#rather than how I’m ‘supposed to’

[sapphoscreature]

I’ll see analysis on here of characters which is so interesting and insightful, engaging with the show. I’ll see interviews with writers which work in tandem with these analyses and think, yes, what a rich piece of work to engage with and digest.

And then I’ll come across a post completely misunderstanding a character based on a one-note reading of them which has thousands of likes and feel a despair so bitter and an anger so hot it really makes me question how people watch shows these days.

[winchesternova-k]

this week’s vows and vengeance was so good. davrin is super charming and im so glad he came across as self assured instead of arrogant

[drolta]

Finished Forspoken’s story last night and I still can’t believe I was betrayed by a fucking bracelet…

[excelsior9173]

ugh. some days i look at my parents and their partners and then my sister and her gf and i think “i want that too”

but. then i look at actually putting in the effort to date and possibly find a partner and it’s just. it seems so exhausting. and i feel a little ridiculous being 24, through an entire university degree and starting on a second, and feeling like i have no idea who i am or what i want. and i know it’s dumb to feel ridiculous- i am so very young still and in the prime years of “idfk who i am”

but. i do think it would be nice to have someone who would say fuck it and go to random concerts with me. i routinely show up just before set times so that i can feel less awkward about just standing around waiting with no one to visit with.

i don’t mind doing things alone, i enjoy being alone. my sister has practically moved in with her gf and i basically live alone again and i’ve been doing better than when my sister is around. but i don’t want to be lonely. and i think i’m feeling a little lonely?

but idk how to feel romantic attraction. every time i think i do i step back and realize that it’s just platonic. and idk how to be present for someone else. i feel like caring for my own mind is such a monumental task, how could i ever be a support for someone else?

something about the sun returning and spring blossoming sets off the yearning… but i also feel fundamentally off axis about it all. like i’m just a little too alien to be loved by another person. idk. i’ve slept in my own bed three times in the last week and a half, i’m feeling a little lost and worn out. which makes me lonely and yearn.

[urmomsrighttit]

*

[quibbs126]

Just a tad bit curious, but have you've done any fankids that involve Schwarzwälder or Esterhazy? (As the parents I mean)

I have done one involving Esterhazy/Earl Grey, her name is Cremeschnitte, but that’s the only Esterhazy one so far. And as for Choco Werehound Brute, I haven’t gotten any requests

[the-casbah-way]

i found loads of pictures of my uncle i am going 2 cry

[white-weasel]

I love comics but by god sometimes the dialogue is the most on the nose shit I’ve ever read ahdkahdks

[j-esbian]

so so so fucking tired of people who perceive working in an office as the only “”real”” jobs

[daydreamerdrew]

The Incredible Hulk (1968) Annual #10

[le-agent-egg]

is it. bad to say that i wish i wasn’t transgender. i wish i was cis. i’d take being a cis woman. i just feel. bad saying that. but being trans/gnc has only managed to hurt me it feels.

[zannies-joestar-hut]

merl mei qi gets better with every appearance

[malachitezmeyka]

Task given: Make a presentation about the six wives of Henry VIII for the seventh graders. Nothing too hard, couple hours’ worth of work

“Heh.. should I insert references about how there’s a musical based on them like how I did when I made a presentation on the American Revolution?… Nah, probably not, it’s too modern”

*turns on said musical to have a nostalgic trip to my musical theatre phase while taking breaks in between working on the presentation*

*full spectrum of emotions bc this musical is a damn rollercoaster*

“Hm.. six women all fucked over by one guy endlessly roasting him, banding together and becoming and unconventional family unit… now where have I heard that one before?”

*suddenly remembers our newest batch of OCs*

“FUCK”

[tearlessrain]

please help me- i used to be pretty smart but i’m having so much trouble grasping the concept of diegetic vs non-diegetic bdsm!

gfkjldghfd okay first of all I'm sorry for the confusion, if you're not finding anything on the phrase it's because I made it up and absolutely nobody but me ever uses it, but I haven't found a better way to express what I'm trying to say so I keep using it. but now you've given me an excuse to ramble on about some shit that is only relevant to me and my deeply inefficient way of talking and by god I'm going to take it.

