#so yes. a lot of research etc will definitely be new! in ways people in the past couldn't have imagined. & that's so cool!

[hecatesbroom]

On a slightly more hopeful note: this means that half the people who were born did make it to adulthood: they grew up! And the people who grew up are the ones that raised us, our parents, our great-great-great-great-great grandparents. They stumbled through life and learned some things along the way, and maybe passed it along to their children — if their children survived, and weren't too stubborn to learn from their (incredibly annoying, I'm sure) parents.

We're not new to being people. We have been people, people who grow old, for a very long time, and history reflects this. In my country, we have houses for old men and women (predecessors to homes for the elderly) dating back as far as the 16th century. Before then? Almshouses for the poor elderly — going back all the way to the 13th century. Some guilds even took care to ensure some kind of retirement for their older members. People haven't just always made it to adulthood, they've become old in the process — and there have always been people who tried to take care of them. Because even by the time humanity reached the 13th century, they weren't new to the concept of growing up or growing old.

We get a lot of stuff about growing up wrong because we're human! Living beings make mistakes, we grow and learn, and every single person has to start from scratch when they're born. We mess up because we, as individual people, are new — and the fact that Adelaide from 1267 AD aged to the ripe old age of 92 in an almshouse and discovered all the secrets about growing up (and growing old) while poor 4-year-old Winifred died of the plague in 1347, was never going to help little Sarah in 2024 make less mistakes. Our worlds barely even compare at this point.

The statistics about child mortality are incredibly sad, but we would've made all the same mistakes regardless of how many people throughout history made it to adulthood. Because guess what? We all have one thing in common: we're people. And people all have to find things out for themselves.

Remember, history was awful. Never trust the romantics.

[frownyalfred]

You said you wanted someone to remind you to explain why the stop was illegal in that fic you wrote where the Batfam get pulled over and Alfred has a load of guns so, here's your reminder 😊

Oh yes! Thank you for the reminder. I had a lot of people arguing with me in the comments of that fic, saying the cop was mostly in the right and there was nothing illegal about the stop. I watch a ton of dashcam videos and I've seen some wildly illegal and only mildly illegal stops, and the problem is, both still end up with charges, sometimes very serious ones. Knowing your rights during a traffic stop is very, very important.

Here's the fic if anyone wants to read along with my commentary below. Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer, this is not legal advice, and it might not apply in your specific state or region. It's just research I did for the fic.

The cop pulled over a vehicle that did not objectively match the suspect description at all. A silver Rolls Royce isn't a "dark colored sedan."

Mistakenly pulling over a vehicle and realizing it doesn't match the description is one thing; however, for most traffic stops to be legal, there has to be a reason to pull the vehicle over. You can't just have a hunch. You need to observe them speeding, etc, which we know Alfred does not do.

"Pulling you over as a precaution" -- fine, maybe a jury will believe that the cop truly thought they matched the description. But what comes next is definitely illegal.

The cop asks if there are any drugs or weapons in the car. Alfred replies there are legal firearms in the car. The cop indicates that he'll need to be in possession of those guns during the traffic stop for his own safety -- that is legal. However, it does not entitle the officer to a search of the vehicle itself.

Just because the officer needs to take Alfred's gun into his possession for his own safety, does not entitle him to a search of the vehicle itself. There has been no crime committed or suspected of having occurred. There is no legal reason to search the car at that time.

Alfred willingly turns over all guns in his possession. Having a legally registered gun does not create reasonable suspicion that the car or his person contains evidence of a crime, such as drugs or illegal weapons.

Another thing Bruce mentions here -- Alfred doesn't have to legally announce upon being pulled over that there are legal guns in the car. When asked, he does say so, but he does not begin the stop itself announcing that information. The cop gets twitchy about this and calls in backup. Bruce correctly indicates that Alfred has no legal requirement to announce this during the stop. The cop ignores Bruce and snipes at him when he continues to discuss this.

The cop asks why Alfred has the weapons. This is not relevant to the traffic stop, and Alfred is not legally required to answer. They are legally registered and there is no firearm limit in New Jersey.

The cop cuts Bruce off when he gives legal advice to Alfred. The implication is that he might arrest Bruce if he continues to do so. However, as long as Bruce is not physically obstructing the officer's investigation, he is doing nothing wrong in a legal sense and can provide Alfred information on his rights regardless of being a lawyer or not.

“Any update on that 10-29V?” -- the cop asking dispatch this is basically giving away that he knows by now, at the very least, that this is not the suspect vehicle. He is still completing the stop, however there is no legal basis for it.

"Anything I should know about in the car before myself and my fellow officer begin the search?” -- this might seem innocuous but cops will often phrase voluntary searches this way, so later in court they can say you agreed to a search of their vehicle. Alfred did not consent, and Bruce reiterates this.

"But they all looked spooked when I asked about guns in the car.” -- again, not evidence that a crime has been committed or that there are illegal weapons in the car. However if they were looking for weed instead of guns, this is about the time the cop would start lying about smelling an "odor" he needed to "investigate."

“It doesn’t matter if the driver had weapons. It doesn’t matter if he had a goddamned armory in his trunk. It’s not gonna hold up. Every single one of those charges would be dropped by the time your sorry ass got to the station to file them. Do you understand what I’m saying to you?” -- People in the comments assumed Bruce would buy off the charges or something, but truly they wouldn't hold up and the DA would likely be reluctant to prosecute, even in Gotham. I should've said "referred" instead of "filed" here but oh well. I guess that depends on the state. The point is, even if the guns were illegal, the stop itself was not legal and therefore that evidence would very likely be thrown out. Frank is a smart man and knows this.

"And maybe, if you’re lucky, they won’t ask for your goddamned badge" / “That one’s a detective over in Blüdhaven.” -- we see evidence throughout the stop that Bruce and Dick know this is an illegal stop, but they don't fight it, largely because that would cause more issues and it's much easier to get the charges thrown out after the fact if they cooperate. Screaming at the cop who's doing an illegal search and driving away will still get you charges, it might just not be the charges they wanted to pull you over for.

So, what's the overall takeaway? Illegal traffic stops can sound and feel very legal, even when they're not. Disagreeing with a single arresting officer can be tricky and it's easier to fight the charges afterward, rather than risk more charges in the moment. But from a legal standpoint, nothing about the stop, the follow up questions, or the attempted search was legally sound. Bruce and Alfred would have been well within their rights to sue the police department for a variety of things, or make a public stink about the traffic stop in the media.

Laws vary state by state in the US, so make sure you're up to date on your local area. Knowing what a cop can and can't ask you can help you keep your cool and proceed safely through a traffic stop. However, you can do everything right and by the book during a traffic stop and still wind up with a racist or angry cop who ignores the law. Bodycams and dashcam footage are very important in those situations. I think everyone should have a dashcam if they own a car, for a variety of reasons.

I am not a lawyer, this is not legal advice, this is just additional information on the background research I did for this fic and why the stop itself was written the way it was!

[shnoob]

Kurapika Kurta HC’s:

A/N: FINALLY ONTO HXH!! I have been wanting to do this for a LONG time but life got in the way, which it will again this week but I'm very excited to get this out there!  

C/W: Has both fluff and angst!

Leave any suggestions if you want to see something specific!  

Fluff:

Is one of THE best people to ask about making bracelets or anything crafty related. Due to his exterior, he seems like somebody who wouldn't care about it (in for his goals he doesn’t do them often) but back at the village, he would teach all the little kids how.  

Speaking of the village he also is probably really good about braiding hair or doing other people's hair. I can see him back then being an older figure to all the kids in the village so being that figure comes with responsibilities!! 

If you need to know any definition or any historical facts, he is your man. You’ve seen him read those books, he’s educated!! Not only does he do it for fun (and probably used those skills for the Spiders-), but for the exam to go out into the real world he found some research on the history of the outside world to get him at least some sort of idea what he was stepping into. 

