#this is why there’s a they tacked in to the end of my pronoun list

[allyendergirl]

I feel like this is me. Like I fuck with gender, but not in a “I mess around with it” kinda way, it’s like a “I fuck with gender”, like gender and I are making out in a corner bc I fuck with being born a woman so much that sometimes it feels like it transcends? Like, I’m a woman the way Aphrodite is a woman, the way The Virgin Mary is a woman. Divine and other worldly. Woman like the Bond Between Mother and Child, the Devine Feminine. With all the divinity and reverence of the word Woman, I am Her.

Like I’m so woman I’m nonbinary about it. It’s not an easy feeling to explain? Especially bc it makes me feel like I’m being very pickme about it, like I’m a cis person trying to intrude on nb and trans ppls experiences with gender. Like I’m trying to insert my gender experience in a place that it doesn’t technically belong, bc no matter how transcendent my feelings of gender may be, I’m still technically cis at the end of the day. But it’s also just how I feel, so . . . 🤷🏼‍♀️ And at the same time the fact that I have such complex feelings on gender to the point where I relate most to descriptions of gender that compare gender to intangible things validates my feelings to me personally??

If your goal is to normalize gender-nonconformity you’re gonna have to accept that some people will fuck with gender as hard as they can while still being unequivocally, 100% cis and that is okay. There’s no egg to crack or callout to write. This is a good thing actually.

[deuterosapiens]

Well, finished Sphere. When you talk about sci-fi horror, this is much more my brand. Slashers and eldritch monstrosities are fun, but the true horror being the human condition under stress is much more interesting. Of course, the film is also very solid and worth watching if you, like me, like that sort of thing.

Regarding Michael Crichton. I read Congo in high school, and Jurassic Park an eternity before that. He really has a way of writing women, doesn't he? You know that weird Tumblr writing advice of "if you don't know how to write women, write a male character and change all of the pronouns later"? Which is kind of awful advice, because it means you aren't trying to write a well-written female character as much as a male character who just so happens to be a woman (which can work in certain stories, but really, really doesn't work in most scenarios). I have a vague recollection of finding the leading lady of Congo oddly written, especially towards the end. But here, I definitely feel like Beth was written as a he with an <s> tacked on in a later draft, and I'm not sure I can properly explain why.

Perhaps reading Andromeda Strain will give me a bit of further clarification on this. But that's not anywhere near the list at the moment.

Anyway, fairly short read. Good bit of underwater horror, which is among my top three favorite types of horror, next to space horror and mineshaft horror. All are excellent ways to isolate you from the world, and potentially open a Pandora's Box containing unspeakable sleeping terror.

If you have a chance to watch the movie, pair it with Event Horizon (and perhaps my favorite of the genre, Sunshine).

[dailyadventureprompts]

Evening, Dapper. I'm a big fan of your work; I'm actually using a few of your NPCs in a campaign I'm running! As you've made a few 're-imagined' entries for demon lords already- how would you play Zuggtmoy in a way that's not just 'evil, but also brain-destroying and fungal'? What would she need to be like to motivate people to actually sign a pact with or worship her?

Monsters Reimagined: Zuggtmoy, Demon Queen of Rot and Regret

D&D has a problem with one note villains, blank slates that dungeonmaters are SUPPOSED to fill with their own ideas but end up coming off as pathetically shallow after their Captain Planet level concepts become increasingly rigid over successive generations. Occasionaly a great writer comes along and fills these concepts with interesting context, but they're few in far between.

Zuggtmoy is a great example of this, existing as what I like to call a "Fill in the blank baddie", as they adhere to a very simple formula that looks a little like this: X is an evil ____ who cares about ____, they want the whole world to be nothing but ____, they use ____ as minions and have a personality and ethos that one could describe as ____ like. For Zuggtmoy you could fill that blank in with "fungus" and you'd get her ENTIRE concept, indistinguishable from Jubilex the slime demon, Nerull the death god, and just about 90% of a high level party's rogue's gallery.

Below the cut I'm going to go into a complete lore revision for the dame of decay along with a bunch of adventure hooks, but for the TLDR: Default Zuggtmoy is weird because d&d assumes that fungus and decay are evil because they are gross, an odd stance to take because not only is rot a vitally necessary part of life, but fungus has brought us wonderful things like penicillin and mushroom risotto. My version of the demon queen is one that revolves around the idea of things “spoiling” when held on past their time, be they feelings, memories, relationships, or empires. Zuggtmoy herself is the mouldered and hollowed out remnants of a once queenly dryad, who’s influence appears in others unable to let go as a creeping blight that spreads through their mind, bodies, and surroundings.

