#application question

[math-journal]

6 Step Application Question

1) Sketch

2) Variables

Ex. W=width, L=Length

3) Equation

4) Solve

5) Check

6) Answer

Ex. Width =___ m, Length = __ m

Written out ok

[maddiem4]

Trans women are touched by the divine and you can taste it on them. You should try. You should get yourself an entire goddamn mouthful.

[albertserra]

The Question of Palestine by Edward Said, 1979.

[havenshereagain]

More Incorrect Batfam Quotes

Tim: That's because no one with a physics degree has a soul, Bernard

-

Jason: Tim, would you come here a second? I'm gonna throw out the trash

-

Steph: Jason, I have a question

Jason: does it involve a helmet?

Steph: Jason, I have two questions

[thatfriendlyanon]

disclaimer: these options are based on responses i've heard different people give; they do not necessarily reflect my own personal beliefs

*if you feel comfortable doing so, i would love to hear what passages support your opinion!

please do not use this post for debate. i am genuinely curious what different people's opinions on this idea are. please keep this post friendly, informative, and simply a space to listen and share.

i'd appreciate it if you could reblog if you vote (you don't need to share your answers in your tags if you don't want to!), to get a larger sample size. thank you!

[rvspecter]

giddy up harvey!!!

[astriiformes]

Apparently I have been waitlisted for admission at one of the PhD programs I applied to?? Which isn't an acceptance yet, obviously, but it's not a rejection either, and also speaks to my application being pretty decent, actually.

It sounds like it's a matter of not being sure if there will be space in my specific area of focus, so we'll see what comes of it, but. Send good vibes, I guess!

[cepheusgalaxy]

It seems like some of the pushback againt the term "transandrophobia" has a lot to do with people mistakingly assuming it means an intersection of "transphobia" with "misandry" even though that's not true. Like. Sometimes, when you see a new word, you are not going to magically guess the meaning of it. Sometimes you have to actually learn. What a word means. You know

[faunandfloraas]

Every time I see some new pic of lee know and a friend it's some tall hot dude and they're doing some kinda... Interesting pose and I'm like............. Well good for you lil lee know.

[bretzkysbs]

[ecstarry]

my affirmations of the day:

- i am a lesbian

- there’s no one way to look queer

- my gender identity is valid

- my gender identity is valid !! (cries)

[serpentface]

Question about Couya! Since she is a bastard what are the reasons about her being brought into the main family by her father. Was it genuine care for his child or a way to save face politically/socially? Is her birth mother alive? Do you think she would have had a better life growing up anywhere else?

This is in large part due to how cultural perceptions and legal punishment of adultery varies between male and female citizens, looped into the very strictly patrilineal kinship system.

By legal definition, the word for 'adultery' applies only to situations where a man has an affair with a married woman, or a married woman has an affair with any man. Other forms of affairs (eg a married man having an affair with an unmarried woman) are wrapped into a broader set of sexual misdemeanors and aren't often charged or punished in practice, and the punishments are comparatively minor (if an unwed woman's father pursues charges, the man in the affair is likely to just pay a fine). On a social level, extramaritial affairs in general are certainly not Approved of and seen as lowly and dishonorable, but the average response is significantly less harsh/more willing to entertain Nuance with men than with women.

In this society there's differentiated shades of bastardry depending on the contexts of the child's birth, as well as a distinction for 'nameless bastards' (has not been claimed by their biological father or maternal grandfather, or claimed in adoption).

a) A child born to an unmarried woman via an unmarried man: non-issue for father, potentially serious social harm for the woman (especially if she has never been married and expected virginal, much less severe as a widow or divorcee). The child will not be notably disadvantaged in of themselves (their status will depend more on whether they are claimed and thus provided the social security of a family patriarch), the father will experience no hard disadvantages in claiming them.

b) A child born to an unmarried woman via a married man: mild sexual misdemeanor for the father carrying levels of social shame, even more serious social harm for the woman (often framed as not just loose but a manipulative Seductress of a married man). The child might experience minor to moderate social disadvantages, the consequences of the father claiming them are purely social and will not typically be severe. (Couya is this)

c) A child born to a married woman via an unmarried or married man: both man and woman have committed a crime and can be severely punished. The biological father can technically claim the child but will be disincentivized from doing so. This is the form of bastardry most comparable to the conventional definition, in that it is heavily stigmatized and has effects on concerns of kinship and inheritance.

