#but tl;dr: Yes you can choose whether to choose You're or You Are - it depends on what you want to convey!

[razzzletazzle]

"You're" is a shortening (combination of You and Are), yes! I feel that not shortening it puts more emphasis on the "are" part and gives more weight to the sentence. That's how I use it at least! I think you using "you are" in Leo's lines works perfectly! Makes what he's saying feel more important than the quicker "you're"

Grammar advice!

Instead of ‘you are’ use ‘You’re’

So where Leo said ‘now you are you.’ Say it like ‘now you’re you’

Just a friendly tip from a native English speaker!

Pspspspsp, come here, please , I couldn't sleep because of it

I have a problem with my head that refuses doing something until it has more explanation why

"You're" is like a shortening, yes? ("You are" also is used in polite form?) Than I can use "you are" when I don't want to use shortening, I wanted Leo in this scene to say it separately, more like "You are... you", he says all of them separately and clearly, I didn't want him to say it "you're you", it sounds quick, not how I expected him to say, is it still wrong or I can make it like this?

[shivology]

okay. one day i will stop talking about islam but it's not gonna be today. anyway, to overcorrect on post-9/11 islamophobia, a lot of liberal spaces infested by the types of muslims who will call you islamophobic and disrespectful of their culture when you call them out on their homophobia or transphobia and who will deny the infestations of misogyny and antiblackness and antisemitism in their (our) communities because Um Actually You Don't Get The Full Context, have started to almost . idk the word but like, deify? whitewash? sugarcoat? islam as if it's like. One Inherently Good Singular Ideology Misunderstood By White People For Racism Reasons. when yes, obviously, islam and muslims who live in the west are oppressed, but that's not all islam is. and it's such disservice to act like Islam cannot be oppressive to so many people who do live in the global south living either directly under islamist rule or just in conservative muslim-majority communities, to say that no actually we're a peaceful religion and we WORSHIP women actually! like to gaslight people who have actually been forced to wear the hijab, who have actually been victims of misogynistic honor-based violence, who have actually been pulled out of school to be married off to a 50 year old man because "the prophet did it so it's islamically ok!"

and it's tricky to talk about because you don't want to fuel islamophobia (which, like antisemitism, is obviously a legitimate tangible thing, but also can be weaponized) also it is so fucking ANNOYINGGGGG to watch discourse on islam be led by people who have never experienced oppression fueled by islam like sure you're a good ally to guys like mohamed hijab but also people like sara hegazy mahsa amini etc etc all these people are real people who were tangibly hurt in the name of islam. there is a reason why a man like andrew tate felt it was ok for a man like him to convert to islam and there is a reason why so many Muslim men welcomed him with open fucking arms. you're sure not a good ally to queer people and atheists and christians and jews who have been tangibly hurt in the name of islam.

and we can discuss the doctrine itself, we can talk about the effects of colonialism, we can talk about how no actually islam doesn't say that lets not conflate between ~ real religion and corrupt regimes but the thing issssss. religion is literally what you make of it. it is an idea. there is a book and you take what you take from it. there is no such thing as "the correct way" to practice religion, especially when all Abrahamic religions have the capacity to be peaceful AND the capacity to be violent. what is REAL representation? who are you to say what real representation is, anyway? who decides what is extremism? why do you, personally, get to pick and choose who and what represents a certain religion?

islam, like Every Religion Ever, manifests itself in different ways depending on ur social context. whether you have the means to exact oppression via religion or whether you are disenfranchised because you're an ethnic or racial or religious minority. religion has and always will be used both as a tool for good (community building, etc) or for evil (daaesh, lol) it's not about religion itself. it's about how you use it and its place in the social pecking order.

anyway. tl;dr. i hate oversimplication and i hate overcorrection. quite frankly, it's orientalist and racist, to assume that an organized religion followed by over a billion people in most countries in the world, all believe the same beliefs. even if u think these beliefs are "good." here's over a billion of us and some of us are bound to be cunts! statistically.

[infinitedraconity]

are constelics valid? i was always wondering this and my friend (whose otherkin) seems to not like them. i’m a little confused as to what they are too.

Hey there, grey friend with sunglasses!

Admittedly, I don't know many of the new terms being coined for some types of identities, so I had to look this one up.

According to the coiner, constelic refers to folks whose identities are picked up later in life, and are generally not permanent. Constelic identities (or stels) are not something you're born with, and whether or not you choose your stels depends on the person and/or the individual stels. Stels can last anywhere from a very short amount of time (around a week) to a lifetime (though this is uncommon).

Honestly, sounds like it occupies some of the space between linktypes and flicker identities. I'm not an expert on any of these, as I don't experience them, but I'm not surprised to see an overlap there.