When it comes to concepts Zuggtmoy is as about as “fill in the blank” as it gets, with her single notable character design concept and personality both being “She’s a lady made out of fungus”. This would be fine I suppose but she’s also specifically a demon lord, and that doesn’t tack at all for a whole bunch of reasons:

Do mushrooms have souls? Can they commit sin? Most of the creatures Zuggtmoy is described as being worshipped by don’t have traditional consciousness, if they have an intelligence score at all. Yeah, it sucks to be covered in slime and/or rotted from the inside out but those creatures aren't EVIL, so why is she a demon other than the fact that gross/ugly = evil in d&d world? She’d be perfectly fine if she was just the goddess of fungus, but she needs a reason to be considered one of the Pit’s big bads.

One could theoretically talk about how the grossness of Zuggtmoy is meant as a torment to those people who fear filth/corruption who might be damned to her realm, but d&d cosmology increasingly does not work like that. If Zuggtmoy is queen of a layer of hell, there needs to be a specificly demonic reason that her domain is one of rot and fungus.

Why is Zuggtmoy a lady? A giant mushroom or that happened to use feminine pronouns would have served but she is very specifically described as a humanoid made out of fungus, frequently depicted with signifies of being an attractive and elegant. The answer is obviousuly that sex sells, even when you’re trying to sell a list of demon gods, so while the male coded demons get to be grotesque blobs of muscle and bestial features the female ones need to be coded as traditionally attractive even if they have a few monsterbits stapled on. When redesigning her I could have gone with a purely fungal angle, but I wanted to play with the “lady made out of fungus” iconography

Taking all this into account, here’s my pitch for Zuggtomy:  There was once an archfey, a queen among dryads who found herself undone by heartbreak. None can say what tragedy or manipulation of the great courts laid her low, only that she knew a sorrow so profound that she simply could not be anymore, leaving her body as nothing more than a grief-hollowed statue of wood. Left exposed to the elements, the echo of that grief took root, and eventually bloomed into a being that knew only regret, only loss, only Zuggtmoy.

If sorrow is left to fester it can sour any happy memory, and thus is the case for the Dame of Decay, unable and unwilling to let go of the things that gave her joy and now cause her pain, even if her continued grief eats away at them until there is nothing left. So little is known about the story of the original dryad queen because Zuggtmoy’s influence ate away at anyone and anything involved in the events, leaving behind nothing but a spore choked barrens and hollowed out husks who mine out the events again and again without detail or reason.

When rot and regret had exhausted the dryad’s story it began to spread out across the multiverse looking for new places to take root, more tales of woe, more souls stagnant in their nostalga or sorrow where the queen’s essence might bloom anew.

Within a grand estate the revels of an indolent count are said to never end, as psychedelic indulgence rages every day and night while the lands around them decay. Folk say that the count had tried for years to drown the sorrows of his long dead brother, but he now appears to have succeeded with wild abandon. Rumors spread of the count’s riders gallivanting about the countryside decked in worn parade motley, snatching up performers and carrying them back to the estate. The party comes face to face with one of these agents looking to pressgang their local minstrel into service, only to lay the rider out flat in a brawl and have his body burst open with fungal rot for all to see.

The kingdom’s wilds contain the remnants of an ancient realm, once goverend by a queen who suffered a rotting sickness that the peasants still tell folk tales of to this day. Many of the fey of these reaches are sick, and seem intent on inflicting stories of this queen on any who pass by. Only after multiple ruins with these bestricken faeries do the party realize the truth: the story is the sickness and the sickness is the queen and all three are a curse that now spreads through the land with them as a vector.

After an encounter with a particularly fungal villain does the party realize that they’ve only defeated one bud of a deeply rooted threat, with multiple copies of their foe having sprouted off from some deeply rooted evil. More than simply bashing in mushroom caps, the party must exorcise the essence of Zuggtmoy’s influence, an act that will require them to call up the spirit infected by the demon queen and work through its particular issues to resolve its grief and deny the dame of decay her seedbed.

Art

[bigmoodword]

On Mary Sues and Underdevelopment (pt. 1)

Let’s start with the obvious. In the broadest possible sense, “Mary Sue” is a catch-all term for a leading (often female*) character the audience is supposed to sympathize with but ultimately dislikes, and that dislike is often only vaguely rationalized.

They’re too perfect.

It’s just unrealistic.

Digging deeper into the matter, it’s not uncommon to uncover a list of no-no traits. Things like purple eyes, being the chosen one, or having a tragic backstory are all red flags despite appearing in well-beloved characters. It’s confounding! And new writers put themselves through the wringer in an effort to avoid the nebulous yet terrifying “Mary Sue” label.

As many have noted before, the definition above is painfully subjective, and as a result, this trope has nearly lost all meaning.

