#because that means that ILL turn 17 after a whole

[buck-yyyy]

just inconsolably cried for multiple minutes because i accidentally made a milkshake with spoiled milk and we didn’t have any more milk or ice cream so i couldn’t make another one

anyways how was you guys’ nights

[mostlysignssomeportents]

The real problem with anonymity

I'm on tour with my new, nationally bestselling novel The Bezzle! Catch me in TUCSON (Mar 9-10), then San Francisco (Mar 13), Anaheim, and more!

According to "the greater internet fuckwad theory," the ills of the internet can be traced to anonymity:

Normal Person + Anonymity + Audience = Total Fuckwad

https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/greater-internet-fuckwad-theory

This isn't merely wrong, it's dangerously wrong. The idea that forcing people to identify themselves online will improve discourse is demonstrably untrue. Facebook famously adopted its "real names" policy because Mark Zuckerberg claimed to believe that "Having two identities for yourself is an example of a lack of integrity":

https://www.zephoria.org/thoughts/archives/2010/05/14/facebook-and-radical-transparency-a-rant.html

In service to this claimed belief, Zuckerberg kicked off the "nym wars," turning himself into the sole arbiter of what each person's true name was, with predictably tragicomic consequences:

https://www.kalzumeus.com/2010/06/17/falsehoods-programmers-believe-about-names/

Facebook is, famously, one of the internet's most polluted reservoirs of toxic interpersonal conduct. That's not despite the fact that people have to use their "real" names to participate there, but because of it. After all, the people who are most vulnerable to bullying and harassment are the ones who choose pseudonyms or anonymity so that they can speak freely. Forcing people to use their "real names" means that the most powerful bullies speak with impunity, and their victims are faced with the choice of retreat or being targeted offline.

This can be a matter of life and death. Cambodian dictator Hun Sen uses Facebook's real names policy to force dissidents to unmask themselves, which exposes them to arbitrary detention, torture, and extrajudicial killing. For members of the Cambodian diaspora, the choice is to unmask themselves or expose their family back home to retaliation:

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/meghara/facebook-cambodia-democracy

Some of the biggest internet fuckwads I've ever met – and I've met some big ones! – were utterly unashamed about using their real names. Some of the nicest people I know online have never told me their offline names. Greater internet fuckwad theory is just plain wrong.

But that doesn't mean that anonymity is totally harmless. There is a category of person who reliably uses a certain, specific kind of anonymity to do vicious things that inflicts serious harm on whole swathes of people: corporate bullies.

Take Tinyletter. Tinyletter is a beloved newsletter app that was created to help people who just wanted to talk to others, without a thought to going viral or getting rich. It was sold to Mailchimp, which was sold to Intuit, who killed it:

https://www.theverge.com/24085737/tinyletter-mailchimp-shut-down-email-newsletters

Tinyletter was a perfect little gem of a service. It cost almost nothing to run, and made an enormous number of peoples' lives better every day. Shutting it down was an act of corporate depravity by some faceless Intuit manager who woke up one day and said "Fuck all those people. Just fuck them."

No one knows who that person was. That person will never have to look those people in the eyes – those people whose lives were made poorer for that Intuit executive's indifference. That person is the greater fuckwad, and that fuckwaddery depends on their anonymity.

Or take @Pixsy, a corporate shakedown outfit that helps copyleft trolls trick people into making tiny errors in Creative Commons attributions and then intimidates them into handing over thousands of dollars:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/01/24/a-bug-in-early-creative-commons-licenses-has-enabled-a-new-breed-of-superpredator/

Copyleft trolling is an absolutely depraved practice, a petty grift practiced by greedy fuckwads who are completely indifferent to the harm they cause – even if it means bankrupting volunteer-run nonprofits for a buck:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/02/commafuckers-versus-the-commons/

Pixsy claims that it is proud of its work "defending artists' rights," but when I named the personnel who signed their names to these profoundly unethical legal threats, Pixsy CEO Kain Jones threatened to sue me:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/02/13/an-open-letter-to-pixsy-ceo-kain-jones-who-keeps-sending-me-legal-threats/

The expectation of corporate anonymity runs deep and the press is surprisingly complicit. I once spent weeks working on an investigative story about a multinational corporation's practices. I spent hours on the phone with the company's VP of communications, over the course of many calls. When we were done, they said, "Now, of course, you can't name me in the article. All of that has to be attributed to 'a spokesperson.'"

I was baffled. Nothing this person said was a secret. They weren't blowing the whistle. They weren't leaking secrets. They were a corporate official, telling me the official corporate line. But they wouldn't sign their name to it.

I wrote an article about for the Guardian. It was the only Guardian column any of my editors there ever rejected, in more than a decade of writing for them:

https://memex.craphound.com/2012/05/14/anodyne-anonymity/

Given the press's deference to this anodyne anonymity, it's no wonder that official spokespeople expect this kind of anonymity. I routinely receive emails from corporate spokespeople disputing my characterization of their employer's conduct, but insisting that I not attribute their dubious – and often blatantly false – statements to them by name.

These are the greater corporate fuckwads, who commit their sins from behind a veil of anonymity. That brand of bloodless viciousness, depravity and fraud absolutely depends on anonymity.

Mark Zuckerberg claimed that "multiple identities" enabled bad behavior – as though it was somehow healthy for people to relate to their bosses, lovers, parents, toddlers and barbers in exactly the same way. Zuckerberg's motivation was utterly transparent: having "multiple identities" doesn't mean you "lack integrity" – it just makes it harder to target you for ads.

But Zuckerberg couldn't enshittify Facebook on his own. For that, he relies on a legion of anonymous Facebook managers. Some of these people undoubtably speak up for Facebook users' interests when their colleagues propose putting them in harm's way for the sake of some arbitrary KPI. But the ones who are making those mean little decisions? They absolutely rely on anonymity to do their dirty work.

Name your price for 18 of my DRM-free ebooks and support the Electronic Frontier Foundation with the Humble Cory Doctorow Bundle.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/04/greater-corporate-fuckward-theory/#counterintuit-ive

[pruneunfair]

Ranking OI maids.

23: Dobiella (The villainess maker)

The 20 people in the villainess maker fanbase have already agreed this girl is literally just Dobby as a anime girl from the way she speaks to the fact that their names sound similar. Most maids in OI tend to follow 2 personality traits: either they devoted to the point of nearly being husks or they are mean bullies who pick on their boss. Dobiella though... she takes that to a whole new level, girly isn't even a person she literally needs a purpose to live, even Ayla is creeper out by it, That hairstyle she has is wack too.

22: Lina (the tyrants perfumer)

Similar to Dobiella except it's not to such a concerning degree. She's a decent character but the bar is already quite low given how the characters are simple in TTOP.

21: Ellie (50 tea recipes of the Duchess)

Her design is cute I won't lie, braids and glasses are a classic ill always be a sucker for. But again, she's really not much other than a shy follower to Chloe ready to defend her. Won't change the fact she's still my favorite character in 50 tea recipes of the Duchess.

20: Ruby's maid (how to get my husband on my side)

I honestly cannot remember her name 😞 I can't remember which chapter she debuts in so I kinda just gave up on looking. anyway when it comes to personality she's still a tad dull but she's still got more than the last 3. The design is pretty meh but I can't fault her too much, she was pretty nice for all the times I remember her on screen.

19: Emily (actually I was the real one)

on one she really annoys me for some reason, probably cause she comes across as a real suck up but on the other hand, I can understand her desires for fancy clothes and materials.

18: Mina (Actually I was the real one)

Cosettes maid she had for like.. 5 chapters. I know a lot of people hate her for talking smack about Keira and not being grateful enough but the girl was also a homeless woman with her little brother. Cosette used Mina as a tool for her goals and let her get deported when everything went wrong during the rite arc. Remember the main reason Mina did what she did was because Cosette was using her brother's comfort and safety as leverage.

