#maori proud

[elliot-rambles]

what music do you like? as specifically or unspecifically as you want ʕ ᵔᴥᵔ ʔ and how are you specifically or not?

/genq /lh /nf

omg I love soooo many songs it's insaneeee 😭 my music taste is literally everywhere, but I do have some favorites! pakete whero (maori song) ngoi ngoi (another maori song) space girl (Frances forever) (no its not a mitski reference get outta here with allat) cover girl (rupaul) (good god am i addicted to watching drag race)

drama (aespa) (DRAMAMAMA BRING DAT DRAMAMAMAMA)

[your-fave-is-pasifika]

Johnny Cade from The Outsiders is Maori - iwi Ngapuhi!

[elliot-rambles]

yo! flax is actually a native new Zealand plant that holds a lot of cultural meaning! /pos i'm gonna rant about it bc why not >:) flax (or harakeke in te reo maori) is a type of grass that grows pretty much everywhere in nz. it was used by tupuna (ancestors) to make a lot of things, but the most common use for flax was baskets. during harvesting, they'd cut the outside leaves because they viewed the inside leaves as tamariki (children) and the outside leaves as Koro and kuia (grandparents). the tamariki were too precious, so they cut the outside leaves so as not to harm the younger leaves! just thought u should know /pos :)

thinking of experimenting with the name flax and patch. if u want, it would be really nice to reblog using these names!!! also also, experimenting with he/him and hy/hym pronouns, sooo maybe also using those (alongside my other pronouns (found on my pronouns page in pinned) if you want too, but mainly using he/him and hy/hym).

ahhhh!!!! I actually really like these ones in particular :0

[sapphia]

So for anyone who doesn’t keep up with nz politics, which i’m assuming is most of you, our new radical right government have decided one of their main aims of their term will be to re-interpret the Treaty of Waitangi.

The Treaty is an agreement between Maori and the Crown, now the NZ government. It is the founding document of new zealand and is recognised as a constitutional document today; it is the only treaty of its kind/time still honoured, and it is the steps we’ve taken through the Treaty to provide restitution and build an ongoing relationship with Maori and their iwi (tribes) that has allowed the relationship between Maori and the government to thrive where other indigenous groups have struggled to achieve recognition of their rights.

This is going to be entirely undone. Not only is this issue inflammatory and a threat to race relations in Aotearoa, leaked documents show the proposed “reinterpretation” wants to negate pretty much the entirety of the legal rights provided to Maori under the treaty. For example, the treaty article that guarantees land rights for Maori will be reinterpreted to guarantee land rights for “all New Zealanders”. Which means this article would be essentially meaningless for Maori.

By removing Maori from the context they are trying to put Maori on an “equal footing” with all New Zealanders; they are riding the idea that Maori have special rights and privileges above that of the average New Zealander. Obviously this is bullshit but it’s effective rhetoric and there’s a grain of truth to in that the extent of Maori rights hadn’t been clearly defined due to the ongoing nature of the process. So this has got a lot of people with a poor grasp of the issues very upset and baying for change.

There is a hui (meeting) being held today for all the iwi to begin discussions of how Maori will respond to this. New Zealand politics isn’t very interesting usually, but our progress on indigenous rights, until now, has been absolutely ahead of the field. If you care about indigenous rights globally, you should care about this, because in the same way Australia’s referendum loss has spurred on this action, the loss of rights here will spur other right wing governments to be similarly bold to their own indigenous groups.

Indigenous rights in New Zealand are under attack. They are meeting today to discuss it, and New Zealand will be listening, but I want the world to be listening. Because our government needs the shame of being called out by more than just the people who they’ve already decided don’t vote for them.

Maori have a long and proud history of fighting for their rights, and they’ll do it again here. And I’ll be on the pickets beside them, but there’ll be plenty of my own pickets to attend, because this government is radical in every sense of the word.

So please, even if you’re very far away, stand behind them in this. Keep your eyes on us. Amplify their voices. Don’t let the racism drown them out.

