#AND WHAT THE FUCK IS THE THREAT LEVEL. WHY IS IT HIS ONLY INSTANCE OF “VERY INTERESTING” IN THAT MENU.

[juneboat]

the fact that save files in deltarune are quite possibly even more diagetic than they were in undertale fills me with fear and dread like no other

[archaiclumina]

“A man’s bookcase will tell you everything you’ll ever need to know about him.” ― Walter Mosley, The Long Fall

It’s a common perception that the way someone arranges their bookshelves can say a lot about their personality and traits. How would this be applied to Ren, a librarian/archivist in her own right? How would you describe her, based on the way she works or manages her library/archive? What are some of her quirks and gripes on the organization of books and materials? After all…

“Rule number one: Don’t fuck with librarians.” ― Neil Gaiman

Thanks so much for the ask friend! Ren is super particular about how everything is organised tbh c': not just her books. She was raised by a meticulous perfectionist. That sort of overbearing demeanor of course influences a person. So as a result, she is the kind of person who judges people for things like bad dress sense, poor manners, tardiness, and forgetfulness, that extends to people's organisational skills, but truly, when it comes to organisation and memory, it is probably the only time when she's judging someone, she isn't being a hypocrite. Cyfrenne is very organised because it's the only method of control she has over her memory salads. She has a custom archival system which she's used for her own collection of notes, research materials, books and curios, since she was a student. This system is actually part of the reason why Zancefer asked her to manage his collection! She adapted it for use at the Slanted Shelves. The short explanation as to how this system works is that it's an alpha-numeric system preceded by a combination of bibliomantic sigils. These serve both as an aetheric signature one can attune to, sort of like a linkpearl frequency, and as a classifier for the item type. A longer breakdown is under the cut!

Ren's collection classification system, also the CARGO classification system works firstly on the basis of item type, followed by particulars in order of importance to her or her Uncle, these include obvious stuff, such as age and geographical origin, but there are also numeric values which indicate an items transportability, ease of public display, inherit value, and of course when it comes to some of the weird stuff Zancefer has picked up, estimated threat level c': Each item in a collection she manages is first inscribed with a bibliomantic sigil for recalling/locating it. For fun my husband and I headcanon this symbol is '#'. We also headcanon it functions similarly to the old Arcane Mark with permanence trick from D&D 3.0, where in you could put your personal sigil on an item and then make that sigil invisible but still be able to spot it even when no one else can. (This is of course, an anti-theft measure as much as for organisational purposes!) The next sigil is a letter designation which defines the item type. These are C, R, T, and, M. C stands for Curios, R for Relic, T for Tomestone and M for Manuscript. This is then followed by the numerical designations which tell Ren the item's particulars at a glance. These all work on a scale of 0-9. The first number indicates the items threat level, whereby 0 is undetermined and 9 is Sharlyan said keep that one under lock and key. (Full disclosure. They don't c': )

The second number designates the materials and composition, where 0 once again stands for indeterminate, 1 is rudimentary organic material composition and 9 is for items created using highly complex knowledge and materials (ie: tomestones) or naturally occurring materials of great power (ie: auracite)

The next number will tell Ren how old the item is. Again 0 is undetermined, 1 would be considered very ancient and 9 would be considered something created within the last 200 or so years of the star's history. In rare instances where an item has been altered significantly in an era after it was originally created, this is designated with a hyphen.

I think the idea of the scale is pretty obvious by now c': it works on the same 0-9 principle for the items value, its transportability and in the case of the Library, how easy/how worthwhile it is to keep it on display.

What you end up getting is something that looks like:

Sack of Accelerated Atrophy #R246413 This otherwise ordinary looking burlap sack has a green tie cord threaded about its mouth. Believed to have potentially been created during the time of Amdapor, anything placed in this sack is instantly covered in mould, rendering any food stored in it completely useless. Tests have shown that the sack is also able to corrupt foodstuffs stored within a small radius of itself, roughly 3 fulms by 3 fulms. It’s speculated this was used as an additional method of guerilla tactics by the Mhaci to deplete the resources of Amdapor Keep during their invasion.

So, this Sack is a Relic, It's not much of a threat, it's made with some pretty complex magical knowledge as well as organic materials, it's moderately valuable in terms of its historical worth, it's very easy to transport. And, well, sure they can display this burlap sack easily, but is there a point? Probs not, who wants to look at a sack? It gets a 3 for its display score c':

Manducated Femur#C229311 This femur bone looks as if it comes from a four-limbed creature such as a Jackal. It has been well cleaned and preserved, with a set of what appear to be humanoid bite marks stained with deep ochre dye adorning the length of the humerus. Located in the Sagoli Desert and assumed to be the creation of one of the local Zahar'ak Thaumaturges, if the bone is bitten once again it fills the air with the smell of a bubbling stew. The scent is strong enough to mask odours in a 90 fulm radius, however it also runs the risk of attracting nearby predators. Used as both a method for ambushes, by distracting lost or weary travelers, or the hunting of local game fauna.

