#i invent new math to agree with you more

[studentinpursuitofclouds]

hello, love your work!!

would you mind making a version of the "...weren't we dating already?" ask but with the bachelorettes? can be of your choice, but please include Haley and Daia!!

thank you!! have a wonderful day :]

Sure! Thanks for the ask and have a wonderful day as well! ☺️💕

_________________________________________

Haley:

A beautiful clear day with no hint of rain clouds, a cool breeze to escape the summer heat, beautiful sunflowers blooming - Haley was so happy with how good a day it was for a photo shoot. And importantly, a photo shoot with Farmer, a person she used to think was a weirdo in perpetually dirty overalls, but so charming, sweet and kind that Haley's " spoiled mean girl" wrapper immediately melted away. It's been four months since they're dating, and their interest in each other is growing even more.

The blonde-haired girl was jumping up and down with joy as she checked her camera and caught such beautiful pictures that they didn't even require any editing on the computer. They were both in the photo hugging each other and looking so cute, hee hee..... Just like happy lovers should look. Another photo for her collection!

The Farmer is also so happy because of the lucky shots, looking at the photo that Haley showed them.

"There's another reason I agreed to do a photo shoot with you today," the girl's attention was immediately turned to Farmer. "Would you, heh... Would you want us to be more than just friends? Because... I like you a lot. You're a great, beautiful, smart and funny, and I-" Farmer abruptly ended the conversation as soon as they noticed that the smile on the girl's face had slipped and she was now looking at them with slight irritation. Taking this as a bad sign, Farmer immediately started apologising, then Haley put her hand up, ordering them to be quiet, and pulled out her phone. Opening up her social media account, she gave Farmer for them to read.

On the very front page, Haley's status was written in black and white: "Dating Farmer 😘❤️".

"Hold on... Are we-"

"You're so silly!" Haley's ringing laughter was music to Farmer's ears. Though their cheeks flushed with blush from the awkwardness of the situation, the warm gaze of the girl's azure eyes that looked at them with love made them realize that they were the luckiest and happiest person in the whole world.

Penny:

Autumn picnic... It had been a long time since Penny had been to a picnic where she devoted her time to herself rather than teaching the kids (don't get her wrong, she loves being a teacher!). For her, and Farmer, the lovely partner she's been dating for two months now. Sitting on a picnic blanket in the woods, the young teacher poured hot tea from a thermos into two mugs while Farmer arranged sandwiches, sweets and healthy snacks on plates. It was still early autumn, so it was possible to enjoy nature for hours without fear of the cold wind or low temperature.

The girl always felt so alive and happy around Farmer. Some part of her still couldn't believe that they were able to not only become friends, but to become something more.

Penny enjoyed telling the Farmer about her day, the new dish she had invented and how Jas and Vincent had managed to get the highest score in maths, and she didn't forget to listen to the adventures of the chaotic farmer themself, how they had fought monsters and grown a pumpkin the size of a car.

During this conversation, Farmer set their tea cup down on the grass and took Penny's hand in their hands.

"Words can't tell you how much I like you. I've been thinking for two months now, and.... Heh, not very good with words..." The Farmer took a deep breath. "Do you want to be my girlfriend? Do you want to be something more than friends?"

"Yes! I agr- Wait." Out of happiness, Penny didn't immediately realise their words, hovering somewhere in the clouds. "But... we're already dating."

"....We've been dating?"

"Grown-ups can be so silly." Farmer and Penny almost jumped at the sound of someone else's voice from behind the nearest bush.

"Jas! Vincent! It's not nice to eavesdrop!" As much as Penny tried to sound stern, Farmer's laughter at this funny situation was contagious, and she was already giggling quietly too, trying to hide the smile with her hand. The children crawled out from under the bushes and looked at the two adults, unable to stop giggling as well.

Daia:

"I knew you'd always find something fun for us to do!" Farmer could have argued with Daia that fighting monsters in Ridge Forest was hardly a pleasant pastime, but they were too busy swinging their sword and fending off another attack from the clawed paws. As if in a dance, the ninja girl struck the serpent beasts with her katana, not giving the monsters a chance to strike.

"That musk idea was a good one after all! Now we'll have enough loot for the Lady's task." Actually, it was Daia who was assigned this task, the Farmer was participating here voluntarily. The young daredevil decided that today was the day they wanted to offer the fearless girl, the object of their admiration, to be their girlfriend. Even if it meant dousing themself in stinking liquid and becoming monster bait. What one wouldn't do for love...

"We make a great team! And you're so hot when you're in battle~" even in a tense fight, the girl could make Farmer's face blush.

"Heh, maybe I'll show you something more, and in a nicer place. If you want to be my girlfriend..."

For a second, Daia looked at them in surprise, and then burst out laughing so loudly that even the surviving monsters were slightly taken aback by such a strange reaction from their enemy.

"We've actually been a couple for half a year now! Or, at least, that's what I thought." With a swing of the katana, the remaining monsters were defeated. "And how did that happen, hmm?"

"I- I thought everything between us before was friendly!" Farmer turned away, unable to bear Daia's teasing stare.

"And those bushes we decided to 'explore together' yesterday - was that friendship too?" the girl smiled, watching with amusement as Farmer hid their face in their hands. She stepped close to them, taking their hands in hers, and kissed them gently on the lips.

"Well then, cutie, it's official now."

[catofadifferentcolor]

Terrible Fic Idea #81: Harry Potter, but make it Aberforth's Daughter

Having been told that choosing to be a muggle in the Wizarding World is "not getting into the spirit of things", I set about determining under what circumstances I could bear to live in the British Wizarding World. This is what I came up with.

Or: What if the SI were to replace Aberforth Dumbledore's OC daughter?

Some context:

First, we're leaning heavily on book canon while dipping our toes into Hogwarts Legacy as far as the extended magical communities in the Scottish Highlands are concerned. This means no Fantastic Beasts movies, no Credence Barebone, but the Hogwarts Legacy map and the implication the Wizarding World is bigger than just a school and alley - and actually magical.

Secondly, the OC wakes up with memories of her past life as the SI on her fifth birthday. This is less of a true SI than a modern woman in the British Wizarding World, with the middle-aged SI being a critical HP fan with an engineering background.

Thirdly, the SI takes the place of an OC - Aberforth's daughter, Aishwarya Devi, born in early 1979 as a result of fling with an Anglo-Indian astrophysicist by the name of Sandhya Devi who moved to the UK as a young adult. Although Aishwarya - Ash - is never unaware of who her father is, her parents agreed before she was born that Sandhya raises Aishwarya by herself for a variety of reasons that are part wartime paranoia, part not wanting to burden a child with the expectations of the Dumbledore name, and part Aberforth really not being cut out to be a husband or father. Assume she existed in canon, was sent to school in her mother's native India, and never made it into the pages of the books.

Just imagine it:

Ash grows up in the town of Brocburrow in the Hogsmede Valley. She is a quiet but inquisitive child - two traits that only grow more pronounced after she remembers he past life as the SI.

It becomes painfully clear early on that there is nothing she can do to prevent the Second Wizarding War from her position as an untrained underage witch, so Ash concentrates on learning everything she can so as to survive it, soaking up everything her mother can teach her - Wizarding and muggle astronomy, plus more runes and arithmancy than most ever learn in Hogwarts - and reading everything she can about this new world she has unfortunately found herself a part of.

The more she learns, the less impressed with the British Wizarding World Ash becomes. Too much power is concentrated in the hands of too few, with most wizards willing to blindly follow the most magically powerful among them because of a lingering belief that the magically powerful are magically powerful because they are deserving of it. (Think of the similar medieval concept re: nobles and their presumed nobility.)

Aberforth has little role in her childhood. If Ash had really been a child, it would have been easy to mistake his distance for lack of care, but having once been a semi-functional adult it's easier to see that Aberforth simply has no idea how to interact with children. He tries for her sake and Ash can't help but love him for it, even as he fails miserably.

Although Sandhya initially wishes her daughter to attend her alma mater back in India, Ash manages to convince her to let her attend Hogwarts in the fall of 1990, one year before Harry Potter is set to start his schooling.

To no one's surprise, she ends up sorted into Ravenclaw - and wielding an acacia and huma feather wand. ("A kingmaker's wand," Ollivander says.)

First year it's her intention to keep her head down and avoid attracting the notice of her uncle. Ash succeeds in this, coming across as just another academically gifted Ravenclaw, albeit one who makes a bit of a name for herself complaining that the muggles know such much more about outer space than we do. And math. Calculus was invented before the Statute of Secrecy, you know.

She also manages to strike up a surprising friendship with fourth year Percy Weasley - their usual tables in the library are next to each other and so they form a quiet academic acquaintanceship that evolves almost without them realizing it into true friendship. As least half of this is based Percy once telling his brothers off for a prank that borders more on bullying than humor, and the rest on Ash being just that advanced in astronomy and arithmancy.

Second year Ash is determined to stay out of the sorcerer's stone debacle - but also sets out to cultivate a friendship with Harry Potter, initially because it's the only way she can think of to get him away from the Dursleys (as any sensible adult should have done the first time he crossed their path) and out from under her uncle's thumb, but later because he is genuinely a sweet kid who soaks up all the affection he's given and returns it threefold. She does this by inviting him to celebrate Diwali with her and the other Hindi students - which opens up a can of worms regarding Harry's hereto unknown desi background - and establishes herself (and through her, Percy) a trustworthy older student Harry can rely upon.

This works out better than she can possibly dream when Harry takes his fears regarding the stone to Percy, who then presents them to McGonagall in a way that leads her to stake out the third floor corridor in her animagus form, catch Quirell in the act, and watch him die when Voldy deserts him.

Third year starts fairly close to CoS, but after the first petrifaction - about which the Headmaster does nothing save almost seem to encourage the rumors about Harry being the Heir of Slytherin - Ash decides to use her first Hogsmede weekend to act. She goes to the Hog's Head, tells her father exactly what is happening in the school, and watches as Aberforth's face turns into a storm cloud.

She has no idea what Aberforth actually does - only that the next morning the Headmaster announces the school will be closed until the person behind the petrifications is caught. She spends a week at home before the school reopens and though there are rumors the Aurors found a basilisk in the school, not a word of explanation is ever given to the students.

Ash's third year continues without further incident - except now she is on the Headmaster's radar. Albus had been kept carefully unaware of his brother's child, but now that he knows of her existence, he's eager to fit Ash into his Greater Good. Ash rebuffs him, but it's hard to be sure if even that isn't part of his plans.

Fourth year follows PoA fairly closely, though it's Ash's house Harry runs away to following events with Marge. Sandhya is more than happy to take her daughter's friend in, but the more she learns about Harry's home life, the more concerned she grows, and starts the ball rolling in the muggle world to have the situation investigated. This plays out quietly in the background while the school year otherwise follows canon - up to and including Wormtail's escape at the end of the year.

The summer before fifth year starts with both Harry and Dudley being removed from the Dursley home. Harry gets to stay with Ash and Sandhya while the Wizarding World fights over who gets to become Harry's legal guardian. They never get to decide - Harry is legally emancipated when he's forced to take part in the tournament - but the whole situation shines a bright light on everything that has been going on at Hogwarts the last few years. Dumbledore comes out of the situation with his titles intact, but his reputation in tatters - particularly after he claims Voldemort's return, which many think is a way to try to regain his former prestige.

Sixth year - OotP - is where things really start to change.

Despite his emancipation, Harry continues to live with Ash and Sandhya - Ash having very much taken up the mantle of protective older sister at this point.

With Dumbledore's political power already on a downward arc, it makes no sense to send Umbridge to Hogwarts. So Percy Weasley is the new DADA instructor instead. This makes a certain amount of sense, as Percy's frantic work keeping Crouch Sr.'s department running even while he was imperiused/ill/dead meant that things actually ran smoother. Fudge sees Weasley as a potential rival to be cut off at the knees... and one of the few Hogwarts graduates in his employ with an O in DADA.

This is awkward for a number of reasons, not least because despite having remained friends throughout Hogwarts, after running into each other at the Yule Ball (Ash was Harry's date) they're in that awkward stage of waiting for Ash to be older before investigating the attraction between them.

