#typical vain girl stuff

[modernsuperhero]

Who are these fun characters and why are they taking over my dash? /pos /please tell me abt your blorbos

i'm assuming you mean these little guys:

These guys are my newest silliest dudes from the webcomic School Bus Graveyard! It's free to read on webtoons here and is currently in talks to get a TV adaptation soon so now is 1000% the time to be getting into it!! It's basically a supernatural mystery about six high school freshmen from Georgia who go on a field trip and end up sucked into a demon dimension every time it hits midnight! It's super cool - the pacing is very good imo, a good balance of the Main Plot (oh no we need to survive the Demon Dimension again, also Why Are We In A Demon Dimension) with character development and backstory stuff!

The characters are badass but in a way I feel is very realistic? Like, not just "oh i'm the protagonist suddenly i know how to judo flip armies the moment i'm in danger" but more like "i'm going to train for months in self defense classes to build up some basic muscles" kinda way. The characters themselves are also pretty well fleshed out - they're not just the typical archetypes. Like, the "weak bullied nerd kid" isn't JUST a weak bullied nerd kid, he has well developed motivations and backstory and simultaneously realistic and satisfying character growth.

There are implied potential/future romances but it is so NOT the core point of the story, so whether or not that's your thing you can either ignore it or get excited about it in equal measure. The characters also aren't just edgy and gritty "we must deal with this alone... augh misery woe is us..." they actively do what they can to use all the resources available to them (including trying to get help from their parents, which is an ick for me in other media when the kid protagonists just refuse to ask for help? or assume they can't without trying? anyway).

I would say to be careful about any warnings at the beginning of specific chapters, because some can get quite violent.

The six main characters, without giving to many spoilers, are as follows under the cut (cuz this got long):

The protagonist Ashlyn, an asocial ballerina with her loving ex-military parents, who has a condition that gives her incredibly sensitive/enhanced hearing (she ends up using this to help detect the monsters after them, since they're otherwise silent to the other protagonists!)

Aiden, a creepily-smiley ex-homeschooled rich kid who has no concept of social convention or personal space. Has forcibly chosen Ashlyn to be his friend during his first year in school against her will and ends up accidentally setting off the chain of events leading to the Plot. (I love him. He definitely has Every Mental Illness <3)

Ben, Aiden's incredibly physically intimidating cousin, who is mute and so, so sweet and gentle and follows Aiden like his shadow, in part to take care of him when Aiden's antics get him injured and in part because Ben's muteness makes it incredibly difficult for people to understand him. Aiden, however, can understand his nonverbal communications with ease

Taylor, a friendly girl's girl who tries (often in vain) to befriend Ashlyn. Is also a talented mechanic who ends up putting googly eyes on her weapon once they end up in the Demon Dimension. She's the most Emotionally Aware Person Here but also she's like, 15, so, the bar is on the floor

Tyler, Taylor's twin brother, a somewhat aggressive and rude baseball jock who mostly Minds His Own Damn Business aside from his clinginess to Taylor. In fact they wear matching outfits in almost every episode of the comic it's so funny and cute. Is often found fighting bullies to defend their victims so i forgive him for all his own asshole crimes he's just a dude. he's one of my little guys

Logan, who is canonically compared to a puppy. Shy, intelligent, and incredibly empathetic! My partner's favorite character who has one of the best character arcs so far imo. Likes photography, astrology, and gardening. I think they should give him more guns, as a treat. He can never have enough

anyways thank you for the ask! overall i highly recommend - it's still ongoing, we're currently in the middle of season two!! the mystery is unfolding, there's funny and sweet moments along with the intense ones, and i am INVESTED. :DDDDDD

[nevermindtheweights]

[Sent by @pearlharborshipresort]

It wasn't often that secretaries received messages directed at them, so when they did, it was noteworthy, at least somewhat.

The naval base set in Nemuro received a from the Pearl Harbor naval base, informally informing specifically Colorado that an USS Maryland Shipgirl will be arriving shortly at the base, and that she asks for an audience with her sister ship.

It was more common that you'd first think though they typically had little importance to them. Colorado handled various matters on the base so it wasn't uncommon to have an email directed at herself to handle some issue or complaint or concern. It was little more than that though and in someway, you could argue that those were more aimed at the position than the blondie herself. She may even agree with you in one of her more less vain moods.

At first, she did consider disposing the message since, technically, Nozomi didn't like contact with other bases and if there was something, it tended to go through HER more than Nagato or herself. Such were the orders. Still, Nozomi had buggered off somewhere and taken her sister too. That damn woman. Honestly! Colorado had decided to take a look at the message. Not like she had to respond or anything. If THAT pressing, she'd just forward it onto the Admiral's inbox.

What she read did surprise her. Someone wasn't asking about random military matters, requesting a shipgirl or the more common one of asking to dump one of their more broken ones onto the base. It, instead, was more or less a message of notice. Notice that someone was gonna arrive. A Maryland, no less. Not her own sister ship either though frankly, she could do without that purifier lurking around....

The blonde toyed with the idea of refusing her access, asking the watchful girls who still did the base patrols to send the girl packing once she arrived.... Though, that was more or less the official way of doing stuff and frankly, the blondie was bored enough to at least humour this oddity. Sending a quick email to the sortie office and also the radio operators, Colorado yawned as she got herself up and headed to the docks, walking-waddling at a steady pace. Orders were to let her pass through, escort her if needed but to otherwise let the stranger into the military area.

Dressed properly though with her portly build, there was a certain adorable edge to the old shipgirl. She had her officer pistol on her waistband, more for show of status than anything that effective, least against another shipgirl. She watched the waters, bored, waiting to see just whom this was and what may happen....

It was exciting enough~

[jackiespurnell]

I cant think of anything different for Jackie as an ask but i would like to hear your take on her character. Maybe bless us with a character analysis???

ahhh okay!!! i have so many thoughts on her!!!! for starters, i wanna talk about why i think some ppl in the fandom hate her sm cause ive never seen anyone whos neutral on her tbh like either ur a jackie anti or a jackie stan theres no in between.

i see a lot of people using the fact that her only crime was being a teeanage girl as an argument to defend her and while i wholeheartedly believe that, i think that’s the exact reason why people dislike her. i think a natural instinct that viewers have when watching a show is to take the sides of the "heroes." people usually root for the people with the best moral code (which is why nat is so beloved, besides the fact that she's hot asf). but in a show based on survival, where morals for the most part go out the window the second everyone is stranded in the wilderness together, nobody cares if you're the realest or the more relatable. in fact, i think in a show that is based on things that are highly unlikely to happen/deals with topics outside of everyday things, you're more likely to prefer characters that aren't real. in stuff like yellowjackets, people want the batshit crazy ones. they want the cult leaders and the butchers and the psychopaths. its made very clear that jackie isnt any of these things. you dont go into a show about cannibalism and murder and survival and think of a character like jackie. 

she's not the typical final girl. shows like these make you want to root for actively seek final girls. so of course, most people aren't going to gravitate towards jackie. i think ive seen maybe two people aside from myself on tumblr who jackie is their number one character and theres a reason for that. shes simply not what most yellowjackets viewers are looking for.

also, shes just a girl trying to fit into society and doing a pretty damn good job at it, at least on the outside. i think that’s another part of the reason she has so many antis, because 99% of the people want to fit in one way or another but if you’re getting seen/treated as an outcast, of course you’re going to envy the cool, popular girl. it would be another story if she was bitchy and mean but the fact that she’s so nice probably bugs people too without them even realizing it. sorry, but it’s the truth - people hate girls who are pretty and kind. jackie is that.

now, im not saying she’s perfect whatsoever, she has several flaws, she can be super vain and demanding sometimes, and even bossy, although i do believe a lot of that comes from obliviousness and compulsory heterosexuality (which, i won’t get too into cause i feel like a lot of people have already talked about it).