In addendum to this, if the adulterous wife's legal husband claims the child, this may be punishable if determined to be active concealment of adultery (which is also a crime), and has EXTREME social consequences either way. (Either you're a cuckold too stupid to notice that your wife has been skipping out on you, or you're a MEGAcuckold adultery-accessory willingly rearing another man's child after being horribly shamed by him).

(This is separate from adoption- a man who marries a woman with an unclaimed child after the fact (whether it was a product of adultery or just a general out of wedlock birth) and claims the child is an adoptive father, he is not concealing adultery or being cuckolded.)

A child born in an affair can be considered an heir to their biological fathers (descent and kinship is fully patrilineal and on a Basic level it doesn't matter who the mother is), and can very smoothly and legally be claimed when the affair was not considered criminal adultery. The concern on that front is social perception rather than material legal consequences or kinship issues.

Couya's birth mother was an unwed servant working as a housekeeper for her father Saizen, so the Crime of adultery did not take place. It would be considered a minor sexual misdemeanor, and the woman's father was not about to pursue charges against a nobleman who could Ruin him (and had also formally expressed that he would claim the child, which meant he would not be saddled with a nameless bastard granddaughter). So the concerns here were entirely social.

The affair might have started beforehand but the pregnancy that produced Couya occurred after his wife's third viable pregnancy ended in the premature birth of a underdeveloped boy deemed necessary to euthanize (and tbr would Not have survived either way). This was after Livya Haidamane had a couple early term miscarriages, two viable but very difficult pregnancies wherein one child was very weak and sickly for the first several years of life, and struggled to conceive every time. A lot of people are going to be at least a little sympathetic to a married man having an affair and claiming a bastard in this context. It's definitely ideal and practical to have more than two children, and his wife (while not outright infertile) clearly could not reliably bear healthy children. (The average response is going to be "Well he shouldn't have done it but like, I get it")

Couya being claimed by her father was a mix of genuine care and saving face. Initially it was MUCH more the latter than the former. Saizen made attempts to hide the servant's pregnancy and to keep his own wife out of sight during the late term (to prevent the baby appearing after his wife had been seen Extremely not pregnant). But there's some levels of care involved, he could very easily have fired the pregnant servant and had nothing to do with his bastard and she would have no recompense whatsoever. The choice to keep and claim the baby and ensure its entrance into the world bore as little social scrutiny as possible is an act of care for his own progeny.

This was Not an act of care for Couya's birth mother (beyond the fact that concealing her pregnancy would benefit her in hiding that she is not only Not a virgin prior to marriage but had a child). She probably would have been about 17-19 at the time and was fired a few months after giving birth, and most likely never saw Couya again after this point (if she did, it would most likely be in the context of seeing her as an adult Odonii in public and noting her to look Scarily familiar). She has an Okayish chance at still being alive, she'd be around 50 (and a person who survives the high infant mortality and birth casualty rates stands a good chance of hitting their 60s), though she could very well be a casualty of the drought+famine.

Whether or not Couya's life would have been better is kind of a mixed bag. She had an awful fucking childhood in large part because her adoptive mother Livya Haidamane hated her. (Livya was ultimately a pretty horrible person but not just like. An Evil Bitch. She had A Lot going on and Couya was a living breathing insult to her and reminder of like, every one of her dashed hopes and dreams). Couya is also autistic and presented very intense symptoms as a child in a society that is Not equipped for a mass-understanding and support of cognitive differences. But she still did have an immensely privileged life with profound physical/economic levels of security inaccessible to the vast majority of people in this region, including her birth mother. Saizen also actually Liked her and cared about her, he just wasn't a routine physical presence in any of his children's lives.

Had she been left with her biological mother, she would be in a very disadvantaged situation as a nameless bastard to an unwed mother. Her biological grandfather may or may not have been willing to claim her, and her mother would have great difficulties in finding a husband (which is ultimately necessary for the security of women in this society). I think her mother was a relatively kind person but not like, a perfect angel. She would probably have complicated feelings about her bastard daughter, especially one whose very existence materially disadvantages her and was very, very difficult as a child. So this probably would not have been a good situation for Couya either.