Would 100% correct you if you spelled/or pronounced something wrong. If that ends up being verbal or just in his head? Depends on his mood. 9/10 it's in his head but catch him in a bad mood and he won't hesitate to mummer it under his breath.  

Yes, he is very stand-offish due to his life/profession BUT I like to believe that deep down he is a really good listener and will pay attention. I mean we can see it first season!! Sure he may not say anything once it gets to the point where he’s in York New but he does retain the information said to him and just leaves it on the back burner. 

Back on the crafty gig, he knows how to crochet and knit. Instead of buying bookmarkers to not lose his place in his book, he makes his own (when he has the time anyway). 

One of the neatest people known to mankind. Although he doesn't get the time to do it, having a clean environment makes him happy and makes him focus better. If not in a clean environment such as his room, I feel like it stresses him out to where he needs to get up and put some stuff away before he can lay down and then stress about the Spiders. 

Tea drinker!! Drinks coffee but doesn't like the taste of it. LOVESS a tea that tastes more fruity <3.  

LOVES nicknames. Giving or receiving them deep down means something to him. Especially after you give one to him, if you don't use it he’ll wonder why and get a bit disheartened :(.   

The biggest gentlemen around! Holds doors for people, always says thank you and excuse me when moving around, biggest tipper etc. An “angel from above” is the words you’d hear people using for him from strangers. It has come to the point where if he enters a coffee shop he often goes to they already know and get in such a good mood. 

Loves birds!! As a side hobby he has a collection of pictures of birds he’s taken over the years. With that, he has definitely learned some bird calls and will not hesitate to show somebody the difference between them.

(is in love with Leorio I swear!!)  

Angst: 

When he was younger, the color red was something that was noted as a good thing, and due to his clan he was so confident in his eyes. Now he cant bare to look into the mirror somedays just because of his eyes. 

With the color red, he cant stand the thought of it being his favorite color. He probably doesn't even have one after everything due to how attached he was to red and now that attachment is unhealthy. 

Seriously doesn't take care of himself. Like at all. As much as I love the fluff he wouldn't know what a healthy life looks like anymore.  

Has so much survivor's guilt (which this one is obvious but to the point where it hurts). 

A lot of people say that he doesnt care about his friends bu he definitely does. In fact I say that he lives in a detachment type style. Due to his deep rage and focus it makes him feel that being away from everybody he cares about is the right thing to do because he cant let anybody else get hurt and theres no time to be doing things he enjoys most. By this though, he feels those surges of guilt by not keeping in touch; but now its been so long without talking to them the guilt of going back is so deep he cant bare to face them. 

When he cries most of the time he doesnt even realize. His brain just shuts down to where it doesnt register that he is upset and needs to take a minute. It doesnt help that half of the time tears dont even fall, so its just a emotional block. 

Will never be able to commit to a romantic situation but still dreams of it :(.

[cripplecharacters]

I have some odd concerns that may not have any good answers, but I thought this was the best place to ask.

I have a Minecraft AU world. Specifically a Minecraft: Story Mode AU world. There are many variations from the original game, but the important one concerning me the most right now is that I'm trying to add in some disability representation.

I've done a lot of research into things like missing limbs, burn scars, etc, (often using this blog for help) but I'm struggling to think of a way for a wheelchair user to exist in this world.

Everything is made of blocks, so can wheels or anything like them even exist? Would wheels even be useful in a world where everything is made of blocks? Moving redstone contraptions might be a possible solution, but they'd be huge and clunky.

I'm considering having at least one character who actually rides on an animal to get around instead. Something like a llama, a pig, or maybe even a Minecraft-exclusive entity like a strider. Using an animal would come with its own issues, like the animal not listening to the owner, or the animal not being allowed into certain places...

I'm just not sure if this is an appropriate direction to go in.

I do still have research to do, but I figured asking some real people first might help.

Hello,

So, in Minecraft, if a certain thing is a circle or oval (such as the music discs, or if you place four pieces of train track right next to each other so they curve into a circle, etc,) it's a circle made of tiny blocks. You can also see this in the wheels on the minecarts, they're circles made of a bunch of little blocks. If you make a wheel out of tiny blocks, you can make a functioning wheel. This functioning wheel could also help with the terrain, as those tiny ninety-degree angles might be able to get a grip on the edges of the terrain blocks in ways purely circular wheels couldn't be.

The gravity in Minecraft isn't particularly devastating, so you might be able to say that a combination of the weaker gravity and the geometry interaction could let someone wheel their chair over uneven terrain. You could make anti-tip measures that would allow the wheelchair to pull a wheelie (tilting so that the front wheels are in the air,) hook the edges between the tiny blocks of the wheel onto the edge of the block of the terrain with the anti-tip measures helping keep them from falling backwards, and then they can either use the incredible strength Minecraft Steve has to push the wheels forward while shifting their weight forward to get up the uneven terrain, or you can create a motor for the wheelchair that's strong enough to get the wheels over that edge safely using the same incredible power that lets the redstone rails send a mine cart speeding off at the speed of light. It's not very far-fetched to create a new Minecraft device that uses redstone as an energy source, turning redstone into a battery.

You can also create "ramp" blocks, kind of a halfway between a slab and stairs, and the character can place those to help with uneven terrain. Or they can place rails up uneven terrain, making a diagonal rail track, that can be used in the same way. The Minecraft gravity and Minecraft Steve's superhuman strength would allow a wheelchair to go up a forty-five-degree slope (wheelchairs definitely can't do that in real life.) Or you could make the ramps longer, creating a block that's two blocks long with a slope of twenty-two-point-five degrees, or a ramp that's three blocks long and has a slope of fifteen degrees, and so on.

Or they could use an animal like a llama to get around the uneven terrain, keeping the wheelchair in a saddlebag or in their inventory (or it can be folded up and just strapped to the saddle somewhere if you want it to be more realistic,) and then they can dismount, set up the chair (or have someone set up the chair before they dismount,) and get in the chair to get around that way. Use the llama in some situations, and the wheelchair in others. And yes, using an animal can definitely come with issues. With pigs and striders, they don't listen to your commands, you dangle a piece of food on a stick to lure them where you want. That's a very unreliable method where a lot can go wrong. Llamas aren't very fast and can be a bit of a pain to tame and ride, plus they have a habit of breaking their leads if you tie them to a fence and they can get into fights with other mobs. Horses would be the best mobs to use as a mobility aid. They're fast, loyal, easy-ish to tame, can jump some obstacles, can wear armour, and you can regenerate their health if they get hurt. They could also use a different animal for different terrains because while a strider is kind of difficult, you can't use a horse or a llama in the Nether. Horses and llamas are suited for different terrains and can be switched between accordingly. There are also options like camels, mules, donkeys, skeleton horses, zombie horses, and maybe even those giant pig things from the Nether, but I don't know as much about those because I have too many Minecraft wiki pages open right now and it's slowing down my computer.

In short, both of your ideas could work, there are ways to make this work. Wheelchairs and ridden mobility mobs are both very possible in Minecraft.

Mod Aaron

[writingwithfolklore]

5 Ways to Set Yourself Up For Success as an Aspiring Author

While these things don’t guarantee your manuscript will be picked up or that you’ll sell more books (and aren’t necessary to achieve that!) here are five things that publishing houses look for in authors to help make the book as successful as it can be, and you can start working on now.

1. Get an agent

I can’t say this is true across every publishing house, but in my small publishing house that accepts submissions from both agented and non-agented writers, we move the agented writers to the top of the manuscript pile. This is because they already have a professional in the industry who has vouched for the work.

However!! Important to note that a bad agent can tank your chances as much as a good one can raise them. I had a coworker say about a particular agent, “if I was on the fence about a manuscript and saw (the agent) was representing it, I would move it to the pass pile.” The agent was in general difficult to work with and didn’t actually listen to what her writer wanted, demanding for the house to make poor marketing decisions for the book based on her own personal opinion on what looked good. Oh, and she had also worked in publishing for Penguin Random House for over a decade, so what previous experience they have in the publishing world isn’t all you should consider when reaching out to agents. You want people with lots of experience actually—y’know—agenting.