17: Annie (The villainess turns the hourglass)

Again, can't blame a maid for wanting a little more in life, with that being said it feels a tad weird whenever she acts like a pet whenever Aria offers her gold. Don't really like the fact that she also covered up Annie's freckles, let the Freckles be seen! 😤

16: Urania (From maid to queen)

Her rank might go up or down in the future since I've just started reading maid to queen but I liked the idea of a protagonist who could actually be selfish instead of perfectly kind or badass. Urania gets way too much hate so far in my opinion because she's actually more realistic and the only thing I'm concerned about is that she might become too stupid in her goal to return as a concubine since it's how she died in the first timeline.

15: Rose (Actually I was the real one)

The most iconic it Keiras maids. I preferred her first appearances more but for a maid with another personality dedicated to Keira but she's not as annoying as Emily and shows up more often than Mina. I do like her but there are better ones.

14: Emma (the villainess turns the hourglass)

out of all the evil maids Emma was one of the first who at least did it in a way that wasn't just tampering with food. She was a noble who lost her wealth and suffered a miscarriage so it did explain why a maid would be classist and raise Mielle with a superiority complex. Not bad for a side villain.

13: Anna (Not your typical reincarnation story)

I didn't really care about out her at first, she had a lot of Kuu dere traits and for a while she felt like a robot, thankfully she develops little by little as time went on and I love her for it.

12: Jessie (the villainess turns the hourglass)

Homegirl was just trying to do her job and I love her for it. After what Aria put her through in the first timeline she deserves that extra compensation.

11: The head maid (How to get my husband on my side)

Does this woman even have a name? 💀 I may have said braids+glasses were one of my favorite designs for maids but it's only 2nd to the experienced and almost muscular like designs. Beyond that her personality legit makes sense. She is universally hated for not accepting Ruby and while i do think attacking her for no reason is stupid it makes sense that's she not gonna immediately trust a stranger when she has people like Ellen to take care of. Speaking of that the relationship Ellen had with the head maid for as little of it that is seen is still very wholesome. We love our older ladies.

10: Emily..again (Death is the only ending for the villainess)

Probably the most iconic of OI maids and of course I like Emily but I do wish she had a little more to do with the plot, not bad but there are better ones.

9: Granna (Handmade tales of the handmaid)

Another maid protagonist but her concept is actually unique, a old woman who passed away of natural causes unexpectedly transmigrated as a 15 year old maid and with her experience cleans the mansion she works for with ease. The story is so far amazing and Granna mentally being an old woman instead of a ordinary office worker gets her extra points.

8: Lilian (who made me a princess)

Give this woman a raise Claude! That woman did so much for Athy I still consider her the one true parent to the kid.

7: Delice (Remarried empress)

Delice may only be remembered for being mutilated by Rashta but she still holds a special place in my heart. I felt so bad for her when her brother just told her nothing was wrong when Rashta was growing unstable and next thing you know during her next shift she gets framed and tortured 😢. Rashta I love you but not cool girl! In another universe Delice got to be spared and run away to start a little flower garden or a toy store with her dream husband.

6: Sancha (Sister I will be the queen in this life)

This little cutie deserves more than what she got. Don't get me wrong the story treats her pretty well when it comes to her new life and Ariande as a friend but at the same time.. I kinda think she exists to be the token homeless girl for Ariande to bring in to look better, she doesn't do much outside of cheer her lady on and I don't really care for her love interest that much. However I have noticed that Sancha is usually at her best when she's away from Ariande meaning she does more then be a cheerleader. Her moments of refusing to forgive Malleta were her best moments for her character. Speaking of which..

5: Malleta (Sister I will be the queen in this life)

one of my most favorite problematic queens though that's not saying much considering most of my favorite characters are toxic women. First of all: the character design, Sancha looks cute and all but she has the same super cute petite and youthful look most OI maids have. I know it's just because SITQITL puts non conventionally attractive characters as villains with exception of Ceasre and Isabella but I still love that Malleta stands out with a plus sized body, freckles, and narrow eyes instead of doe eyes. Her personality while admittedly trashy is still so entertaining given how delulu she can be. Personally I wish there were scenes where she and Isabella would just be gossip girls and talk shit about all Isabellas enemies. God why did she have to die so soon 😔

4: Chuchu (isn't being a maid better than being a princess?)

Pay no attention to the fact that she shares a name with a LOZ monster. Like I said my favorite kinds of maids are the muscular types who could carry a an entire table which is why Chuchu is one the greats. She's a total gentle giant and I'm so glad the series didn't kick her out completely when the FL moved on.

3: Helena (kill the villainess)

Im gonna throw hands with Helena haters cause what did she even do!? She made mistakes and was willing to apologize and make up for them and that still wasn't enough. Istg internalized misogyny did her dirty I tell you. As the 2nd FL I'm glad the author treated her with respect and actually brought up that Helena has feelings too just like Eris. What I loved the most about her was how she realistically handled the usual evil maid when some random maid put sand in Eris's dessert. When Eris slapped her Helena stood up for what was right and told Eris there was no reason to abuse someone else when they could easily just be fired. 👏 thank you Helena, thank you for finally doing what was sensible by firing the maid instead.

2nd: Sienna (isn't being a maid better than being a princess)

It was really hard to decide between Helena and Sienna so even though Sienna is up higher they are actually tied. Just gonna say it, out of all the FL's she beats all of them in terms of character design because that braid combined with green is perfect. The manhwa she's from is pretty short but it's still really wholesome albeit with a few cliches and random sad flashbacks.

1st: Bridgette. (This isekai maid is forming a union)

Reddit can complain about isekai maid villainizing nobles too much but I won't care because Bridgette, like Helena, IS a maid and naturally would be against workplace abuse. It's funny how quick they'll be about complaining that the nobles are one note because they don't have justifiable reasons to slap a maid while they don't bat an eye at the numerous counts of villainized maids in OI beforehand. Back to the point though Bridgette is one of the most complex protagonists I've ever seen. She can be mean, she can be kind, she can rash and she can still be resilient. That's what makes her so relatable she's not a single personality teathered to a ball and chain. Not only that but it's her and the entire story that made me feel comforted knowing I wasn't the only one turned off by the iffy tropes in OI being supported.

These tropes are all shown through flashbacks of Bridgettes past lives and I have to point out how much they still feel so unique even if they are the same soul, each of them making me cry one way or another. (Fawn and Muriel, my babies! 😭)

[dranna]

Be Careful what you Wish for - a Wish rewrite

~ Prologue ~

Chapter 1

summary:

King Magnifico created his kingdom to protect his people because he knows what tragedies one single wish can cause, however when one entitled 17-year-old girl decided that the way he is dealing with the population's wishes is 'unacceptable', he must step in to protect the inhabitants of his kingdom, even if it means he has to use the book, he swore to never touch again...

Who is the villain and who is the hero?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ contents: noting clear yet but there will be graphic descriptions of violence and death later on, Asha is the villain of the story, there is NO goat. I’ll add the warnings at the beginning of every chapter <3

a/n: I started writing during sleepless nights. I didn't watch the whole movie bc I didn't find it enjoyable from the start, so there will be a lot of things from my imagination. I would say I stopped watching it around the 30 minutes mark ^^’

I've never written anything longer then a one shot, so it will be an interesting journey for me. Thank you for stopping by and reading it:)

- English is not my first language -

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Once upon a time, there was a young and passionate man, serving a rotted and jealous king. The king had everything he wanted: immense wealth where gold grew like grass everywhere he stepped, a huge kingdom where peace bloomed in every corner, loyal men, women, happy children but  the most important of all: Power. 

However he wanted more . 