now, for a character study i think her defining trait is her popularity which is insanely sad, but also, its true. you see that she only knows how to be a cool, popular high schooler and the second all that doesn’t matter anymore, she doesn’t know what to do with herself. there’s a mitski songs with the lyrics “if i gave up on being pretty i wouldn’t know how to be alive” and i think that describes her perfectly. in a time and society where everyone has a public and a private side, and i think spent so long crafting ‘public jackie’ that she forgot how to be ‘private jackie.’ she spent so long trying to be a pretty girl that she forgot how to be just a girl.

i also think a reason that she was so kind to misty - outside of her just being a kind person - is the fact that jackie saw herself in misty. while i don’t think jackie was ever unpopular, i don’t personally believe that was always as cool and charismatic and we see her in high school. i think she was always charming to a certain extent, but i truly think entering high school she went the extra mile to become beloved and popular. misty was trying to do the same thing as jackie, she was trying so hard, and as much as i love misty, she was failing. jackie felt bad for her because she knew, not so long ago, she was kind of similar to her. jackie was also trying too hard. i saw an ella purnell interview where she said that sometimes she (ella) forgot she was a person, instead of a brand and i believe jackie resonates with that. she forgot she was a person, not just a popular girl.

she forgot who she actually was outside the makeup and the smiles and the perfect girl persona so much so that when the plane crashed, she didn’t know how to be. because while the other girls slipped out of their public image, jackie didn’t know who she was outside of her public image.

it got so bad that i don’t even think shauna truly loved her. shauna, who just wanted what was best for her best friend. shauna, who never really wanted jackie to die. shauna never really loved her, because shauna never really knew her. we see loads of bunnies around adult shauna’s house, when in reality, we know jackie hated bunnies. even shauna only saw the idea of jackie that she showed people, and that’s not shauna’s fault by any means, but it just goes to show that jackie never really let anyone in.

i think the most tragic thing about jackie by far, is that, ultimately, she just wanted to be loved. and she thought that by putting on this whole facade of having her life together and being the cool, hot soccer captain, people would appreciate and love her. but she mistaked being loved for being admired. and, as sad as it is, i think jackie died without anybody truly loving the real her.

tysm for the ask @yourlocalsaiko

[heavenlymorals]

Susan Grimshaw - A Small Deep dive Into A Complicated Woman

(Warning: This post contains mentions of period typical sexism and gender roles, as well as spoilers for RDR2)

Susan Grimshaw is one of the most interesting characters in the Van Der Linde gang and perhaps one of the most mischaracterized as well. She is either this beloved tough mother caricature or a deplorable hag more reminiscent of Cinderella's step mother than any true matriarch.

Today, though, I want to go into a little cultural deep dive regarding Miss Grimshaw. I want to explore the cultural significance of her character and how she's sadly a representation of the affects of misogyny and how it could affect a woman.

And for context, I come from a culture that still operates under many of the gender roles that 1899 America followed so all the stuff I'm gonna talk about are all things I've seen and/or experienced in my life time.

Grimshaw seems to me like a woman who is trying to compensate. What do I mean by this? Simple. What I mean is that in such a male dominated society that expected women to adhere to their standards, the fact that Susan Grimshaw wasn't able to is a source of insecurity for her, which then makes her lash out on the other girls of the camp.

Whether consciously or unconsciously, she heavily values male praise and authority. She is generally sweet and playful with Arthur, giving the vibe of that mother that we all seem to love so much, but with the girls, she's hell incarnate.

The second we get into Horseshoe Overlook, she talks to Arthur on how they got his tent ready and then tells Dutch and Hosea they would be ready shortly. The second we get into Horseshoe Overlook, she tells Tilly: "Miss Jackson, I've seen shit with more common sense than you, do it properly!". That one scene shows or gives an idea of how she is with the men vs how she is with the women.

She is awful to the girls. She reminds me a lot of mothers who are sweet and even servant-like to their sons and who view their daughters as competition, thus are harder and horrible to them (to my fellow Arab girlies, you know how it is. It sucks).

She never lets them rest and always gets on them for working the "wrong" way. That's pretty damn demoralizing. She berates them, calls them whores, and even physically assaults them. She even complains that she hates how Dutch won't allow her to whip them. And here's the thing, you can't even cite historical attitude with her behavior because even back then, abusive mistresses were criticised and seen in a bad light.

One of the most vile things she's ever done is try to pressure Abigail into prostitution again, even though she knows that Abigail is a mother and never wants to do that again, threatening her by telling her that she'd bring the matter up to Dutch even if Dutch himself never wanted her to do any of that.

But that behavior stems from her own insecurity of not hitting the milestones that women were expected to reach at that point.

She isn't married, nor was married, and a woman's identity of marriage was such a big thing back then that Grimshaw tries to cope with it by being decent with the men or accepting their flattery. She gets interested in Micah before he makes fun of her for being an older woman. She was willing to go out with Uncle before he asks her for money. She is fond of Dutch and still talks about when they were together sometimes and doesn't dare berate Molly because she's Dutch's girl. She even ignores the girls when they are doing something not work wise with the men- probably to please the man.

Tilly mentions this. "If I'm playing with you, she'll leave me alone."

But no one wants her and that then makes her lash out. She bullies Mary Beth on how she's too vain and that her beauty will go away, just like it "went away for her" and that what's left is awful. Like that such a sad mindset but in the time period she lived in, it makes sense. Women were usually married off by their early twenties due to their youth and vigor and beauty was perhaps the most important part of a woman because it's the only area where she is respected and that fucking sucks (note how many myth/historical women are praised almost only for their beauty). As women grew older, they'd become less desirable to the male dominant society, thus they would be shamed and humiliated. This even happens to Bonnie McFarlane in RDR1 in the newspapers when she's only in her late twenties, but because she isn't married, she gets shamed.

Grimshaw feels insecure about these aspects of her, of her looks, of her age, and that makes her lash out on the other women of the camp because they are young and beautiful. It makes her feel like she has a power that she lost by being a 50+ year old woman with nothing to her name.

So to compensate and to show her "value" as a woman, she works and works and works to dignify Dutch's camp because in that aspect of her life, she doesn't need to worry about her insecurities.

Yes. Grimshaw cares for the girls, and she'll scrap for all of them, but that doesn't mean she isn't a problematic and toxic person. It's sad that she feels like she needs to do all that for male approval in a male dominant society but good God, man. Again, she's literally that mother who feels threatened by her daughter and competes with her but treats her son like a prince, even if she still loves her daughter.

Yea, she helped save Tilly and pointed her gun at Micah in the end, but that doesn't mean she's just this "tough" mother figure. No. She's mean and toxic and awful and all of that is because of misogyny and how it feeds into her own insecurities as an older woman.

It's fucking sad.

[canonmisogynyvictimstournament]

PROPAGANDA

EVE (PARADISE LOST)

1.) I recognise how insane this submission is because this was written in 1667 and so attitudes towards women were obviously very different. But misogyny has always existed, no matter the time period, and so I think it’s fair to pick up on it. Although Milton somewhat avoids painting Eve as the wicked seductress, she is nevertheless presented as inherently inferior to Adam - her ‘virtue’ and 'passion’ are supposed to be an equal counterpart to Adam’s intellect but Milton’s clear resentment of Eve shines through. She is vain from the beginning - enamoured with her own reflection until she meets Adam. She is Adam’s subordinate and readily accepts her place in the hierarchy below him, until she meets Satan. Women seeking power and knowledge is therefore inextricably tied to the fall of mankind. Her attempt for some kind of independence away from Adam (going to tend the garden away from him) is also presented as the primary reason she succumbed to Satan because Adam is needed to protect her. Eve (the mother of all women) therefore creates the assumption that women are weak and easily misled away from men. The description of her eating the apple is very sexual - perhaps reflecting the anxieties of men at the time of being cuckolded and therefore dishonoured by their wives. She is the ultimate disobedient, dangerous wife. Her reason for sharing the forbidden knowledge with Adam, rather than keeping it for herself, is because she is worried she will face the wrath of God and be replaced with another Eve. So it is her jealousy that brings them both down. (It is all a lot more complicated than this so Eng lit people don’t kill me) but yeah poor Eve.