Check out their previous clients and how many they have! Yes, small agents with only a few years of experience can still be amazing—but make sure you do your research no matter how experienced they seem and see if you can’t do a background check. (The agent mentioned above ended up firing her author! I’m sure the author has tales to tell about her).

2. Come up with marketing ideas

Your publicist is going to do so, so much work for you. Seriously, we have some really awesome publicists who are kicking ass submitting to contests and putting on events and sending authors on tour—but they’re also managing several titles at once, so authors who can pull their own weight a bit when it comes to coming up with marketing ideas for their book are highly appreciated.

If you ever have any ideas on how to reach your specific audience, write them down and try to fill them out with as many details as possible (who is involved, where will it happen, how will it happen, how much funding it requires etc.) and share them with your publicist, the marketing team will thank you for it!

3. Form relationships with the industry!

This one is huge! One thing we actually ask of authors right off the bat is if they know any industry contacts such as booksellers, media contacts, or other professionals/authors. If you can, intern/volunteer/or work for a newspaper, magazine, book store, agency, or anything similar. Having a list of people who know and like you to reach out to for writing articles or otherwise supporting your release is going to help a lot with the promotion and selling of the book! People are much more likely to help out or feature the book of someone they know, rather than a stranger, so start collecting your contacts now.

4. Grow some sort of social media following

Definitely not essential, but seen as a boon for sure if writers already have a community that are likely to support their new release. If you can point to a group of people that already like you or are interested in your work, we’re going to see that as an asset! Especially for book launches—there’s no greater publisher’s fear than a tanking book launch, and it’s so much more likely to go well if you have a community of people you know will show up.

5. Trust your publishing house

You’d be surprised how many authors drag their heels and kick and scream when it comes to the marketing decisions our team makes. While yes, a cover you aren’t necessarily thrilled about, or author bio that sounds a little too self-aggrandizing can suck a bit, know that these decisions are coming from people who have decades of experience in the industry and know how to get your book into the hands of readers. If they think a certain cover, title, subtitle, bio, photo, layout, etc. etc. would be best for your book, trust them. They’re the pros.

I’m happy to answer any other questions you have about the publishing world!

[obsidianpen]

After reading No Glory and Hauntingly, it's hard to enjoy hetero romance, and it's not just because your way of writing is elite; there could be so many reasons that I went hardcore m/m and f/f shipper. Like, I am dead serious when I say my favorite telenovela pairing is Luisa x Rose from Jane the Virgin. So, I am really, really excited for your original work, and even more stoked that you decided it to be an m/m pair. But yeah, would love to know why you decided that?

you know, it was an interesting thought process that involved a lot of self reflecting. There’s definitely controversy around women writing gay male romance. Most of it is, I think, bullshit, and the arguments such as ‘its fetishizing’ are way off base (no, that would be male directors and producers creating plotless w/w porn, imo). But it was a Big Question: why should I, J…Jamie (lmao I’m almost more OP than myself anymore when I’m online) write a story with a bi male lead, when I’m a female (I love writing bis okay we need more of us!!) ? The reason I like writing Harry/Tom has everything to do with their dynamic and roles in the canon, and nothing to do with the gender. Id ship them regardless. In fact I probably would have realized I shipped them sooner if it was f/m; I was just too young at the time to realize that’s what I was rooting for because I was a bit sheltered in that regard.

anyway - so yeah, why am I still interested in m/m outside of fanfiction? I asked myself, staring at the mirror. So I wrote a little bit out of this original idea, one version as a female lead and once as a male, and you know, it was a pretty interesting exercise. When I was writing a male protagonist, I was… calm? Idk, I didn’t overthink him. I knew who he was and I just wrote what he did and what he thought. But when I was writing a the female version, my anxiety was so much higher! I found myself agonizing over every bit of her personality, worrying if people would find her ‘too this’ or ‘too that’, too predictable, too pretty, not pretty enough, too tough, too weak, etc etc. I felt like no matter who I made her, people would be upset and fucking hate her. And then I realized, oh. This is probably why so many women authors like writing male leads. Because that agonizing feeling, that’s how it is to be a woman, all the time. And it’s so relieving to get to leave that behind when writing a male lead. Maybe this is all deeply problematic on my part, I’m not sure. Internalized misogyny? I don’t think so, just the bleak reality. But yes I likely have issues lmaaao

Another reason was simply that the last original work I wrote has a female lead, so I thought I’d switch it up again. Writing an m/m story is what got me into writing in the first place, so it feels weirdly like have to acknowledge that in new projects I take seriously, too?

and to acknowledge that story I already wrote with the female lead - Starlings - I agonized quite a bit less over her, and in hindsight, I think it’s because she’s a child. She goes through puberty during the story, surrounded by older women, and there are almost no men in the whole thing, so the dynamic is totally different. It’s not big on the romance, either, which also helps. So yeah. No anxiety there. But with a grown ass woman in a story that’s centered quite a bit around a super problematic romance? Anxiety. Anxiety for days. I also feel this anxiety when I write Hermione, btw.

there will definitely be a different kind of worrying writing this new original thing, though - writing a gay magical romance set in southern 1920s America is gonna require a TON of research, and I’m not taking that lightly. But that worrying isn’t nearly as personal, which makes a lot of difference.

I’m interesting in other people’s opinions on this! So please share if you’re willing. 🌸

[the-trans-script]

So, something I've been doing as a neurodivergent trans person in their first relationship who has never witnessed a healthy relationship irl (my family is kindly, fucked)

Is lots of *research* about healthy relationships (because of course I am)

and something obvious, but depressing, is that a lot of relationship research isn't helpful, because it's done on straight people. And then, when there ARE some gay people included, there are no trans people included.

And I'm not critiquing anyone, science is hard and expensive, we'll get there eventually hopefully.

But this does leave me with a problem. No statistics apply to my relationship. Which is a T4T trans masc relationship.

And yes of course, basic dating advice is good for EVERYONE, communicate, date someone with the same values, date someone who treats you kindly, etc etc.

But when you get to the nitty gritty of relationships, no one talks about T4T relationships.

I'm not sure how to articulate my point properly, but there's just something about NEVER witnessing a relationship like your own that leaves you feeling a little stranded.

One part of me says, well we can just make up our own rules of course!

But the other, monkey brained part of me, wishes for examples.

Examples of old trans couples showing how they made things work, how the rules in their relationships differ from cishet people or even cis gay people, talking about the issues they have that could only arise in a t4t relationship, talking about how their socialization effects their relationship, and honestly...just talking about existing. Because doesn't T4T feel so new even though we know it isn't?

I don't know. I think there's this assumption that all romantic relationships work the same, but in my experience of queer people, and specifically trans people, *they don't.*

We may love similarly, the base feelings may be the same, but the way our relationships function isn't necessarily the same.

Perhaps because our relationships have always been for love or at least good company, and never really about societal expectation (although I know some gays parents definitely want them to get married these days lol)

Which is sort of the best thing about queer relationships, they're completely our own.

But then, all advice that's given to us, all information we receive about relationships, is through a straight lense.

Through a lense that's been created through generations of misogyny, and marrying for good business, and marrying for survival.

And it's not that straight people have no valuable relationship information, I love nothing more than listening to very old straight couples who still love each other talk about their relationships (other than perhaps very old gay couples)

But even so, I get this disheartened feeling anyway. I've never seen a relationship like mine age.

The best I'll ever get is maybe a few worn sepia photographs of couples people debate the transness of. And I'll never know anything about them.

I hope that we can become those old people I need, for the future generations. I hope I become the happily married 90 year old trans person I need now, for someone else.

But for now, I'll just try to appreciate the beauty of painting my own picture, even if I wish I had some rulers for the perspective.