My take on whether or not something is valid is this: if it is a good-faith identity that is actually being experienced by someone, and it isn't harming them or anyone else, then yes. We should always approach these things with curiosity and empathy, rather than ire, since both the human and nonhuman experiences are so diverse and unique.

To your friend, if they wish to listen: From one otherkin person to another, I would ask you to look inward and figure out what about this identity bothers you. Then, read about it, and seek to understand them before you make a call on whether they are valid.

Tl;dr: Constelic is just another form of alterhumanity that someone could experience. There is no good reason to call it invalid, if you ask me. Be curious and always seek to understand first.

Wind at your back!

Original Carrd archive for the term constelic

[circle-bircle]

just finished fire emblem: the last promise. i gotta. i gotta talk

play tlp.

ok well don't if you don't want to. but the sheer SCOPE of this is un-freaking-REAL. i think one that really shines out to me is chapter 26 where it's basically a fe4 map in fe7 - you're going around conquering places and also THE SCENERY CHANGES FOR THE TIME OF DAY!!!! plus holton is basically a bootleg valter. always appreciate that. gosh. i just. hnng.

the plot? it's definitely fire emblem. i won't get into spoilers too terribly much but one of the main lords... isn't even playable in the final chapter, where he really should have been to complete his character arc. all i'm saying. but other than that it's good. you fight a dragon in a gaiden chapter

the gameplay? WOOAOW it's fire emblem alright!! lots of characters. gba supports though so i didn't really learn about most of them. but they're all fun and feel like their own characters. but there's lots of weapons, you don't get the convoy until CHAPTER 17!!!! though so be prepared to manage items. a lot of items. i didn't think it was UBER hard but there were definitely some challenging points in it. of course i talked about chapter 26 but one i also liked was with the next chapter; 27 was a DOOZY. it was very tough but very very fun and the boss can teleport (he's also sexy - yes, i have a thing for blondes. obviously.) and kill your convoy!!! so. RIP convoy man but not really. :P there's a few 'solo' fights, where shon (a lord) fights some guys and he goes on a sidequest if you choose to do it which is very cool i think. and kelik fights literal zoro from one piece (no, I am not kidding. it is Zoro from One Piece) and someone else who is a spoiler but it's sick as hell. not to mention the creator really loved the kaga sagas. like, really loved the kaga sagas.

the technicalities of this game? wow. it's built in fe7 - roms nowadays are usually built in fe8 due to... storage, i believe? or just because it's the most polished gba fe - but i haven't played much with fe roms so i wouldn't know for sure. there's voice acting! VOICE ACTING!!!!! and there's even dynamic voice acting for a character where they say something different depending on how far they are in the story. not to mention this was created when fe hacking at all was pretty underdeveloped - it still holds up today IMO. of course there's some jank but it's relatively minor.

ok have to talk about the characters now. first, not actual characters but there are... fe4(?) characters here. claud and julius.

or well. "claud" and "julius". no, i never met claud again. so. :/.

i can't really talk about kelik without going into spoilers. but he is unabashedly sick asf!!! he goes through a great character arc and gets a fairy sword :). there's also a difference in his ending whether or not you win/lose a very specific fight for vengeance or whatever. in his world of worlds every step meets the rest. inb4 weight of your sins. something something. play tlp.

spoilers spoilers spoilers:

i love galagar. he's just very cool. except when you get an infodump right before the final... chapters.... about his life...... you know it'd be nice if we learned a little bit more beforehand but c'est la vie.

tl;dr: tlp good. play :)

[sasskarian]

I know you're not exactly a DA blog anymore... But... I just finished DA2 for the very first time and, and. I got myself Inquisition with all DLCs. I need to know what happens. I want the poor baby Cullen to be happy :(

Nonnie, I am still at my heart very much a DA blog (and Mass Effect; I just tend to smear new obsessions everywhere. Like finger painting). I curate my experience as much as I can due to the fandom being shit, but my love for DA is strong and steady. 

The best thing I can say is, play through the game and DLCs. (Tho suggested order is Jaws > Descent > Trespasser) I promise you, Cullen has the option of being happy. I wouldn’t write about it if I didn’t see those paths, and at least some of them are canon. 

