#better than none i guess

[chausie9]

Faulker and Carpenter teehee :D

I just finished the last ep and it was awesome I loved it so much ^^

[mrtequilasunset]

Highkey so sad to see Kim's character get butchered by people who see Harry as whichever addict wronged them in their life.

[galaghiel]

michael, meet the other michael!

[might-be-tiny-gt]

Listen to the Audio Next Chapter

Read The Story Index | First Chapter

Welcome to Chapter 1 of the TAoLaW "dramatic" reading. What can I say, the theatre kid in me needed to record this in audio format. Have I mentioned how much I love this fic? Yes? Well I'm saying it again, I LOVE THE ART OF LOVE AND WAR!!! If you haven't read it please go read it.

The Art of Love and War Is written by @fireflywritesgt and the audio reading is recorded and posted with permision.

[titsthedamnseason]

it’s time to play the surprise song game (extra special edition) because kansas city night 1 just so happens to coincide with SPEAK NOW TV RELEASE DAY 💜💜💜 i would be surprised if taylor doesn’t have some tricks up her sleeve so feel free to guess at any extra fun stuff that might happen tonight, but also drop your surprise song guesses in the tags or replies and if you’re right i’ll give you a prize 🥰 (also if you saw me post this TWICE yesterday….no you didn’t)

my guesses are back to december and superman

[slurpyboii]

That ended exactly how I expected it to and, as expected, I am entirely neutral on it. Wasn't a satisfying ending or a super hype ending or anything like that, literally just the ending that may as well have happened. Not a single thing surprised me that whole conclusion, it felt unfortunately predictable. You can tell he's excited for it's end though so I'm happy for Horikoshi regardless, hope he can get proper rest now.

[codacheetah]

It's deeply important to me that Loop kind of sucks

[morrigan-sims]

The Noble House of Lockwood

Lord Alistair Lockwood, his wife Lady Evangeline Lockwood, and their children: Silas, Byron, and Theodore Lockwood.

Lord Alistair Lockwood

Current head of the Lockwood Estate.

Wood Elf.

Extremely wealthy.

Member of the ruling council of Arborcea.

Takes great (too much) pride in his house, name, and family.

Has a short temper and is quick to bring it out on those who displease him.

Loves his [legitimate] sons, although he's not good at showing it, at least not in healthy ways.

Had an affair with a human woman ~27 years ago that resulted in Rook's birth.

One of the key players in placing Arborcea under Elven rule.

Very well-respected among the other nobles.

Stubborn and prideful, even arrogant. (His eldest son, Silas, takes after him in this regard.)

Despite his prominent place on the council, he hungers for more. More power, more wealth, more influence.

Very traditionalist/old-fashioned.

A strict father, but well-respect and even idolized by his [legitimate] sons.

Lady Evangeline Lockwood

Lady of the Lockwood Estate.

Eldest daughter of another of Arborcea's noble houses.

High Elf.

Her and Alistair's marriage was an arranged one for politics and money, not love.

Strongly begrudges Alistair for the affair that led to Rook's existence, and has not forgiven him yet. (26 years is a blink of an eye for an elf.)

Despite this, will forever and always keep up appearances of a happy and faithful couple. (Even when they are alone, she hardly ever shows her displeasure with Alistair.)

Was thrilled when Rook ran away, because it meant that there was no longer a constant reminder of her husband's infidelity and shame wandering the halls of her house.

Vain, and always fishing for compliments from everyone around her.

Cleverer than she lets on.

Her sons are her greatest love and pride. They can do (almost) no wrong in her eyes. (However, damaging the image of house Lockwood does count as wrong.)

Has tea gatherings with the other noble ladies where they talk shit about anything and anyone.

Very strict mistress to the servants and anyone in her employ.

Also a strict mother, though much more loving.

Silas Lockwood

The oldest Lockwood brother.

The closest thing to a "rebellious" kid the [legitimate] Lockwood family has.

Stereotypical "popular kid": has a ton of friends and is always the center of attention despite being a dick to most people.

Is rarely at home, usually off "adventuring" (aka, paying other people to do the real work, then let him come in and deal the final blow and taking the credit.)

Excellent fencer, but initially trained for dueling competitions for entertainment, not lethality. His style is kind of exaggeratedly showy because of this.