If you broaden the question to ANY other family completely divorced from the circumstances of her birth, yeah it definitely could have been better. But in her case it's like either "Life of grotesque socioeconomic privilege but in an abusive household" or "Life of profound socioeconomic disadvantages in a household that Probably wouldn't have been this abusive but certainly wouldn't be healthy". There wasn't really a good option for her.

[quickfixinator]

Hiii!!! You mentioned in your reblog "jersey boy", while talking about fanfics including mullet Stan and old ford. Can I PLEASE get a link? I need fanfics with them. please. You'll save a life if you do, or if you have any other interesting reccomendaitons [excited][excited][excited]

HOLY shit I have waited for this day for my entire life YES absolutely here are a few I love with my heart and soul, the first one is mullet stan & old ford, the rest are mostly just good fic recs with brief descriptions, title, author, & word count guestimations.

I typically read longer, multi chapter works, but there are a few on here that are one shots, or are so close to being one shots that I consider them that in my head. for the most part (in this fandom at least) I don't read anything that's below 5k unless someone really twists my arm into it, so these are mostly going to be decently large time commitments but very, very good stories.

this is mullet stan & old ford, but also old stan & nearly-paranoid ford pines: (Stan Overboard, itS_JuSt_a_thought, approaching 100k I think?) https://archiveofourown.org/works/59722483/chapters/152329459

sea grunks, absolutely gut wrenching. I've gone back and reread the end a minimum of four times: (Fisherman's Knot, scribefindegil, just over 100k) https://archiveofourown.org/works/6179098/chapters/14157307

gravity falls retelling but the best version of it I've ever seen. this fic is a commitment, but this fic is worth it. it will take up more space in your head than you're likely going to want to give it: (Knowing Me, Knowing You, f_imaginings, hit 1,000,000+ words the day after christmas. I would know, I was there. wonderful little (Big) christmas gift.) https://archiveofourown.org/works/9529949/chapters/21548483

paranoid ford & mullet stan. what could go wrong? (so, so much.): (Monster Hearts, gen_is_gone, 50k~ & there's another part when you finish getting destroyed by this one) https://archiveofourown.org/works/61267219/chapters/156583162

am obligatory jersey boy by fordtato mention: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6885211/chapters/15708244

mullet stan & paranoid ford battling the devil (their communication issuses) this is also the best time loop fic I've ever read, and I read Knowing Me, Knowing You, in a week. that is to say I read a lot and I read often. so to be the best time loop fic I've ever read, is really, really hard feat to accomplish. that being said, this fic did do that so: (Déjà Vu, interlude, I don't remember this one being very long, but it is a gut punch) https://archiveofourown.org/works/27586903/chapters/67484779

actually destructive I'll just let you know that now: (Bait & Switch, underwater_owl, multi chapter, there's a series for it on AO3 with NSFW sections that aren't in the work & an additional part that is in progress) https://archiveofourown.org/works/58728250/chapters/149654767

baby stan twins. they make me want to bawl so hard: (The Effigy and the Inferno, Pokimoko, multi chapter, not super long) https://archiveofourown.org/works/60958624/chapters/155724274

have you ever considered the ship of theseus. what if the ship of theseus was a man. does that idea make you want to hurl? I'm a big fan of when people drive a stake right through the heart of stanford pines. really big fan of that: (To Make This Man of Me, mikripetra, one shot) https://archiveofourown.org/works/62754457

what if the stan twins met in the multiverse and shared a drink? surely that wouldn't hurt. surely not: (What's Almost Familiar, Fangirlwriting, one shot) https://archiveofourown.org/works/58904062

I know a lot of these are not mullet stan & old ford (there's one! please don't kill me! if you know of any others PLEASE let me know I would love to see them.) but these are some of my personal favourites. I'm a sucker for a story with a good sibling dynamic in it, so buckle up, grab your tissues and settle in for probably over a weeks worth of fic recs, if you read anything like I do.

also I am so sorry if I've managed to screw up the formating on this, I am on my phone OR if the captions contain a level of inaccuracy to them, this is a collection I have curated since the start of august and I've never compiled them like this before so I am working on some moderately old memories. forgive me in advance for any errors.

anyway, please take these, share them with your friends, leave the authors a whole hell of a lot of love because they are fantastic and I don't think they'll ever know just how much time I spend thinking about their fics.

