely refreshing and he’s also black AND canonically OP af?? I love.

Japanese Noriaki Kakyoin with red hair? Now that’s what I like to see. I think he’s also a part of the Has Been Bullied Club and he was a very lonely child, so being with the Crusaders must’ve been really important to him.

Not to forget our beloved Frenchman Polnareff. I love how he switches to French just to emphasize things or when he’s too frustrated to even think in English. I relate a lot to that, especially because English is my third language of six languages in total.

I’ve also seen the headcanon of Rohan possibly being Indian or having Indian ancestors and while I don’t agree with that, it has actually crossed my mind when I heard his name for the first time (cliché, I know I’m sorry). It could also be that his parents just liked the sound of the name and that’s all to it, which I think was more the case.

Little things like these give me the freedom to headcanon whatever I want.

For example, I love the thought of Holly learning English and Italian from her parents and then teaching those to Jotaro, who then taught Italian and Japanese to Jolyne.

Or a crossover where the other JoJos and GioGio meet Jodio and Hermes starts laughing her ass off because of the Spanish meaning of the word jodio.

Or, on the angsty side of things, Jotaro being bullied by older students because he’s “only” half-Japanese. Just like Giorno was bullied (although I do not remember if it actually was because of his heritage, but I think so).

Not taking Part 7 – Part 9 characters into the equation because I haven’t finished reading Steel Ball Run yet, which means I didn’t even think about JoJolion and The JoJoLands.

[liquidorcard]

For those curious, "First Nations" is the term typically used to denote people "native to the Americas," here in Canada (which sometimes but doesn't always include Metis and Inuit people, who are different enough to often be addressed separately.)

I understand and respect why "Indian" is still a commonly used term in the USA, but that term isn't really as practical here. There are a LOT of Indians here. . . As in, people from India/people with Indian heritage. My own family is part indo-guyanese and I remember at four or five years old being very confused as my mother tried to explain to me First Nations people weren't also from India/the Caribbean. There are some organizations and stuff that still use that term, some First Nations people who will call themselves Indian as a cute little nickname in a non-formal context, but it's very rapidly fallen out of cultural parlance here-- "Indian" to mean "native." As a person who is NOT First Nations, I will say personally I'm so used to Indian meaning Indian from India when I hear a First Nations person refer to themselves as Indian it takes my brain a second to compute what they mean.

No one but known Ameriboo Lily Orchard in Canada calls themselves a "Native American." It's got the same cringe factor as someone calling a Canadian black immigrant from France an "African Anerican." Yes Canada is part of the Americas, but we are not American. Same way Mexico is part of the Americas, but are not American. Don't see anyone calling them "native American."

If I may add, as someone who admittedly has no right to have an opinion on the matter, I do personally appreciate that the term gives at least some respect to the fact that they are NATIONS (plural), not a single identity. I think America would do well to adopt the term "First Nations" as a formal way of referring to First Nations people, but-- again. Not my place here to really drive that point home.

[fanficfish]

hetalia: my hc on nations and personalities

...beyond the stereotypes!

okay okay hear me out okay hc brainrot midnight time im jacked on caffeine and the night is young aight

so lets get this straight: so first off i imagine the nations are like 96% "stereotypes of ttheir nation" (e.g. the more people think or are americans that digest too many burgers, to more likely it is America himself eats attrocious amounts of burgers. The more people say Germans are swrious, the more likely Germany is a serious dude. etc. the normal stuff we all know off.)

but the other 4%? That's the nation's "person" side, seperate from their "nation" side. It varies a little depending on country ofc but that's prob the average.

E.g. hungary and austria "divorced" but they clearly care for each other. They can't be together for literal reasons but the non-nations parts of them wouldn't mind at all.

prussia is knwon aa a great warrior so that's what he is. But his non-nation half has self doubts and the need to keep an eye on his family. Like llease, Prussia how did you know what Austria wears and eats??? I get a feeling this wasn't in the mdidle of WW2, probabky right before if i had to geuss. Austria wouldn't have moved in with Germany and by exention aprussia yet....and he waa following the dude....prussia is an overprotective helicopter parent of an older brother, canon.