[dirtbagalien0]

autismo! ive seen a lot of ppl drawing the mercs in diff fashion styles so i tried my hand at it :-3 very proud of how this turned out

extra notes below the cut

band on heavy's shirt is iron maiden

snipers tattoo on his arm is called ta moko! its a type of maori tattoo :-D on that note, i also headcanon him as maori, which is the little black/red/white flag on his jacket. oh, and i headcanon him as a trans butch lesbian, which is why he has the trans and lesbian flag on his jacket. i have a lot of headcanons for him lol

also the band on snipers shirt is "bondage fairies", my fave punk band of all time. theyre hella underrated! the patches on his pants are "sex pistols" and "the ramones"

the band tee that scout is wearing is "bring me the horizon"

[jjsanguine]

Image description:

Panel 1: a teddy bear walks up to a dinosaur wearing a crown Nd sitting on a throne. The teddy bear asks: I'm autistic but not diagnosed. Can I ask for really small accommodations at work or school?

Panel 2: the dinosaur has jagged lines emanating from it and wags a finger while shouting angrily: NO! You need PROOF otherwise you're lying and being a lazy liar!

Panel 3: the teddy bear leaves and says: ok ok, fine I'll get a diagnosis.

Panel 4: the teddy bear smiles and holds up a sheet of paper labelled " Dx "

Panel 5: the dinosaur is now calm and days: oh good, so now we will strip you of basic rights and autonomy when we want, make it harder to adopt a child, make doctors never take your seriously, and raise your insurance rates.

Panel 6: the teddy bear has stopped smiling instead is slightly stunned, still holding the paper labelled " Dx "

Panel 7: the dinosaur is calm and says: but the good news is you can wear your headphones at work now

Panel 8: a close up of the teddy bear, still not smiling.

Panel 9: both the teddy bear and dinosaur are in frame, but the dinosaur looks content while the teddy bear not had human like arms and legs, and clasps very detailed hands together in a display of frustration.

Panel 10: the teddy bear now towers over the dinosaur and casts a shadow even in a crouching position, and has a very muscular humanoid body while maintaining the teddy bear head and stunned expression.

Panel 11: a closer up of the teddy bear from the bust up and they point down and the dinosaur with their hands clapped together and look with an expression of tranquil fury. The teddy bear says: what.

This still blows my mind

[xclowniex]

I just need to rant about Youssef Haddad for a moment cause I’ve been thinking about this a lot and you said you accept random ramblings. Just to start off, I don’t agree with quite a bit of the stuff he says, but I also don’t want to dive into a judgment of his politics and the way he presents them or whatever. So onto the main point— I think the reason so many people hate Youssef so much is because he is very Arab and very Israeli. That’s kind of obvious, but I want to elaborate

Like, I think a lot of radical leftists, Hamasniks, anti-Israels, whatever you want to call them, think of Arab Israelis as just living in Israel, not seeing themselves as Israeli or as Israel being their home and country. This is just the place they’ve ended up in for whatever reasons. Which is an experience that definitely exists, and it’s completely fine, but it’s also not the experience of a lot of other Arabs in Israel. Youssef Haddad is so undeniably Israeli, like you can just tell that Israel is his county and that he’s proud of that. And that makes a lot of people very angry

It’s that cognitive dissonance, the fact that so many people have built their image of Arabs being completely incompatible with Israel. So they see an Arab man who is also Israeli, and it’s not out of convenience or anything like that, he just genuinely is Israeli, and they just can’t compartmentalise that information with the ideology they’ve already built. But they can’t change any of their views on Israel, no, that would make them an evil imperialist apartheid Jew loving Zionist apologist! So instead the only thing they can do is become fucking enraged

Youssef Haddad makes them so mad because he’s not a token to them. He’s an Arab man who isn’t ashamed of being Arab (ffs he’s not a ‘blood traitor’ for being Israeli, you sound like a white supremacist), but he’s useless to them. He’s worse than useless, he’s actively a problem to their one dimensional, Jew hating ideology that refuses to stop fetishising Arabs and Arab struggles. And that’s the thing about tokenisation— it only lasts as long as you’re useful. As soon as you don’t fit the cutout stereotype they’ve built for you to try to contort yourself into, they not only toss you away, but they hate you with vitriol. It’s why I genuinely can’t see any of these people actually caring about Arabs (and Palestinians especially). When the only reason you advocate for a group is so that you can fetishise and tokenise them, then maybe you’re not really advocating for them after all

As soon as you don’t fit the cutout stereotype they’ve built for you to try to contort yourself into, they not only toss you away, but they hate you with vitriol.