However, I still believe "Mary Sue” initially referenced a common phenomenon in beginner writing, namely underdevelopment, and I do think that phenomenon is worth a closer, less subjective examination.

So to that end, I wanted to throw out my two cents—

footnotes —

*i don’t cover it in this post, but the mary sue trope’s sexist application is worth a closer look [1][2]. personally, i’ve never seen "mary sue” as female-exclusive**, and while i use the gendered name, i’ve opted to use “they/them” pronouns instead of the typical “she/her.”

**gary stu and marty stu exist, but afaik those never quite caught on.

1ȼ (on character flaws)

Let’s say we have this character. They’re conventionally attractive. They’re rich and kind of a supergenius, so they invented this one-of-a-kind technology despite impossible odds. They also have a bunch of friends who are equally attractive and distinguished in their respective fields. In the story, they’re all going to save the world several times over because no one else can. 

At first blush, that might sound kind of “sue-ish,” but a list of traits doesn’t make or break a Mary Sue, and the character above isn’t one. I mean, not unless you think Tony Stark (Iron Man) and the Avengers are a bunch of Mary Sues.

So why aren’t they? Well, as some might say, they have flaws, and the go-to advice for someone looking to fix their Mary Sue is to give them a flaw. But that’s only the first step. The ultimate goal isn’t to balance out your character’s “good” traits with “bad” ones. It’s to turn that flaw into a full-fledged character arc. 

The formula is simple: 

Character has a character flaw. 

Character goes through a character arc to improve upon that flaw. 

Character can then complete their ultimate goal.

To walk back through our example, the cinematic Tony Stark--despite the clear privilege outlined above--still struggles with several interconnected character flaws, all of which form different character arcs. For simplicity’s sake, let’s just look at one:

In The Avengers, Tony’s overconfidence is a flaw. When the Avengers initially come together, he asserts himself as the de facto leader, because he assumes he can defeat the villain on his own. However, after losing a key fight, he realizes he’s in over his head. Defeating Loki and the Chitauri aliens isn’t going to be the one-man job he’s used to. It’s going to take the whole Avengers team, and while Tony lacks the experience necessary to truly lead such a team, Steve Rogers (Captain America) has a wealth of experience heading combat units due to his military background. The arc resolves when Tony accepts his limitation, and with a newly learned humility, he defers to Steve’s experience. That choice helps propel the Avengers to victory.

This character arc is satisfying for several reasons, but perhaps most importantly, it’s satisfying because Tony is allowed to fail. His failure both prompts his growth and clearly shows why that growth is so important. If Tony doesn’t check his ego, the Avengers may lose the final battle. It’s not just any character arc; it’s an obviously relevant one.

When a character arc isn’t relevant, the flaw it addresses doesn’t feel like "enough” of a flaw. This is why general clumsiness or timidity are often so underwhelming. Tacked on, they simply don’t serve the story. Even if the character gradually becomes less clumsy or less shy, it doesn’t feel significant unless the change helps them achieve their ultimate goal. If, say, the story is about becoming a better gymnast or a confident leader, those flaws and the related character arcs make perfect sense.

That all said, whether or not a character arc is ultimately “good enough” will always be subjective. There will always be someone waiting to tell the world they’re not impressed, not convinced, and not happy, but that’s not worth worrying about. 

What’s not subjective is whether or not the character grows with their story, and so long as that growth suits the plot, it can be as simple as learning to make their bed or as complex as learning to save the world.

The key here is that a true Mary Sue wouldn’t grow at all. In the eyes of the story, they are already “perfect.” They appear fully formed the way you’d expect a character to be at their story’s end rather than at its beginning. 

Usually, lots of work has gone into creating the character. They have a very detailed backstory and an equally detailed appearance. Their preferences are well defined and their goal is obvious, but who they are is only half the equation. What they do is far more important, and because they’re missing their character arc, what they do is a lingering question. 

They remain--in a word--underdeveloped. 

development resources

for character arcs

sara letourneau’s character arc worksheet bridge to story’s character arc tools the literary architect’s character arc worksheet (requires e-mail sign-up)

shoutout to — @el-queen for the discussion that inspired this post!

[diveronarpg]

Congratulations, KAY! You’ve been accepted for the role of PORTIA with an FC change to TIFFANY MEIA. Admin Rosey: *chants with you* PANDORA PANDORA PANDORA PANDORA! So one thing I absolutely adore when getting applications is when the names of the characters are dissected. But at the end of it, you had tacked on something I found very interesting -- “Pandora will always be a gift given away.”  And with that you suckered me in so easily that I couldn’t help but love and adore the interpretation of Pandora that you presented on a silver platter. You made her charming, you made her someone I admire and adore. You added such humanity to her when I expected her to be a mechanical thing. Kay, I can’t wait for you to join the family and let Pandora bring her ambition to light! Please read over the checklist and send in your blog within 24 hours.

