#queue misunderstanding

[mariatesstruther]

ooooooo i have a fic idea

[goldkirk]

I don’t know how to explain any more clearly that it doesn’t MATTER if it seems legitimate to you. You have got to fact check every single headline and post and claim on the left just like you need to do on the right.

The left is NOT immune to misinformation and rushed reporting. And the more emotionally polarizing or shocking the talking points, sound bytes, and headlines are, the worse it is and more frequently it happens.

Learn to verify through multiple independent sources. If you can’t do that, you can’t trust it.

If you have to wait extra hours for the real information to come through vetted channels—NOT just one individual somewhere everyone links to, and not just one single media source either, EVEN if it’s a major news network—thats just how it has to be. What news outside of genuine local disasters near you TRULY needs your outrage and post-sharing in the next hour specifically?

Misinformation works best by not seeming like misinformation and by fitting in with the rest of what you already expect to see. It doesn’t help anyone to not be able to recognize and avoid the stuff.

[serickswrites]

Not My Blood

Warnings: kidnapping, implied torture, restraints, rescue, blood

"Smallest Teammate, Smallest Teammate," Teammate One's voice was frantic, "talk to me."

Teammate One had panicked when they infiltrated the warehouse with the rest of the team and found Smallest Teammate tied up in a corner and covered in blood.

"I'm fine, Teammate One, it's--"

"You can't possibly be fine. You're covered in blood!" Teammate One was working on releasing Smallest Teammate from the ropes they were bound by. They had to see where Smallest Teammate was bleeding.

"It's not my blood. I'm fine. Teammate One it's--"

"You are covered in blood. Where are you bleeding?" Teammate One ignored Smallest Teammate. Clearly the blood loss was getting to Smallest Teammate. They had to hurry.

"You're still not understanding, Teammate One," Smallest Teammate said angrily. "It's not my blood."

Teammate One sat back as Smallest Teammate slipped the newly cut coils of rope off and started to rise. "Who's blood is it, then?" Teammate One felt panic grow inside them once more. They had misunderstood the whole situation.

"Team Leader. Whumper took them. We have to hurry! They.....they're not ok, Teammate One."

Tags: @mousepaw @jumpywhumpywriter @knightinbatteredarmor @hufflepuffwritingstuff2 @anightmarishwhump

@steh-lar-uh-nuhs @celestialsoyeon @st0rmm @ay5ksal @pedro-pedro-pedro-pedro-pe

@artisticdemon

[wonder-worker]

During [the spring and summer of 1141], a number of contemporary narrative sources agreed that Matilda’s sudden and unexpected success went straight to her head. Matilda’s most renowned modern biographer has suggested that “conduct acceptable in a powerful king . . . was not acceptable in a ‘Lady of the English’. This line of reasoning can be taken quite a bit further. It is clear that contemporaries expected Matilda to emulate the behavior of those women who had previously held the rank of regina, and act like a queen consort while performing the office of king. Most queens consort, however, did not have to consolidate recognition of their position as Matilda was constrained to do. Nearly all the chroniclers who had marveled at her assumption of power turned on her immediately. Not surprisingly, the Gesta Stephani took the greatest exception:

She at once put on an extremely arrogant demeanor instead of the modest gait and bearing proper to the gentle sex, began to walk and speak and do all things more stiffly and more haughtily than she had been wont.

But other more sympathetic chroniclers also joined this chorus of disapproval: Henry of Huntington described her as “elated with insufferable pride” while the Worcester chronicler noted her “hard heart” as she strove to consolidate her position. Had she been a man, Matilda’s decidedly authoritarian style might have passed for a regal show of strength. Indeed, Matilda probably felt that if she was to hold on to her newly acquired status, she needed to behave like a king. Thus, Matilda’s forward movement from recognition of her status to the execution of her office was fraught with gendered difficulties concerning how a woman ought to conduct herself.

...As she anticipated her crowning, Matilda strove to consolidate her dynastic claims and establish her authority. It seems reasonable to suppose that Matilda looked to her father and her first husband for examples of successful kingship as she did for representational purposes. Both Emperor Henry V and King Henry I were suspicious, uncompromising, relentless, and ruthless in the pursuit of their aims. Probably both would have advised Matilda to follow their example. This was exactly what St. Bernard told Queen Melisende of Jerusalem following the death of her husband: “show the man in the woman; order all things . . . so that those who see you will judge your works to be those of a king rather than a queen.” Much of Matilda’s behavior during the spring and summer of 1141 can be explained as the emulation of male gendered kingship. But kings had the built-in advantage of female consorts to soften the more hardboiled aspects of their rule; Matilda had played that very role herself for her first husband. Nevertheless, in 1141, Matilda eschewed the feminine aspects of queenship completely, in effect negating what could have been useful symbolism to bolster the construction of her authority. But for Matilda to be perceived as a soft, forgiving, and gentle woman at the one moment she needed to consolidate her position at the top of a male dominant political society would not have been practical.