Since he walked on this earth, he had everything his heart wished for. So now, as he was sitting on his icy gold throne made by busy hands for a spoiled child, he commended the youthful man to create something for him. An object that will turn into something terrible, evil and full of hate, masked with the promise of unlimited knowledge. 

“Magnifico” - he once called the hopeful lad - “ you are the greatest apprentice I could ask for, loyal to my crown and your homeland..” - the king started his poisonous honey speech, whispering harmless sounding lies into his ear.  Besides being young and full of hope, Magnifico was also a naive and trusting soul. He listened to his king’s lies, never doubting the intent behind his tongue.  “ I have a great wish I need you to fulfill. I want you to design a book, which contains all knowledge of sorcery. A book! If someone reads from it, they magically become the most powerful in the world!” 

What wrong can one wish do?  Hung the question above the sorcerer's head, as he excited the throne room. 

Magnifico was so excited to create this book. He imagined true things being done with his creation: helping people? Putting a stop to the gut wrenching illnesses of humanity? Stopping wars , and — oh! Spawn food out of thin air?  In his mind the possibilities were endless.  However, never in his wildest nightmares could he think about the events which were born from his work. 

His loving wife warned him many times, asked, weeped and begged to not do something so terrific yet marvelous for a man like the king, but Magnifico didn’t listen. It was the first of his lists of mistakes, which will burden him until the rest of his life.

  He worked all day and all night, warm ideas filling his brain and heart, not letting him sleep during nights. A productive fire ate through his muscles and bones, illuminating the twinkling of his azure- blue eyes. 

After months of hard work, he presented the book to the king. 

Upon opening the elegant cover, cosy, silver light-strokes were omitted from the beautifully crafted pages. They gently covered the book opener, always willing to be changed, used and shared. 

To Magnifico’s horror, as months went by, his pure creation started to transform into something vile, painful and barbaric under the hands of his once beloved king. The silver light slowly darkened and lost its welcoming glow, just to make place to dark green, seaweed and tentacle-like forms. They snaked around the sorcerer who opened the earthly cell, bounding and chaining him in both physique and soul, never letting him go. 

The book consumed the king more and more, and with him wasted away his kingdom and its inhabitants. 

Magnifico couldn’t bear to see his creation causing more devastation, he stole the book from the half-dead king leaving him and his wealth to rot. 

With the knowledge he learned about magic and wishes, he created a kingdom with his wife on his side. Promising himself, that he never let any wish to destroy the happiness of his people.  And the book? He locked it deep in his castle, displaying it in his study room as a trophy of shame and deep regret, laughing and creeping its freezing fingers in blood, which he will never be able to wash clean. 

[theloverscardtarot]

Nicola Coughlan - Love/Career September, 17, 2024

Love Life/Marriage?

Hierophant, 4 of Wands

This tells me that there is a sense of tradition here with the hierophant. Social gatherings. It also means she may be with a traditional partner who has morals and ethics. 4 of wand represents celebrations like engagements and weddings and is also a soulmate card. There could be potential for her getting married soon.

An anon asked

Is Nicola Dating Someone Younger?

Fool, 4 of Pents, Ace of Pents Rev, Ace of Wands

The fool and 4 of Pents suggests she may have just entered into a new relationship with someone that could be 4 years younger (I'm getting this from 4oP, please don't take it totally to heart, because I'm not sure). This person may not be somebody in the business as I'm seeing possible money issues. He could be a little bit emotionally immature or is compared to her. This relationship is full of passion and excitement. They may both be very flirtatious, romantic, and feel very attracted to each other.

Career

2 of Wands, Tower, Moon, Hanged Man

So, I found this to be quite interesting. I don't know entirely what this could be about. These cards together all seem to suggest that there will be a decision made that will cause upheaval in her career. It will come with a sense of fear or anxiety and may suspend her career or filming somehow. It may be a decision she makes about her personal life, or it could be an injury or illness. It could also mean there will be a decision about Bridgerton that she is not expecting. This is just an example, but I just think of a show suddenly killing off characters with no warning.

I asked about the Emmys; I did not watch them. But I looked after I did the reading and saw some interesting things

Awards

Page of Pents, Hermit R, Emperor R, Death Side, 3 of Cups Side

I asked if she won an award (I still don't know if she did) and Page of Pents suggests that she has big dreams about achieving this goal. I got the Hermit reversed and saw that she and JB were the only two cast members there. So, it makes sense to get loneliness and isolation. Also, that she seemed to have been ignored by interviewers. Emperor R suggest there was coldness and rigidity. So, maybe she didn't win? Death side says there's been a transformation or change in her appearance or personal life, but it has since become stagnant, and she may be fearful of this change. 3 of Cups R means she has support from her friends, but she seemed to be lacking it. (Maybe cause the whole cast wasn't there) There's also a suggestion of a third party. Was there supposed to be another cast member there to make three? Or did she lose out to the third person nominated in her category?

If anybody knows, please feel free to send in an ask!

Will She Return to Season 4?

3 of Wands R

This card suggests a strong possible MAYBE. It's a card of having too many obstacles or frustration and causing delay. It could be turned around if these challenges are dealt with.

[breadboylovin]

28 :3

28: A description of the person I dislike the most

omg this question is JUICY. strap in yall im telling you guys the tale of the insane girl i liked in freshman year of high school whose antics landed me in therapy for like the past 4 years

under the cut cus idk how long this will get. also this is from this ask meme

okay so we met online thru the bts fandom. she lived 2 hours away from me and we had a 2 year age difference (i was 15 she was 17)

the first ?!!?!? thing about her was that she was writing like INSANE bts porn fanfic (and i mean insane like. everything she published had at least one ao3 content warning on it) despite being underage. i learned about this in like april 2018 but i was too head over heels for her to care. in june 2018 we finally met irl and went to a science museum and she told me about some of the insane shit she was writing IN THE FOOD COURT while i was trying to eat a shitty subway sandwich. like wow

anyway summer passes and we have a bunch of relationship drama. im not getting into it too much (ive talked enough about it in therapy LOL) but we didnt date, it was an unrequited love thing where she kinda just exploited me for validation cus she was super depressed. anyway at some point we start talking less but she sends me her tumblr discourse blog. and then in september 2018 i found out she blocked me from it so i checked why and SHE HAD TURNED INTO A FULL-ON TERF while pretending she was still cool with our basically all-trans friend group. so naturally i show everyone else and we kick her out of all our gcs. at some point after that she also detransitions (she was a trans guy before which was why i liked her. cus im gay)

so i dont talk to her at all after that because why would i. technically i sent her an apology for something that id fucked up on but that wasnt like... a normal friend conversation yknow. and i assumed that she had figured out that she fucked my whole shit up and i wanted nothing to do with her. but APPARENTLY NOT because in august 2019 i woke up one day with several messages from her on twitter where she was like "omg this new hurricane made me think of you (we both live in florida and this was when hurricane dorian hit us) ^___^ how have you been?? im doing so good im in [MY SISTER'S COLLEGE] for biology and having a great time"

needless to say i was flabbergasted. im pretty sure i had literally woken up from a nightmare ABOUT HER that day and now i had to deal with shaking with anxiety so bad that i could barely talk to my mom over breakfast. i initially tried to be nice and be like "haha wow i havent heard from you in a long time... ummmm if you see me on your campus while im visiting my sister please dont talk to me". but then i went to therapy that night and left mad as hell so the next day i told her off and was basically like "i want nothing to do with you and if you talk to me again ill throw rocks at you". and that was the last time i talked to her

last i heard about her online she had been run off of insane bts porn twitter for being a terf. then she started writing insane porn about figure skaters and got run off of THAT twitter circle too. i hope she never knows peace again god bless

[r1caner]

is this a safe space to admit that I hate Henry Cheng.

like probably more than I've hated any other fictional character that isn't intentionally an antagonist.

FIRST OF ALL. lets just get it out of the way. ill acknowledge im a freak about bluesey so bluechengsey and it's rampantness makes me want to kill myself.

