#it such a pet peeve of mine when people comment something that ignores a whole piece of my original statement

[lothloriencosplay]

Me: I know there are some great places to shop online but it would be devastating to lose Joann’s as a supply store as someone who lives in a rural area

People in my comments: You could just shop online!

[dykeseesgod]

none of the dog sees god characters are popular theyre all weirdo loser freaks no one likes but the majority of them are too self centered to even realize this. my reasoning 👇 (ITS REALLY LONG AND THERE ARE MULTIPLE IMAGES. WARNING)

ok this has kinda like always been how i interpreted things and then i looked literally anywhere else where people are talking about dog sees god and all the summaries are like pigpen and charlie brown and peppermint patty and marcie are COOL and POPULAR and BULLY the UNDERLING that is SCHROEDER. and that just like. doesnt feel right? like narratively that feels incorrect so im going to explain this now.

first ok. so this is also like a completely separate pet peeve of mine but the text literally never says that cb and matt play football like literally every single fucking source everywhere says. like matts page on the villains wiki says one of his hobbies is playing football and like. no???? they never???? say that????? like ok. we know their school HAS a football team (beethoven mentions it in the vipers nest) and we know cb and matt play SOME sport (matt mentions that they "shower together after practice" in the hangover) but the connection is never explicitly drawn between the two. in FACT beethovens line about the football team (below)

kind of like. goes against the idea that cb and matt are on the football team??? like hes talking to cb here i feel like if beethoven were to mention even sarcastically ogling a group that cb is apart of hed make some kind of comment about it. like this is before their whole thing gets resolved theyre still fighting when he says this line it would make complete sense for cb to say something about this. and like ok its peanuts right like just reminding everyone that its peanuts. you know what sport it would make more sense that charlie fucking brown plays like you know what sport it would seem logical for him to play oh i dont know fucking BASEBALL????? im realizing now that this is like a lot less relevant to my original idea than i thought but i still want to keep it here. i think its just kinda like. its not canon that theyre super popular stars of the football team for all we know they could be playing fucking tennis the fact that they play A Sport doesnt make them well liked. also it literally never says at any point that theyre even good even if they are on the football team they could be the worst players we dont fucking know!!! need i remind you of charlie browns only* experience with football

*besides youre in the super bowl charlie brown but that specials bad so were ignoring it. and its not like he was good at football in that either

and if you buy into the idea that they play baseball (which you should baseball is such an integral part of peanuts it makes the most sense) charlie brown (and pigpen for what its worth. also like everyone else too) is DOGSHIT at baseball like its an entire decades long running joke how fucking awful they are at baseball. "maybe he practiced and got better" hes terrible to his bones practice does nothing. heart

ok onto more substantial points. so if you buy into the interpretation that their childhood was just literally normal peanuts (which you should because its very funny) then you can assume that these guys have all known eachother since elementary school (and even if you dont there are multiple lines that reference them being friends as kids so point still stands). but also by virtue of dsg being a peanuts parody and a lot of the comedy just coming from "haha that s like from the comic strip :)" (I WILL TALK ABOUT THE INHERENT TRAGEDY OF THIS LATER) besides like. one guy. every single character mentioned is an established peanuts character. and like idk about you but my highschool is a LOT bigger than my elementary school. like. there are substantially more people there. what im trying to say that while not impossible it is fucking WEIRD to have a decently sized friendgroup that has not changed the slightest bit in almost a decade. what im getting at is these bitches are INSULAR!!!!!!!! they are extremely hyperfocused on an only think about people from their childhoods. i will get back to this

LETS TALK ABOUT SALISBURY STEAK CAN WE TALK ABOUT SALISBURY STEAK PLEASE GOD MAC IVE BEEN DYING TO TALK TO YOU ABOUT SALISBURY STEAK ALL DAY ok so this scene. woof. ok. this is where the majority of my reasoning for this comes from. first, i want to draw attention to the fact that frieda, the girl that tricia and marcy make fun of so frequently, is another goddamn peanuts character. and so another elementary school friend. it just doesnt end with these bitches do you think about anything else!!!!!!

if tricia and marcy had any kind of actual social standing, them constantly gossiping and shittalking frieda would matter to her. being so constantly and relentlessly made fun of by popular people would have an impact (hi yes i know youre thinking of beethoven ignore him for now were gonna come back to him). but it doesnt! frieda doesnt care about what tricia and marcy think of her, why would she? theyre just those two girls from elementary school who are angry all the time. friedas on the outside, shes not apart of this. the only student mentioned thats not a peanuts character? thats her boyfriend. she is the only window into the world of normalcy

THIS^^ THIS RIGHT HERE IS THE LINE THAT GAVE ME THIS WHOLE IDEA IN THE FIRST PLACE. im fairly certain the purpose of this line is to place doubt in our minds on whether or not what we assumed the entire play is actually true. which its not!!! of course this isnt the cool table, all these people do is argue an gossip an stew in their own misery!!!!

ummmm lighting round of things that support my point. if they really were these ultimate cool all powerful popular kids why the hell are they still friends with van. van is a burnout stoner with a sister in an psych ward. considering the things they pounce on to make fun of, this is MORE than enough to completely open fire. but theyre not gonnaaaaa because theyre in the same boat as him!!!!! van and them are on the same level of popularity!!!!!! ummalso THE PARTY the party. the only other guests mentioned to be at this party are franklin (another peanuts character, another childhood friend) and fucking RERUN ? in the comics rerun is established to be MUCH younger than the main cast, even younger than sally, who is mostly shown to be in kindergarten, meaning hed be in middle school at the MOST. and its not like this is a party at vans house and his brother just happens to be there NO!!! THIS IS MARCYS PARTY HE BROUGHT RERUN WITH HIM LITERALLY WHY IS RERUN THERE. THIS PARTY FUCKING SUCKS I KNOW IT IN MY SOUL.

were coming back to beethoven now the thing is that hes in the exact same boat as everyone else. while we do know that its not just the main cast that are outwardly homophobic ("i only got called a queer 3 times ^_^!") it is consistently shown that the main perpetrators are the main cast, much more so than anyone else. beethoven posits that the only reason cb only got called queer is because everyones scared hell beat them up, but i do think its worth considering that the main cast are the only ones who would ever enact actual violence. beethoven is in the same situation, but moreso by force than by choice. hes forced to relive reminders of traumatic childhood events and forced to cling to the past BECAUSE the people that target him used to be his friends. theres a reason they were the only people in peer counseling.

like i said, there is a certain tragedy that comes with dsg being a peanuts parody. its because of the referential comedy that bert royal created a cast of characters so self centered and so hung up on the past that theyre still extremely fixated on the kinds of people they were and the drama they had and their feelings about eachother from when they were literally fucking 8 years old. and isnt that jsut so much more thematically interesting than "oohh popular kid bully gay unpopular kid ooohhhh" theyre all unreliable narrators!!!!!!!! theyre all sick freaks and everyone knows it!!!!!!!! there is no possible justification for their actions, theyre hypocrites plain and simple.

or maybe im reading into everything too much idk its 1 am im talking about the fucking peanuts yaoi fag play. bye

[makingspiritualityreal]

I just wanted to say that I'm unfollowing you. You speak of self love and femininity and love for your body if you really loved your body even just one bit, you wouldn't stuff yourself like a trash can so that you look like you’ve been stung by thousands bees. Self-love begins with self-respect and you obviously don't have that how else could you do that to your organs, your bones you know that all your organs faten even your brain, it's almost funny that you just think you can present self-love and femininity if the only thing you present is is MC Donalds then you are also outraged when you get comments that people don’t want to see your naked fat body and you force them to see you as beautiful my tip self-love begins with respect stand in front of a mirror and first recognize who you are

At first I wanted to ignore you, since some things are just not worth the time and attention, but then I realised people like you are exactly the reason why I do what I do.

Surely you must have thought you were invited into a world of clichéd photoshopped Astrology babes, but that is not who I am or want to be. I live to trigger people like you.

There are so many women out there, feeling bad about themselves. Of different sizes, with different problems. What if I was a burn victim, or was battling a serious disease? Should I hide, or should anyone else hide because of that too?