Although, to be fair, this femur is technically not part of Uncle Zan's collection anymore. It now lives in the crisper of The Fireside's icebox.

Thank you again for the ask! It was fun to share a bit about Ren's archival system! <3

[firelord-frowny]

Alllllllllllll you need to do to make the case for why it should be difficult to legally acquire and use a gun is look at the comments on any firearm related video on the Active Self Protection youtube channel.

It's run by a guy who teaches self defense training, and is a staunch advocate for the RESPONSIBLE USE of guns in self defense. Every day, he posts and analyzes a video - usually security footage - of a real-life incident where a crime or any other sort of self-defense encounter takes place, and he analyzes it to help viewers understand what to do or not do in a similar situation. And not all of the videos show instances where the victims prevail. Sometimes the victims literally die. But often, the victims do prevail, and the perpetrator dies. Still, there are many times where neither person is injured and the perpetrator escapes, or neither person is (seriously) injured and the perpetrator is either arrested, or is thwarted, but escapes the scene. And, importantly, many of the videos show situations where the victim takes self defense WAY TOO FAR and use deadly force in situations that clearly didn't warrant it. The host spends a lot of time talking about this, emphasizing that in the us at least, a person does not have the right to use deadly force to protect property. Your car, or your phone, or any other item is not important enough for you to kill someone over it. the only circumstance that clearly justifies deadly force is one where you have good reason to believe that your life, or someone else's life was in imminent danger. point blank period.

and it is INSAAAAAAAAAAAAAANE how many people will comment on those videos bitching about how they think they should be allowed to kill people over property. these lunatics are proudly boasting about how ~once you commit an illegal act against me, you forfeit your right to live~

WHAT??????????

I just looked at this one video where a dude is trying to steal the side mirror off of someone else's car. The car's owner runs out with a gun and shoots at the motherfucker like 7 times at point blank range, WHILE the motherfucker is fleeing. So the host talks for a few minutes about why that was a fucking dumb thing to do! He even tried to preempt all the fucking insane barbarians in the comments by saying something to the effect of, "i know people are gonna say, 'but john, i need my car to get to work every day! if a criminal steals my car or renders it inoperable, they're threatening my livelihood because i won't be able to get to work and pay my bills and feed my family!' but you know what? if you can't afford to miss work, then you DEFINITELY can't afford the lawyer you're gonna need when you're charged with manslaughter. You DEFINITELY can't afford all the days you won't be able to go to work because you're dealing with the police. So just don't use deadly force against non-deadly threats."

But do those people get it through their thick ass skulls?? Of course not!! of course they're still frothing at the mouth about how much they want to kill petty thieves!

And the thing that fucking KILLS MEEEEEEEEEEEEE about these people is that they have absolutely no fucking regard for the fact that just because they fire 7 rounds off at a petty thief doesn't mean all 7 of those rounds are going to land in the thief! If you go around recklessly shooting at non-deadly threats, you're putting OTHER PEOPLE'S LIVES in extreme danger just because you're so fucking arrogant and barbaric that you feel the need to try to kill petty thieves. Your ego was too enormous to let somebody run off with your side view mirror, so now the 11 year old girl who was leaving her house to walk to school is dead. Now a man who was just minding his own business on his couch at home has been shot in the shoulder when your bullet went through his wall. You fucking idiot!!!

Like, even if we stoop to the level of saying that it's okay to kill someone over a non-deadly threat, what about all the bystanders?? is something that's not a threat to your life worth putting other people's lives in danger???? the answer to that should be a clear and resounding OF COURSE NOT but i mean, barbarians are gonna be barbarians so for all i know, those people might think it's a perfectly moral and sane thing to do.

and it TERRIFIES me to think that people like that are walking around with guns. because one day I'm gonna be walking through the parking lot at the grocery store, and somebody's gonna catch someone else trying to steal their car, and they're gonna whip out their handgun and start firing at that person, and i'm gonna be in the line of fire, and my fucking life might get ended or otherwise changed for the worst when a bullet that was meant for a non-deadly-threat winds up hitting me.