WELCOME TO THE MOB.

Out of Character

Alias | Kay

Age | 24 soon to be 25 and I can hear the grim reaper calling my name.

Preferred Pronouns | She/her/hers

Activity Level | I’m currently in school and in another group, but with that being said I’m online practically every day. I can get on to plot every day and post a reply or two at least every other day!

Timezone | EST

Current/Past RP Accounts | Here is my current blog!

In Character

Character | Portia, Pandora Phan. If possible, I’d like to switch her FC to Tiffany Meia!

Pandora, origin: Greek, meaning “All-gift” Just as her namesake before her, Pandora will always be a gift to be given away.

Phan, origin: Vietnamese, meaning unknown

What drew you to this character? | Is it cliche to say the first line in her bio? Because the first line had me hooked right away. “The sense of wonderment that others had as children was lost on Pandora Phan.” She was never a girl that worried herself with fantasies, always looking at the reality of things and analyzing how and why things are. She didn’t concern herself with the fantasies and lies parents would tell their children, and instead wanted to know the truth, the bottom line of it all. To me, Pandora is this girl who might come off as soft and pretty to some, but she’s really a girl with hard edges and a razor blade tongue. Every word that comes out of her mouth is very deliberate, calculated to maximize the impact they’ll have.

What is a future plot idea you have in mind for the character? |

a. Mother, may I speak now? Pandora spent her formative years having her voice fall on her parent’s deaf ears. So while she doesn’t speak unless she truly wants to, she makes her voice heard above all others. She’s someone that will use her voice to get what wants when she wants and she doesn’t care who she has to step on to be heard. And with that, comes enemies even within her own affiliation. Are there members that want to see her fail? What will she do to prevent that from happening? Who does she think she is?

b. Did the pressure weed you out? Odin is an ever-present figure in her life and it bothers her that she doesn’t know why. He’s one of the few people that can truly match her word for word, cut for cut and it makes her worry. She wants to know why he’s putting up a front of helping her when they’re on opposite sides. Will she listen to his words? Will she actually believe them? What steps will she take to make sure she doesn’t toe the line and fall into his trap? Who exactly does Odin think she is? I’d love to answer all of these!

c. Do you sleep anymore? Obviously, being a captain for the Montagues is sometimes she takes pride in. Pandora is someone whose work ethic is feared above all else; she’s known for being a cold and calculating woman in the gang. But she wants more. She spends her nights figuring out ways to claw her way to the top so she can be the one laughing at the end of the day. Just what, or who, is Pandora willing to risk on her way to the top? Will she survive long enough to be the queen that takes the king?

Are you comfortable with killing off your character? | As the Tralfamadorians say, so it goes.

In Depth

In-Character Interview:

What is your favorite place in Verona?  

Personal questions always rubbed Pandora the wrong way. Why people wanted to know such intimate things about others was lost on her. Some things were better left tucked away in the back of her heart. And yet, she found her lips parting before she realized what was happening. “Castelvecchio Bridge.” The faintest of smiles grace her lips as memories flood her mind. She remembers her childhood spent there, legs dangling over the edge. She remembers her teen years, smoking too many cigarettes and drinking too much wine on a blanket by the water’s edge. She remembers her adulthood, escaping her parent’s meetings to catch a glimpse of the swans floating by. “There’s something beautiful about the water in the middle of a war, don’t you agree?”

What does your typical day look like?

“I wake up and I go to work.” A memory of blood strewn across a table flashes in her mind. How unfortunate that the last collection she went on ended with her getting dirty. That poor silk blouse is worthless to her now. But, she didn’t ascend to her position without getting some blood on her hands. She glances at the underside of her nails, checking for any residual blood she missed the first three times she had scrubbed them. “I enjoy the view from the office then I go home to my fiancé. I have a simple life, really.” She swallows the bile creeping up her throat. Pandora has tried everything in her power to make her life anything but simple. Her typical day is filled with cutting remarks and blades pressed to skin, with sweet nothings and knives pressed into others backs. The only view she enjoys is the sight of someone realizing just how dangerous she is.

What has been your biggest mistake thus far?

Mistakes were never something Pandora took pride in. Sure, she looked at them as lessons, something that taught her how to properly do something in case the situation ever rose again. But, she hated the process. She would berate herself in private for doing something so foolish, so dumb, so immature. Pandora Phan the Captain was anything but those things. On the other hand, Pandora Phan the Child was not. “When I was at university I fell for an artist. I ignored everyone’s advice and she broke my heart. How naive I was at that age.” A wave of the hand shows that’s all she’s willing to say about it. She’s handing the interviewer a nugget of truth. A tiny kernel of the story without telling him the ending of it. A broken heart never did any girl any good, now did it?

