#i'm convinced people who like it just don't have the critical thinking skills to have read the books

[livingprophecy]

bruh what was sab s2

[just-antithings]

I need many people to realize a strong contribution to the purity discourse in media we see among young people is due to radfems & gender criticals poisoning the water supply on sites like this one (tumblr) or other social media since 2014

Seeing teens and young 20-somethings using "porn addicted", "porn-brained", "degenerate", all unironically, those are words you find in alt-right & anti-LGBTQ+ message boards.

It wasn't JUST GCs alone, but many people have been around to see them influence a generation of kids with arguments you see today like

“X in fiction causes abuse"

“x is fetishization"

"Unless you've personally gone through trauma you shouldn't write about it"

“If you HAVE gone through trauma, you can't sexually explore it"

"If you like abuse in fiction you're an abuser in real life”

Hearing kids call random (usually queer!) shippers in fandom "groomers" and "pedophiles" for ships that have been established in fandom for decades, or because of a "power imbalance" between adult characters isn't a coincidence. Hmm, I wonder what other groups use those words?

It's not solely kids alone, it is a combination of:

Online radicalization and disinformation

No spaces for kids

No internet safety/literacy

Steeping censorship in activist language,

lack of education (If you don't know red flags you can't avoid them)

COVID did NOT help

This is why ignoring it will never help, because while thankfully some people grow out of it, it usually happens to people who had some support system or breakthrough in cognitive dissonance. There are plenty of people who are becoming adults and who keep infantilizing themselves

“My brain isn't done until I'm 25, you're all predators" and they're talking to a 30 y/o

That argument is literally being used by UK government officials to block access to gender-affirming healthcare. Infantilizing adults only serves the purpose of stripping agency and rights

They're not being safe. They're not gaining skills. They're participating in a fear-fueled climate of faulty medical misinformation, keeping themselves in a perpetual childish-victim state no matter how old they get and nothing about this is healthy

How do you think a person goes through this world when they've been wholly convinced that you can tell someone is safe because they like "safe" or “wholesome" things, & people who make them uncomfortable via hobbies or interests (not IRL actions) are probably actual criminals?

[monimccoythings]

Random headcanons of Alastor and his child!reader

This will mix headcanons from both the living and the afterliving times.

Tw: Controlling behavior, implied cannibalism, references to murder.

This is not proof read so I apologize for any grammar and vocabulary mistakes.

Your home is always filled with music. Be it the radio, a record player or him singing. There's always someone playing a tune. Even now at the hotel you can always find him in one of the common rooms humming a song or with his cathedral radio on.

Loves dancing with you, you'll be helping him cook and next thing you know he is swirling you around the room, music mixing with your combined laughter.

From a very young age, he will teach you to love the radio. He is immensely proud of his job (the legal one) and wants to share it with you.

Likes to treat your wounds and illness the traditional way, just like he used to when you were alive. You got a scratch? He is cleaning it for you and bandaging it up. You are down with something? He'll wrap you in blankets with a hot water bottle and feed you old family remedies and warm soup. If the wound or illness is way too severe to his liking, he will immediately make it go away with a snap of his fingers, otherwise he just likes to act like your caregiver and mother hen you.

Really loves to pull the 'single hardworking dad' act that makes the mothers and female teachers at your school swoon. He is not really interested in pursuing anything further with them, but boy, does he enjoy the attention.

He likes to check on you while you are sleeping. Sometimes he just stays there, quietly watching you sleep, his ever present smile growing bigger as a sense of pride fills his chest.

Lots of dad jokes, I think he's the only one who could pull it off and have everyone laugh. It goes with his radio host charisma and personality.

He does your hair. This man has singlehandledly researched and become well versed in the art of braiding hair. Braids, pigtails, or just brush it, you call it, you got it.

Alastor loves control and having power over people, he is the kind of dad that will subtly talk you out of doing something he doesn't approve of, just using his inmense charms and smooth talking skills to convince you into thinking this was your decision after doing some critical thinking. "Cher, I don't think you should do X, how about you do Y instead?" "I'm sure your friend is too busy to hang out today, why don't we go to the ice cream shop?" He won't ever put you down or make you feel bad about anything, but if you are deviating for the path that he has already set for you (the safe path) he will immediately persuade you to go back to the right way, his way. In Hell that aspect of him has become a million times worse, since he has already lost you once and has become someone with many dangerous enemies who wouldn't hesitate to use you to get back at him. His overprotectiveness and controlling behavior skyrocket when he becomes a demon, which eventually will come back to bite him in the ass.

Doesn't like having anyone question about your biological parents. He is your parent. You don't need anybody else.

Alastor is not fond of physical affection, unless he is the one initiating it. But, since he has had you since you were a baby, he has mostly grown used to your touch. He has become proficient enough in detecting your moods that he knows exactly when you are going to need a hug, a kiss or some other kind of physical comfort, so he can get ahead and start the contact first. He admits that one of his favorite ways nowadays to show affection to you is ruffling your fluffy hair, lightly tickling your ears, his eyes fill with joy when your ears get all twitchy.

Your room back at the hotel is a carbon copy of the one you had back when you were alive, but bigger, and with a private old timey bathroom. Alastor likes to come in whenever he pleases, he is the unliving embodiment of "I'm respecting your privacy by knocking but asserting my authority as your parent by coming in anyway". He even said so once. Word by word.

You can't stand Mimzy. Sorry, it's a fact, she always gets your name wrong and only comes by if she needs something from your dad. She seems to not be very fond of you either, can't understand why in Hell Alastor would waste his time so willingly just to take care of a snooty brat that ain't even his. But your father seems to like her enough, so you swallow up your critics.

When he was alive, and came back from a 'hunt', he always brought a little memorabilia for you, maybe some old watch, a fancy toy or trinket the victim had on them at that moment. Whatever little thing that wasn't too incriminating and pretty enough to be worthy of you. Now that you know the truth, you can't stop wondering with dread if every little thing he gifts you belonged once to a poor tormented soul that crossed in his path.

Might had fed you human remians in his stews. He utterly denies it, claiming that he would never do that to your delicate stomach. But the suspicious way his eyes quickly dart around the room, makes you think otherwise. It was the Great Depression after all, food was scarce. You'd rather not dwell too much on it or you will never eat anything ever again.

He is a monster, and it pained you to have been so blind all these years, but even after discovering his true nature, the only thing you could say about his parenting before that terrible night of the discovery, was that he was an excellent dad, a tad bit overbearing and overprotective, but a great parent nonetheless.

[allthatmay]

so. totally unrelated fandom post.

i've only seen the first episode of the wizards of waverly place sequel (wizards beyond waverly place) but i have thoughts. the basic premise of the show is that justin russo has settled down with a non-wizarding wife (giada), has two kids, and has become an ordinary middle school teacher after being fired from wiztech. his life is upturned when his sister, alex, drops round with a delinquent young girl named billy who needs help learning magic—and, oh yeah, she's supposedly part of some big prophecy to save the world.

so far, all i've seen is criticism of the characters and the show in general, but i think a lot of it is unfair. i'll concede that replicating the character dynamics from the original show (with giada as theresa, justin as jerry, billy as alex, roman as justin, milo as max, etc) was a bad move, but justin's character in particular has received a lot of flack that i, personally, find unreasonable.

people say that justin wouldn't dare give up being a wizard; that the trajectory of his life makes no sense given his love of magic. but life doesn't always work out the way we imagine, even with meticulous planning and preparedness. we can't forget that justin's own father was very much the same; that jerry was a very skilled wizard who loved magic and could never imagine giving it up. given that, i think it makes sense for justin's character to settle down with a non-magical wife and become a school principal. he held on to magic the longest of the three siblings because he defined himself by his skill with it, but he learned, as he aged, that magic wasn't everything.

besides, seeing justin lose his magical lifestyle as his ages only to reclaim it again at the start of this series is a great, if obvious, analogy for what happens to most of us as we age. even those who hold on tightest to their younger years can find themselves losing the the magic felt in childhood; we have to reach out and take it back for ourselves. children are sometimes the best ones at showing us what we have lost, hence: justin teaches magical children and in doing so rediscovers his own magic.

(side note: being a middle school principal suits him for obvious reasons: his love of learning, love of rules, love of wonder. the whole "being fired from wiztech because of an incident with a unicorn" also makes sense to me because, as much as alex learned from him, he learned from alex, too.)

i have nothing to say about alex's character because selena gomez came back and fucking crushed it. the biggest problem is the delivery of the prophecy: she just drops it like "hey billy's the only one who can save the world" and then leaves. now, do i think this is bad writing? yes. but i also think it would make sense if this was utter bullshit; if alex only said this to justin to ensure he really, truly enveloped himself back into the magical world because she knows just how much he misses it. (it's just a prank, bro!)

what would i have changed? i'd probably have made it so that alex had a kid like justin, and justin had a kid like alex. i would not give justin two boys as i don't think that does anything for his character. i would include both jerry and harper, as their actors have a goddamn podcast about the show and deserve to be included. (not to mention how jerry's character, in mirroring justin's, could be very informative for the whole plot.) also, justin's wife? she's fine, but please at least address what happened to juliet. was it the whole "i'm a vampire and i don't grow old but you do" thing? because that only adds to the reasoning behind justin giving up his magical lifestyle.

(also, and this is a tiny thing, but people are wondering how justin the principal and his investigative reporter wife can afford their house? and, HELLO, we get told that max is now a billionaire—thanks to his sandwich enterprise, i think. he would've totally bought them a house after giada convinced justin to accept it.)

