#not for my family but in america yes

[runawaymarbles]

There's a lot to be said about flaws in the US education system but I think some of you just weren't paying attention in class

[lexd]

pls rb ^_^

[countess-of-edessa]

idk what exact conclusion to draw about this but of all the families who have ever adopted children that i have known of, only three adoptees (two who are sisters) who really still like and are on good terms with their family. and one of those families had at least one older adopted child who ended up involved in such dangerous things as an adult and was threatening the lives of their then-infant daughters so they had to cut contact with him. literally every other adopted child i have ever known or whose family i have known have gotten into drugs, gotten teenage pregnant, gotten into crime, or all three, in families where that behavior was as discouraged as possible and in environments where none of their peers displayed similar behavior. and these kids were pretty much all adopted as infants, not as older children after experiencing traumatic events. i mean, i assume the subconscious trauma of being separated from one's mother could influence how the brain develops but idk. i'm not anti-adoption by any means obviously but i feel like there has to be a way to develop better outcomes for kids who are adopted.

[shallowrambles]

So I've been thinking. It's funny how enjoying meta is somewhat embedded with trust.

Like, if you're "friends" and have followed a person for a long time, you have more a sense of their values, and it's easier to read their difficult meta because you trust more that they're being charitable/nuanced.

If you don't know them, it's harder to trust that they're not funneling difficult topics into rationalization of liking/supporting gross shit.

[thewardenisonthecase]

I do think that if Antiva was more based on latin america as a whole and not italy/spain, it'd be easier for me to explain why Lucanis is like that when it comes to Caterina because my god, the latino experience of "this family member i have who has abused me a lot is still my family and i'll still get upset if something happens" is real

[dangerliesbeforeyou]

wait i'm really intrigued by this

(if you've not had them knock at your door specifically but you've met them in the street/etc, OR if you ever did the knocking yourself then vote yes btw lol)

[griseldabanks]

For the 'even more fic writer's asks', 1 & 4 for Let Me Count the Ways, 2 & 6 for Cosmic Eclipse, 2 & 27 for the Foster Family AU, and 10, 11, 16, 19, & 23 for any fic(s) you would like to talk about, please!

Let Me Count the Ways:

Start to finish, how long did it take to plan and write? Did you take breaks during the process?

Well, this is ongoing, so the total time remains to be seen. And since it's a collection of oneshots, it really varies between each one how long it takes me to come up with the idea and write it down. Usually, if it's for a fandom I've written a lot for, the stories come faster and easier than fandoms I've never written for. And since it's such a huge project, it's something I want to keep doing on the side as I work on other projects as well. It's really nice as a palate cleanser between bigger projects, or something to work on when I want to procrastinate on something else ^^'

4. If the fic required it, what did you research in order to write it?

There have been a few that required a bit of research. For the one where Steve Rogers gets hit by lightning, I did some research to confirm the possible ramifications of that and proper first-aid care. For the one about Steve and Bucky going to "the Retreat," I had to do some research about what it even was, because I haven't seen Agents of Shield ^^' And then I looked up some common alien species for Anakin's little adventure on Coruscant.

Cosmic Eclipse:

2. How did you come up with the idea?

My roommate in college was actually the one who came up with it. I got her into Sherlock (only the first two seasons were out at the time), and one of the times we were talking about it, she was like, "Hey, what if Sherlock got blinded at some point? Do you think he could still solve crimes?" And after that one conversation where we discussed the different ways he could compensate for such a disability, I just...really wanted to write it.

6. How did you decide what tense and POV(s) to use?

Third-person past, because that's just the default. All but the last scene are from John's POV, because that's what I always do ^^' John is much more...ordinary, you know? I've always been intimidated about writing characters who are geniuses, because I am very much not a genius. Also, it's a lot easier to describe John reacting to things, because he doesn't try to pretend he's an emotionless machine :P And I managed to still tell the whole story just from what John is there to witness, except for that last scene. It's the pool scene where they meet Moriarty for the first time, and I've known all along it needs to be in Sherlock's POV. I need to use his ability to deduce all kinds of things about Moriarty, and it's also so much more interesting to see how his reactions might change if he can't see what's going on, whereas John would just react mostly the same way he does in canon.

Foster Family AU:

2. How did you come up with the idea?

I believe it was @bunnyscar who put in the request for Let Me Count the Ways, Ed and Mustang with the prompt "I can't believe I'm telling you this." I had the kernel of an idea - Ed going to Mustang for advice, admitting he likes Winry and trying to figure out how to ask her out. The problem was that I couldn't think of a believable scenario for why he would go to Mustang, of all people, in canon.

So then I had a brainstorm session with @rainintheevening, and I think it was her suggestion that I make it a modern AU where Mustang and Hawkeye adopt the Elric brothers. If they have an actual, official father-son relationship established, it would be more believable for him to ask for this kind of advice. And I'm an absolute sucker for Parental!RoyEd, so I immediately jumped on it. It didn't take long before I'd worked out all the specifics - like how, because there's no alchemy in this AU, Trisha's death and the consequences thereof would need to be something like a car crash rather than human transmutation. I also decided to make Al go mute due to the trauma, because there's not really a 1:1 analogy to him being stuck in a suit of armor. But this way, he has negative consequences to the accident in a way that's definitely debilitating for his daily life, but is ultimately curable, and I can twist it in such a way that Ed feels guilty about it.

27. Share a piece of lore you made up for the story

I haven't found a way to include this in a story yet, but I put a lot of thought into what Roy and Riza's jobs are. They saw active duty in the military, in some war overseas, and after they came home, they're both working for the VA. Roy isn't trying to become president or anything like that; he works in like...marketing? Campaigning? I don't know what you'd call it, but he uses his schmoozing skills and charisma to try to get more funding for projects and to get the veterans the help they need. I still haven't completely decided what I want Riza to do, but I was thinking maybe something like physical therapy. Both of them cut back on their hours/went part-time when the Elric brothers came into the picture, and Roy (primarily) homeschools them.