France and his distaste for technology. Exhibit A: french music was consistantly the one doing the weird innovative stuff in my music history class when it wasn't Schoenberg. Besides that, i could see France not liking tech as much due to being literally a thousand. Heck, i'm pretty sure half the old nations are a bit iffy about it just because "wdym now i can't just didappear lff the grid without anyone getting cocnerned and i need passports and phones and shit?" Except maybe Denmark, China, and Japan. Those three are 100% ipad kids in old men bodies.

iceland oozes gen z. enough said. The man might be obsessed with finding tourists and his northern lights and his weird museums but the thing where his beothers are throwing plates at his door and he's like "hell noooo"? The one where he's going off to make friends over ding-dong soup with the ASEAN dudes? That's allll Iceland, the person. Far as i could find there os no iceland-malaysia embassy and closest it got was relations with indonesia. (I highly recommend checking out the iceland-diplomatics-relations wiki page. There's a very interesting factoid under the list for Asian countries i think many of you will be interested in.....but per my own doctrine, this is a Hetalia hc post and not a Politica post.)

america and his animals. That goes for estonia too. Americans are no adopting whales and aliens as pets (well maybe the donate-and-save-an-animal program but we aint keep them in the house) and i doubt estonians keep talking mochi they found randomly in a disty corner. I'm fairly certain most Eatonians don't hell "latviaaaaaa!!!!" When things go wrong either.

austria getting lost is just a him thing. That's not normal for austrians, music part is very much influenced by his people. His preference to chopin might be him though since Salzburg is in Austria and that's Mozartland. Also, Chopin is Polish.

I won't even start with the clusterfuck called Russia but Japan daydreaming about Switzerland? Yeah that was Japan's non-nation side getting really weird. Japan understandably was just as confused himswlf considering for the most part he has no prpblems being a "stereotypical japanese dude".

need i mention Italy, who has a huge crush on Germany m/hre despite him literally changing in basically everything (because that's the natire of a nation), and just likes the guy as long as he exists?

I also choose to believe Sweden can grow a beard if he really followed the stereotype (no seriously. Why os the image i get of Sweedish guys just dudes with beards? Someone has a really nice sweden somewhere ln this site where he has a lovely beard and it just makes him look like the embodiment of sweeden, no questions asked). But he doesn't like it, which fair o imagine beards aren't fun when stiff gets stick in them or whatever, so he just shaves or leaves some stubble. Def not cuz Asians and beards is just not really a thing so Hima prob just didn't draw beyond the stubble.

Latvia being a secret brainiac that plays mental chess against himself while doing other stuff, all hidden under an alcoholic who can't get rid of his past. Pretty sure his blabbermouth thie is his own personality. I did see somewhere that there's a steretype that Latvians have six toes and i kinda wanna just believe Latvia got that one too cuz why not!

theres others im sure but yeah. Those are the knes i came up with and im gonna sleep now bye lmk what you think

[moefling]

Wayward Son reread!

starting the story with an Epilogue really confused me at first

the idea of Baz with a beard/ facial hair is....

Truly as much as Baz talks and thinks about kill/ draining ppl I don't think he could... likes Simon and Penny would (and do) without hesitation but does Baz even kill any of the vampires??? (Double checking he does kill 2 of the RenFest vamps with fire but only when Simon is in deep danger -- he also does kill some vamps at the end battle but again... Simon in danger)

I don't think Simon ever really learned to regulate his emotions. Like in care it was no emotions and at Watford he needed to be extreme to go off... and who was going to teach him control? Definitely not the mage. And none of the Adults where going to stand up to his mistreatment (or even acknowledge that it was happening) and now in WS he still doesn't know how but now it isn't ok because he doesn't have magic has a back reason

"he looks like Quasimodo" (page 5) i know that in AWTWB his wings fold in more (?) but i always think that Simon looks like he has a hump back whenever he has to hide his wings under clothes

"Surprise! it's your exboyfriend and his boyfriend and that girl you never liked very much!" (page 9)

Agatha and Simon are two peas in "what is my sexuality" pod. in my head Agatha is AroAce (ppl can be mad about it and yes i've read AWTWB) and Simon is Demisexual

WS again references Simon transforming into a dragon so...

"(fuck men, always trying to trap you alone.)" (page 34)

Simon has memory loss about his childhood (specifically this is referencing non Watford childhood) (page 38)

"'Yah. Do it, Snow. Live dangerously.' Says the vampire teaching me how to drive." (page 56)

it makes he laugh that NO ONE told an Adult they were going to American....

