#fleeing brains

[history-of-art-scholar]

I know we are all focused on the US at the moment because of the election but I wanted to talk about something.

I wanted to talk about Italy, again.

When I was little I didn’t really want to stay here, I looks at other countries far far away with amazement. Here I had problems caused by my double ethnicity, italians used really silly insults to talk about me and they reeeeeaaaaally liked to remind me of when Croatia was part of Italy with a hint of nostalgia (I hated it).

I grew up online with mostly American pop culture. I was really disconnected from Italian pop culture because I was bullied and estranged. I still wanted to run away at the first chance that I could get my hands on. I was dreaming of Germany, maybe France perhaps. I always tried to make elaborate plans on how to escape.

I was always looking forward, at the future, about the possibilities of “going away”.

Then I turned around and I found friends, communities, collectives, a culture a I liked and that was fun. I started to reconnect with my own country, learning about other regions’ dialects thanks to my friends. Through the years I have taught myself the history of Italian politics and social movements, and I said “wow, there’s so much potential here” (I also acknowledge the bad parts of Italy as I have done also in another post). Now I would really like to stay here, my country it’s a mess and it looks like a house renovation project: there’s beautiful details everywhere but I need to redo completely the flooring because it’s rotten.

I have just graduated (masters degree) and the only jobs that I am finding have nothing to do with my degree and my rent halves my earnings (without counting the bills). I have a room in house that should be completely redone, that it’s not easy to heat up and that has a problem with mold.

While I am finding myself in this situation, I have to deal with the news talking about how my generation is a bunch of lazy fucks (I know that in every country they are doing the same). They are also slowly taking away our rights. I have come to the moment where I have to move, now that I really do not wish to do so, I have to.

I am going to be one of the many “fleeing brains”, a phenomenon that Italy has absolutely no explanation for.

Because why would young people run away, right?

[lotus-pear]

mourning black and the death of ideals

[tavina-writes]

I have been recently thinking about NHS and JGY's relationship, especially as it pertains to how much they understand each other, and I'm pretty sure the conclusion I'm coming to is that JGY doesn't actually understand NHS at all except like, in vague superficiality?

This is not an argument about whether or not JGY cared about NHS (though he seems to have some pretty big blind spots on what is actually good for NHS or what he actually desires, which, again come back to not really understanding what makes NHS tick) because I don't think you can spend well over a decade cleaning up someone else's problems without caring for the person in question. But more like, the events of the Temple and the Discussion Conference prior to the Temple and indeed anything leading up to the Temple at all would not have occurred if JGY actually understood? NHS? at all?

Like, obviously NHS was concealing the truth and acting while he proceeded with his revenge scheme, JGY (who presumably had some amount of time to think about who could possibly want him dead/disgraced/fleeing off to Dongyin) doesn't even begin to suspect that the person who wrote the letter and arranged all of this might be NHS until LXC's already stabbed him.

That's a pretty big fucking blind spot considering the whole thing is being unearthed because of NMJ's murder corpse put together shenanigans. Like he knows to hide Chifeng-zun's head but not to suspect Chifeng-zun's brother???

Like I think this might go beyond "doesn't understand anything about this other person besides on a very superficial level" to "might genuinely have some pretty big MISconceptions about who this person is or what they're like."

[fadedrainbowbookshelves]

Frank, speedwalking out of the post office: "Priority. Thank you. I need to be elsewhere immediately."

[the-genius-az]

I can't get the idea of Azula escaping the asylum with the help of Mai and Ty Lee.

And maybe two years later one person defeated Zuko and took the throne from him, putting everyone in danger because the new Fire Lord was going to declare war again.

While Mai and Ty Lee went to the cabin Azula lived in, only to tell her that she was the only option that could save everything.

But they find her with a baby who is only a few months old and emotionally dependent on her adopted son.

[luxlightly]

Showering is like dying and being reincarnated as the same person.

Outwardly unchanged, but you went through some shit

[fellamarsh]

another thing i've been trying to do recently is read more self-published stuff. "but fell," you say, "you're a self-published author. surely you've been reading self-published stuff all along" and then i laugh for so long in response we both become uncomfortable.

see, the fear (which has for a long time been killing my mind) that i'll read other self-published stuff and find out that it's so much better than mine that i might as well stop writing forever kept me from doing that basically ever. i have a hard time not unfavorably comparing my work to others and had convinced myself i was being smart by withholding an avenue of de-motivation (reader: i was not being smart). it also doesn't help that i'm pretty low income and have a hard time spending money on books i haven't already read, and that self-published stuff isn't always available at the library---but really a lot of it was just me being a coward. which i'm working on. i could talk about how this particular cowardice is Very Silly, but i think enough has been said about it on writeblr and in the Writing Space in general that i don't feel the need to (though i will if anyone wants me to).

instead, i wanna talk about the self-published things i have read in the past few months and ask about the self-published things you love!

