analytical-but-hopeful-explorer

[analytical-but-hopeful-explorer]

You know those anime meta posts along the lines of “I was born with pink hair. The doctors told my parents I was a Main Character and ever since my life has not known peace from demons/spirits/sports competitions/harems who find me”

Well I see that, and I raise you this:

An anime boy whose appearance is, by absolutely anyone’s account, completely and utterly average. Mundane hair. Mundane eyes. Not even glasses to set him the tiniest bit apart. A simple, unmemorable, unrecognizable civilian among a backdrop of millions.

And he has a lot of passions, and a lot of ambitions, which he hones every chance he gets. He’s dabbled in sports and archery and cooking and just about anything you could wrap a competition around. And he’s competed in many of these. Every chance he gets. With all of his passion and all of his might.

He’s crushed by the competition every single time.

Until one day–one day something clicks for him. Something that should have seemed obvious from the start and yet never was–as though everyone, including himself, was unwittingly blind to it. It clicks, when he realizes every kid who’s beaten him in competition, every kid who’s gone on to fame and glory and acclaim, has been some candy-haired gel-spiked ridiculously-dressed fucker. 

There’s some trend there that this Main Character boy can’t explain and can’t understand but he decides, this one time, fuck it. He’ll play along too. He’s got a model train competition in four days, and he’s got nothing more to lose. He hits up the department store, buys the pinkest, noxious-est, fruitiest hair dye he can find, the spikiest hair gel available, and the gaudiest clothes on the thrift rack. He enters the model train competition looking like a bubble gum gijinka.

And he wins.

Suddenly, the other candy-haired contestants notice him. They talk to him. They pledge rivalries. Girls notice him. Judges applaud him. Acclaimed model train aficionados offer him internships across the world. He’s hit on something. 

The main cast expands to cover just about every candy-hair cliche in the book: from the mostly-normal-looking demure school girl with the blue hair to the Naruto-est, yelling-est boy with the red-and-green spiked hair. The cool megane senpais, the purple haired tsunderes, suddenly everyone is interested in him. They’re prodigies and upstarts and underdogs and they truly believe that this main character boy is one of them.

So the main character boy maintains his ruse. He touches up his roots at dawn every morning and carefully attends to his gelled spikes and tells absolutely no one about this great, uncanny, unfathomable secret he’s stumbled upon. He wins his competitions left and right. He racks up the acclaim. He’s hailed as a prodigy of all trades, just now bursting onto the scene, and boils to the top of all his candy-haired peers.

He’s rising up, his every dream within his grasp. Until one day he gets a note under his door, taped to an old picture of his Normal Boring self from middle school, that says “You don’t belong”

[analytical-but-hopeful-explorer]

Desire (Christmasy one-shot posted, 12-24-20)

Lothiriel misses Eomer when he is absent on an important occasion.  Fluffy little ONE-SHOT.  Part 179 of the Elfwine Chronicles.

Everyone always wants a Christmas LOTR tale.  The only trouble is, they didn’t really have Christmas in Middle-earth.  I’ve sort of established Yule as a similar equivalent, and with that in mind came up with this.  It is loosely based on the Carpenters’ song “Merry Christmas, Darling” (one of my favorite Christmas songs, but then that’s not surprising - you all know I’m just a sappy romantic!).

Desire

(1st Yule, 2-3 IV)

Lothiriel sat in front of the fire in Eomer’s study, Elfwine cuddled in her arms.  Though she rocked her baby and absentmindedly cooed to him on occasion, her thoughts were far from this room.  In truth, there was no reason for her to even be in here, except that Eomer was gone from Edoras and this was where she felt his presence most strongly.

It was only their third Yule together, but he had been called away to the North.  Though this winter was not so fierce as last year’s had been, some of the outlying settlements still struggled, and desperate orc bands sometimes harried them to obtain food.  He had been gone for nearly a fortnight now, and no one knew for sure when he would return. 

Lothiriel’s heart was not in celebrating, with Eomer away, but she knew it was important for their people. Consequently, she had gone through all the usual preparations on her own and readied the Hall for the two days of feasting.  Evergreen bows adorned the walls and pillars, lending a woodsy fragrance, the tables were arranged for the meal and in kitchens all over Edoras food was cooking to be brought for the feast.  Gamling and members of the King’s Guard had readily stepped in to do the things Eomer often did, and at a glance this would be a celebration similar to those in the past. Except that Eomer would not be in attendance, and that detail was more important to Lothiriel than any other.

Their first Yule together had been shared with eager anticipation for the birth of their first child.  That babe lay sleeping in her arms now, and Lothiriel had expected that the three of them would be sharing this Yule together.  Indeed, she had decided last year that she wanted to never miss spending a Yule celebration with her husband, and yet already it was so.  It did not help matters that this was Eomer’s favorite time of the year.  He loved the decorations, the feasting, but most of all that for a very brief time he was treated like anyone else in the Riddermark.  He carried firewood and moved tables, and no one thought to look askance at the king doing such at this particular time.  And she loved the occasion all the more because he loved it so much.