[natalyarose]

𝓟𝓵𝓪𝓷𝓮𝓽𝓼, 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓜𝓸𝓸𝓷 & 𝓒𝓸𝓷𝓼𝓲𝓭𝓮𝓻𝓲𝓷𝓰 𝓞𝓻𝓫 𝓡𝓪𝓷𝓰𝓮 ˚⊱🦋⊰˚

🩷Admittedly, in my years of practicing astrology I've not placed much importance on aspects beyond glaringly obvious ones. I've often felt that aspects can become a very technical way to explain energies that may be better understood through looking at the rest of the chart from a bigger picture perspective.

Yes, looking at squares, sextiles, etc. can provide insight but to me personally it can sometimes feel like getting 'lost' in the details, especially when it is unclear what counts as an aspect and what doesn't. Sort of similar to when people start looking to the endless, ever expanding range of astroids (eros, valentine, aphrodite, cupido, vesta, etc.) to intuit someone's approach in love, when realistically Venus & Mars alone can provide incredible, personal insight.

However, all of that being said, aspects are still a very valuable tool to use when analysing a chart, and understanding how to come to a consensus about defining what 'counts' as an aspect can be benefical.

A lot of people only consider aspects to be significant if the orb is verry tight (for some the cut off is as small as 3°), and this is a reasonable approach, as otherwise there would be way too many aspects to interpret and the major themes highlighted in any given chart would get a little lost. Though, I just want to shed light on a pattern I've seen in my research/observations-

In my experience (and traditionally), aspects, particularly conjunctions should be given an orb range relative to how fast moving the planet/astrological point is. *I want to note that this isn't by any means a new idea, but I just don't see it being talked about much.

This means that the Moon & ascendant especially, being very fast moving, can find themselves affected to a much greater extent by surrounding/aspecting planets even if they are somewhat far away. It's already known that the luminaries are to be given a wider orb range, but I've seen conjunctions especially have an even wider range of influence on a chart's Moon or ascendant than what is typically thought.

The way fast moving planets demonstrate stronger sensitivity to aspects can be understood if you think of how a child is going to be profoundly influenced by the teachings and energies of the adults around them, since they haven't lived very long yet and have little other experience to go off.

In contrast, someone who is very old has been around for a long time and has seen many things (planets) come and go while they stay the same, so these influences really don't phase them. Saturn is barely going to be affected by the Moon even if there is a 0° conjunction, but the always 'new', ever changing, fluctuating, watery nature of the Moon can feel Saturn's influence very intensely even if it's fairly far away.

I don't think it'd be particularly helpful/ideal to refer to every planet remotely close to the Moon (or ascendant) as a conjunction (especially considering how different Nakshatras bring very different energies to the table), but that doesn't mean the influence should be entirely discounted. Moon & asc in particular call for a more open minded, flexible approach when it comes to reading surrounding energies. My understanding of people through astrology has really expanded by being more aware of how sensitive vs un-phased the planets themselves are and adjusting my interpretations accordingly.

As mentioned earlier this definitely isn't a new idea or anything, but I do think that it's a good/interesting reminder to observe natal charts as if the planets in it are sentient (as they are) and have different ways of responding to the rest of the chart. I've seen people go 'my Moon is 16° away from Jupiter so it doesn't count as a conjunction' and then go on to completely disregard Jupiter's influence on the Moon when in reality, there's no real cut off point of influence. Yes, it may not technically be a conjunction, but the influence is still there.

Our charts are like an ecosystem, full of life & completely interconnected. All of the energies are fluid, constantly interacting, alive. There's no real numerical point where suddenly there is 0 effect, but we assign numerical points to loosely create a necessary distinction between energies & highlight the aspects which are especially strong,

To give an example of what I'm getting at, if you have the Moon at 2° Libra, and Venus is at say, 28° Libra; this is a 26° orb.. technically, wayy too large to be considered a conjunction, but I believe that completely discounting the way Venus' presence may influence the mind & heart of this person would be a mistake. Yes, it will definitely not be as strong as a conjunction with an extremely close orb, but it's still close enough to be felt by the Moon, being a very energetically porous, receptive, psychic planet.

I may have to go back and edit this later, I'm very tired and I'm not sure if I'm communicating the concept as best as possible, but for now, thankyou for reading & I hope this provides valuable insight/a new perspective for someone 🩷

🪐🦋✨

[kustas]

Do you have reccs for "ugly" art (manga, comics, movie, etc.)? Thanks for the Tekkon recs btw I really liked it

That really depends on your own personal media landscape and what your definition of "ugly" is! As a random example, I've seen many people call ONE's art ugly because of the wobbly linework when I think it's lovely. Ugly could also mean something a bit shocking/crass in its themes. Etc, etc... I'm going to go with the definition of "something that's a bit jarring to look at or go through" here :)

Disclaimer: a lot of these tackle sensitive topics, sometimes for fun and not always tastefully. If there's themes you really can't handle in media, do your research before looking into them.

Manga

I keep recommending yes because it rules but Dorohedoro and its scratchy messy art and gore galore. talking about the manga exclusively here the anime is too polished for my taste

God's Child (Kami no Kodomo): tbh this one is for the art only I hated the writing. very gruesome & unique looking short story

I hesitate to recommend this one because it's edgy as hell but I shan't lie I had a lot of fun with Hellsing. it's "bad" in the same areas as something like berserk but unlike that one it does not take itself seriously

if you liked Tekkon i strongly suggest trying out more stuff by its author (saying this with immense biais). the most ugly/messy thing i've read of his, which isn't a lot because i find his work very delicate, is No. 5 which i would less describe as "good" than "very compelling to me". i also recommend this wonderful essay tearing it down

Comics (non JP)

FLEEP: a short story about a man who wakes up in a phone cabin seemingly encased in concrete. one of the comics i always recommend for its length and storytelling. (link leads to the artist's website where you can read it for free!)

The Astonishing Exploits Of Lucien Brindavoine: a young artist gets drafted in the first world war and goes through a series of almost supernatural adventures. beyond the adventure book aspect, a harsh criticism of nationalism/patriotism that's still awfully relevant

Animation

Ruben Brandt: Collector: a psychiatrist suffers from strange art related nightmares ruining his life. his clients, a bunch of high profile criminals, decide to help him fight off his demons by organizing one long vacation where they steal every painting involved. extremely unique visually, a fun heist movie with thriller elements.

Junk Head: goofy post apocalyptic movie about a man on a quest to save, who keeps losing sight his goal because cartoony violence episodes have his head tumble into new lows, literally. this is, perhaps, one of my favorite animated films ever, it's earnest and fun and lovingly crafted. very unique of a watch

The Apostle: freshly escaped from prison, a thief is on a mission to find treasure hidden by his old cellmate, and finds himself stuck in an ancient village who's strange looking elderly inhabitants are way too insistent on his stay. classic spooky folktale with its millennial curses and foreboding warnings, it's also a nice peek into the culture of Galicia and old world medieval weirdass catholicism. you can buy a DVD on their website

MKFZ: dumb as hell high adrenaline animated B movie with excellent animation. there's a plot about alien living undercover in fantasy california but you don't watch this kind of film for the plot. fair warning this is adapted from a french comic so of course, it's crass and racist

Blow to the Head - Lightning bolt: awesome music video (YT link)(warning for flashing/strobing lights if you're sensitive to that!)

Canon Fodder: from the Memories omnibus film. little slice of the life of a fantasy war obsessed industrial nation

with its new movie on the horizon, it's a great time to get into Mononoke, despite traditionally pretty visuals its got a unique style and gets pretty offputting

Live action cinema

7:35 in the morning: short film about the fear in improvised musical numbers where you don't expect any. it's on youtube in bad quality

The Draughtsman's Contract: an artist is hired by a Lady to draw several vistas of her house, in exchange for money, good drawing condition, and the Lady. follows a good hour of cunts in powdery wigs being awful to each other for their own gain. if you're into dark humor it's a good test, otherwise it has a really satisfying murder mystery to follow too.