Our bodies change and reflect what is happening to us in our lives. Mine bears the mark of many years of abuse I suffered. Depression and suffering can make people drastically put on or lose weight, and what you should worry about is their well being, nothing else. There was a time I suffered in a different way, and looked androgynous because of it, had a completely different form. Was I happier? I barely looked my gender, I was medicated. Hardly. Being comfortable in my skin as a woman was a process and a discovery for me. One that I cherish. It's something I fought for and won on my own, and quite frankly your stupidity and short sightedness can't take that away from me. I'm happy about every curve. One day life may take me to a different place again, I never know. I'm sure I will have a reason for that too.

Our bodies tell a story. They show what we have been through and who we are. The modern standard of beauty only allows women who are demure in a particular way. It's like having all trees only allowed to grow a certain way. But the world is diverse, and that's just not the reality of things.

My goal is to show one shouldn't be ashamed of themselves just because they bear the mark of the difficult things life put them through. So many people are ashamed, to the point they don't want to leave the house. My body bears the mark of exhaustion. Of having little to no means to care for myself, and absolutely everyone being against me just because it was more convenient for them. It is not going to look chiselled and polished. If I was a garden, I would be one that has no gardener and has broken branches after it suffered from years of a constant hailstorm. That is naturally going to show. And I'm not going to pretend otherwise. I'm not going to be silenced into pretending I was fine my whole life, even with my life improving. Because that would be supporting my abusers, who tried to silence me, just so that they can be comfortable and get away with things.

People go through things, and that affects what they do. My personal pet peeve is seeing people who did a lot of plastic surgery, but honestly, I don't really go out of my way to judge them. Because they also cover their scars with it. I don't know their story. Sometimes life is just so bad you don't want to be who you were before anymore, and it makes people go to drastic means, to change that.

You have no right to make any assumptions about how I lived my life, and what you said is complete bs. I was raised in Poland, where food is healthy and organic. And laughing at people who eat fast food can make you double cruel, when you realise some people in the United States, where I live now, simply have nothing else left to eat, as prices of healthy food here can be punishing, and they're forced to substitute on fast food. It's not how I live my life, but some people have it worse than I do. They are homeless and struggling, some of them resort to drugs out of despair. Watch your mouth before you insult someone like that.

I detest the hypocrisy that is put on food enjoyment. If a skinny girl enjoys fast food, she's "a hot girl enjoying herself" or worse she hears "give her another burger, she needs to eat more" which honestly is just as bad as your cruelty towards me. I always felt sorry for those women, who simply can't help their genetic disposition.

Life exists to be enjoyed. Food exists to be enjoyed. Historically, on certain holidays throughout the year, people used to do rituals related to the blood of animals and stuff themselves. Now, society has stigmatised it...so people are doing the same thing, ashamed, lonely and unhappy, getting sick inside their houses. People don't acknowledge the animalistic part of themselves. They're afraid to admit they don't want to just eat work have polite relationships and sleep. There is a part inside every human that wants to gorge on life. It wants to devour, fuck, ravage, pillage and burst through. I love these parts of myself together with all the other ones. Can you say the same for yourself?

People who don't love themselves to the core suffer physical ailments. Caring for your organs means acknowledging your mental and emotional state also has an effect on them. I personally know best the number one enemy of organ health is stress and hardship, because then you can't properly process even lighter foods. Repression is not anyone's friend. There used to be a worldwide culture about celebrating that. Now, people don't acknowledge it. It is absolutely my goal to talk about it and expose this part of human nature, as equally worthy to everything else.

The only right thing to ask people whose bodies have changed one way or another is if they're unhappy or why. It's to inquire what is happening inside them. Because that is the root of anything you see happening externally.

It is people like you that made me feel self hate for the longest time, for the fact that I was carrying things that were so punishing on me. I am not innocent or inexperienced, or untouched anymore. But now I take it as a badge of honor. I have the courage you never will. I feel sorry for you and your narrow mindedness. Someone must have hurt you once upon a time. Take your assumptions about me or people who are coming to my space, trying to heal, with you, on your way out the door.

[windybit]

My comments aren’t going to be hidden in the tags this time because I’m very passionate about this specifically.

Another issue is that if you want a job with decent pay, they expect you to have a degree (OR 8-10 years of experience). And even if you do have one, you still might get paid like shit because it’s the BARE MINIMUM. Going to college for four years and earning a Bachelor’s degree is not the achievement it was back in the day. And it’s even LESS affordable now than it was 30+ years ago. So companies are expecting all these 20 somethings who have nothing to their names to spend tens, sometimes HUNDREDS of thousands of dollars to get an 8.5x11 signed by some old fuckers that says congrats you learned some shit specifically pertaining to a career path. And even that’s not enough. You have to have 2-5 years of experience SPECIFICALLY pertaining to the job you’re applying for too. Where do you get it? Who the hell knows. I sure don’t. And how are you supposed to get it if nobody will hire you because you don’t have it?

Also have you guys TRIED writing a cover letter? After growing up being told not to brag about yourself, it’s really hard to write a whole letter bragging about yourself in a professional manner.

Third of all, and this is a big pet peeve of mine, so many people say “You need to call them and bother them. Ask if they got your resume and when you can expect an answer.” News flash: you can’t. Nobody posts phone numbers for their HR departments, and I can guarantee they don’t want to hear from you either. You could maybe send them an email, but it’s SO easy to just ignore an email and claim you never received it. Or they actually won’t see it because it’ll get buried under all the other emails they’re getting from the hundreds of other applicants who are also trying to get a job.

For example, my degree is in engineering. Computers to be exact. You would think I’d have an easy time finding a job because everyone needs computer bitches. And you would be wrong. I have been applying for jobs for almost ten months now. I graduated in May. I have had THREE interviews, countless rejections, and even MORE who have just. Not replied at all. The lack of progress has been infuriating. I’m living with my parents, I’m driving a car that they own because I can’t afford to buy one (not even used), and I have no dental or vision insurance because the cutoff age for those is different than for medical. I have loan payments that start in a month. And it’s not that I don’t want to work. I want to work so bad. I want to make money and be able to pay my bills and be financially independent and move out. I had a job, but it was seasonal because I thought for sure I’d have found a full time job by the time October rolled around. Because 8 months should have been more than enough time to find a job. And tbh I love my seasonal job and would probably do it forever if not for the fact that insurance is super expensive and it doesn’t pay the best.

So yeah. Please please please don’t buy into the “nobody wants to work” biz. Yes there are some lazy fuckers out there who don’t want to work. But there are way more of us who are trying and trying to get a job and are just being rejected and ghosted constantly by these companies who won’t even give so much as a reason why. And please, if you know someone who is or has been struggling to find work, don’t tell them what they should or shouldn’t be doing or what they’re doing wrong unless they ask for your advice. Nothing has been more frustrating than the boatloads of unsolicited advice people (mostly over the age of 50) have been throwing out left and right. Just support your friends and sympathize with them as they wade through hundreds of job postings that they’ll never hear back from. And maybe send them one or two if you happen to find one that fits what they’re looking for :)

[mimicofmodes]

“The Ladies Waldegrave” by Joshua Reynolds, 1780 (NGS NG2171)

I’ve complained before about two very big pet peeves of mine - corset stuff and Regency women being dressed in 1770s-1780s clothes - but one that may dwarf them because of how frequently it comes up in historical and fantasy fiction is the oppression of embroidery.

That’s probably putting it a bit too strongly. It’s more like ... the annoyance of embroidery. Every character worth reading about knows instinctively that sewing is a) boring, b) difficult, c) mindless, and d) pointless. The author doesn’t have to say anything more than “Belinda threw down her needlework and looked out the window, sighing,” to signal that this is an independent woman whose values align with the modern reader, who’s probably not really understood by her mother or mother figure, and who probably will find an extraordinary man to “match” her rather than settling for someone ordinary. To look at an example from fantasy, GRRM uses embroidery in the very beginning of A Game of Thrones to show that the Stark sister who dislikes it is sympathetic and interesting, while the Stark sister who is competent at it is boring and conventional and obviously not deserving of a PoV (until later books, when her attention gets turned to higher matters); further into the book, of course, the pro-needlework sister proves to be weak-willed and naïve.

Rozsika Parker, in the groundbreaking 1996 work The Subversive Stitch, noted that “embroidery has become indelibly associated with stereotypes of femininity,” which is the core of the issue. "Instead embroidery and a stereotype of femininity have become collapsed into one another, characterised as mindless, decorative and delicate; like the icing on the cake, good to look at, adding taste and status, but devoid of significant content.” 