[dinosaurwithablog]

Ask a stupid question and get a stupid answer. 🤣🤣🤣 I love Hans Gruber's reaction to his question 😂 You gotta respect Holly for being extremely honest and not looking afraid at all. Her 3rd request is for bathroom breaks for everyone. I'm thinking that she should go first after dealing with Hans, don't you? That took some nerve to do.

[applestorms]

the demons got to me and i’m thinking about mello again.

god i so desperately wish we could’ve seen him interact with L in canon. near too, but mello in particular— i’ve already written my mello & misa parallels post so i won’t reiterate all that here but, fuck. i think their similarities would’ve been so obvious if we had actually seen mello’s hero worship of L in practice, like more than just his freak out at roger upon hearing about his death.

do you think he would’ve been loud, in his face about it? i don’t think so. i can’t help thinking back to near’s explanation of why L picked the two of them out to be his successors— the two quiet kids at the back of the room, glowering and watching while everyone else asked their questions. the obvious implication is that L picked them out because they seemed to idolize him, to respect him the least. near at least seems to have managed to stick with that mindset for most of canon… but when did mello’s view start changing? was he just better at hiding it? did his feelings ever become more, less mixed? did he worship L like a cold, distant god— or grow to respect the minor points of humanity that seeped out from the corners?

speaking of: how the FUCK did that conversation about the LABB murder case go? how much of that story was actually, directly told to mello, and how much was his own fantasy, filling in the blanks? he clearly projected onto BB. did he join the mafia with that knowledge in mind, that the desperate, inferiority complex-riddled serial killer was the archetype he fit into better than the world famous detective? did he care about justice, any kind of moral standard— did he bloody his hands or find ways to work around it?

mello knew was never going to be L’s successor, not if he played the game according to its established rules. did L ever imply such things to his face? actually, what the hell did L think of near? was he aware of the burden he put on those fucking kids, did he ever care for even a second? did he mistakenly assume his own immortality, even in the face of a supernatural murder?

(clawing desperately at the walls of my enclosure. L getting annoyed at his pet orphanage of super-geniuses for distracting him from his evil boyfriend is one of my favorite fic tropes of all time, if you gimme recs for that i’ll kiss you)

i wonder if mello ever saw the parts of L in near that everyone else seems to unable to see past. maybe he did, but even so— i think he, of all people, was most aware of all the ways in which near was himself. how easily he fit the role but all the ways in which he broke out of it as well, the similarities in their intelligence & methods of thinking but the minor details that meant near could win where L never could. where mello himself never could. he probably knew how that guy functioned better than anyone, maybe even better than near himself, though i doubt he’d ever do much with that knowledge. it’s one of the few places where i see mello & near switching in terms of passivity— mello knowing Everything about near but doing very little about it, paralyzed by his own self-doubt, while near comparatively struggles to claw as much Mello Knowledge as he can, poking and prodding and pushing him in every direction, all while getting continually blind-sighted as he explodes in random ways he can barely fathom.

i like to think that, in contrast with near’s extreme codependence, mello is actually quite self-sufficient. weirdly, he seems to me like the DN character to be the most likely to actually go to therapy at some point. i think he’s a lot more self aware than he lets on, if only because his inferiority complex drives so much of his self hatred, pushing him to always be better, stronger, more independent. i like to imagine that his apartment or room or wherever the fuck he lives is actually quite clean, that he pushes himself to learn how to cook, how to take care of himself. L never sleeps and near probably sleeps too much but mello needs a consistent, solid 7-8 hours a night or he starts getting cranky— the kind of person who functions better in the sunlight, to take from a fic i read recently.

i wonder how much of his life he remembers from before the orphanage. he seems like he might have emotional ties there, but something he’d never or only very rarely speak about— glimpses of a past life that keeps him up at night on occasion, where near is blessed with a complete lack of any earlier memories. mello just seems more inclined towards sentimentality like that, extreme in all his emotions, particularly when they’re utilized for the purpose of self-destruction. he wears a rosary, has a cross on his gun, chooses to die in a dilapidated church. good lord, he chooses to die in a church.

did he grieve matt? he apologizes, yes. but did he already know he was to join him so soon?