BUT. I just hate that bitch I don't know he feels like a watered down more dickish version of gansey.

Plus the way he was written im not the biggest fan of but its not his fault. I won't hold it against him but it doesn't mean I love him for it either.

idk I feel like he was introduced sort of late and he was so unnecessary.

Plus I just have such a bone to pick that blue actually likes him. her ass isn't going to the next town over with that bitch much less Venezuela. I feel like she was just written to like him because what? he helped her and the group? because hes sort of like gansey?

the thing about gansey and blue is that gansey is the OPPOSITE of what blue would like, and what she THINKS she would like. that's why the transition from her liking Adam to gansey is so significant. Adam is who she's expected to like because hes like her. because its what she thought, too. but gansey has a way of surprising people, sneaking up on them with his goodness.

actually, genuinely liking gansey happens because of the small things that make him him. and it happens pretty slow. she only really finds things she's fond of or interested in about him most of the way through the first book. halfway through the second she's only acknowledging he has a nice mouth and he's one of her raven boys. in the same way that RONAN is (who she is never romantically involved with and only [at least at that point] barely friends with [which makes me upset more Ronan blue scenes!!!!!]) and of course she's starting to harbor romantic feelings for gansey but like. of Course she is. curse and their mutual understanding of wanting to see more and be more and their connections with magic and each other that they're building.

and you expect me to believe Blue starts liking Henry (now I mean this in the way of liking him enough to be friends with him but it can also be interpreted romantically because its even MORE crazy and extreme [IN A BAD WAY] in that sense) after like two times of meeting him and one of those being at a stupid fucking toga party with a bunch of dickheads? Nah. she only went to that and imo only enjoyed herself because of gansey. because that's his effect.

its the things that make gansey gansey that draws blue to him. its his passion about glendower and doing what's right - his whole fucking quest for glendower came to him because he was told it as he was dead/dying/coming back to life, because he felt there was an injustice that his life was given to him while another was unfairly taken. he has this passion that makes him who he is, which is so probably what sets him apart from the freaks at aglionby.

(sidenote - everything about what gansey has experienced makes him the version of himself that he is which is why it's hard to believe he would be the way he is in any other scenario or universe. the things we go through change us, especially when those things include dying and being met with terrifying forces of energy and magic. Helen turned out okay but also she is older than he is and I hate to say it a woman. Not to be a crazy man hater but lets be real I feel like we would all be worse people had we been obscenely rich teenage boys surrounded by the likes of kavinsky and those people. could easily be terrible.)

gansey is imperfect and he fucks up a lot but it's not out of some insistence to be like the other boys he's around. hes just kind of dumb. so intelligent but so dumb. he's rich and he's 70 in a 17 year old body and he's overly friendly and polite and sounds like old money and doesn't really understand anything else. its the way he is and its so GANSEY like there's no other way to describe it. he is gansey and he is so interesting. because of how he hides himself because of how he is a million things at once at how he can not grasp what exactly to do or say but be so understanding because of his kindness because of his passion. that's why blue likes him, that's why basically everybody likes him. and gansey likes everybody, talks to everybody, so he likes and talks to Henry.

but why would the rest of them, ESPECIALLY blue?

Henry is just that watered down, less interesting version of gansey - intelligent but dumb, rich and overly friendly - but without all of the things that make him interesting or good. hes loud and not in a fun way. hes in your face and hes helpful but it doesn't suddenly make him less annoying or more enjoyable to be around. and especially consider the people he surrounds himself with lol. he didn't have a great upbringing (as far as I remember) BUT REMEMBER WHO RAISED ADAM FUCKING PARRISH LIKE BE FOR REAL.

it makes no sense that blue would like him. Like sure hes not a dirtbag like some other raven boys, like kavinsky or anybody. but hes not one of blue's boys.

idk it really irks me when people include him in gangsey OR WORSE replace Noah with him. Grinds my freaking gears. Noah's my guy my boy

but I don't know im in the process of rereading so maybe ill miraculously like him when im reintroduced ( ijbol🤣!).

[ladyravenblack]

I interrupt this usual broadcast of writing to question how Alastor butchered humans with no question. We aren’t like animals. He would have had to go about gutting and peeling the meat off the person he chose. Humans don’t have a lot of edible meat. He would have had to kill two to three people regularly for a good consumption. New Orleans might be the original sin city but I doubt there was enough unknown rabble amongst the crowd to feed that sort of need for very long. Plus the illnesses since he definitely wasn’t keeping them captive for consumption, illnesses that typically by then were not as common due to different standards of keeping and raising meat than earlier time periods. Would he have seen a doctor if he got sick? Would that not have raised questions especially if he came back often? Also, have you ever stabbed something or gutted something, do you know how incredibly difficult it is? Even being a skilled hunter it is time consuming. He was a radio host he likely had ‘friends’ and other people he needed to stay in line with, would they have not wandered why they never went to his house? Or if they did would they not have wondered about the lack of actual proof of some kind of hunting? Meaning he would have had to go actually hunting as well. Again, time consuming. So what he? He killed and went to do his broadcast and repeat? Doubt he slept given his whole thing but eventually the human body forces it. Would he have been out hours? Lost time? Days? His mind? He couldn’t have kept up with charade for more than two years at best- we’ve pretty much all decided he killed his dad so did he start killing afterwards? Did he wait until he was an adult and his momma was dead? Or when the war was ongoing and less people would notice? He’d have to be young then, younger than 18 during all this. Even if he turned 18 between the 1920-30 he would have been drafted, so was he had to have been killed around 17-18 yrs old. Meaning he started killing pretty early, maybe 15-16 to make it all line up. Sorry I’m done ranting just hit me that I’ve made him far too old but at the same time he’s supposedly 30-40 yrs old which doesn’t align with the draft and it’s driving me crazy! This all came because I had to look up how to disembowel and prepare humans for consumption. Would he have even done it the right way!? I mean he’s Alastor he seems like he would have.

ETA: he could have been too young for World War One and the US didn’t enter World War Two until after he died. Someone pointed this out and it’s good so adding it in.

[tokruta]

I just found my first instance of a man not remarrying after his wife died young.

My great*4 aunt got married at 16 (about a month away from turning 17) to a recently 20-year-old man, she unfortunately died less than a year later giving birth to their one and only child at 17. That child died 3 months later, 5 days before my aunt's birthday.

He died 21 years later, and he was listed as her widower (as in her name was in his death registration), so he never remarried. My mostly surface-level search supports this; I haven't found any evidence of him having any other children, either.

I've found sooooo many men who remarried within the same year their wife died, this is the first instance that I've found one who didn't. Well, who didn't as a young man, I mean. He was 20, turning 21 in the next month. He died a week before his 42nd birthday and I just wonder about those 2 decades after her death.

He lost his wife and child within 3 months of each other, a widower and a father with no living child at 21. Did he never develop a romantic relationship again? Was he a mess and slept around? Was he some sort of social pariah? Did he love her so much he just couldn't move on? Was he just not interested in other women? Or women in general? I'll most likely never know, but it is interesting to me. It's so outside the norm I've found in the hundreds of people I've looked at, I can't help but think about this.

I need to remind myself to not make up stories about them, they died well over 100 years ago and most of them and the people around them would not have left behind anything I could read or look at. At most, I can maybe find their graves when I next visit my grandparents, if they haven't degraded too badly (a majority of my ancestors have been in the same area for hundreds of years, apparently, and the most "exotic" ones I've been able to find are the ones that moved from Zacatecas to that area of Jalisco lol I've yet to encounter another state, just Zacatecas).

My preferred theory is that she was it for him, that they fell in love young and married in the hopes of building a life together. That he named their child after her in the hopes that they'd carry on her legacy and memory. But again, who knows. For all I know, I'm waxing poetry in my mind about him when he's actually a piece of shit who never remarried for a very good reason. Who knows.