[whinlatter]

sorry if you've discussed this before, but do you think ginny's quidditch talent came out of nowhere? it's a common criticism I see about her but I feel like that kind of overstates how much of a quidditch "star" she was at the beginning, like she was consistently described as good but not great until partway into hbp and I also think it makes sense she'd keep it a secret from her teasing brothers. but maybe they're right and I'm just biased towards defending ginny

thank you for the question, anon!

the short answer is - no, i think it's (just about) plausibly rendered in the books. i think the series gets away with it because:

the story is told from the perspective of a teenage boy aka peak obliviousness in corporeal form, so we see what harry sees (and harry notices big fat nothing)

there is an entirely adequate narrative explanation for ginny's sporting skills that most readers not operating in bad faith* can put together, as you suggest: ginny comes from a sporty family who are all good at quidditch; she is of middling-to-good seeking ability when she first joins the team in ootp; she then has a good few months flying several times a week where she would necessarily grow in confidence and experience, leaving her perfectly able to blossom in hbp in a high school sport where she is competing against other children. fine and dandy in my book.

also quidditch is a broadly dumb and pointless plot so ginny being good at it is just a fun extra that we don't need to deep too much because - let's be real - quidditch is a waste of page space.

*i say this because, most of the time, these takes come from those who don't like hinny as a pairing. which is entirely their right and prerogative! it personally doesn't float my boat to spend my days doing worst faith readings of the text in order to make the case against canon ships i don't like, but as this is a race to the bottom - we are all adults dissecting children's books written by a nasty spiteful woman rotting in her mouldy castle spouting slurs, after all - who am i to judge.

(i also suspect the 'ginny is good at quidditch out of nowhere' takes have enjoyed such a long shelf-life on eg. reddit because the films are still most people's primary reference for HP takes so complaints about them then get cast back on the books - and, in the films, ginny does in fact rock up in film 6 like she's mbappé, if mbappé had the charisma of an extraordinarily soggy bath mat.)

with that said... could it have done with a bit more foreshadowing? yes, probably. people who don't like hinny as a pairing and prefer another are never going to be convinced - that's fine! but here i am, a paid-up hinny supporter, and even i think ginny's character development is sometimes wanting, to a frustrating and problematic extent. good writing (usually) means showing not telling, and it's weird and lazy of jkr to be so slapdash about revealing this and other character details about ginny and other (often female) characters. i think it's particularly striking that jkr underserves characters (again, usually women) who exist to serve the emotional development of characters (usually men), rather than the mystery plot(s) that drive hp as a series. (wanted! tonks' personality! last seen making fake pig noses and being the only auror mad eye moody mentored as his successor, for no plot reason!)

while i'm not a die-hard adherent to the chekhov's gun principle, i think one of the strengths of many novels du jour - especially the nothing really happens postmodern novel that crowds the bookshop shelves these days - is that their conventions allow authors to add colour to characters without each tiny detail being pregnant with meaning and in service of a driving plot that must be marched forward at all times. that can be really nice! as readers, we like to get a sense of characters as well-rounded living breathing people who go for a wee and take the bins out and stick on an album because it slaps every now and then; in these novels, we're also happier with the idea that things can happen to characters beyond the protagonist that don't directly impact the plot or demand the protagonist knows more than their own very limited vantage point. you have more room to play with character as a result.

jkr, ofc, isn't that kind of author. jkr is in fact an author for whom everything about her characters serves the plot. this, after all, is the brain that brought you 'remus lupin' the werewolf, and named the bad-guy-turned-good-guy in a book using a big black dog as a red herring omen of death 'sirius black'. jkr wants her audience to notice clues and remember little details about characters because they might be significant later on. this is entirely her wont and - lupin and sirius aside - she's often very good at it. the hp books are all standalone mysteries, and, when they land, those mysteries slap. ginny being the culprit in CoS is a genuinely satisfying resolution to the whodunit plot: this was reflected in critical reception at the time and was part of the reason why hp was able to be marketed as a children's book adults would also enjoy thereafter. there are also very satisfying foreshadowing and mystery plots that straddle the entire series and that reward the reader with reasonably good pay-off at the series end. (my favourite is the foreshadow within the foreshadow - e.g. regulus black barrelling back from ootp in DH, but then regulus' plot turning out to ultimately exist to foreshadow snape's own double agent status... delicious).

for my part, it's also what i want out of the fiction i read and the stories i try to write. i want everything to mean something. i want the weather, clothing, setting, body language etc to all do heavy lifting. i want character work to do work. it makes it fun for me to write and (i hope) it can it a bit more fun for the reader.

the problem is that while jkr is good setting up some mysteries, she is bad at others, and the romantic plot is one she falls down (a bit) on. she sets herself up for this: she wants to be a plot-centred mystery writer, so she does have an obligation to do better in how she deploys character details. jkr does to try to write the harry/ginny romance like a mystery, with little hints throughout the series up to the reveal of harry's feelings for ginny in HBP. (even ginny's full name is nominative determinism, finally revealed in DH once the reader has been told her place in the plot - ginevra, so guinnevre, the hero's queen). and while i will never not tire of pointing out to all of reddit that harry/ginny didn't come out of nowhere, and there is some satisfying foreshadowing knocking about here and there, i think it's fair to say that the harry/ginny build-up is not as satisfying as it could have been because jkr is basically lazier about the clues that ginny is the character harry will ultimately fall for, while she is much better at dropping clues for the series' central plot. that ginny ends the series with no real resolution of the primary tensions that motivate her other than her love of harry is probably the most acute example of this. but there's lots about her character where jkr phones it in a bit in fleshing her out or taking it to any logical conclusions or interesting plot directions. a smattering of examples:

ginny is the character who spends the entire series demanding to be included and not underestimated ends the series... with no real major role in the battle other than causing harry panic, while all other central characters receive a satisfying narrative arc that speaks to their central motivators across the series as a whole. (for an interesting discussion of what should have happened with ginny and the horcruxes, see here. i didn't even pay @saintsenara to write this!)

there are lots of shades of colour to ginny's character that are introduced pointlessly. i have previously talked about my beef with arnold the pygmy puff. we know ginny is popular but we know nothing of her friends who are all faceless plotless nobodies. we know ginny supports the all-womens quidditch team in a way that implies a nascent feminist politics after a childhood being excluded from playing a sport she loves by her brothers - yet we know nothing of it. we know ginny loves the one wizarding band that seems to exist because she has a poster of them on her wall and it just.... is something we just get told about her. now, all of these suggest ginny is a good time gal and a right laugh at the pub. and that's nice! i too am fun at the pub! but why does it matter? it wouldn't, in another series. but in a series where Everything Matters, it really stands out.

now..... i don't think all of this is an unsolveable problem for those of us writing fanfiction about ginny or harry and ginny as a couple. i don't think this makes ginny an inherently bad character. i hope the amount of life i have wasted thinking about this character is testament to this (...) and i personally find trying to cook up some fleshed-out characterisation and a satisfying arc for ginny, and for female characters more generally, from the crumbs of the original source material to be a very rewarding way to pass the time and a fuck you to a woman who thinks she can gatekeep womanhood while writing some astonishingly antifeminist fiction. i think harry and ginny are a deeply compelling and eminently plausible couple, and i think i return to writing about them as much as i do because i think they have a ton of potential as narrative mirrors and as characters with a rich well of tension but also devotion between them. as i say a lot, i think one of the things the harry/ginny pairing does refreshingly well compared to other romantic lead couples in YA fiction is show a couple that, at heart, genuinely get on very well, have a laugh together and enjoy each other's company in completely mundane lovely day-to-day ways (laundry and taxes u know). i think that's a striking and refreshing dynamic that i like to spend time fleshing out and playing with and writing about. but i can also see that there is an inconsistency in jkr's character work here, particularly her character work writing female characters, of which ginny is among the most acute examples.

[yiffos-official]

I am willing to give you or anyone else on tumblr the skills and advice the helped me get my dream job

the idea of working for TEK a few months ago would just be a fantasy

my background in education is English. I learned what I know now on my own and only by random chance.

This is why I am so critical of the linux commumity on tumblr.

They're tagging themselves as -official when they can't provide casual end user support.

They're entirely too horny to be in this sphere. Computers and linux should not be about how much you want to fuck/be fucked by X

it will deter end users

This is very cool that you will help other tumblr users with this stuff; i may actually take you up on this at some point :3

(my tone here is /g, /pos, /nm, /lh)

I do, however, kind of disagree with the other points. I think that for any other social media it's correct, twt or fb does not have the culture to make these sorts of parody accounts viable or not-counter-productive to increasing the linux market share. But I don't think that tumblr is the same.

I think that tumblr does. I think the tumblr community has always been this somewhat ephemeral yet perpetual inside joke culture where almost every user is in-the-know, and new users to the joke are able generally able to catch on quickly to it due to their general understanding of they way tumblr communities operate.

IMO, it's a somewhat quick pipeline of:

\> find first "x-official" blog -> assume it's real -> see them horny posting about xenia -> infer that RH corporate would probably not approve of such a blog

I can appreciate that it might be intimidating to seek out help as a new linux user, and especially a new linux & tumblr user, but looking through these blogs, you do see them helping out people ^^. heck, my last post was helping someone getting wayland working on an nvidia system.