But by constructing herself as a female feudal lord, and emulating male gendered kingship, Matilda annoyed contemporary observers. The chroniclers’ hostility may have been due to the fact that Matilda was claiming kingly sovereignty for herself alone, and not in association with either her husband or her eldest son. The Gesta Stephani described Matilda as not only arrogant, but also spurning the advice of her chief advisors, the earl of Gloucester, her uncle King David of Scotland, and the “kingmaker” himself, the Bishop of Winchester. The Gesta implied that if Matilda had behaved as a deferential woman, and heeded the counsel of her male advisors, she could have devised a means to permanently depose Stephen, and be crowned and anointed in his place. The Gesta placed Matilda’s ultimate failure at her own door, blaming it on her arrogant reliance on her inferior, womanly intellect and emotions.

Matilda’s hard-line stance, acceptable in a male king, bothered the authors of the Worcester chronicle and the Gesta, suggesting that contemporaries were confused by what they wanted the “Lady of the English” to do, indicating that, as a woman and a domina, she should behave gently like a queen rather than forcefully like a king. Combined, all the chroniclers, with the exception of Malmesbury, suggested that Matilda should have used the intercessory powers of queenship to set Stephen free, moderated the harsher aspects of her father’s rule, and excused the Londoners from financial support. Although a more diplomatic approach might have helped, freeing Stephen at that moment in time would have realistically served no practical purpose in establishing Matilda’s authority. And, in denying Eustace his inheritance, Matilda was only imitating the efforts of her father, Henry I, who also dealt harshly with challengers to his throne. Henry I kept his elder brother Robert Curthose in prison until he died, and prevented his nephew, William Clito, Curthose’s heir, from gaining any aspect of the Anglo-Norman inheritance. Matilda wished to convince her contemporaries that she was quite capable of being a king, but their reactions betrayed hostility toward her as a woman presuming to establish kingly authority.

-Charles Beem, "Empress Matilda and Female Lordship", The Lioness Roared: The Problems of Female Rule in English History"

[aphverse-confessions]

fantasy racism anon, i want to start to say that i did commit an error on my part, that part being me not specifying who exactly that message was targeted towards, which was white people mainly. this post is also in no way a hate towards you, as i understand many of your points in the tags. the original post came from the fact that i am a queer, person of color, who suffers discrimination everyday and cannot turn it off the moment i decide that i an bored or tired of experiencing it. it truly frustrates me when white people include these things simply for added conflict because most of the time fantasy racism comes from real life racism, and furthur discriminates and harms real life minority groups.

the best examples i can think of in the context of mcd and mystreet as a whole is meif’was being extremely based on japanese & asian culture as a whole, being seen as only these cute kitty cats who are silly and cute (kc is an example of this) or werewolfs, who are viewed as agressive and monstrous, who live in tribes and attack people for no reason other than being hostile, all things that indigenous people are linked to being due to years of colonialism and racism. but this exists outside of aphmaus roleplay series too. think of orcs from dungeons and dragons, who are agressive and evil and are often depicted having black features and black hairstyles. think of goblins in fiction, who are described as having hooked noses and being greedy, a common negative stereotypes of jewish people.

fantasy racism isnt just fantasy. it is inherently inspired by the real world, and tends to only furthur stereotypes and negative connotations. that is why is truly frustrates me when i see white people incorporate it into their retelling of these stories and in general, because to them it is just conflict that they can walk away from by simply just shutting the book or closing their computer, while me and countless other people of color have to sit and watch as we see characters go through what we go through, instead of being able to have a moment of peace from the real world like white people do.

.

[promptsforyourwhumpfic]

Whump Prompt #1239

@whumperofworlds asked:

Helllooooo! Do you have any prompts/ideas for the Parting Words Regret trope? (Basically, a Whumpee and a Caretaker get into an argument, and something terrible happens to Whumpee, and Caretaker feels guilty) I hope you don't mind!

I can give it a go:

When do your characters regret the words? Right after A leaves? When they're both miles apart? Is it weeks later and does it take someone else to point it out to them?

Do they both come to their senses at the same time, or does one apologise before the other?