The whole thing just sucks; I hate that she died so young, giving birth to a child that would join her only a few short months later. I hate that I found another 17-year-old who died giving birth to a baby who wouldn't survive so soon after the last one I posted about. I hate that I know she won't be the last or the youngest. I hate that my great*3 grandfather, her younger brother, only got to know her for a year before she died. I hate that a baby named after their mother, likely in an earnest attempt by a grieving father to keep her memory and love alive, died of an illness that was listed as herpes only a few days before they turned 3 months old. That if it was herpes, they likely got it simply by being born, so that fatal act doomed both mother and child. I hate that my great*4 uncle experienced such awful tragedies so close together and at such a young age, regardless of how he was as a person, nobody deserves to lose their loved ones like that. I hate that my great*4 grandparents, her parents, continued to have children after she died doing the same, giving her siblings she'd never know and who'd never know her.

Idk something about this whole thing hit me hard. I think it's because I'm neck-deep in both my Todofam and Anidala feels lol

[zhoras-bitch]

Y'all remember Sunkissed?

Probably not, it is sleep-inducingly boring, but I was reading it for the diamonds & it hit me... PB missed such a great opportunity to make the story about mermaids!

I mean, the book feels like PB kinda forgot to give it a plot anyway. There's the family drama, but it is not nearly interesting enough to spend 17 freaking chapters on. So here's how I’d write Sunkissed, but with mermaids.

We can keep the setting: MC (gender customisable, cause there is no point to make this book gender locked) comes back to Turtle Bay, the city their family used to live in before their dad died. With them is their mom, who seems very much opposed to the idea of coming back, and only agrees to stay for the summer to renovate the old family house & sell it. (MC assumes this attitude is the result of their mom not processing her loss in a healthy way, but we’re gonna learn it’s a little more complicated than that later.) For now, MC starts unpacking and in their old room they find a letter from their dad, in which he hints there's more to Turtle Bay than meets the eye.

We spend the rest of the chapter establishing the setting (checking out the town and the beach, meeting the LIs etc.). MC is confused about the letter, because the town seems completely normal... Until the end of chapter 1, when they accidentally discover that one of the LIs they met earlier is a merperson. 

Obviously, this is supposed to be a secret, and MC promises to keep it. Still, they start spending time together, MC learns more about this new world and eventually discovers they have some supernatural powers, similar to those of merpeople.

We have two antagonists: one is some sort of merpeople leader, who dislikes the fact that MC, a human, was allowed in on the secret. The second is a human poacher/evil scientist who suspects that merpeople exist and wants to reveal them to the world. In the finale, antagonist comes this 👌 close to getting the proof, but MC and Eliana (a marine biologist & one of our LIs) manage to destroy/replace the evidence and even persuade the antagonist they were chasing shadows this whole time. Antagonist leaves the town in shame, and merpeople finally fully accept MC for saving their secret.

For LIs, Eliana’s character would definitely fit in well in this version, I wouldn’t even change much about her. Nathan could be rewritten as our main merman LI, and Samson is a sea witch some wise magician who knows about the supernatural world, but wants nothing to do with it. Or we could scrap them and make new LIs entirely. 

At the family drama side of things, similar to the original, there is some drama between MC and their mom, but we spend waaaay less time with it. And like the original, MC is collecting letters from their dad, except in this version they tell the story of how he and MC’s mom met. At fists it’s just cute fluff, but there are hints something bigger is going on, until the big reveal - MC’s mom is actually a mermaid. She fell in love with a MC’s dad, a human, and broke a bunch of rules to be with him. Dad’s death can be a genuine accident/illness or something more sinister, depending on how dark we want to go. In any case, turns out the reason mom was so opposed to coming back to Turtle Bay is actually because she was trying to protect MC from the merpeople society, which to her brought nothing but misery.

Being half mermaid, MC can now live as both human and merperson. We could have different endings, but in my ideal version MC embraces both sides and stays in Turtle Bay with their new human and merpeople friends. They reconcile with their mom, and mom reconciles with her mer family as well, and they all live happily ever after.

P.S. Yes, this is inspired by the H2O series and Lovestruck’s My Siren Crush.

[humanmorph]

dont mind me just some of my palisade liveposting from twitter. ignore it. i just want them here. this is long and annoying but its my blog and also under a read more smile

(technically not yet palisadeposting just funny to me)

-------

Road to PALISADE game rankings (29. Mai)

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PALISADE 03 (4. Juni)

guy whos only listened to friends at the table listening to friends at the table: this is just like fr-

this is about me thinking of hieron & some archivists constructing patterns by manipulating events when they talk about the paint shop & bringing palisade on cycle. im also jokin

WHICH. i am pretty excited about (the cycle). its an incredibly cool concept that mostly existed in the bg in twilight mirage (or well, the intros?) but i love it.love to see it come back in a weird and bad way (different weird and bad than the original

& i guess it makes sense for kesh to pull on ideas/ideals/visions their ancestors had, when this whole 'going back to the twilight mirage' is for nideo a reclaiming of their home/origin

dont need rot13 for this though its vague enough that was cool as fuck of jack. i was kind of cruising along like yeah this is pretty nice so far theyre just getting set up with this faction game thing and then woooowww. wah. banger

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PALISADE 04 & 05

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PALISADE 07 (13. Juni)

some PALISADE 07 thoughts. im thinking them

----

(? idk which episode this related to. 12. Juni)

----

(the rot13 says clementine. lol)

----

(lmao)

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PALISADE 13 (1. Juli)

this doesnt have anything to do with what i wrote here but im very excited for the next arc (even if ill be fully caught up then...) with the way the cast has been talking about it

also idk what it was about this downtime but something happened halfway through ep 12 where it clicked and now i am enjoying myself way more. just took me a bit i guess

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PALISADE 15 (12. Juli)

palisade 15 thoughts (from like, last week. its just still vivid in my mind) . this made me go crazy

(this still makes me smile god i wanna know whats up with this so badlyyyy)

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PALISADE 17 (17 Juni)

god upon our grace fucking ruled

this arc was soooo much. just in the sense of things sure kept fucking happening oh my god

(oh this is the one i was looking for the other day after the brninegucci convo. (BLOWS UP) indeed)

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PALISADE 18 (18. Juni)

(man i was straightup not having a good time huh)

(yeah there we go. and i do feel better about it now)

----

(just for posterity because this is when i did the first sketch for that long comic. smile)

----

I'm at work with my phone on 10% but PALISADE 19 but dice ARE one side of the authority I'm halfway through this shit and the Cause has not gotten a win. I mean it did but that got rerolled & they still have one of those left it's not happening folks

Putting my head on my desk. "But you will win anyways. You must."

----

Gathering Information 04 (23. Juli)

wait hold on i didnt think this through IF something tragic happened to phrygian and then leap coming in on the blue channel after oneof their crew members / friend / brnines second in command just died or worse(things can always be worse than dying. see gur). that. yeah. hmmmmmm

(tee hee hee) (im actually still thinking about that last tweet currently im turning it around in my mind. the dynamic. also "what if [things] got worse and also leap was there" still makes me laugh)

[styxnbones]

1, 2, 7, 9, 17, 21, and 24 for whichever characters you think would have the most interesting answers! (and feel free to do multiple if you want)

1.What memory would your OC rather just forget?

As much as Corin is endlessly thankful to Minerva for un-brainwashing him, and cherishes the ability to remember everything he had been forced to forget, there's a part of him that wishes he could un-see being forced to eat his fiancee immediately after his embrace. He feels incredibly guilty about it, because he remembers as well just how good it felt in the moment and because, even with all Minerva's effort, he still can't remember her name.