The main goal of these blogs is not to be a legitimate CS service to general end-users. they aren't affiliated with the software their blog is named after, so in many cases they *cant*. The goal is instead to foster a community around linux, creating a general network of blogs of the various FOSS projects that they enjoy.

I think that final sentiment, of these blogs detering end users, is most likely counter to their actual effect on end users who are considering switching to linux.

We all know a lot of tumblr is 20 or 30 something year olds who have just stuck around since ~2012ish, and new users to tumblr join with pre-existing knowledge of the culture and platform. Almost anyone coming across these blogs are going to be people who can see the "in" joke, and acclimate. I do highly doubt that a random facebook mom who's son convinced her to install mint on her old laptop would find tumblr, find a -official blog, scroll through said blog, and be detered from using mint.

The other side of this is that any tumblr users who come across these blogs, be it with an inkling of desire to switch to linux or not, will see a vibrant and active community that fits very well into the tumblr community. They remember, or have heard of, the amtrac & OSHA blogs, and are therefore probably aware that this is a pre-existing meme on here.

In all likelyhood, this will probably further incentivize them to make the switch, as they would be more attracted to a community of their peers over a community of redditors telling them to read the arch wiki repeatedly

I can, on the other hand, definitely see that for people who have difficulties with parsing tone, and especially sarcasm, would have trouble with this. TBH, I have these difficulties (hence when I was speaking to you yesterday I used the /unjerk indicator, as I couldn't tell what the tone of the conversation was), and so it took me a little while of being in this weird "I'm 99% sure these *aren't* official, but what if?". I have been there forI think that maybe being more transparent with the fact that the blogs are parodies is probably important. I'm guilty of this, and after i post this, i'll add it to my bio.

[hellobitchlet]

Actually, I'm going to make this it's own post.

If anyone who has said that they're boycotting stops just because they like Natlan's archon quest, or Capitano becomes playable, or they like a 5 star that gets released, or a 5 star gets a skin you like, or any other reason, I'm going to be so fucking mad. If you still give them money, especially if you claimed that you wouldn't, you are won over too easily and have no critical thinking skills.

And it's especially bullshit if your excuse is "the boycott isn't working, oh well!" Hoyoverse ignoring the boycott is exactly the reason why you shouldn't give them money!

The reason why I keep saying "don't give them money" instead of "boycott them/sign the petition/etc." is because I'm not just talking about convincing them to change a few skin colours in one game. I'm talking about everything that they've done across all of their games that is shamelessly bigoted, and combining them all into a huge folder of reasons why they don't deserve money.

I'm talking about the racism in Natlan and Sumeru, yes, but I'm also talking about Paimon and Traveler being unnecessarily shitty towards Kaeya and Venti, one of whom was the only brown skinned character in the game at the time of that shitty behavior. I'm talking about hilichurls. I'm talking about none of the Chinese or Japanese characters having brown skin either, except for one 4 star in Liyue with a bad kit and a personality centered around a type of music often stereotyped as being 'violent'.

I'm talking about Boothill and Azta, the whitewashed Indigenous American characters from Honkai Star Rai and Houkai Gakuden 2 respectively. I'm talking about Aventurine, the whitewashed Romani character whose backstory includes being a slave and being terrorized by a greedy, violent tribe. I'm talking about Aven's home planet being named a slur against Romani people. I'm talking about Sparkle and Ratio, a pale skinned Japanese and white Greek character who calls him slurs against Romani people on screen. I'm talking about the hsr place based on the Jazz Age in the US not having any playable black characters.

I'm talking about Carole, the only brown skinned playable character in hi3, canonically hating her skin colour. I'm talking about Arlan, the only brown skinned playable character in hsr, acting subservient to a pale skinned character and spending the whole tutorial telling pale skinned characters that they're better than him. I'm talking about the only notable African place in hi3 being a destroyed city a white male antagonist took over. I'm talking about Nanook, the closest we have to a main antagonist in hsr, being the only brown skinned aeon.

But it's not just the racism. I'm also talking about the sexism. I'm talking about the horrifically oversexualized designs that almost every single female character in every one of their games have. I'm talking about Ayaka suddenly not being allowed to have anything to do with politics the moment her older brother was revealed, turning her into a cutie standing around doing nothing in events. I'm talking about the four seperate cases of 5 star male-4 star female duo's where the boy overshadows the girl (Albedo and Sucrose, Itto and Shinobu, Tighnari and Collei, and Lyney and Lynette). I'm talking about the only women in a 'masculine' outfit in Genshin, Arlecchino, still wearing an uncomfortably form fitting, backless vest. I'm talking about the female archons having a focus on having them look cute, with two acting like literal children. I'm talking about Dehya actively defending her male friends who were sexually harassing her into using her body to attract new recruits and bragging about sexyally harassing all other women out of the group.

I'm also talking about the pedophilia. I'm talking about all of the tiny children in Genshin and hsr except for Sigewinne still having sexualized outfits. I'm talking about multiple children in Genshin having the exact same puffy white shorts that look suspiciously similar to underwear. I'm talking about half of them actually being adults.

I'm also talking about the classism, copaganda, and other societal things. I'm talking about Fontaine's... everything. I'm talking about Chevreuse the c*p who has at least 2 high class vision weilders who aren't part of the government to help with her investigations in exchange for letting them get away with illegal stuff, or at least in Chori's case idk I didn't do Emilie's sq. I'm talking about the prison that Paimon claims is amazing but does prison labor, has a questline about saving an innocent child from it, kept another child who defended other kids by killing their traffickers in it, and forces prisoners to work if they want more than ONE meal per day. I'm talking about Furina seemingly making up laws on the spot and getting away with it. I'm talking about the current leader of Fontaine being the guy who didn't wait for the investigation of the crime scene to finish before starting the trial in act 1, then wrongfully imprisoned Childe in act 2 on purpose because a mysterious machine said so.

I'm talking about the leader of Sumeru telling a guy who told her that his life sucks because of the capitalism in her nation to make his tools pretty instead of dealing with the actual problem. I'm talking about the leader of Inazuma being an ex-antagonist who let her puppet self and the rest of her government kill god knows how many, and the mc's being fine with that. I'm talking about the previous leader of Liyue purposefully putting all of his people in danger to prove to himself that he can retire, and the mc's being fine with that. I'm talking about the depiction of Shenhe supposedly living a better life in CR's story quest being that she got a job, instead of her improving on her actual problems.

I'm also talking about the ableism. I'm talking about Chongyun's disability not being acknowledged as a disability because everyone insists that he just needs to let himself overheat bc they like seeing him like that, and Xingqiu 'pranking' him using his disability. I'm talking about Collei and everyone else with elezar getting Magical Disability Cure-d, and elezar almost never being brought up again. I'm talking about hi3 Wendy, a wheelchair user, being an npc who was killed off the chapter after she was introduced, while her fully abled Genshin expy is a popular 5 star.

I'm also taking about the fatphobia. I'm talking about Ganyu being used as a fat joke multiple times, including the only mention of her time in the Archon War being her accidentally choking someone to death with her butt. I'm talking about multiple female characters, especially in Genshin, worrying about gaining weight. I'm talking about Venti insulting someone for being fat in the comics. I'm talking about every playable character in all of their games being so skinny that Genshin and hi3 are even allergic to the weird bodybuilder version of muscles that have no fat on them. By which I mean, they don't have any playable fat characters.

... this got way longer than I expected. Ok I'm done I've proved my point lol

[radmalenia]

If anyone on radblr has interacted with this "taythewhom" account, I would advise just try not to engage with them; because it likely won't be possible to have a productive conversation and will just piss you off.

Caution: this post is a lengthy breakdown/rant about the horrible reading abilities and the critical thought-killing mentalities of so many "TRA's", and the dangerous and tragic ramifications of being taught next to no reading and thinking skills.

TLDR: this person is a prime example of it. And the problem they have is a disturbing sign of how the education system is fundamentally failing to teach youth to read, to critically think, to stay out of echo chambers, and to know enough to articulate their stances - this is also why so many fall for trans ideology, too; and why they are more easily manipulated away from genuine feminism.

~ This is not a usual type of post for me but it brought up a couple of key things I think people need to be discussing more overall; so here goes.

So this "taythewhom" clown has bought the bullshit about radical feminists not being feminists and also about them being transphobic, and (surprise surprise) are apparently not willing to read more than one sentence at once that has been spoken by someone whom they've been told is "the enemy".

No better way to keep someone in an echo chamber, to make sure they never question or analyze their beliefs or those of anyone else; than convincing them not to read anything that a person outside of their own ideology says! Convincing them that "well this person is wrong no matter what, so you shouldn't even care to read their words"! What an unbelievably thought-killing and sheep-creating form of manipulation. Very cultish, too.

Anyway, this person suddenly DM'd me. I've seen them before in comment sections; contributing nothing and generally being shockingly dumb. I was a bit harsher overall than I maybe could have been, but it deeply frustrates me to encounter someone who has so thoroughly bought these types of thought-stopping cliches.

In this instance, they were on a "this person's apparently transphobic so don't listen to a thing they say...but yet engage with them anyway to tell them off ." (??) As it continued I got more confused by that; by why they were even in my dms at all while not willing to have an actual conversation... And wondering what do they think they get out of it. What do they think they're doing?? (I wish I'd manged to ask that!!) But the gist is that they kept insisting they didn't care to read what I was saying...yet they still kept messaging. At least for a few minutes.