Sixth year goes well, with Percy setting out to teach not torture, and doing just enough to keep the ministry off his back - there are some parts of Hogwarts that need to be investigated, i.e. security and the reduced class offering - as well as doing just enough for his fellow professors to think he's a ministry toadie - Flitwick and McGonagall are not convinced by his act, but others are. There's still an incident at the DoM at the end of the year, but Harry is able to tell the relevant adults so that it's they who spring Voldy's trap, not half-trained children.

Ash's seventh year - HBP - goes by similarly smoothly. The major change here is that 1) Harry repeats everything he learns from Dumbledore to Ash, whose takeaways from the memories are far more critical of her uncle, and 2) Ash and Percy begin dating, but so little changes between them that only those they've explicitly told notice.

With the Wizarding World at war, it's a bit of a culture shock when Ash begins muggle university the next year, majoring in astrophysics. Her flat near the college serves as a well-warded base for Harry and co to hunt for horcruxes after Grimmauld Place is lost. She fights in the Battle of Hogwarts, and though she'd intended to save as many as she could, it's still a surprise when she manages to save Fred Weasley from his canon fate.

Afterwards, Ash goes on to gain a doctorate in astrophysics in the muggle world and work on integrating muggle discoveries with Wizarding knowledge, as her mother had done for the past several decades. Her friendship with Harry means that her work is put in a greater spotlight, and when Professor Sinistra finally retires Ash is the one asked to replace her. Sometime between all this she and Percy marry - much to the surprise of the other Weasleys - and have a single child just old enough to start Hogwarts when Ash begins teaching.

Harry himself takes a more political role in this world, having come to the conclusion very early on that oppression and ignorance help no one, and that it's the Wizarding World's belief that might makes right that got them all into this situation in the first place. He's Head of the DMLE for several years before being elected Minister for a maximum three terms. His administration is marked by efforts to shift Ministry hiring practices from nepotism to merit, as well as make laws apply legally to people of all magical backgrounds. He's not entirely successful, but it's a vast improvement.

Bonuses include: 1) Albus Dumbledore not evil so much as misguided - he honestly, genuinely thinks that he knows what's best for everyone. Maybe he even does. He's simply forgotten that people are not pawns and just because you want what you think is best for them doesn't mean that they want it, or that it is what is personally best for them. All of this should be brought up when he tries to pull Ash into his web; 2) An institutional problem with bullying in Hogwarts. All houses have villains and victims, but Gryffindor has more than its fair share of the former, compounded by Dumbledore's nepotism and McGonagall being too busy to breathe most days. This eventually comes to a head during GoF, when Ash ties a charm into the school wards that writes the word Bully across the perpetrator's face when they violate standards borrowed from a muggle secondary school's guidebook; 3) Aberforth playing a greater role in Ash's life as she grows older, especially after she comes to him for help with his brother in CoS; and 4) Ash and Harry becoming siblings of choice. Ash never displaces any of Harry's friend group, but is there and willing to listen in a way no one in his life had been previously. And that changes everything.

And that is, surprisingly, more than I'd thought I'd have. As always, feel free to adopt this bun, just link back if you do anything with it.

Other SIs: Aberforth's Daughter | Lysa Arryn | Petunia Evans | Princess of Dol Amroth

More Terrible Fic Ideas

[raccoonfallsharder]

Chapter 10/20+ Window Across the Galaxy (new 8/31)

girl falls first; raccoon falls harder.

And so this is how the space between Knowhere and Asgard unfolds: the coziest, rosiest nights she’s had in years - decades, probably, if she wants to waste time doing the math - and days spent cascading through jump-points like honeycombs and stardust like spilt glitter. Snacks tossed at her head by a grumpy copilot who she’s basically-desperately-in-love-with-shhhh, and the clinking of his inventions, and an uncountable number of golden-hearted flowers in her hair. And the fragile beginnings of - well, maybe they’d all still disagree and say Jolie, you moron, this is an uneasy alliance at best - but she’s going to call it a family and let the word curl up like a kitten in her heart.  She suspects that Groot, at least, would agree with her in this.  When they finally reach the pocket of starry galaxy that cradles the Realm Eternal - hung like an island in the sky, like a more-feral version of the Neverland she’d seen painted in books as a kid - Pete slows the Gemma Lynn to a crawl, and Jolie slides into the copilot’s seat.

Chapter X. Thin Fucking Ice. in which our heroes get fucked. Not in the good way.

action! too much action. i hate writing action (unless it's smutty action). uhhhh there's some violence and minor gore/description of wounds in this chapter but I don't think it's egregious?

General summary/notes + links to recently preceding chapters behind the cut. let me know via comment, message, or ask if you'd like to be added or removed from my fanfic/headcanon/doodle taglist ♡

General Summary~

Rocket is captured by a Ravager crew hoping to get rich off the excessively large bounty on his head. Throwing a wrench in everyone’s plans is the Terran girl they hired to do some freelance assessing on a recent haul of goods they’ve seized from a Xandaran luxury liner. Oops.

let me be real with you: this fic is really about wish-fulfillment. not just the eventual smut (but that too). mostly i just want someone to be nice to my best raccoon

Chapter I. A Delicacy. in which our reluctant heroes meet atop a crate of Sovereign porn in the bowels of a Ravager ship. Chapter II. Monster For A Pet. in which one hero wrestles with his inner Groot, and the other is quite possibly a moron. Chapter III. A Kindness.in which Rocket gets in his own damn way: not for the first time, and certainly not for the last. Chapter IV. Got There First. in which our heroes obtain an arsenal and street food. Chapter V. Things No-One Has Said Before. in which one hero refuses to babysit and the other refuses to leave. Chapter VI. Two and a Half Billion Units. in which we lean into the “they were roommates” trope. Jolie has misgivings, while Rocket has fantasies - about getting rich, of course. Chapter VII. I'm Here.in which we visit Knowhere. Chapter VIII. The Care & Feeding of Human Pets. in which our heroes practice breathing and we lean into a new trope: “there was (technically) one bed.” Chapter IX. Scrapmetal and a Dream. in which we redefine homemaking. Chapter X. Thin Fucking Ice. in which our heroes get fucked. Not in the good way. Coming Soon: Chapter XI. Let It Be. in which Xandar is saved and good lives are lost.

slight AU starting pre-GOTG volume 1 (but will hit most of the same major plot points). slooowww burn + eventual smut with a lot of pining in the middle. kinda enemies-to-lovers? (but only one of these idiots thinks they're enemies). elements of hurt/comfort because rocket is the saddest-angriest boy. rating will go up and tags will be added to as needed.

@evolvingchaoswitch ♡

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

“[I] just go to the junkyard and see what I could get,” he told The New York Times in 2010. “Went by the iron man, the boat man, the timber man. Ran by every month. If they had no use for it, I took it.”

He collected air conditioner fans, ceiling fans, industrial fans — the biggest is 25 feet across — and covered them with reflective pieces of highway signs that he cut by hand, so that when light hits them at night, the sculptures dazzle like fireworks or church windows that spin. He swears he didn’t measure, didn’t weigh, yet each windmill, as he called them, moves with engineered precision.

“I don’t use a ruler much,” he said on YouTube. “I can go down there with a hacksaw and I can come within a damn eighth of an inch just guessing at it.”

Simpson was one of the greatest visionary artists in the country, says Roger Manley, director and curator of the Gregg Museum of Art + Design in Raleigh, North Carolina, and author of Signs and Wonders: Outsider Art Inside North Carolina. “I think he’s North Carolina’s greatest sculptor, not just great self-taught sculptor.”

Rebecca Hoffberger, the founder and recently retired director of the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore, agrees. “The level of Vollis’s imagination and the scale in which he was working is without precedent.”

Simpson trained himself on the math and mechanics to turn other people’s discards into brightly colored and whimsical Ferris wheels, clowns on bicycles, airplanes and rocket ships, men pulling a long saw, his son playing a guitar, ducks, horses, and dogs, all representations of his life as a farmer, father, and soldier.

Simpson was one of 12 siblings, born in 1919 in tiny Lucama, North Carolina. His father was a farmer, but Simpson was more interested in the machinery, eventually building a business moving houses and heavy farm equipment. In 1941 he was serving in the military on the island of Saipan when he converted the propeller of a junked B-29 bomber into a windmill that powered a much-needed washing machine. Back on the farm, he invented crop sprayers and built 13 cranes by welding pulleys, booms, and gantries, Manley says, and attaching them to the back of Army surplus trucks. He used them to move brick buildings or huge factory machinery, to pick up combines stuck in the mud or — legend has it — a locomotive when it fell off a trestle bridge.

He was in his 60s when he started building whirligigs for the fun of it.

He had prestigious visitors as well. In the mid-1990s, Hoffberger was preparing to open the American Visionary Art Museum. She’d seen Simpson’s work in Manley’s book, and after Manley introduced the two, she commissioned Simpson to create a signature piece, the visual draw to her new museum. Manley drove Simpson to Baltimore to see the site. Simpson, who had never been out of his home state except during his military stint, didn’t know how to ride an escalator and had never seen multiple-crossover overpasses. “It was like taking somebody from back in time,” Manley said.

Simpson crafted the 55-foot Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness, repeatedly voted as the most beloved public art in Baltimore, so precisely calibrated for the space that it looks like visitors could reach out and touch it from the balcony.

He took his sons up to help install it in 1993, Hoffberger says, sinking an old Exxon pole 13 feet into the ground, Mike Simpson climbing on the structure while his father held a rope to keep the boom from swinging in the wind.

“He must have done that for well over three hours,” Hoffberger said. Then a staff member offered to give Simpson a break. “It took three of my young male staff to hold it, and they were only able to hold the boom for like a half-hour without being exhausted. And he had done it by himself. That’s how strong he was.”

Simpson was also smart. “If you listen to the man on YouTube, you would think he was dumb as a box of rocks,” says Mel Bowen, one of the men who maintain the sculptures. “But the man is not stupid. And he wasn’t lazy. He worked hard all his life.”

[grungekitty-77]

"Good morning students and welcome to NMS class. Or Non Magical Studies. I know this is a required class none of you want to take."

I paused my speech to glare at the student in the back using an obvious communication charm.

"End the call or the charm is mine."

The student rolled their eyes. I narrowed mine.

"We can call admin and you can explain to your parents why you're in the cursed pit, or you can put it in the holder's bubble over there."

Another small stare down before they sighed and ended their call. I pointed to the side of the room.

"Bubble." I said firmly.

They made a face at me, but complied. I made a point to thank them before resumed my first day speech.

"As I was saying. I know most of you don't see a point in this class, and the board generally agrees with you. That's why this is one class instead of the six it should be."

I heard scoffs and snickers. Every. Damn. Year.

"I know. You think it's pointless to learn how the Withouts live, but let me tell you a story."

I didn't have more than half the attention in the room. Sadly, there was nothing I could do but power through.

"Once upon a time a bunch of mages thought it was stupid to learn how geometry worked because they could just get a magical answer for area or volume or perimeter. And they could. They even got their answers much faster than the Withouts did."

I had some more attention, even if it was smug curiosity.

"Then the Withouts made more shapes. The mages scrambled to make new spells while the Without's math kept working as it always had."

I saw a few light bulbs warming up, but a lot of eye rolls from the students that thought that was the end of the story.

"And then the Withouts made calculators. The mages struggled to figure out how those worked while the Withouts got faster than spells."

I started to see a few lights flicker to life behind a few eyes.

"And then the Withouts started to use their algebra and geometry and made a machine that sent them to the moon."

I paused for dramatic effect. Because this next part was important.

"Have mages ever gone to the moon?"

"No!" one enthusiastic student yelled.

He sounded mad about it. Good for him.

"Right, but we still have cleaner homes and better food, right?"

Only one student was brave enough to speak, but she didn't sound too sure of herself.

"Yeah?"

"Wrong! Withouts used their math and science and made machines that do everything our magic does. They have vaccums and gmos. Because they're Without, they learned how to do everything we can, but without!"

I leaned forward, noting that I finally had everyone's attention.

"In otherwords: Withouts can do everything you can do and more, because they took the time to understand things. They learn. They invent. They improve."

I had only one more point to make. The big one. The one that mattered to the class.

"The point of this class is that Withouts will always catch up to your magic somehow. If you don't want to be left behind when they do, you need to take a lesson from them. Learn. Understand. Know. You need this class because you have only one thing the Withouts don't, but they have many things you don't and everyday they are making more."

A classroom of serious eyes were zeroed in on me.

"Unfortunately, you only get one class to catch up to them. So, I expect everyone to pay attention."

