#italic people

[star-trekster]

ST@CEC 4: Deep Space Nine; In Charles’s Shadow

[a-most-beloved-fool]

trick - post canon Cardassia garashir

sorry for the delay! It's been a hot minute since I've worked on this one, and I had to wrangle my brain into the right headspace for it!

__

Bashir was staring after the retreating nurses, his brows drawn together in a strange expression. One finger tapped idly at the glass in his hand, a restless motion that suggested that the Doctor was thinking.

Always a dangerous occupation, where Bashir was concerned – and in this case, very likely dangerous for Garak, as well.  

He took a sip of kanar, the flavor heavy on his tongue, and then let himself slip into a practiced expression of vague disinterest, directing his gaze somewhere over the Doctor’s shoulder. He suspected, however, that this would not be enough to dissuade Bashir from pursuing this thought of his, the frustrating man.

But, oh, it was Garak's own fault, wasn't it? He was the one who had allowed the Doctor to grow so close to him, who had invited him to Cardassia, of all things! Truly, he had no one to blame but himself.

And sure enough-  

“Garak,” Bashir began, tone almost frighteningly conversational as he leaned forwards over the table, “how many of my colleagues think we’re married?” 

---

from this ask game

(I know we are now well post halloween, but if people wished to send me more of these based on the game, it is good incentive to write, so i will surely not object.)

[vectorisheree]

"You ever wonder what it would be like to wake up outside your own body?"

Holy shit!? Holy fucking shit????? Very surprised that they're actually acknowledging the fact that Eclipse was apart of Moon- practically was Moon (or is Moon, he was at least a fragment of old Moon, are we counting fragments as equal to the person, or ai, themselves?), since he definitely sees himself as Moon, referring to Moon’s body as his 'own'. Eclipse was discarded part of Moon, an unfavourable aspect of Moon that, instead of accepting it as a part of himself, Moon tore and ripped Eclipse, his killcode, from his code and abandoned within Sun, quite literally dumping his main problem on him (in him?)

And like, old Moon had some serious issues and anxiety over losing his bodily autonomy, being trapped in Sun again (to the point that another dimentional version of him literally ends up killing Sun for his, perceived, freedom) , and I'd like to assume that this trait is shared with Eclipse, who was once promised his own freedom through Moon's, only to have it stripped away, only to find himself still stuck, fragmented and alone. Abandoned, disposed of. Betrayed at the very least.

How could Eclipse ever forgive the man who discarded him and left him to rot? Personally, with the way things are going now, I don't believe he could, not on his own, not without some serious intervention (through Earth or new Moon, or whoever really) or guidance. Old Moon is dead, replaced by a convincing replica, nothing that new Moon says or could say about old Moon's actions would really get to Eclipse, both because of his current general distrust of Moon, but also because new Moon is a completely different person to old Moon, he can't apologise and atone for the actions of another, not in anyway significant, its just not the same. Eclipse holds a grudge against a dead man and he'll never reach a satisfying end for himself. What can he do? (Even in a dimention where Eclipse does get the star, his previous main goal, he never seemed too happy) I think that Eclipse will have to accept what has happened to him and that he can't do anything about it before he is able to move on and grow around his past.

"...Horrifying."

I was already working on an Eclipse rant from like last week as well, what a coincidence, so I'll keep this short (will post at some point this week or month or year) (My wording was pretty bad in the last part but I do think that an Eclipse redemption could be possible, just that it would take a lot of work from multiple parties)

[aroaceleovaldez]

i hope this doesn't sound like a silly or weird thing to send you, but i'm autistic and have long thought of nico and a handful of other riordanverse characters as autistic and i love your posts about why nico in particular seems intentionally autistic-coded. but i've been thinking, if rick did intend for any of his characters to be autistic, why wouldn't he say so outside of the text at least? i can't think of a good reason why not, when he goes out of his way to be explicit about so many other characters' various marginalized identities and has confirmed things like reyna being asexual outside of the original text. so it gives me this nagging sort of doubt that maybe rick just made nico come off as so extremely autistic coded by accident, somehow. if it wasn't an accident i do kind of wish he'd say so because there's next to zero explicitly stated autistic representation in, like, any media so it'd be nice to have here even if not strictly necessary. either way though, like i said, i love your posts and i agree with you 100% about autistic nico! some others i like to think are autistic are annabeth and leo.

(Most of this is gonna be kind of a tangential ramble to your point and i apologize in advance just bear with me)

This actually touches upon something I've been meaning to do a write-up on recently, which is: depending on the coding, that is our explicit statement. In most coding, actually, that's kind of the point. (Also something something Death of the Author.)