i desperately wish to see a version of mello who had the time to commit to his name and chill the fuck out for a while. get some meds, separate himself from the burdens of L, of the rivalry, and allow himself the chance to relax and breathe and properly heal. part of the reason why his death in particular hits me so hard is the fact that it all seems so possible with him, that he has the most potential to genuinely get over this shit— to not just stew in the corners of the earth and let time wash over him (like a certain someone), but actually, literally get his fucking life back.

he’s explosive, yes, he’s neurotic and emotional and lashes out at everyone and anyone he pleases— but in that same way, he’s honest. mello and near do not bullshit themselves in the ways that L and light do so consistently, they don’t bother lying to themselves or putting on airs about the kinds of people they are or the kinds of things they want. they know their place in the world, the expectations on their shoulders.

everybody likes thinking about “L wins” and “KIRA wins” scenarios, but you know what i really want to consider? what the fuck would mello winning look like? i mean, he’s a character whose primarily fucking trait is the fact that he loses, that he’s always second place. i almost feel like mello winning could’ve been one of the best case scenarios— because for mello to truly win, to not just overpower near and tell him to suck it (a situation which would not make mello legitimately happy, just put him in the same situation as light killing L), he’d have to get over the biggest hurdle of his own bullshit and legitimately grow as a person.

i yearn to see a near that got the chance to grow up with his other half, and a mello who got the chance to live for himself again. they deserve that: quiet afternoons to bitch at each other and argue over whatever book they decided to read that week, near whining about having to do chores and mello yelling at him to clean up his fucking legos, matt shaking his head in the corner.

get those kids a fucking happy ending.

[feralplantwife]

Erzsebet Bathory- Thematic Character Analysis

I've seen a lot of posts about Erzsebet Bathory, and the general sense is that while her design is cool, she's not very well-developed or impressive from a character standpoint. I agree... Somewhat.

I'm going to get into it below, but the TL;DR version is that from a characterization standpoint, she is weak, but from a thematic standpoint, she is Everything.

Disclaimer: I have not been fortunate enough to play any of the games, so this analysis will focus solely on the show. <3

First, what do vampires mean in storytelling?

A vampire can symbolize many things, but here are the big three: they're a representation of the Other, the unknown (kind of like Frankenstein's Monster), but they can also be a manifestation of carnal, sinful, or deviant desires (think Dorian Grey). The one I'm going to focus on here, as it's the most relevant, is the third main type: the Parasite. Vampires are bloodsucking, gluttonous, selfish starving monsters that consume and consume until there is nothing left (think Robert Baratheon).

This was a theme that was explored in the first series with the Church's opulence and their desire to sacrifice innumerable human lives for the sake of their image and power. Carmilla is the same, but in contention with the Church.

This theme is expanded upon beautifully in Nocturne, with the French Revolution bourgeoise and American colonization and slave trade building upon the themes of the first series. Olrex talks about his home being destroyed, his lover's people being exterminated but holding onto his identity even in undeath. Annette holds onto her Yoruban faith and her Creole heritage taught to her by her mother and fellows even after generations of cultural genocide at the hands of her masters- a combination of more than one old indigenous faith and newer conglomerations of the same. (In this way, one could say that Erzsebet Bathory and Annette are foils!)

How does Erzsebet Bathory fit into this thematically?

Let me explain it like this: Erzsebet Bathory is a white woman dripping in stylized opulence who swallowed an Egyptian god. The truest enemy in this series is colonialism: the consumption of everything and everyone that isn't white and Christian to expand white and Christian ideals and desires using God as a face for their misdeeds- the consumption of people, land, culture, religion, knowledge, kindness. What could not be consumed was destroyed.

In this way, Erzsebet Bathory is the manifestation of all the greatest evils people of color and minorities have ever faced, and continue to face today: that of homogenization, exploitation, and destruction.

The fact that this is expanded by her vampiric elitism builds upon this idea by including all human beings. It's open knowledge among many anthropological circles that colonization destroyed a lot of technology, culture, and knowledge, has held society back, and continues to lead to unnecessary and painful struggle among society (largely due to that fact that many developed nations' governments are still being run by vampires today- how are all my fellow Americans doing as we barrel toward a government shutdown for this very reason?).

Erzsebet Bathory signifies the consumption of the human spirit and the death of mankind, wrapped up in a beautifully terrifying amalgam of every single sin the colonizers ever committed. She's not the ultimate character of Nocturne by a long shot, but she is the ultimate monster.