CORDELIA CHASE (BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER/ANGEL THE SERIES) (CW: Pregnancy)

1.) (downs an entire bottle of vodka and slams it back on the table) SO. CORDY. Cordy started off as a supporting character in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. At the start she was your typical high school mean girl character, but as the show went on we got to see more depth to her character: her insecurities, her courage, her capacity for incredible acts of kindness. Then after the third season she moved into the show’s spin off, Angel, where from the beginning she was basically the show’s secondary protagonist. Her and Angel were the two mainstays of the show’s main cast, she gets the most episodes centered on her out of all the characters aside from Angel (and yes, I’ve checked), and we really got to see her grow from a very shallow and self-centered and kind of mean person to a true hero who was prepared to give up any chance at a normal life to fight the good fight while still never losing the basic core of her character. There were some… questionable moments like the episode where she gets mystically pregnant with demon babies and things got a bit iffy like halfway through season 3 where the writers seemed to run out of ideas for what to do with her outside of sticking her in this romance drama/love triangle situation with the main character but overall, pretty good stuff right? THEN SEASON 4 HAPPENED. In season 4 she gets stripped of literally all agency and spends pretty much the entire season possessed by an evil higher power, and while possessed she sleeps with Angel’s teenage son (who BY THE WAY she had helped raise as a baby before he got speed-grown-up into a teenager it was a whole thing don’t worry about it) and gets pregnant with like. the physical manifestation of the higher power that’s possessing her. it’s about as bad and stupid as it sounds and also is like the third time cordy’s got mystically pregnant in this show and like the fourth mystical pregnancy storyline overall (you will be hearing more on that note in other submissions I’m so sorry). after giving birth she goes into a coma, in which she remains for the rest of season 4 and the first half of season 5. SPEAKING OF WHICH DON’T THINK SEASON 5 IS GETTING OFF SCOT FREE HERE. yeah so in season 5 the show just FULLY starts trying to erase cordy’s existence. she gets mentioned ONCE in the first episode and then never again until halfway through the season where she wakes up, helps out Angel for a bit and encourages him in his fight against evil, and then goes quietly into that good night and dies so it can be all sad and tragic. I’d call it the worst fridging of all time but even THAT feels generous because the whole point of fridging is killing off a female character so a man can be sad, and after Cordy dies basically no one’s even sad about it because the show immediately goes back to pretending she never existed. she is not mentioned ONCE in the two episodes after she dies. in the whole stretch of time between her death and the end of the season she gets mentioned exactly four times. again, I counted. anyway the fun twist to all of this is that all of this happened because the actress who played cordy got pregnant before season 4 and joss whedon was so pissed off about this affecting his plans for the show that he decided to completely fuck over her character and then fire her and write her out of the show. so cordy’s a victim of both writing AND real life misogyny!! good times!!

2.) OH SO MANY THINGS they menaced by giving her terrible hair cuts, making her seem like she’d get together with the guy she loves (and who loves her back) but instead she was killed and when she was brought back, she got possessed by an evil entity who used her body to give birth to itself. afterwards she was in a long coma and died. her character was so throughoutly assassinated

3.) She got demonically pregnant TWICE - there was this real sense of a womb/ability to get pregnant as like, a place for evil to get in. She got positioned as femme fatale and evil mother. The actress basically got fired for being pregnant, and when she agreed to come back for a single final episode she specifically said they could do anything but kill off the character. Guess what happened

[ramonahblog]

Fighting the urge to write an Epic Winter rewrite because damn, they had an opportunity and flubbed it by making Daring the beast instead of Rosabella but I don't want to deal with the whole...Epic Winter thing.

Wait, hear me out.

Rosabella gives me big "I know best" energy which is typical for teenage activists but easily leads to talking over and ignoring the people one claims to fight for as well prioritising stuff that...doesn't matter or is very minor.

First off, let's get rid of the aura-thing. Or rather, Rosabella can still see auras but she's mistaken in that it reveals the true character. I'm thinking it's really more of a reliable mood ring but not to fuss on what it actually is. Only that it can't be true-character-reveal thing. I get where it was getting at but no. Unless it does but Rosabella is misinterpreting the meanings? IDK, I just dislike the whole aura-thing as it is with her.

Rosabella, in her attempt to fulfill her mother's destiny, assumes Daring will become a beast because she hyper-focuses on Daring's self-absorbed traits to the point she ignores the times Daring is sincere and caring. She also ignores the fact she isn't close to Daring so she doesn't really know him.

In her attempts to "fix" Daring before he turns into a Beast, she (accidentally!) keeps interfering with his genuine kind moments because he's still Daring about it so she doesn't see them for what they are. He doesn't do them like she does. She's a teenager who has been told she'd be the next Beauty of Beauty and the Beast in an universe that is very There is Only One Right Way To Do Things.

And she's the next Beauty, so she can't be wrong about Daring being beastly, can she? She's the next Beauty, so she's helping, isn't she? She's helping and she's right and she helped keep Rugsy in school and made sure people know ogres just wanted to live their life so she can't be wrong, she can't be.

After all, she's the next Beauty and Daring is obviously her beast so she's helping him. She can't be wrong.

Wakes up one day and oh oops, she's now a beast?

This also fixes the fact that Daring had arcs in Lizzie's Date (deliberately humiliating himself to keep his promise to Lizzie) and Thronecoming that Epic Winter backpedals in a way that doesn't make sense.

This leaves a few possibility in regards to Rosabella's "Beauty".

Daring, who has also recently discovered the destiny he was raised and groomed for isn't his, could be someone that empathises with how Rosabella would feel being blindsided. This would show her that just because Daring's method of kindness isn't the same as hers doesn't mean it's no longer kind. And that it's normal for people to have flaws.

Plus the fact the Daring wait from cowering from his Beastly form to checking himself out in just a matter of words...I'm just saying, no one does that unless a part of them already was, you know?

Whether this is platonic or Daring is her beauty (which part of me is tickled at the idea of a kindhearted but vain beauty) or he is her Beauty but platonically is whatever to me.

There's few downsides to making Daring be this character.

First is Daring's been raised from birth to rescue damsels-in-distress. Granted, Epic Winter is set right after Dragon Games so a Daring choosing to comfort Rosabella is still a choice he would have to make. And have to make at his lowest, (and possibly most humiliated) point.

He's also now aimless, his entire purpose was not his purpose. So the whole thing of what had turned Rosabella into a beast could easily get lost.

I suppose this could be upsides depending on the writer but, for me, this is a downside.

The other downside is that Beauty and the Beast seems to be one of the (or only?) few fairytales in EAH where the girl has to rescue the guy has an expected role to play. By having Daring become "beauty", it kinda flips that to an unexpected but still expected role.

The other possibility:

Cerise.

Hear me out (again).

What better way to say Grimm (and EA in general) insistence of by-the-book follow is wrong than have the character The Rules insistent shouldn't exist and is an abomination for existing be Beauty? Someone whose existence has Hood Hollow vying for her banishment to the point they loophole the whole "banishment has to be unanimous" rule they apparently had.

Which gives me so many questions but is irrelevant to this particular post right now.