2. What's something about your OC that people wouldn't expect just from looking at them?

For Minerva: he looks like he's in his late teens and dresses like a thrift-store catboy. On first glance, "Mass-Murdering Emissary Of A Vampiric Death Cult" is not really what comes to mind. This is, of course, the point.

7. What's one way your OC has changed since you first came up with them?

I'm of the "reduce reuse recycle" school of character creation, so a lot of my ocs look very different from how they started. But, I'd say the one that's changed the most would be Harper- having switched from Monster of the Week to Vampire the Masquerade and consequently become what they once hunted.

9. Do you have a specific lyric or quote which you associate with your OC?

Not so much a quote but the whole concept for Minerva came into being bc my brain came up with the phrase "Reality in Triplicate" and wouldn't stop spinning it around.

17. What is the worst thing you have put your OC through story-wise?

I think objectively the worst thing I've done to an OC is how I set up Minerva to be embraced. They were a long-term resident at a Troubled Teen Facility, which was bad enough on it's own before his future pack took over the place and turned it into a Fight For Your Life Black Hand Boot Camp- using the kids as both the recruits and the training dummies until Minerva was the last one standing and was then immediately put through even more shit as their Creation Ritae. All in all, horrifically traumatizing scenario that quite literally fractured their mind and left them trapped in the body of a teenager for the rest of his nights.

21. Does your OC have any illnesses or disorders? How do they handle it?

I mean, all of them are dead so illnesses aren't so much a problem- but ohhhhh boy do these vampires have disorders. Literally all of them are traumatized in one way or another, though I think Harper is the only one who actually got diagnosed w PTSD before they died. Historically they haven't dealt with it well (killing and eating people to embody the monster that nearly killed and ate them so that they never have to feel like prey again is... not constructive), but they've gained a lot of touchstones that have helped them get things under control. Cass, however, is just out there raw dogging unlife with the aftereffects of a neglected childhood, abusive relationship, supernatural NPD and fragments of an elder rattling around in their brain. I would say the one handling it best is Kellen, who's got the tism and is arguably a CSA survivor- they've got a steady job, a consensual workplace relationship, a decent connection with their brother, and they generally have their shit together as long as they can keep up their routine.

24. What is an alternative life path your OC might have gone down? How different would their life be if they'd made those decisions?

Harper could have very easily ended up in the Sabbat instead of with the Camarilla. When their sire killed herself they were hovering around Humanity 3 and if a Sabbat pack had found them first I have no doubt that they'd have ended up converting to a Path of Enlightenment and fitting right in. That, or just spiraling into wighthood. All in all, though, I think that their life would actually be much more boring- at least from a storytelling standpoint. The point of Harper is the repression, the tension in the denial of what they desire in favor of superficial things like status and duty. They are having an objectively much worse time trying to fit into the Camarilla's status quo than they would letting loose in the Sabbat and they hate every second of it but still choose it anyways and that's why its interesting.

[ilovesehun]

SENDING NUDES CHALLENGE/TAEHYUNG FF /pt -3

Instagram:

@v: hey gurl~

i opened the message while having my dinner.

me : hey~~

v: what you upto? me: eating. You?

v: just finished practising for a new song.

me: is jimin oppa there with you?😅🙃

V: 🙄if you want to talk to him text him on his insta.

me: woa~. Are you jealous 🤣

v: yes😑

me: chill bro~ v: v* or daddy* me:🫣🫠

v: anyways what are you eating?

Me: oh some gummies

V: oh gummy bears….😩im on a diet y/n!

me: hahahahaha 😌. Why would you be on a diet? You body is perfect tho.

v: how much did you check on me😏

me:😳thats not what i mean… I meant like you arent fat. v: bighit told me to…

me: thats sad…

Notification: “@kth.unknown has requested you to follow”

V: i have send you a request from my private account. Come over there.

me: what if i dont accept? 😗

v: would be disappointed.

me: haha just a sex

v: sex? Yea sure😉

me: shit its sec*

v: i got excited for a sec.

me: dont you think you are flirting with me too much?

v: yea. I like you so~ me:😳😳😳

v: what?

me: oh nothing. v: you dont like me? Oh right, you like jimin.

me: hey..

v: isnt it true?

me: its true i like jimin. But i like all of you guys.

v: am i just like that? me: you are making me hard. v: 😏hard???

me: I MEANT HARD TO DECIDE! v: woah cool cool babygurl. v: ive gotta go. We have a flight at 10pm me: oh happy journey~ v: will i be able to see you?

Me: lol no you cant. v:😞i wanted to though…

me: 😗oh…

v: well then bye. me: take care~ v: 🤍

THIS GUY IS ENDLESSLY FLIRTING WITH ME. i said tossing my phone over and starting to do my assignments.

taehyung pov:

Oh i wish i could see her…. why us a 17 y/o making me feel like this? Is it because of the stress of not being able to date?

*opened the door*

jimin: v, you want some coffee?

me: AISHHH! You scared the fork out of me.

jimin: oh….what are you hiding from me?

me: n-nothing…

jimin came and took my phone forcefully. I got flustered and tried to stop. jimin: ya!!!! Who is y/n? *smirk* me: oh just a friend.

jimin: friend????

me:y-yeah..

jimin: or girlfriend?

that made me blush and turned my ears red. jimin: NAMJOON TAE IS IN LO-

Me: shhhhh🤫. Its a secret! And we are not in love.

jimin: I’ll be quiet if you tell me the whole story.

i told him what happened and he smiled . jimin: but…isnt…she young?

Me: i know….but i feel weird…

jimin: i see….anyways get dressed. We need to go. me: yea ill be ready

jimin went towards the door. Him: good luck ;)

After he went i took my phone and saw that she accepted my request. I quickly looked through her photos.

@jihun__ 🤍

liked by jihun__ and 95 others

comments:

jihun__: 😘

ME: SHE HAS A BOYFRIEND!? She is in a relationship!?. AISHHHHHH no it cant be~

i tossed my phone and started to get ready to go. I felt a heaviness in my heart after seeing that photo.

time skip:

We reached at the airport waiting for the gates to open. I took out my phone and saw y/n online. i want to clarify if she is comitted or not.

me: hey. I want to ask you something

y/n: hey taetae! Ye shoot it

me: are you in a relationship?

y/n: no

me: dont lie. Then who is he in your post?🙄

y/n: thats my cousin brother😂😂😂😂

OH GOD! Im embarrassed now…

y/n: Are you stalking me now😌😂

Me: just taking care of you from dangerous boys😉

y/n: lol. At the airport?

In the plane. Gonna take off in 15mins.

y/n : ooh nice….im actually texting v from bts..

me: lol why did you say that?

y/n: 😂i dont know i felt like you werent tae.

me: want me to prove it? y/n: how?

me: should i sent you nude?

Y/n: 😳NOOOOO

me: hahaha. y/n: put a yeontan photo as your story. Ill believe its you.

me: DID YOU REALLY THINK IM NOT V?

me: gosh…ill do it then..

I went and uploaded a photo of me and yeontan. y/n saw it and replied. y/n: you actually did it! me: yea…

y/n: upload jimin abs photo then🫣

me: 🙄always talking about jimin. y/n: y not..🙂

me: lemme reach china ill send you something.

Y/n: REALLY!? Omg no…what will jimin think. me: NOT JIMIN AISH

Y/n: someone is angry here…

me: bye the flight is boarding.

i was pissed off and went to sleep. I looked at jimin and even wonder what made him better than me… i mean he got great looks and character. BUT I DO TOOO.

(time skip)

y/n pov: it was almost 4 am and im almost done with my assignment. I thought to finish it completely so i could relax and enjoy the concert.

Notification:

@kth.unknown has send you a voice message.

omg…im feeling butterflies in my stomach now…i played along

me: im good babe~

v: first time hearing you call me that😉

me: haha u reached here?

V: yes.