You may have noticed a recent trend across media of characters saying things directly rather than expressing them in a natural way, and often this includes incredibly stilted dialogue of characters explaining things in very politically correct, wikipedia-esque descriptions and terminology that make absolutely no sense for the characters' personalities or mannerisms. This is born out of the idea that if something is not stated in explicit terms, no amount of evidence below an outright direct exact statement will ever count - if two characters of the same gender have an explicit kiss and wedding on-screen, it doesn't matter because they never said the word "gay," etc etc.

In PJO, prior to more recent books, we get plenty of examples of characters explaining parts of their identities without direct statements. Percy never needs to say in outright terms that he has PTSD from Gabe - and it doesn't make sense that he would! He's 12! He's never been diagnosed for that. He probably doesn't even know what PTSD is really. But we, the audience, know without a doubt he has PTSD, because it is clearly expressed to us. That is coding. Tyson is coded as having down syndrome. Nico is coded as being autistic. It doesn't make sense for Nico to turn to the camera and explain that he's autistic and what that means, because he definitely never got diagnosed for it and probably doesn't know what that means cause the diagnosis literally did not exist when he was growing up - and heck, autism terminology was still kind of getting sorted out back in 2007 when TTC was published, so it's unlikely we could have feasibly gotten any exact terminology wink-wink-nudge-nudges short of something like how Percy outright mentions other students called Tyson the r-slur in Sea of Monsters. And in fact we see that same exact style of coding with Nico later on in the series. Nico never turns to the camera and says word-for-word "I am gay, I am mlm, here's me wearing my exact pride flags" (until TOA/TSATS, which... did the exact thing i mentioned about characters speaking like theyre trying to get a good grade in therapy, or giving a powerpoint presentation). But it is never unclear that HoO is telling us outright that Nico is gay. It's not just hinted at. It's there, in your face. But entirely because no one ever outright says "gay" specifically it's technically still only coding. We know he's gay, we know the characters have trauma/ptsd, etc etc. We don't need it spelled out - that's just kind of condescending. It's like if you said describing a character with "eyes like moss" means they were "green-eye coded."

Nico being autistic-coded isn't hidden. It's not a secret. It's very overt. If you know what autism looks like, well, yeah, there he is. Even if you only know very vague 2007 media presentation of autism, Nico in TTC is easily recognizable enough as autistic because that's the point. Tyson is easily recognizable as being coded as having down syndrome and it's very clearly very intentional! It's just never spoon-fed in exact terms to the reader because it's not necessary! You've already been told the information necessary to tell you what is up with this character, so just plainly going "oh they're [x] in exact terms" is very much telling-not-showing and feels redundant. And while there are places for that kind of thing, most of the time it's very unnecessary. Sometimes coding is subtle, sometimes it's obvious, and yeah there are times where writers code characters unintentionally, but the textual evidence is there, and that's the whole point.

And that's what Death of the Author is about - it doesn't matter what the author intended at the end of the day, because if it's in the text it's in the text. You can look at author intent to try and figure out what that text means, but the text is the text. A Separate Peace is a very classic example - author John Knowles denies there being homosexual subtext, and meanwhile one of the protagonists living in 1942 puts on a pink shirt while saying he doesn't mind of people think of him as gay. What the author says after the fact doesn't matter - if it's there, it's there. So Rick saying anything outside of the books is completely irrelevant. And Rick talks about this a lot - he actively tells people that his statements outside of the books are just his own thoughts, but what's in the books is what's in the books, and if the text supports it then that's all the evidence you need.

Nico specifically is a case where yeah, he's clearly autistic-coded. It's very obvious and very obviously intentional when he's younger, and as the books progress it remains a background trait of his but is still notable (except for when it gets forgotten in TOA/TSATS like everything else, including the adhd/dyslexia, but i digress). It's a clear pattern within the first few books that Rick is intentionally including. It doesn't make sense, especially for the year the book was published, for the reader to be directly told in explicit terminology that Nico is autistic, because the reader is already being told that Nico is autistic.

And yeah, Rick doesn't mention Nico being autistic-coded outside of the text, but he also doesn't mention Tyson being coded as having down syndrome. He also said one time that Percy doesn't have PTSD at all, which is very incorrect starting from book 1. Again, Death of the Author. Whatever Rick says outside of the books does not matter, because he already said it in the books. And there's plenty of other stuff in the books that Rick doesn't touch upon, particularly relating to character identity - did you know Leo is Native? Sammy mentions that the Valdez family is Native in Son of Neptune but we don't get any specifics and then it's like never brought up again anywhere. That happens all the time in the series - and outside of the series - Rick can't possibly address every single point to confirm/deny everything from the books. That's what analysis is for! And that's why my blog exists 👍

[motleyfam]

**Regardless of whether you actually overuse it or not, which one is the most enticing to you as a writer?

[mishy-mashy]

What point is there in ruling the world, if the people you want in it are already gone?