Having Cerise, who entire existence is pretty much summed up to "You Should Not Exist" and shies away from people because of it, because she's not meant to exist be the one to comfort and help Rosabella is great.

There's also the fact that it would be more of...a difficult* choice for Cerise to be search out Rosabella and help her than Daring as Daring would at least have his hero training to fall back on even while he's at his lowest point.

That and Epic Winter did have Cerise be the only one to react positively** to Daring's beast form during his Daring Walk. So you know, there's that.

If I do write this, I'm probably going to go with Cerise as Beauty simply because I adore how much of a "screw you" it would be to the whole Destiny&Legacy thing that EAH (in-universe) pushes.

IDK if I will write it. I just wanted to put this out here in case it tickles anyone else's brain and they want to write it or whatever creative form they like.

**Epic Winter AU where Daring turns around and sees Cerise checking him out. I have no further thoughts.

[cherienymphe]

https://www.tumblr.com/cherienymphe/751865206053945344/what-happened-girl

I’m so sorry the universe is making you have these thoughts 💔 Suicidal ideation is one of the toughest feelings a person can possibly undergo, and I’m speaking from experience. I know it probably doesn’t help, but just know that there are people out there who care about you and would be devastated if something happened to you. I don’t even know you personally, but I simply take joy in sending asks back and forth with you, like last night when we were talking about TV shows that make us happy. I typically try and think about what my future may look like and the things I would be missing out on if I made the decision to leave this world, but I know thoughts like the ones you’re having can be so loud that nothing really helps. Would you mind me asking what specific occurrences are giving you such feelings of hopelessness?

I've been applying for a different job for literal months (since 2023) because I'm sick of just barely scraping by every month if I'm lucky and I'm at my wits end because it just seems like it's not in the cards for me and I'm just supposed to be fucking miserable all the time. Like there are important things I'm trying to do and handle and it's like all my efforts are in vain like someone is laughing at me even attempting to get my life together. I'm really tired of companies claiming they're hiring when they're clearly not and I'm having personal issues with my family where I'm wondering why I'm even offering myself to help people who evidently just enjoy thinking the worst of me and there's other stuff today that I'd rather not get into but everything is just hitting me back to back to back and I'm so sick of it and wondering what the point is. If I'm just meant to be stuck in this position for God knows how long I could just not even be here and not put up with any of it

[wrishwrosh]

the vaster wilds has the typical goodreads problem of all the negative reviews just being “this book was gross and sad and nothing happened :((“ “the prose was stylized and hard to understand”” but as a gross sad stylized prose enjoyer these critiques do not get to the MEAT of all the evils herein present

- the problem of the enlightened protagonist, where a character who has nominally lived in the real historical past until the book begins and yet somehow manages to individually develop a 21st century twitter-educated perspective on colonialism, god, and nature. classic groffism nothing new

- remember that tweet about how hiking is a bourgeois affectation and indigenous people never hiked before colonization. imagine if that was the premise of an entire novel. written by somebody who went to amherst

- another classic groffism is taking a real historical figure about whom almost nothing is known and constructing a history for them that can’t technically be ruled out as impossible given the dearth of records but IS ahistorical, implausible, and kind of stupid while also making sure that the one thing that is concretely known about this person is weirdly and smugly deemphasized in the narrative. in this case the historical figure is “jane” the anonymous teenage girl whose remains were found at jamestown exhibiting signs of butchering. the cannibalism is treated as a twist ending which is dumb as hell and made the pacing insanely frustrating as this was obvious from the beginning to any true jamestownheads in the audience. also the cannibalism of a young woman seems like an obvious place of exploration for a novel nominally about the exigencies of subsistence survival and how hard it was to be a girl in the dark ages before second wave feminism but what do i know. obviously you should just kind of shoehorn it in as a gotcha in the last 20 pages serving as the millionth indication that the bad guys in this narrative are bad and do bad things

- speaking of the bad guys every single character aside from the narrator is a one dimensional paper doll present to essentially speak one of groffs points directly into camera and then vanish in a way that literally made me laugh out loud several times. Some Women Are Vain, Which Is Bad. Some Men Hurt Women And Native People For Fun, Which Is Evil.

- there was a stylistic decision made to not capitalize proper nouns which sure. it makes sense with what the book is trying to do to not capitalize god or english or powhatan. but then it was so inconsistently applied like why is atlantic (ocean) not capitalized but James (river) is. why is god lowercase but Sunday is uppercase. why are all the names capitalized but titles that function as names arent. stop the madness

- a personal nitpick now but i have spent a lot of time kicking around in the area where the book is set and was hoping at least there would be some evocative descriptions of this place that i love. and yet in this book nominally about wilderness there was so little specificity in the depiction of it! this could have been any forest! the specific natural setting did not feel like a tidewater forest! feels like groff wrote it based on a google search of pamunkey traditional lifestyles and a glance at a topographic map

- cant even get into all the reductive and underresearched gender stuff but know it’s there. classic groffism

- finally and most minimally yet perhaps most egregiously groff has yet again failed to internalize a religious worldview in order to write a religious character. this narrator is a change from marie in matrix as we are sternly informed on page 4 that she believes what she has been told about christianity. like once every 20 pages groff remembers that and has her pray or something and then once she has been away from her culture for about 200 pages she realizes god is a lie and that’s the arc. cool!

- why bother! why bother with this setting, this character, this real place and real historical event and real belief system, if you arent going to USE any of it. this should have been a zine about climate change. it should have been like six tweets. if it needed to be fiction (and im not convinced it did) it should have been a contemporary novel and like three things could have been changed. why! bother!

in summary, i went so insane that i googled every single person mentioned in the acknowledgements to see how many were historians or archaeologists or librarians or ecologists or associates of the pamunkey tribe or anyone else who might be assumed to have expertise here and there was: one. illustrative i think!!!!

[bittersweet-folder]

☆Bewitched~

REWRITING IS CONSIDERED!! AND THE FULL FIC WILL BE LONGER !!

The wizard Kwon Soonyoung x the love witch reader

Tw: Supernatural au, both reader and Soonyoung are aged up and in their twenties, Reader and Soonyoung's families are close friends. Reader has daddy issues and reader's father has left their family for years.

| word count: 1440 | main masterlist | witchy "ber" masterlist | taglist: @hongmingoo @shuabby1994 , @nishloves , @unlikelysublimekryptonite , @asyre , @yumiyumis-blog |

Ps: this is not very historically accurate.

Chapter 1 -

Song rec: from the start by laufey/ must be love by laufey.