so: what happened was i got real sick, and while i was real sick i (naturally) read over 200,000 words of ace attorney fan fiction in the span of a few days. eventually i got bored of it (and also maybe annoyed at how people were characterizing some of my guys), but i still wanted to read something gay and romantic and nice, something i knew was gonna end happily, which isn't my typical fare.

now you may be saying (having gotten over all the uncomfortable laughter from earlier) "fell, you write gay romance. what do you mean that's not your typical fare?" listen. until a couple months ago i hadn't read a cut and dry romance novel since before i finished college. for context: i graduated in 2015. i know it doesn't make sense. i'm a guy who doesn't make sense.

but in this case it worked to my advantage. not the not making sense thing, but the not having read Published Romance in 1000 years thing. I didn't know where to start. I was very skeptical of everything the library had Available Now in the Gay Fantasy Romance category. what if it was all bad and also not good?

and then i scrolled past the familiar cover of our very own @ashen-crest's A Rival Most Vial.

now this was comfortable territory! this was a novel by a very nice writeblr person whose posts i enjoy! i already loosely knew the plot, i was familiar with the characters, i knew the names of things like rosemond street and the griffin's claw and that ambrose had blue hair and that at the end of it all there would definitely be Boyfriends. i didn't have to worry that this would be bad! i only had to worry that it would be really good!

but i wasn't worried about that, because i was officially Not Writing at the time, and because why the hell hadn't i read this book yet Ash literally emailed me some very kind words last year when my cat died??

Y'all, I devoured ARMV. If you haven't read it yet---especially if cozy fantasy is more your thing than it is mine---you should check it out Immediately. It was fun! It was heartwarming! It was sweet and earnest and confident! I was delighted to find it was occasionally hot! Ambrose and Eli snuggled up into my sick exhausted heart and found a permanent little place there. (Especially Ambrose. I have such a thing for Stiff Guys who Kind of Suck for Tragic Backstory Reasons and are So So Lonely They Don't Even Realize It. gawd)

(And a very small part of my brain spent the whole time wondering why I had been so afraid to really engage with the work my community is doing. The community that I'm in. The one I'm a part of. Why?! Maybe more on that later.)

But from there the curse was broken! I immediately devoured @stjohnstarling's What Manner of Man in a similar sort of frenzy (and hooooly shit guys am I excited for the expanded, finalized version to come out at the end of next month!) and started digging into @lurinatftbn's The Flower that Bloomed Nowhere (which I can already tell is going to be an All Time Favorite).

And now I want to ask you what your favorite self-published books are so that I can read them, too, but I think I will in another post that doesn't dedicate so much space to talking about my various and sundry Issues and isn't Terminally Long

[edorazzi]

More Thunderbirds Are Go comics because my fixations are an unstoppable force! 🚀🌟

Feat. the space bros having a discussion about family genetics, the importance of compressing your Squid (who thrives in pressurised environments!) between missions, and Scott using his dashing iR charms for chaotic good! 🥰

[prolibytherium]

I've got big opinions on dream sequences in writing. Which is mostly that they really shouldn't be there like 90% of the time because they grind the narrative to a halt, but I think they CAN have value. It's just that they tend to be executed in a way that's kind of pointless.

It's mostly that a lot of writers have the sequences be literal 1:1 depictions of the character's anxieties or feelings, or otherwise the absolute most on the nose symbolism possible. And it's not like dreams are NEVER like that, but why bother stopping the narrative to include a full sequence that essentially just repeats information the reader already knows?

If it's established that Character A is scared that Character B will get murdered by Jeff the Killer, and then A has an entire dream sequence of B getting Jeff the Killed and A wakes up sweating like 'Noooooooooo I do not want that to happen noooooo' it's jsut like. Yeah I knew that already?

[qoldenskies]

Also you 🤝me

Doing Bad Things Happen Bingo looking at Rise and cackling wickedly…..now to make them their own separate thing or write more CC brainrot

always the option to mix it up a little !!! i'll probably be writing a little cc if i get an idea for something really good with my bthb but im probably going to focus mooostly on original prompts so mess around. do what your heart desires!!!

[leo-leon-leonar-leonardo]

Nothing like having a nightmare in which I'm a guy who can redo time and, somehow, i have to fight/stop an omnipotent being from destroying the world.

Just like this, my brain has killed me enough times to not even flinch when it presents me with a cartoonish dead.

Ah, right, i also lost my sanity and was calling myself the Holy Spirit.

[star--nymph]

Eurydice has to leave her children in Skyhold for their own safety after their home is blighted. She is on her knees trying to reason with her oldest children, Psyche and Farron, because they are 11 and 10, respectively, and they're so old now.

Psyche has been training with her wooden sword; Papae said before this that someday soon, she might get to wield a real one.

Farron has been studying magic with the Keeper and his mentor, Kieran! He knows how to cast a fire with his hands now!

They can help! They can go with her!

And Eurydice has to hold them and beg them to listen, to understand. "No, stay children as long as you can. Play with your siblings, listen to your aunts and uncles, eat and sleep. Dream of good things. If you must do anything for me, do that."