A tear of self-pity trickled down her cheek, and she brushed it away in annoyance.  She had no right to be so selfish.  Eomer was king and had responsibilities for his people.  If it were possible, he would certainly be with her, but sometimes he would have to be elsewhere, and she should have recognized that fact long before this.  With a sigh, she brushed a kiss over her son’s forehead and rose.  Time to get this little one snug in his bed, and then get herself dressed to preside over the festivities.  Regardless of her personal feelings this night, she would present a cheerful countenance to their people and not dampen the hearts of others.

continue reading on AO3:

              https://archiveofourown.org/works/28302240

[analytical-but-hopeful-explorer]

[analytical-but-hopeful-explorer]

Rosemary? You mean spicy pine needles?

[analytical-but-hopeful-explorer]

A fun fact about me is that I look like I’m about 18 but I speak like I’m 56 so no-one ever guesses my age correctly and I exist on the periphery of perception as some dread, ageless entity

[analytical-but-hopeful-explorer]

you’re welcome

[analytical-but-hopeful-explorer]

more parents need to understand that teaching children to ask why rules exist is positive and valuable. teaching kids about authority–and that authority is not always right, and when and how to question it–is a fundamental step to preparing them for adult life. 

do it right and you won’t get disobedient kids, you’ll get kids who think critically 

[analytical-but-hopeful-explorer]

Photos That look Like Renaissance Paintings

[analytical-but-hopeful-explorer]

🏆 This is the Amazing Person Award 🏆 ✨💚 Once you are given this award you are supposed to paste it in the ask of eight different people, who, in your opinion, deserve it. If you break the chain nothing will happen, but it is sweet to know someone thinks you're amazing inside and out 💚✨ Your stuff makes me smile!!

Aaaww, thanks! That's so sweet! I haven't been out here much recently (busy with life offline). This is very kind and made me smile! I like your stuff too!

[analytical-but-hopeful-explorer]

i keep seeing people say “why would you leave this in the tags” but the alternative is to actually comment on someones post and i thought we all collectively decided that was a bad idea years ago

[analytical-but-hopeful-explorer]

“If it is more permissible to kill a fetus than to kill an infant because the fetus is less of a person, then it is for exactly the same reason more permissible to kill a seven-year-old, who has not yet developed his reproductive system or many of his educational and communications skills, than to kill a 27-year-old. The absurd conclusion follows from defining a person functionally. No other line than conception can be drawn between pre-personhood and personhood. Birth and viability are the two most frequently suggested. But birth is only a change of place and relationship to the mother and to the surrounding world (air and food); how could these things create personhood? As for viability, it varies with accidental and external factors like available technology (incubators). What I am in the womb}a person or a non-person} cannot be determined by what machines exist outside the womb! But viability is determined by such things. Therefore, personhood cannot be determined by viability.”

- Peter Kreeft, Human Personhood Begins at Conception

[analytical-but-hopeful-explorer]

Gandalf, taking a hit from his joint: Did you guys know that mithril is super expensive? Like insanely valuable? That it’s very much a finite resource mostly plundered from the earth and invaluable due to its many uses? And also Sauron has most of it so it’s now lost to its Elven and Dwarvish makers? And to think Bilbo’s precious gift of mithril mail is probably sitting in the local Useless Dumb Artefacts Museum. Just makes you think lol ...

Gimli, a dwarf who has lost most of his people’s cultural artefacts: ... I’m sorry Bilbo was given what and did what with it

Frodo, secretly wearing Bilbo’s mithril mail at that very moment but only after nearly 70 years of it sitting in the Useless Dumb Artefacts Museum gathering dust because Bilbo had no idea his cool shirt was worth approximately the net value of their entire country:

[analytical-but-hopeful-explorer]

💐🌷🌸🌼💐

[analytical-but-hopeful-explorer]

[analytical-but-hopeful-explorer]

Humbly asking to please pray for the Philippines rn. We’ve been continuously having disastrous typhoons these past weeks and my heart goes out to all my fellowmen terribly affected. To add, these disasters have been hitting the very same provinces the previous storms just shattered and while my fellowmen have barely gotten up, they just have to be hit again by another really strong typhoon. Please everyone, please pray for the Philippines, please help me pray for my countrymen 🥺😭

Thank you. God bless and keep safe, everyone!

[analytical-but-hopeful-explorer]

[analytical-but-hopeful-explorer]

guys please continue to pray for the Philippines. we were hit by another typhoon shortly two weeks after the strongest typhoon of 2020 hit us. many cities are flooded (up to the roofs of their houses !!!), people trapped up on their roofs, cars and houses destroyed by the water. there was a photo circulating of a grandpa on top of a roof covered by a thin sheet of cloth to keep him warm and i just about lost it. please pray for my country.