[avellanas-nutty-empire]

Different kinds of strength Pt1

Similar to For The Sake Of A Smile by @snippychicke, Iruma has an adoptive human Aunt that followed him into the netherworld. Shes the librarian at Babyls and Jazz goes to her of all people for help addressing his familiar Spoo

Iruma is a kind hearted individual. One bad thing about this however, is his lack of associating weakness with softness. Not to say that Iruma - being a softie - is weak, but rather he would be openly vocal about others' softness (and thus weakness) than demons would normally be comfortable with.

It's like he knows a secret, but doesn’t understand why it's important to be discretionary about it. He could easily spill the secret accidentally, without intending to cause the harm that would inevitably follow...

This is what caused Jazz to further communicate with Iruma about the instance in which he found out about his familiar: Spoo.

Iruma was hiding in the room Jazz and Spoo were practicing in, so he could easily eat where the ‘Snack Police’ could not find and apprehend him. Iruma was kind; and Jazz doubted he would intentionally hurt another in such a way, but he had to be sure that his loose lips would always remember that Jazz knew his snacking secret whenever he thought of Spoo. Just to be sure.

"If you're really still worried about his appearance, Jazz, you might wanna talk with my Aunt, Flora."

This was not at all the reaction Jazz expected. Which - Iruma did cower in fear at first, when the mention of keeping Spoo’s appearance discretionary immediately changed Jazz’s demeanor - but now he had realized the purpose, and was unfazed by Jazz's threats.

"Seriously," He continued as Jazz went blank-faced. "She has a lot of experience with personal appearance struggles. I think it might help."

Despite his bafflement at the suggestion, this bit of information must not dissuade Jazz from his original mission.... ensuring Iruma’s ultimate silence about Spoo.

"I'll still tell Clara and the whole Snack Police if you tell." He said firmly, at which Iruma stiffened again - for Clara and Azz had just appeared behind Jazz. The two students met eyes once more.

"My lips are sealed!" Iruma said before scampering off towards his main 2 friends. Thank Devi he didn't have any snacks to hide at that moment, or he would've been a goner.

---

Flora had taken over Babyls’ Library not long after most of the misfit class had gone to Walter Park together in the summer. She was supposedly as secluded as Iruma had been from the rest of the Netherworld before entering Babyls (though how Sullivan managed to keep his mouth shut about his precious daughter and grandson for such a time, Jazz would never be certain enough to bet on). She was unranked, and seemed to have a wide array of general knowledge rather than one particular specialty.

She was physically and magically weak like Spoo, but there wasn't much else Jazz could see in comparison. The bit Iruma said about personal appearance experience got Jazz quite more curious about her, however. Was she insecure about her rankless status, was there some sort of trauma she suffered that affected her sense of self? It was too perplexing a concept for him to ignore.

He had to know what the fuck Iruma was talking about. Was he calling him insecure?

Flora definitely seemed to be as shy as Iruma was kind - on top of being equally as kind - but the more Jazz tried to think about it, the more his brain tried to shut the thoughts down; such levels of kindness were unnatural in the netherworld. Better to just straight up confront her.

But how?

---

Flora was known through out Babyls  for not only being the Librarian, but also being rankless, kind, shy… and also riding astride a fucking nightmare’s back to and fro various long distances.

Right on top of their wing base.

The subject in question then became how the fuck Flora had managed to have such steep control over a netherworld creature that it would allow her to sit there as it moved, while still being as weak as she was.

Everyone saw the way she treated the nightmares though, and the sight was less than steeped in control; which is what was even more perplexing.

"What does your familiar look like?" Jazz blurted, suddenly popping up from her desk one day. Startled, Flora dropped her book down and braced one hand on her chest and another against the desk for support as she tried to calm herself down from the fright. "You have one, right? One of the nightmares?" Jazz continued, unbothered.

Flora took another moment to steady herself, which was considered normal for her. She needed a moment longer to tell her mind and body that it was not, in fact, in danger. Probably something picked up from her theoretically traumatic past, everyone figured. She was weak and rankless, and thus used much more adrenaline running through her to survive whatever danger she encountered.

"Well," Flora started, settling into a normal more relaxed position to converse with the student. "Chestnut is my familiar, but why do you ask?" Discussing and showing off her familiar’s appearance - while self-satisfying - would draw too much attention to her. She was a human, after all; just like Iruma. Although the act of obtaining her own familiar had been precise and intentional, now that more knowledge was known about humans having familiars after Iruma undoubtedly re-summoned Kalego after supposedly forever breaking their familiar contract bond.

"....just curious." Jazz says, intending to be careful. Flora took more care in sealing her lips on sensitive topics that she didn’t understand the sensitivity about, but she still let a few things slip willy-nilly once and a while. The lack of context gave Flora a pause in her response.