Three Kings: during the gulf war, a group of US soldiers decide to steal Hussein's gold for themselves under the mighty standard of kuwait's loot repatriation. extremely caustic take on good ol murican international politics. i was shocked at how far it goes and it's express, low budget treatment which i did not expect from a hollywood film. the movie tires itself fast and becomes less good in its second half but the it's opening acts are interesting

Delicatessen: a sliver of humanity survives in an old timey stone building in the middle of nothingness on top of a functional butcher's shop. gossip follows the arrival of a new roommate. how does one even maintain a butchery in a no man's land? weird film with a unique(ly goofy) take on the post apocalyptic genre

Other

For traditional artists, I like the works of Beksinski (<3), Schiele, Giger. For modern artists Oleg Vdovenko (heavy gore warning for that one), Jeff Simpson

I'm less a fan of the MV and live performances they got infamous for than their music proper but I really like the band Cardiacs, who's judged by many of my friends to be extremely hard to get into lol.

[aqlstar]

advice-seeking anon here just wanted to say thank you so much for your thorough and thoughtful responses ❤️

i definitely don’t feel comfortable around the people who excuse or perpetuate antisemitism through their views, but i struggle with how to approach it other than distancing from them because of past experiences. i don’t tend to call out individuals anymore because it feels exhausting and unhelpful when it’s been met with vitriol, willful ignorance, or ridicule. the ignorance is staggering, like i genuinely don’t think that any of them know what they’re talking about or have done any research beyond maybe like instagram infographics/influencers or al jazeera articles and other bs. then they get so deep into this perspective of that being “the truth” or the “right thing” (demonizing Israel and zionists as like “evil colonizers” and “genocide supporters”) that they get pissed off and refute any evidence or disagreement otherwise, and default to the “anti zionism isn’t antisemitism!” excuse whenever being called out for antisemitic rhetoric, tokenizing antizionist Jewish people, etc. as exhausting as it is, i know it would be good to make more of an effort to call people out anyway though, so that i don’t contribute to normalizing or accepting that behavior.

years ago, i totally uncritically bought into a lot of the harmful pro-Palestine beliefs and historic revisionism, because it’s been promoted by a lot of Native American activist groups under the guise of indigenous rights. it wasn’t until truly and openly learning from different perspectives, learning more about history and more about Israel that i could understand how wrong and backwards that is. after the start of the war, i took down and reported antisemitic hate speech on my college campus and also discouraged the formation of an SJP chapter among our student clubs (which thankfully didn’t come to fruition). my yellow ribbon either got snagged or ripped off my bag at some point, so this was also a good reminder for me to get a new one! maybe a yellow ribbon pin will be more durable than an actual ribbon. anyway, sorry for these long messages. i’ll keep looking for ways to be a better ally and hoping for an end to this war soon that sees the hostages returned home and brings lasting peace.

super grateful for everyone like you and all the educators/activists putting the truth out there, with so much courage, grace, and kindness in the face of all the ignorance and hate

Anon you are giving me hope for the future 🥹

Yes- there is a very well organized disinformation campaign working on influencing people our age and especially marginalized groups that Israel should be destroyed. Most people don’t/can’t get passed the knee jerk negative reaction to Israel to look into the history or the reality of the situation.

Instead of engaging directly with the rhetoric of groups like JVP and SJP, I think it can be helpful to affirm some basic facts about the Middle East- namely that the Levant and the Arabian peninsula are two geographically distinct regions divided by a very large desert, and Arabs are only one of many groups of people native to North Africa and West Asia.

The pro-Palestine (“the whole region is meant to be Arab”) disinformation primarily targets Jews, but it also sets up the Kurds, Assyrians, Yazidis, Coptics, Maronites, etc up for an uphill battle being taken seriously in the West.

Idk if you’ve read my one specific post which I have lost track of that explains that my dad’s side of the family is Assyrian and left for the US in 2 waves from Haifa in Ottoman Syria (1st) and British Mandatory Palestine (2nd).

They left because they were scared of the growing Arab nationalist movement (not actually a “Palestinian” nationalist movement- at that point they wanted to establish an Arab Syrian state in control over the whole of the Levant).

Idk what I’m really saying here. Thanks for letting me ramble.

[juliasgoodusername]

Ley Lines Map for All the Gansey-core Girlies

Have you ever wished there was an interactive map that not only graphs the ley lines described in TRC, but also has layers full of possible spiritual points, arranged in loose categories and sloppily curated by sheer force of mental illness?? Okay baby here you go:

FAQ under the cut 😘

Was this necessary?

Genuinely it was not. My investigations uncovered that Maggie Stiefvater does not really care about geography, nor does she remain consistent about the ley lines, so I can't even really say that it's book-accurate.

Example 1 - There are multiple understandings of ley lines. Some are circles, patterns, connect the dots, etc. but TRC goes with the definition of "perfectly straight" lines "that crisscross the globe" (The Raven Boys Chapter 2, Chapter 15). One of the big three lines connects Boston to St. Louis (The Raven Boys Chapter 22). And the main line also passes through Boston (see example #2)! But half of all the Pynch drama in Call Down the Hawk specifically blames Boston/Harvard for not being on the ley line. Hello?? It's on TWO of them!

Example 2 - Maggie makes it clear that the connection between D.C. and New York, which also connects to the UK and Pilot Mountain, is the main line that Glendower's squad traveled on (The Raven Boys Chapter 7, Chapter 22). The weird part is how after defining this line, all of Adam's ley line adventures place it directly along the Shenandoah National Park/Blue Ridge Mountains (Blue Lily, Lily Blue Chapter 2 + many other quotes I don't feel like looking up). There's no way to connect the DC-Pilot Mt line to Shenandoah, but I can totally see how Maggie Stiefvater would think it connects when looking at a flat map.

So yeah. It doesn't really matter, but thanks to my research we can CONFIRM that it doesn't really matter. You're welcome.

So why did you make this?

For fun...it wasn't exactly worth it. But by sharing it with y'all, hopefully no one else will make the same mistake.

What about line #3?

The third line never has specific connection points in the books so I basically made it up :) but I narrowed it down to 2 candidates, with my chosen line based on Ronan's mention of the "Pando thing" in Greywaren's epilogue.

How did you decide on/find points?

Honestly it was a lot of vibes. You can read in the description of the map how I started from certain resources, like all the stuff in the books, and other people's Google maps. My big discovery was realizing that UNESCO World Heritage Sites covered a lot of territory between history and nature, but before that I was literally googling things like "strange places Kentucky" and pouring through articles. If a place seemed weird and magical, I added it.

Yes this took forever. Easily 3x as long as the 300 Fox Way floorplan, if not longer.

Is this map complete?

I had other ideas for things I should add to it but I got tired, so nah.

You've put down everything from urban legends to alien sightings, but why don't I see many hauntings on the map?

Blatant author bias; I firmly don't believe in famously haunted houses! The vast majority of "haunted" places operate as tourist attractions, so if I took them at their word I'd have to also log Disney World for being the most magical place on earth, wouldn't I? Also Re: I got tired.

Can I copy this map / add to it / use it for reference?

Please please please please

I found a typo

I bet you did! I'm not even proof reading this post bestie.

[third-arch]

Law would be really good in an apocalypse AU, so I’m talking about it.

Something that I think is really cool about Law is that he has a ton of qualities that would make him perfect for any survival AU:

Self Designated leader

Mature

Doctor

Quiet

Always has a plan

Brave

Intelligent

Violence as last resort

Curious

Cautious

Survival Skills

In control of his emotions

Protector

There are more, but it made me wonder how these would apply to a survival AU.

So, I thought I’d talk about a basic scenario:

“The zombies are taking over. The outbreak just happened and it’s not terribly far away from Law. How would he handle it?”

I think Law would already be planning.

Let’s say he’s working at a clinic and lives in a nice apartment.

He’d be focused on some things.

He’d always be keeping track of the news. -The latest on the death toll, updates on a cure, how the zombies behave, statistics, politics, etc.

He’d already have supplies packed-everything he learned as a child and through the years and his clinical experience.

He’d already be planning an escape route and base.-I think depending on where he lives, he’d be planning to find a secluded shelter. I don’t think he’d trust living around other people in his apartment.