SO. the way diegetic and non-diegetic are normally used is to talk about music and sound design in movies/tv shows. in case you aren't familiar with that concept, here's a rundown:

diegetic sound is sound that happens within the world of the movie/show and can be acknowledged by the characters, like a song playing on the stereo during a driving scene, or sung on stage in Phantom of the Opera. it's also most other sounds that happen in a movie, like the sounds of traffic in a city scene, or a thunderclap, or a marching band passing by. or one of the three stock horse sounds they use in every movie with a horse in it even though horses don't really vocalize much in real life, but that's beside the point, the horse is supposed to be actually making that noise within the movie's world and the characters can hear it whinnying.

non-diegetic sound is any sound that doesn't exist in the world of the movie/show and can't be perceived by the characters. this includes things like laugh tracks and most soundtrack music. when Duel of Fates plays in Star Wars during the lightsaber fight for dramatic effect, that's non-diegetic. it exists to the audience, but the characters don't know their fight is being backed by sick ass music and, sadly, can't hear it.

the lines can get blurry between the two, you've probably seen the film trope where the clearly non-diegetic music in the title sequence fades out to the same music, now diegetic and playing from the character's car stereo. and then there are things like Phantom of the Opera as mentioned above, where the soundtrack is also part of the plot, but Phantom of the Opera does also have segments of non-diegetic music: the Phantom probably does not have an entire orchestra and some guy with an electric guitar hiding down in his sewer just waiting for someone to break into song, but both of those show up in the songs they sing down there.

now, on to how I apply this to bdsm in fiction.

if I'm referring to diegetic bdsm what I mean is that the bdsm is acknowledged for what it is in-world. the characters themselves are roleplaying whatever scenarios their scenes involve and are operating with knowledge of real life rules/safety practices. if there's cnc depicted, it will be apparent at some point, usually right away, that both characters actually are fully consenting and it's all just a planned scene, and you'll often see on-screen negotiation and aftercare, and elements of the story may involve the kink community wherever the characters are. Love and Leashes is a great example of this, 50 Shades and Bonding are terrible examples of this, but they all feature characters that know they're doing bdsm and are intentional about it.

if I'm talking about non-diegetic bdsm, I'm referring to a story that portrays certain kinks without the direct acknowledgement that the characters are doing bdsm. this would be something like Captive Prince, or Phantom of the Opera again, or the vast majority of bodice ripper type stories where an innocent woman is kidnapped by a pirate king or something and totally doesn't want to be ravished but then it turns out he's so cool and sexy and good at ravishing that she decides she's into it and becomes his pirate consort or whatever it is that happens at the end of those books. the characters don't know they're playing out a cnc or D/s fantasy, and in-universe it's often straight up noncon or dubcon rather than cnc at all. the thing about entirely non-diegetic bdsm is that it's almost always Problematic™ in some way if you're not willing to meet the story where it's at, but as long as you're not judging it by the standards of diegetic bdsm, it's just providing the reader the same thing that a partner in a scene would: the illusion of whatever risk or taboo floats your boat, sometimes to extremes that can't be replicated in real life due to safety, practicality, physics, the law, vampires not being real, etc. it's consensual by default because it's already pretend; the characters are vehicles for the story and not actually people who can be hurt, and the reader chose to pick up the book and is aware that nothing in it is real, so it's all good.

this difference is where people tend to get hung up in the discourse, from what I've observed. which is why I started using this phrasing, because I think it's very crucial to be able to differentiate which one you're talking about if you try to have a conversation with someone about the portrayal of bdsm in media. it would also, frankly, be useful for tagging, because sometimes when you're in the mood for non-diegetic bodice ripper shit you'd call the police over in real life, it can get really annoying to read paragraphs of negotiation and check-ins that break the illusion of the scene and so on, and the opposite can be jarring too.

it's very possible to blur these together the same way Phantom of the Opera blurs its diegetic and non-diegetic music as well. this leaves you even more open to being misunderstood by people reading in bad faith, but it can also be really fun to play with. @not-poignant writes fantastic fanfic, novels, and original serials on ao3 that pull this off really well, if you're okay with some dark shit in your fiction I would highly recommend their work. some of it does get really fucking dark in places though, just like. be advised. read the tags and all that.

but yeah, spontaneous writer plug aside, that's what I mean.

[girlgen1us]

oh you guys this job is SO boring it’s insane

[explode-this]

Yeah, sorry I haven’t been in touch, I had to turn the ringer on my phone off because the notification sounds were overstimulating. Then the sound of it vibrating was also overstimulating so I had to filter out notifications for basically everything so I wouldn’t want to throw it into a volcano. And then I started another crochet project and I got stuck on “just one more round to make sure I’ve got this pattern right” until the thing was done and then started another one because the repetition was soothing. And then by the time I realized it had been like a month since I talked to you I was overcome with so much shame for being a shitty friend that the idea of launching into another explanation of my cycles of hermitude and timeblindness made me want to die so I just kept not talking to you, thinking that honestly it would be for the best because who wants to talk to me anyway? If it helps I put “text (you)” on my daily to-do list in the hope that one of these days I would actually work up the courage to get over myself and just fucking do it, and here we are. Anyway hi how are ya