You teach at a magic school, but you do not teach any magic. In fact, you are not even a mage. Yet your classes are among the few that every student has to take, no matter what kind of magic they are studying.

[cleekleequlee]

Why is string called string

Walle: 9 years old Walla: 7 years old

Walle: Mom

Me: What?

Walle: Why is string called string?

Me: What do you mean by string? (Meanwhile with my limited English ability, I was anticipating his answer. Does he mean a thread for sewing cloths? A string on a musical instrument that is stretchy and tied to tension? What about string theory? Why they use the word string? What quality of string made it called "string theory"?...)

Walle: em.....like the yellow thing you have... (... him walking to my room and wanted to show me what he means with object)

Me: Oh, that thing! You mean something like putting a few threads together and used for tie up things...?

Walle: Yes

Me: That's called a rope, not a string.

Walle: Oh....Then why is it called a rope?

Me: Hum, that's actually a very good question. Actually it doesn't have to be called a rope. (... me feeling the surge inside my body... all the topics about language and meaning!)

Walle: What do you mean?

Me: It can be perfectly called "ropy", if everybody agrees to call it that way.

Walle & Walla: Ropy, haha, that's funny

Me: Or something else... but because everyone calls it rope, then we call it rope. But it hasn't to be called that way. One example is to look at the different languages ... in Chinese we call it 繩子，Japanese calls it something else.

Walle: Yeah...

Me: In fact, I think there are only a couple of words that's kind of "have to be called this way", can you guess what are they?

Walle: hummm....

Me: (cannot wait..) Mama! and Papa! Because they are the easiest sounds babies can make when they were born. Like in French and Chinese....

Walle & Walla: Hahahaha....

Me: But even that is not universal. English call it Dad... It actually is not that convenient for a baby....

Walle: But why we now have so many words?!

Me: I think the language takes thousands years to evolve and expand... if not more. Think of those hunters in the early days, they may have a certain sound for "danger". And one day they see fire, that is different, then they invent a name for the burning thing...and the other day they invented "beast"...

Walla: And "monster"....

Me: Yes, and monster. And they keep inventing names for different monsters. Like your bloop, or the "gilivaz" thing you invented.

Gilivaz, by Walla

Me: And those words that are accepted and used by more people will be updated in the dictionary. See this Oxford English-Chinese dictionary (a 2005 print), it was already 6th edition. And people keep udpating them.

But not every word invented will be used. So it has to be widely adopted.

Walle: Yeah, like Dr. Seuss invented the word "nerd", and everybody uses that to say somebody who is weird.

Me: Not exactly somebody weird, but somebody... who's into something and ignores the other aspects of life.

Walle: Yah, there are math nerd, science nerd...

Walla: Walle you are a nerd too!

Walle: No I' not!

Me. Great example. I didn't know that before... Where did you learnt that?

Walle: From the Dr. Seuss book.

Me. Amazing...I guess the new word must meet a need to describe something new that a lot people at that moment has, and then the new word got accepted. Now so many people are inventing words in their social media....

Alright, are you prepared to get ready for your Rugby?

** Of course, great inspiration from Gregory Bateson ;)

[biblioklept-writes]

The Foreign Queen (Aemond Targaryen x Desi!Fem!Reader)

Summary: There is a new ship in the land, carrying riches Westeros has never seen before. The people are interesting, sharing some common and other completely different ideas. Aemond decides to deal with one claiming to be their Princess, the beautiful Y/N, and something clicks in place.

Content Warning: canon divergence (duh), i have only watched the show, might contain some spoilers, reader has black hair and brown eyes (typical of most desis) and wear kajal (kohl), reader will be good at maths and physics (i had too i need the representation), reader is hindu and will talk of hinduism, there will be “strong” jokes, I invented a whole new continent in the hotd universe, okay? Explicit language to be expected, other than that we are good i guess? No other physical description of the reader is involved

Ps: will use hindi, sanskrit and odia (translations in parentheses). Currently this is just an idea, i will write further if the motivation and plot strikes. 

Series Masterlist

It had been a rather dull autumn afternoon, the only highlight yet being the morning flight Aemond had gotten with Vhagar. Business in the council was proceeding as usual, with Aegon missing and their grandsire, Otto Hightower acting as the King Reagent in his stead while their mother, Dowager Queen Alicent Targaryen sat at the head. The lords had been discussing an upcoming tourney when a messenger came in with a flushed face, looking as though he ran from port to the Red Keep. He barely caught his breath before he started speaking.

“There is a large ship being docked in the port, Your Grace, My Lord Hand,” He breathlessly said. “Their messengers speak mostly in a foreign tongue, but they claim to be here for trade. They say their princess is with them, those strange people. They are asking for permission to enter King’s Landing.”

“Where are these people from?” Otto Hightower asked. “Did they say?”

“They said… Bharat.” The messenger added, still struggling to catch his breath. “Your Grace, My Lord Hand, you must send your word with me back, the matter requires your urgent attention. They wish to speak with His Majesty in his court.”

“I don’t think a message would be apt for this situation,” Alicent calmly said. “It is better if we send a representative of ours with you, Ser.” Her big brown eyes scanned the room once, and said, “Ser Cole, I would like you to go to the docks as Aegon’s representative, make sure that these people are not of ill intentions.”

“It would be better to send a royal to accompany Ser Cole, Your Grace.” Ser Willis Fell said, earning agreeing nods from the other lords in the council. “For if this Princess' claim is true, it wouldn't be… appropriate for a Knight to meet a lady of such stature. If My Lord Hand could go-”

“I will accompany Ser Cole,” Aemond said. He agreed, if it were indeed a princess of a foreign land, sending a non-royal to speak with her would reflect poorly on them. A foreign land meant more resources and soldiers, and they needed both of them in abundance as the war threatened to bloom in Westeros and Essos. A strong alliance for them meant a weakness for their opponent.

“Aemond-” Alicent started, but he interrupted her.

“I’ll be fine, Mother.” He said. “I really wish to see these strange people claiming to be traders.” Aemond’s gaze fixed on the messenger, who seemed to cower under his calculating stare. Of course, the eyepatch must have been a contributing factor with the reputation that he had built for himself.

Vhagar was simply too big to fly to the dock, so Aemond had to take a horse along with Ser Cole, unfortunately. It took them a bit over an hour but they managed to make it to the dock before sunset, and there he saw it: a ship in the horizon, larger than anything he had ever seen before, gleaming like liquid gold in the late afternoon sun. A red and white striped flag with a yellow swastik flew high in the oceanic winds.

Two men adorning mustard colored tunics and some white pants with black hair, white turbans and twining moustaches signalled at the ship upon his arrival, and a small boat moved toward the coastline. They were still too far away to make out clearly, but once the boat got closer, he noticed the woman sitting in the front, majestic on the waves. The man and the woman behind her rowed her quickly to the shore.

He thought her claim must be true then, for she was the most beautiful woman he had ever laid his eyes on with her hair blacker than midnight and her brown eyes stern yet deep. Her presence commanded attention, and she carried herself with the poise of a queen.

She was dressed in a lavender and white garment he had never seen before, her dark mane complimenting her brown, kohl-lined eyes. Her body held a certain feline grace - her steps quiet and calculated, her gaze confident and conniving. 

Aemond got off his horse as she stepped off the dock and towards the port, the messenger escorting her to him and Ser Criston, who stood behind him with his hand ready to raise his sword. “This is Princess Y/N of the Bharat,” the messenger said, unable to take his eyes off you. Everyone present on the dock stared eagerly, trying to soak up the gossip.

“And I assume you must be Prince Aemond,” She said, her voice firm but sweet. Her pronunciation held an accent, but it was fairly accurate. He was more surprised to find that she actually knew him by name and recognised him this quickly. “I hear you have a reputation for brutality,”

“Only to the people that pester my family and my brother’s kingdom.” He replied in his usual monotone voice. “I hope you aren’t here to threaten my brother’s kingdom, for I’d hate to put a blade through you.”

“Bharat reaches to you in good hopes, Prince,” She said. “We are merely here to offer trade: we have skilled workers manufacturing weapons, chariots, even defences of all sorts. We have great food and spices. You ought to give us a chance to present our goods before disregarding us.”

“Would these weapons fight against dragons, Princess?” Aemond asked.

“There’s only one way to find that out,” she said. “I hope to be able to get an audience with the King, we will do as he sees fit -  we shall leave in peace if he demands that, my Prince.”

“Mhm,” Aemond glanced over at her and her people once more. They all had a curved knife strapped to their hips, and the princess carried a two-foot long blade in a bejewelled holster, the hilt seemingly made of gold with a leather grip. He noted the big gold hoops that gleamed in her ears and the three large rings that occupied her right hands’ fingers. “Only you and one more person will be granted permission to meet the King,” He carefully said. “And… you must leave your weapons behind.”

“Going into a foriegn land with no people and no weapons seems like a fools’ errand, my Prince,” She countered. “Are your swordsmen and fighters so incapable that you are afraid of being attacked in your own palace by two foreigners?”

Aemond slowly blinked, a devious grin forming at her words. “Very well then,” he said, voice decisive. “You and your companion must be accompanied by a knight or me at all times, for we have no intent of trusting someone… unfamiliar with our home. Times like these demand such action,”

“I hope we wouldn’t bore you with our dull company,” She said, brown eyes glinting with amusement, and something dark, something he pictured in his own gaze.

“I can tell that your company will be anything but dull, Princess.” He said. “Ser Criston, please get two mighty steeds for our companions from Bharat.”

Presently, they stand in the King’s Court, the drunkard King sober for a change. Aemond supposed the foreign Princess’ commanding presence was a contributing factor to his brother’s sobriety, but he knew it was her enticing allure, her charming voice and her regal poise that appealed to him. The princess reminded him of wildflowers - magnificent, all consuming in their scent and most of the time, deadly. 

His keen eye had not missed the way the knights of the Kingsguard and the lords at the court had eyed the bejewelled sheath of her blade up and down, as if trying to see through the sheath and capture the blade.

“You talk of trade, yet you carry weapons deadly enough to cut a man,” Aegon noted, gaze eagerly fixed on the woman in front of him. The whole court was silent save for his words, all eyes and ears focused on the stunning princess. “What sort of trade requires that, pray tell me,”

“Your Majesty, the blades are to defend the supplies,” She said, voice neutral. “And to hunt animals for meat. The blades only cut through those who threaten our peace, honour and survival.”

Aegon scratched his chin, leaning forward. “What did you say your trade in?”

“Spices, fabrics, weapons, gold, skilled labourers,” She said, seemingly holding everyone’s gaze at once. “Silver, bronze, blacksmiths who can build chariots, soldiers who would kill for your cause.”

The silence that followed was ringing, one could hear everyone’s breath.

“Why do you need this trade?” Otto Hightower asked.

“My Lord Hand,” Princess Y/N started with a respectful bow. “Why do merchants sell? Why does a servant work? All of the work that we do comes down to one thing - money and power. We have skilled labourers, we have gold, we have silver, we have copper. But even gold becomes worthless when it is in excess, and the flow of trade would make both of us more powerful.”

“What would we get in exchange for our money?” Dowager Queen Alicent asked. Aemond knew from the gleam in her big brown eyes that she was curious, at least, about the goods the princess promised.

“Allow me to present to you a small gift, Your Grace,” The Princess bowed again. From the bags, her moustached companion fetched the finest of the silk Aemond had ever seen - his fingers involuntarily twitched at the sight of the sage-green fabric. A servant brought the fabric from the foreign man to his mother, who was visibly impressed by the silk. “It is the finest silk in the known land, Your Grace,”

Another sample was a thick gold chain with a tiny hourglass pendant, given to his Grandsire Otto Hightower. “My Lord Hand, this hour glass turns over itself in a period of five and forty minutes,” She said. “It is made of the most intricate designs and is sturdy enough to be worn daily.”

“For His Majesty,” The Princess said as her companion fetched a foot long box wrapped in a silver-grey cloth. “We present the blade forged by our best swordsmiths, we present a gauntlet sword - Dandpatta - made in silver reinforced with the best steel we make.”

Aegon eagerly opened his present, the silver blade almost blinding in its shine. He stood up and tested the blade, and commented, “It has great balance, Princess.”