"....are you doing some sort of research?" She finally asked.

Research? Plenty of students came into the library for their scholarly and personal research purposes. Yes, that is what this would be classified as for Jazz. Personal research.

"Yes. I'm curious about familiars' varying appearances, their functions and perceptions based on them. And how often familiars appearances change."

"Oh, my. Let's see..." This was quite a specific inquiry, one more suited for a teacher who knew more about familiars; like Robin, seeing as he was the instruction for familiar classes - even Kalego would be a better choice, as he oversaw each students familiar summoning every year. "Honestly, you might be better off asking Robin or Kalego. They have more experience with various familiars than I do."

Jazz grimaced at the suggestion. Robin was too..... all over the place. And he would gain hardly anything more than he was already getting from regular familiar lectures (although lecture is not the word one would use to describe Robin’s lessons). Kalego would certainly know about various familiar forms, but... the demon was too brash and strict a teacher as it was for Jazz. That one bonus lesson in Walter park had been hell enough - he wanted to avoid more if he could.

“I've heard enough about their private lessons from Iruma, Soi, and Lied for my own taste. Surely you know something about peculiar cases yourself?” Jazz pressed. He wanted Flora of all demons to be the one to open up about this. Not because of anything Iruma has implied or said, but because she was kind and patient and quiet - not noisy and boisterous like the rest of the staff he would otherwise have to turn to.

“Hmmm....” This was clearly a sensitive matter to Jazz, from what Flora could tell. He was unwilling to offer much information or seek a more reliable and trustworthy source. And while demons did act differently from humans, Flora was at least certain about this. “Come inside my office for a minute”

---

‘Office’ is the word Flora used. ‘Prep room’ is the word anyone else in the Netherworld would’ve used. Nevertheless, Flora had made it into quite the little personal reading nook. A spot for snuggled reading, a spot for note taking, and a spot for organization and planning.... Its personal touch was a bit odd compared to the other teachers' prep rooms - though Flora is a rather odd demon, Jazz supposed. 

Jazz took a seat on a couch before a smallish coffee table, while Flora took to a small single chair. As she settled in, she pulled her feet and legs up into the seat with her, curling her arms and body around to keep them in place as she sat.

“So what's this specifically you're looking for?” Flora started. Jazz was still a bit hesitant to be so outright with the information at hand, but he figured that alone in the prep room no one would overhear or see about his little Spoo’s condition. He let out an aggravated sigh.

“My familiar’s appearance.” He began. The crux of the issue was that despite Spoo's growing skills, uses, and talents, his appearance was still cause for concern in the young demon. Spoo had some scales at the base of his tail, and he managed to steal Irumas secret snacks that one time they were discovered, but Jazz had still ultimately decided to use the face mask thing that was intended for Soi during the music festival for the heartbreaker exam. Jazz loved Spoo, and accepted him. But it felt like with this insecurity, he hadn't truly accepted Spoo for everything that he is. And that did not sit well with him.

“... you want to change it's appearance?” Flora questioned after allowing Jazz a paused moment to think.

“Yes.” Surely that was safe enough to admit.

“Well,” She started. “From what I understand, a familiars appearance is based on the summoners personality. It's a reflection of who they are on the inside.”

“Yes” Jazz confirmed.

“So are you afraid or upset by what your familiar’s appearance has to say about your personality?” Flora asked.

“Well...” Jazz paused again. How could he say this correctly? “It's not that I don't care for my familiar; I've accepted him, and his appearance is not his own fault in the slightest. But what his appearance says about my personality doesn't match up with...” He drifted off, rotating his hands in a circle to try and grasp the end to his sentence. 

Flora almost felt as though she were a therapist of sorts at this moment. Jazz was clearly having trouble voicing the crux of the issue - something she could relate to - so she did her best to ease it out of him in a way he wouldn't freeze up or pause much over.

“What do you think about your own personality? Who do you think you are as a demon?” She prompted. Jazz had to think long and hard about that.

“Who am I....” He mumbled, looking at the floor as he thought. “My brother is just about the worst. And I'm convinced if I were in his shoes as an older brother I would be much better behaved.” Flora nodded at this, indicating she was listening and had heard the meaning behind his words. “But my family bloodline ability contradicts that idea. A thief can't be soft. Snakes have scales, not fur.”

“Are you a snake?” Flora - as a human - was quite partial to metaphors and similes, but she knew such things could be harder to grasp for demons - and hell, even some humans had a particularly hard time with the constant way she formed and wove them into her life.

“My fingers are snake-like when I steal, and my familiar's original appearance has two snake tails.” Jazz supplied, thinking he knew where she was going.

