#monstrousgourmandizingcats

[liesmyth]

does hotd actually suck or is it just campy and horny

It doesn't suck but we should embrace that it's lowkey a soap opera

[marzipanandminutiae]

Off the top of my head, Elizabeth I sometimes used the generic title "Prince" for a Renaissance ruler, and Jadwiga of Poland was "Rex Poloniae" rather than "Regina." Japanese empresses regnant also used the same title as emperors, not that of imperial consorts.

Yeah, I know "prince" sometimes meant "monarch, regardless of gender" in Early Modern English (eg. "princes to act, and monarchs to behold the swelling scene" in Shakespeare's Henry V). The rest are new to me, but they make sense

I think there are a lot of interesting things to study, historically, around gender and sovereignty/leadership. But I also think people- in a completely understandable search for historical representation, which does exist elsewhere! -have developed a tendency to try and fit things into currently accepted identity categories rather than understand that yes, some people adopted titles that seem contrary to their birth-assigned gender, but that doesn't necessarily say anything about their personal identities the way it might nowadays.

[rebeccadumaurier]

Tell me about The Akhmatova School for Magical Art!

in her sophomore year of college, ari's older brother morgan helps her transfer to a reclusive art school on the coast, where the students have the magic ability to bring their art to life. although the students are welcoming, they're haunted by the fact their most brilliant peer, sasha, murdered three seniors the year before. ari begins to investigate why sasha killed those students, why morgan really wanted her to transfer here, and the secrets at the heart of the school.

this one is very close to my heart because it features a bunch of eccentric art students at a poorly-run LAC with dysfunctional admin, love triangle solved via polyamory, an antagonist who is Kind Of Right, and our collective responsibility to build ethical tools :-)

"Does it ever just not work for anyone?" Ari asked hopelessly. She was a lost cause. Magic had decided to make an outcast of her, just like everyone else had.

Sage hesitated, which she took to mean a yes. Great. She'd imbibed that horrible tea for nothing. Who even knew what havoc it had wreaked on her digestive system? "Look, Ari, I know when someone’s not going to make it, and you aren’t one of those people. You know what makes a great crafter?"

"The ability to draw hands that don't look like weird alien fingers?" she said miserably. She hated Jacob most when he forced her to draw hands. It was that and noses. She was never going to get noses right.

"No, don't be ridiculous. We all suck at those." Sage tapped their pencil against the apple. It was a gorgeous apple, its shadows smeared with daring hints of electric blue, its redness as tempting and luscious as the one in Eden. "It's not even about artistic ability, although that certainly helps. It's about unseeing reality. You have to believe with your mind and heart that this apple is real. You have to believe that if you bit into this piece of paper right now, you'd get a juicy crunch in response. This isn't a drawing of an apple. It's an apple." 

wip asks

[elizabeth-mitchells]

Absolutely Laura Lee got into her first serious fight/argument with someone because they called Nat a slut. She'd be lying if she said she was totally comfortable with all of Nat's behavior herself, but you don't call people that, especially people as kind as Nat is.

Laura Lee as Natalie's #1 defender is something that can actually be so personal <333

[beyondthetemples-ooc]

24, 65, 87?

Thanks for sending!

24: Do you have a collection of anything?

Oh gosh, I have... SO many collections of things! Most of it is hyperfixations. - Physical CDs from my very favorite bands, sometimes autographed! - Evanescence merch (including stuff from the 4 years they had an official fan club and I was, of course, a member!) - Many kinds of crow/raven/dove decorations - bird feathers, eggshells, and bones (My collection is compliant with the MBTA. ...mostly. The vast majority are from my own birds.) - All sorts of Misdreavus+Mismagius Pokemon things - stones and crystals (I have way more rocks than I have display space, so most of them are in boxes) - jewelry (mostly necklaces), but most of it is a sub-category of The Rocks Collection because most of my jewelry has stones involved. - Teen Titans franchise stuff, including but not limited to the 80's comics, Scholastic books, McDonald's toys, a tumblr glass, and any and every Raven thing I can get my hands on. - Books! I've never counted how many I have, but I've already filled up my largest bookcase and I'm not even 1/4 of the way done unpacking my books. --> Sub-categories of my book collection include: linguistics, travel, biology, spirituality, Neal Shusterman (since he's my favorite author), and of course TLT.