(I think this would be hard for him since he’s having to leave home again, but again, he’s mature and won’t let his emotions get in the way, especially during the apocalypse.)

He’d probably contact people from his clinic and those he trusts and might (big emphasis on might) ask them to come along.

He’s always doing research too and keeping medical records. If he sees something that relates to zombies, he’s looking into it.

If he takes people with him, the rations are fair, they’re a team, and nobody gets left behind.

He’d make it a rule that they all eat together for two reasons: keep themselves together/sane and strengthen their bonds. He cannot afford to have someone turn on them or someone fall behind. He’s not doing it out of love as much as he’s doing it just to make sure things don’t fall apart.

He’s assigning jobs and tending to injuries. He’s doing all of the negotiating and taking advantage of every opportunity he can.

If there’s a decided grocery store, he’s looting it. If there’s an empty house with running water, he’s using it. If there’s a vehicle another gang left behind, he’s taking it.

Would he fight the zombies?

Unless absolutely necessary. If anything, he’d be observant of their movements, behaviors, weaknesses and characteristics. He’d have armor or a repellant of some sort made for confronting zombies. He’d ultimately make sure the areas cleared before letting his group through.

Which leads to potential faults.

The faults

I think his curiosity, brattiness and over confidence in his decisions would ultimately get him in trouble.

I think his over dedication to his leadership and independence would get him in trouble, too. Even bitten

He’d definitely sacrifice himself multiple times for the sake of his group. I think in once instance, he might get bitten and have to lose an arm or leg.

As far as confidence and brattiness, he’d probably get in trouble with another group and cause unnecessary conflict due to his stubbornness. Nothing would come of it other than wasted resources and possibly a destroyed camp.

Something that I’d be curious about is the idea of “give and take” with Law.

I think as much as he despises the concept, he’d use it a lot.

For instance, he’d help out a group of injured travelers, but expect a payment or advantage that they can provide.

This could lead to problems with betrayal and softening. More conflict would be due to him (at least that’s what Law would think), so doing these kinds of assistance calls would bring a lot of stress and overthinking into the mix.

Would he survive?

Honestly, I think it’s either a yes or a no.

If he survives, then he’s managed to save his entire crew and make it out alive. He probably managed to relocate to a permanent safe and secluded location that will keep them safe and supplied for years to come. He managed to keep his emotions in check and was diligent.

If he didn’t, he did it sacrificing his life for someone or a group of people. His death would probably be the saddest by far because of how greatly his love poured through his hard work. It would be an honorable death, and those people would continue to live on for a very long time because of him.

I don’t think he’d let his emotions or pride get to the best of him in the face of death, but rather it was simply his job that caught up to him: Saving lives.

[wawamouse]

[bursts into your inbox as if we were having a conversation you were definitely not aware we were having] -one reason we need more slightly more modern outside AUs is: how unhinged could the texts between Chico and Miguel get?? The possibilities for conversational wtfuckery with these two!!

(I'm sure for the longest time it would be the most short and uninformative texting desert where they barely go beyond "u hungry?" and "k" level communication. But there would be bursts of amusing absurdist insanity that goes on and on.)

Yes this was prompted by something you reblogged on another blog, and I came here to tell you rather than politely musing in my own area.

Wow you’re so right, we need to make miguel and chico millennials…. or we just need to give them cellphones lol

(for those wondering, the post I reblogged was this )

also i do think “k” & leaving on read is miguel’s style of communication (toward chico) but probably only because i headcanon chico texting him like an insane person, both when he like-likes miguel and also when he hates him (bc that's hardly going to make him leave miguel alone lol). i could see him firing off an essay in single line texts and god help miguel when chico discovers audio messages (but at the same time, i think miguel would send audio messages more) (which chico would love because… come on 😂). i think miguel is better at cyber stalking someone than chico tho (ok now i’m just going into my Technology Headcanons). just, like, miguel is better at researching than chico. but chico knows more about torrenting and vpns and anti-virus stuff. also his bookmarks bar has a bunch of porn sites saved if we're being real

idk, i just don't see miguel as a texting person 😂 I think he prefers face-to-face communication or talking on the phone where as chico who probably has a really aggressive way of texting and also he uses T9 lol

i also think chico would send truly indecipherable memes sometimes, not because he thinks they’re funny (he doesn't get them) but because he just compulsively forwards every little piece of internet junk, clickbait, memes, buzzfeed quizzes, etc, straight to miguel, not really caring if he even responds or not bc anything he Actually wants miguel to see, he'll just bring up in person...

2 AU thoughts that immediately jumped to mind:

they meet as wrong numbers—like, one of them accidentally texts the wrong new contact or something—they got a fake number (haha), etc., and then the other person responds and they have a sort of curt conversation of realising they have theyre talking to a stranger before being like Whoops my bad! ...but then weeks later when the first guy (let's just say, chico - that' kinda what i'm imagining anyway) mistakenly texts miguel again bc he never deleted the contact info. and he's like totally shitfaced too so he just ends up calling miguel and being like HEY Come get me. I'm at xyz location!! … and that’s how they meet—because Miguel is moderately bored and curious and he thinks Chico will have drugs 😂 (maybe he’s mentioned it idk) (anyway he does have them) ...

dating app AU (cough hook up app) 💀 they chat/sext for a long time more as like friends for a while... idk, some people you just sort of end up befriending and having longer running fun conversations with / gossip about your other hook-ups on the app bc there's more to it in a way. they end up exchanging actual phone numbers and chatting bc they have a lot in common—even know the same clubs and know they don't live that far apart, but they just don't meet up right away. And then it gets kind of weird bc at a certain point, they're more lookng forward to meet up but then it's like damn, what if the spark isn't there in person 😵‍💫 what if they meet up, have sex, and then never text each other again or it all falls apart or something. And then something something, when they finally go Fuck It and decide to meet up and get it over with, they get completely sidetracked (just gotta do a minor job real quick! swing by a location!) in a Date Ends Up With Them Almost Getting Shot and Running For Their Lives type way. but good news: even though they bicker like hell in person, and each find the other vaguely infuriating, the spark is definitely there 👀

[delinquentbookworm]

Idea for an au that in my head I’ve dubbed ‘heir Porter au’ where porters family is never fully driven out of the mountains of chaos, instead just to the very edge in a very barren area. This partially done as a reminder of the glory they once had and also so their enemies can just keep an eye in them.

So the now named cliffbreakers (they still change their name mostly because I really like Porter cliffbreaker but also as a constant reminder of their greatest failure and to never be weak enough to let anything like it happen again) bide their time carving out a meagre existence for themselves while researching and planing a way to fight back.

It’s porters birth that acts as a catalyst so to speak, he’s the first genesi born in generations to an otherwise Goliath family and is seen as a blessing and a sign of good fortune (basically a way to make Porter even more arrogant and egotistical than in canon since he’s basically treated like a prince, while also deeply caring about his family and the people he sees as his).

They come up with a similar plan to canon, resurrect ankarna so Porter can kill her and take her place as the new god of war etc. The only problem is that they need someone who has and truly knows magic to help cast and research the rituals and find the dead gods name.

Cue Jace acting as a chaperone to the high five heroes (the rat grinders) for a spring break project in the mountains of chaos, it was so easy to spy on them and almost as easy to lead a stampede of high level monsters their way.

In the confusion they manage to grab Jace while the kids get away, he’s exhausted and confused by the sudden apparent of a group of goliaths and an earth genesi so before he even has a time to question what’s going or fight back his neck is snapped.

When he wakes up he finds a a fiery red gem lodged in his chest and a mage collar (one of the few antiques the cliffbreakers have from their former glory, it severely limits a spell casters ability unless the person who put it on (Porter) allows its) wrapped around his neck.

Porter gives a big epic speech about how he plans to reclaim the mountains of chaos, earn back the name of sunstone and literally turn himself into a god. By the time he’s finished and actually looks at Jace he expects to see fear and awe in the half elf, instead he just looks completely confused and frightened.