Parker also points out that the stereotype isn’t just one that was invented in the present day by feminists who hated the idea of being forced to do a certain craft. “The association between women and embroidery, craft and femininity, has meant that writers concerned with the status of women have often turned their attention towards this tangled, puzzling relationship. Feminists who have scorned embroidery tend to blame it for whatever constraint on women's lives they are committed to combat. Thus, for example, eighteenth-century critical commentators held embroidery responsible for the ill health which was claimed as evidence of women's natural weakness and inferiority.”

There are two basic problems I have with the trope, beyond the issue of it being incredibly cliché:

First: needlework was not just busywork

A big part of what drives the stereotype is the impression that what women were embroidering was either a sampler:

sampler embroidered by Jane Wilson, 14, in 1791 (MMA 2010.47)

or a picture:

unfinished embroidery of David and Abigail, British, 1640s-50s (MMA 64.101.1325)

That is, something meant to hang on the wall for no real purpose.

These are forms of schoolwork, basically. Samplers were made by young girls up to their early teens, and needlework pictures were usually something done while at school or under a governess as a showpiece of what was being learned - not just the stitching itself, but also often watercolors (which could be worked into the design), artistic sensibility, and the literature, history, or art that might be alluded to. And many needlework pictures made in schools were also done as mourning pieces, sometimes blank, for future use, and sometimes to commemorate a recent death in the family. A lot of them are awkward, clearly just done to pass the class, but others are really artwork.

Many schools for middle- and upper-class girls taught the making of these objects (and other “ornamental” subjects) alongside a more rigorous curriculum - geography, Latin, chemistry, etc. At some, sewing was also always accompanied by serious reading and discussion. (And it would often be done while someone read aloud or made conversation later in life, too.)

Once done with their education, women generally didn’t bother with purely decorative work. Some things that fabric could be embroidered for included:

Jackets 

Bed coverings and bedcurtains

Collars and undersleeves 

Pelerines 

Neck handkerchiefs and sleeve ruffles 

Screens

Upholstery

Handkerchiefs

Purses, wallets, and reticules

Boxes

Book covers

Plus other articles of clothing like waistcoats, caps, slippers, gown hems, chemises, etc. Women’s magazines of the nineteenth century often gave patterns and alphabets for personal use.

(Not to mention late nineteenth century female artists who worked in embroidery, but that’s something else.)

You could purchase all of these pre-embroidered, but many, many women chose to do it themselves. There are a number of reasons why: maybe they wanted something to do, maybe they felt like they should be doing needlework for moral/gender reasons, maybe they couldn’t afford to buy anything - and maybe they enjoyed it or wanted to give something they made to a person they loved. That firescreen above was embroidered by Marie Antoinette, someone who had any number of other activities to choose from. It’s no different than people today who like to knit their own hats and gloves or bake their own bread, except that it was way more mainstream.

embroidery patterns from Ackermann’s Repository in 1827 - they could be used on dresses, collars, handkerchiefs, etc.

Second: needlework wasn’t the only “useless” thing women were expected to do

Ignoring the bulk of point one for now and the value of embroidery - I mentioned “ornamental subjects” above. As many people know, young women of the upper and middle classes were expected to be “accomplished” in order to be seen as marriageable. This could include skills like embroidery, drawing, painting, singing, playing the piano (as well as other instruments, like the harp or the mandolin), speaking French (if not also Italian and/or German), as well as broader knowledge and abilities like being well-versed in music, literature, and poetry, dancing and walking gracefully, writing good letters in an elegant hand, and being able to read out loud expressively and smoothly.

This wasn’t a checklist. As the famous discussion in Pride and Prejudice shows, individuals could have different views on what actually made a woman accomplished:

“How I long to see her again! I never met with anybody who delighted me so much. Such a countenance, such manners! And so extremely accomplished for her age! Her performance on the pianoforte is exquisite.”

“It is amazing to me,” said Bingley, “how young ladies can have patience to be so very accomplished as they all are.”

“All young ladies accomplished! My dear Charles, what do you mean?”

“Yes, all of them, I think. They all paint tables, cover screens, and net purses. I scarcely know anyone who cannot do all this, and I am sure I never heard a young lady spoken of for the first time, without being informed that she was very accomplished.”

“Your list of the common extent of accomplishments,” said Darcy, “has too much truth. The word is applied to many a woman who deserves it no otherwise than by netting a purse or covering a screen. But I am very far from agreeing with you in your estimation of ladies in general. I cannot boast of knowing more than half-a-dozen, in the whole range of my acquaintance, that are really accomplished.”

“Nor I, I am sure,” said Miss Bingley.

“Then,” observed Elizabeth, “you must comprehend a great deal in your idea of an accomplished woman.”

“Yes, I do comprehend a great deal in it.”

“Oh! certainly,” cried his faithful assistant, “no one can be really esteemed accomplished who does not greatly surpass what is usually met with. A woman must have a thorough knowledge of music, singing, drawing, dancing, and the modern languages, to deserve the word; and besides all this, she must possess a certain something in her air and manner of walking, the tone of her voice, her address and expressions, or the word will be but half-deserved.”

“All this she must possess,” added Darcy, “and to all this she must yet add something more substantial, in the improvement of her mind by extensive reading.”

Mr. Bingley feels that a woman is accomplished if she has the ability to do a number of different arts and crafts. Miss Bingley feels (or says she feels) that it goes beyond specific skills and into branches of artistic attainment, plus broader personal qualities that could be imparted by well-bred governesses or mothers. And Mr. Darcy, of course, agrees with that but adds an academic angle as well.

But what ties all of these accomplishments together is their lack of value on the labor market. A woman could earn a living with any one accomplishment, if she worked hard enough at it to become a professional, but young ladies weren’t supposed to be professional-level good because they by definition weren’t going to earn a living. All together, they trained a woman for the social and domestic role of a married woman of the upper middle or upper class, or, if she couldn’t get married, a governess or teacher who would share her accomplishments with the next generation.

(To be fair, almost none of the trappings of an upper-middle/upper class male education had anything to do with the kind of career training that college frequently is today, either. Men were educated to know the cultural touchpoints of their class and fit in with their peers.)

There are reasons that an individual person/character might specifically object to embroidery, but it was far from the only “useless” thing that an unconventional heroine would be required to do against her inclination by her conventional mother/grandmother/aunt/chaperone. Embroidery stands out to modern audiences because most of the other accomplishments are now valued as gender-neutral arts and skills.

“The Embroidery Frame”, by Mathilde Weil, ca. 1900 (LOC 98501309)

So, some thoughts for writers of historical fiction (or fantasy that’s supposed to be just like the 19th/18th/17th/etc century):

- If your heroine doesn’t like embroidery, she probably doesn’t like a number of other things she’s expected to do. Don’t pull out embroidery as either more expected or more onerous than them. Does she hate to sit still? I’d imagine she also dislikes drawing and practicing the piano. Would she prefer to do academic subjects? She probably also resents learning French instead of Latin, and music and dancing. Does she hate enforced femininity? Then she’d most likely have a problem with all of the accomplishments.

- If your heroine just and specifically doesn’t like embroidery, try to show in the narrative that that’s not because it’s objectively bad, and only able to be liked by the boring. Have another sympathetic character do it while talking to the heroine. Note that the hero carries a flame-stitched wallet that’s his sister’s work. Emphasize the heroine’s emotional connection to her deceased or absent mother through her affection for clothing or upholstery that her mother embroidered - or through a mourning picture commemorating her. There are all kinds of things you can do to show that it’s a personal preference rather than a stupid craft that doesn’t take talent and skill!

mourning picture for Daniel Goodman, probably embroidered by a Miss Goodman, 1803 (MMA 56.66)

[the-girl-in-a-qulited-sweater]

Let's do a style analysis of HBO max's gossip girl,shall we?

Hey upper east siders!! All I have to say is the outfits are *immaculate*

Note: The points I make are solely mine and I am trying to be as straightforward as possible in this post so kindly ignore any inarticulateness this post may convey😁.

The amount of vibrancy that the above photoshoot is radiating is something really refreshing, with people all around me dressing in a usual and similar manner (blue jeans and white tank top duh!), the extravagant yet not extravagant clothing that these wonderful people are donning is something that caught my eye instantly. Yes!! from the moment the first picture came out I looked forward to more behind the scenes pictures of the cast and of course its fashion(actually I looked forward to ONLY the fashion, not because I don't trust the storytelling or the future plot but because the uniforms like these shown below made my inner fashion enthusiast *shake* to her very core.