from the start/must be love

Kwon Soonyoung, a family friend's,more accurately your mom's friend's son, the infamous wizard and exorcist (not really but he knew how to perform an exorcism so yeah) was the man who never really tried to get close to you as friends or maybe he did, it was quite complicated. He always has had, what we say in typical terms, called professionalism and a stern character while he's around any of his co-workers or other fellow wizards and witches. He never let his guard down around you despite you both knowing each other since you guys were ten years old. Not that he was like that from the start. He was bubbly and you both were friends which got substituted with this professional aura. You weren't used to it. Things with your family weren't going too right as well. With your mother and father going through separation since your father had another woman in his life, you were left with your mother. "It wasn't as bad anyways" you thought but there was an after effect. But one way or another, things just find their way to be okay, to be happy somehow and you were. Living in your own house, you made more or less good earnings with any medicines, potions, handicraft stuff. Of course at first glance people might think you live in vain and poverty but no your family had a good reputation in the town you lived, especially your mother's side was more or less wealthy. So a simple life with your two cats was an everyday thing for you.

~~~~~~~~~☆

"Soo who do we have here? Mr Kwon Soonyoung huh?" You raised your eyebrows with your lips having a tight lipped smile laced on them. "Okay enough for my dramatic talk, why are you here? You never come to my house until it's 'business' or 'work' stuff. A tarot read? Do you want that?" You asked as you crossed your leg, leaned back on your couch with your hot coffee waiting on the center table in front of you.

"Well you aren't exactly wrong but i need help with something else this time?" He said really calmly looking straight into your eyes.

'Yeah always a calm and reserved look in things like these' you thought.

"So basically it's just you gotta help me with an exorcism. Basically it's a girl this time and as you know I do not prefer dealing with women or girls who have been possessed" Soonyoung said, very calmly.

"Well yeah I remember the last time the woman who was possessed, after coming back to his senses very quickly found herself in your arms, you holding her and then accused you of harassing her. It was fucking weird" You stated, deadpan, now taking a sip of your coffee.

"Yeah and then you slapped her and she fainted and fed her a potion. So later on when she wakes up she forgets what happened before. I still don't understand. Why did you slapped her- that was so outta the blue" he said, staring at you with an awkward smile like a deer caught in headlights.

"I needed time to make the potion and I had the urge to slap her after witnessing her show of unnecessary drama where she thinks she's a damsel in distress trying to get of "a little too dangerous spirit" off of her "beautiful body" and coming up with those accusations. Just quote unquote speaking of what she said." You sipped on your coffee. "Be glad I didn't bash her head with a damn chair" And then flashed a warm smile towards him.

Soonyoung would be lying if he didn't feel chills running down his spine.

"Anyways when are we meeting this new one you're talking about? Also how old is she?"

Soonyoung sat on the sofa beside you and crossed his arms. You looked at him.

"Well, the day after tomorrow. She's around twelve years old."

"AROUND TWELVE!? Are you kidding me right now!?" You exclaimed being surprised at the fact that it's a child.

"Calm down, you'll make me go deaf. Don't scream like that" Soonyoung said outta annoyance.

"Excuse me sir, she's a kid. You can most definitely handle her, you won't even need my help then" You said stating a matter of fact.

"It's her father. Her mother left her father. And you know fathers are protective towards their daughters, so you automatically get it why. right?"

"I see. Alright then" you said, your voice almost dropping in the end to a whisper.

Yeah you got it even if you didn't experience it. You wondered though, how it might feel. But at the same time being in your twenties made you feel like you should automatically get a grip on yourself and let it be the way it is. Telling your younger self you'll someday be old enough to understand, is, what you wished for though sometimes. You were always a bit lost in thoughts though every time someone would talk about their father like now.

"Y/n? Are you okay?" Soonyoung looked at you with a worried look on his face.

"No I'm not because you're sitting beside me" You said with an annoyed look on your face. He let out a chuckle and stood up.

"Okay I'll get going now" He stepped ahead towards the door across the hall room but stopped halfway and turned around. You raised an eyebrow and looked at him.

"What?"

"Don't you think you should show some courtesy to at least walk me to the door and open it for me?"

"Oh I see" You stood up, walked towards him and stopped beside him.

"Happy now? Mr. Always professional." You said with a smile on your face.

He smirked and leaned closer to your face.

"Okay Y/n seriously stop calling me that and what about the door" He said in a lower voice.

"And what if I don't, what will you do?"

He was now stepping closer to you. You were now, the one stepping back almost about to knock over the table on which the lamp was kept. Soonyoung quickly slide his around your waist and pulled your closer with your hands instinctively placing on his chest to stop before you got any closer than you already were.

"So tell me, is this very professional of me? No, right? So drop that name honey. Just call me Soonyoung okay?"

"Oh. Say please" you smirked.

He pulled away and started walking towards the door hiding his slightly flushed face. And to his horror you did notice that.

He cleared his throat and then said "Okay I'll get going. See you day after tomorrow then"

"Absolutely Mr. Kwon Soonyoung" you said like you're pronouncing each and every letter of his name just to tease him more.

You got back to the sofa and sat finishing off your leftover coffee and smiled at the thought of him getting all flushed up because of your words.

Just then you saw a small piece of paper flowing in your room towards you and then falling on your center table. You took the paper in your hand. It was a small note which read.

“Well thanks for always helping out Y/n. And if being unprofessional, might as well be complimenting your 'just woke up an hour ago' look. You look pretty in that black nightdress and mismatched socks make you look cute”

From 'Mr. Always professional'

"Soonyoung you freaking idiot who writes all this" you cursed and whined. You took the cushion beside you and hugged it. 'He's again making his so-called advances in a flirtatious way' you thought.

~~~~~~~~~~☆

Kwon Soonyoung, who was your friend from the start but now makes you wonder otherwise about your feelings towards him. Making you feel like a lovesick fool who gives your heart a fluttering feeling everytime you see him. You wonder "it must be love" but you don't really know if all his advances, as in his flirting, are just for fun or have some intentions behind it. But a part of you thought you might as well should do something about it.