And then a block? Too cowardly and/or egotistical to consider they could be wrong. To even discuss it. Notice of course how they never explained anything about what they're claiming. Never said why they say I'm transphobic. Never said why they claim radical feminism isn't feminism. NO THOUGHTS - NO CONTENT - ONLY BUZZWORDS.

They also seem to be so horrendous at reading that they saw me mention male supremacy, I presume in my bio; and somehow concluded I support it?! And that it means I want the sexes segregated?!?! How??? How are these people so quick and willing to proclaim a strong opinion on something they're literally so ignorant (and usually always wrong) on?

Even female separatism, which I fully support (but do not mention in my bio) is not a total separation of the sexes (except in an ideal and unrealistic utopia;) and even that would not be actual "segregation".

And if this person can't understand that the sentence about male supremacy in my bio is calling it the status quo that needs to be overturned by genuine feminism; then ...wow. I just don't know what's going on in schools this past decade. Why are so many of these kids unable to properly read?? 🤦‍♀️ Why are so many unable and/or unwilling to analyze something complex, or even simple - unwilling to critically think and see what conclusions they draw, to challenge their own views by analyzing a disagreeing view; to even learn enough about their own stance to articulate it beyond a basic slogan or buzzword?? Do they even know how they choose a stance? Not specifically with taythewhom but I've seen instances of other people like them admitting when questioned that they don't know why they have the stance they do, they just felt "it's what everyone else is doing" or something like that.

Like, I...cannot even imagine basing my opinions off popularity alone like that.

And honestly I do consider a large part of this person's state to be this failing of the modern public education system. For someone to call a moderate paragraph a "novel" is fucking mind-blowing. Whether you disagree with the subject or not, even if you find it totally boring; you can't call a mild size paragraph a "novel" unless something pretty bad is up with you.

No wonder these Tumblr TRA's are so often woefully uneducated about issues women face, and so woefully incapable of learning or understanding new concepts and things that they're presented with. So uneducated about how to analyze things and use critical thought. Even so uneducated about trans issues (with them often having no idea the meanings, ramifications, and realities of the trans stuff they talk about); so uneducated about gender roles and how they've been used on people, so uneducated about history (and so willing to rewrite it to fit their narrative but that's a whole different post...), so uneducated about actual feminism; about misogyny, patriarchy; about homosexuality and the gay community. So uneducated about how many of these things relate to each other, and how stuff doesn't exist in a vacuum and therefore stuff like so-called "choice feminism" doesn't work.

No wonder their reading comprehension is fucking abysmal (where does my blog say anything about sex segregation????) They either CAN'T or DON'T read...so they don't even understand the issues and stances that they're trying to support - much less the ones they've been told they're in opposition to!!

This is why we see so many of them being trans ideologists. Gender ideology necessities people who do not think, question, or read. Because as soon as one does that, it begins to fall apart.

Also - because genuine feminism ideally requires educating onself on feminist philosophy, and going on a journey through the study of feminist texts to arrive at the conclusions all of us radical feminists do, to be able to articulate these facts to others and to raise female class consciousness and have impactful discussions - it is a lot less appealing to kids who don't want to read, who don't want to think or put in effort. Who would rather be told that they can think and behave exactly how they already do, but just call it "their choice" and therefore "feminist", and be done with it. No class analysis, no understanding of the way males oppress them specifically because of their sex and have done so for hundreds even thousands of years; no - that requires long paragraphs, and very heavy subject matter.

To be clear I do truly empathize with young women feeling turned away by how heavy it is emotionally to face and accept the actual realities of their oppression...the realities of who does it, how severe and all encompassing it is; the reality of what it is based upon. It is a horrible thing to face; and once you've seen it you can never stop seeing it. It permeates everything around us in our entire culture, it overshadows and undertones everything and every situation and etc etc etc. But - to use the overdone matrix analogy - would you rather take the blue pill to make you forget that you ever peaked behind the curtain, or would you rather take the red pill that shows you the grim truth in full - and live the rest of your life in proud resistance against the oppressive force? That red pill is what radical feminists all choose...and it is certainly worth it emotionally.

(NOT to be confused with the fucking "red pill" that far-right males sometimes refer to!! They have entirely different views from radfems, this cannot be overstated - and their "red pill" views of hateful misogynistic nonsense; and often of other hateful and stupid views like antisemitism or homophobia; are entirely incorrect. The ONLY similarity is the matrix pill analogy itself.)

Anyway... going back to the younger people who won't read. They don't read and they don't think. And it considerably contributes to keeping them inside an echo chamber as well, as I'm sure one can understand - if they read nothing from the outside, they've obviously been successfully placed in an echo chamber where they just keep supporting and agreeing with their own stances...which again are often so shallow because they don't even flesh out what they're supposed to believe in themselves.

This is also so concerning for so many reasons; I've already glossed over some and am sure I don't need to list them all... Essentially - being able to read, to effectively properly read and do the thinking that comes with it; is SO DAMNED IMPORTANT. Being able to read multiple paragraphs is VITAL. Books are vital, for a start. If you want to have a stance about a serious and complex issue, for example feminism; you need to be able to read books, studies, articles, news reports, and complex discussion threads. Otherwise you have your stance in name only, with no substance behind your label; and so it would be more beneficial if you don't say a word in these discussions and debates and instead let the people who can actually read and learn and think and speak do the reading, learning, thinking, and speaking...otherwise you'd just be derailing the conversation and adding pointless or even detrimental words.

Like taythewhom does in the notes on multiple feminist posts I've seen 🙃 and they don't mean well at all, certainly not when it comes to women's rights. It's people like this who turn the word "transphobia" meaningless - and into a joke or even into a compliment, depending on context.

Anyway, to wrap this up; while this is a post about the importance of being able to read well (and that's still undeniably true), I admit this also has a level of irony because it is somewhat longer than it needs to be. However there are multiple places where I could have brought up other topics and tangents that were relevant, though - so is it really longer than necessary?? To me that's an incredibly cool thing about writing; no matter what you're discussing there are so many ways you could expand upon what you're saying if you were so inclined to. And how abundantly rich the world is with subject matter is something everyone deserves to be able to access and experience; and the way the school system is degrading the literary level of children is just so tragic and disgusting for so many reasons.

Well - if you made it this far through my 4am adderall comedown vent; congratulations, I think - and thank you! ADHD, which I have, is often awful to live with - but sometimes it can be very handy; although not always in the most productive manner.

Reading and writing are a never-ending source of enrichment, intrigue, revelation and knowledge; and the last one in particular can easily be your greatest source of personal power. All of them lead to personal growth, so don't neglect them. To be a little petty - the moral of this post is, in its simplest terms...be a reader - don't be taythewhom.

[thelampisaflashlight]

Cryptid Biology Season 2: Mabon

[Previous entry in the series: Here. After setting up for a special event, Bea feels like ditching the party like she did during Litha, but a worried Mountain convinces her to try and enjoy the results of her hard work, and Rain helps her unwind afterwards. Somehow this became angst. Somehow.] Below the cut.

The first day of Autumn brings a strange, new life to the abbey.

The siblings rise early, excited, and set out onto the grounds to relax and play to their hearts content; It's Mabon, and one of the siblings' preferred holidays, thus no one has to work today, nor tomorrow, or until noon on the third day of the season.

Bea, too, has been given the day off, but finds herself restless.

Invited to the main building for breakfast, along with the other members of staff, who usually take their lunch in their offices, rooms, or, in Bea's case, outside, she sits among the siblings, listening to them chatter ceaselessly about this or that around bites of food, only stopping when Copia -or "Frater Imperator" as he's now called, though she likely will never call him that just out of general defiance- moves to the front of the hall to speak.

Admittedly, Bea only half listens to what he has to say, and not entirely because she finds him to be a bore; While she'd normally avoid coming to this sort of thing, she felt as if she deserved a nice warm breakfast made by somebody else after she'd played hell trying to get everything set up for today.

It had been her, along with a choice few siblings of sin and staff members that had thrown everything together both inside and outside of the abbey for the celebration.

She'd spent the better part of the last week laying out a map of where everything should go, shifting things around so they needn't go so far as to alter the landscape, and even laid out woodchips to make a proper trail through the event so that neither the siblings nor their guests would have to walk through wet grass to view the various activity and craft stalls.

It had been a lot of work, albeit no more than she was used to in terms of knowledge or skill, but it was tedious, tiring work, and Bea had reached her limit by the time they stuck that last tent pole into the ground.

Now, her body ached and she wanted nothing more than to climb back into bed, but, at the same time, she felt brimming with energy.

One might mistakenly call it excitement, but Bea does not cope well with such emotions, and instead would call it anxiety.

As Copia speaks, she can't seem to make herself calm down, even with one voice filling the air, his over the top antics and joyful tone do nothing to alleviate the immense stress she feels knowing that if something about the event's set up or aesthetics get criticized, she simply doesn't have the mental bandwidth to stop herself from crying.

She pokes at her yogurt, the only thing she seems to be able to stomach, the smell of everything else combined together leaving her a touch nauseous despite, under normal circumstances, sounding delicious.

Bea wouldn't say it's rare for her to get anxious about her work being judged; And when it is judged, usually it's positive, but lately she can't shake even the smallest slight... and she isn't entirely sure why.

Everything -this event, being around so many people, life- feels like too much.

When she feels her stomach turn again, Bea leans forward on the table, clearing her spot and sets her head down atop her folded arms, taking a deep breath before closing her eyes.

Before long, a large, warm hand settles on her back, and she startles, eyes cracking open slightly as she takes in the sight of Mountain settling down beside her, his fuzzy, unglamoured face scrunched with worry.