Penny and Baz friendship makes me smile

"'Imagine dating a legend.' That's the trouble. I don't have to." (page 85)

"Something specifically American: a gun demon,..." (page 127)

when Simon and Shepard meet and both turn into golden retrievers wagging their tails at each other

everyone calls the were-skunk something different

i don't think Baz knows how not to not pretend to not be a vampire (what did i just write..? - he doesn't know how not to pretend to be human)

"'We are made of magic. Without our magic, you're worse than Normal. You're useless'" (page 159) - this hurts real bad cuz Simon could have overheard (i don't think he did but if this was less of a YA book i think he would have)

so many things happen with Margaret that i'm not even sure i have a half-baked theory on what she says to Simon

Simon likes kissing Baz but doesn't like to be kissed (page 206)

f*ck creepy Lamb

there is a slip where Lamb reveals he's working with the Next Blood vamps but if you don't know you don't know (page 278)

do you think Baz was in Lamb's thrall? or was Baz just really hoping to see the good and a teacher in someone like himself?

so much goes down after the fight - and i have a grumpy face that the book ends with a prologue...

[zielenna]

hey :) for the book ask, 12, 9, 4, 11, 2, 25 + favourite & most unusual places you read something this year? <3

hi!! thank you for these, I'll try to avoid repeating myself...

2. Did you reread anything? What?

I reread quite a few texts for the classes I took this (calendar) year: Milton's Paradise Lost, Euripides's Bacchae, Shakespeare's Lear and Austen's Persuasion. Of all of these, I was most excited about Austen, whom I only read for pleasure before. I didn't remember how good she was: it really feels as if she invented the genre of people overthinking their social interactions, and nobody has done it better since. Something I haven't noticed before is how much the novel is doing that is not just reporting action & thought - for example, in Persuasion, there seems to be a pattern of characters forgetting or confusing other peoples' names, not being certain of another person's identity - taken together, these instances seem to point to a kind of thinking about replaceability, identity and non-identity between different people - but these aren't thoughts attributable to any single character in the novel; it's more like the novel is thinking for itself (a similar pattern in Lear is its notorious obsession with the concept of nothing and the figure of zero). It was cool to see!

4. Did you discover any new authors that you love this year?

I would say Robert Glück; after Margery Kempe I would be interested in anything he wrote, and - I just looked it up - the synopsis of his first novel, Jack the Modernist, promises a narrator "thinking about werewolves." Having spent considerable time thinking about werewolves myself, I would love to know more.

9. Did you get into any new genres?

I briefly mentioned contemporary poetry - I read more of it for my winter class than ever before, I think. Another answer would be gothic - which is not a new genre, and not even a new genre for me (my gothic fiction tag goes all the way back to 2015), but I was meaning to seriously revisit it - I finally read Walpole's Otranto, and I have open in my tabs Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick's Coherence of Gothic Conventions, but it is still waiting for its moment. What I have been thinking about with gothic is its place in the history of disenchantment that was supposed to occur between the medieval ages and modernity; gothic as a genre depicting and engineering experiences of irrational, destabilizing passion, that gained popularity in what was supposed to be the age of reason. That's how I make it relevant to my own research interests, I guess. What I find personally compelling as a reader is all the fucked-up families.

Rest under the cut!

11. What was your favorite book that has been out for a while, but you just now read?

Almost all books I read this year weren't 2024 releases, so - any book I mentioned in the top five reads of this year would qualify. I'll say that especially in the past few months, I made more of an effort to read books I have been meaning to read for a while. So: Otranto, Djuna Barnes's Nightwood (which I had on my shelf since 2016), and I just started Garth Greenwell's Cleanness, which I was saying I should read for maybe three months now - and it's been good so far! What is most surprising to me is that it is a book written by an American about being an American in (broadly considered) Eastern Europe - and it's not annoying about this!

12. Any books that disappointed you?

Well, the worst five from the previous post... Also, I read Andrea Long Chu's Females, and it was just fine. When I was reading Berlant, I wanted to send people screenshots of every second page, and with Chu, nothing felt that revelatory.