And well you did.

~~~~~~~~~~☆

A/n: finally I posted this. Sorry for keeping y'all wait. I did proofread twice. But if there's any grammatical errors please lemme know.

Thought of giving an orange theme for the first chapter despite the reader being a love witch.

Love y'all! Gonna post part two after sometime, haven't started it yet so yeah.

.・✫・゜・。..・✫・゜・。..・✫・゜・。..・✫・゜・。.

[ramblingsfromthytruly]

hi can ask you about your novel??

im afraid uve made a huge mistake :/

sooo basically idk WHEN i got this idea but once it was in my head i just HAD to have it

imagine a typical fantasy book's environment - yk the villages, the royalty, the clothes, the SWORDS, the soldiers.... etc BUT no magic

idk what genre to classify it as of yet cuz i don't think it's technically fantasy but it's certainly not contemporary nor historical nor dystopian (maybe dystopian?) but we'll get to that shit later

also it's supposed to be a duology (2 book series)

i have 4 main characters, let's classify them as:

the runaway princess (RP) - yk how among most books with multiple mcs, u can tell which one is the main mc, yeah this is her

the noble's son with (NS)

the nice village girl (VG)

the weird witchy girl (WW)

so first of all- RP & NS have been bestfriends all their life. they practically raised each other and themselves cuz uh shit parents :/

but thennn sometimes NS did some errands and stuff asked by his father and he HATED them but a tiny part of him still craved his vaidation (he hid most of that shit from RP) (she knew - didn't tell him until a later time (read later))

his most latest "errand" was to uh kill RP - shoot an arrow through her heart or smth (he's skilled at archery) - ofc he's NOT going to do that, the thought never crossed his mind - he immediately went to RP and- she was packing.. packing to leave apparently. they both look at each other through her window. comical owl stares. and blurt out at the same time ("my father wants you dead" "i'm betrothed to my cousin")

"do u wanna run away with me?" *no hesitation* "sure. when?" - sobbing that's their friendship summarized im afraid

also um u might wanna know WHY NS's dad (ew) wants RP dead - like a couple centuries back there was some confusion with which family the royal line must pass on to - apparently the king's (RP's dad) ancestor of that time did some manipulation n shit and got it passed to his bloodline - NS's dad (he's a noble, the most powerful one) found out and did NOT like that. however there's no way to change it now.. unless the king has no heir... etc etc you get it?

but BAM nobody knows this (except the queen (RP's mother) and RP (found out just b4 running away)) that the queen had given birth to TWINS *pls act surprised pls act surprised*. but the queen was raised in a vain misogynistic family and so it's no surprise (still sad) that she turned out just as vain and when she saw her babies for the first time her ingrained reaction was to abandon one of the babies cuz it had white patches scattered across its skin - basically vitiligo. she paid the two midwives(?) present while giving birth to go abroad and give away the baby somewhere on their way. (that baby is VG gaspp) the queen regrets it at times but more so because RP started developing those same patches on her skin as the years passed. moreover there were underlying mental issues with the queen brought on by a variety of factors (environment with lack of supportive adults growing up, misogynistic teachings that made her internalize inferiority, genetics, etc).. and this kingdom considers mental health veryy taboo. so when she started showing signs of conversion disorder (still need to do lots of research for this im afraid) the palace kept it hush-hush and dubbed it "hysteria". she basically spends most her time wandering a secluded tower or in her room. no proper treatment and her condition just got worse and worse. all she remembers properly is her two children and she's mixed with a confusing mix of motherly longing, regret, vain hatred, distrust, etc whenever she sees RP (who makes sure to visit her twice a week without fail cuz the queen gets no other human interaction (RP doesn't know the king also visits her once in a while))

RP

she's socially skilled - in terms of charming authorities and bending rules and finding loopholes - it's in royal etiquette/diplomacy training or wtv - but making actual genuine friends who like HER and not a facade is harddd (so she has (had) no other friends except NS) - like she TRIES to make friends (cuz she's an extrovert at heart) and just ends up making an absolute fool of herself

last time she cried was when she was 10 years old - since then she never cries - sober that is - but she's a lightweight and once a single gulp of alcohol enters her body she's sprouting melancholia to anyone who's partially willing to listen (mostly NS or her bedchamber assist or wtv they're called) and sobbing like a lil baby (i love her sm i want to keep her in a jar and shake it :/) - the masses ask for a REAL girlfail lesbian and i will deliver

straineddd relationship with both her parents - with her mother it's mostly pity (cuz honestly she's a product of her circumstances, doomed by the narrative if u will) but also that child-like sense of justice thinking this isn't fair? i don't deserve all the despicable things u tell me. and she tried to say she doesn't but she has that royal training ingrained in her, the sense of duty and loyalty, and so she visits her like a strict routine.

and her father oh boy - the thing is he's not as misogynistic - like yes, his ego was stroked when he married but he doesn't believe bs like women are inferior. he's an asshole but not really discriminatory. he bases ppl's worth on their merit, their skills (nvm he's an able-ist and class-ist pos)

she's bad at talking but good in bed, lack of parental attention got her fucking anybody willing in the castle (as long they're around her age)

NS

badddd daddy issues - he'd always been trying to do stuff do get attention and validation from his dad and it was just getting worse, deteriorating on his mental health, but then RP had staged an intervention sometime in his early teens and ended it with look dude it's still your choice, but from somebody who isn't his kid, he's a shit father, trust me ik smth abt shit fathers or smth like that idk yet (re: haven't started writing apart from the most random-est random-est scenes)

dead mom :/ (she was really really sweet) (NS doesn't remember much of her cuz he was a baby when she died but ppl always tell him she cared for him a lot)

personality wise he's kinda chill, he's usually more of a listener and only talks a bit more once he's close with somebody BUT with RP (who he grew up with) he's like a total extrovert (partly owing to that girl's ABYSSMAL social skills)

VG

all the village ppl think they can walk all over but they really really can't (i mean where'd they even get the idea?? losers)

but she is really really nice and kind and is known for that

WW

she's from somewhere abroad - no one knows where, u won't find out even at the end of the story

she's actually quite anxious and would let ppl walk all over her (no one comes close enough to do so tho)

has a soft spot for girls with pretty eyes (RP has reallyyy pretty eyes. in her opinion)

important relationships:

RP x WW

NS x VG

RP & VG - sisterssss

but i'd say the MOST important relationship is RP & NS (lesbian + straight guy<33)

imagine found family, betrayal, friendships, etccc

but most importantly it's a tragedy!! (i haven't decided yet if i wanna kill 2/4 or 3/4 + suicide yet) im tired of writing now but u get the gist lol. NS dies in the first book. then VG dies in the 2nd one and thennn.. idk

oh waittt: one of the most important things is that there are prophecies.. but also not in the typical sense.. more like ppl from thousands and thousands of years ago who achieved self-actualization and termed it "enlightenment" or wtv and basically could sort of feel the particles of time and made great big "predictions" about the kingdoms.. idk dude i just like my ocs :/

LIKE I SAID I HAVE NOT STARTED ACTUALLY SERIOUSLY WRITING

THIS IS JUST THE STORY IN MY HEAD

and also i ltrl do not blame u for not wanting to respond to this massive post 😭😭 in fact i might even prefer it😭

[winxbutbetterimo-ovo]

Stella long ver 1

(some stuff is from the fan wiki i just tweaked)

Name: Stella Elinor Lucero

Looks: Stella is a sun kissed THICCC queen. Amazing long type 2a blonde hair that stops below her waist and golden amber eyes. Wears prescription glasses, her fav is rose tinted ones (Girlypop aesthetic)

Relationships: Her favourite earth animal are rabbits, those are her mother's favourite animals too. she loves both her parents a lot. she LOVES Brandon, her soulmate. Her bestie is Bloom.

She shines in her normal, charmix, Enchantix and Cosmix forms the most.

Personality: Prideful, spoiled, obnoxious and self centred had an ed but she is healed so she swears to love herself more (sometimes that comes off as selfish or vain) really wants to be a good queen someday. She is very loyal to the people she loves and she is great at reading people, which is why she was immediately friendly with bloom the moment they met. Additionally, like the moon, she can be mysterious (even wise) at times, and her emotional state waxes and wanes like the moon, the person who experiences this the most is Brandon, and he learns how to come to peace with it.

She cares deeply about her friends and family, not just herself. She will stick to the people she loves and do anything to keep them safe. Stella has a cheerful and optimistic personality. Besides that, she is totally obsessed with fashion. She would rather flirt with Brandon than study. 

The most intuitive of all the members. However, she can still be rather oblivious at times. She uses her magic for everything, but she mostly wants to help her friends as she is generous and helpful. Although she might disagree with her friends, Stella is very supportive and protective and will not hesitate to help them. She learns to accept that love and friendship are far more important than royalty, fashion, and shopping.