"Are you alright?" he whispers, though it's hard to hear him as the siblings resume their conversations.

Bea inhales slowly.

"Just... thinking a lot." she says, and the ghoul nods, "I think I'm going to sit this one out, big guy..."

Mountain frowns.

"Don't give me the puppy dog eyes, Mount, it don't work on me..." she mumbles, but something about the look he gives her does make her reconsider, "...One walk around the grounds, and then I'm going home."

.

.

.

Bea looks at the setting sun and wonders how on earth Mountain managed to drag her through the entire day's events without her noticing; She wants to be mad, but it's hard to be when she actually had a good time, and now all that was left was the closing bonfire.

Technically, there was more they could do during and afterwards, but none of that appealed to her, and Mountain knew her social battery and tolerance for his company was beginning to wear thin.

It wasn't that she hated Mountain or disliked him in any real way, but they were often "too much" for each other.

Although on a surface level, that might warrant a deeper dive into their relationship as a whole, put plainly; If they were to allowed to spend more time together, something would wind up broken or on fire, and not because they were bickering, no, but because, in the way of true friendship, they'd simply choose to cause chaos.

A prime example of this was when, the night after the party for Litha, Bea had decided she didn't, in fact, want to carry a cumbersome, carved statue of a dick back to the abbey -she wasn't sure where it had come from, nor did she want to ask- and the two had put their heads together to figure out the worst place to put it.

A bit of back and forth later, and it'd ended up in the lake for the water ghouls to find come morning.

Though in that case, the dick must've found its way into some deeper crevice -and, oh, the jokes about penetration and sex they had made after that- and disappeared, because there'd been no real pay off to that one... Last year's Samhain celebration however...

Bea shakes her head as she watches Mountain wander away towards the party, walking over to Dewdrop -she's pretty sure it's him anyway, it's hard to tell since she's only met him a handful of times- who is stood by the fire with the rest of his pack, save for one; Rain is decidedly missing from the group, but it doesn't take long for her to find him... or more accurately for him to find her.

Long arms snake around her midsection, cold and clammy, sending a shiver down her spine as he lowers his chin down to rest upon her head.

"Mountain actually managed to drag you out of your cave, hm~?" he teases, and Bea, surprisingly even to herself, doesn't bite back or shake him off.

"He has a way of doing that, yeah..." she sighs, feeling the water ghoul sniff her hair, "Whatcha doin', huh?"

"Nothing." he says, "Stealing the warmth from your body."

Bea snorts.

They stand like this for a time, Rain wrapped around her like a cold, yet comforting blanket, until -like the company of a friend- it becomes too much.

"Go on then." she pats his hands, prompting him to release her, "Back to your friends, I'm sure they miss you."

Rain pauses to consider this before pressing a kiss to the crown of her head, her short hair tickling his nose, and heading off in the same direction Mountain had gone.

Alone once more, Bea looks between the warm light of the fire, and the distant, dim glow of her porchlight across the lake, before setting off into the dark of the night.

She's too tired to fully process that she hadn't left any of the lights on before she left that morning, and though a whisper in the back of her mind hints that, perhaps, something is off, she doesn't have the spoons left to care.

Arriving at the cottage, Bea kicks off her shoes, hearing them thump against the wooden siding, and pops open the screen door to reveal the dark interior of her home.

Flicking on the lights, she takes in the space; Nothing's out of place or missing, but small things... small things are different, and she can feel it the moment she crosses the threshold.

Someone's been in here.

The thought has her blinking, more awake than she'd been all day, but there's no sudden drop in her stomach or a cold wash of fear over her features at this realization.

No, it's a lighter feeling.

She looks at the sink, the dishes stacked up to the faucet for the last week now sat in the drying rack, the hamper of laundry she'd left on the kitchen table because she'd been too busy to fold it was missing, but easily found upon opening her dresser...

Somebody's... tidied her house?

Bea places her hands on her hips.

Occasionally, Mountain would clean up after her, despite her protests, because he didn't like the place becoming cluttered even if he didn't live there anymore, but he'd been with her all day...

"Surprise?" a voice from the doorway says, sounding a little unsure.

Bea turns, catching sight of Rain, who nervously wrings his hands together.

"You did this?"

He nods.

"Thank you, but why?" she asks, and the ghoul steps inside, head bowed slightly as he looks at her.

"You've been working really hard lately, so I thought I might... take away some of the weight?" he offers, but when Bea raises an eyebrow at him, he confesses easily enough, "I thought we might celebrate the holiday together, like... like last time."

The gardener frowns.

"I didn't do it just because I wanted to-" he begins to clarify, but is cut off by Bea, who pulls him down into a kiss, "O-Ohhh..."

"Don't care." she mumbles, "I appreciate the gesture, but, really, you didn't have to... could've just asked, you know I wouldn't turn you down."

"But you could." he says, "I don't know... maybe I want you to."

"To turn you down?" she questions, confused.

"It's... a strange feeling, Miss. Milne." he says, placing a hand on his chest, and suddenly Bea recognizes his game, "A man of the cloth, tempted by a woman such as yourself..."

Bea smirks.

"I see... You want to play that game?" she laughs, running her hands up his sides, "Yes or no?"

Rain shudders as her fingers brush against his gills through the fabric of his shirt, "...Yes..."

.

.

.

There is something to be said about these early fall days, how the mornings are cool as ice, but the afternoon sun reminds you that summer has only just left.

The nights are hot and humid, and in the close confines of the gardener's cottage, the air has never felt warmer.

Rain contemplates this change, buried deeply inside of Bea's body, the heavy rise and fall of her chest entrancing him as he compares the tan lines closer to her neck and shoulders to the paleness of her breasts.

He draws them together, thumb reverently over the softness of them, squeezing.

"Can I..." Bea sighs as Rain rolls his hips, "...ask you something?"

Rain hums, hands abandoning her chest as he lowers himself down on top of her, "Go right ahead."

"...Would you be sad if I left?"

And just like that, Rain feels the temperature drop.

"Are you... planning on leaving?" he asks in a faint whisper.

Bea runs a hand through his hair, playing with one of the many dark curls.

"Lately, I haven't been feeling like myself..." she says, "...I feel... different, and I can't quite place how or why."

Rain pulls back a little to look at her face from above, "...When you say leave-"

"The last time I spoke to Sister Imperator, before she... before she passed, I renewed my contract."

"Then you're staying?" Rain almost lets himself feel relieved, but quickly circles back, "You said..."

"...She said there's a chance, that when this is over, I won't..." she tries, but the ghoul is already lifting her up, the movement drawing them closer together, and for a moment they both groan before coming back to their senses, "...So I need to know... Will you be sad?"

Rain gives a stilted laugh, "You... you make it sound like you're dying, Beatrix, and I don't like it... So... So just tell me what's going on. Don't beat around the bush."

Bea looks up at him, honey brown eyes shining in the dull light of her bedroom, "...I was given a chance to become part of Copia's staff, permanently."

"That's... Bea, that's wonderful news, but why-"

"I have until the end of October to decide." she says, "After that, it'll be too late to change my mind."

Rain blinks.

"I still don't..." he swallows hard.

"She said it's possible I'll forget things, or I might... might not be the same person afterwards."

"...You didn't..." he frets, grabbing her arms, "You can't...!"

"Why not?" she asks, and, fuck, does Rain want to scream.

"Aren't you happy like this?" he questions, "In your cottage, comfortable and secure... Why would you risk losing that?"

"...Rain..." Bea trembles, tears starting to bead on her lashes, "...It's more of a risk not doing it. If I don't... I have to leave. So either way... either way, I could lose everything."

"You could stay!" Rain states firmly, "Papa -Frater- Fuck! He'd be reasonable and understand that you shouldn't have to do something like that just to stay here! It's bullshi-"

"...I already talked to him." she says, "He gave me other options, and I chose this... Sister offered it to me, and I asked Copia after she was gone if the offer still stood."

"...The end of October..." Rain feels his world spin just a little, "That's how long we have then..."

Bea rests her cheek on his shoulder.

"If I do forget or become someone else, you'll have to remind me."

"You'll remember." Rain says, "I won't let you forget."

"That might not be something either of us can con-OH!"

.

.

.

"So do I need to ask or are you just going to come out and say it?" Mountain asks when he sees Rain shuffling into the ghouls' den in the early hours of the morning the following day.

The ghoul offers him a tired stare before plopping himself down in the worn armchair Dew usually steals for himself first thing, "...Y'ever think, maybe, Bea's... not happy?"

Mountain pauses, looking towards his packmate, then sits down on the couch, the old springs groaning under his weight.

"I don't think..." he shakes his head, "People like Milne... no..."

"It's complicated." he settles on finally, "Milne came here to escape whatever life she left behind in the states, and now things are changing here, and she's getting itchy. Anxious."

"Anxious enough to leave?" Rain muses, "Or to forget..."

The earth ghoul closes his eyes.

"Humans are funny creatures."

"I don't think this is terribly funny, Mountain..." Rain trills nervously, "I don't think she realizes how serious this is-"

"And I think she does." Mountain counters, "If you think she doesn't, then perhaps you should get to know her beyond the curves of her body."

"I-"

"Milne is not stupid, foolish at times, but she knows full well what she's doing." the other rumbles, "...and would it be so bad?"

Rain furrows his brow.

"Maybe you should ask yourself why you're so worried about it..." Mountain says, "Milne joining the church."