● Now clothing or a style statement is very necessary for a film or any cinematic art form because in a lot of cases it is something that makes the show stand in the future or something which shares the iconicity of the art itself. The particular fashion becomes something exclusive and a trendsetter for that show or a movie. Yes! it does happen because the first thing that pops up in my head when somebody talks about clueless is the Cher and Dionne's plaid outfit or when i am reminded of mean girls one of the first things that comes up in my mind is a pink skater skirt or just you know pink outfits in general.

● When we as an audience are mesmerized by the "attractive" outfits or statement pieces our favorite characters wear onscreen we are influenced to wear similar pieces too. Such a thing happened with Blair Waldorf's iconic headband which made a lot of people wanting to don that too.

00's Vs Present

What I primarily want to do with this post is compare gossip girl's iconic fashion moments with the upcoming gossip girls' fashion and eventually compare 00's fashion to the fashion we have seen emerging in the past year, basically fashion 2020 onwards.

● There was this "rule" I learned and tried to follow which is no outfit should have more than 3 colors together , I did try to religiously follow that but it seemed a bit difficult so I increased the max number of colors I could have in my outfit to 4 .

● My biggest pet peeve regarding fashion would be too many mismatched colors in an outfit or simply lots of different colors in an outfit unless its a multicolored outfit. The example is given below.

• Outfit 1 above aesthetically looks good but if the handbag were of a pastel color(pink or even yellow to match the shoes) the whole outfit could have looked way better.

• Outfit 2 strains my eye at the very first instant I look at it, was that necklace really necessary? I am confused whether it is a athletic outfit or a casual one?

Minimalism

Not very recently we have been obsessed with and have been looking out for this style in fashion. Kuwtk also played a role in promoting this form of styling which is minimalism because they are donning outfits of neutral colors like white,khaki,brown,beige,cream and mostly they happen to be monochromatic. Also with tiktok( I am saying tik tok because I have seen many tik tok videos with most people wearing this staple outfit),the easy and comfy outfit consisting of a white tank/crop/shirt or a T-shirt paired with blue skinny/wide legged Jeans and compulsory white sneakers. I honestly thought the new gossip girl would show include current elements of pop culture fashion elements like minimal jewellery ,claw clips or tie dye outfits but seems like they are trying to set up a fashion statement of their own in their own creative way ! which is very great.

● But after looking at the behind the scenes of gg reboot and the promotional pictures,it seems they are approaching a more "colorful" approach to the outfits and I hope they are able to set new style standards too as the og gossip girl did. The new gossip girl has fashion inspired by the 2000s and subtly the 90s but yet feels modern?The outfits look formal yet very practical and easy to recreate?The outfits look smart yet not very extravagant(of course barring the fact that all the products are high end but nothing thrifting and matching our outfits cant solve) ? a big YESSS!! to all the questions raised! It's really refreshing to see how well put together and actually comfortable the outfits look . Although the huge bags that blair and serena used to carry are making a statement in this show as well as can be seen from the pictures. In the upcoming show the jewellery is not exaggerated nor the colors mismatched,basically they are beautifully following the notion "less is more". I had an aversion to blue colored clothes and I always gravitated towards black and white while wearing formal but the actors and ofcourse the characters wearing blue formal outfits(to school I know) is making me think differently . 👀

Make sure to comment down below and hit me up with your expectations regarding the show set to air on July!

Xoxo, gossip girl💋

[creatingquirks]

Hello! I’m here for a quirk matchup bc it looks so cool 👁👄👁 I got HELLA déjà-vu writing this so maybe I already asked you and I just forgot?? I don’t know;; if so, please tell me and no need to stress on it, you can just re-direct me lol

I’m sorry I’m advance for the length I’m just a very thorough person in general-

I’m a Taurus, INTJ girl

My hobbies include, well— I have a matchup blog and I spend a lot of time working on matchups so I guess that’s a hobby of mine? Another hobby I have is CrossFit! Aside from that I enjoy psychological thrillers and listening/exploring music.

My biggest pet peeve is probably people who are ignorant? I get easily frustrated when I’m in class and other students ask questions that the professor LITERALLY just answered, I just feel like it’s a waste of (my) time. Another one is loud chewing. And especially if it’s the only noise in the room. It’s so gross and when it happens my biggest temptation is just to leave.

A thing I’d say I’m good at is,, sports technique?? I’m a fairly quick learner and I’m super competitive so I’ve always caught on quickly to sports because I was so hellbent on winning or proving myself

I’m HORRIBLE with sympathy, or empathy, or just other people’s feelings in general. I have a high IQ, but a frighteningly low emotional intelligence and while I try my best, sometimes I just don’t understand why people react the way they do (unless I’ve been in their shoes before) so I say blunt or accidentally harmful things to them without exactly meaning it?? I’m TRYING to learn I SWEAR-

I’m introverted, leaning towards ambivert in a way that I can handle myself very well in social situations (people usually think I’m an extrovert) but after a few hours I get so emotionally drained that I just have to sit there and zone out.

I’m a very,, eccentric person. When it comes to my behaviour, I’ll be weird if I want to be weird and if people don’t like that then it’s their issue. I apparently look scary but right when I open my mouth you can see that I’m friendly?? Just on the loud side of friendly. I have a very versatile sense of humour and I tend to strive on making people laugh and giving sarcastic comments all the time. Not many people do to get on my bad side, but if someone does manage that feat then I simply shut them out from my life as a whole because I honestly believe that I’m a good person to have as a friend and if you don’t deserve me, then you shouldn’t have me.

For quirk types, I’d like to leave it all to you! It’s not like I’d have a choice in I was assigned a quirk at birth anyways lolol

Hi, hope you like this!

I give you.......

Golden Eagle

Quirk type: mutant

Quirk summary: you have the abilities of a golden eagle like it’s senses reflexs, and some of its physical traits. You have eagle eyesight, along with a pair of golden eagle wings that are proportional to your size, and you have super sharp talons in your feet, and gain retractable ones of your hands.

Drawbacks: since your wings are so big the can get in the way of somethings.

[teenwolfpotential]

Fan Service

Again, I don’t inherently have a problem with Stydia, but I see people asking how a slow burn over 5+ seasons can be considered fan service and I just have to shake my head.  The fact that Stydia DOES have development over 5+ seasons and yet they STILL are carrying it out so badly on the show is what’s most insulting about it.

Example 1:

Remember I love you.  This is pretty alright.  I could complain about how we’ve never actually heard Stiles tell Lydia that he loves her before, but since you could imply that he’s said it off screen or that the phrasing is just because he’s about to be taken, it’s alright.

However...

I think I loved him. *shocked, somewhat confused and appalled face* What the heck was up with this line?  Why would they have her admit to loving him without any sort of visible realization, with a not so flattering facial expression, in an underwhelming scenario?  Why would they even have this if they were planning on the whole realization in 6.9?

Example 2:

When I was remembering him I was also remembering the two of you together. I don’t think anyone had a connection like you guys.  

I saw it too.

I will suspend disbelief that Lydia and Stiles who haven’t admitted their feelings to each other and haven’t been in an established relationship with each other have stronger ties than Stiles and Scott who have been best friends through everything even when no one else bothered to give them the time of day.

To be honest, the strongest connection to Stiles being Lydia > Malia > Scott seems really messed up, but it’s still possible to suspend disbelief because “the power of romantic love” and all that.

However...

THEY DIDN’T SHOW ANY MEMORIES THAT SCOTT OR MALIA SAW THAT STILES AND LYDIA HAD A MOMENT IN.

Scott had a few memories that had some tangential Stydia.  She was present for the flare memory, but she didn’t interact with Stiles.  The fact that Scott kissed Lydia was mentioned during the full moon memory, but Scott wasn’t remembering “the two of you together” like he said.  The only time Scott saw Stiles and Lydia together that we were shown in Scott’s memories was a very brief flash among many other flashes.  It showed Stiles with Lydia at Deaton’s after she was rescued from Eichen.

The same is even more true for Malia’s memories. Her memories were seeing Stiles for the first time in the hallway at Eichen, punching Stiles at Eichen, talking to him in the bathroom at Eichen, Stiles with her during the full moon at the lake house, and at the vault under the school.  None of those even have Lydia present or mentioned, yet she says she “saw it too”.

Why the hell did they put that line in if they were going to disprove it before they even said it?  Why couldn’t they just follow up on what they said properly? It’s not like they didn’t have the footage.