What has been the most difficult task asked of you?

The word engagement burns her tongue and she has to fight to keep it down. She never signed up for the arrangement her parents made between the two families - she never had a choice in the first place. Their engagement had been just another business transaction in the grand scheme of things, a handful of signatures that sealed their shared power for the future. But playing the pretty fiancée was getting old. Their engagement was beginning to bore her and felt more like a sentence than an agreement. Sharp nails tap the desk between the two, fighting for seconds to come up with a reasonable answer. “Does this interview count?” Her head tilts to one side, the corners of her lips turning upwards as she spoke. “I have other things that require my attention instead of sitting here playing this silly game with you.”

What are your thoughts on the war between the Capulets and the Montagues?

Actual war was never something that interested her, but the benefits that came from it did. With every war came those who profited from it and Pandora was one of those. Because of their war, she was able to escape from a dull life to something more stimulating. She had a chance to be more than a little girl with chaos in her name. “The war went on for hundreds of years before me and will continue for hundreds of years after me.” It’s an answer devoid of any actual meaning, meant to distract the poor man sitting across from her. The interview might be required by her boss, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t have a little fun with it. “Lions do not concern themselves with the opinions of their cubs, so my thoughts are nothing but wasted breath to my superiors.”  

Extras:

Right here is a mock blog for her, here is an insta edit for her, and I am a sucker for headcanons so here is a mile long list of them.

Drugs might not be one of her vices, but caffeine and cigarettes definitely are. More often than not she can be found with either a cup of coffee or a cigarette, or both, in her hands.

Panda is really good at card tricks. As a bored teenager, she learned various card tricks to fill her time with. Just picture a teen Panda running around Verona scamming people outside of bodegas because she knows how to slip a card between her fingers.

Her main weapon might be her words, but very few know about the pocket knife she carries on her at all times. It might be old fashioned, but she prefers her weapon to cut in a similar way to her words.

She’s a sucker for poetry, with her favorites being Charles Bukowski and Pablo Neruda. The way that they form their poems and prose is something that she was always interested in replicating.

Panda is in love with learning languages. She’s fluent in French, Italian, Japanese, Spanish and is learning German.

She has a degree in linguistics and classics!

She spent some time traveling as a form of rebellion but thanks to that, she found the Neuschwanstein Castle in Germany. After a trip to Munich to fill up on nothing besides beer and pretzels, she visited the castle on a whim and fell in love with it.

As someone who doesn’t speak often, she has a very expressive face. I picture her looking into the camera like Jim on The Office whenever something goes wrong.

She reads the New York Times every day and does the crossword in pen.

I didn’t make a playlist for her, but I listened to a lot of Citizen and Joji to really get a feel for her. ‘Slow Dancing In The Dark’ by Joji and ‘Roam The Room’ by Citizen are the two songs that really gave me Pandora vibes. I also wanted to thank you for letting me reserve Pandora! I wasn’t sure I was going to finish her app in time but here we are, submitting right before the deadline lmao.

[ao3feedsamifer]

A Lesson in Pain, Agony, and Suffering

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/2rtVjD8

by 48eyesand32teeth1sharptongue

They may always end up stuck together, but Sam is going to beat the Devil no matter what it takes. Sam loses a lot of battles, but he always wins the war.

Lucifer thinks Sam belongs to him and will do anything to keep it that way. However, he knows Sam's track record for beating him, and he's not taking "No," for an answer.

(Starts off sometime in the future, then kicks off after S13E21 and the timeline jumps around.)

Words: 17365, Chapters: 8/60, Language: English

Fandoms: Supernatural

Rating: Explicit

Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con

Categories: F/F, F/M, M/M

Characters: Sam Winchester, Lucifer (Supernatural), Jack Kline, Dean Winchester, Castiel (Supernatural), Kelly Kline, Other characters will be around

Relationships: Lucifer/Sam Winchester, Lucifer & Sam Winchester, Sam/Happiness and Sam/Curbstomping Lucifer and Punching him in the Face OTP, Very One-sided Lucifer/Sam, Lucifer/His Ego, Kelly Kline & Justice, Other endgame OTP is Sam/Freedom, Sam/Walking Out of Hell and Being Whole, It's mostly Sam/Lucifer for the majority you have been warned and disclaimed, Past Sam/Ruby but that was awful for Sam too, Sam/Jess but with a twist, past Samifer, but it was never happy because Lucifer is coercive, Kinda current Samifer, but Sam really is not happy about it at all, Side-pairing Dean/Castiel, but that is not the main focus