100% this. Its why people think that Drake can no longer call himself black or Taika Waititi Maori. Your ethnicity only matters if it can be weaponized

It’s why I genuinely can’t see any of these people actually caring about Arabs (and Palestinians especially). When the only reason you advocate for a group is so that you can fetishise and tokenise them, then maybe you’re not really advocating for them after all

Also 100% this.

[ofmdrecaps]

07/16/2024 Daily OFMD Recap

TLDR; Rhys Darby: The Cryptid Factor / Gold Derby Nomination!; David Jenkins; Taika Waititi; Rita Ora; Samson Kayo; Nathan Foad; Kristian Nairn; Erroll Shand; Darby Family Foster Kittens; Galaxy Con Raleigh; Articles; WBD News; Love Notes; Daily Darby / Today's Taika;

Hey lovelies-- just a quick note, thank you for all of your lovely notes in the tags and comments, and twitter <3 I don't get to respond to the tags especially, but I want you to know I do read them and they mean the world <3 Thank you so much!

== Rhys Darby ==

New Episode of The Cryptid Factor is released on Spotify-- 097 The Name Song Episode!

Source: Rhys Darby's Instagram Stories

Some very excellent news-- Rhys and OFMD have been officially nominated for the Gold Derbys! You can vote on them on the Gold Derby website! Thank you to @adoptourcrew for spreading the word!

Source: Adopt Our Crew Twitter/ Gold Derby Twitter

== David Jenkins ==

Chaos Dad is sending our beloved Captain some good vibes for his Gold Derby Nomination! Get it slut!

Source: David Jenkins' Twitter

== Taika Waititi ==

Taika and Rita worked on a short film with & Carlo Van Der Roer that's truly mesmerizing, check it out below: "Toru, 2024 is a collaboration between New Zealand artists / filmmakers Taika Waititi and Carlo Van de Roer. A three channel video installation, inspired by the significance of Tokotoru, or Trinity, in Maori culture, the work weaves together themes of unity -- earth, sea, sky -- and references to mythology, including the Maori myth of Tane retrieving three baskets of knowledge -- the basket of light, the basket of darkness and the basket of pursuit. Each film operates as a different recollection or interpretation of the same performance and space. A filmmaking approach called PlateLight enables the same moment to be captured with different lighting conditions. This results in three versions of the same film, presenting a record of the past as photographically accurate, yet fluid and authorable like myth. Made with the love and magic of @stuetr@satellite_lab@mikeberlucchi@wearecasey@olivierwicki_la" - carlovanderor's Instagram

Source: carlovanderor's Instagram

More Taika and Rita being adorable together in Rome and making charms with each other.

Source: Paoline_Roma's Instagram

== Samson Kayo ==

Samson's been real busy lately-- Have you been watching House of the Dragon? You may catch him if you do! He was also kind enough to send a very kind Love Note everyone's way.

Source: Samson Kayo's Instagram

== Eroll Shand ==

More clips of Erroll in the new season of The Twelve!

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by BINGE (@binge)

Source: Binge Instagram

== Nathan Foad ==

Nathan's excited for Galaxy Con Raleigh, hopefully the sunburn will calm down by then, poor guy.

Source: Nathan Foad's Instagram

== Kristian Nairn ==

Hey European Crew! Kristian will be joining the Proud Nerd: The Weekend of Fire & Ice on 28 & 29 September this year! They'll be at Castle Satzvey! For tickets, you can visit Weekend of Fire & Ice

Source: Proud Nerd Conventions

== Darby Family Foster Kittens ==

Rosie giving us more and more kitten content, have I mentioned she's my hero lately?