Example 3:

Lydia doesn’t use her banshee powers when they’re running from the Ghost Riders?  We know she has them and can use them at will, yet she doesn’t even attempt to use them against the Riders.  Why not?  Stiles could point her in the right direction and she could let it rip.  Maybe it wouldn’t work on them, but they could have at least tried.

The only reason I can think for her not to at least try to use them is because that’s not what the people writing the show wanted.  They didn’t want Lydia to try to fight.  They wanted her to run with Stiles and look devoted and scared to lose him.  It was a scene that was created solely to show Lydia’s less established feelings about Stiles and not because it actually made sense in canon.

Example 4:

This is probably just a pet peeve of mine, but the memories they showed of Lydia and Stiles weren’t any of the ones I’m fond of.  One of my favorite things about Lydia and Stiles is how supportive they are of each other and how well matched they are when they discuss mysteries.

Every time Stiles is feeling down on his abilities, Lydia shows him that she has faith in him and vice versa.  Whenever Stiles wants to talk something through and no one else is taking him seriously, Lydia hears him out.  Whenever Lydia is feeling ignored or useless, Stiles reminds her that he sees her and cares about her.  Whenever something needs to be solved, Stiles and Lydia are the brains of the operation.  They’re the two vulnerable ones that have to fight smart.

I don’t like their relationship because Stiles had a crush on Lydia for years and is now “getting the girl he thought he’d never get”.  I don’t like their relationship because Stiles worships Lydia and “she deserves to be worshipped”.  I like their relationship because of the mutual respect and support they’ve developed over time.

The memories chosen for 6.9 don’t reflect anything but the superficial stuff. The memory at the dance is the only exception.

The other moments visually shown- the kiss, the moment in Stiles’ room with red thread, Stiles rescuing Lydia from Eichen, and Stiles holding Lydia still as the Doctors passed by- were purely physical.  They just show the most dramatic moments where they touch rather than any of the more intellectual or character driven moments that truly form the base of their feelings for each other.  Even with the memories that are emotional, only the physical parts are shown.

The message is CHEMISTRY > personality which isn’t what I’m here for. Chemistry + personality is nice, but I’m not going to ship something because of chemistry alone.

Sloppy

Stydia is being handled extremely sloppily.  Stydia DO have history on the show which is why it’s even more upsetting that it’s being handled so poorly now that they’re actually becoming established in canon.  

The only explanation for why this is happening is that the people on the show don’t really care about Stydia, don’t care about their past and the unique things about their relationship, and are only putting in lines and scenes to attempt to satisfy the fans.  

Ok, that’s not entirely true.  It could partly be that the writers of the show have no idea how to go about setting up a proper relationship seeing as pretty much every other relationship on the show was far too sudden with little groundwork laid down.  However, Stydia was better written in the seasons leading up to this one than it has been this season, so that doesn’t seem right.

Really, all you have to know about this season is that everything is fan service. Everything has been sloppier than usual because the writers have stopped trying to create an interesting and consistent story and instead have been taking everything they think fans like and tossing it all together haphazardly.

None of the characters have felt well fleshed out or consistent with their previous characterization

They keep forgetting characters exist from episode to episode and aren’t showing the logical progression of the actions happening to different characters- Chris Argent, everyone getting disappeared to the other side where they should be meeting up, focusing on the old crew vs the young crew from episode to episode

Some characters have disappeared entirely without acknowledgement- Deaton, Lydia’s mom

The way memories of the erased people have been treated is very inconsistent- some people remember when everyone else forgets, some people are forgotten entirely, the later people seem to be disappeared but not forgotten, some people can form memory surrogates and most others can’t, people were forgotten before disappearing sometimes and not others

They dropped every arc that characters had that didn’t have to do with Stiles except for Theo’s- Corey’s power arc, Corey and Liam’s trust arc, Scott and Liam’s succession arc, Malia’s feral arc

The way they did Stiles’ mom made no sense whatsoever and also was a slap in the face since it yet again painted her in a bad light and Stiles STILL hasn’t gotten a nice interaction with her

They still haven’t explained why the Riders are stuck in Beacon Hills

They still haven’t explained why banshees get left behind

The entire season is an unprecedented mess that can only be explained by poor attempts at fan service, meaning that the Stydia arc is fan service too.

Season Focus

In any case, they know the big draws to the show that are left are 1) Dylan O’Brien/Stiles, and 2) Stydia. What did they do with the 6th season?  They created a plot that revolved around Stiles even without him being present for most of it and they finally pulled the trigger on Stydia.  

I know people argue that Scott is the main character and, therefore, he’s a big draw. I won’t say what SHOULD happen with Scott being the main character, but I can say what IS happening.  Aside from the dropped story line from the first couple episodes of the season about Scott leaving the pack and Beacon Hills to Liam, Scott has no story arc this season that’s not about Stiles.

To be honest, they’ve even eschewed the importance of Scott and Stiles’ relationship in order to focus more on Stydia.  Rather than Scott being Stiles’ greatest champion, Scott notices something is off just like Lydia and Malia do and then promptly forgets it.  Lydia is the only 1 of the 3 to keep insisting Stiles existed even though all 3 should really be on the same page if it weren’t for the need of the writers to try to create dramatic tension and highlight that Lydia cares most. 

Scott is a side player in this season to Stydia and that should make it clear that whether you think he should be a main draw or not, the show isn’t treating him that way.

Drawing Viewers

There were very clear comments from cast and crew in seasons 3 and 4 that Stiles had gotten over his crush on Lydia. They decided to fix that by saying that he got over his crush but then that let him fall in love sincerely, but I highly doubt that was their intention at the time.  It’s clear from comments that Lydia and Jackson were supposed to be long term and Stiles was supposed to get over Lydia.  Things changed as the casting and viewership situation changed.

The show has been bleeding viewers for seasons now, losing half a million viewers from one season to the next.  They know Dylan/Stiles and Stydia are their biggest draws left, so it makes perfect sense for them to use those 2 things to draw in fans to watch the show through the last season.

[kyberled]

☀ ♦ ♥ ☢ ✖

the salty af munday meme

☀ What’s your rp pet peeve? –> Ship forcing. This is literally the best way to get me to unfollow or even block another mun. I’ll explain what ship-forcing is below, but yeah, that’s one of them.

♦ What was a mildly annoying thing that has happened to you rp wise? –> See above. It happened once on my Warren blog, and once very recently on here. Now, a bit of a definition, here - I don’t see ship-forcing as asking me if I want to ship, or saying your muse has a crush on Braig - heck, that can be flattering (though I prefer if we know each other, first - it can get a bit uncomfy for me, kind of like virtual catcalling, I guess, when complete strangers tell me how attractive they think Braig is). I don’t see it as someone’s muse having feelings for Braig, one-sided or otherwise. All of these things are A-Okay, and can be quite fun, too! What I do see ship forcing is when someone asks if they can ship with Braig, and instantly, as soon as I say ‘we can give it a try’, deciding that our muses are suddenly soulmates, even if they’ve hardly said four sentences to each other, before. I see it as asking to ship, then immediately dropping the thread where they were actually in the process of meeting each other to have them now in the middle of a date, which, given the context of where, when, and how said date was taking place would likely have gotten them both killed. I see it as pestering Braig to do something ‘romantic’, having both Braig and I say no, he doesn’t want to, and the other person keeps pushing, regardless, or getting upset when Braig decides to respond with something not romantic and replying to that with some rude, snarky comment. ‘Uh, I think [muse] wanted Braig to do [X], actually’ - Yes, that has happened, before. I’ve been vagueblogged about, spammed on and off anon, been told I’ve made peoples’ depression/anxiety worse, had on-blog events ruined and muses killed and simply been harassed at all hours of the day because of ship-forcing and my trying to deal with it gently and politely, instead of just flat-out saying ‘no’ or ‘I’m not comfortable with this’. So, if it ever seems like I’m coming down too hard on someone in regards to shipping, I swear I don’t mean to come off as abrasive or rude - I just learned the hard way that you’ve gotta be blunt about your comfort zones or else things go south faster than a flock of geese on an adrenaline high. Basically, to sum this novel up: As long as you respect my boundaries, we’re good; if I haven’t told you you’re skeeving me out, we’re good. If I have told you you are, and you keep doing whatever it was, we’re not so good. 