I know what you mean, tho. Cullen is, to some of my friends’ dismay, near and dear to my heart. He’s my canon quiz’s romance, for many reasons. The truth is, I struggle with the fandoms’ interpretations of him and was just talking about this with my DA/FO/ME bestie @asaara-writes the other day. I think a lot of Cullen’s trauma is easily missed or overlooked in favor of louder plots (like Fenris’s, who doesn’t get hated on nearly so much for his hatred and distrust of mages, or Anders who hates Templars and is lauded for it. If I see another ANDERS WAS RIGHT banner, I’m gonna overclock somebody’s capacitors)

(Pardon me, I’ll throw this under a cut because wall of text, but I have some got-damn Opinions on Cullen and how the fandom treats him)

But for me, I’m neither in the “Cullen is poor bab who never did anything wrong uwu” or the “Cullen is a horrible bastard and should be set afire” camp. I walk a more moderate line, and here’s why:

I have a Cullen. 

My fiance, he’s... so much like Cullen that it breaks my heart. Military vet, disillusioned with his desire to do good in the world and the realities of corruption and power abuse. Substance abuse issues, and recovery from addiction. Said some bad things/had bad opinions when he was younger due to abuse by certain groups of people, and has since reformed and is trying to continue changing. Abuse survivor. Blood on his hands from his career. Trying his best to find his way in a world that he doesn’t understand. So I see the similarities, and I live with the reality of what that kind of history and life is like. 

Cullen was a fresh-faced 18 year old in the Kinloch Circle (however old his in-game image looks, he was canon 18-20). Which, by canon, was one of the less problematic, more lenient Circles (though you have to have Mage origin to find that stuff out). I don’t think he’d been a Templar long at that point. And he joined the Templars out of a desire to do good in the world. His examples of Templar behavior were those stationed in a small village, who had more leniency and less lawkeeping duties. Honnleath was tiny, and quiet. I’m going on assumption here, on my own history of small towns vs larger cities, that there wasn’t much evidence of power hunger and abuse an eight year old would notice.

Note that he remains kind and even remorseful at some of his duties (for instance, having to attend Harrowings) even under a hateful man like Greagoir.

When Uldred takes over the Circle and kills everyone, Cullen is the last left. He watches possessed mages and demons run wild in his home, killing and torturing his friends. If you’re a mage origin, he talks about how the demons used his feelings and affection for you, inappropriate though they were, to torment him. It’s implied through dialogue that at least some of those demons sexually abused him. 

Yes, in his panic and fresh trauma, he begs the Warden to kill any mages found left in the Circle. I wonder why. Tumblr at large acts like the only way for PTSD and trauma to be exhibited is through cowering and nightmares, but it’s well known among people who have PTSD (including myself) that outrage, hair trigger tempers, and anger issues are as common as crying jags and insomnia. 

After the resolution of Broken Circle, Cullen is reassigned to Kirkwall. Arguably, this is the worst possible Circle he could have been sent to in the entirety of the goddamn world. Not only is Kirkwall famous for increased blood mage activity (both due to history and also due to Templar behavior), which is one of his trauma-groups, but Meredith hates mages, and rules over them with an iron fist. She is fucking crazy, and whether her past makes her a sympathetic villain or not (ymmv), she downright encouraged the abuse of mages and as she loses her mind, we see her start accusing everyone of blood magic. 

Canon states that there are Templars in Kirkwall who sexually abuse mages, who torture them, and who kill them at will, and these are never dealt with. Meredith has no desire to change the way the Gallows is run, and it’s said or implied that before her reign as the overseer, the Gallows-- while still not great-- was not this bad. 

So, freshly traumatized and young Templar is sent to the worst possible place in Thedas, under the command of a crazed mage hater, surrounded by the very thing that will trigger him nigh constantly. I see a lot of the fandom say “well why didn’t he quit/leave?” And I wonder if those fans understand what indoctrination can do. Specifically, military indoctrination. You’re told that the ranks are your home, your family, the only ones who can or will ever understand you. You’re told this for so long that it becomes a life raft. It becomes your world truth. That’s the nature of emotional abuse that fosters codependency: it literally reshapes your world. 

Added to that, Templars are controlled by the Chantry through lyrium, an addictive drug that quitting is difficult and surviving the withdrawal of is often fatal. (that’s another rant entirely that can be summed up as tl;dr fuck the fucking Chantry)

The Templars were the only thing he knew. After that kind of soul-shaking trauma, do you leave behind everything you ever knew? (Remember, he was 13 when he joined into this kind of brainwashing.) No. You cleave to what you can, to what keeps you getting through the day. 

Cullen spent a further ten years in Kirkwall, watching the city fall apart under Qunari, blood magic, and Meredith’s increasing insanity. There was no reprieve for his PTSD: everywhere he turned, there was Something. And yet, we hear in Inquisition (depending on player choices, ofc) Samson say that Cullen tried to continue to be kind. He didn’t abuse mages, he tried to protect them where and how he could. 