Additional Tags: Jack Kline & Sam Winchester Friendship, Sam endgame pairing is happiness but boy is it gonna be a long time to get there, Major Abuse, Rape, non-con, mind-rape, Torture, Psychological Torture, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Eventual Hurt Comfort Fic, mostly horror, Cage Trauma, Sam is not about this life, Sam deserves happiness but life is like nope, In Honor of S13E21, Major Canonical Changes, Semi-Canon Compliant except for the stuff I forget or deliberately change, Flashbacks, bi sam winchester, Gender-changing Lucifer, Lucifer is also Jess, Lucifer is Also Nick, Stalking and Pain, Also making Dean less abusive and toxic than canon or at least acknowledging it, Assumed Abusive John Winchester past references, Sam is Jack's biological parent in this, No technical Mpreg because it squicks me out, I don't know what else to tag this other than the title is a lot of what you get in this fic, A lot of torture in a lot of different forms, Mostly a horror fic with alternate endings and some fix it tacked on after the suffering, Sam was in the cage longer than he's lived and boy does that trauma show, Enochian, Conditioning, Horrible family dynamics, Lucifer chooses to be a horrible person and wants to use Sam anyway, Lucifer thinks he's in love but doesn't know or care about actually not being abusive, Toxic Jack and Lucifer relationship because Lucifer sucks, Kelly Kline & Sam, The power of friendship, Sam is a survivor, Maybe some Prince of Hell and White Eyed Demon resurrections if not related to time travel, Multiple Endings, Also Sam/Ruby mentions, Probably not explicit sex scenes or they will be implied but sparse because I'm bad at writing them, if this changes you'll know, When Sam is male presenting in the show he's using male pronouns, If Sam is female presenting going to change pronouns when convenient, OH ALSO Demon Blood Addiction, Angel Blood Addiction, AND A METRIC TON OF MANIPULATION, Lucifer wants Sam to love him and feels something, Gender changing Sam, Chuck can fight me, Probably time travel, Probably some reversed character deaths, Surrogacy, because nephilim birth body counts, Sam Winchester Has Powers, S13 Spoilers!, sam is just done, and barely holding on to reality, Lucifer pays lip service to the idea of redemption, but is too self-absorbed to actually change, Lucifer tries to be a Dad but has awful role models, nevermind his actual personality, Casifer, Lucifer is an awesome antagonist, I just wanted to write something extra painful, Sam working with Lucifer to fight Michael, even though he'd rather not, Non-Linear Narrative, Hallucifer probably will be mentioned somehow, Implied Sexual Content, Dubious Consent, some of their earlier S5 interactions will be different and less antagonistic, sort of, Lucifer's Cage, Sam Centric Narration mostly, But I might add Lucifer's perspective in there too, I can't believe I forgot, Stockholm Syndrome, yay, Sarcasm, also Kelly is Jack's surrogate mom, she still dies but might come back, also more s5 type lucifer, then character development, let's just say Lucifer is pissed his OTP seems in denial, and that they are defending humanity because lucifer, so that's gonna change canon a bit, but only slightly because stuff still seems to play out the same, watch me justify all my canon changes badly, Lucifer is like why don't you love me?, Sam is like have you seen yourself? Do you need an itemized list?, destroying parts of canon with fire through sheer laziness, Lucifer believes in Sam but doesn't want to, Lucifer takes the abandonment from God and latches on to dear life, to the person he thinks can't abandon him even if he tries because Fate, It would almost be tragic if Lucifer didn't treat Sam so bad, which negates all potential sympathy imo, Dysphoria, sort of ftm sam, but I'm not sure how solid gender is in this fic, because Lucifer is a genderless entity who just chooses to present as whatever is convenient, and Sam only has issues with the gender change when its magic, and inflicted against his will, because Lucifer thinks pregnancy will force Sam to be even more tied to him, and because he likes making Sam uncomfortable, because revenge for perceived wrongs, and disappointment, torture and murder and awfulness are not answers to life's problems, but Lucifer sure as heck is gonna try to make them, these tags could be a fic of their own at this point., also this is listed f/f because Lucifer and Sam switch genders in this fic, sam doesn't really care about gender too much, but the devil generally mirrors sam's gender unless there's an ulterior motive, because possessiveness and possession, honestly though Lucifer was going the Labyrinth Goblin King route in this, until Sam beat him and he had a tantrum, Possession, also Lucifer's MO is basically, everyone else: Lucifer no, and lucifer, canonically from every point ever: Lucifer yes, Majorly diverts from canon after I deal with S13 and the flashbacks, Sam trying to beat the Devil at his own game, Pseudo-redemption (except it fails for obvious reasons), Sam's level of hate and fear for Lucifer is canonical or even more, Plus past feelings, and past betrayal, Also Jack is a beautiful ray of sunshine, who also only deserves happiness, so him and Cas and Dean are gonna be trying to make things right, and maybe give a break from all the pain and suffering all the time, Trauma, All aboard the MAXIMUM ANGST TRAIN, Lucifer is like an Ex that won't accept you've broken up, Angels are also basically eldritch monsters, which is basically canon, Suicide Attempts, but we all know that doesn't work, also everything is this fic is completely out of order, until I finish it, because I can't write linearly at all

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/2rtVjD8

[foryouthegays]

Yeah! My favorite section was about words—called “words and expressions commonly misused” because of how different things are now! The book is the third edition of the elements of style btw, i found it in my moms closet a while ago. She used it in school i think?