"I'm more concerned about why you seem so calm and resigned to it happening." Rain argues, "She's your friend, and you seem okay with the idea of her possibly forgetting all about you!"

Mountain hums.

"I'm not." he smiles sadly, "Okay with it, that is. But..."

"Milne would make a remarkable ghoul."

[ariaste]

Are you, perchance, a 2013 BBC's Sherlock veteran

No particular reason I'm asking

I watched it and I think I probably reblogged a few things back in the day because I had mutuals who were into it. But I don't recall ever really feeling like I was in the fandom myself.

I'd guess that you're asking because you've recently read my Good Omens essay and your next question is about whether I was a supporter of The Johnlock Conspiracy, and the answer is a hard nah. At least to me personally, all the textual and meta-textual evidence made it abundantly clear, even a decade ago, that the show was not only inhospitable to queer fans, but actively and deliberately hostile towards them (one recalls that utterly mean-spirited depiction of what Steven Moffat thinks a "fangirl" looks and sounds like, as well as more than one occasion when he and others involved with the show mocked fans/fandom/fanfiction in interviews, on camera, with their actual human mouths). I do vaguely remember coming across people on tumblr in those days who were convinced that there was something else going on, that somehow Moffat was going to suddenly change his tune and start loving them back the way that they loved his show, that they would be rewarded for their faith by having their ship made canon, but that seemed extraordinarily unrealistic to me and not based on any concrete facts.

Now, don't get me wrong -- wishful thinking can be really fun, and you're not hurting anyone by hoping for the best and daydreaming about a happy ending. That's just basic human nature. But when someone shows you what kind of person they truly are, pay attention. Balance dreaming with prudence, and don't put all your eggs in one basket--or, rather, don't pin all your hopes on one stranger's artistic decisions.

Part of me wants to say that Steven Moffat is one of several significant contributors responsible for the deep-rooted media trauma that still afflicts thousands of fans today (consider how so many people watching the first season of Our Flag Means Death as it aired were utterly convinced that it was going to queerbait them and exploit their sincere, heartfelt desire for a queer love story on screen, the same way that nearly every other show had done already. So many people met that glimmer of hope with cynicism and pessimism, because when you've been not just disappointed but outright punished for wanting something, the natural trauma-response is to assume that you're not going to get it until you're proven wrong, because that's the only way you can protect your bruised, exhausted heart.

It is true that Moffat's cruelty to the fans of his show contributed to our collective media trauma. However, it is not the only thing that has done so: Particularly in America, we are in the midst of a literacy crisis. Schools have been failing us for more than two decades: They have increasingly failed to teach nuanced reading comprehension and to adequately equip young people with robust and agile critical thinking skills, and this means that an entire generation has been robbed of the tools that would help them to protect themselves from the psychic damage of media trauma before it happens. Moreover, it means that many people now insist on looking to canon to "legitimize" their ships, as if their own interest and enthusiasm was not sufficient. Instead of feeling empowered to reimagine the stories handed to us in order to suit our personal needs, we give away our power into the hands of strangers who do not feel any ethical responsibility to care for their audience as if the audience is a guest in their home. And thus, we get hurt. Media trauma is real, and it sucks.

To return to your original question, no, I don't consider myself a veteran of BBC Sherlock, because I wandered through town, saw that it wasn't worth the fight, and left before the war started.

Remember: In literary criticism and in science, you don't do good work by cherry-picking evidence that supports your pet theory; you do good work by assembling all the data and asking what theory would unify them into a cohesive whole. And if you're really good, you make the effort to be skeptical and look for evidence that might disprove your theory, and you invite others to check your math, because at the end of the day, you are a beautiful, imperfect human and sometimes you make mistakes.

[studentinpursuitofclouds]

Protective bachelors headcanonssssss?

Yeeesssss!

Usually when people ask for "bachelors", I think about like "they are not yet 'Farmer's partner" because they are a 'singles', but I'm always not sure if I'm getting it right. Therefore, I try to find an alternative and write in a way that candidates would behave in both cases. I hope this makes sense.

By the way, I took the word "protective" in different ways. I mean, you can protect them from bullies, from natural disasters, from danger, from themselves if such a case ever occurs. I was interested in experiencing with this writing. Feel free to write criticism and suggest if such a headcanon deviates from the essence of the issue, I'm interested to know your opinion.

Anyway, thank for your ask, anon))))

_________________________________________

Alex:

Alex has been volunteering as a beach lifeguard for years. Given his physical qualities, ability to swim well and basic knowledge of first aid, this role suits him perfectly, so he agreed to volunteer and keep the beach safe every summer.

But it's fall now, too cold for the beach season, so no one needs his skills for now. So Alex thought until the Farmer, fishing on the river bank near Alex's house, fell for some reason directly into the rushing waters. The athlete acted faster than he thought: a jump into the water - and he is already dragging the Farmer to land. Alex carefully examined the Farmer to understand their condition, and when he was convinced that everything was alright with them, he took them home, where Evelyn brought a blanket and a cup of hot tea for the Farmer after a cold bath.

Whether or not the Farmer knew how to swim at the time, Alex now always watches over them when they fish near his house and moves them away from the river to prevent this from happening again.

Elliott:

There was one case when one of the tipsy tourists began to pester the Farmer with an offer to go on a date together. And when the Farmer politely refused the offer, they received threats and promises from the interlocutor to spoil the image of their farm. No one knows how long this clowning would have continued if an enraged Elliott had not approached them.

I can't get the fact out of my head that Elliott will challenge this asshole to a duel like the old fashioned way. It doesn't matter if the Farmer is just a good friend or his partner, the writer is determined to uphold their honor. Of course, here it will do without pistols, but still there is a theatrical note.

But that doesn't mean that Elliott is deliberately turning it into a theatre, oh no. He is fully prepared to fight this ill-mannered interlocutor on the battlefield, whether it be a verbal skirmish or a fist fight. Even if physical superiority is not on Elliott's side, he was able to successfully teach the offender a lesson, although now his nose is covered in blood. The Farmer, treating Elliott's wounds, must admit that they obviously did not expect this from him and were grateful for the support.

Sebastian:

Sebastian was surprised that the Farmer knew so little about social media. Like, they and Sebby are the same age, but if Sebastian himself makes magic with his programming skills, then the Farmer is more like an elder who was given a new phone by grandchildren and don't know how to use this device.

Therefore, Sebastian suggested that they create their own page on the Internet, where they will post their photos and posts on their favorite topics, for example, about farming, or life hacks on growing different crops. To which the Farmer happily agreed, rejoicing at the opportunity to put up tips that will help people. But, unfortunately, in addition to good people there will always be fools, trolls and bots in the vastness of the World Wide Web, which can not only spoil a person’s mood, but also put them into a depressive state.

Sebastian may still feel awkward talking to people face-to-face, but with a snap of his fingers, he will permanently ban nasty people from the Farmer's page while they don't see. Fair criticism is one thing, but just being toxic is another. Sebby won't just watch his friends get bullied by some idiots on the other side of the monitor, right?

Shane:

Shane doesn't get paid enough for this shit. Stupid boss, stupid Joja products, stupid co-workers (not counting Sam and that cashier). This was not enough for him, so now he saw through the window of the store how one of the Joja loaders clings to the Farmer. He can't make out what started the skirmish, but Shane heard loud and clear the phrases about the Farmer "our goods are better than yours", "bastard" and "bitch".

And at that moment, Shane's patience snapped. This pissed him off so much that he went to yell at that freak, not afraid of losing his miserable job.

Do you think Shane can't intimidate a bully enough? Have you ever seen his face when he's angry? This is the face of a man who will fight with God for the sake of people dear to him. For his aunt, goddaughter, chicken Charlie and the Farmer (friend or partner), he will tear off the offender's hands. Even though Morris issued a fine to both Joja employees for "spoiling the image of the company", Shane does not care. No one dares to offend them and think that the asshole will get away with it.

Harvey:

Merciful Yoba, give Harvey great patience. Because if he does not have enough patience, then brute force will come into play. What kind of stubborn fool do you have to be to get out of bed immediately after you had an emergency operation!?

The wounded Farmer after another adventure in the mines became an all-too-frequent sight in Harvey's clinic, but this time the case was quite dangerous. Harvey, as a professional in his field, quickly treated the Farmer's wounds, brought food and ordered them to rest for at least a couple of days. But they declared that the farm would wither without them and were preparing to get out of the hospital bed.

Because of this, Harvey's angelic patience finally snapped and he barked that he would tie the young troublemaker to the bed if they tried to get up again. This cooled the Farmer's ardor, and they obediently lay down again. Harvey, regretting his words, quickly apologized to the Farmer, explaining that he was very worried about their health no longer as a doctor, but as a friend (or more than a friend?). Every time he worries about their health, because they have become a close person to him. To which the ashamed Farmer also asked for forgiveness and thanked Harvey for his care and patience.

Sam:

After Sam's first concert ended successfully, he invited his band members and the Farmer to stay a little longer in Zuzu City for a bite to eat before the road. The Farmer offered to buy everyone burgers and sodas in the cafe while Sam, Sebby, and Abby took a table outside. It's been 30 minutes, and the Farmer still hasn't left the burger place, so Sam decided to check what took them so long. And the delay was because of another visitor to that cafe, who, in a drunken stupor, tried to prove to everyone that the Farmer had stolen their wallet. Neither the seller nor the Farmer themselves were able to calm down the raging visitor.