When he's not adventuring or dueling, he's usually in a tavern, slightly drunk and surrounded by "20 of his closest friends". (or "friends"... most of them are using him or he's using them. He's aware of this and doesn't care.)

Has his father's short temper and intense pride. Can never walk away from a fight.

Hates nothing more than losing/being humiliated.

Byron Lockwood

Middle child, often overlooked in favor of his siblings.

Most boring/practical of the kids.

Doesn't really know what he wants in life.

Doomed to always be out-shined by Silas or Theo.

Totally not bitter about it.

Currently engaged to the daughter of another noble house.

Wants to inherit the title of Lord Lockwood, and is offended that someone as irresponsible as Silas would get it.

Perfectionist. Expects the best from everyone around him at all times.

The only Lockwood kid with a "real" job. (Manages some of his father's interests in a handful of shipping companies based in Arborcea.)

Think of the stereotypical shitty boss: Greedy, ambitious, treats his underlings like tools not people.

Theodore "Theo" Lockwood

The youngest Lockwood brother.

His parents' favorite.

Mama's boy, has Lady Lockwood wrapped around his finger and he knows it.

Spoiled youngest child. Is used to getting everything he wants whenever he wants it.

Will get very upset if his desires are not met.

Has spent the last few decades attending various kind of universities for degrees in all sorts of things. (the perks of being an elf and super rich, I guess.)

When asked about his plans "after schooling", he just does a kind of vague handwave and starts rambling about "research projects", but can't give any straight answers.

Will probably end up as some kind of weird professor/research funder: Ultra wealthy, multiple PHDs, "inventor" (but really just pays people to invent things for him), more than a little bit of a jerk. All his future students will come in so thrilled to meet this famous guy who's done so much impressive shit, but end up leaving disillusioned about their idol.

Not as smart as he seems. More than possibly has paid his way through at least a few of his classes/degrees.

As an academic will almost certainly plagiarize most or all of his work.

[wormchaser]

you are complaining about complaining too much while complaining about the fact that maybe people dont like you because you complain too much while complaining about being alone. just stop complaining and do something about it. talk to people. reach out. dont just wait for someone to come to you first.

i have tried reaching out to different people in the past year or so but it never works. i understand its my own fault for letting relationships decay because of my own insecurities and issues but that doesn't mean i can just will myself to think or believe different things about myself. it's a self fulfilling prophecy ; i think people don't like me so i don't reach out so people don't like me etc . i am sure you do not want to hear me list all the things i want to say in response so i will put them in the tags.

[britcision]

So I’ve been trying this thing this year

Where I look at the things I’ve decided in the past were too difficult for me or that I couldn’t do so I shouldn’t try

And saying “fuck it let’s noodle around for a couple hours and see what happens”

Because the time will pass anyway and I might as well

And listen

I already knew I was far too powerful and my incredible gifts had to be nerfed by the gods in the form of about six separate physical and mental disabilities lest I threaten the fabric of reality

But it turns out that actually I am a golden god and the limits of my abilities are defined solely by a combination of my own self doubt and the amount of time and energy I’m willing to put in to practice something

I can be as good at anything as I decide I want to be, because I decide when I don’t want to put more work in to improve

And listen

This might sound hard

This might sound silly and completely inapplicable to yourself because clearly you are not as magnificent and talented as I

But that is the demon of self doubt that sits upon your shoulder to constrain your might

And how do you know you’re not also a golden god capable of anything unless you give it a try?

[rawliverandgoronspice]

regarding common tropes about ganon's writing in fics, I am kind of always taken aback a little anytime ganondorf uses degrading sexist terms in fics and such. Because to me, even his most evil interpretations would probably have no reason to have negative associations with women who have sex a lot, unless he picked it up from elsewhere (like there's some room for it to be interesting psychologically speaking if that's directly addressed, but it never is). I'm not sure why the gerudos would ever cultivate these kind of misogynistic ideas in their own culture, or why Ganondorf would spontaneously decide to form any essentialist ideas he may potentially develop on the basis of promiscuity, of all things. And, if he would pick that up from Hyrule... why would he, why this, and how does that map out with him remaining proudly gerudo in most iterations if he sees any non-married woman getting funky in a negative way?

it's kind of a very small thing, but it does kind of beckons a lot of questions regarding worldbuilding and psychology and it tends to take me out of fics a little, because it's always kind of assumed and never investigated

[icewindandboringhorror]

"We can get through this by working together, reach out to your friends, community is all we have, a social network will be your security in the world, now is the time to lean on others!"