One of my favorites in this section is on page 50. I like seeing how things have changed, and how the “Do Not Use These Words” are commonly used today. It states:

-ize. Do not coin verbs by adding this tempting suffix. Many good and useful verbs do end in -ize: summarize, temprize, fraternize, harmonize, fertilize. But there is a growing list of abominations: containerize, customize, prioritize, finalize, to name four. Be suspicious of -ize; let your ear and your eye guide you. Never tack -ize onto a noun to make a verb. Usually you will discover that a useful verb already exists. Why say “moisterize” when there is a simple, unpretensious word moisten?

I remember there was a section on pronouns? Cant find it now. Either way, even tho its hecka outdated now, it was a lot of fun to read through and find the differences and similarities

People who arent native english speakers but mainly use eglish online r so cool

[kinoglowworm]

Possessive Markers in Kazakh (or, why all those cute pet names end in ‘m’)

Been thinking about writing this one up for a while, but a combination of heavy snow and encouragement from @thissupposedcrime (who wanted to be tagged when this got posted) means it’s time. It’s thoroughly warmed my heart to see writers going out of their way to find and use Kazakh terms of endearment in their YOI writing. So few people know much of anything about Kazakhstan and Otabek is such fabulous representation to get people interested. This isn’t about correcting anything, just explaining a construction that you might be seeing if you’re reading or writing Otabek-centered fics. Or if you’re just interested in learning a little more about the language.

A quick disclaimer: My background is in linguistics and I’ve done a fair bit of work on Turkic languages of the former USSR, but I’m not a native speaker of Kazakh or any other Turkic language. I spent almost 9 months in Kazakhstan, mostly in Almaty, studying the language, but I’m not fluent. I’m pretty confident in explaining this topic, but if you know more than I do and you see a mistake, please let me know (thanks to @qisforqazaq and @spaceman2823 noting a few spelling mistakes, which have been corrected, and @starkysnarks for native speaker confirmation).

So, a little background about Kazakh as a language: Kazakh is a Turkic language, closely related to (among other things) Turkish. Unless you start buying into overly-ambitious attempts to trace all human languages to a common linguistic ancestor, Kazakh is unrelated to any Indo-European language (English, Russian, French, Hindi, Farsi, etc.) except by contact. This means that some of the ways words are created and strung together are entirely new to someone only familiar with languages from this family.

Indo-European possessives are typically marked on the noun doing the possessing (one of the common functions of the genitive case), if a word is changed at all:

English: Yuri’s cat ← ‘s indicates ownership of following noun

Russian: коньки Виктора (kon’ki Viktora, - Victor’s skates) ← ‘a’ marks genitive case (the genitive ending depends on gender and number of the inflected noun)

Kazakh does have a genitive case, but it also has another structure that marks possession on the thing that’s possessed. So we get constructions like:

Отабектiң мысығы (Otabekting mysyghy - Otabek’s cat) ← here, both the owner and what is owned have endings reflecting that relationship. Otabek has a genitive -ting ending (which has a couple of forms that depend on the phonetics of the root word), and mysyq has an ending showing that it is possessed by a 3rd person subject (this also varies slightly depending on the phonetics of the root word).

(note: I’m being pretty lax in my transliterations to avoid using nonstandard Latin characters, and largely defaulting to standard transliteration for Russian Cyrillic but I did make sure that each Kazakh Cyrillic letter had a unique transliteration)

This ending agrees with its subject in being 1st, 2nd or 3rd person, with some phonetic variation. Here’s a few more examples:

Менiң шайым (Mening shajim - My tea) (var. m/im/ym)

Сенiң алмаң (Sening almang - Your (inf.) apple) (var. ng/ing/yng)

Сiздiң кiтабыңыз (Sizding kitabyngyz - Your (form.) book) (var. ngiz/ngyz/ingiz/yngyz)

Оның есiгi (Oning esigi - Its door) (var. i/y/si/sy)

I won’t go into a lot of detail about the different variants of each here, but 1st person always includes [m], 2nd person always includes [ng], third person always ends with i or y. If folks ask for a writeup about how Kazakh affixes depend on phonetic features, I’d probably write that up separately.