“Hmmm.... so you are expected to be tough like a snake... but deep inside you feel soft?” Jazz grimaced at the word. Soft often equated to weak in the Netherworld, and to be perceived as such made a dangerous target of demons. Jazz thought it was a miracle already that Flora had survived this long in the Netherworld - much less taken care of Iruma in it. “Why is it a bad thing?” She asked in response to Jazz’s own response to the word soft.

“Soft means weak,” He stated more firmly as he sat, hunched over with hands balled on top of his legs, pink tipped ears of embarrassment. He opened his mouth to speak again - something similar along the lines of what he had just said - but Flora interrupted him. 

“I hate that notion.” Voice and posture stern, her legs were now curled flat against the chair she sat upon instead of hugged around her arms. Jazz looked up at her in surprise, forgetting his own embarrassment. “It speaks nothing to the power softness holds.” He sat there with his mouth open for a hot second before Flora finally decided what to do next.

“Come see my Familiar,” She said.

---

Sullivan had a stable area made at Babyls ever since he first got the nightmares and carriage for Iruma; but the area has since been turned over to Flora as she tamed the horse-like creatures. 

“I assume you've got a familiar summoning seal on you?” Flora had asked on their walk over, prompting Jazz to quickly steal one off of a nearby demon they passed.

When they arrived, Jazz had never seen anything like it. The carriage itself was stored off to the side and well out of the way - or at least it would have been, had it been rode to school that day. The rest of the place was strewn with straw and hay, and built mostly out of wood. There was a small section for the saddles, bridles, blankets, grooming tools, etcetera that Flora had called ‘tack’ and then there were the stable sections for the individual nightmares.

“Let's see that seal now,” Flora said, holding out her hand for the sticker. Jazz gave it to her while looking around some more, still quite unused to the stables. Quickly putting the sticker on and raising her hand, Flora summoned her familiar. With a small flash, a white nightmare appeared beside the librarian. 

Jazz was startled by the scene, causing the creatures to flatten their ears back and snort in agitation before Flora calmed them down.

“Do your best to keep your emotions minimal and under control, they might get startled.” Flora stated, running her hands through the white nightmares mane of hair - silver sparkling hair, that was originally plain white like a cloud. The creature's coat was glossy white as it shimmered, and its horn seemed to glow with magic... Jazz had never seen anything like it.

“Whoah...” Was all he managed to get out while Flora continued to soothe the nightmare at her fingers.

“What do you notice?” Flora asked, prompting for an answer.

“Uh... The horn looks like it's brimming with magic and the hooves look like they could kill with one kick - but at a distance, this thing looks more like some sort of fluffy decoration?” Jazz frowned at the realization once the words came to him. How could something be so soft and so deadly? 

“That's right. Chestnut here is a very pretty nightmare who could kill you in one fell swoop - she is soft AND strong. At the same time, and neither takes away from the other.” Flora paused for a moment to allow Jazz to soak all the information up. “Now, let's see yours”

Jazz was startled just enough to manage to summon Spoo before he thought too clearly on the subject. With a poof, the fluffy little doggo was before their feet and the white nightmare was snuffing for context on what was happening. Flora sat on the ground and crossed her legs, opening up to the new creature with a smile.

“Well hi there little fella, what's your name?” As Spoo determined the librarian was not a threat, he pawed his way over a little to greet her. Flora offered her hand for sniffing and some head scratches. Jazz sank to the floor from his own embarrassment. After a while of getting acquainted with the new familiar, Flora finally spoke again. “So what's wrong with him?” She asked.

Probably the wrong wording, given Jazz’s response.

“That's the thing, nothing’s wrong with him!” He burst out, causing the nightmares in the stable to stir a little. Flora hushed them and got Chestnut to plop down on the floor with them, then waited for Jazz to elaborate. “He’s....He’s very loyal and hard working and we have a good bond, and he’s been becoming more physically useful with his physical form - he could hardly do anything at first - but his appearance is still..... Just some soft little guy.” Jazz paused to scritch Spoo himself, nearing the end of his explanation. “He’s a symbol of my soft weak spot”

“He’s a symbol of your love and your heart” Flora corrected softly. She was going to have NONE of that soft equaled weak/bad ideology. Jazz looked up at Flora, confused and awaiting an explanation of what she meant. “Do any of your fellow students feel like younger siblings to you?” Flora asked, remembering what he said earlier about his own older brother.