Eurydice couldn't save them from seeing the terror of the world this young, but she won't steal their youth from them. She won't have them grow up too soon, not now, not when they can be protected. Farron tries to understand, but he's always been the more sensitive of his children. He weeps against her but stops asking her to take him.

Psyche refuses to understand. Her eldest child who tries to play the hero. Perhaps it was her fault for letting her hear those old war stories. She thinks of herself as braver and bigger than she is. She resents her with tears in her eyes; why should she stay a child? Why can't she fight? Eurydice can only kiss her forehead and tell her one day she will understand. One day she will treasure the childhood she had, even among the wreckage of a blight.

Cullen watched this happen and turned away, covering his face so she couldn't see him overwhelmed by his tears.

The other children are hard but easier. Bridget is only five, she is only aware of so much. That her mother is leaving and one of her fathers will be following after her in a few weeks. But she is safe and in a fairytale castle with pretty dresses and big gardens to play in. It will distract her long enough. Eurydice cradles her in her arms and tells her to be good for Papae and Babae (Bull and the Chargers have been "contracted" as bodyguards for the children, but Bull needed little excuse to stay with his child or the rest that he has all but adopted as an uncle to). Bridget cries because that is what she must do, but it is better she does so now over the temporary separation than a real one. Maybe one day, the heartache won't even be a memory.

Lir clings to Cullen's leg and refuses to look at her. Cullen had told her that a few days prior, he had watched him put on his old armor and burst into tears. The sheer notion of both of them going back to war had shaken the headstrong, wily eight-year-old enough to grab his father's hand (the father he loved to annoy and prank and laugh at) and beg him not to die. Now, he can only look to the ground when Eurydice comes to him and touches his golden curls. Asks him to be kind to his father and the rest of Skyhold, at least until she comes back. She whispers into his hair as she holds him that he's good at making others smile. When she lets go, he runs back to Cullen's leg and hides his face into his side. He doesn't want her to see his tears.

Finally, she finds Zander on his own. Remote and cautious. He had already seen how cruel the world was before Lir and her found him starving and huddled in a charred ruin. It doesn't shake him like others when she announce she'd be leaving; some small part of him still didn't trust her or Cullen not abandon him. Or maybe it's the world he doesn't trust not to take them away and leave him alone once more. Either way, when she comes to him, he doesn't cry or bargain with her. He looks at her with his sea-foam eyes and simple acceptance, and this is what needs to happen. He nods somberly when she asks him if he remembers what she said two years ago when she brought him home. "That we would make the world safe for you."

That's what she must do now. He will be safe in this place with his family, and when she is done, he will be safe when he leaves these castle walls. Trust her to do that.

Zander doesn't say if he will, but he holds her a little tighter than the rest before she gets up and goes. His scent lingers on her the longest--for some reason, he always smells like the sea to her. When she's in Minrathous, and overlooks the water, she will remember his eyes, and her heart will ache.

[goldkirk]

If anyone remembers all the dental work I needed done uhhhhhhh three years ago and never went back and ran away forever…I’m finally going back to a dentist on Thursday to restart the process and face my deep and utter abiding terror. And I also scheduled my COVID and flu vaccines for a couple hours later. And my psych appointment to restart meds.

I figured get it all done in one day, have my miserable immune reaction on Friday that I seem to always get with Moderna COVID shots, and then flee directly into the weekend and never be a person again except when I’m on and off crying. It’s going to be so kind to future me to get these things done and I can do it no matter how much I feel like I am constantly about to Actually Physically Die.

[y-rhywbeth2]

So in 1360s and 1370s DR the available temples for taking in orphans in Baldur's Gate were

The High House of Wonders (Gond) The Lady's Hall (Tymora) The Water Queen's House (Umberlee)

I'm not sure if shrines have the resources to care for orphaned kids, but they'd be Oghma (the Unrolling Scroll shrine), Helm (the Watchful Shield shrine), Ilmater (the Shrine of Suffering) and Lathander (the Rose Portal shrine). I imagine that the individual priest/s might take one or two under their wing if they can, particularly the Ilmatari...

[bundlofcigars]

Violinspector tangled au

Lyf as Rapunzel Marius as Flynn, Odin as mother gothel

[nemo-of-house-hamartia]

You know that feeling when you want to pick up the pen and write something, but you haven't written anything in such a long while that it feels like you have forgotten how to properly write??????

"Me Name Potato" is all I can conjure up now (or at least it feels like this lololololol).

I need to rest my eyes a bit because all the artworking that I have been doing in the past few days has kinda taken its toll on my vision, but you all know that my brain cannot stand still, so I need to do something creative.

HENCE MY ATTEMPT AT TRYING TO WRITE SOMETHING.

But I feel rusty as heck. And this makes me EXTRA GRUMPY (and tbh extra scared, because I am looking at my empty documents as if it's going to bite me. Which, considering the document, it might just do that).