A side note about the informal/polite versions of ‘you’: If you Google Translate up some Kazakh dialogue, it defaults to using the more formal ciз (siz) which probably isn’t what you want when you’re writing heartfelt dialogue between friends, family or lovers (so, basically all the Kazakh dialogue I’ve seen in fanfiction).

So, what about plurals? This is where we hit the thing about forming words in Kazakh that really lets this happen. So, where in a language like Russian, a single given case ending will contain information about the gender AND number AND case of the noun, Kazakh uses separate endings for all of these things (except gender - Turkic languages don’t have grammatical gender at all. Anywhere the language identifies the gender of something, it does so using distinct root words). So, plurals just entail adding an ending. And aren’t marked as frequently (This doesn’t work out perfectly in pronouns because of language contact and colonialism, but I’m not going to rehash my whole thesis here - but can you tell that ‘siz’ used to be a plural?).

Бiздiң қаламыз (Bizding qalamyz - Our city)

Сендердiң иттерiң (Senderding ïtterring - Your (pl., fam) dogs)

Сiздердiң мектебiңiз (Sizderding mektebingiz - You (pl, form.) school)

Олардың бақшасы (Olardyng baqshasy - Their garden)

In an inflectional language like Russian, there wouldn’t be room to include this kind of ending because it couldn’t also encode information about other cases. Because Kazakh is an agglutinating language, you can keep tacking on suffixes all day. In fact, you can encode a whole clause in one word that would take many in an Indo-European language like English:

Жазушыларымыздан (zhazushylarymyzdan) - That which is from our writers

Back to cutesy affectionate language, though. One of the other advantages of this structure is that it allows you to indicate an association or relationship without using a possessive pronoun. So, all of the places where жаным, ботам, күнім, сүйіктім, or алтыным turn up, they have a relationship to the speaker embedded in them. So, for example, zhanym isn’t the word for soul, zhan is.

Жан - zhan - soul (жаным - zhanym - my soul)

Күн - kün - sun (also, day; күнім - künim - my sun)

Сүйікті - süjikti - favorite, chosen (сүйіктім - süyiktim- my chosen one)

Алтын - altyn - gold (алтыным - altynym - my gold/treasure; this word was also transliterated by a certain show as ‘altin’ So, yes, it is Otabek’s family name, which means him using it as a term of endearment seems particularly pointed.)

So, let’s say that you wanted to write Otabek talking to Yuri about his cat. He might teasingly refer to the cat as сүйіктің (süyikting, your most favored one). Even if they were speaking Russian (this kind of thing def. slips into the way that Kazakh speakers speak Russian, especially when comfy with friends, because it’s just not as elegant in Russian) (also, when drunk and not remembering that not everyone speaks all the languages you do and some words are just easier #multilingualproblems).

Final point: you can put these endings on anything. Even names. So, you might get a construction like Отабегiм (Otabegim - my Otabek) or Бекам (Bekam - my Beka, though it might just as likely be Bekem). Since I’m trying to write this in a ship-neutral way, here’s a list of every character I’ve seen Otabek shipped with on Ao3 with this construction for first person.

Юрийым (Yuriyim - my Yuri) This works for Plisetsky or Katsuki

Милам (Milam - my Mila)

Жэй-Жэйым (Je-Jeyim - my JJ); (shit, if you just use Jean with French pronunciation, you get жан, which gives you жаным - 5 points to JJBek)

Лeом (Leom - my Leo (uses Spanish pronunciation of Leo) - I’m not confident on the spelling, but yes this does exist. If you take this one up, it might turn into Левiм, using the Russian translation of Leo (cf. Tolstoy). The Kazakh translation of Leo is Aslan (cf. Farsi for ‘lion,’ tyvm CS Lewis), which is also used as a name - Aslanym with the 1st person possessive ending.)

Викторым (Viktorym - yeah, this one’s out there, too. I don’t think I read it, but the summary seemed to suggest it followed from shared pining over oblivious, unresponsive men named Yuri)

Кристофым/Крисiм (Cristophym/Chrisim - because is there anyone in the YOI universe with whom he *hasn’t* been romantically linked?)

Пичитiм (Phichitim - a puzzling, but adorable thought.)

Сюң-гилiм (Seung-gilim - there’s actually a couple of these out there)

Let me know if there’s another one you’d like to see!

[allyendergirl]

I am woman like this statue is woman

If your goal is to normalize gender-nonconformity you’re gonna have to accept that some people will fuck with gender as hard as they can while still being unequivocally, 100% cis and that is okay. There’s no egg to crack or callout to write. This is a good thing actually.