Sam approached the Farmer at the moment when the problem was solved by itself: no one stole the guy's wallet, he just put them in another pocket of his jacket. But instead of apologizing, the drunkard said that the Farmer could have stolen anyway.

To which Sam, with all his positive and ability to find a common language with everyone, barked at an unpleasant person, saying that the loser should get lost. His tirade somehow worked, and the man left. Sam doesn't like watching his friends get hurt, so he apologized if he scared the Farmer with his swearing. To which the Farmer themselves thank for the help and note that they have never heard such cursing from Sam. Well, yeah Sam is no longer a child! ... But anyway, don't tell his mother that he expressed himself like that, okay? For silence - delicious burgers, at his expense 😉

[hastalavistabyebye]

Fic Writer 20 Questions

Thank you for the tag @hopefullyakotelife and @ninjababypowpow <3 love you muchos

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

17

2. What's your A03 word count?

33,786

3. What fandoms do you write for?

Star Wars the clone wars

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

The Promotion

Our deepest condolences

Just this once

A fox somewhere is hiding

Try again

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I do because the least I can do is thank people who comments. But it's harder lately to find the energy so I take quite some time x'D

6. What's the fic you wrote with the angsties ending?

But we can't save you, hands down. It's the only one without any tidbit of hope at the end.

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

Oh that's way harder... I'll say it's The Promotion

8. Do you get hate on fics?

I'm too small and too niche a writer to get hate. The worst I got was someone deeply confused and disappointed by Try again. Which really is fair as hell since I went heavy on the meta stuff and games with the fourth wall there.

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

I don't. Maybe one day I'll try but as of now I'm not particularly interested in it not do I know how I'll even write it.

10. Do you write cross overs? What's the craziest one you've written?

I don't but if I have a crossover idea one day, I'll absolutely go for it.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Nope

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

Not really ?

14. What's your all time favorite ship?

I'm way too much of a multishipper to have an otp. I can be convinced for any and every ship with just a great fic or someone passionated enough about it. Even ships I wasn't particularly or at all interested in, or that I didn't even like at all at first. It happened many times already x'D

But lately I've been looking more for Fox/other clone(s). And my homemade rarepairs have a special place in my heart of course.

15. What's a WIP you'd like to finish but doubt you ever wilI?

My bigger, longer projets are going to be hard but I refuse to not finish them (even if I don't even have the first chapter finished for any of them TT^TT). So most likely Shebse batch real face. I think that one kinda burned on the back burner x'D if I get the motivation tho I would love to finish it.

16. What are your writing strengths?

I'm really bad at having an objective critical opinion on my skills but I really like how easily I can switch genres and writing styles.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Most likely passing. And well the longer the story, the harder it'll be to write for me, in general x'D that's when passing becomes difficult as well

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

Here for it, absolutely. It gives lots of depth to worldbuilding. But translation is a must.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Star Wars the clone wars xD

20. Favorite fic you've ever written?

Oh that's just evil. All of them are my babies !! But I'd say the Weaving like red strings series because it kinda became my comfort au to write in.

NPT : @cookiemonsterv3 @stardustloki @here-be-bec @ithillia @whiskygoldwings @rooksunday @mamuzzy-creates-stuff and @brokenphoenix99 if y'all want <3

[millipedish]

I finished Wembley the Spokesfraggle, and I gotta ask: what do you think of Jack Hammer Doozer (considering he's a spiritual successor to Convincing John), and what do you think of how they used Ball of Fire?

It got through! I think Jack Hammer is fine! He's not as interesting to me as my boy John, but that's because he's a one-off celebrity guest so they can't dig into his lore like fr gave us for John. Man, maybe I should make a post about my John lore sometime? But even design wise, John wins out for me. His design inspirations come from bombastic televangelists. He is kind of a very specific criticism of preachers who straight up tell lies about the world to scare people into going down the 'correct' path. But also, I love the suit and the horrible teeth. Man is channeling Iyami Osomatsusan and I love that for him. But I do adore the bttr team and what they were going for with Jack Hammer's design. Guy Fieri is a hype man, and he has sold some really dumb shit in his lifetime. Jack Hammer is less a criticism of preachers and more of a criticism of advertising. Also I love the pompadour and the vest! Bttr has some extremely skilled and dedicated set and puppet designers. I mean they're kind of two sides of the same coin, aren't they? John exaggerates the negative and scary things and Jack exaggerates the positives, but both are being quite dishonest. The thing that John represents feels a little more biting, advertising is also super dangerous, and kids need to learn to think for themselves. So this is ultimately a good thing. Something I really like about this episode is that it feels like peering into John's origin story. I really love that the Doozers picked Wembley for this role *because* he's such a Wembler. A very good shout out to the Secret of Convincing John, where it's revealed that John a worse Wembley than the guy *named after* wembling! With little details like this, you can tell bttr is made by people who have a lot of love and respect for the original series. I'm not a fan of bttr's rendition of Ball of Fire. Kenan is great, but he kind of just shouts the words instead of singing them. But's not a song that I was super attached to to begin with, so it's not like I feel like it 'ruined' it or anything. Actually, I feel strongly that old things don't get ruined just because someone does a new version of it. The old things are still there and still exist in their own context. I like what they're *going* for tho, turning this song into a pseudo villain song. I really think it's neat how they use songs in different contexts in bttr. Turning Chase the Wind from a sports anthem to a queer pride anthem is fucking genius! But this one just doesn't work for me 🤷

[prettyboykatsuki]

may i pick ur brain wrt something? you write such a large variety of characters and i think you have great skill in following through with a character's characterization (lol) to their sexual life. i was wondering what do you choose to focus on or how you approach figuring out a character's sexual style (?) when you write? im pretty new to writing smut (i write in general but i usually just fade to black) and im having trouble translating a character's neurosis into sexual acts, particularly when you move beyond the vanilla missionary etc sex (which im not particularly interested in writing even tho i think it can be emotionally poignant in its own right).

what i have most trouble with is like figuring out if a certain act fits character a or character b in my ensemble, say, and then moving through with that. i've been trying to approach it like fighting styles bc of the character's physicality, but there are certain temperamental and moral tensions informing fighting in particular (as a deliverance of violence, i mean) that make it hard for me to pinpoint how to translate that to sex without it feeling shoehorned. for example (and this is just for reference), i have a character who's like a gunslinger and whose style is very explosive and wild and a little bit cocky, but when u look at it under the microscope, his approach is polished and precise and meticulous. and THEN his internality is of a young man with a lot of anger and stunted growth, who really just wants acceptance and affection deep down, and who is so very tired. now i can translate each of those things and its combinations a hundred thousand ways, but which is correct? or faithful to him? at one point it all seems unfathomable to me. and then bc i can't make up my mind i fear everything i write ends up being too plain, or ill-fitting, and because my cast is large, it also all ends up feeling too same-y. has this ever been an issue for you?

first of all - i want to say thank you for entrusting and believing in my writing abilities enough to want to pick my brain about this. i'm not entirely sure what the appeal of my writing is to other people (not in a negative way but more in that its my own stuff so im always critical of it) but i put forth a lot of thought in characterization and translating that into sex as i am primarily a smut writer so while im not the most confident u should come to me for advice, im deeply flattered and will do my best anyway

i'll be real though, the best advice is genuinely just not to overthink it and go with your gut. have some faith in your own writing voice and ideas etc. but anyway

there are a lot of layers to this question and i'll do my best to go through it bit-by-bit. and i don't know if this will really help you since it might come off vague

if i can offer you any advice on characterizing well in a smut scene, it's to not view the smut as a separate entity to your work but as an integral part of it's infrastructure. do not treat the smut scene as part of the work, but as a pillar of it.

the other thing is understanding what is personally compelling to u or arousing about this characters storyline or personality. and not arousing as in physical lust, but what concepts tickle you and make you want to write.

the truth is there's no objectively correct way to characterize a character especially if they're nuanced and complex. which is why all writing is subjective in a sense.

ultimately, it's your job as the author to choose what characterization you like best and convince the audience it's the correct one.

for example, the character you're describing is multifaceted. there are several ways you can take the direction of the story

their outward persona is being a cocky gunslinger who is inwardly polished, meticulous, sensitive and tired. all of these traits can be expanded upon into sexual acts based on your will as the writer - so you have to ask yourself, what aspect of this character is the most arousing to you as a writer or what is this sex scene intending to display about a character. what trait of theirs are you hoping to highlight through sex?

to translate these things into sex gets really tricky and is honestly something you have to experiment with until you feel it click.

for me - if i were attempting to write this character, the breakdown process would look something like this.

this character has a personality gap of being a cocky gunslinger but is actually polished and meticulous

this means they they are likely concerned with appearances.

something in their past must've brought them to that conclusion. if they are continuing to outwardly project themselves as a reckless gunslinger - it is is likely not their "true" self.

what would make a character with this many defense show their true selves, or what other characters cause this character to demonstrate to their true selves?

the translation process of eroticism can go in a hundred different languages. if i personally were writing this character, i might pair them with an older mentor type of character, or a nonchalant rival. i might put them in a situation that requires a different kind of vulnerability and forces them to expose some of their nature for the sake of their ideals

as an author, im aroused by the idea of them showing their submission and affectionate side. trying to subconsciously appeal to authority figures might be interesting if i'm trying to demonstrate their lack of validation. the opposite can also be true, that a character like this might resent mentor / authority figures that impede their own ideas and trying to highlight their anger. writing this gunslinger lashing out at a fellow gunslinger they respect can easily be turned into erotica.