“Well..... at Walter Park, my group of guys asked me to lead and help them with such pleading little faces... it filled me with a sense of pride in my strength that they would come and look up to me like that - even though I was panicking - and during the heartbreaker exam when I first saw my kohai, I just felt... this deep sudden urge to prove that strength and pride all over again...”

“Hmmm,” Flora hummed in understanding. “That's a beautiful thing to see reflected in your familiar.”

“Yeah, but it also shows a weak spot. It shows that if people attack those I care about then they can get to me,” Jazz countered.

“It could also show how fiercely you’d protect them, if you wanted.” Flora said, making Jazz pause to think for a second. He looked back over at the white nightmare, laying belly flat on the stable floor with legs tucked in, all pure beauty and killing power rolled into one - and it dawned on him.

“Your familiar.... The beauty hides its strength, like a fly trap lures in prey only to chomp down on them when they get too close.” There were several such similar plants in the harvest festival that lured in prey with such deceiving tactics. “But, what are you trying to lure?” 

“Nothing, really. I’m just a big old softie willing to kill for those I care about. Not my fault if someone tries to take a bite out of something I'm protecting. The softness is for the ones I care about - and also for me, because it feels really nice - but I also have measures in place to protect what I find soft and beautiful, so that I can continue enjoying it.” Flora leaned back while clutching her toes, admiring the stable around them. Jazz looked too, trying to see it - and her - through new eyes.

Flora was rankless, kind, and shy - but she also had stomped around for days when Soi went missing after dropping out of school during the music festival. She defended her library with great strength, not afraid to kick anybody out who mistreated the space or materials. She defended everything she loved with great fierceness - including her differences. She loved deeply and strongly, and was a force to be reckoned with on the rare occasions she ever got mad.

“...why don't you have a rank?” Jazz asked upon reflection, thinking of everything Flora accumulated to. Soft, yes - but also fierce and strong. Why was she rankless?

“Well, that's because my forms of strength aren't measured by the ranking system, is all. My strength comes from love, and from the power of my mind - not my magic or my muscles. The ranking system doesn't really account for that, so it wouldn't reflect upon me properly.”

Stay tuned for part 2 in which Flora chases Jazz and Spoo around with a fucking bat like a madman!

[lafcadiosadventures]

Madame Putiphar Readalong. Book Two, Chapter XXIV:

An intimate/claustrophobic chapter this week, only just two characters in a room full of palpable tension. One of them will win this battle, but perhaps not the war. It is still extremely satisfying to see Debby’s psychological evolution, from silently suffering, too afraid to call attention on herself to being completely cold blooded and ready to defend herself.

detail of “Two ladies duelling with pistols”. Engraving, 1792. Wellcome Collection.

Gave de Villepastour decides to pay Debby a visit, to thank her for staying silence and not telling her husband his various instances of harassment and rape attempts. (and to give the whole thing yet another try)

To add insult to injury, Gave addresses Deborah as “countess” and “milady”, after having claimed to be unsure about her title when Patrick tried to prove he hadn’t murdered her (as we know, the truth is irrelevant to Gave, all that matters is powerplay)

Once again Gave approaches sex as a contract (the typical post 1700's libertine novel scene where the rake exposes the reasons for the waif to accept having sex, combining intellectual arguments, monetary persuasion, and a pedagogy against religious prudery, from Sade’s, Choderlos’ and Diderot’s rakes, to Balzac’s, and surely many more)

We are told this is happening at the same time Patrick was kissing Putiphar’s hem, which politically speaking, stresses the similarities and differences in their situations. In a metaphysical level it probably stresses their status as twin souls, predestined halves, they are both in danger at the same time, but as always, the political aspect is inseparable from the mystical and the heaviest here, the threat comes from aristocrats in a position to play with their would-be-food.

Gave continues to be gross and insulting (and stupid, interpreting Debby’s silence as his having a chance), Debby is surprisingly calm and in control. She reads though Gave too, asserting that he fears ridicule more than anything.

Gave retorts by offering Debby what he frames as the opportunity of a lifetime: being pimped out by him to the king himself (this will be extremely relevant in chapters to come), since Putiphar is “old” and Kings bore easily (or so Gave thinks, Pompadour was skilled at changing roles and staying relevant)

Debby is rightfully outraged, but why should the Marquis be respectful towards her, when he holds so much power over her in his hands? He kindly reminds her of the trial in Tralee. He can make an example out of Patrick with extreme ease... unless she agrees to let him fuck her.

It’s important that while Debby is disgusted, she arguments that she refuses because she trusts Villepastour to break his vow immediately as soon as he gets what he wants.