“I am glad to impress Your Majesty,” She said. Her companion fetched another box wrapped in silver-grey cloth, this time the servant handing the box to Aemond. He opened the box, normally, as the Princess’ sweet voice said, “For those who prefer sleath over pomp, for the one known to be quiet, I present to you, Ratri, the blade of the night. It is made of the highest quality of wootz steel, and can cut silently even through the toughest of barks and scales.”

It was a wicked blade, curved slightly like a scythe, but much smaller and easily concealable. When did the princess get to study each of them? Has someone been ratting them out to people they didn’t even know existed? For such precision in giving gifts was impossible without proper prior knowledge of the receiver.

The Princess turned to Haelena and curtseyed for the first time. “For Her Majesty, I present a jewellery set fit for a Queen of her stature, it is all in steel reinforced gold - can be used as a weapon lest someone corner the beautiful Queen.” 

“Quite thoughtful of you, presenting these gifts,” Aegon said, clearly impressed by the sword he received. “I will let you trade with us, Princess.” 

Perhaps you had impressed his brother with the presents you had so thoughtfully brought, but you had imprinted yourself in his head with all the inside information you must have known to think of such gifts. Either that or you and your companions were quick judges of character, but that seemed a bit of a stretch. Your face was one he could never forget, with the intense kohl and the gleaming brown eyes and hair darker than the night, you were a sight meant to be remembered.

The only logical explanation seemed that you had spies in the Red Keep, getting updates about everyone from that source. He had to find that source, pull it off the roots, for you knew the royal family a little too well.

The court was dismissed and you were sent back to let your ship dock at the port and your people had been granted an empty warehouse to store the goods along with a clear plot of land to build the temporary housing facilities your people would need.

Alicent had generously offered you to stay in the castle walls, but you had politely declined, saying that your heart and duty lies with your people and travelling companions. Aemond respected that, his respect for you growing tenfold on learning that you spoke in four tongues and were learning a fifth. But he had so much to learn from you, and from your manners in court today, he knew it would be a big challenge for him - you had earned his respect, but he had to know how you spied on his family without them being aware of you and your peoples’ existence.

How was it that the mighty Targaryens with their dragons had never explored the unknown? How was it that a fleet of ships managed to survive the unresting sea from lands so far away that the dragonriders didn’t spot it? It was this primal hunger for answers that urged him to get closer to you, to dig out the answers he needed to sate his curiosity. Why were you promising them your soldiers? Were you one of his half-sister’s ploys to usurp the throne that was rightfully Aegon’s? Were you sent on a mission, falsely pretending to be a princess sent by Rhaenyra and Daemon Targaryen to wipe his family clean and leave the Iron Throne vulnerable and up for them to do as they please?

There were so many questions, but no answers in sight. Aemond doubted you were from Driftmark - you and your people were too different, with skin that glowed like gold under the sunlight and new languages he hadn’t even heard of before. Self-appointing himself as your contact person to the King’s council, he frequented your camp, not seeing any ill intent - at least for now.

But he didn’t know what to make of the Bharatiyas either. The people were welcoming and nice enough, even treated him to delicacies he never could have imagined. There were some names he was struggling to speak, but Aemond was nothing if not determined. With the eyes of a hawk and the hearing of a wolf, the dragon carefully observed the foreigners and slowly picked on your languages. 

One of them - Hindi - was simpler than the other tongues that people used. It seemed there were as many dialects as there were people, and Aemond found himself terribly lost as he tried to keep up with them. But he had vowed to himself that he would learn to understand your languages, at least. Yet, he was drawn in by the complexities and fun of their culture, how they worshipped their Gods and Goddesses; how each member of the camp contributed to the working; how the few kids there were allowed to be exposed to the Westeros languages and culture (lack thereof, he thought later).

Aemond had never expected to enjoy someone else’s customs this much. He had appointed himself on a mission, and he wouldn’t let himself be distracted. He swore that he will abstain from gazing at your intense eyes and glowing skin, from the confidence you exude and the power you command.

But each second he spent in your presence, he found himself more enraptured by you - your kohl lined eyes, your pretty mouth, your heavy gold jewellery and the delight with which you spoke. He would be damned to the seven hells and beyond with all the teasing he would get if Aegon or Daeron ever read his mind, full of thought with admiration for you.

Here it is! for all the desi!readers out there like me, I hope you enjoy this. This part mainly describes their entrance and welcome, and I will try to include more political intrigue as I write further. Do drop by some scene ideas that i can include so all the desis feel represented. It is currently 2 am for me but today is Halloween and my birthday so I am posting this as a treat for myself (yes this is another treat for me hehe) Lets hope that i can get around to finish this one. Also, if you are a team black stan who would rather stay off some anti-sort remarks, i am sorry loves but this one is not for you. Better if you scroll past than start an argument.

[student-on-the-run]

Really love your post, and as both an artist and someone whose career is in data science and All That Stuff, I'd like to add this:

AI is a tool just like any other. When the printing press was invented, people lamented the loss of soul of handwritten documents and stories to the machine. And then again with digital art. And then again when movies started using CGI. Even today, you still have people putting digital art against "traditional" art. Most of these people have now banded together to shit on AI, but that's because it's the new fad.

I'm not saying that AI has no downsides, or that there cannot be any legitimate debate. But I am saying that, as a tool, it is not inherently bad, nor is it inherently good.

Generative AI was trained on data models that used a bunch of stuff as a "it's free real estate" kind of thing, because there was a legal gray area. In some places, the juridical system is catching up to them and it is a legitimate debate. Not plagiarism, because you could argue that what the AI creates, legally, is far enough from the source material to be classified as fan-art. But no one wants to call AI art fan art, or even art for that matter, and that's another can of worms.

I understand the underlying reason behind the outrage that is now going towards artistic puritanism (mostly from the American fandom, and I don't think that's unrelated). It's the fundamental scream of "well if AI can do it, then they are no longer obligated to pay for an artist's services, and art as we know it today will die a miserable death, and we will become horrifyingly closer to a future where everything that brought us joy and fulfillment is crushed by corporate greed"

And I agree.

But that is not a problem that stems from AI itself.

It is a problem that stems from how America is structurally built around its corporations. How the gigantic American machine, at its core, seems to only value profit and cold hard cash, and that's terrifying.

And there is a bunch of small stuff that can change but it is all so intertwined and it all feels so deeply etched into the very soul of Big Corp that we tend to think that it is too huge to change. That it's too big and too complicated.

And I am saying America, because it really is a mostly American problem that got exported to other countries. I do not say this as an "america bad" type of way. I am saying that as an "every country has its own distinct history and inner structure. This is something that I feel/believe/ have proof that leads to believe is part of the American core." And there is a large American user base here. You do the math.

And it's a complicated feeling to feel and an even more complicated feeling to express. So we say things like "Eat the rich" or "We should burn down capitalism"

And in the case of art, we resort to artistic puritanism.

But I beg all of you to understand that in other parts of the world, this is not the threat you think it is. Picture this: what if it was illegal to use AI to replace a worker. What if AI could be used to help an employee, make their days easier, but was in no way allowed to "replace" the worker. What then? Would you still criticize the artist who uses AI to generate variations of a scenery's perspective so they can get a better feel of it before drawing the final piece?

Would you criticize the musician who uses AI to synthesize sounds that mechanical instruments cannot make?

And if you tell me "well maybe, but it will never be this way" I am on my knees imploring that you read what other countries are doing. The EU has started a process to do exactly this.

Not only that, but EU companies are so aware that their government will add this legislation that many of them are already observing it so that they will not be fined when the legislation is up to date (yes, almost all positive changes in labor laws in the EU are retroactive to an extent, especially the ones about wrongful termination)

I am not saying that the EU (or other places, for that matter) is perfect. What I am saying is that America can do better.

And that there is really no need to burn down all of society and rebuild it from scratch. I promise you, change can happen, and it can happen from within.

Take this time to reflect on why you are so adamantly against things that are no more than human creations, human tools. Is it really the tool? Or, is it in fact, how it might be used to harm you and those you care about?

incendiary take time. I think part of the reason some people are gunning so hard for platforms to outright ban AI art/writing is that they've cultivated communities of taste that eschew critical evaluation and hold all ('human-made') creative works to be innately worthy and valuable by merit of being made by a very special little guy. when you're not allowed to say 'this isn't very good' or 'this doesn't mean anything' because that's mean / the artist didn't ask / taste is subjective / the divine comedy is basically fanfiction, you sacrifice the most basic reason AI art sucks (that it...sucks) and HAVE to resort to gerrymandering the definition of art to eliminate it from the pool of inherently unique and laudable creative expression.

when you can't say 'this chatGPT dreck is complete shit', either because there's no air in the room for calling anything shit or because you've spent so long playing nursery school compliment games with your fellow artists that you don't have the vocabulary or insight to identify 1. that it's shit 2. why it's shit, all you can do is demand that nobody ever shows it to you. because if they do you might be tricked, and if you're tricked you might embarrass yourself by liking something profane. and if you like something the machine made...well, then human art isn't innately special and divine at all, is it bud? maybe the thing that makes it good is a level of craft, thought, insight and articulation that we should all be conversant in.

but that means we all have to accept that not everything we make is perfect. that means we have to take criticism on the chin. yucky. let's police the purity of people's workflows instead. everyone knows only moral upright artists make good art.

[scotianostra]

On September 14th 1507 Edinburgh merchants were  granted exclusive privilege of running a printing press.

Another one with dates that differ by a day or so, but all agree it was mid September 1507 thatJames IV granted a Royal Patent authorising Scotland’s first printing press.

You will no doubt be surprised that the printing press with moveable types wasn’t invented by a Scotsman. However, Scots have certainly made good use of the technology since it was invented by Johannes Gutenberg in Mainz, around 1439. It was a good fifty years after Gutenberg’s monopoly was revoked before a press found its way to Scotland. By the arbitrary Incunabulum date of 1500, when around a thousand printing presses were in operation throughout Western Europe and had produced anything between eight and twenty million books, Scotland still lacked a press of its own. Nevertheless, the Scots hadn’t been idle bystanders as many were educated in France and elsewhere and brought back printed books from the Continent. That’s not to say that Scotds had not made use of this new invention, Some sought out the printing press on the continent and had books published there. It should come as no surprise either that in France some Scots were also employed in the new profession of printing and it was one such Scot who had served his apprenticeship as a printer in France, Androw Myllar that brought the art back to his native country.

Myllar was an Edinburgh bookseller who imported books from England and France, where he learned the printer’s craft in Rouen. When he arrived back in Scotland in 1507, Myllar gained the financial backing of Walter Chepman, a wealthy Edinburgh merchant trader and a man who appears to have had the ear of the King, James IV. Chepman also seems to have gained a lot of the credit for Scotland’s first printed books, but then, he was the money man.

When Myllar went into partnership with Chepman, the two men established Scotland’s first printing press, the building was in Edinburgh’s Cowgate, the building is long gone but the pic shows a plaque marking where it stood. Scotland’s first printed books are known as ‘The Chepman & Myllar Prints’, the earliest of which is dated the 4th of April, 1508, which was an edition of John Lydgate’s ‘The Complaint of the Black Knight’.

Sometimes when searching through sources for my posts I find out other little snippets that connect to other posts, like in the article “Printing Comes to Scotland” which you can read on the link below, I learned that there was an account of The Battle of Flodden made on an early printing press, it is titled “The trewe encountre or Batyle don betwene Englande and Scotland” and while it may have been printed in London, it does give an insight into early bias in print. In the pamphlet it claimed that around 10,000 Scots were put to the sword at Flodden, this figure is used a lot but most historians discount the amount now, but the bias is not in that number, the pamphlet claims that the Earl of Surrey lost only a few hundred  at the battle. Now I hark back to previous posts about how good the English are at keeping records, most recently in my post regarding Sir William Wallace’s murder, well records of the payroll show that Surrey, the English commander, lost two-fifths of his own retinue, even with these figures available, Wikipedia, which I look at every day, still states that English losses were a mere 1,500 of their 26,000 army, you do the maths, yes it was a massive defeat for the Scots, but it was a bloody hard fought battle with large casualties on both sides.

Pics are the plaque on the Cowgate, the second an early example of Myllar’s work, the windmill is apparently a pun on his surname. Want to know more about the history of Printing in Scotland? Check the link here http://textualities.net/duncan-glen/printing-comes-to-scotland

[rjalker]

For future reference, this post is being made on June 13th, 2022. Why am I including the date? Because the cycle continues, and it will continue.