25. What reading goals do you have for next year?

There are a few specific books I want to read (Notes of a crocodile from your list!); I feel that quite a few people I follow on here, or see around myself, are having a Bolaño moment, so I'd like to read something by him - right now, I settled on his novella Distant Star. And, what feels like more of a project, I'd like to read a book in French - I can cope with articles and modern translations of Old French texts I know, but I’d like to try actually reading a book. So if anyone has recommendations for something not too daunting, I'd be grateful...

favourite & most unusual places you read something this year?

Oh, this is fun! I am usually too practical to be reading anywhere outside my room / the library / public transport, but when I took that Berlant book on a trip, I ended up reading it whenever I needed to rest my feet or charge my phone - once, in the middle of the Union Square, which made me feel like I was 14 again and capable of reading whatever with complete disregard for the circumstances. On the same trip, I ended up reading for half an hour in the back of a very nice book store near Chinatown; I bought a can white peach & yuzu seltzer to pay for my taking up the time & the armchair, but it actually didn't feel required. I think I remember them playing 60s Chinese songs, which was lovely, too...

Thanks again for giving me an excuse to ramble!

[its-all-papaya]

omg so so so excited about landoscar kid fic. it'll be incredible to read no matter what direction you take it, your characterization hits!!!❤️

Ok these are just random headcanons that make me soft but (also just vibes would love to hear ur thoughts/opinions about this verse forever): 

Lando letting Emma pick out Oscar merch to wear on race weekends 

Lando & Emma become a very welcome addition to the paddock: Emma loves the cars; Oscar passing hospitality in a rush but seeing Lando happily chatting away with some McLaren ppl and it makes him both warm and prideful— Lando’s adapting so well to this new lifestyle and it blows Oscar’s mind every time they’re really making it work 🥺

Trips to Australia!!! Lando and Emma LOVE it there!

Lando’s handling the clothes shopping for the whole fam honestly😅 and the trip planning

Pre-lando Oscar could cook up like 2 nice dinners but after meeting him, he invests time into it and gets genuinely good. On non-race weeks grocery shopping with Emma is a whole thing—Oscar never knew it could be so enjoyable picking up groceries & cooking for his familyyyy

thank you for sending these so i can release them rn to vibes cleanse the dash 🙂‍↕️

emma wearing oscar merch is already in the outline and I've only outlined like 1/5 of this thing, so absolutely dw, that will be in there. she's a little confused about mclaren in general in this thing but she got the spirit.

lando and emma in the paddock also going to be part of this for sure. I took the max f inspo last night and just fucking ran with that, so f1 is not a new world for either of them now, but being part of oscar's corner of it is. And they're definitely around more races after lando and osc get together and it's definitely a dead heat between who's heart/brain will explode faster: oscar seeing lando waiting for him in hospitality & watching emma with her big headphones on in the garage during free practice, or lando watching oscar take little moments out of his work day to pay attention to them and give Emma high-fives and kiss lando's forehead before he has to run off to his next thing.

yes australia !! lando probably first meets oscar's family on a gp weekend tbh, but oscar's been itching to take them both home with him foreverrrrr bc emma's ALWAYS asking for stories about australia and begging to go see the kangaroos. and then yes, they both love it. and oscar's accent gets stronger when he's there and that's impossible for lando to deal with.

yeah the thing i didn't consider when making lando kind of a disaster is that oscar is also a mess of a different kind? and so that honestly probably makes lando feel BETTER, because lando feels self-conscious about himself as an adult almost constantly, but in comparison to oscar's four t-shirts (dried with the fkn oven, lest we forget) and general carelessness on some things, lando is like... perhaps i am sometimes a little put together after all. but osc when he's around takes on a select few of the domestic tasks lando loathes (cooking yes absolutely) and that's cool but it's mainly so nice to just have another person around. to entertain emma while lando does necessary adult things or to run grab extra shampoo from the store quick bc lando didn't realize they were out and now emma's already in the bath. having a partner? mint.