The goal to rule the world is hollow now. All For One wanted a world where everyone existed for his sake.

Yet, the one person (possession) he wanted most by his side, as the one whose dreams inspired him to find his own, and the first person AFO declared them to, is already gone.

[deancrowleycas]

...

I accidentally had a pole dance performance at a swinger party today... so I would say the Misha coding is still going strong

(honestly though these things hilarously keep happening to me somehow also MINORS DNI)

[glittergroovy]

People II 2: Still Peoplin’ • AJJ

[lostryu]

Ok, but why should I have to create my own sexuality when 'lesbian' has existed and encompassed what I am and feel for much longer than whatever you chucklefucks are trying to rebrand it to.

Why can't you guys just understand that attraction, be it sexual or romantic, to MULTIPLE genders outside of the nonbinary spectrum makes you bisexual or pansexual? And if that's not easy enough to understand, why not call just yourself sapphic??

If you fucking tapeworms are so desperate to have historical context, go out and make your own damn history with your own new label. Stop trying to conflate yourself with importance off something you were never meant to wear

[thelunarsystemwrites]

Oh btw my online family are my favourite characters in life so please don't hurt them, please don't bash them, please don't justify people hurting them, please don't make them upset. They mean too much to me to see bad stuff happen to them. Please they're my favourite.

[italic-doing-random-shit]

reminder, if you need the threat of hell to ‘be a good person’ you are not a good person your a bad person on a leash. Being good shouldn’t be a ‘get out of jail’ free card, it should be natural.

[iniziare]

↪ 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐇𝐎𝐁𝐁𝐈𝐓 : An aesthetics dash game.

𝐁𝐈𝐋𝐁𝐎 𝐁𝐀𝐆𝐆𝐈𝐍𝐒. a warm hearth. lovingly sewn buttons. the search for adventure. comfortable routine. unexpected bravery. tea - stained pages. cozy armchairs. dusty relics. hidden strengths. garden parties. moonlit windows. quick thinking. humble heroism. resourceful in chaos. clever wordplay.

𝐓𝐇𝐎𝐑𝐈𝐍 𝐎𝐀𝐊𝐄𝐍𝐒𝐇𝐈𝐄𝐋𝐃. never found cowering. strong familial ties. a fierce opponent. loyalty over love. tempered steel. haunted by the past. defending one’s stronghold. sense of duty. forged in fire. honor above all. the weight of legacy. shaped by adversity, tempered by loss. fiercely protective.

𝐆𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐀𝐋𝐅 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐆𝐑𝐄𝐘. the balancing of fate. ancient magic. purifying power. bringer of light**. wise guidance. secret keeper. forgotten paths. unseen destinations. cryptic answers. hidden chambers. a mysterious figure. the voice of reason.

𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐔𝐈𝐋. haunted by echoes of the past. elegant majesty. moonlit counsel. secrets kept in silence. the cautious leader. love of rare beauty. wisdom in isolation. heart of the forest. a silent observer. calculative & condescending**.

𝐒𝐌𝐀𝐔𝐆. golden hoards. thirst for destruction. golden armor. fearsome majesty. glinting claws. the dark allure of treasure. insatiable greed. scorched earth. the unyielding sentinel. watching & waiting. what does not kill you should run. finding a wicked enjoyment in others’ suffering. only one weakness.

𝐀𝐙𝐎𝐆. unfettered brutality. eternal darkness. the rot of vengeance. a warrior’s rage. brute strength. iron - clad resolve. a litany of scars. an unrelenting force. maimed in battle. religion in bloodshed. servant of the darkness. ancient hatreds. branded with malice.

Tagged by: I stole it from @suledein 'cause I'm a pirate, and where you go, I go, kinda. Tagging: @driofaire (Rook), @mercysought (guess who), @immobiliter (Varric, or the... other one, you know the man), @spitecrow and @rookedcrow while I hope that it grabs all the mentions... But also, anyone else who wants to do this, steal it, and tag me. I love seeing these.

[vacant2007]

[thearoacefromspace]

Something that really gets on my nerves is when allos take canonically aroace characters and put them in qpr. It just feels like they’re finding a way around shipping them (I’m not invalidating qpr because they are 100% valid)

Or when allos hc characters as gay and aroace. One, that would make them ORIENTED aroace, and two, LET US HAVE OUR REP WE SHOULDNT HAVE TO SHARE (again not invalidating gay aroace people)

Being aroace isn’t just a “side sexuality”

[midnight-arandombanana]

whoops sethos is beautiful im screwed

[danzainosolitude]

Once again I read fanfiction that seems to have been precisely written to deal psychic damage to me.