Apparently we need to go through this again.

The pan flag is pink, yellow, and blue. Magenta, yellow, and cyan to be more specific. That's the pan flag.

If you see someone using a "pan" flag that is instead green, yellow, and orange, that is the flag specifically created by exclusionists who got pissed off that the creator of the actual pan flag isn't a fucking bigot.

They're claiming that not hating mspec lesbians means you're a transphobe, even though that's literally not how any of this fucking works.

Here's the two flag next to each other for you to compare. Feel free to even save this if you need a reference.

[ID: the pan flag, labeled "the pan flag" with three stripes of magenta, yellow, and cyan, with the name of each color written on the stripe.

This is next to the exclusionist pan flag, which is labeled, "the flag created by exclusionists to 'replace' the pan flag because the creator of the pan flag isn't an exclusionist". The flag is striped green, gold, and salmon orange, with the name of each color written on the stripe. The picture has a white background, with a black border. end ID.]

The creator of the pan flag is not an exclusionist bigot, so exclusionists threw a fit and decided they were going to replace the pan flag.

These people are pissed off that people refuse to jump on their bandwagon of attacking and harassing mspec lesbians, by claiming that being an mspec lesbian makes you transphobic.

Mspec lesbians are not transphobic. Most mspec lesbians identify as such specifically because they are trans and/or nonbinary.

If you agree that lesbians can be attracted to both women and nonbinary people, you are literally agreeing that lesbians can be mspec.

Mspec means "multi-spectrum" which is short for "the spectrum of attraction to multiple genders" the same way "aspec" means "the spectrum of ace, aro, apl, and other related identities"

Mspec literally just means someone's attracted to more than one gender.

"Women" and "nonbinary" are two different genders. If you think that lesbians can be attracted to nonbinary people, then do the math! What's women + nonbinary people? Go on, do the math!

That's right! It's more than one! It's multiple! Lesbians can be attracted to multiple genders!

And if you agree that lesbians can be attracted to both women and nonbinary people, but you disagree that lesbians can be attracted to more than one gender, then guess what, fucko? Guess who's the transphobe here? Hint: it's not the mspec lesbian who's older than your parents. It's you, the person saying that all nonbinary people are actually secretly women.

Because that's what your argument is. If you think lesbians can be attracted to nonbinary people as well as women, but you think lesbians can be only attracted to one gender....congrats, asshole, you're a transphobe.

You are also literally falling for people erasing and purposefully lying about history. There are mspec lesbians older than your parents. This term did not get invented on tumblr like exclusionists like to claim (as though being a new term for an old concept would somehow make it inherently invalid). It's literally decades old. Just because you first heard about it on tumblr or twitter doesn't mean it never existed before you learned about it. You sound like straight people saying there's suddenly so many more gay people than there were before just because they've never fucking met a gay person who felt safe enough to be out around them.

Mspec lesbians have existed for decades. The concept is literally older than the internet. People have been calling themselves "bi lesbians" since before you were fucking born.

Get off your imaginary high horse of hatred and just shut the fuck up for once. Just stop fucking attacking people just because you don't understand their experiences.

You do not need to understand someone's experiences and identity to respect them and treat them with dignity.

Mspec lesbians have been part of this community longer than most excursionists have been alive. They've been here since the beginning and they will literally always belong, and there is nothing exclusionists can do about it.

If you actually support trans people the way you claim to, if you actually support lesbians the way you claim to, if you actually respect mspec people the way you say you do, then learn the actual fucking history instead of just going along with whatever hateful diatribe you stumble on first.

There is no sexuality that is inherently transphobic. You will not defeat transphobia by attacking literal trans people who are identifying in the way they feel most comfortable.

If you don't "understand" why someone identifies as an mspec lesbian? Then you have two options:

A) Listen. Be fucking respectful and willing to learn. Stop letting hatred cloud your heart. Actually listen to people who are willing to speak.

B) Accept the fact that you literally do not need to understand in order to be respectful. Cis people do not have to understand what being trans is like in order to stop being transphobic. You have no excuse.

There are too many damn people in the world for you to understand everyone's experiences. You will never understand someone else's experiences the way they do. You don't need to. You just need to be respectful.

Instead of focusing your energy on hatred, on attacking others, make some fucking friends. Build connections. This is a community, not a fucking deathmatch.

Do not support exclusionists. Do not support people who lie about and erase the history of the queer community. Do not support people who throw around catchy fucking buzzwords designed to piss you off.

Mspec lesbians are not your enemy and they never have been. But if you insist on being hateful, you are going to make enemies of the entire community, and you will not be welcome.

If you want to be part of the queer community, then you need to actually commit to building a community, not tearing it apart by attacking anyone whose experiences are different from yours.

Either you support all of us, or you support none of us.

If I see you using the exclusionist pan flag or any exclusionist flag (because yeah, they fucking tried this shit with the aroace flag too), you are being blocked on sight.

[flagellant]

autistic with a maths special interest (also I'm making a frog is a spell because I'm gonna treat it like one anon) here to say @ math anon !!! id totally agree!!!!! maths does not exist but it is very real!! ppl will say to me that maths exists but is not real but I would say that it doesn't exist and is real. it's this other, like, world kinda beside our actual world, interacting with it and laying over it as a framework for understanding if you care to pay attention (though it often isn't like... practically useful to pay attention to, it can just be fun) but we don't fully understand it and it's unclear how much of maths is natural to the universe and how much is just kinda. humans inventing shit. and there's stuff in mathematics that 100% does not exist in our real world. any thought experiment involving infinity or perfect shapes will show that. AND there have been so many moments throughout history when a single mathematical concept invented by someone has completely reshaped the way mathematics works, a different way to even scientists with new theories because pure maths is pure theory, pure thought, with a strong internal consistency but at the same time because it is just pure thought, a new thought can change how mathematics works. I've heard u mention stuff like that in occultism before and they might not be fully comparable but that makes sense to me.

like maths is taught as if it's all just rules but it's more than that, you can teach the rules but you can't teach the weird shit behind the rules, and ppl will infer the weird shit behind the rules differently. you get ppl who argue that 0.999... = 1 because a repeating decimal unto infinity that is infinitely close to 1 is functionally the same as 1, and you get people who say that infinite closeness does not make them equal, the nature of a repeating decimal infinitely close to 1 definitionally is not 1. people who just fundamentally disagree about how infinity should/could/does work in this situation. and there isn't any natural observable phenomenon that can give you an answer there. maths is real, people can and do dedicate their lives to it, but it does not exist.

TLDR- I'd definitely say maths anon gets it at least as much as I do! because what they're saying makes sense to me and I'm getting the Vibes of understanding that I also get when other anon's and inkeeper has talked about this stuff.

.

[witchestower]

I. Huh. Maybe because I've always liked learning about systems of rules for the systems' sake, I followed a different flow of coming to terms with Why Is Math Like That. Or maybe I'm just going to re-state what OP said in a different way, but hopefully I can add something interesting.

Because I do agree - it is a core fact that a lot of the math that's taught in school is that way because when it's set up in this way, it does very closely line up with the way we experience things in the world. Two apples next to two apples is four apples, sharing those four apples among 2 people evenly unit-wise gives each person 2 apples. But already, look at that, see how many caveats I had to tack onto that statement - evenly, unit-wise. And so we can make up new rules about numbers, inventing behaviors about rational numbers so that we can weight out portions on a scale using little fractional weights in a way that's consistent and always gets results that we expect when we use it in the ways that we need to. Or we start reasoning about negative values to create something that can be cancelled out to zero when combined with a number of actual "natural" things to create an idea of debt that could let you buy the apples now, and then the next time you give the person actual coins or something, it cancels that negative but doesn't mean that you've given them new "positive" value.

And so that's the reiteration of like, yeah! The math rules and the math-y objects (numbers, sets, curves, matrices oh my) that you can fuss with while following those rules were explicitly created in order to have particular behaviors when manipulated under those specific rules. Or at least - and this is very, very, veryvery important - those objects or rules were found to be a direct consequence of other rules, and they were both kept because they were found to still be useful. Mathematics is both created and discovered.

Now, here's the divergence - I want to emphasize that (a) THERE IS NOT JUST ONE SET OF RULES FOR MATH and (b) PEOPLE WILL OFTEN MAKE USE OF SETS OF RULES THAT DIRECTLY CONTRADICT PHYSICAL REALITY.

Let's get the first part out of the way: there is not just one system of arithmetic. (Note to number theory people: I will lie some in the following paragraph for terminology's sake, please forgive me) The most common one, the one taught in grade schools that is The Way You Deal With Natural Numbers (0,1,2,3, etc [by the way, Peano only started the rules with 0 in 1894 in a revision of his original rules - prior to that, he'd only bothered setting the rules up to handle 1 and above!]), was only formalized as recently as 1889 by Richard Dedekind and Guiseppe Peano (Dedekind-Peano axioms - an axiom is just a different word for a rule). People are big fans of this system - it seems intuitively consistent, which is wonderful, and it handles the counting or real-world objects absolutely great.

But notice the caveat- this only deals with Natural Numbers! Suppose we want to add, say, the idea of some value that is more than any other number. Well, that's not a thing in standard Peano arithmetic - by the rules, if you come up with a number, there always exists a successor that's greater. (And yes, I was traumatized as a very autistic child trying desperately to explain the pointlessness of a system where you could claim "infinity" as the largest value you know coexisting with the inanity of "infinity plus one" and begging for consistency).

However, there's a way out: Robinson arithmetic! Formulated in 1950 by R.M. Robinson, it very simply takes all of the rules of Peano arithmetic, and just tosses aside the requirement that if a statement is true for a value as well as always being true for the successor of a value for which it is true, then it is true for all values everywhere. This allows us to invent fancy special values that lie outside of the "main chain" without worrying about them having to be bound by the strictures that bind the simple hoi polloi. Now, we can add in our special "infinity" and give it all sorts of properties, such as its successor only being itself and infinity still being zero when multiplied by zero, and any other property your heart should desire, as long as your new additions don't conflict with each other.

Now, for the second part, about systems of rules directly running up against physical reality. Trivially, with allowing the idea of an infinity, that's broken: there's a finite number of particles in the universe and a finite amount of energy among all of these particles. However, going the other direction, there's always going to be things that exist in the real world that just can't be captured by the system you're working with: my favorite is that "infinite chocolate bar" video that was going around a few years ago. If you don't know and don't want to click, it shows a way to cut and break a segmented bar of chocolate such that the final chocolate bar retains the original shape, but with a "bonus square" set to one side. If you start with Peano arithmetic, you count the number of squares before and after and go "wow, a whole extra square came out of nowhere!". Of course, it didn't- but to explain why to someone, you suddenly need to start getting into fractions and decimals and like - now you need some new rules!

So, I wanna wrap this all together. Fundamentally, no set of rules is or is ever gonna be the end-all be-all. If you want to define a new operation or special entity that there's no way to define using previous rules, and that's the easiest way to consistently describe the thing you want to, that's an option! Of course, when a teacher is telling you "that's the way it is" it means that they're giving you a set of behaviors that are true and directly follow in some way at some extension from the originals but they do not know or desire to walk the derivation back from the fact that they are contractually obligated to tell you. Which sucks. Math pedagogy is hard and I have like so many opinions. This post should have been like 4 separate blog posts and there are still blatant lies all over it. And also, secondly, idk, I just get sad when math is solely relegated to the role of supporting physical notions and behaviors. Because with all this freedom to make up rules and all of the opportunities for play in figuring out the consequences of those rules and building up complex behavior from there, math for math's sake is just so incredibly fun.

Addendum about FOIL because I cannot help myself: it's literally just the addition of all possible unique multiplications where one element is selected from each grouping. Stating it like this lets us expand: we can now do that same selection operation for any number of parenthetical groups, each with any number of contained additive members! And this behavior itself comes from just a few basic properties of the natural numbers: distributive law (which is itself derivable from the axioms induction and the axioms defining multiplication and addition and identity) and the axioms of commutativity and associativity of multiplication and addition over the natural numbers. Putting them together is left as an exercise for the reader ^^ (I somewhat lie, feel free to look here for a less generalized result). Which is really cool! It's fantastic that this just so closely follows from basic definitions of operations. But teachers don't wanna teach the derivations of things because they're an extra thing to remember. IMO they're at least worth sketching out to give an idea of the path but like. Like I said. Lots of ways to go with pedagogy.

what i wish i had been told about math in school

i have to know something well enough to be able to explain it to another person before i feel like i understand it.