What causes the parting words of regret?

^ Maybe one character is overbearingly protective. ("I don't need you coddling me." / "I wish you'd leave me alone!")

^ Maybe one character feels like they were taken for granted/used. ("You used me?" "I hope you don't need me, because I won't come running next time.")

A few more lines of regret: "Leave. It's all you ever do." / "Go. I'm not going to stop you." / "You'll be fine on your own."

[comet-wire]

There's no way I got this notification after I got out of work, I don't even post pins I just save em to the boards 💀

I got a strike?? I guess?? You'll never guess what it's over.

[therighthandofvengeance]

Sinclair: Why are you like this?

Bester: I used too much “no more tears” shampoo as a child and I haven’t felt a single emotion since.

[uldahstreetrat]

okay,,, my drafts are above 100 again,,, time to clear out some old prompts and tag memes and asks,,,,

[hopalongfairywren]

Saw a mutual spouting progressive 'not all men' shit and am now considering unfollowing. Sigh.

[arisenreborn]

painstakingly going through and fixing tags 😩 mostly removing the arisen/pawn identifiers because I'm too inclined to making role-swap stuff lmao

[shieldslinger]

i will maintain til my dying day that it’s so important that the avengers wake steve up over shield or anyone else. shield wakes steve up and all they see is a weapon they wanna figure out how to use. the avengers wake steve up because he’s friend shaped and they have room in their frienship club bracelet for one more member

[wonder-worker]

"Despite her indisputable agency and successes as ruler of the Mercians, the title of ‘queen’ eluded Aethelflaed. [...] Her feats were adjudged by Irish, Welsh, and Anglo-Norman chroniclers as worthy of the title, but in contemporary West Saxon and Mercian sources Aethelflaed is known as the ‘Lady of the Mercians’. This title was not an indictment of her merits, but rather a reflection of Mercia’s relative status within the context of West Saxon hegemonic expansion. […] To all intents and purposes, every indication within contemporary West Saxon and Mercian sources is that Aethelflaed was not viewed as a queen, that her subordination to her brother [Edward the Elder of Wessex] was well known, despite her having garnered immense authority as the Lady of the Mercians."

-Matthew Firth, "Early English Queenship, 850-1000: Potestas Reginae"

Aethelflaed's role as co-ruler in the tenth century [...] takes on an element of pragmatism. There was no male heir to the rulership of Mercia, and presumably no prospect of this given either Aethelflaed's abstinence or Aethelred's illness. In turn, their daughter Aelfwynn would only have been around 12 years old at the turn of the tenth century, thus representing no reasonable alternative to her father’s rule. For Edward, annexation of Mercia was not a resolution to this problem, especially with Aethelred still alive, no matter his physical condition. This would have risked rebellion in Mercia and conflict between the two kingdoms, which would have rendered both vulnerable and jeopardised the gains that had been made against the Danes in preceding decades. For Aethelred and Edward, Aethelflaed's promotion to co-ruler served a useful political artifice. It maintained the status quo, giving the semblance of Aethelred's continued involvement in governance, even if those powers in practice devolved to Aethelflaed. This then avoided any potential power vacuum developing during Aethelred's convalescence, it placed an individual with personal loyalty to both rulers at the head of Mercian government, and it ensured a succession tolerable to both Edward and the Mercian elites in the case of Aethelred's death. In short, Aethelflaed's rise to power preserved political stability. It remains, however, that in all extant diplomatic evidence for the couple’s rule prior to 911, this was formalised as co-rule and a tradition of this, as codified in Aethelred and Aethelflaed's charters, entered subsequent cultural memory.

Although Aethelflaed was well positioned to take over governance of Mercia upon Aethelred death, this did not mean that the Mercian ruler’s passing went unnoticed in Wessex. Aethelred's death represented a shift in the West Saxon–Mercian political dynamic, and Edward was poised to take advantage. According to the Chronicle, he immediately moved on Mercia’s southern borders, seizing London and Oxford and their surrounding lands. Yet there is no indication that this was an act of aggression directed at Aethelflaed herself, and it may be that this annexation represented some agreement between the siblings. The Register characterises Aethelflaed's period of sole rule as one of great activity, defined by remarkable outward-facing political and military agency. Aethelflaed goes on to build further burhs in the north and east of Mercia, annex key Danelaw burhs, and even arrange an incursion into Wales. However, she is never shown to be active in Mercia’s south. The implication is that the West Saxon–Mercian hinterland was stable, and sovereignty settled, so long as the siblings ruled over the two kingdoms. This allowed both Edward and Aethelflaed to turn their attentions to the project of extending their hegemony into those territories that had been claimed by the Heathen Army at the end of the ninth century.