And for the rest of these, I will talk about my baby, Take Me In:

10. How did you approach writing the fic? (e.g. wrote it start to finish in order, started with the ending, starting with the twist)

I generally write start to finish. That's just how my brain works, and it bugs me if I don't know how characterization should have developed if I write out of order. There were a few exceptions, where I'd write a scene and then realize I needed another one before it or something like that. And when it came to writing the climax, I kind of skipped over all the complicated technical bits to just finish writing the emotional stuff, and then went back later to tackle the hard stuff.

11. What was the most challenging aspect of writing it?

It is loooooooooooooooooooooong! It took me about four years of focusing primarily on writing that, with a few breaks scattered throughout. Also, some of the stuff the fic deals with is much more technical than I ever thought I would get, and that required a stupid amount of research and second-guessing and bashing my head against the wall to try to figure out how to write it x.x

16. Talk about the fic’s biggest moment & how you came up with it

I'm going to be vague, since I haven't posted it yet, but the big turning point in TMI was actually the first scene I ever came up with :3 It's one of the emotional highs in the story, and is what transformed it from a casual what-if conversation with @sergeanttomycaptain to "THIS IS MY DESTINY AND IF I DON'T WRITE THIS FIC ASAP I WILL GO INSANE!!!!" I can't tell you how many times I wrote and rewrote it in my head before falling asleep, so by the time I actually got around to writing it out for real, the words flowed swiftly and smoothly. I knew exactly what I wanted to say and how to say it. I love it when that happens <3

19. While editing, did you kill any darlings? What were they?

I've actually amassed quite an impressive list of deleted scenes, which I will be including in the companion fic, Take Me Beyond, once the main fic is done. Most of them would be too spoilery to explain in full, but I will say there was once a time when I was going to have a scene where Steve says the Words to Bucky to turn him into the Winter Soldier! :O I still think that would be a suuuuuuuuuper angsty, dramatic, awful scene, but ultimately it just didn't make sense to have it happen.

23. How did you come up with the title?

The title comes from "Everything" by Lifehouse:

You calm the storms and you give me rest You hold me in your hands, you won't let me fall You still my heart and you take my breath away Would you take me in, take me deeper now?

The song captures the feeling and the message of this story so well, I wanted to use it. And the main two previous fics in the series, Make Me Whole and Shards of Me, both had three-word titles where one of the words was "me," so I just had to find a phrase from the song that would fit the pattern. I'm quite pleased with it ^_^

Even More Fic Writer Ask Game

[bibleofficial]

i dream of being able to go get a couples massage but instead of w the love of my life it’s w my colon & she finally gets what the FUCK has been WRONG w her WORKED out 😭🙄

[supernovaa-remnant]

.

[mielicy]

the US government is militarizing residential and public/community areas as we speak bro wth are we doing

[pestercide]

YIPPEE MORTIS ANGST!!! :D

HELLO you want to see my poor son suffering,, Enduring the worst times of his life,, Dealing with everything he was put through on his own cuz he had literally NOBODY to go to

Because if so...

So do I lol

[seaglassdinosaur]

I find it low-key funny that we get individual episodes that explore Joe and Sam’s ethnic, cultural, and familial heritage, and then Fred is just over there. With his hecking. Baseball cap.

[stinkrascal]

i am SO cold I AM SO COLD. my FINGERS. owwwwwwwwwwwwww

[kittensandforeheadkisses]

do NOT, under any circumstances, watch mindhunter before bed. if the criminals and their motives doesn't traumatize you the soundtrack and background music will surely do

[crowley1990]

Tumblr tags: there’s like no Jewish population in ireland

Me: I’m literally going to a Jewish cultural event in cork city next week they exist

[mybrainproblems]

sorry but i am going to be very american and selfish and navel gaze-y for a moment but this is on my mind a lot as we approach february. just... ignore me.

i'm of ukrainian heritage. i'm also completely disconnected from my heritage because my great-great/great-grandparents fully assimilated as americans.

with the exception of my great-uncle (who lives far away and i rarely see), i have no living relatives who know much about our heritage (or are willing to talk about it in any detail beyond the romanticized ~*immigrant experience*~). everything i know about our family comes from my uncle because everyone else is dead; either died elderly and comfortable in the US or likely died in the holodomor. trying to research my family is useless bc my great-grandpa changed his last name to something completely made up so he could find work when he was in his early teens. this has always been a "fun" legend in our family; the choice to disconnect. it's a story our family has always told like it was some sort of wacky hijinks and as a kid was very funny but now, in my 30s and watching a cultural genocide unfold in ukraine, it feels devastating.

there are a small handful of things my family has held onto while also losing. there's the lost recipe for my great-grandma's holubsti (a word i didn't know how to spell until recently) that my family mourns every time we get together. i used to make pysanky for easter with my parents, which was passed down from my great-great aunt. my dad inherited her pysanky dyes after she passed away and we had them for years before most of the jars broke in a move. we have one remaining unbroken pysanka from her that i think she made in the 70s. i cannot imagine having hands so steady to make those intricate designs. mine always came out looking like shit.

i've always been curious about this part of my heritage but never felt any great need to seek it out until now. it feels fake and disingenuous to be interested in learning about this part of my heritage as a result of a war. that i didn't seek it out sooner. what is wrong with me that i care now.

i'm not sure where i'm going with this. i'm not sure what or how i'm supposed to feel. what i do feel is lost and angry and sad and selfish for feeling this way.