Source: Rosie Carnahan Darby's Instagram Stories

== Raleigh Galaxy Con ==

Reminder! July 25-28 is Raleigh Galaxy Con! Join Con, Nathan, Vico, and Kristian on Saturday and Sunday!

Source: Galaxy Con Raleigh Website

In addition -- some of your crewmates are hosting Calypso's Birthday, an OFMD Fan Meet-Up on Saturday July 27 from 7PM - 9PM at Ruby Deluxe! You can check out the venue at www.queerraleigh.com!

Source: @ leahbelle_'s Twitter

== Articles ==

Several articles today-- one with more info on the Gold Derby TV Award nominations, and the others related to WBD and the situation going on there. Thank you to @adoptourcrew for sharing so many helpful articles!

Source: Adopt Our Crew Twitter

== WBD News ==

On top of the articles mentioned above, our fabulous crewmate Ashley, aka Seven_Sugars on Twitter give us a bit more context on what's going on.

Source: @ Seven_Sugars on Twitter

It also looks like there's more fuckerys planned for August 7th! Keep an eye out on @adoptourcrew's socials for more info!

Source: Adopt Our Crew's Twitter

== Love Notes ==

Hey there lovelies! It's already Tuesday, and I sure hope you are staying cool as best you can (if you're in the hot part of the world-- and viceversa if you're not!) I wanted to bring up Samson's love note again,

"You deserve someone who is good for your mental health". It really is so true. When it comes to your partner, or your friends, your family, any people that you interact with on the daily-- you deserve people that are good for your mental health.

You don't have to be perfect to deserve it-- you don't even have to be in a good place mentally or physically, you just have to be you-- and you have always deserved it, since the day you were born. I hope if you already have those people, they stay in your life, and if you don't right now, you find those people that make you feel safe and healthy.

Rest well lovelies, drink some water and get some sleep <3 Some more love notes from TheLatestKate:

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by @thelatestkate

Source: TheLatestKate's Instagram

== Daily Darby / Today's Taika ==

Tonight's theme is hot men wearing pink (or coral? They both seem pink to me.) Tonights gifs courtesy of the marvellous @fandomsmeantheworldtome and @mulder-isms!

[lazypotato10]

These people think they are cool.... Its actually kinda sad, because everywhere on the Internet I see Maori people being proud of their culture.... And then there's Hindus being.... This...if only we would learn something from them

[kittenwithabass]

source

These are 2 slides from an instagram post by Gen-Z Aotearoa, a New Zealand (Aotearoa) based organisation of "Gen-Z activists". There are more slides not in the post, you can find them at the link above. ID in alt. I'm a member of gen z from Aotearoa and was about to apply to join their communications team just 15 minutes ago, right before I saw this post.

Anybody seeing this probably already knows/agrees with everything I'm about to say. This post claims that the Houthis are rebels and supports them, as well as Hamas and Hezbollah. How do I even begin to describe how much this pains me to see? The Houthis are absolutely not "rebels". They are a terrorist group. Their flag says curse upon the Jews, and since I know these people don't care about us, it also says death to America. How anybody can claim that the Houthis are rebels or freedom fighters when the exact opposite is true, when you can tell this is not true from knowing any single thing about them? I'm clueless.

And I absolutely shouldn't have to explain why Hamas are terrorists. Not after they violently raped and murdered over a thousand Israelis and kidnapped 200 more. Not after they killed my friend. They murdered my friend and filmed it while laughing. And this is just on October 7th; not even including all their atrocities before and after that single day.

It baffles me, really. How can a group that claims to be "activists," go and spout such lies? This helps no one. It doesn't help Palestinians, all it does is give you fake internet points and scare jewish people.

I'm Jewish. I'm proud to be Jewish. But I'm scared. Terrified. I've done everything I can to avoid being clocked: I stopped speaking Yiddish and Hebrew, I changed my phone contacts to English (they were all in Hebrew), I never tell anyone irl that I'm Jewish, I hide my siddurim when people come over. I'm white-passing enough. Surely there's no way for someone to clock me as Jewish, and yet. I'm so scared. I can't leave my house. All my friends don't care at best, cheer on Hamas at worst. I want to take down the mezzuzah on the front door. Even online I can't escape antisemitism, this is the first time I've used tumblr in days. My friend's favourite rapper is a nazi. I log onto instagram and the first thing I see is that post and my friend posting violent antisemitism on its story.