That’s when it finally occurs to him, none of his followers have comprehend language, they only speak giant and there’s little to no chance Jace would understand giant.

Porter and a few others do know a little bit of common from traders so they do their best to explain the plan to Jace, this only confuses him more though.

Jace does eventually eventually get the idea of what they’re trying to do, mostly through having a bunch of books written in common on religion, magic and gods dumped on him.

Along with witnessing a lot of the ceremonies they perform on Porter to try and prepare his body for godhood, Jace definitely finally gets annoyed enough at one point to just fully barge his way into a ceremony add some tunes for extra potency, add what little magic he can access to to the circle and reposition Porter to the correct bloody markers! He’s a teacher goddamit and sloppy work still pisses him off.

He fully expects to be killed or punished (he really tries to ignore how both his heart and cock jump at the idea of that) only for the Goliaths to what he thinks is praise him? Slapping him on the back (he’s nearly knocked over by this) pat him on the head etc and Porter to come up to him and clasps him on the shoulders and what in little common he knows say “good magic, good elf”.

Also Jace being a little freak who while yes is a scared and pissed off as a normal person would be in this situation also has had a fantasy of being taken hostage by a group of Goliaths and fucked in front of everyone by their leader in a show of power and dominance for a while now.

And Porter who’s so used to being given everything (he’s basically like their prince do he gets special treatment) while simultaneously being denied the only thing he really wants and feels like deserves (the ability to restore sunstones name and his own godhood) finding himself developing feelings for Jace and just fully not knowing how to cope or what to do with them.

He also has to deal with a group of Goliaths that are very interested in the very pretty little half elf they suddenly have.

Plus I love the idea of your short 5.5 and 110 pounds Jace, especially considering that the average height of a male Goliath is 6.9 xx

This is a really fun au idea! I don't have anything to add myself, but I would definitely encourage you to write and post this on ao3!!!

[fandomfluffandfuck]

I have dyslexia as well so I listen to podfics a lot! Can I ask how you write so perfectly with dyslexia? No need to answer if you don't want to, jus curious about your process :-)

Hey, sweets, it's no problem, don't worry!

I'm gonna take this opportunity to do what I do best and... overexplain. (Which--the overexplaining, overwriting that I do--I'm convinced is due to dyslexia. It takes a lot of words, which I don't feel naturally attuned to, to communicate the thoughts I have in my head. I struggle with words and sentence structure, and it all comes out tangled, so I just keep trying until I have monster paragraphs, lmao.)

Yeah, I'm dyslexic! Very dyslexic, lmao. And I do a lot to work around it, trying my best to write (mostly) coherent words, but also, I don't really think about the process I use all the time because... it's just what I have to do, y'know? I've always had to have work arounds. Like, I've obviously been dyslexic my entire life, but I didn't get a diagnosis until late, late middle school, and at that point, the "accommodations" I got at school were entirely useless. Like, oh, wonderful, preferential seating. Sure. Yeah. That will definitely help with my dyslexia. Thanks.

I also remember, just as a side note, that it was during that time when I was refused accommodations like extra time for tests, reading aids, note-taking aids, etc. all which would've been EXTREMELY HELPFUL because I was doing "well enough" in school. So, clearly, I didn't "need" them, if anything, they would be "wasted" on me when they could go to someone else who was actually struggling (which, I get, public school funding is shitty and there aren't unlimited resources, but I'm still slightly salty, lol. Just because I didn't appear to be struggling on the outside didn't mean I wasn't struggling. It's similar to having "high functioning" depression, like, it doesn't matter if I can function if I still feel like fucking shit constantly). I was also so, so close to not being diagnosed in the first place because, according to the doctors I saw, I was smart enough that it wouldn't matter.

That's a reoccurring theme with my dyslexia, actually!

People never believe me!

Which, sure, is a compliment to other people. But it's a backhanded one. I don't want to be complimented by pushing everyone else down.

ANYWAY-

The process.

The process starts--background wise--with practice. The shit answer. I know. But, really, practice. I've been writing stories for a lot longer than I've been posting fics. I've written lots of fiction (short stories and nonshort stories), I used to write poetry, and I'm a life-long journal-er. I used to read a lot, lot of books, too, despite the challenges with my dyslexia. It'd just that now I write so much for fandom and with higher education challenging me, I find it hard to have the time or the energy to read and deal with more words than I already do.

So, I have lots of practice on my side, active and passive, but I also have other things...

I type all my fics, and I use fonts and font sizes extensively. I tend to use bigger font sizes overall, not like wildly huge fonts, but not 11 or 12, either. It depends on the font itself--some fonts have larger letters than others. Something about the letters being more visible and having smaller sentence chunks on each line helps me anchor the letters in place.

I also will plan my fics in one font (probably whatever the program is set to by default), then flesh out the plan more in a different font, after I'll actually go and write out my fic in a new font, and when I'm ready to make edits and add final touches I use a new font, again. I tend to bounce between Arial, Verdana, Open Dyslexic, and Comic Sans. Yes, I write smut I comic sans regularly 💀💀

I've seen research that says, yes, fonts can affect dyslexia and research that says it doesn't do shit so... 🤷🏻‍♂️ Either way, I feel like it helps me find mistakes because it tricks my eyes into thinking the words are new, lol. That, and I find it more comfortable to write in dark mode, I don't know why or if it's doing anything specifically to my dyslexia, but I get less lost in the words when in dark mode.

While I'm doing all that font changing, I'm also, as I mentioned, writing and re-writing, which means reading and re-reading. I go over my fics A FUCK TON. Pure repetition irons out a lot of shit by brute force, lol. I have friends who will write essays for school and look over it once, maybe twice if they're feeling spicy. I can not comprehent that. Not me. If I haven't re-read it, once I'm at the final editing and final touches stage, at least six times then... it's not going to be posted. I'll also change fonts between re-readings. And when I put the fucking thing into AO3, I re-read it again.

(I'm sure a beta reader would be very helpful, but I'm also very protective over my art--writing, drawing, sculpture, or otherwise, and so I haven't played with that, lol. You'd have to ask someone else about their experience there!)

While writing, reading, re-writing, and re-reading, I'm also reading out loud to myself.

Everything.

All 👏🏻of 👏🏻 it 👏🏻

I say all of it.

It helps me with flow and writing style, sure, but really, it forces me to realize mistakes and lessens my mistakes. You mentioned podfics and while I haven't gotten into podfics I am a fucking podcast, music, audio guy. I find audio so much easier to process than written words.

(You might find this poll of interest, I do, lol)

Aaaand, while all of this is going on, I also, of course, use a grammar program. I use Grammarly because it was most accessible (re: free and recommended to me by an English teacher) in high school. I keep in mind that it has batshit insane suggestions sometimes, and I have all their bullshit AI helping tools turned off, but... it does help a ton.

In conclusion, something that I am working on myself is that sometimes when I'm having a bad day with my dyslexia--maybe I'm tired and I can't focus, maybe I have a headache, maybe my eyes are fried from staring at a screen all day, maybe I've done too much reading for college, maybe my threshold for frustration has been exceeded and I just can't deal with the challenge that writing presents that day, or whatever--I can't write and I need to accept that. I'm not gonna be able to produce something good, maybe not even something presentable, every time I sit down to write.

That's fine!

That's how writing works for everyone! That's how writing works for me, someone who struggles with letters and numbers and writing and reading and the whole fucking thing. That's okay. Let it happen. Let it go. Try again tomorrow.

Uhhh, I hope some of that, any of that, was of interest? Helpful? Maybe?

[staysafedontdie]

Vampire Spawn Lore/Headcanons Help?

Hey friends and strangers, Long Post here.

I have noticed in my attempts at research that there is almost nothing but a stat block for Vampire Spawns. But we do know lots about Vampires themselves.

I'm going to break this down into things that are consistent in BG3 and a couple things I noted in other RPGs that could be relevant?