V : give me your address. Ill come. Leave the door open.😉

me: gosh….bring jimin oppa too..🫣

v: AISH…

me: 🤭🤭

v:

How do i look?😉

Inner me : OMG! He is soooo hotttttt! And his beard gosh…daddy😩

me: hot tbh😅. Beard looks great on you.

v: DID U JUST CALL ME HOT? v: Someone is falling for me~ me: NO IM NOT. I just told you that you look good…

v sent an audio:

ramyeon mogko gallae~

Inner me: WHAT THE FORK IS WRONG WITH HIM😩😩😩😩. He is making me weak…

me:😳chill chill

v: why arent you sleeping? me: well..

v: study hard jagiii~ me: gosh…calling my name is so hard for you i guess..

v: you dont like me calling you jagi?

me: no.

v: ill call you baby then. me: 🤦🏻‍♀️

v: ill go freshen up and sleep. me: goodnight.

v: dream about me~🤍

I saved his photo and couldnt stop staring at it..his collarbone…nice…how nice it would be if he hard his lips on my neck…i was feeling aroused by him…the way he calls me baby jagi makes me shy and have butterflies.

Taehyung pov:

i went to sleep for a few hours and woke up at 10am. I saw y/n added to their story.

HOLY SHIT. She isnt wearing a pant…HER THIGHS😩. The fact i saw it at the morning with already having a boner…i went to my bathroom stroked while thinking about her.

y/n~,y/n~ you making me so hot baby~ ah~….i love you baby…a-aah..daddy loves you…

i came and cleaned it with a tissue and quickly went to take a bath. I just cant believe i came with just a photo. I would never feel excited even while watching porn.

After showering i opened my phone to message y/n. Me: y/nie~good morning.

i saw her offline and left instagram too. Later jin hyung asked me to get ready to have a final practice for tomorrow.

y/n pov :

i went to lisa’s home in the morning with my bag packed . We decided to go after having punch from her home. Its a 3 hour drive from here. So we booked the hotel for a few nights. After having our lunch we started driving with some music and enjoying. Only until lisa did something

———————————————————————-

[nknovakwrites]

My favorite Tav: Hope Hyden

Hope Hyden is an Asmodeus Tiefling and College of Lore Bard.

Hope is not a native of Baldur's Gate, she was just in the wrong place at the wrong time (or the right place at the right time depending on how you look at it.)

Hope came from a city far, far from Baldur's Gate. A city she had been running from for a little over a decade and a half at this point.

Hope came from a family of high status. Her dad was a commoner but her mom was a noble with power, money, and influence.

She was close to both her parents but spent most of her time with her mom. Her mom, Azaria Hyden, had a lot of love, compassion, and empathy for the people of her city, especially those who were less fortunate than her, and used everything she had to try and help people. Azaria taught Hope that she didn't need money and power to change the city or the lives of the people who lived there. She would tell her daughter things like, “be the good that finds people, smile and shine and spread happiness, the good will follow."

Hope was 14 when her mom died.

When Azaria died, the whole city felt it, but no one felt it as hard as Hope. It wasn’t quick. Azaria fell ill and it continually got worse. Azaria could see her daughter wasn’t doing okay and she knew once she was gone Hope was going to be so much worse. One of the last things she said to Hope was, “don't let this change you. Feel the pain but do not let it make you hate. Have hope that, even though others may disagree, you still believe the world can be a beautiful place.”

Hope's dad was of course saddened and mourned the loss of his wife but his mind was also preoccupied with another fear. He was worried that the loss of his wife would mean the loss of his high status in the city and all the perks that came with it. He decided the best way to keep his place in society was to marry Hope off to someone of high status. For example, a noble's son. Hope, however, didn't want to get married, she wanted to be a poet and a bard (something her mom had always encouraged as she was growing up.) Still, just to please her father, she decided to meet the noble's son and spend some time with him. He was insufferable. He had his own ideas for Hope's life, should she become his wife, and didn't care how Hope felt about it. That was that. Hope made it clear she did not want to marry him. Despite this, he proposed when she turned 17 (with plans to get married a year later.) Hope turned down the proposal, only to find out her father accepted it on her behalf later that day.

Hope ran away on the day of her wedding, her 18th birthday, with someone who she was in love with at the time (it didn't last.) Hope spent the next decade and a half traveling from place to place, jumping from toxic relationship to toxic relationship. Until she arrived at Baldur's Gate.

Going back a bit to the early days of her solo traveling, Hope had become this mean and bitter and hateful person. She was so saddened by her mom's death and her dad caring more about his status than his daughter (so much so she had to abandon her home) that she let it change her for the worse, despite her mom's wishes. After the person she had left home with left her, she was alone with nothing but her violin and journal. She realized that this angry kid was not who she wanted to be anymore. She started to write everything she could remember that her mom used to tell her alongside the songs she wrote. She wrote them and lives by them to this day. If someone needs help, she assists those who ask and does random acts of kindness some are gratefully accepted and some are met with suspicion, either way, she’s not doing it to be thanked but to make someone’s day a little brighter. 

"I know this world is good, Hope, because you are in this world and you are good."

[s-c-g-s-c-g]

Twenty Fanfic Writer Questions

Tagged by @reconstructwriter! Thank you! I'm going to take the easy route and tag anyone who would like to participate!

1. How many works do you have on Ao3? 

96! We're approaching the triple digits!

2. What’s your total Ao3 word count? 

277,273 words!

3. What fandoms do you write for? 

At the moment mostly Star Wars, trying to get around to finishing up my ongoing BNHA series. I'm not writing batfam anymore.

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

an ill-advised gift (Star Wars), Breaking: Local Man Leaves Apartment for Eggs, Returns With a Child (BNHA), Breaking: Local Child is Straight Up Not Having a Good Time (BNHA), Breaking: Local Man Throws Cats at His Problems (BNHA), Failed Hunts and Little Stowaways (Star Wars).

5. Do you respond to comments? 

Yes! When I first started posting on AO3 I decided to respond to every (non-hate) comment. I've kept that up for over two years now!

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

Oof, that's actually a bit hard. Actual no comfort angst is probably between the different flavors of And Still The Galaxy Turns, It's A Sad Song, and here and now, if this is it (all Star Wars and major character death with Jedi, Clone, and Alderaan feels respectively).

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? 

Happiest ending is probably... Hey, Look! Free Sibling! (Batfam). I am a hopeful/bittersweet ending person at heart.

8. Do you get hate on fics? 

Not much proper hate these days. I did quit writing for Batfam in part over hate comments but for the most part I've been pretty fortunate.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind? 

Nope, I tried once just to try but it's not my thing. I'm content writing around it if necessary.

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written? 

No, I enjoy reading them but I've never actually written one.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? 

Not yet!

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

I haven't!

14. What’s your all-time favorite ship? 

These things come and go. I'm a casual multi-shipper and have been around for many a beloved ship. Right now I'd say Feemor/Jaster, I loved writing Weddings and Other Methods of Deadly Swamp Access.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? 

I will finish them all! I will! However, I'm self-aware enough to know that The Extended Adventures of Bakugou Katsuki and His Horrible Murder Kitten is the least likely to happen. I like Bakugou, I don't love him and that's generally a killer for me with long-running WIPs.

16. What are your writing strengths? 

I'm good about following through on individual fics. I generally focus on one WIP at a time with a random one shot thrown in when I get bored/tired. These days I almost always start posting after most of the fic is written because having eternally incomplete stuff stresses me out.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Endings, I usually have a general idea but I spend more time and energy on endings than any other part of the writing process. Also, while focusing on one project at a time is great it also means that certain series get left to the wayside for months/years with no progress.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic? 

Excluding the occasional Japanese word I've only really done conlangs and I've definitely changed over time. I used to use a lot more Mando'a and even some Dai Bendu in fic. I'm much more sparse with it now, primarily for ease of readership and because in my experience the way many people write it isn't how people talk.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Technically veggie tales but really DC Comics. Back when I was a young teenager! I had a whole crew of OCs with cool powers.