I don't know what the point of all this is. I think what I'm trying to say is, if you're an "activist," why are jews scared of you? Shouldn't you be trying to protect minorities?

And to be perfectly clear, this is an issue of leftist antisemitism. My country recently elected our most conservative government in decades. I am scared of them as a queer person. I am scared for my Maori and poc friends. I am not scared of them as a Jewish person. Who am I afraid of as a Jewish person? My friends. People I've marched with at pride. The leaders of the left leaning parties.

Listen to my goyim, and listen to me clear: SORT YOUR SHIT OUT.

[elliot-rambles]

questions for you since I love learning about my friends!!!

- what’s your favourite (or top 3) donut flavours?

- what’s your favourite (or top 3) instrument?

- if you could learn any language, what would it be?

- what’s a food that a lot of people like that you don’t like?

- what kind of environments are the most calming/pleasant to be in?

- what is your favourite colour combination? (up to 4 colours together)

- if you do a skill perfectly, what skill would you want to have?

- what’s your favourite and least favourite thing about each season?

:0 AIEEEEEEEEEEEE I LOVE QUESTIONS!!!! - I love glazed donuts with chocolate icing, but once on a trip to mount ruapehu I had this AMAZING panekeke donut and I miss it so bad :[ (panekeke is a type of Samoan dessert that is pretty much like American donut holes but 10x yummier) - DRUMS!!! I can play the drums pretty well too! :D - te reo maori :o it's my native language but I can't speak in fluent sentences yet. most I can do is 'kei te pehea koe?' 'kei te pai ahau. kei te pehea koe?' 'kei te pai ahau' :D - omg I despise mushrooms and tomatoes it's just the texture and the taste its so 🤮 - I love forests so much, especially sunny forests. there's this really good forest that's 58 acres near my house that has mountain bike trails and everything it's so fun to be in :3 - orange, blue, pink, and green. any shade of each color, they're just such pretty colors <3 - poi!! poi poi poi. I need to learn how to huri my poi correctly and it's so difficult it takes sooo much control 😭 but my mom's great at poi! there's this video on youtube (link) of my mum and her old kapa haka group doing a poi dance to pakete whero and it's SO IMPRESIVE I feel so ashamed /silly - summer: least favorite - the bugs and the hayfever and the heat, favorite - the sun and CHRISTMASSS <3 - autumn: least favorite - the bugs, favorite - literally everything about autumn - winter: least favorite - cold and flu season, favorite - the weather :DD - spring: least favorite - BUGS, favorite - leaves and flowers and such <3 auuu TYSM for the questions we had sm fun answering theseee 😭

[your-fave-is-pasifika]

Hello, kia ora, and welcome!

hello everybody! I am mod Eli, and this is your fave is pasifika! the goal of this blog is to bring more representation to the pasific community through headcannon!

Basics! We are a mixed origin endogenic system, but the only alter who will post on this blog is Eli. Our collective pronouns are he/they/xe (pronoun page on our main blog) We are Maori and Pakeha mix, with our kaupapa originating from iwi Ngapuhi and Ngati Kuri! :3

Pfp, stats and more! :D Character in pfp: Johnny Cade - The Outsiders (1983) Flag in pfp (if applicable): Maori flag Character in banner: Raine Whispers - The Owl House Flag in banner (if applicable): Flag of Niue

DNI:- basic DNI (racists, homophobes, fatphobes, transphobes, etc. - anti therians (why are you even here in the first place?) - PROSHIPPERS!!!!! - Z00PHIL3S!!! GET OUT OF HERE!!!!! I DON'T LIKE YOU!!!! - anti-recovery/anti-cluster a, b, c - anti-oxford comma (this is so random but I'm very passionate about it) - gore, smut, pro-conact big 3 paraphilias/any gross philias - proana/ed/sh blogs. this is very distressing as most members of our system (such as nico, raul, luther, and xip) struggled with things like this in the past. do not interact with me. do not interact with my blog. I check every blog I see pop up in my activity feed. if I see you, you will be blocked. - anybody mean in general (you will be blocked if I don't like you!)