65: Give me your top 5 favourite blogs on Tumblr

H e c k . How do I even decide that? I have friends, RP partners, fandom speculations, hyperfixation fodder... But probably my closest friends. Mags and Siren are on here (not sure if they'd be comfortable with me blasting their blog URLs or not ^^';), probably Caleb and Robyn for being both longtime friends and RP partners, and lately I've been having a lot of fun in the Pokemon IRL rp community, of which my favorite blog is probably uncle-dusknoir (but I'm not @'ing it because how do I explain who my FAVORITE is and why???) Pix would be on this list too, but she's hardly active, and Rowan would too, but they're locked out of their account. <lD;;

87: What is your current desktop picture?

It's been the same for 7 years now: a screenshot of Raven meditating from Justice League vs. Teen Titans! I really like the colors, that movie instantly became my comfort movie, and meditation is something I do myself that has always been a comfort and respite. So it's just Nice to log in and see that picture. It makes me smile.

(I really need to clean up my desktop, heh.) You can't see it very well, but behind the 2nd/3rd row of icons, she has incense smoldering, and she's surrounded by trees and bushes. I think it's a very serene picture.

[lady-harrowhark]

Cactus, daffodil, nutmeg

from this ask meme :)

cactus ⇢ something you’re currently learning (about)?

well, i'm in grad school and wear a lot of hats as part of that, so i am learning about many things at any given time lol. the only formal course i'm taking this semester is a seminar in cognitive psychology, so that's probably the most straightforward thing to say i'm learning about! last week's topic was perception of categories/groups (in other words, how does our brain use sensory input to distinguish between different things), and this week is covering learning of categories/concepts (that is, how does our brain incorporate new information into its rulebook for Knowing What Things Are). it's not my direct field of study and it's pretty neuro heavy so a lot of the minutiae is over my head. i like the guy teaching it though!

daffodil ⇢ do you have siblings? if yes, in what ways do you think you’re similar to or different from them?

answered here :)

nutmeg ⇢ how’s your room/home decorated? do you have a specific theme or style going on?

lots of bright/pastel colors and flowers! i feel like the term is waning in popularity a bit, but "cottagecore" pretty well gets at it. literally the first time i came across the term "cottagecore" i was like, "ah, yeah, that's a lot more succinct than whatever 'antique-y vintage farmhouse victorian garden whimsy' heap of descriptors i was smashing together at random" lol. but also like, i live here, so i'm not super precious about the aesthetic. i've done a handful of renovation/redecorating projects around the house buttttt i have another "nutmeg" ask so i think i'll save those for that response :)

[monstrousgourmandizingcats]

I am. Seeing the asexual!Lila vision.

[liesmyth]

🎢 🤲 📚

🎢 Which of your fics would you call your wildest ride?

IF I HAD TO PICK ONE (1). That reader POV fic inspired by tswift's Blank Space music video that's exactly 666 words long and tagged 'Gothic' 'Sugar Mommy' and 'Creeping Horror'

link.

🤲 Would you please share a snippet of a wip?

No context John & Kiriona

📚 Would you ever want to turn writing into a career?

I HAVE thought about it but honestly, I don't think I'd be very good at it

/fic writing emoji asks

[marzipanandminutiae]

Headcanon that you had at least one Robert Louis Stevenson book as a kid.

I did! A Child's Garden of Verses, to be specific

In winter I get up at night, And dress by yellow candlelight...

[rebeccadumaurier]

Book asks 1, 2, 15?

omg thank you for asking <3

1: book you’ve reread the most times?

honestly probably some children's book because i liked rereading books WAY more as a kid than i do now. so probably one of the percy jackson books?