Please feel free to comment with things you believe are true or could be true, or things you know from actual Vampire/Vampire Spawn lore! It'll be fun to see what people in the community do, think, and use for story writing and such!!

(Also, please note that I wrote this between playing BG3, Deep cleaning my apartment, and ADHD kicking my ass, so apologies if it's a little scattered.)

What we do know, per Forgotten Realms Lore:

Spawn share their masters' weaknesses, to a lesser degree (can't enter private dwellings without permission, running water is acid damage, can't see themselves in mirrors, sunlight burns, garlic, etc)

They also can share their masters' strengths: Spawn are said to be able to turn into mist and climb on walls like a spider. They also seem to be able to charm & "Like most undead, their bite and touch caused blood drain and domination" (Aka. the spell Dominate Person)

Spawn do regenerate health, but the damage they take from running water & sunlight is higher than their regeneration, which is why they can die to these things.

Their features become more distorted/sharp/predatory when infected.

As Astarion mentioned, Spawn are less slaves and more puppets designed to do their master's bidding. Free will is non-existent, even if they're fully aware of what they're doing. Obviously it would depend on how controlling the individual Vampire is, but when given an order they cannot disobey.

Once a Spawn is freed, they can no longer be enslaved (by another Vampire. So, one master and if said master dies then the spawn is free to go on their merry way without fear.)

"When it came to a life of adventuring, vampire spawn would seek vengeance on their creators, or penance for their new damnation. If these monsters could overcome their ravenous emotions, they might seek out knowledge, glory, or power. Pride was the true driver of the vampire spawn, since they believed themselves better than others."

A point of contention: Yes a Spawn can feed from their master to become a True Vampire, but the Spawn needs permission to do so. It's a consent thing. So, yes, while it would be nice to bully Cazador into turning Astarion with a series of fun intimidation checks, that man would rather die than concede.

Besides, per the Lore True Vampires lose their humanity in the process of the change and all of their emotions twist into dark shadows of themselves. Love becomes possessiveness, etc.

Stakes do not kill Vampires, they paralyze them. Thus making it easier to kill them. Astarion's preferred death of decapitation is - from what I've seen - one of the most widely supported ways to permanently kill a Vampire in not just FR Lore, but IRL too.

Some other things that I thought were interesting: (Admittedly this could be partially due to the tadpole)

Despite the inherent nature of Vampire Spawn, Astarion doesn't seem to be evil - in fact, the more we learn about him, the kinder he seems and the more the evil act seems to be for protection. He's definitely firmly self-serving and Chaotic, and will forever be a mischievous chaos gremlin who talks shit and plays mean-spirited pranks on people for sure, but he is kind.

Astarion seems to be able to imbibe in at least drink if not food as well. He's shown drink wine at several points throughout the story.

He sweats and bleeds and salivates, indicating he does have bodily function to some degree. (I'll touch on this a bit later.)

If his features are distorted/more predatory HOW SOFT MUST HE HAVE LOOKED BEFORE WHAT THE FUCK?

ALL OF CAZADOR'S SPAWN HAVE SOULS. This is Weird for Vampires/Undead.

Notes from other (Non-FR) Lore sources:

Midgard (D&D 5e supplement from Kobold Press):

Vampire Spawn are able to have children and sometimes those children are Dhampir/Dhampyr (do with this what you will)

Honestly this system has a ton of cool lore, but that is the only different Spawn-specific thing I found by skimming. But if you want lots of Vampire/Dhampir/cool character backgrounds related to those things? Please take a look. Not associated, just found it while researching and Thought It Was Neat.

General/IRL Vampire Lore:

Originally Vampires couldn't see themselves in mirrors because they were backed with a thin layer of silver - a very pure metal said to repel vampires and werewolves. So theoretically a Vampire in the today times would be able to be seen in a mirror, as ours have aluminum backings. So you could, potentially, with a bit of work, find an exotic mirror that might work for Astarion and the horde of other Spawn you may or may not have released into the Underdark.

Running water has the same implications in that it's pure, which is why a Vampire can't touch/cross it.

Sunlight as a Vampire weakness only came about during the film Nosferatu where it then became public lexicon - prior to that, Vampires were more active at night, but not inactive during the day.

I read somewhere - probably on this hellsite - that a Vampire's fangs are technically their reproductive organs, and I hate it. Please make this joke more in fanfics.

Vampire, The Masquerade (which is now not the most up-to-date World of Darkness lore, but more widely known):

"Vampire bodies do not function like the bodies of living organisms. They are (more or less) preserved in a life-like state, but they do not age or die from illness." - pretty standard among all Vampire lore

"Vampires are also vulnerable to so-called "True Faith", that is, the strength of a person's true religious conviction (which is, fortunately for vampires, very rare). Such faith need not be religious per se — one of the rulebooks mentions a yuppie repelling a vampire with his credit card, thanks to his faith in the power of money." - lmao please this is so funny, please imagine some rich idiot in somewhere in Toril pulling a 'The power of Christ compels you!' with a sack of gold pieces. Let's be honest, it's probably some rich merchant from Amn.

"Vampires are immune to most diseases, drugs and poisons, but can be affected by some if present in the blood of their victims." - cheap and easy way to save money on wine

"Normally, a vampire looks the part of a corpse. They're pale and register no pulse. They exist at slightly below room temperature. Food and drink taste terrible, and immediately cause violent, bloody vomiting. They also cannot function sexually, or convincingly fake enjoying sex."

The Blush of Life skill! "By spending a point of Vitae, Kindred may invoke the blush of life for a scene. This makes them functionally human. They become warm to the touch, with a full, hearty pulse. They produce natural bodily fluids. They function sexually in the way a human can, becoming physically aroused, erect, and lubricated. They can keep food and drink down, ejecting it later in the night. They’ll pass medical inspection while the blush remains active."

I can't remember where this came from:

I remember reading somewhere that Vampires probably need to feed in order to continue to have regeneration properties. So they have blood/fluids but they need to feed to be able to maintain those fluid levels. So if a Vampire gets injured, they'll continue getting weaker until they feed rather than naturally recouperating like other beings. - This actually ties really well into both the lore Astarion's exhaustion and hunger when he asks to feed on the player. It's the first time he's had to fight in a long time, and he was mostly starved by Cazador, so his vitality is quite low. (Unfortunately this wouldn't be very fun mechanically if implemented that way, so it's headcanon territory.) EDIT TO ABOVE: Apparently he's only feeding to see if he can disobey Cazador per his Origin route, but leaving that up as it's a valid interpretation if the Origin is excluded, since there's no reason to think otherwise as the Player Character.

Vampires look more alive once they feed. They may be a little warmer, have a bit of color in their cheeks again, etc. Different to VtM's Blush of Life as this is specific to feeding, when the other is a skill that can be performed.

As weird as it is to think about, I love whatever the fuck this answer is on Quora: It goes into depth from the perspective of a Vampire on how the body processes nutrients and expels waste.

LORE'S OVER, HERE'S THE FUN PART!

I have questions. SO many questions. Even if it's stupid, I want to hear your answers!

ARE VAMPIRE SPAWN IMMORTAL? IF NOT, HOW LONG DO THEY LIVE FOR? A: Idfk, I assume immortal, but literally nothing confirms whether this is the case. Either way it's A Very Long Time.

CAN VAMPIRE SPAWN EAT & DRINK? IS IT A TADPOLE THING? Honestly this could go either way for me. I do like the VtM interpretation of not being able to keep it down for long if they do.

HOW DOES THE BODY WORK? DIGESTIVE SYSTEM? CIRCULATORY SYSTEM? Idk tbh. Please help. (Though I do like the non-regenerative fluids idea.)

BODY TEMPERATURE? I agree he runs cooler than normal body temperature and is probably That Asshole With The Cold Feet in bed but I also saw this cute af headcanon of him of him being cold-blooded like a lizard. So self-regulating body temperature by sun-bathing and such and I can't stop thinking about it.

OTHER QUESTIONS I FORGOT?

THANK YOU FOR READING THIS NONSENSE!!