History: Stella was born to King Radius and former Queen Luna. She has a typical royal childhood with a shit ton of expectations and materialistic presents. Her parents had a pretty ok relationship when she was a kid but everything went downhill when she was about 10, culminating in their divorce the year before the story starts (so basically her first year at alphea which is why she lashed out in her classes and was kicked out and had to be re-admitted with the rest of the girls) Her dad taught her that a good ruler presents a strong front to their people, which is why she is so cheery on the outside, From her mother she learned to be more in touch with her feelings so she doesnt bottle everything up inside and explode like her father does, so when she is alone (or with Bloom or Brandon) she allows herself to cry and feel. when she turned 15, her father passed down the ring/sceptre of Solaria to her, promising that it will always keep her safe. and explaining how important it is to the royal family of Solaria.

Powers: Stella, as the Fairy of the Shining Sun, Moon and Stars, she has Sun/Star-based and Moon-based powers. Stella can mainly control light and heat. She can throw blasts of light energy and can make balls of solar heat. She can concentrate her energy to make herself glow brightly in dark places along with producing an orbiting light sphere to illuminate dark areas or even producing "spotlights". she is also able to create explosions of sunlight that can leave the opponent temporarily blind. She can shape light into barriers and shields producing bright flashes when making contact with a physical force.

She gains her energy from the sun and is heavily weakened when in very dark places or underground. Her moon magic is shown in the form of magic mirror spells, conjuring crystal shards, and shifting the reflections of her own and others to make their appearance similar to others. Stella has the ultimate ability to manipulate solar or lunar light, and the power stars. Her element of light, specializes in sight and clarity, giving others the ability to see both the path and truth in front of them. Stella has also shown abilities of generating weather phenomena such as creating solar flares to melt ice and grow plants. She can also create stellar orbs

She also has the Ring of Solaria which allows for her focus on her energy allowing it to be used as a light source. Stella is capable of teleporting herself and others in a flash of light. She is also a very talented fashion designer as she is often seen conjuring various fabrics as well as complete outfits.

[likesaly]

!!24 25 14 12 5 7 For Sagara, Yukinaga, Sataka and uhhhhh Eruno

Sagara

5 - I've already said the My Melody Anime OP so I'll give a different song for her, bc I've been thinking abt Winx Club again recently probably just any of the transformation songs, Sagara would love them fr

7 - I love how everyone draws her as cringefail as possible, her silliness cannot be contained /pos

12 - Sagara has a local weird girl status but it's not in a derogatory way it's a positive way because she's a good worker at Little Berry. She throws freebie sweets in her customers' orders.

14 - Yume Kawaii!!

24 - Asriel from Undertale (like in a way before he died and stuff like in 201X way)

25 - I thought she was silly, she was one of my favorites upon first playing the game

Yukinaga

5 - E.T by Katy Perry!! 4 Obvious reasons

7 - I'd say the same thing as above for Sagara bc they're vv similar

12 - He probably has a space themed bed room and I want to think has a rocketship shaped bed

14 - Typical teen 80s boy fashion

24 - Adam from Roblox Flicker (okay hi to my flicker moots if you're reading this but Yeah I know the lore has been removed/isn't canon anymore but I mean this in a reverse way for Yukinaga bc if I remember correctly Adam was an alien that pretended to be human and such so like ygs see my vision??)

25 - I never had strong opinions abt him but I did (and still do) like him!

Sataka

5 - For a second one (bc I added going down from the last ask game) I'd say Be quiet and Drive (specifically the acoustic version) by Deftones, not sure why but I just think Sataka on that one

7 - N/A (sorry man the majority of the talk for 1beat is literally it's main cast you can't even rlly find content for anyone else /lh)

12 - Sataka definitely took a shower after going into the public footbath, I'm sorry I'm not letting him live that one down /lh

14 - Ouji or Military Boystyle(?)/Lolita (I'm not sure what the masc name for the second one is)

24 - N/A - I don't think see anyone from fandoms I'm into bc I thought Abt this for a good while now

25 - I didn't have any at first but at the end of first playing File 02, I was like this man really went "Fuck you I am drunk and dying, you will not get the satisfaction of my death looking like an accident and have me die in vain" /POS

Eruno

5 - I read this and my brain instantly went Alone by Marshmallow (I have not listened to this song since second or third grade in my gacha phase I don't know why I thought that but take it ig /lh)

7 - I like how she's always drawn w Potete and Aira like her relationship w them is so important,,

12 - Upon being body switched (the og dog potete), Izuchi gave her candy and Izuchi regrets that very much bc she probably got on a sugar rush reaking havoc /lh

14 - Boystyle I don't think I have to explain myself for this

24 - Cat the cat from HELLO, HELLO WOLRD! (They have the same energy, like Cat got into Kotobukis house just to get food and got chased out like Lowkey Eruno vibes)

25 - Love at first sight (/p), she's so important

[vortship]

🔮

I'll let you pick who gets to see it. 👁 @the-haunted-office

Send 🔮 and I will write a drabble of a memory that your muse gets to see into.

Hal wasn't exactly a dress-wearer.

Her academy uniform aside, being adorned in fabric of any kind of expense or fanciness had a certain novelty factor to it. If it's what the heist required, she supposed. In this case, top secret files on some new super-ship only governor Julip Litch was allowed to see. From his personal laptop.

Easy enough.

She was able to get herself on the guest list under an alias she realized now she didn't remember, standing at the gate with her hands jammed in the pockets of her dress; teal and cut just above the ankles with an embroidered circuit pattern cascading up from the bottom seam. It even came with custom arm décor, Vortian-style as ever.

Hoards of important looking Vortians gathered, a sea of expensive cyber-enhancements as far as the eye could see, typical of those higher class on her planet. They chatted about things she didn't understand or care about as she made her way in, a broad, sharp-toothed grin hitting her face as soon as she realized just how much free food she was in for.

"I can't recall us inviting such a mischievous creature."

From behind her, the voice of a young woman spoke, a short glimmering dress, horns adorned in gold cuffs. She folded her arms across her chest as she regarded Hal, who looked up at her, bewildered.

"Yeah? And I can't recall asking you for your-"

"Halinor Nima." she spoke her name like a swear, "Don't pretend like everyone doesn't know who you are, girl. Eni told me she saw you."

...stupid, idiot Eni. She would be here.

Time to recoup. And by that she meant flee from the slowly approaching guards who'd been observing the entire scene. She glanced around, prepared to dodge between them, to get out of there and return at a later time. Ugh, she knew she should have gone the sneakier route instead of trying to pass herself off as one of these snobby, low-tech, shoelaces.

"Miki, stop. I invited her."

From the corner of her eye, another figure approached, a girl she recognized. The pride of Region 9 Academy, dressed all in white and gold. She'd never spoken to her, or acknowledged her in any way at school. As far as Hal knew her only friend was that slippery Eni.

"You invited her?" the young woman, 'Miki' challenged, "And I'm guessing Dad knows this trouble-maker is here?"

"Not anymore than he knows how you're texting that low-tech Prux Bentley right in front of your fiance." the girl said flatly, blank expression turning to a glare.

"What!? You- how did you even-?" Miki protested in vain, then sighed, "Fine. Whatever. I don't know what your problem is, Niri, but if that... girl causes any trouble it's gonna be your head. Not mine."

Hal took the opportunity to stick her tongue out and blow a raspberry as the young woman stomped away, muttering to herself. She then turned back to her unlikely savior, the girl in white, Miss Perfect herself.

"Niri Litch." the girl introduced after a brief pause,

"Yeah. I know." Hal let out a bitter laugh, "Top of the class since like, primary. I just didn't know you were hardcore like that."

Niri responded to the teasing with just the slightest hint of a smile before shaking her gold-clad, horned, head.

"Well, we've never actually met so... I just figured..." she trailed off, suddenly seeming nervous, "That was my sister, Miki. She's got her socialite pants on today I guess."

"Ha! Socialite pants! That's funny." Hal offered her a much-too-hard pat on the back, resulting in an audible 'Oof' from her companion.

"I know what people say but... I always found you to be- interesting. You're funny sometimes in class, you say stuff I don't think most people have the courage to-"

"Welp! You know! I just say what comes to my-" Hal interrupted, before something seemed to catch her attention in the distance, "Oho! Guys with trays of stuff! Lets get some! Oh and thanks... probably should have said that before but-"

"Don't worry about it. Let's- do that."

[fanthropology]

I don’t want to call it to the attention of anyone who knows me, because I don’t want to deal with the attention, but this is definitely what’s happening to me.

And it’s extra bad because I’m supposed to be on a month long sabbatical after ten years of drowning at work and having the bare minimum of emotional energy for my family and friends and anyone I care about.

What the sabbatical has instead done, after I discovered that my lowest level of stress was actually extremely high stress, and what I thought was high stress was incapacitating stress….

Well, it looks like a midlife crisis? I’ve spent a lot of time asking myself if it’s a midlife crisis. I suspect the answer is yes, even though the cause to effect takes a long and winding road around my brain.