☢ What fads/trends are you so over? –> I don’t really keep up with trends enough to know lmao. I mean I guess I’ve seen a few, but they don’t really bother me. You do you, and all… Though, I guess I never entirely understood the whole ‘personified objects’ thing? I mean, you do you, and all, but it just never  made sense to me.

✖ How has Tumblr RP changed since you started? –> It hasn’t, not really. I think the only real changes have been purely aesthetic, like small text,  contained themes, etc. I really don’t care what other people do, as long as they’re happy and not hurting anyone.

♥ What’s the WORST thing that has happened to you rp wise?

[Under a cut for length]

Okay, so, I told two of my rp horror stories over on Xig, so I’ll tell my third one here. Since I gave the other two pseudonyms, we’ll call this one ‘Cheeper’. Cheeper was someone I had met when a mutual friend we’ll call Battery allegedly recommended my blog to them. Now, Battery was someone I had approximately zero problems with. Really friendly, sweet guy, talented writer, great sense of humour, one of my favourite people to write with. So, I figured, if Cheeper was a friend of Battery’s, they must be cool, too, right? … Wrong. So, things start out okay-ish, as they always do, but things get downhill pretty fast. Starts off with small things, like ignoring asks or dropping literally all of our threads without letting me know. And I understand wanting to drop threads or not being able to get to everything in your ask box, but when that happens consistently, it gets a little disheartening.

The next little thing was when they started making AUs of my muse, and expecting me to write them. Lemme say here that I am totally fine with people suggesting AUs for my muses. That’s where this blog came from, Rodi suggesting a Star Wars AU where another one of my muses was Obi’s padawan, so, again, I’m fine with AU prompts. What I’m not fine with is when someone writing a really detailed version of my muse without consulting me at all, and then expecting me to write that AU they made with no warning and no problems. Cheeper comes into my IMs listing this novel-length AU detailing not only how their muse changed, but how mine did, as well. Basically, the entire idea was that their muse, who in canon was a big tank-type character who had been straight-up abusive to multiple characters, and turned them into a small, fluffy little mage who was actually a good guy and hadn’t done any bad things, and was being forced to do the bad guys’ dirty work, whereas my muse… Was suddenly the abusive one. For absolutely no reason. In a way that not only completely contradicted all of my personal headcanons - all of which were posted and easily viewable on my blog - but also went against all of what canon had showed us about my muse, and quite frankly made me really uncomfortable. I mean, you’ve seen some of the stuff I’ve written, you know I’m down to write some pretty messed up stuff, but to straight up turn my muse into a child abuser, WITHOUT CONSULTING ME AT ALL, just so your muse can be the good guy? That doesn’t fly so well. On top of that, writing such a detailed version of my muse and expecting me to play it for you? Why not write it yourself? I mean like I said, I am thrilled with AU suggestions, but, hell, keep it to a sentence or two, tops. Let me experiment and develop my muse to fit the AU myself, thanks. … And, while these things were pretty irritating, especially when a few of them happened over and over again, it got worse.

A lot of the time, when I’m having OOC conversations to get to know another mun before we start writing together, I look for a sort of ‘spark’ or ‘click’ - something that shows this person and I are gonna get along. For a lot of people, including my favourite partners, this click is basically immediate - just this instant ‘wow, we’re gonna be good friends, this is great!’, and, for others, it takes a bit longer, and that’s totally okay! Some people take a while to open up, or maybe it wasn’t a good day for one of us, I totally get it, happens to me, too. How quickly the click happens has absolutely NO BEARING ON MY OPINION OF A PERSON WHATSOEVER. There have been I think only three or four times I haven’t clicked with someone - twice on Warren, once on Xig, and once here. If I message you first, send asks, tag you in things, like your posts, etc, we’ve clicked, don’t worry. Anyway, Cheeper was one of these rare occurrences where there was not only no click, there was the opposite of a click. At first I thought it was just ‘cause our first convo was a bit awkward - from what I remember, it was basically just ‘hi, My name is [Cheeper], I’m [Battery]’s friend and he recommended your blog so I thought I’d give you a follow’, you know, typical ‘hi, nice to meet you’ type thing, I didn’t think much of it. Unfortunately, that was the only pleasant conversation we had.

You see, Cheeper had the habit of starting conversations with some variation of ‘how are you?’. Doesn’t sound too bad, right? Well, in typical Canadian fashion, I always did my best to follow social protocol and be polite, and say ‘I’m good/fine/great, thanks, how are you?’, and, much like Han Solo, I learned that there are some situations you shouldn’t ask that question. Every time, without fail, Cheeper would say some variation of ‘bad’ or ‘horrible’, and proceed to dump literally all their life’s problems on me, and I mean all of them. I’m perfectly fine with letting my friends vent/rant to me as much as they need, and offering advice is a pass-time of mine. But, I had only known this person for- Less than a week, when this started (I hardly even knew their NAME I had to look it up on their blog), and they kept going on and on about some really personal shit, like hours of how they hated their job and school was stressful, and their family was aphobic and never used the right pronouns, literally everything about their personal life, no matter how private it was, just- Constant negativity, all the time. It was literally all they spoke about, ever. I don’t know anything else about them, just that their life was terrible and they decided to use me as some sort of verbal stress ball. Even if I tried to divert the conversation to a different topic, or just ignore them entirely, I’d still get floods of negativity and complaints. And what makes it even better? They had a frickin therapist! This person, who had a professional, trained therapist, would spend hours unloading all of their mental/emotional burdens on me, an untrained stranger who had only said ‘hi’ to them once. And, after they had dumped all their baggage on me, they’d say, ‘oh, gotta go, it’s time to go to my therapist’. And, honestly? That was the only time I felt safe to post on my blog. Yes, you read that right - it was the only time I felt safe to post on my own blog. I honestly could not make a post on my blog without Cheeper spamming my IMs with boatloads of stress-inducing negativity. And, call me selfish, call me insensitive, call me whatever you want, but, fuck, I had my own problems! I was in university, trying to get law school level grades, while working a part time job to try and help my family out when we were struggling financially, doing what I could to make sure there was enough food in the fridge for my younger brothers, trying to help my grandma take care of my grandpa, trying to keep up with my martial arts - which I have to do in order to keep my job - and trying to write multiple essays for both my younger brother and myself, as we were prepping for our black sash tests, but he was also trying to get into film school, so I’d volunteered to write the sash essays for him, and, let me tell you, I did not need to play counsellor to someone I didn’t even know on top of that. And, like I said, this happened constantly, and I’d get a new flood of messages every time I so much as hinted at being online.

And believe it or not, it got worse, Sakrine.

I remember there was one conversation we had (’conversation’ being used loosely, of course) towards the end of our interactions where Cheeper was complaining at me, as per usual, and mentioned how all of their friends were blocking them without saying why. Funnily enough, I was planning on blocking them soon, myself (probably should have done it a long time ago). But, lo and behold, right after saying how they were always getting blocked, Cheeper goes and says ‘but you’d never block me, so at least I have you. You’re my best friend, Jay’. And I’m sitting here really uncomfortable because, uh, no, we’re not best friends, and I have no idea what gave them that idea, since I never told them anything of the sort, and in fact barely spoke to to them at all, both because I didn’t much care for their company, and because I could hardly get a word in edgewise - and, even if I could, how does one respond to a total stranger badgering you for advice on how to deal with their family not handling their being out well? I’m not out to my family, and I don’t think I ever will be, so, again, how can I give that sort of advice to someone I don’t know?

About the time this was happening was when I met and was chatting with Rodi, who’s actually one of my best friends and the light of my life. Like I mentioned above, it was at her suggestion that I decided to make this li’l OC mess that we know and love here. He was originally gonna be a verse on my other blog, until I realised that I’d have tags for a Jedi verse, a padawan verse, a Sith verse, etc., and that was too many for one AU, so I made a sideblog. Then, after only a day of having that, and a bit of encouragement from both Rodi and Milla (my main Talon), I made this stand-alone blog for my son, and I was having a great time.

Cheeper, however, was not, and made sure I knew it.