I had a great math teacher in grade school, and we used an abacus to help conceptualize what was happening in multiplication and division which was super helpful for me i could feel like i really understood why and how.

but in later classes i began to be told things like

"we do it that way because that's the way it's done" and

"because if you do it any other way you get the wrong answer"

and, like, okay but if you do FOIL out of order you do get an answer, like you can do the math that way and you do get an answer, why is that answer wrong? What makes this answer right?

Clearly it IS the right answer, everyone seems to agree on that, but can you please for the love of all that is holy tell me how do we know that?

but nobody would tell me, and i stopped feeling like i understood what was going on, because i didn't know why we were doing the things we were doing

and that made math really hard for me.

So here's what i wish i could go back and tell myself

the answer is that a lot of math, maybe even almost all of it, is used to describe or prove observable phenomena.

so we see observable behavior number one, let's call it Snowballs Flying

and we see observable behavior number two, let's call that one Kids Walking By

and we do Bonkers Level Math that describes those behaviors, measurements for position, math that describes a changing rate of speed, math that describes the way gravity effects the snowballs, maybe even throw some wind force and air flow dynamics in there, all kinds of math

and that math lets us make predictions. Predictions like Snowball 37a and Kid-JS4 will be in the same place at the same time. And when JS4 goes down with an ear full of 37a, it proves all our math was right! (or at least that it was only off minutely)

So the reason you have to do FOIL (or whatever) when you encounter that kind of equation is because when you're doing Bonkers Level Math you have to do it that way to be able to accurately describe the things we can see happening around us

if someone had just fucking told me that, istg

[jjungkookislife]

Quarterly Fic Recs 2021 #2

Hello! I’m back with another rec list! Here are fics I’ve read, loved and thoroughly enjoyed in the second quarter of 2021! They are all very wonderful fics! Each story has its own genre, warnings (and are mostly 18+), so please take that into consideration before reading. If any authors would like me to untag them, please let me know. Enjoy!

Yoongi

before i leave you @hollyhomburg

summary: Yoongi Disappears- leaving behind a shattered pack. 8 months later, Jimin finds Yoongi in an H-mart of all places.

Hoseok

heart-on @junghelioseok

summary: my boss is always telling me how perfect her son would be for me and she promises he’s coming to the next holiday party and don’t worry he’s heard all about me too and ALSO there’s this dude i slept with once a couple of months ago and sometimes he still sends me dick pics when i ask him to at 3 in the morning cause seriously dude’s got a good dick

Jungkook

charmolypi @njssi

summary: Work and pleasure should never be combined — or so the saying goes. But you were never really one to follow the rules in their entirety and neither were the ones around you. Love, lust, interest. Five people. In the workplace. What could go wrong? Everyone just wants to get something, after all.

when you least expect it @johobi

summary: You’re in love with your childhood friend, Taehyung. The problem is, you treasure your friendship with him far too much to ever risk losing it. Oh, and he’s quite the Casanova. At your wits’ end with feelings you can no longer hide as diligently as you once did, you ask him to set you up with someone, anyone, in a last ditch attempt to avoid a heartbreaking conversation.

wherever there is you @jeonstudios

summary: you’ve been drinking, haven’t you?

instant gratification @dovechim

fuckboi@jungkook x cheerleader!reader

haze @yyooni

summary: So you’ve fucked the biggest fuck boy on campus. It’s a one and done. One night stand. A wham bam thank you ma’am. So why does it happen again?

OT7/Multiple Members

because i’m yours @minniepetals

summary: you should have known they’d never let you go after gathering the courage to ask for a kiss

blazed @ironicarmy

summary: Your friends try to cheer you up during Christmastime, but things go south once Hoseok appears with a mysterious brown bag.

Seokjin

one step @cutechim

summary:  attending an ex’s wedding is never easy, but you might just have the perfect remedy—if you can pluck up the courage to take it.

platonic @joheunsaram

summary: Finding a new method for stress relief, you rope in your bestfriend/fwb to try it out with you.

show me yours and i’ll show you mine @ktheist

summary: you’re a horny bunny yet kim seokjin always seems to manage to slide out of your grasps like a fox every time.

Yoongi

before i leave you pt. 7 @/hollyhomburg

summary: Pack omega kim Seokjin knows how to handle things when they go south (or alternatively you get triggered, Yoongi has a panic attack, and it’s a good thing the pack is there to help)

Hoseok

risky business @yoonjinkooked

summary: The person who invented smart glass office walls knew what they were doing. Your secretary fucks you stupid in the office.

snapshot @xjoonchildx

summary: after a day at the beach, hoseok has some surprises in store for his longtime love

keep me warm @ppersonna

summary: camping is always a great time when you’re with your friends, but even better with your boyfriend, hoseok.

it’s you @jinpanman

summary: An accidental confession throws your years-long friendship with Hoseok into disarray.

Namjoon

love bytes @stutterfly

summary: It’s been a year since you first met Kim Namjoon, the passionate, talented English professor at the local campus. He’s always been clumsy and aloof, but he’s on a whole new level in terms of “technologically incapable.” One call to IT was all it took to pull you into his life, and with it a whole string of friendships full of flirtatious banter and undying support.

Your dating situation has been drier than the Sahara for years now, and you’ve wasted too many lonely nights drinking alone, so you try your hand at Tinder. But you’re not getting any bites. When the group finds out, they are more than willing to help–even Namjoon, though he finds it increasingly difficult to deny that he’s hopelessly smitten. You consider their opinions on potential Tinder dates while fighting off feelings you never knew were brewing for the caring soul who becomes the home you never had.

out of my league @/ppersona

summary: Kim Namjoon was never supposed to find out about your years-long hopeless crush on him. And he most definitely was not supposed to find out about it in front of all your coworkers in a company-wide meeting.

so this is love @jinpanman

summary: “So this is the miracle that I’ve been dreaming of. So this is love.”

problem solved @sugasbabiie

summary: Namjoon helps you with more than math problems tonight.

love is @hxseok-honee

summary: they say that love is supposed to transcend time and space and that it knows no limits. but putting an ocean and thousands of miles between two people won’t make things any easier, will it? 

Jimin

potent pink @dntaewithluv

summary: The first time you see Park Jimin you’re instantly entranced by him. And it turns out he lives in the apartment next to the one you’re moving into, so even better he’s your hot neighbor. When the previous tenant confesses to you that he was the best hook up she ever had, you’re that much more intrigued. The first time you meet him, however, you’re deciding immediately that you hate him and want to stay as far away from him as possible. Jimin is determined to be a constant in your life though, and he definitely is that. Both a constant flirt and a constant pain in your ass. Is a ruined second impression enough to prevent you from ever giving him a second chance?

Taehyung

hush, yeah? @kithtaehyung

summary: the innocent accident that started it all

unfinished business @/dntaewithluv

summary: Besides wanting to catch up with some old friends, there’s only one reason you found yourself agreeing to attend your 10 year high school reunion. The boy you were in love with back then is going to be there, and you’re determined to finally make your move. Except, unfortunately, it turns out that Kim Seokjin is very much happily married. Kim Taehyung, however, is very much single and feels like he has something to prove to you after you turned him down all those years ago. One night is all it takes to make you realize you made the biggest mistake of your life.

under the covers @jessikahathaway

spy!au

darling @bloomsuga

summary: “go to sleep, darling.”

as endless as the stars ^

summary: he waited 160 years to meet you again, and now that he has, he’s not letting go. or: “i love you as deep as the ocean and as endless as the stars”

dirty dishes @jaysdimples

summary: when your boyfriend can’t seem to keep his hands to himself so he stirs up a little trouble in the kitchen while everyone else is a few feet away in the next room

devotion @/sweetbunnykook

summary: You and Taehyung were inseparable once. When you come back to your hometown after three years, fate pulls you back to him. And this time, Taehyung won’t ever keep his eyes off of you.

Jungkook

commercial break; twelve @1kook

summary: Anyway, if it was up to Jungkook, Kim Doyeon would not be a member of the Engagement Ring Committee.

tease @adonis-koo

summary:You came with the intentions of your best friend landing a job as a stripper. You never meant to catch the eyes of the king stripper of the establishment- Jeon Jungkook, yourself. With what was supposed to be a harmless way of paying off college debt faster you find yourself falling into a very odd and passionate relationship with your new mentor. Between infidelity, passion and jealousy there’s never a dull moment at Cherry Bomb.

jock!jk @angelguk

summary: going raw with jock jk

evolution of a lover’s heart @jeonstudios

summary: the rules are simple: first one to take the virginity wins.

euphoria @btssavedmylifeblr

summary: At the end of your life, you are given one day to live again with the man you loved. A lifetime’s love story told in a single day.

idealizations concerning real life relations @venusiangguk

summary: jungkook loves to be loved, but he doesn’t love in return.

relax @itsbuffsanta

summary: jk is antsy after the concert, so you help him relax.

employee of the month @/dntaewithluv

summary: Sometimes it truly amazes you how much of an idiot your boyfriend can be. But you also find it impossible to say no to him. Even when it involves letting him fuck you at his work on the same day that he gets awarded employee of the month…

ego 08 @suga-kookiemonster

summary: what’s a girl to do when her sweet, innocent baby lab partner isn’t quite so sweet and innocent? well, he’s a grown-ass man, and you’re about to learn that the hard way.

only you 10 @sweetbunnykook 

summary: Jeon Jungkook, your wedding photographer, helps you escape on your big day upon learning about a secret your groom-to-be kept hidden. You soon fall for this young, passionate photographer. However, you underestimated just how much he was willing to reciprocate that love. Maybe, you think, he’s loving you just a little too much.  

lunchbox lovers @jiminrings

stem major!koo x cold senior!y/n

crunchyroll & rail @/1kook

summary: Never mind the fact you really like Sailor Moon, or that you really want to pay attention to every little detail; the moment becomes Jungkook and his big smile and his red cheeks and the tiny box he produces from within his pocket.

only for you @jikookiekosmos

summary: It’s the night before your wedding and you should be happy…but a fight with your fiancé leaves you second guessing everything. A visit from the blue-haired boy of your dreams is just what you need to make it right.

lillies @dewykth

summary: “… white lines, pretty baby, tattoos, don’t know what they mean, they’re special just for you…”

bluekooberry @kimtaehyunq

summary: Your adoring boyfriend, Jungkook, surprises you with a brand new hairstyle before your trip to visit him for the weekend. He’s excited to see you, feed you, and give you exactly what you want.

bad reputation @noteguk

summary: in which you have to deal with some strange emotions for the first time.

not yet @bratkook

summary: jungkook feels the pang of guilt in his gut when you spot your recent ex out with his new girl, and what better way to make the jerk hurt than to have him believe you were now dating him, the neighbor he had been insecure about your whole relationship

incoming: elite chatboy @kookingtae

summary: welcome to Elite Chatroom, a sex chat company with a wide variety of services such as text messaging, phone call, and video chat. you signed up online for the most basic text service plan not knowing what to expect, but you certainly didn’t think you’d end up actually liking the man behind the screen.

ineffable @euphoria-vmin7

summary: your best friend Jeon Jeongguk has always been amazing and deserved the best, so you’ve hid your love for him. But unbeknowsnt to you, there may be feelings that could change everything between you two…

touch @gardentulips

summary: when you tease and please one another

Multiple Members

friendly fire @kpopfanfictrash

summary: The dynamic: Hoseok; your friend and previous fuck buddy. Jungkook; Hoseok’s roommate and subject of your massive crush. The scene: determined not to drunk-gush about your crush any more (to his face), you decide to seclude yourself from all campus parties. Until, of course, Hoseok guilts you into a favor. Things spiral from there.

the boys are back in town @/dntaewithluv

summary: Getting stood up by your date definitely hadn’t been on your agenda for the evening. Also definitely not on your agenda: bumping into Park Jimin and Jeon Jungkook. Together. On the same exact night. It’s been a while since you’ve seen your two best friends, as well as lovers on multiple occasions, from your high school and college days. A chance meeting, some drinks, and a trip down memory lane is all it takes to reignite the attraction between the three of you. Old habits die hard, but these two? They just might be the death of you.

ruin you @taegularities

summary: “His eyes hold unfathomable darkness that lures you in, captures your very soul, steals any air you are trying to draw. And you know without a doubt that you’re on the path to utter and irrevocable ruination.”

ruin you (once more) ^

summary: Taehyung and Jungkook can’t keep their hands off you. Not even in the elevator.