I do agree, and it's scientifically sound (pretty sure there is data about how people with better social networks live longer and etc) but also....augh..... what about the severe social issues, difficulty to leave the house, physical issues which lead to like zero socialization energy a majority of the time, etc. etc. Social support can be a replacement for structural support, but.. I guess I just wish it didn't have to be. Community is extremely difficult to build, even moreso if you're someone who has issues with social cues or group conversations or even just being around others in the first place. And blah, nuance, of course I'm just complaining or maybe being too negative or maybe misunderstanding, but, I hardly have the energy to brush my hair once every 2 months.. how am I supposed to maintain a wide social network and be active in a Community and Join Groups lol... sometimes it kind of feels like "er.. well if thats my only option then...... ruh roh". It's overwhelming

[clickityweasel]

Could I ask your pronouns pretty pleaseee

whatever's funniest

[a-dragons-journal]

Something that's been developing recently is radqueer being a movement that involves being supportive of pro-contact for harmful paraphilias among other things. It overlaps a lot with transID.

It's safe to assume if there's radqueer in the blog description or tags, the person likely is at least neutral on pro-contact pedophilies and beastiality.

Yeah, I'm unfortunately aware. I typically don't assume it unless I can find something pointing to it, because that's a pretty big accusation, but yeah.

Which, like... it makes sense, unfortunately, because it's hard for me to rationalize a standpoint that supports the idea of being transage, but doesn't support statutory rape. Either:

you believe transage people should be treated as their age identity, in which case if a 15yo who identifies as a 30yo has sex with a "cis"30yo, or a 30yo who identifies as a 15yo has sex with a "cis"15yo, it's "not" statutory rape, or

you acknowledge that those scenarios are statutory rape, and therefore that it's not safe or healthy to treat a transage person as their age identity in many circumstances (not just this one, this is just the most obvious/extreme example), which is not usually acceptable to the transID/radqueer community from what I've seen. (Which, admittedly I don't exactly run in those circles, so)

And like... you could say the same about being nonhuman, I guess, except a) it seems like there's a lot less cultural pressure in the nonhuman community to treat other nonhumans as being Exactly 1:1 The Same as a "cisspecies animal", from what I've seen, and b) it's a lot easier to draw a line of treating someone as nonhuman in some ways but not others than it is with age, because like... kind of the only reasons you (should) treat someone of a certain age differently are safety reasons. Whether that's because of literal cognitive differences or because of lack of life experience or because of power dynamics. There's... not really a way to treat someone as older or younger than they are without ignoring those things as far as I can see, because outside of those things you should probably be treating people about the same anyway.

[mcalhenwrites]

Still alive, writing and editing a lot and even drawing (mostly dragon sketches at work). Seasons has some new chapters now... I saw something earlier about writing being something you can hone by doing lots of reading and writing. I wonder when that will apply to me. I've read a lot of books this year. I have almost hit my goal of 90 books, and while a couple are nonfiction and half are comics, the rest are novels. I expect that to increase again, now that I'm going back to the library. (I stopped with the bed bug scare.) Then I'm setting aside time each week to write. I work on stories at work, even if it's mostly just planning. (My laptop is falling apart so I just gave up taking it to work.) Yet here I am, still the same idiot who doesn't have anything appealing enough for most people to read. I can't get 99% of my followers interested. Sales of Geckos have dropped to next-to-nothing. Nothing else I put out there matters either. The fault lies with me. I'm not good enough. After having this stupid blog for 12 years, I want to delete it. I want to delete my twitter account. I want to delete every single account and shut up for good. There is nothing I can offer. My writing is a good hobby for me. I can get pats on the head for doing a little thing for myself. Aww, look at the cute little dumbass adult doing wittle storwies!!! Isn't that silly!!! They're not good, but he's having fun during the process. Too bad he hasn't figured out that not even 39 more years of practice can save what he's handing out.

[togairaa]

I keep getting disappointed with each new chapter, and I get my hopes up for the next one, but it hits a new low