#void’s thoughts

[happy-for-harkers]

favorite mina scenes from the book?

Hi anon!! So sorry for replying this late T-T I literally just discovered that I do have asks on this blog, wow!

I think my favourite scene from the book would be the one where Mina helps Lucy get back to the Westenra’s house in Whitby after she has her little sleep-walking adventure all the way up to the cliff. Mina has many more memorable scenes in the book, where she just rocks and proves how much of a great heroine she is, but I really like this moment, because it’s something that just seems so close to her personality and character. She sees her dearest friend is gone, goes out alone at night (as a woman in these times!), finds her in a situation that is so dangerous and scary to them both, and leads Lucy back to the house in the dead of night (with no shoes on, I can’t imagine the coldness and the fact she could’ve stepped on something, you know). In the end, Mina is caring, courageous, and bright, being able to set her personal fears aside and focus her mind on the current situation she had to deal with, in the name of protecting her friend. I think this speaks so much about her, and reflects so much of who she becomes in the story later on, how she develops as a character.

[smallvoid]

Thank you to @toothsheeran who has inspired me to get creative again. It’s not writing but it’s the first time I’ve drawn in months.

[clownboybebop]

if you’re ever in the position to choose between giving up and accepting defeat, and actually trying to fight the ancient unkillable god that is about to peel apart reality like a string cheese, remember this: scientifically speaking, you might as well give it a shot!

1.there were trees at the beginning of the world! there were trees so long ago that they predate bacteria that causes wood to decay. when a tree fell, it would lie there in stasis and there wasn’t any way of breaking down wood xylem on a molecular level in that way.

2. it seems obvious to say, but wood eating bacteria are literally incapable of comprehending what they’re breaking down. It’s just not information conciously available to a microorganism. they don’t know what they’re deconstructing, where it came from, bacteria have no way to even fathom the existence of a tree as a concept.

3. Regardless of the facts above, the world we live in today is a world where wood inevitably decomposes

it is worth fighting the unkillable god no matter how pointless it seems. it is worth taking the risk even though youre trying to accomplish something impossible. the reality in which you live was also once reality in which trees didn’t rot. You live in a reality that allows for existence before the possibility of destruction. you live in a reality where uncomprehending microbes break down matter that is so far beyond the scope of their comprehension that it feels comical to specify something so obvious. you live in a reality that occasionally allows unshakeable physical truths to be altered with no warning.

It is worth fighting the unkillable god because trees are so old they predate the source of their destruction, and it still did not spare them. It is worth fighting the unkillable god because bacteria rots unthinkingly, because there is room in our cosmos for destruction without comprehension on the part of the destroyer. It is worth fighting the unkillable god because now and then reality retracts the promise of immortality without fanfare, and when that happens there is no mercy for the ancient. the unmaking is not softer for the desecrators ignorance. for all things, existence is endless until the exact point where it ends.

so you might as well try to kill the unkillable god. it doesn’t seem likely, but at the beginning of the world, trees didn’t rot. so you never know! you never know

[smallvoid]

It’s even worse when it comes from those who are disabled. Like “oh I just use crutches and now the world is my oyster uwu”

Like it’s not??

I’m both physically and mentally disabled. The world is literally inaccessible. I can only work in my (part time) job because my employer gives me so many accommodations. Don’t sit there and tell me that the world is my oyster when I fall over due to curbs or fall over in my house or have to pay for my own disability aids because the government hasn’t yet decided whether I’m truly disabled.

And that’s not even including the days where walking is literally impossible. Where my feet can’t move because I’ve worked too much, done too much or the weather was actually just cold so my joints are in pain and sluggish.

So don’t tell me that a disability doesn’t stop disabled people. Yes, I can be joyful and disabled. I can live and be disabled. But don’t tell me that my disability can’t stop me when it affects every single part of my life.

idk who popularised the narrative "i don't let my disability stop me" but it needs to be stomped on, pulverised by a meat grinder and then thrown into the depths of the sea never to be seen again.

it is by far the most popular ableist narrative and i see it so much and immediately just think i'm a bad person for not being able to 'get over' my disability despite the fact it's an incurable, permanent and severely disabling disability.

stop stop stop stop pushing the mindset that people have to persevere despite their disabilities in order to be a worthy person

leave me alone and let me be disabled in peace

[lizzy-bonnet]