Seokjin

kairos @luffles424

summary: When your financial aid falls through for your last year of school, you fear you’ll have to drop out and postpone your degree. Until Taehyung gives you a suggestion to make a lot of money, quick. His idea can’t possibly end well, can it?

appetence @luffles424

summary: appetence (n.) - an eager desire, an instinctive inclination; an attraction or a natural bondIt’s time for Seokjin’s rut. Are either of you prepared for this step?

tiny lights, tiny lies @ggukcangetit

summary: you aren’t sure when exactly your best friend’s brother went from being an oddly annoying set of broad shoulders to the shoulders you frequently fell asleep against.

Yoongi

the little things @kimtaehyunq

summary: When the present isn’t exactly enough for you right now, Yoongi is here for you through it all. He makes sure you know you aren’t alone and that it’s ok to feel alone.

cyberslut @kimnjss

summary:  he has no idea who you are… up front, you’re sweet and innocent - but in reality you’re the exact opposite. running your own nsfw account, where your favorite topic is his hands.

yoongi drabble @joonsgalore

life guard au

Hoseok

benefits @cutechim

summary: you and hoseok have taken the ‘friends’ out of friends with benefits, but exclusivity has its own perks.

Namjoon

namjoon drabble @lovetrivia

summary: You’re a hot girl on Twitch and Namjoon is an absolute simp.

Jimin

baby fever @writtenwhalien

summary: Jimin wants another baby, and much to your delight, he’s determined to give you one.

jimin drabble @/1kook

best friend au

small hands jimin drabble @lavishedinjimin

established relationship au

silk and lace @sunshyngal

summary: Min Nara is the newly dumped fiance to the Crown prince of Korea, Park Jimin. She’s not overtly upset , because at least now she can live her life without the pressure of the monarchy hanging over her head. Besides , Nara has a very dirty little secret. While she spends the day as the perfect high society girl with an impeccable pedigree , her nights are filled with lacy lingerie and webcams.  Ignored by the man she’s meant to marry, she revels in the greedy lust of strangers on the internet. It’s her way of saying ‘fuck you’ to a system that sees her as nothing but a toy, molded for the future King. Park Jimin doesn’t know the first thing about his supposed fiancee. And he has no intention of learning either. He knows just what debutante girls are like and he has no patience for the kind. Besides, his girlfriend of three years, the elegant and independent Irene is everything he would ever want in a wife . Or is she?Because in the secrecy of his office , after the day’s work is done , Park Jimin has a very scintillating vice that he likes to indulge in : the beautiful camgirl who calls herself the Temptress. Jimin can’t get enough of the girl’s lush thighs wrapped in silk, the pretty pink of her nipples in see through bralettes and the glittering temptation of the jeweled plugs she likes to stuff herself full with.Jimin thinks she embodies  everything he can never allow himself to have as a Prince : filth, sin and decadence , all wrapped up in Silk and Lace.

Taehyung

nip it in the bud @opaljm

summary: You’re not sure how you ended up here, but maybe a shitty ex and a horrible breakup had a hand in what placed you in front of the tattoo parlor. It was already a nerve-wracking experience, but what you never expected was seeing that the owner and artist giving you nipple piercings was your older brother’s best friend you hadn’t seen in ages. to make things even worse, he got fucking hotter.

taehyung drabble @joonsgalore

sugar daddy au

peanut @jungxk

summary: the making of peanut.

Jungkook

pretty kitty @venusiangguk

summary: you’re jk’s baby, his toy, and now his pretty little pet.

heavy metal @hisunshiine

summary: You come home from a trip to find your fuckbuddy has a… hole-y surprise.

devour @bloomsuga

summary: my sweet angel… i am going to devour you

grain of sand @jungkookiebus

summary: Blind since the age of 18 from a genetic disorder, Jungkook walked through life as if he never lost it, but on one fateful day seven years ago he literally almost runs into you. He fell in love nearly immediately. Fast forward to the present and it’s just another day in your quiet life with him by your side.

under the oak tree @mingoyeob

summary: as the eldest daughter of a duke, it’s your duty to marry at your father’s will. yet you didn’t expect to be marrying jeon jungkook, a knight of low status, especially when he departs for an expedition without another word after your first night. when he comes back three years later, this time as a renowned hero, how will you be able to face him and how will things change between you and your new husband?

jungkook drabble @1kook

dilf!jk

commercial break: thirteen ^

summary: Because for as much shit as you let him get away with, Jungkook is certain you’ll draw the line today.

sh. @wwilloww

summary: How could you say no to a month away in the mountains with your friends after six months of grueling quarantine?

jungkook drabble @lavishedinjimin

daddy!jk

OT7/Multiple Members

the end @jimlingss

summary: It’s been a habit of yours to vent in the form of love letters. There’s six in total. They’re kept secret, hidden in your closet. But on your 30th birthday, what you least expect is for each letter to become reality. All done by the whacky ghost of Christmas future trying to grant your birthday wish.

[max1461]

.

@fentakneeeeel

If someone is born with a vagina then they're a she. It's literally that simple.

Ok, I hate to tarnish a dunk with an actual reply; takes away the rhetorical power of the thing, ya know? But I also hate to a leave a point unmade, so I'm making a separate post. Hopefully this clarifies my position.

Think about it this way. To describe you with the word "parent" means that somebody's your biological offspring, right? Well yeah, sure it does. But we also use the same word for adoptive parents. You can use an extra adjective ("adoptive" or "biological") if you want to specify which kind of parent someone is, but in everyday conversation (e.g. when I'm talking to my friend who's adopted), I just say "your mom" or "your dad", not "your adopted mom" or "your adopted dad". No one does that, it's silly.

Why? Because we recognize that while "parenthood" is about genetic descent in a biological context, in a social context it's about a certain type of relationship. The parent-child bond is something that humans naturally form, and we just don't always form it with people who are our biological relatives. In many contexts, the social facts (who fulfills a parental role) are more important than the biological facts (who's descended from who). If there's ever any ambiguity, then we have those convenient adjectives to differentiate. Most people, across the political spectrum, rightly recognize this as normal and generally No Big Deal.

When people talk about a distinction between sex and gender, that's basically what they're talking about. There are some people who believe in "brain sex", i.e. that brains have significant sexual dimorphism, and that trans people literally have a brain closer to that of the opposite sex. I am not a neuroscientist and have no idea whether this is true or not, but as far as I'm concerned it isn't very relevant. Like an adoptive parent is (or is at least trying to) fulfill the social role of "parent" to a particular child, so too is a trans person trying to occupy certain aspects of the social role of the gender they identify as. In the same way that calling adoptive parents "parents" makes sense, calling trans women "women" makes sense.

There's no science denial here; the science is not actually under debate. We all agree on how chromosomes work and what genitals are. The debate is over words, and over how we should categorize things. And referring to trans people by their identified gender seems to me to be patently the most sensible way to categorize things.

Words, after all, where not suddenly invented one day when God sent down a celestial dictionary (indeed, spoken language existed for several hundred thousand years before the first dictionaries were written, a time when the only way to define words was by their usage).

Words are literally things invented by people, and what they mean is entirely up to us. This is not some newfangled post-modernist position; this is the way that every working scientist approaches language. I know this because I learned this perspective through doing a STEM degree (specifically math, which is possibly the most culturally old-fashioned academic field there is). Scientists and mathematicians are generally at the forefront of having to invent new words, because their work focuses largely on newly-discovered things. When you constantly deal in new definitions, it becomes obvious that a definition is a choice you make, not something that just naturally exists (as if floating around in space somewhere to be discovered). Definitions are decided on pragmatic reasons first and foremost.

And on pragmatic grounds, it simply makes more sense (both ethically and descriptively) to refer to adoptive parents as "parents". Likewise it makes more sense to refer to trans men as "men" and trans women as "women". That's all there is too it.

This is basically the position articulated in The Categories were Made for Man, Not Man for the Categories, which I'll take this opportunity to recommend again.

[erstwhilesparrow]

sorry that was really confident of me, i should say i haven't finished lizzie's last life, and i have only seen cleo's last life session 4. there are my sources. now. let's make a list:

okay. i'm annoyed with myself for not taking more detailed notes at the time, but i am sort of gnawing at drywall that people (bigb, cleo) come to the fairy fort and notice lizzie's dogs and are like, "ah, your dogs will protect you from danger!" this is because later, lizzie is going to get one (1) Rendiggitydog. i am thinking about how ren does the math for lizzie on how many diamonds she'll need to get a full set of armour, and then later returns from an adventure with diamonds that he specifically gives to lizzie so she can get diamond boots. she has her loyal knight! she has her dogs. thinking about cleo standing over the burning fairy fort while lizzie and ren and bigb watch them. i know what i'm about to say is kind of Inventing A Dynamic and thus not quite what i promised but you could do something here about cleo+ren+lizzie and the notion of stop hiding behind your dogs and face me.

also shoutout to catrina belovedgamers for noting that at one point lizzie calls a meeting of the castle alliance and ren, who isn't sure whether he's part of this, waits just outside the front entrance for a bit, "like a good dog." :]

bigb and lizzie have a whole conversation about how bigb hasn't seen cleo in a bit that session, and they joke about how maybe she took off because she was the boogeyman, and bigb suggests maybe cleo was going to wait and plot before coming back to stab bigb in the back. the threeshadowing is wild. i realize this is not really about shadowrot but i went "!?!?!?" about it upon first hearing it and wanted to share.

cleo does nice things for lizzie? like yes their introduction is cleo pointing out that lizzie's Extremely Safe Circle Of Trees is very flammable (which i would call threeshadowing if not for the fact that we can't call every instance of people correctly noticing that flammable things are flammable in the life series threeshadowing; stuff getting burned is just kind of a rule of how the games work, like gravity) and doing some light threatening about how their castle's height relative to the fairy fort would make it quite easy to set the whole thing on fire, but then cleo is the one who puts fences in front of the main entrance to the fairy fort. they ask in chat "do you need help?" after lizzie dies to that zombie. they agree to make a secret tunnel connecting their bases and checks that lizzie is okay when she gets back from joel's attempted boogey kill. this is nice. this is charming.

and the OTHER thing that adds flavour to this is that lizzie is Very Obviously new to the death game! she smelts sand into glass panes for her house! (completely unrelated, did you know scott smajor also does this. in double life. and then realizes he doesn't have enough sand left for tnt. sorry, i like scott.) she turns her sugarcane into paper and then into nametags for her dogs. cleo has to remind her things can and do burn on this server. cleo's done this once already and can guess how it will go; lizzie doesn't know yet. some kind of old mirror. (and later, in secret life, cleo will have been in every game since the start, and lizzie was there for one, and then gone until now.)

hey scar keeps calling lizzie 'liz'. this isn't related to shadowrot , i just like thinking about people's names and what people call each other.

lizzie says she's going to entrust the enchanting table to cleo and cleo laughs and immediately says that's a bad idea. cleo's not going to pretend about it, but they are still. trusted. for someone who is constantly running around and talking like a terrified, paranoid chihuahua, lizzie's also pretty trusting, huh?

also. really charmed that lizzie comes back from her boogeyman kill and goes, "i feel much better, thank you," and cleo just laughs, even though lizzie fully and blatantly lied to them and bigb about not being boogey. later, lizzie is talking to someone (i've forgotten who) and you can hear cleo laughing quietly in the background. they think she's funny!! and she is!! to be fair!! but this is charming to me also.

speaking of the boogey kill. lizzie uses CLEO as a ~scapegoat to lure scott and pearl into following her to her trap. 'oh i'm worried they're going to kill me, they threatened me a few times', etc etc. and it works!! there might be Something here about lizzie... being happy to instrumentalize people? their reputations and skills and resources? there might be something here about Knowing scott and pearl and cleo's reputation and leveraging all three of those things at once. hey remember lizzie instantly correctly guessing that the person who told ren that impulse was the boogeyman was etho? i think she might actually be really good at this.

"i don't know what came over me, i'm so sorry" <- having this from lizzie (said to scott) before bigb's kill on cleo... does explain some things about the "you've never been boogey, you don't know what it feels like" defense.