Now, my muse for that blog had been steadily dying, mostly because of this, but also for a few other, more minor reasons, and I felt way more comfortable here, was having more fun, and generally just enjoying myself way more on this blog than the other, so, naturally, this is where I spent most of my time. Within a day or two of my neglecting Xig, Cheeper pops into the IMs to complain about me, to me. Yes, I am dead serious, this is an actual thing that happened. They start badgering me to go back to my other blog, and, I dunno if this has ever happened to you, but, it’s really disheartening. I explained to Cheeper that I felt more comfortable on this blog (though I didn’t tell them why I felt that way on Xig; Perhaps I should’ve), that I had more drafts and asks on this blog, and that I had more muse for this character at the moment, so I’d be spending my time over here, at least for a little bit. Their oh-so-eloquent response was, and this is a verbatim quote, ‘boo, you suck.’ And I had absolutely no idea how to respond to that, so I didn’t. I just sat there, staring, feeling an interesting concoction of shocked, annoyed, and offended. About a minute later, they added a ‘lol, just kidding’, and proceeded to… Continue… To complain about me, as well as about their life and still expected me to give them advice and solutions I didn’t have. I’ve never had someone act more entitled to my time and energy as this person did. 

Now, I know what you’re probably thinking - ‘they were probably just some kid, Jay, young people can be like that at times, you’re taking it too hard’, and, hey, I thought so, too. I was nineteen years old when this was happening; Cheeper was around 24 or 25. Yup, this person was about five or six years older than me, and a grown-ass adult the entire time. And like I said, they were constantly acting entitled to everything I did, like I owed them something. There was another time where I’d actually gotten a bit of muse for my other blog back, so I went on, answered a bunch of asks, slammed out some drafts, sent some memes, answered some IMs… It was a really productive evening for me. Once I was finished, I came back here and got a bit more done. Next morning rolls around, and Cheeper messages me with ‘I miss you, dude. You’re never on Xig, any more.’ I tell them that, actually I’d been on last night, for a few hours, at least. Their response? ‘Well, I wasn’t on.’, after which they kept complaining about how much they missed my muse and my writing. I get this was probably supposed to be flattering, but it really wasn’t? Especially considering that, while they were going on and on about how much they missed me and wanted to write with me, they were completely ignoring the THREE STARTERS I had written for them in the weeks leading up to this point. Hadn’t even given them a like, which I like to do to let someone know that, even if I’m slow as all Hell - which I tend to be - I have seen it, and it’s in my drafts. So, I mentioned this to Cheeper, said ‘you know, I have a couple starters for you on the other blog, why don’t you check those out?’ ‘Oh, I didn’t see them, I’ll give them a look.’ And then, blissfully, they stopped messaging. Little while later, a few days, I got another message from them (keep in mind I never contacted them or interacted with them first, since, rude as it may sound, I was kind of hoping they’d get the message), and once again they were whining about how I was never on Xig again, so I went to check the starters again, and… Still no notes. So I ask them about the starters, and they say ‘I couldn’t find them’. You know how I looked them up? [my blog’s url]/tagged/[cheeper’s url], and, bam. There they were. I told Cheeper this and even sent them the link to their tag. They said okay, that they’d check it out later, and started complaining about their life again. I was serious when I said this was the only thing they talked about, outside of basically harassing me to write with them. Few days later, they get on my case AGAIN for not being on Xig/not rping with them. I check the THREE FUCKING STARTERS again,  STILL NO NOTES. I ask, and ‘oh I just don’t have muse for them right now lol’. And I’m left sitting here like, okay, do you really want to write with me, or are you just mad I’m not dedicating all of my attention to you and your godawful AU muses? I mean, I have NOTHING against AU muses - that’s where this kiddo came from, after all - but AUS WHERE THEY PUSHED MY CHARACTER TO BE A FUCKING CHILD ABUSER WERE APPARENTLY ALL THEY HAD MUSE FOR. And my character was a moral fuckhead I admit but he WASN’T OVERTLY ABUSIVE THAT WAS ONE OF THE REASONS I WAS COOL PLAYING HIM AS THE ANTAGONIST HE WAS AND JUST. And as well, when I have no muse, it’s apparently a major fuckin’ disaster and they complain to the ends of the earth about it and go on and on about how I should still be writing that character and how much they miss me, but when THEY have no muse I have to accommodate it and make allowances and write with them anyway???? Like???

So anyway yeah they proceeded to ignore those starters for months, and every time I posted a new starter call,they’d like that, I’d post a starter, they’d completely ignore it, then come crying and complaining to me, berating me and all but sobbing about how much they missed me.

BUT IT GETS WORSE STILL, SAKRINE.

After a while, Cheeper starts asking me about Star Wars. And I’m torn between ‘fuck no, this is my new safe place, and I’m TRYING TO BE SAFE FROM YOU’ and ‘well maybe if they get into this series they’ll stop getting upset with me for not writing on a blog I have no muse for and am not comfortable on’. So they ask me what they need to watch to understand Star Wars. I tell them to watch the movies, since those are the unchanging canon, no matter what Disney did to the Legends material. Apparently they don’t even have the attention span for their favourite show, so they can’t watch the movies. They complain to me about that for a while, because apparently I care. I did not. I tell them that everything Star Wars - or at least, in the era I write in - revolves around those movies. I tell them they can just watch the PT (and explain what the different trilogies are) and that will get them caught up with where I write. Nope, can’t do that. So I tell them there are book versions of the movies they can read, instead, and there are also comics and stuff they can look into if that would be better.

Nope, don’t have the attention span for books.

Complain about that to me for a while, then ask what they absolutely HAVE to watch to understand. 

I tell them about the Clone Wars show, give them a link to the relevant KissCartoon page. They ask how long the show is - I tell them the number of seasons (mention that 6 is unfinished), and the average length of an episode.

Nope, don’t have the attention span for that, either.

They reiterate that they hardly have the attention span for their favourite show, and once again complain to me before asking me what the /HAVE TO WATCH/ to understand.

I tell them that they’re free to try interacting with my muse on their KH blogs, since I’m open to crossovers and still, for some ungodly reason, trying to be civil.

They keep asking about star wars.

I mention the video games.

Don’t have the attention span for video games.

So this person, who apparently can’t watch movies or TV shows, or read books or comics, or play video games, is asking me what source material they need to know to roleplay a Star Wars verse. 

I, as a last-ditch and mostly sarcastic effort, give them a link to Wookieepedia. I’m a terrible person, I know.

…

They don’t have the patience to look through the wiki pages.

I’m all but smashing my face against the keyboard now, while this person is COMPLAINING TO ME ABOUT HOW LONG STAR WARS IS. 

I mean I get it’s a lot but I tried to break it down?? And last I checked I’m not George Lucas like I’m sorry but it’s not my fault, my problem, or in my power to change? And I tell them it’s 40 years worth of worldbuilding and try to help them break it down again and they just KEEP FUCKING COMPLAINING.

And after like. Two hours of me trying to reason with them and help them out they say ‘I’m not even interested in star Wars, I just want to write with you’. 

And now, maybe I’m reading into it too much. Maybe I listen to too many narrated Let’s Not Meet videos too late at night. But holy shit, I have never felt like I had a legitimate stalker until that moment. It was one of the most uncomfortable things that has ever happened to me. I had zero idea how to respond, and so again I don’t think I did. Or, if I did, it was to again try to explain to them that there was a lot of material, and they should [leavemethefuckalone] focus on things they were interested in, especially if they didn’t think they could handle just the show. So they complain to me about that for a bit, before moving on to other topics to whine about. Always comes back to how I’m not writing with them any more (meanwhile, the countless starters I’ve written them are still being ignored, as are any and all threads we had on the go at the time. Everything’s either been ignored, abandoned, or both, all without letting me know.).I honestly don’t remember how that conversation ended. Just thinking about it makes me blank out and get a sort of mild pins-and-needles feeling. I mean, I get it was probably supposed to be flattering, and if we had been friends it might have been, but coming from this person? Alarm bells were ringing like a retro emergency evac PSE. 

AND IT GETS WORSE STILL, BECAUSE FOR SOME REASON I STILL PUT UP WITH THIS PERSON. 