Working in the yarn shop on Sundays, I have a group of regulars who come in specifically then for my advice on their knitting projects and over the years I've gotten to know a lot about them - their ailments and their spouses and their children and their careers and their mothers are all things they find themselves telling me about over the course of trying to bring forth a knitted piece. Most of them are women, most of them are over 50, and most of them have been through a lot and are trying to reclaim something for themselves through the act of creation. A while back, one of these older women opened up to me about how when she first came to this country it was just her and her daughter and they were so happy until her husband joined them, when he promptly began making her miserable. Now, decades later, all her children live far away, she spends all her time taking the husband to dialysis, her sciatic is bad and she may need heart surgery (who will take care of her, I find myself wondering), and she comes to see me once a month or so to talk about a new project and tells me it is the only thing she does for herself.

Today she came in with a smile on her face and delightedly introduced me to her son, who will soon move closer to home with his family. Then she says, as if commenting on the weather, that on Friday her husband died, and tomorrow they will hold the funeral. For a second I had tonal whiplash from the conversation and then I realized, oh, you're unburdened now. Like the relief in her face and her body were palpable. The son shows a picture of a cardigan to me and asks if it can be knitted, and we pick out yarn and a pattern. She's so excited to make it for him. She beams when she looks at him; he is tall and handsome and polite, and wants to wear something she made for him. She is proud of this man she raised.

It just made me think of the many, many women who come from cultures where leaving a crappy spouse isn't an option so they shuttle along doing their best and trying to find some beauty and joy in whatever way they can. Kids may not visit often because their spouse isn't welcoming or there is bad blood, so they are lonely. I remind her, we have our social group. She hasn't come to it much before because she is always taking him to dialysis, but now she says she will come often and meet the other women. Many of them are like her, but in the craft they find companionship that has been absent for so much of their lives. I hope there will be renewal for this dear lady and that she can learn more about herself and what brings her joy.

[oh-snapperss]

they'll fund a genocide and let their poor regions be destroyed. don't fucking forgive them for that.

my hometown is completely gone from what pictures i can find of it, i have not heard from my family (including aunts, uncles, parents, one sibling, and a grandparent), and the infrastructure in the mountain communities is wiped out. i cannot stress how catastrophic this is, or how difficult it will be for these communities to build back. i am angry, and scared, and heartbroken by everything that's happened.

and our government is spending it's money to fund a genocide.

free palestine, and don't be complicit. realize that this is not something happening that doesn't affect you--although it shouldn't take this to care about the deaths of thousands of people anyway.

[wickedcriminal]

Oh that's where he went

[smallvoid]

I’ve been able to do this for as long as I remember. I thought it was a superpower.

I later found out that it was dissociation. These feelings siphoned into something else.

I’m worse at it now, although the dissociation had got worse. Apparently, that’s called healing. That’s called being alive.

Turning off your feelings feels like a neat little PTSD life hack until you realise that you can't turn them back on again so easily

[egophiliac]

WAIT when did he get FANGS

[dandyshucks]

being in love with a fictional character will make u produce art u didnt know u were capable of

~

[if ur part of the "fiction doesnt affect reality" crowd: please fuck off lol]

[magpiedraws]

Jon he's really trying here cut him a break

(tumblr crunched the resolution of this comic a lot rip)

[happy-for-harkers]

Can you share your paper! The subject is so interesting

Hi anon!! So sorry for answering this later than not.

I wrote the paper for school, and to my knowledge I can only share it after a certain deadline, if I remember correctly a few months after my graduation. Believe me, I am awaiting that deadline, I really would love to share that little analysis of mine and explore it more, since due to word count and etc. I don’t think I could get as much in depth with this subject as I could - meaning when I finally get to share it I’m probably not gonna shut up about Mina, Lucy, and female autonomy in the book in general haha

[smallvoid]

When your mental health worker makes extra accommodations to help you go to a mental health group that your team is encouraging you to partake in but you don’t wanna go because you’re not skinni™️ enough.

Like, I have agoraphobia anyway which is separate to my physical disability but being perceived is 👁️👄👁️

[ghosted-jazz]

I like to think breaking the canary curse via dying in the void had some effects on Lizzie

[lizardkingeliot]

Oh, love. I'm merely waiting until you're happy. So hurry up, mon cher.