[...] For all her independence in ruling Mercia, any doubt that Aethelflaed was, at least on a performative level, subject to her brother’s authority, should be put aside on review of the numismatic evidence. No coins were issued in either Aethelred or Aethelflaed's name. Those Mercian coin designs likely to derive from their reigns are remarkable for their distinctiveness – a symbolism undoubtedly imbued with meaning for a Mercian audience – but they bear the inscription Eaduueard rex: King Edward.

[...] However, whatever political or cultural considerations lay behind the Register’s decision to characterise Aethelflaed as Lady of the Mercians, rather than as their queen, was clearly absent from external sources. The histories and chronicles of societies separated from tenth-century England by time or place (or both) demonstrate no such reservations. While few sources purport to record the perspectives of Scandinavian settlers to Mercia’s east, no less their experiences of the Lady of the Mercians, Welsh and Irish sources provide valuable insights. In reporting her death in its entry for 918, Annales Cambriae names her Queen Aethelflaed (Edelflet regina), as does Brut y Tywysogion (Edelffleda vrenhines). This prominence is yet more pronounced in the Irish annals. In noting her passing, the Annals of Ulster declare her to have been famosissima regina Saxonum (the most famous queen of the Saxons). The claim that she was queen of the Saxons, rather than just Mercia, is also reflected in Brut y Tywysogion, as well as in Fragmentary Annals. In this latter, of course, she features more prominently than the simple recording of her death in the other Welsh and Irish chronicles. Fragmentary Annals names her as queen around eight times, identifying her as ‘Queen of the Saxons’ (rioghan Saxan) to Aethelred's ‘King of the Saxons’ (righ Saxan). All four texts are, as noted, later compositions or collations, and thus not necessarily contemporary to Aethelflaed's queenship. Nonetheless, they give some insight into the cultural memory of Aethelflaed's rule in Mercia and the perceptions of it held by her western neighbours.

It may also be that Aethelflaed's legacy simply grew in the telling. And here we come full circle to Henry of Huntingdon’s panegyric. William of Malmesbury does not accord Aethelflaed the title of queen, nor does John of Worcester. Geffrei Gaimar introduces Aethelred as king of the Mercians and later asserts that Aethelflaed was the rightful heir to his kingdom, but she herself is never named queen. Henry is, in contrast, refreshingly direct. While his prose closely follows the Register, and so titles Aethelflaed Lady of the Mercians, his verse is unambiguous. Aethelflaed was regina potens rexque trophea parans (a mighty queen and a victory-winning king). There is, of course, no evidence for Aethelflaed's ceremonial endowment as queen, quite the opposite in fact. But, to borrow from Stafford again, medieval authors ‘knew a queen when they saw one’, and in Aethelflaed, Henry of Huntingdon clearly saw a queen in action. So too did Welsh and Irish chroniclers who compiled their various annals around the same time as Henry. Perhaps then, the ideals of queenship had shifted into the twelfth century and beyond, and so Aethelflaed was more readily recognisable as a queen by later historians. More likely, however, is that the political impetus that saw her modelled as the ‘Lady of the Mercians’ had died alongside the West Saxon dynasty in 1066.

[...] Aethelflaed's political trajectory was remarkable among pre-Norman royal women. She ruled Mercia as its queen in practice, if not in name, for seven years, exercising singular military and political agency. She achieved political stability within her realm, secured its defensive capabilities, reconquered lost territories, and expanded Mercian hegemony to the north, east, and west. There is little wonder that the Lady of the Mercians stood out to later generations of historians, that she attracted their admiration and praise, and that they claimed for her the title that she had been denied in her own lifetime: queen.

[anipgarden]

Oh yeah possibly a dumb question from someone claiming to be the Milkweed Queen of Tumblr but like

Swamp milkweed is supposed to die back in Winter in North Florida, right????

Because mine hasn’t died back. Im not doing anything to protect it from the cold either! But its still here! What’s going on????

[datastate]

sorry my crane joke came across as demeaning that’s not what I meant at all TwT I’m sorry

you're alright! i understand it was meant to be humorous (and was a fun play on words in the main body of text), but i'm always wary of those i'm (generally) unfamiliar with. of course - no harm, no foul.

[mythvoiced]

@r4bidog | ♥

"I really-- I cannot stress this enough, you don't- I'm not the right person, for this or in general, you have, you- I could call? Someone for you instead-"