you could pair this character with a nonchalant rival type. a direct opposite that challenges a characters morals ideological belief or perhaps - understands them through their differences. this rival character pays enough attention to the gunslinger to know that they are polished and special. while they are rivals, there's something legitmate in their dynamic to this sensitive, tired character who puts up a facade and wants to be understood.

your own arousal as an author comes in here and where you have to make choices.

lets say then, i go with the latter. i would then structure the story or chapter around this idea through by demonstrating the push and pull of their relationship. i would subvert this characters personality through the framework of submission and a desire for acceptance. i'd write the erotica about the slow crescendo to sex with their rival who seems to accept them fully. i'd write about their different meetings, choosing small things to represent larger themes. maybe their rival praises their technique or offers them a listening ear. i use those small moments to build up to the intimacy and weave the erotic stuff into the story itself so when the sex comes it feels gratifying and releases tension (lol)

for the actual sex stuff you just have to go with your gut and distinguish things based on what traits you're showing. maybe this characters need for affection and rest makes them a whiny bottom. as a writer, i'd monopolize that. i'd point out their eagerness to please through desperation like kissing or nuzzle, and i'd have their words contradict their actions to display their personality gap etc

for me being structured around erotica means going through that kind of mental process and and building a story framework from the ground up and aiming for a proper sex scene. the erotica process is weaved into the plot mechanisms, the metaphors, the stories ideology. the smut is the point, and every action is central to emphasizing what is going to end up happening. my better examples of this lately are probably uncle sukuna rip

ive been writing smut for long enough now that i do not struggle with it and it's easy for me to come up with a unique character voice and do all the above sort of automatically in my mind. and i know it can feel intimidating.

the best advice i can give you though again is don't overthink it which ik seems contradictory to all of the above advice. but sometimes you just have to let yourself go with the flow and believe in your own abilities. trust your gut and just shoot straight ahead.

i hope this was bale to help u some!!

[pynkhues]

I feel like this show is too smart for most of it's audience. The fact that people take Claudia's remark meant to hurt and manipulate Louis as a fact of his personality when the show has been playing out Louis's struggle with his internalised homophobia, misogyny and toxic masculinity all this time. I swear to God, I stumble upon gender essebtialist, homophobic posts in this fandom every day, especially when it comes to Louis's relationships. The reductive discussions about who is top/bottom or dom/sub in his sexual relationships are truly disgusting to me. Because they are clearly "who is the man, who is the woman" discussions cloaked into sex talk. Sorry for the rant, I am triggered today too. I actually want opinion from you about the reasons for Loumand's dom/sub dynamic, everyone always talks about how it's because of Armand's trauma but I actually think it happened because of Louis's internalised homophobia, misogyny and toxic masculinity combined with trauma. I think he's not a person that actually needs or wants to be dom permanently. I think he convinced himself that this is who he is because it allows him to tell himself he's a real man even if he's gay. I'm rambling too much, I'm sorry!🙈

Ah, anon! Please don't apologise, and I'm sorry it's taken me a couple of days to reply after my own annoyed rambling, haha. It's just been a busy week, and it's often quicker and easier to send a reply to asks that, well, ask a bit less (and please, that's not a criticism, I love longer, more provocative asks, and I have a lot more in my inbox I want to get to!).

I don't know if I think the show is too smart for people. I think everyone and anyone can and does have the capacity to engage in a show like this - it's not that clever or pretentious - but I do think the current state of fandom and social media means that a concept gets floated and people get swept up in it.

We're living in an increaingly disconnected society and people seek community through things like fandom and so it becomes natural to lean in, to not question, to consume media as a part of something as opposed to as an individual. I think it's too easy to become a BNF in that sense (I know, I've been one previously, and while I love having chill convos with you guys and writing fic, I don't want to be like - - a known entity in this fandom, haha), especially if you know how to write an argument, and that the result of that is a blog / user becomes a meeting point for fans who are just hungry for engagement and the more-more-more pipeline that's a byproduct of the era we live in.

It's the same across the board, right? Whether you're arguing Louis' 'woman-coded' on tumblr, or being dogmatic about an interpretation of - - I don't know, a TSwift song, i think it all comes from the same place, and I don't think intelligence plays as much of a role as perhaps social skills and personal investment in the actual source material. Is it the art that matters to you, or the community/fandom? Because that's going to motivate your engagement in very different ways.

In regards to your actual question though:

I talked about it a bit in this post, but I think Louis stepping into that role with Armand was hugely about his own issues of identity at that point in the story. Claudia asking him who he was without her or Lestat was basically the set-up for Louis' arc across the season, and Louis tried and failed to do something on his own which left him searching for something familiar - "running things".

I think the d/s dynamic with Armand though worked two-fold - it positioned Louis closer to power, made him feel he had a purpose in guiding Armand through the theatre drama, but I also think it probably helped him to regain a sense of romantic control. We tend to focus a lot on Lestat's abuse of Louis as being what wrenched Louis' grip on himself away, but the reality is that was just a part of that. The point is that Louis and Lestat never feel clear-headed when they're around each other, they're never rational, even when they're at their most loving, which Louis knows because he's hearing and feeling it through Dreamstat.

That dynamic in the relationship with Armand is, to me, about a lot of things, but a huge part of that is just about Louis feeling like he's in control of both the romantic dynamic and, I'd argue, himself again. And I agree, I don't think Louis wants to be a dom permanently by any stretch of the imagination, but I think he understood Armand, at least that part of him, and saw a way they could be symbiotic. Which they were for a chapter! They just lasted probably 70 years longer than they should have, haha.

[oblivions-dawn]

hi <3333 i have Quastions for ye

1 and 2 for Octeagan,

8 and 16 for Shatha,

4 and 10 for Vigdis,

aaaand 20, 22, and 24 for anyone/everyone :>

Hellooooooooooo <3333 Sorry I'm late on this lkdfjglkdjfg

✑ What class do they fall under? Anything they specialize in? (ex: Mage > Illusionist) Have they changed their class over their lifetime or stayed the same?

Ooo! Octeagan has always been a mage, as he had a talent for it at a young age. I go back and forth on what specific schools he specialises in, as I imagine he studied all of them out of boredom and need for knowledge. At the moment, I feel that he leans heavily on Illusion, Alteration, and Destruction. The first two especially because he's blind and often uses magic to help him perceive the world around him.

✑ When they cast magic, what’s their style? Are they flamboyant or reserved? Do they wave their hands around? Do they like making a show of it? Are they verbal? 

He's . . . I imagine he's actually very humbled and reserved in a way. He knows that he's one of the best to ever grace Tamriel, however he doesn't say it out loud. He'd rather show you why he is rather than tell you, especially because a lot of people doubt him anyway. He's quietly arrogant, if you will.

✑ What’s their lowest/weakest skill that could be a fatal flaw? Or what’s their biggest weakness?

Her hatred of furry animals, for one--dogs, specifically. She thinks they're mangy and stinky and disgusting. But in all seriousness, her inability to take criticism is pretty . . . terrible. It's gotten many people killed throughout most of her life WHEEZE. I guess that's just what happens when you're a crazy assassin that Sheogorath has had way too much fun fucking with . . . .

✑ Languages! How many do they speak? Are they literate?

UHHHH. I think she only speaks Tamrielic? If her parents ever taught her any of the Argonian language, she has long forgotten it--and would've forgotten purposefully, as she's the one that murdered them after being convinced that they were scheming against her. Aww, that makes me think that Veezara tries to teach her though when they meet. And yes, Shatha CAN read, which is . . . surprising, considering that she was also with bandits for a little bit. Perhaps she learned just so she can write cool stuff on bodies who knows LKJDFKLGJFDGL

✑ Regardless if something happened or not, which Aedra or Daedra would hate them the most, and why?

I want to initially say Akatosh because of certain events later, but I think in the end he gives Vigdis that option and therefore forgives her for the choice she makes? So. There's that. I imagine Stendarr hates her for being with a vampire HAHA. And Arkay probably just feels sorry for her, considering all the bullshit he's told Florentius about her. As for Daedra, I know Vaermina fucking hates her because she gives her THE worst nightmares. Molag Bal is also automatically on her shit list and the feeling is mutual. I don't think anyone else cares about her LKJFKLGDKG

✑ Does this character have anything in common with you?

The better question would be what does she NOT have in common with me WHEEZE. I gave her a lot of my physical features and also my anger but like. Anger 100. Violence 100. I love her

✑ If you took their bag and upended it now, what would you find in it?

Wynn would be carrying various gems and makeup and lockpicks and gold and . . . other . . . . ahem. Items. That she says I'm not allowed to list. With a wink. Infer what you will from that

✑ Ignoring time, what Elder Scrolls NPC would they get along with the most? Or the worst?

I would've LOVED for Do'Shavir to have met Modryn Oreyn. I know Modryn is kind of an asshole at first, but then he really grows fond of the player and I just really feel like Do'Shavir and Modryn would be best friends.

✑ What do they believe is their biggest weakness? What do you say is their biggest weakness?

While Raeyla'szah may be immortal, I think she sometimes deeply regrets it, and therefore finds that her determination and resolve are her biggest weaknesses in the sense that they lead her down the path of this occasionally truly awful existence. I think her biggest weakness is her solitude; she's tried very hard to keep contact with others minimal and doesn't really try to branch out--even when she has Jordis, she doesn't strike me as the type to be very sociable outside of that, which saddens me greatly. Bird horror deserves friends, even if they're not wanted