[watches three episodes of lizzie last life] OH. OH OKAY. YEAH OKAY I UNDERSTAND SHADOWROT NOW.

[adamarinayu]

Since I can’t draw right now (it’s like 1 AM) I decided I’d just write things down about Domestic DUno AU (I still don’t have a proper name for it!!) so here we go~

Info below the cut to spare the mobile users my ramblings~~

BACKSTORY STUFF 

-Donald first became PK as a teenager (14 or 15), pulling petty pranks and avenging perceived wrongdoings. He ended up accidentally becoming a hero after stopping a thief and unknowingly saving a young girl’s life, and he realized he could direct his temper, anger and frustration not at making other people miserable, but at protecting others. Gyro, who went to school with Donald (Donald and Della attended a private school that would accommodate their adventure schedule; Gyro, being the absolute genius he is, attended on a scholarship) was there and ended up helping, being the one to inadvertently provide PK with the weapon he fended off the criminals with. PK talked to Gyro and the two became partners in crime-fighting that way.

-After deciding to become a hero, it was small-town villains mostly that he dealt with. Thieves, and the like. He didn’t start fighting mutants and those kinds of things until he was 17 or so, and the Evronians didn’t show up until he was 18. This is when Scrooge gave him a summer job at his newly acquired tower, figuring since Donald didn’t want to go with him and Della on a three-month adventure (as Donald was needed in Duckburg, he couldn’t be gone for three months!!) then he may as well work and earn a little money. As Duckworth was still alive, Duckworth was in charge of the manor, so Donald didn’t need to worry about upkeeping the mansion.

-Donald met Uno after a failed attempt to fight the Evronians, and they partnered up, with Uno providing Donald with otherworldly advanced tech that Gyro... would probably understand if given the time and chance (come on, he built a time machine out of a bathtub, he could totally understand future tech). After the first battle with the Evronians that Donald eventually wins, he realized that the game had just just 10x more dangerous. Between working on his doctorate and interning for Scrooge’s science department (something the scientists working for Scrooge were salty about), Gyro didn’t have much time to work on new and improved inventions for PK so when Uno contacted Gyro about him stepping down from helping PK, Gyro agreed, acknowledging that the mysterious Uno Ducklair would probably be a better benefactor for the hero. He didn’t know PK’s identity, though, so he didn’t take the memory erasing candy. Instead he focused on his work.

-Years passed this way, with Donald and Uno working together. Of course Donald had his other adventures, such as with Jose and Panchito and Mickey and all them lovely folks, but Uno was his closest confidante and biggest supporter. He was the one he vented his frustrations with Della and Scrooge to, and the one to give him advice on how to deal with it and talk to them about it all.

-At some point during this time, Gladstone finds out Donald is PK. Of course it happens in the typical Lucky way- him finding out saved Donald’s life. Gladstone is shaken up by the knowledge that his cousin/brother is in danger every day and has almost died multiple times. Gladstone becomes a sort of third member of the whole Crime Fighting thing, yep, you heard it right, Cloverleaf is real here. He figures if he’s out in the field with Donald, then Donald will never die because of Gladstone’s supernaturally good luck. Uno, while frustrated with Gladstone’s unpredictable and illogical luck, accepts this. Donald is less keen because he doesn’t want Gladstone in danger’s path but when the gander makes up his mind it’s made up, yo.

-PK and Cloverleaf (CL from here on out) and Uno work together for 3 years before the Spear of Selene incident, where Donald is suddenly left with three eggs. Donald’s priorities now shifted, he quits being a hero and buys the houseboat so he can raise the triplets without Scrooge’s influence. Gladstone does what he can to help while trying to continue to protect Duckburg, and while watching CL on the news Donald has the sudden realization that Duckburg still needs him- new parent or not. So he (metaphorically!!) throws the eggs into their pram, rushes to Ducklair Tower, begs Lyla to watch the eggs for him and rushes off to CL’s aid. 

-After the danger is over, Donald collects the eggs, thanks Lyla for her help, then meets up with CL and Uno on the 151st floor where they have a serious conversation. Donald acknowledges that Duckburg still needs PK, but Della’s children also need him. The three eventually come to the conclusion that the kids would be raised by PK and Uno there in the Tower, where they would be safe- and they would be trained so they’re ready for anything thrown at them. (Gladstone is actually the one who is like “nah cuz you be their dad I’m not cut out for that, I’ll be the cool uncle, I don’t wanna live in the tower! No offense Uno” so it isn’t like Donald just decided to leave him out of the parenting)

-The eggs hatch and Donald names them sensible (AKA not Della’s list) names (and pronounces Llewellyn correctly dammit) and Donald and Uno have a time learning hands-on how to be parents. (“I’ve read twenty different parenting guides in the last five seconds and they’re all saying different things, Donald, WHAT DO WE DO-”) The whole “raising kids together” thing brings them even closer than before and forces them to have a chat about their feelings, too. 

-When the triplets are small and starting to run around, Uno baby proofs everything. He has a hard time keeping them from escaping their playpen (which is essentially a huge room with an amazing view of the city, he doesn’t know why they’re so intent on escaping). Then eventually the inevitable happens- both Don and Glad end up stuck on the other side of the world for nearly a whole month, and Uno realizes taking care of three toddlers is much easier when you have a body. So while they’re gone, he balances his time between advising them on their mission, taking care of the triplets and building an android body that can handle an AI as advanced as him (throw out that “an AI who is only good could never make a full person” shit cuz Uno can be petty as hell, he’s a whole ass person even without Due yo). By the time Don and Glad get back he’s testing his prototype. Donald is thrilled, of course- his boyfriend has a body now!

-The triplets gain a sister! Everett brings a child to them one day, a little Coronan girl who was for reasons I haven’t decided yet cast out of her family and Everett, with his weird Enlightened Powers shit, went and found her and brought her back to the people he knew would take care of her well (considering his own past failures...). And so the triplets have a little sister who is an alien! Yee! Yes it’s Asveya (Ve). She came to them when she was ~2 and the triplets were 3 or 4, and as she didn’t have a name Donald named her after a friend he met as a child, when he regularly adventured with Scrooge and Della, and whom he ended up meeting again as a young adult.

-Uno perfects the body over time as he learns more things about being a person (he very purposefully leaves out pain receptors, though he includes the best parts of being a physical person ofc- he wants his cake and he wants to eat it too!). Everett decides now that Uno has a body, it was time to introduce him as his son officially and hand the business over to him (stating that it’ll be good for the kids if at least one of their parents had a proper job and income, since savings don’t last forever), and as the kids get older Donald begins training them so they’ll be able to take care of/protect themselves if need be. Uno creates a training field/obstacle course that is fun and age-appropriate, and by the time they’re ten they’re like little superheroes in training. They can give Webby a run for her money. Ve is less interested in being like PK and more interested in being like Uno- AKA the techie behind the gadgets.

-The triplets are already playing with some rudimentary pieces of tech Ve made, playing like they’re superheroes (or villains, gotta have someone to fight!). Uno finds out when he reviews the Tower footage and immediately confiscates anything that can be dangerous, but lets them keep the more innocent stuff.

MODERN DAY STUFF (AKA the time the show takes place)

-As the kids got older Donald and Uno allowed them more freedom, even letting them go out on their own (with the promise of being back before dark, not telling anyone what their parents did for a living, they all stuck together and they didn’t speak to strangers beyond what was necessary). When the triplets were 10 and Ve was 8 or 9, Uno learned that a powerful artifact (not the gem) was in Atlantis and that if a villain got their hands on it, it would be... very bad. So Donald decides it’s time to put on his metaphorical adventure shoes again and go get it. By this time Gladstone got trapped in the casino (Uno has been looking for him, after not hearing from him for over a week) and Uno had a Big Business thing to attend, real important too, so they talk about getting a babysitter for the weekend they’ll be gone. The kids manage to convince them they don’t need one, as they’ll be safe in the 151st floor (“We’ll be safer there than anywhere else, right, Uncle Uno?”). Donald tried to call Lyla but she was unfortunately in the field, so he agreed to let them stay home on their own until Uno got back (Uno did the math and figured he could stay for a few hours to just make a good faith appearance, talk business with some stooges and then come home the same day).

-Of course, the kids get caught. Uno had already left out for his business thing at like 5 AM, and Donald was about to head out to Atlantis in one of the Duckmobiles. He happened to check on a whim the back of the mobile, where he found his surprised ducklings staring wide-eyed up at him. He knew then that he needed to cash in on a favour- he called Beakley and then drove the protesting children to the mansion. (“Come on, Unca’ Donald!” “It’s a mansion! We wanna go to the lost city, too!” “Come on, we’ve been doing real good in training!” “Please, dad? We promise we’ll listen!”) The excitement over meeting THE Scrooge McDuck is overshadowed by the disappointment that they can’t go on this mission.

-Besides, who cares about a mansion and a rich adventuring duck when your parents and uncle are not only rich adventurers, but they’re also superheroes???

-Donald gives them a forehead kiss goodbye and heads off, and Scrooge has Beakley put the kids in that old room. “It’ll only be a few hours” they said. “Until Uno gets back.” Unfortunately, Uno calls Louie and tells the duckling there’s been a problem and he won’t be back until later- Donald already informed him of the changed arrangements and he’s already contacted Beakley.

-The kids decide to escape the old room, putting their hero training into action, but are ultimately swept up into Webby’s trap. Webby is super excited to meet them when she realizes who they are (though she has no idea who Ve is), and she cuts them down from the net without them having to escape themselves. The kids know they’re not supposed to let anyone know about the “hero family” thing so try to act like normal kids, though it becomes apparent Webby doesn’t know how to be a normal kid either.

-Through shenanigans, the children inspire Scrooge to adventure again, and Dewey lets slip about lost cities and Scrooge has a moment of realization. Thus, he drags the kids to Atlantis with him. While there, the kids each get a chance to show off their moves (which they’re SUPPOSED TO HIDE but you know, when arrows are flying at you ain’t got no time to hide). Donald is pissed when he notices them in Atlantis, and Uno is pissed when he calls Donald and learns the kids are in Atlantis, right where they are NOT supposed to be.

-Things pretty much follow the episode, though with the triplets able to hold their own and Donald gunning for a completely different artifact. When they escape and get back to the surface with their respective artifacts, they’re met by a livid android who absolutely chews Scrooge out for dragging four ten year olds and an eight year old to a dangerous place like that.

-Donald decides that it might be okay for the kids to visit with Scrooge sometimes, to get a little real-world experience, and at precisely that moment something crashes into the 151st floor of Ducklair Tower. Uno is absolutely furious (“MY TOWER???”) cuz that’s gonna take a bit to fix- at the very least it’ll appear to take a while- and when the kids question “what now?” Scrooge offers up some rooms in the mansion. The kids are excited cuz they’ll get to live with Webby and explore a new place. Donald and Uno say “just until the tower is fixed” (Gladstone had Donald’s boat at the time he went missing so Donald doesn’t have it) which is good enough for the kids.

-Scrooge being sus of Uno for like a whole arc cuz he’d never heard of Uno Ducklair before recently and also his nephew?? got married??? 

-Gladstone finally gets a message out to Don and Uno for help, and they go immediately- but not before Scrooge makes it a family adventure. Scrooge is disparaging of Gladstone, but Donald is just worried about his cousin. They manage to save Gladstone without pseudo-sacrificing anyone. Scrooge gets a little sus when they get back to Duckburg, and days later the missing Cloverleaf has shown up again. 

-HDLV ended up spilling the truth to Webby as she got closer with them, but they swore her to secrecy. Of course Beakley found out because Webby is a terrible liar.

**So basically Donald + Uno parents, a kid that calls them her dads, good Uncle Gladstone, Brotherly Gladstone + Donald, Competent Cloverleaf, PK + Cloverleaf teamup, little-hero triplets. Gyro will end up teaming up with Gizmoduck when Fenton takes up heroing, too, just like Launchpad teams up with DW (DW’s story for this AU will be different, also, just a heads up) and basically all their combined kids become a badass team of children (Huey, Dewey, Louie, Webby, Ve, Boyd, Gos, and of course Lena and Violet join in later...) Gyro teams up with Gizmoduck because every hero needs a tech guy (even heroes who are also scientists....) and he’s not only very capable, he’s worked with a hero before so he knows the ins and outs :D

However it is now 2 AM and I need to sleep so I’m gonna end my musings here but I am thinking of them so much right now I’m