Villepastour replies with manipulation: Since he claims he has to dishonour himself if Deborah wants him to help Patrick, it’s only fair for her to be dishoured by him to return the favour (once again, transactional language, he only offers her “(...)un échange de déshonneur contre déshonneur”. He gets a good line after that, very “poésie du mal” to borrow from Balzac’s Lucien. Romantics loved an Aesthetic of Evil and this is a skilled example of that, even if Borel has not been interested in making Villepastour at all appealing:

“Believe me, be wise; let’s descend together in the abyss of evil, and let’s do it in our holiday clothes; let’s do it happily. One says the very bottom is covered in flowers where those who have dared reach its appalling edges and descended in its awful gorges get intoxicated with the rarest, proscribed pleasures. Let us not defy crime: it is, like certain women with an ugly mask, repulsive by its vulgarity; but often, just as with these women, it has secret beauties concealing ineffable pleasures as well.”

(tr. By @sainteverge )

“Believe me, be wise”: wake up from religious slumber that deprives you from “criminal”pleasures. A very Enlightenment argument. Which pleasures are labelled criminal? And by whom? Debby rejects his sadian/diderotian seduction techniques. She repeatedly claims it’s precisely religion which gives her the strength to reject his seduction and know he is not to be trusted. (which is extremely interesting. Borel reverses the Enlightenment reversal of the trope favouring religion endowing the waif with purity and strength. Let us keep in mind that Borel will defend Sade as a creative force later on, -a really brave stance, but more on that in the relevant chapter!!- )(SO. How does Borel feel personally about this type of scene, and about organized religion? Why does he chose to make his heroine a deeply catholic person? Is Debby’s trust in God undeserved? After all the narrator has also defined God as a torturer... who actively enjoys testing his most devoted follower’s faiths through suffering)

Gave also praises ugliness in women as a beauty that only the initiated can appreciate (makes me think of Hugo’s Josianne)(overall, a highly Romantic paragraph)

Debby rejects Villepastour, who decides if he cannot win her over intellectually he will this time have her by force. Not today. Debby pulls a pair of guns from under a cushion. She calmly asks him to leave and never to return since the next time he shows up she will kill him. There is fear and surprise in Gave, but even then he explicitly exposes the illuminist argument (which he has also used the time he broke into her home, with colonial undertones): he only wanted to help her! He wanted to extirpate from her mind the bourgeois morals and religious constraints entrapping it. And he jokes, the disgusting man dares to joke, that if he feels the “bellicose impulse” once more he will answer to her pistols with the armour and jousting weapons of his forefathers.

Debby is also keeping her cool. She attacks him right where it hurts him the most, his reputation and status as a nobleman:

“Monsieur the marquis, the deed seems hazardous to me, if I am to believe the chronicles; your ancestors were cleaning armours, but not wearing any.” Monsieur de Gave marquis de Villepastour was not expecting such a sharp comeback to his boasting; with his mouth clamped shut and a saddened air he walked out; and lady Deborah led him out with her pistols in hand and much politeness.”

(tr. once again by sainteverge)(read it here!!)

Extremely satisfying. And rare. A woman taking arms to defend herself? Seems rare to me, a person who has read a very limited ammount of authors of the period :P I can only think of Balzac's Laurence de Cinc-Cygne and the female spies in Les chouans.... there’s Fantine fighting back to her aggressor, and Madame Thenardier is also physically dangerous but is a different trope altogether...

[cherrybombfangirlwrites]

9, 12, and 15?

Hi anon! Thanks for stopping by <3

Disability Asks~

9. how do you measure your energy? (spoons, battery, something else?)

I can't remember who or where, but a while back someone on the internet introduced me to a theory that more accurately describes my energy than spoon theory or battery ever did: ✨Ticket Theory✨.

Ticket Theory is similar to spoon theory, but more accurate for executive dysfunction and the thing where autistics/ADHDers have a lot of energy but can't do certain things. Here's how it works:

each ticket is one unit of energy

the tickets are each labeled with specific tasks or activities

the amount of tickets i get and what they're labeled with are never consistent or predictable

the tickets can and will expire quickly without warning

i cannot exchange, refund, or get back any tickets that aren't used before they expire

I have zero control over how many tickets I get and what task they will be labeled with or how long they will last

and i can only use a ticket for the task it is specifically labeled with.

For instance: it may have a lot of 'dishes' tickets, but no 'laundry' tickets, this means I may have a lot of energy, but no laundry is getting done while dishes will, no matter what I do. I may have a bunch of 'art' tickets, but no tickets for anything else, so even though I have a ton of energy the only thing getting done is art, despite how much I want and need to do tasks like cleaning or hygiene. and the worst one of all: I have tickets for everything, all the tasks and chores and activities- but the one thing I don't have a ticket for is getting out of bed. <- it's like having tickets for every ride at a theme park EXCEPT FOR A TICKET TO GET INTO THE PARK ITSELF, and it is so fucking frustrating.