But it’s a weeeeird one. Let me walk you through it.

On the surface it looks pretty typical. I lost twenty pounds (leading up to the sabbatical), revamped my wardrobe, got a haircut, changed my jewelry tone from silver to gold, got lip blush, got a bunch of new anti-wrinkle skincare products (I’m not going to advertise for them on tumblr, no), and I’ve got an appointment to touchup my microblading from a couple years ago. I also did all the drs appointments/bloodwork I needed to, upped my daily exercise, and I have plans for an actual girls day with my best friend, in which we go to a spa without the kids for a day.

It looks from the outside that I’ve gotten weirdly vain, I think. My husband is politely saying nothing but I can tell he’s monitoring the situation in order to determine if he needs to step in.

But what I think might have actually happened is that, once the stress chemicals receded, my brain had a chance to look around and think “actually, I think lots of people dumber than you are working fewer hours for more money.”

Now I make good money. I’m our breadwinner and I’d put us in upper class. The lower end of it, but definitely out of the middle class. But the jobs I’d always aspired to - jobs I thought I couldn’t do because I’m on the spectrum and a lot of social stuff is taxing for me…. Without the crushing pace of work, it turns out I’ve actually put together enough mental rubrics that actually, I can do all of the social stuff - I just never had the capacity to do it before.

All the jobs where I’d really be able to innovate and shift my industry - actually doable. Not impossible. Not something I’m inexplicably not considerable for. Something I could be really great at.

Ok, so to walk back around to the thing I’m considering whether it’s a midlife crisis - sometimes it feels like maybe it isn’t one it just looks like one…. Anyways, my brain has looked around, and reached an assessment that most people in the world are stupid, people who are more attractive measurably do better, and the conclusion I’ve come to is that it would be incredibly childish to not, as I put it to a friend over coffee….

Visually optimize for capitalism.

If he wasn’t in such a nebulous mental place himself, he would have flagged that with concern, I think.

I’m trying not to judge myself. Ultimately, I think I’ll end up looking fairly normal for other people, but very very different for me. Probably something I should have considered doing slowly over time in my career.

It’s the mental swirl around it I know I’m eventually going to have to call my therapist over.

If you know anyone who seems really chill to the point of being virtually indestructible, like nothing could ever bother them in any way, could get hit by a train and just shake it off and be totally fine, laughing it off as soon as they've dusted themselves off and stopped bleeding, but who occasionally just randomly falls apart to complete fucking smithereens with seemingly no cause nor warning, only to get back up again a few minutes/hours/days later like "ok yeah I'm fine again that was weird lmao", and you've ever wondered what the fuck is up with that:

They are actually not ok and most likely are not ok at any point. The whole "hardiest person you know who just collapses randomly sometimes" thing isn't a deliberately constructed façade, as a matter of fact it might be something that they actually personally believe themselves to be. But in reality this is somebody who's either unintentionally learned or has been deliberately trained to hide negative emotions and mask symptoms at all costs, as the #1 priority that goes over any other survival needs.

So even though it may look like they go from 1 to 100 completely at random and unpredictably, and then swing right back again to being totally fine, you have no way of knowing how long they've been at 95% before the last line of defense broke down and the system collapsed. And once they flip back up, odds are that they just managed to scrape their shit back together again just enough to get their backup masking systems running. The "check engine" light never turned on because the wire was clipped years ago.

If this is you, this is your callout to seek some sort of help. I'm telling on everyone in this room including myself.

[worldsapartof]

Not up for making our paracosm/parame masterpost right now, but since Alagaesia is our current hyperfixation, we wanted to share some stuff about some of our presence there.

The first we became aware of was Kaethirin (also goes by Kaethiri). They are a half-elf born during the war against Galbatorix. Growing up, they showed an affinity for magic typically only seen that strong in Riders, and eventually agreed to go to Ellesmera to receive training. At 16, his tutors realized that while they could continue to teach more and more advanced concepts, at this point Kaethiri would benefit from learning control and management of her power from Eragon. They sent her to train with him, but along the way, she got separated from her traveling party and lost deep in the east, well beyond Eragon's stronghold.

There, she stumbled upon a wild dragon egg, which appeared to be abandoned in the middle of a plain so vast it seemed to encompass the whole world. After carefully magically checking it, they found it appeared to be a wild egg, and they took it with them to ensure its safety. To their surprise, it hatched a few days later. They were truly shocked and astonished, though, when shortly after hatching, it formed a rider bond with them despite not seeming to have had the spell done to make it able to make the bond.

She named the iridescent purple-blue dragon Kavrinder, with hir help picking it out. The two of them were eventually able to escape the seeming invisible labyrinth of the vast plains and make their way towards Eragon's stronghold. They were first encountered by a very worried and somewhat crabby Saphira, who carried them the rest of the way to the stronghold.

At the stronghold there are already a few dozen riders and dragons, as well as a very few young wild dragons.

Some notable figures/names:

Azure, a dragon as blue as the sky, and his elven rider Evarína (meaning Star in the ancient language), a strange-looking elf with blue-black skin patterned with constellations that softly glow in dark spaces and eyes that are like lapis lazuli across both pupil and iris.

The urgal warrior ____ and her nearly-black-indigo dragon Ithrö, which in urgal means rebel. Her horns are as large as anyone's. She held a position of respect in her old village being what in human terms we would consider a trans woman (Urgals have their own terminology for and system of gender, to be explained later).

The deep pine-green dragon Hemlock and her rider, the dwarf Kefk. Kefk is a rather closed off, secretive individual, and Hemlock is very vain. Their bond, however, is among the strongest of anyone there.

The young human girl Ella, who mostly doesn't speak to the bonded dragons and riders, but cares for the wild dragons and is close with many of them in a way rarely seen with wild dragons.

Worth noting, most of them are queer in some way or another - there are very few characters that are allo, cis, and het, and it's not common to even be most of those. This just seems to happen with our multiversal selves and parames alike, as a pluralqueer system. Not all will immediately be revealed as such, however. Some may themselves be plural outside of potentially becoming part of our system and the inherent plural-adjacency of riderhood.

Yes, some of them are somewhat "indulgent" or may in some ways come off like Mary Sues. This is partly because we are exceptional in some ways ourselves, but also if you don't like it, just go away instead of making it our problem, thanks.

Feel free to ask questions about them.

[seraphtrevs]

I think the one of the reasons BCS appeals so much to women and queer people is that it isn't binary about gender roles and masculinity/femininity the way most media is.

Like, a bad approach to making a Stong Female Character is to give her stereotypical masculine traits - she burps and scratches her butt; she hates dresses and the color pink; she talks a lot about how her dad and older brothers taught her how to be tough. Which - fine, but that's still a very binary approach to gender - it's obviously giving Boy traits to a girl, and that it's supposed to be weird and cool that she's acting Like a Boy.

On the other end of the spectrum, making a male character vain and catty is supposed to be hilarious because he's acting Like a Girl, and it's something done on purpose to be funny because everyone knows that girls are the vain and catty ones, not boys.

Kim is very much a female character, but she's also reserved rather than emotional, ambitious in a working-hard way not a clawing-her-way-to-the-top way, and protective in a way that isn't at all maternal. These are all traits usually given to male characters, but the idea that these are male-only traits is very binary. They are traits people of all genders can have. But it throws people, because boys are supposed to be logical and girls are supposed to be emotional, which is so baked in to many straight people's ideas of gender that it doesn't even occur to them that it's a gendered way to think of characters. I'm sure the writers didn't sit around and think, "hmm how can we make Kim more masculine and therefore a Strong Female Character?" They just wrote her like...a person.

And I don't think Jimmy is an especially effeminate character, but he's overly emotional, obsessed with clothes/appearance, and is very social and good at reading people - again, traits that are more often given to female characters, but plenty of men in real life have these traits and it doesn't mean they aren't men.

Nacho is also interesting in a more subtle way because the writers give him a lot of stuff that's more typically given to female characters - poisoning is historically seen as a female crime, and his particular brand of treachery is also more traditionally feminine - using stealth and deceit instead of confrontation and aggression, being more reactive than proactive, etc. But again, he's just a person with traits that people have! I don't think it's a deliberate subversion, just a reflection that most people have a blend of "masculine" and "feminine" traits.