[odessa-2]

MIK2 ep2 @ 22:00 min Turn on the subtitles.

The tattoo artist is explaining the design and tells Sam “you were mentioning you didn’t know if you would settle down, you want to see the world”

Did that part get edited because we never heard Sam talk about not settling down with a wife and kids 🥺 I hate their games. Ready to turn my back on all things S and C.

Thanks for the heads up Anon but I cannot bring myself to watch MIK2 or any of Sam's or Caitriona's projects. I will take your word for it that the subtitles read as such and they most likely edited that part of the conversation out. Pretending to have such a deep and meaningful conversation with a tattoo artist is actually taking the piss out of not only the audience but the man he is having a conversation with. I see it as disrespectful but it's all ACTing at the end of the day. Considering that the tattooist is a Maori and the segment was exploring elements of Maori culture. To lie and to decieve in that context, at that magnitude is in poor taste. But is it so shocking when you consider that Cait named Tony as the son in law on her Fathers death notice? Sam and Cait have shown their true colours. Unless of course Cait has been married to Tony all along and Tony really is the proud Father of Augustus Leo, and we really are the deplorables that SC paint us to be 🤪🤡. Fortunately we've seen too much and know too much at this point in the game. We have the gift of seeing the truth amongst the lies. Seeing through the smokescreen. So it's just business as usual Anon.

[spamtoon]

DCRC Week 10 PKNA

Okay, so! It's been a while. With vacation and getting rested from vacation I've had a lot of not reading pkna I did but! I'm here! I am in the mood to read PK and I did a whole bunch of homework so it's time. I will still read Ducks on the Road its just something I wanna do after I finish all the work I wanna do today rather than right now because it is. as long as it is.

Invasion time. Sitting in the coffee shop and playing the lofi lounge music because its like its basically still there. asked the coffee shop if they could guess what i was reading and surprise surprise nobody guessed paperinik the new adventures

immedaitely i am blasted with right. this is the one where i was told there was going to be angus fangus lore. i like how the translation didnt bother writing over invasione because its basically the same anyway

right, the mask! i dont remember what issue that was but i guess they're going to address. why angus fangus would order/smuggle a traditional ceremonial kiwi mask

not everybody that is infected is gonna go to the hospital donald but you know what sure. good place to start. better than scanning the entire globe in depth... their stupid quarreling is so silly

yo omg that post wasnt kidding when he said angus fangus maori. are we gonna get rare 90s good indigenous people representation?????

i cant believe i'm saying this but they actually made angus fangus look so cool right here

im so curious. again i cant believe im saying this but i'm so curious i am hooked i get angus fangus makes beef easily btu this is no ordinary beef

im holding my breath at the nebula introduction. like i'm still not entirely sure what they're doing with this but i do not like where this is going! boy oh boy i dont!

little does donald kno--(GETS SHOT) and then pk died in the snow the end

HELP WHEN I SAID THAT I DID NOT THINK THERE WOULD BE AN ACTUAL pk is dead in the snow FAKEOUT. at least to the evronians like we all know he's alive

THE WAY I SAID "Angus Fangus Environmental Hero???" out loud at the sight of these panels im so

i... the way they made angus fangus actually scared and the... i like this issue. i'm still not done with it but i like this issue and i'm enjoying my time with it and i. dont mind where they're going with this

i cant believe im saying this but he actually looks kinda cute here. they made me root for the guy

she's so wonderful

im so mad its actually kinda cute. their relationship is so cute right here i just. angus is trying to find some animosity towards donald other than just surprise and pk is just like any time buddy

FHUEOAJFOEIAJ THIS PANEL

alright! and that's... invasion! cog i'm so. i did not expect to like this one as much as i did there was a scare in here but yeah. earthquake tier honestly i Really Really enjoyed reading it and i just. im so proud of them. media from the 90s having decent indigenous representation? whaaaa? and its such a treat to see and i just. its a treat to see angus fangus' character rounded out its a treat to see this comic in general oh. ohohoho.