2: top 5 books of all time?

ooh that's hard but

rebecca, daphne du maurier (shocking, i know haha)

harrow the ninth, tamsyn muir (all the tlt books are really good but i love experimental narration and unhinged grief and harrow. i just think it's the most formally innovative of the 3)

jade war, fonda lee (i ... seem to have a thing for second books. never met second book syndrome in my life)

the secret history, donna tartt

we have always lived in the castle, shirley jackson (it is so weird to me that #4 and #5 are set in the same area lol)

(lots of recency bias here bc i read all of these in 2022 except #1, but hey 2022 has been my most prolific reading year by far so i've encountered a lot of good books)

15: recommend and review a book.

i really liked drive your plow over the bones of the dead by olga tokarczuk—a very Literary sort of mystery, great prose, vaguely unsettling atmosphere, weirdo eccentric middle-aged narrator living in rural poland who theorizes that animals are killing her neighbors in revenge for their hunting/poaching. it's such a Concept, the protagonist is one of the most wonderfully strange people i've ever read about, and the author renders it all in excellent language. honestly has some shirley jackson vibes but more polish (the country, to be clear, not saying her writing is unpolished lmao)

[elizabeth-mitchells]

laura lee christ

oh that's my absolute favorite one!!

i haven't started writing it yet but the outline is promising!! just saying!!

it's called like that bc i was thinking of the body of christ and communion and it's basically going to be all about laura lee losing her sweet mind about ritualistic cannibalism in the wilderness! laura lee corruption arc my beloved!! laura lee abandoning her old faith to kneel at the altar of lottie matthews!! laura lee as the priest to the antler queen! laura lee making up their prayers, laura lee anointing them with blood and ashes, laura lee blessing jackie's body before the feast, laura lee trying to crucify travis, laura lee escalating things much more than anyone was prepared for!!

[beyondthetemples-ooc]

TLT 8, 11, 19, 24

Oh, this is gonna be fun.

8. common fandom opinion that everyone is wrong about

I have a lot of these. One of the most common is Harrowhark being level-headed even under emotional duress. (She isn't even able to PLAY it cool most of the time, let alone KEEP it cool!) But the one that bothers me the most is the one that's Blatantly Wrong by Canon Text: the idea that Gideon is the more slob-leaning one between her and Harrow. Gideon was the one we saw cleaning, even before she thought she was leaving the place forever. Harrow was the one whose bedroom was often described as rumpled. It's Right There. It's canon that Harrow's the one who doesn't care. She probably had servitor constructs clean things for her. She always thinks she has more important things to do! (And, I mean, is she WRONG?)

11. number of fandom-related words you’ve filtered

Surprisingly, none! Though if the fandom was more Gross about it, I'd be filtering harrianthe. Griddleharianthe too, come to think of it... (I don't mind people shipping them and having fun! I just personally do not like thinking about those dynamics.)

19. you’re mad/ashamed/horrified you actually kind of like…

Griddlehark smut. SOME of it, anyways! Definitely not ALL of it...... Listen, my asexuality is a fluid thing and the main reason I like ANY of the smut is because it's... like... 97% of what's on Ao3. But there are a few Explicit Fics there that are actually characterized REALLY well and hit an Emotional note for me. I don't care if it doesn't have a Plot if it has an Emotion.

20. topic that brings up the most rancid discourse

Maybe it's because I've curated my circle Just Right, but I actually haven't seen any discourse (derogatory) in the TLT fandom? People pointing things out, sometimes people disagreeing,and sometimes people are like "It's so obvious!" when I can't see how on earth they've drawn those conclusions. But nobody I've seen has gotten "rancid" about it.

Though I do think the reason I've been blocked by two HUGE TLT fantheory blogs is because I have an identity that it Used to Be Cool to Cyberbully, and I mistook a couple jokes about it as Sincere and put those posts on the blog discussing that aspect of my identity, but that's a discourse topic that's not confined to TLT, AND it's something very personal that I don't want to air in front of 800+ followers. So I'm not sure if it counts. But it exists.

[periwinklekryptonite]

hey hi how does travis parallel common feminine tropes? i need to hear from the travis expert

Okay, so the "Problem" is that there's a preface and conclusion that's, like, way longer than just my bit about Travis's funny little parodies and then genuine relationship with femininity. While answering this ask, I realized just how big it is and I don't want to unload all of it here because I am just. Too tired all of the time to have all of it done in one swipe, and my attempt to do so ended up frustrating me more than anything LMAO

I write this with the promise that I'll expand on it and actually get to the meat of your question. I have a lot of it written, already!