So, enter me, just going back to uni for the spring/early summer semester. Our stage sets itself in my campus’ bookstore, at about noon or one o’clock in the afternoon. The line from the bookstore stretches from the counter, at one end of the store, wraps around the perimeter of that very large, very spacious room that was at one point a lecture hall, goes through the hall to the next room which also used to be a massive classroom, wraps around that and goes out the back door. I had to get up for an 8:30 that was across the field that day. I had non-stop class until this point, I had had no breakfast (though I think I had a sip of orange juice to keep from conking out), I had been waiting in line for close to an hour, my arms were full of heavy textbooks I dreaded having to pay for, and I only had one hand free for typing, and there was a chance I’d be late to my next class if this line didn’t get moving. As you can imagine, I wasn’t much in the mood for talking (though I think I made the effort for Rodi and Maddie (my best friend from public school who I still talk to) since I enjoy talking to them and it made me feel a bit better). Anyway, I’m in line, tired, irate, and scrolling through tumblr, and Cheeper messages me with a ‘hey’. Oh fuck, I think, this isn’t good. I greet them anyway - just a ‘hi’. I’m only giving one word answers at this point, since I’m not in a chatty mood, and, as I mentioned, I’m typing with just my thumb and that fucking sucks and takes forever, and I’m also trying to keep my place in line. Cheeper starts asking me about school, and I’m very confused, because never once in the months I’d known them had they ever taken an interest in me or my life. ‘so you’re in university right’ they ask. I remember most of this conversation word for word, and you’ll see why. ‘yeah’, I reply. ‘What year?’ they ask; ‘Second \o/’ I say, adding an emoji b/c I love that one. ‘Cool, what’s your major?’ they ask, and I’m getting hopeful that maybe they’ve turned a new leaf and my patience with them has been rewarded. So I tell them ‘Classics \O/’ with a slightly more excited emoji, and they tell me that’s cool, mention their major is in foreign languages - I think Chinese? Maybe Spanish? This is the one message I can never remember in its entirety, because the next one almost knocked me over. I replied with ‘cool’, and a half second later, Cheeper asks, 

“Are you out to your family yet?”

This complete fucking stranger, this grown-ass adult I barely knew, straight up asked me if I was out to my family, yet. I have never been asked that question before or since. I am out only to people on tumblr, and a small group of my most trusted friends from high school. And this person had the fucking audacity to ask me right out if I was. 

I was shocked.

I will not lie to you, I almost dropped my phone. I think I stopped breathing for a second, and I nearly lost my place in line. I was torn between just being frozen and being fucking livid. After a moment when I didn’t respond, they added, ‘Can I ask that?’ And I swear those two messages are tattooed into my mind.

“Are you out to your family yet?”

Holy fuck.

So I manage to collect myself enough to type out ‘no, I’m not’. 

‘Damn,’ they say. ‘Because my mom keeps messing up my pronouns and I wanted to know if you have any advice.’ 

Because why the fuck else would they care about me, right?

And then they proceeded to complain about their life and their aphobic family to me AGAIN, for HOURS, but at that point I’d been ignoring their messages and was instead talking to Maddie for advice on how to handle the situation. I had no idea what to do. I was lost. Like. I wanted to block them so bad but they’d been subtly guilt-tripping me about it for so long (’you’d never block me, you’re my best friend’ was just the start of that, tbh) that I felt bad for it? And Maddie was just like ‘jay no that’s fucked up get rid of them’ and I did.

I have never once regretted it and holy fuck it feels amazing to get this shit off my chest.

And yeah, so.

That was one of my worst RP experiences.

Are you out to your family yet.

I’d sell them to Satan for half a stale corn chip I swear to Christ. 

[littlenymphcollection-blog]

Troll Bait

I have female friends, male friends, young friends, old friends, yellow, black, white, and brown friends, Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Agnostic, and even a Wiccan friend or two. My friends are left-wing, right wing, and please-don't-talk-to-me-about-politics-wing. Some are married, some divorced, some are widowed, like me, and some are single, perhaps for life. Most are straight, some are gay, at least one is totally asexual and, there are a few that I'm not really that sure about and probably never will be. Despite the obvious differences, all of these people share two things in common.

1: They are all people, including the one that would swear on a stack of bibles she has Elven blood in her family (but don't tell her I said that).

2: Not a damn one of them agrees with me on everything, despite my repeated attempts to get them to do otherwise. Some of them don't even agree with me on much of anything at all. Can you imagine? Differences of philosophy among these friends will often generate a spirited debate, which is not something I am averse to. It should be obvious by now to anyone that knows me that I enjoy a good argument and am known to enjoy breakfast with a side of conflict. I can take most anything in stride and come away from it with a friendship intact, providing the friend in question is of a like nature. Yes, it's all good here but, even I have my pet peeves. These are mine.

Watch Your Damn Language!  ... oops Okay, I confess I let one rip from time to time. None of us are saints and I'm probably more removed from sainthood than most. That said, let's be honest here. Profanity is an indicator of low intellect and an immature mind, which is why 14-year-old boys use it at every given opportunity to illustrate how "mature" they are. Are you a 14-year-old boy? Does your Momma know you talk like that? I'm gonna tell her. I will ya know. Don't make me go there!

I Am Not A Liar: Please do not call me one. I have always believed if you have to resort to a lie in order to make your point, you probably did not have much of a point to make in the first place. I have never posted something I knew to be false at the time I posted it. I have posted things in the past that had a falsehood in them and when it was pointed out to me, I either took the post down or addressed it within my comments. If you see me post something you know to be false, please bring it to my attention. If you simply can't resist calling me a liar anyhow, don't be surprised if I choose to ignore you.

You Are Offended: Well, boo-hoo, and aren't we all? Why are you offended? Tell me. I usually do not care because I never post anything for the express purpose of offending anyone so, perhaps we are just being politically correct or a bit too sensitive? That said, I have a quirky sense of humor and admit to skirting the line from time to time. I made a post earlier this year I thought was funny and received a lot of flak from female friends and followers. One, in particular, was able to convince me the meme was sexist and inappropriate so, I apologized for the oversight and consented to take it down. See? If I have really gone over the line, I am willing to hear you out if you approach me in a reasonable manner. "Reasonable" is not defined as a ten paragraph rant on what a Stupid #@%$ RAT-#@$%!&) I am. It's probably true, at times, but it offends me when you point it out.

Trolls "Offend" me! :p

I Need To Educate/Inform Myself: Oh, yeah? Says you! I can't be the only one that sees this comment for the insult that it is. I confess that I have used it on very rare occasion, but in my defense, I only used it in order to insult you and you probably deserved it. I despise the elitist attitude of some that are so convinced they are so very right about everything that you are deficient in some manner not to agree with them. Aside from humor, entertainment, and my incredibly poor taste in memes, my posts are a result of my ongoing education. My more serious posts on social and political issues are a result of my desire to inform myself. I do not share blindly. Since I never attended university I suppose you can call me uneducated if you really wish to go there but, it annoys me for you to infer I am uninformed, unintelligent, or just plain stupid. If you wish to reserve the right to call me an idiot, you will have to marry me as that is the only position I have ever accorded that privilege. Even then, that is only due to the fact that women are always right (especially if you are married to them) and you will never succeed in convincing one otherwise. This rule may vary for other women and homosexuals, but I lack the perspective to comment on whether that may or may not be true. What? Did you think I'm an idiot? I ain't going there!

Please Don't Label Me: I am perfectly capable of labeling myself. I am a middle-aged, straight, white, widowed, male. I spend too much time playing games, have a chronic sweet-tooth, and have been diagnosed as suffering from PPS (Peter-Pan-Syndrome). I sometimes lean [slightly] left on select social issues and pretty much right on most everything else. I don't actually like the whole right/left thing, to be honest. It would perhaps be fairer to say I am something of a constitutionalist. If I come across as being liberal on occasion, it is of a Jeffersonian variety of liberalism. If I come across as being conservative, which is more often the case, just try to live with it. I'm fully aware I am hard to live with at times. Believe me; I spend a lot of time with myself and I tend to get on my nerves as much as I do yours. What I am NOT, however, is a hate-filled, right-wing, bigoted, racist, sexist, fascist, homophobe. Seriously, why would anyone be afraid of homosexuals anyhow? The only thing I truly fear is karma because I know there is a load of it waiting for me out there somewhere... and asteroids, but everybody is afraid of asteroids, right? Just remember that if you have to resort to name calling to make a point it is usually because that's the only thing in your arsenal. I will refrain from calling you stupid but, you demonstrate your own stupidity when you make a stupid post.

Ignorance Is Not A Crime but... If you see someone that loves to toss out the word "ignorant" as an insult, be aware that you may be dealing with an ignorant person. Ignorance is simply a lack of knowledge on a particular subject. It is when you decide to contribute to a topic you are ignorant of that it becomes a crime... well... not really... but it SHOULD be. When you decide to speak out on a subject you are ignorant of, you elevate ignorant to the realm of stupid. You can most certainly be stupid if you wish but, I would ask that you limit your stupid when posting here.

ETW