[thunderbirdsera]

Uklinakti Sea

Across the west coast of the South Pacific Islands, there is an island named Uklinakti. It has been around for thousands and hundreds of years, long before English people came. And when English people did come, two took up residence on this lonely island, since no other person had lived on this island before them. Their names? Lady Penelope, and me, Sybil.

We lived in a small hut on the shore of the beaches of Uklinakti. We were very happy and had all we need - especially each other, for we are sisters living in harmony with the rhythm of the water of the sea.

Every morning, when we’d sleep on our soft bed of leaves, I’d crawl all over Penelope, silently demanding she’d wake up. When all else failed, I tickled her smooth skin, and she’d wake up giggling and yawning at the same time. She’d greet me with a morning hug, which felt warm and reassuring.

Every morning, we take turns brushing each others’ hair with a green comb shaped like a Tahitian dragon. To us, it didn’t hurt a bit, because while my hair was short and curly, Penelope’s hair was smooth and a golden blonde, as soft and as gentle as her skin. When it was Penelope’s turn to brush my hair, I’d purr under my breath like a relaxed pussycat, as I’d enjoy it so much I almost fell asleep. One time I fell onto the ground with my eyes closed, and Penny had to help me up again until I was conscious again.

When I combed Penny’s hair, she’d sigh softly and remark how beautiful her hair was in the light of the Maori sun. Her hair was as smooth as her skin, and she was proud of it. For a woman, natural beauty was all that mattered on an island home like this, and all she needed to get some of her natural beauty from nature was the juice from the plants and the water from the sea.

She was one of those women nature cared for deeply, and she loved it in its embrace.

[musicalhell]

For 'Persephone's Gambit': 💡🎥⭐📣

Bonus: It's both angsty and one of my favorite parts so far, so on both fronts, the scene in Chapter 12 with Marie telling about hers and Erik's history with the Stefanovs.

What was the motivation behind the story: Basically it kept yelling at me in my head until I got it down.

Influences: ALW is obviously the primary canon, but there's a lot of Leroux and Kopit/Yeston as well. & Juliet was probably the main source of the "what if the heroine did this instead?" inflection point. And Alice owes quite a bit to the POC characters in Bridgerton and The Gilded Age.

Scene/paragraph I'm proud of: It changes. Most recently I'm proud of the scenes at Belletours--Raoul in his native element, Eunice and her family, and Christine's complicated feelings all came out the way I wanted them to.

Best piece of encouragement I got: Honestly, any time someone leaves a comment, even if it's just to say "Thanks, loved it!" is so gratifying. It lets me know I'm not just screaming all this into a void.

Bonus: So I wanted a scene where Christine and Raoul visit a freak show (with some trepidation, as they both know this is a part of Erik's past and it's not a good one), where they could meet someone who would elaborate on Erik's backstory while seeing another side of them as places that, while not great (especially by modern standards), still offered community to people who might be denied it elsewhere. Marie was a natural fit for both aspects as little people have a long and complicated history with entertainment; her physical description is loosely based on actress Zelda Rubenstein (who, though not a dwarf in the medical sense, did deal with a lot of similar stigma in the course of her career). I knew what I wanted her to sound like--no-nonsense, pragmatic, haunted--and her narrative, including the twist at the end, emerged from that.

The other "freaks" in the chapter are all drawn from various sideshow acts/personalities. Although there's really wasn't a way to bring it up in the narrative itself, I conceived Delphine as being AMAB; in a modern sense she would probably identify as non-binary or genderfluid (though she uses feminine pronouns as a concession to her "bearded lady" persona). Ahika and Marama were unnamed until I realized it was kind of gross for the only explicitly non-white characters in the scene to be the only ones without individual identities. "Ahika" comes from a Maori term for keeping a continued presence on one's land to maintain ownership of it; I like to think his parents chose it as a subtle "fuck you" to the British.