[Samson: He arrived after the trouble at the ferelden circle. Cullen jumped at his shadow in those days, always on the watch for abominations and demons. Did right by the mages, though, never played rough with them. Not like Meredith.]

Was it limited? Yes. Was it hampered by circumstance? Yes. Should he have tried harder? Yes. 

But he still tried. 

Does he say regrettable things? Yes. Does he regret those things later? Yes. 

I had a friend, who I am no longer friends with for various reasons, tell me that “If Cullen was a good person, he wouldn’t need a redemption arc.” And... no, No, that’s not how redemption arcs work. Everyone does problematic things. Everyone who grows up brainwashed has to unlearn shit, and atone for shit. 

Cullen still struggles with mages. He still has a deep fear of them. Partly this is the Templar in him talking, partly this is trauma. And, here’s where we break from canon and go deep into psychology land: I think partly because he’s projecting. Cullen cannot imagine forgiveness for what he’s done. I wonder if part of him fears mages because he expects-- perhaps even some part of him desires-- retribution from them for his actions and past. 

And there’s things that have been retconned or that were misleading in previous games. For example, the rumor that Cullen escaped after Broken Circle and went on a mage murdering spree. That was nothing but a rumor, but the fandom levies it against him as if it happened.

But if Cullen “hated” mages, you wouldn’t be able to romance him as a mage. And honestly, that mage romance in DAI? Is one of the sweetest, most tender things I’ve seen in DA. As a mage, you can choose to help him past his fears, help him with his lyrium addiction. Help him grow as a person, and watch as he becomes a better person. As he learns that mages are more than their magic, and that Templars are so often wrong and awful in their treatment of them. 

I find Cullen to be well written. And believable as hell. The portrayal of him-- from the mood swings, to the trauma, to the shaky but steadying growth-- feels real, and I can back that up with my fiance’s own similar path. 

So. To wrap up because hoooooo, Opinions, play through the game. There’s a lot of gems there. <3 

[greenbergsays]

Hi G! I'm not sure whether to ask this ask here or on greenbergwrites, so I'm gonna ask it on both, just choose where you want to answer it. I've tried to write kinky smut, BDSM fluff (is BDSM fluff a thing?) and all that, but I never feel like I do it properly because I've never experienced that stuff. I don't know what subspace is like or the euphoria of getting a spanking (like you write with Steve). I know you're not a male sub in the BDSM community, so I want to ask you; how do you do it?

“BDSM fluff” describes about 98% of what I write, so I’m gonna have to say that yes, it is def a thing XD at least for me

But to answer your question, it’s a combination of two things: research and putting myself in the character’s shoes to consider how they’d feel about things. So, y’know. A lot of deep thought about what someone could/would get out of an act like spanking.

I mean, writing is basically acting on a private scale when you think about it.

A person like Sebastian Stan has to put a lot of thought and time and effort into giving an nuanced performance of a character like the Winter Soldier because he obviously has no idea what it feels like to be a brainwashed super-assassin. He has to create a mindset where he is that character, at least for a little while. Think and feel and react the way they would.

It’s the same thing in writing. We have to become the character and react the way they would, only we have to put that reaction into pretty words instead of a pretty, physical performance.

So, y’know. I do Google a GREAT many things and those things have probably made the NSA agent(s) monitoring my internet activity blush. (I’m sorry, Agent, I know you have to put up with a lot from me.)

And there are also a few blogs here on Tumblr that write what are basically PSA posts about certain things, so that’s helpful so long as you’re careful about who you listen to.

But research can also only get you so far, so then I just have to sit around and put myself in the shoes of not just a submissive, but specifically Steve as a submissive, and think about what he might get out of an act like spanking or being tied up. And those reactions are a little bit different depending on if it’s big!Steve or small!Steve.

They both like being tied up, but what they get out of it is varied.

And, y’know, a lot of it develops organically. If you go back and read my early sub!Steve stuff, it’s very different from what I write now. Sort of like an actor who’s been in a certain role for a while? It becomes a better fit as time goes on. You get used to thinking and feeling like the character and so it’s easier to slip into.

…this whole answer feels just a tad bit preachy, but I swear I don’t mean it to be? I don’t know how else to explain my process, I’m sorry D:

tl;dr version is basically: research and practice.

I’d also like to say that even though people seem to like what I write, I also get a lot of things wrong and I know that. There are certain aspects that don’t get as much attention in my writing as they should and it’s a flaw that I’m well aware of.

I don’t have an delusions of being a good BDSM writer, but I comfort myself by reminding myself that at least it’s better representation than EL James gave in 50 Shades.

(what a low fucking bar, I know)