20. Favourite fic you’ve written? 

Ah, that's hard. I have so many and they're so different. I still have a lot of affection for all of them, even the ones I wouldn't write today. I genuinely don't think I can pick an all time favourite.

[orthodoxydaily]

Saints&Reading: Saturday, December 2, 2023

november 19_december 2

THE HOLY PROPHET OBADIA (9th c. B.C.)

The holy Prophet Obadiah [or Abdia] is the fourth of the Twelve Minor Prophets, and he lived during the ninth century B.C. He was from the village of Betharam, near Sichem, and he served as steward of the impious Israelite King Ahab. In those days the whole of Israel had turned away from the true God and had begun to offer sacrifice to Baal, but Obadiah faithfully served the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in secret.

When Ahab’s wife, the impious and dissolute Jezebel, hunted down all the prophets of the Lord (because of her quarrel with the Prophet Elias), Obadiah gave them shelter and food (3/1 Kgs 18:3 ff). Ahab’s successor King Okhoziah [Ahaziah] sent three detachments of soldiers to arrest the holy Prophet Elias (July 20). One of these detachments was headed by the holy Prophet Obadiah. Through the prayer of the Prophet Elias, two of the detachments were consumed by heavenly fire, but Obadiah and his detachment were spared by the Lord (4/2 Kgs 1).

From that moment Obadiah resigned from military service and became a follower of the Prophet Elias. Afterward, he himself received the gift of prophecy. The God-inspired work of the Prophet Obadiah is the fourth of the Books of the Twelve Minor Prophets in the Bible, and contains predictions about the future salvation of the Gentiles (Vs. 15) and that the Savior would come forth from Sion (Vs. 17). The holy Prophet Obadiah, whose name means servant (or worshipper) of the Lord, was buried in Samaria.

In iconography, the Prophet Obadiah is depicted as a grey-haired old man with a rounded beard. His scroll reads: “In that day, saith the Lord, I shall destroy the wise men out of Idumea.”(Obadiah 8).

St PHILARET METROPOLITAN OF MOSCOW (1867)

Saint Philaret (Drozdov) was born on December 26, 1782 in Kolomna, a suburb of Moscow, and was named Basil in Baptism. His father was a deacon (who later became a priest).

The young Basil studied at the Kolomna seminary, where courses were taught in Latin. He was small in stature, and far from robust, but his talents set him apart from his classmates.

In 1808, while he was a student at the Moscow Theological Academy at Holy Trinity Lavra, Basil received monastic tonsure and was named Philaret after Saint Philaret the Merciful (December 1). Not long after this, he was ordained a deacon.

In 1809, he went to teach at the Theological Academy in Petersburg, which had been reopened only a short time before. Hierodeacon Philaret felt ill at ease in Petersburg, but he was a very good teacher who tried to make theology intelligible to all. Therefore, he worked to have classes taught in Russian rather than in Latin.

Philaret was consecrated as bishop in 1817, and was appointed to serve as a vicar in the diocese of Petersburg. He soon rose to the rank of archbishop, serving in Tver, Yaroslavl, and Moscow. In 1826, he was made Metropolitan of Moscow, and remained in that position until his death.

The Metropolitan believed that it was his duty to educate and enlighten his flock about the Church’s teachings and traditions. Therefore, he preached and wrote about how to live a Christian life, basing his words on the wisdom of the Holy Fathers. His 1823 CATECHISM has been an influential book in Russia and in other countries for nearly two hundred years.

The reforms of Tsar Peter the Great had abolished the patriarchate and severely restricted the Church, placing many aspects of its life under governmental control. Metropolitan Philaret tried to regain some of the Church’s freedom to administer its own affairs, regarding Church and State as two separate entities working in harmony. Not everyone shared his views, and he certainly made his share of enemies. Still, he did achieve some degree of success in effecting changes.

One day, Archimandrite Anthony (Medvedev), a disciple of Saint Seraphim of Sarov (January 2), paid a call on his diocesan hierarch. During their conversation, Father Anthony spoke of the patristic teaching on unceasing prayer, and he may have told the Metropolitan something of Saint Seraphim. Saint Philaret felt a deep spiritual kinship with Father Anthony, who soon became his Elder. He made no important decision concerning diocesan affairs, or his own spiritual life, without consulting Father Anthony. Saint Seraphim once told Father Anthony that he would become the igumen of a great monastery, and gave him advice on how to conduct himself. It was Saint Philaret who appointed him as igumen of Holy Trinity Lavra.

Metropolitan Philaret wanted to have the Holy Scriptures translated into modern Russian, so that people could read and understand them. Father Anthony, however, criticized the unorthodox ethos of the Russian Bible Society, which was popular during the reign of Alexander I. In his eagerness to have the Bible translated into modern Russian, Saint Philaret at first supported the Bible Society without realizing how dangerous some of its ideas were. The first Russian translation of the Bible was printed during the reign of Tsar Alexander II.

Under the direction of his Elder, Metropolitan Philaret made great progress in the spiritual life. He also received the gifts of unceasing prayer, clairvoyance, and healing. It is no exaggeration to suggest that Saint Philaret himself was one of the forces behind the spiritual revival in nineteenth century Russia. He defended the Elders of Optina Monastery when they were misunderstood and attacked by many. He protected the nuns of Saint Seraphim’s Diveyevo Convent, and supported the publication of patristic texts by Optina Monastery.

Metropolitan Philaret was asked to dedicate the new Triumphal Gate in Moscow, and Tsar Nicholas I was also present. Seeing statues of pagan gods on the Gate, the Metropolitan refused to bless it. The Tsar became angry, and many people criticized the saint’s refusal to participate. He felt that he had followed his conscience in this matter, but still felt disturbed by it, and so he prayed until he finally dropped off to sleep. He was awakened around 5 A.M. by the sound of someone opening the door which he usually kept locked. The Metropolitan sat up and saw Saint Sergius of Radonezh (September 25) leaning over his bed. “Don’t worry,” he said, “it will all pass.” Then he disappeared.

Two months before his death, Saint Philaret saw his father in a dream, warning him about the 19th day of the month. On November 19, 1867, he served the Divine Liturgy for the last time. At two in the afternoon, they went to his cell and found his body. He was buried at Holy Trinity Lavra.

Saint Philaret was glorified by the Russian Orthodox Church in 1995.

Source: Orthodox Church in America_OCA

Among many other writings of wisdom, St Philaret left us this short prayer:

"Lord, grant me to greet the coming day in peace.

Help me in all things to rely upon Your holy will.

In every hour of the day reveal Your will to me

Bless my dealings with alll who surround me.

Teach me to treat all that come to me throughout the day with peace of soul and with firm conviction that Your will governs all.

In all my deeds and words guide my thoughts and feelings.

In unforeseen events, let me not forget that all things are under Your care.

Teach me to act firmly and wisely, without embittering and embarrassing others. 

Give me strength to bear the fatigue of the coming day with all that it shall bring.

Direct my will, teach me to  pray, pray Yourself in me”

GALATIANS 3:8-12

8 And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, "In you all the nations shall be blessed." 9 So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham. 10 For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them." 11 But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for "the just shall live by faith." 12 Yet the law is not of faith, but "the man who does them shall live by them."

LUKE 9:57-62

57 Now it happened as they journeyed on the road, that someone said to Him, "Lord, I will follow You wherever You go." 58 And Jesus said to him, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head." 59 Then He said to another, "Follow Me." But he said, "Lord, let me first go and bury my father." 60 Jesus said to him, "Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God." 61 And another also said, "Lord, I will follow You, but let me first go and bid them farewell who are at my house." 62 But Jesus said to him, "No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God."