extras for youuuuu from my own early plotting and thinking:

calling/facetiming oscar before emma's bedtime on race weekends when they're not along with. esp when it's like the north american races and lando lets emma stay up an extra 45 minutes past bedtime so they can watch fp1 and then call osc to say goodnight. emma so impatient to call even though lando reminds her every time they do this that they have to wait for oscar to call them because he's at work and he'll only have a minute. but then him in his race suit still with balaclava lines and lando is like. extremely not normal about it. ever. and emma is like "you were the fastest, osc?" and oscar is like "well we were testing a new rear wing, so-" and lando's like "yeah she doesn't care babe" even though he knows oscar knows that and they're both just being shits bc they're helplessly FOND of each other. (lando stays up past his bedtime, too, to watch fp2 and oscar calls HIM to say goodnight after that as well)

i decided last night to just swap lando and max f in this universe, so max is the other mclaren driver. so then max being stupidly irritated all the time that HE'S been the one around emma since she was BORN and OSCAR won her over in like four days. after everything he's done for her, she still wants to sit in OSCAR'S lap in-between media events, smh. constant bickering between max f and oscar about whose merch emma is gonna wear and who she wants to finish ahead of the other (even though she truly can't tell them apart on track whatsoever and gets excited whenever any papaya car does anything) and who's her favorite. and she obviously drinks in all the attention and lando is just heart exploding bc how did he even end up with all of his most favorite people all in one place like what good deeds did past life him do to deserve this cosmic luck?

emma's used to daddy sleeping in, so she's good at waiting to get out of bed until it's time, but oscar gets up early and she quickly learns that when he stays the night, she can get up and follow him to the kitchen at like 7am and he won't even be upset. he'll let her sit on the counter while he scrambles eggs or whatever and talk to her about whatever she wants to hear about. premiere bonding time for them. (also then osc coming over once after a late flight home from wherever just to sleep in lando's bed bc he missed his bby and lando said it was okay. so he gets up to get water early, still sleepy, and emma comes running in to join and he's like "i need to go back to sleep, baby, sorry :(" bc he's rlly only gotten like two hours at that point. but she looks so sad... so he's like "do you wanna have a cuddle with us?" and obviously she does. so lando lifting his head all groggy and confused as oscar slides back into bed, but osc just shushes him and kisses his hair like "sh, go back to sleep, emma's here though" and then his daughter's on the bed, too, and lando's really not sure what's happening bc he's hardly awake, but em curls against his chest and oscar presses up behind him and kisses the back of his neck and like. there's literally nothing to complain about?? so sleepy lazy morning as they all snooze until like 11am.)

ANYWAY!! I'M NORMAL ABOUT THIS FIC!!

[monachopsis-11]

I introduce you all to first major bad wheelchair situation I encountered. My first time flying with my chair (the second time I’d ever used a mobility aid) went really well, other than one TSA agent being shocked I could stand.

Second time flying with my wheelchair on American Airlines was a totally different experience. When I went up to the employees at the gate and asked to stow my wheelchair on board they had no idea what I was talking about and were so confused. First they outright told me it didn’t exist and it might be because I flew on a different airline last time etc. I had to explain to them that it’s law for all planes in the US with over 100 passengers and eventually they checked and were able to figure it out but the experience wasn’t great and they even asked multiple times if I meant the flight attendants closet which is actually a priority wheelchair storage closet but in the end I got everything worked out. Although my little sister did say she heard staff complaining about having to move stuff because I insisted on storing my chair on board as if that’s not literally the purpose of the wheelchair closet.

On the second flight however we were in Charlotte NC and they had somebody there to help me with boarding and this man was awful. I know this type of ableism exists but as someone who usually doesn’t have a visible marker of disability it’s not what I usually experience. But this man talked to me like I was two years old, told me his name then pointed to his badge and explained that it said his name, asked multiple times who I was traveling with and made me go get them to board which meant that I was no longer the first to board and made my life harder trying to navigate boarding. I was still trying to give him the benefit of the doubt then when we got to the bottom of the ramp he wouldn’t listen to a word I said about showing my wheelchair on board and kept repeating that they’d gate check it for me and even asked me outright if I could understand him. I was so furious and when I asked if someone else was already storing a wheelchair in the priority closet he told me I wasn’t the only one who had needs. It was such a non answer but I was done and assumed someone else might already be using the wheelchair closet but when I got on the plane it was open and full of flight attendants luggage.

That whole situation has literally made me livid but I also feel really guilty for not continuing to stand up for myself when this happened and not going up to someone different to try and get the situation figured out. I still have to go home from the trip and I’m so worried about going through that again although I’m hoping if stuff comes up I’ll be more prepared to deal with it this time.