The preface is easy: what's up with Travis and his relationship with gender?

Travis is trying to present as a very masculine, powerful character. It's an easy defense mechanism when he's alone in a crowded room. The thing many people fail to consider is that he doesn't know any of these people, and he probably dislikes most (if not all) of them on principal. The girls have a bond that existed in the before times, and Travis doesn't. He's an outsider. He's trying to grasp for some semblance of control by playing a sort of parody of the stoic, macho man... and it doesn't work.

Because of how he does this, a lot of people into the show are not into Travis. He's one of the only characters that are overtly and loudly misogynistic. It makes sense that people don't want to look past that when he acts so nasty. This means many write him off as exactly what Travis wants people to think he is.

Kevin Alves says it best in his Boys by Girls interview. I suggest reading the whole thing, it says a lot of what I'm saying and more.

So, even though he's pushing this masculine agenda when he's in the wreck with all the girls, my assumption in him has always been that he's never been the most big or the most masculine of guys at school. This is him really trying to pretend to be someone that he is not, this is not him.

This dramatized, fictional version of him is how he thinks he'll find a place within the group. The alternative is getting Coach Ben-ed and slowly being ousted from the group. Sitting in the back room and rotting in complete solitude just seems like a downer.

(Here he is looking sad for emphasis)

Travis was never the top dog. The girls do not take him seriously when he acts like this, and he probably wasn't taken very seriously in school. His insecurities lead to a lot of failures in his relationship with Javi and Nat, and no relationship with anyone else. If it continued any further than it did, he would've died for this. Like with Jackie, he'd be frozen out.

What Travis learns, and we learn as well, is that to be part of the in-group, you must also be a part of the dominant culture in the cabin and Wilderness itself. For Travis to be a part of the Yellowjackets, Travis must also be one of the girls.

Travis's story, the link between season 1 and season 2, is one of transition.

Some interpret this as a social transition, but I believe it to be literal.

The surviving group is not "the Yellowjackets and also Travis." By the end of season 2, (actually by the end of Qui,) Travis is indistinguishable from the rest. He's eaten Jackie with them, he's given blood to Shauna, he's taken blood from Lottie, he has led the group in their second act of cannibalism. Travis is a Yellowjacket.

Credit where credit is due:

@monstrousgourmandizingcats really helped me grind out these ideas and has a lot of cool YJ takes in general, and most of the screenies were given to me by @nicothecowboy.

Now, for YJ Fic Writer's Weekend I should hopefully have the part of this that you asked about ready. Until then, I have some interviews, and I cannot recommend the PaleyFest panel more. It has a lot about Travis in S2 and his relationship with Nat and Lottie.

[monstrousgourmandizingcats]

"Would you rather be harassed by the failsons of a fascist bartender or have a homoerotic girl best friend who resents you whenever you apply your intelligence to anything practical?" Gee, Ferrante, I don't know. Would I rather have a fatal heart attack or cancer that's probably survivable?

[liesmyth]

I have to say. Alecto going commando with an at least partially shaved pussy in that one piece of fanart I just reblogged from you? Counterintuitive but kind of a vibe.

SHE IS SUCH A VIBE <333

[marzipanandminutiae]

Nell THoHH

How I feel about this character: There is so much wrong with her (affectionate)

All the people I ship romantically with this character: Theo. They can make each other better AND worse! Also maybe Hill House, not gonna lie. Can you fuck a sentient house? She will find out perhaps. (That too would be sapphic, to be clear.)

My non-romantic OTP for this character: Don't have one

My unpopular opinion about this character: I think Nell's Disney Princess-ness is often underexplored. She's so innocent in many ways and all her dreams for her life are very fairytale. She's a heroine in an Andrew Lang book who accidentally ended up as psychic victim of family abuse in the 1950s, and I'd like to see people delve into that more.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: Just like the previous ask, Make The Gay Canon, please!