This theory has been so helpful for explaining to impatient people or neurotypicals who just don't understand why I may have a lot of energy, but things I want to get done or need to get done won't get done no matter how much I want to or try. And it's honestly been more helpful to help myself understand what's going on in my head. Before being introduced to ticket theory, I used spoon theory, but it didn't quite fit and just made others more confused about my dysfunction and the randomness to my energy levels.

12. what's something (a struggle, a symptom, a weird phenomenon, or even a funny experience) people don't realize about your disability?

for my autism: pathological demand avoidance. for some reason, when a person asks or requests that I do something (even if they're very nice and polite)- my brain immediately perceives it as a threat or challenge, and all of the sudden I very much don't want to do the thing at all under any circumstance (even if i wanted to or was in the middle of doing said thing) to the point where i'll say "well now I don't want to do it", throw up my hands and not do it. EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. no matter what the thing is. it's not so much of a struggle, it's mostly weird and a little funny.

for my adhd: waiting mode, I think. it's the thing where we adhders have a very important thing at a certain time (such as an appointment or interview), and for some reason under no circumstances can't I do anything while I am waiting, so I end up getting ready and then sitting for sometimes hours just waiting for when it's time for the thing. I can't do anything other than sit in anxious silence and wait, under any circumstance- not clean, not watch a movie, not work on something, NOTHING BUT WAIT. it's a bit of struggle and mainly a weird phenomenon.

15. what does disability pride mean to you?

For the most part- being unapologetically disabled, and very loudly telling the world "i don't have to change for you, I deserve to live a happy and full life just like everyone else, and you don't have the right to take that away from me."

Also self love. Lots and lots of self love and acceptance <33333

Thanks Anon!

[looseratinthegarage]

First thoughts of Prey

⚠️SPOILERS AHEAD⚠️

I liked it. The premise is good. CGI is okay at times, better at others. But wtf did they do to my boy? They fucking did him dirty. I didn’t like the design in Predators from 2010 either. It feels like directors who know nothing about the franchise keep strolling in and changing shit up. You don’t mess with perfection. The original design is perfection. I was rather disappointed to see that they significantly slimmed down the yautja and made his head “more proportionate to his body” quoted from the director. Director Dan Trachtenberg stated he wanted to make him more “animalistic” I believe is how he phrased it, but correct me if I’m wrong. The fact that this Yautja was “slimmed down” doesn’t make a lick of sense if you look at what happens in the movie and the sort of fighting he engages with. He willingly wrestled a bear and got fairly wounded. He took on one of earths many tanks without weapon aid, why? Because he was fighting on its level. As we’ve seen them do in countless other movies. But why would they make him smaller, therefore weaker, and put him up against such a deadly creature?

Something that peaked my interest was the fact that Dan said this is a more “primitive yautja”, one from 300 years ago. But that just doesn’t make sense. The Yautja can live hundreds of years and evolution takes far longer to happen then in that short time. Try millions of years. If you look at humans you see we haven’t changed almost at all in 300 years, now If we take a look at some long living life forms on earth we see that they don’t really change either, in the millions of years of the species existing. Example, take a tortoise for instance or a crocodile, they live an extremely long time, have they changed very much throughout history? No. Evolution never stops, Darwinism and the theory of natural selection will always be around, but these specific creatures kept adapting efficiently to their environments, making a “near perfect” life form from the combination of helpful mutations. All of this leads me to believe the Yautja have been around far longer then humans if they have such a long life span, as if that wasn’t already obvious with their advanced technology, but I digress.

Now, another problem I have with the movie is a couple scenes.

1). It’s when the Yautja has Naru in between the rocks and was going to decapitate her with his advanced shield-like weapon. Granted I’ve only watched the movie once through, and will have to rewatch it many more times to give a thorough and more accurate analysis; Why didn’t he kill her? He had the perfect opportunity, so why? Was something stopping him? Did his weapon get stuck on the large stones? or did he seriously still not see her as a threat still at that point?

2). He blocked almost zero attacks. I’ll reiterate once more, they made this Yautja weaker, so why did he get so many hits on him? He’s smaller to be more agile, but he really didn’t show that off. When jumping from tree to tree he did not display it either, we’ve seen the larger Yaujta fight as he did from the trees. He is no tank, powerful yes, but he is unlike his beefier yautja brethren who can take more hits.

—(ADDED CONTENT)—

I feel the need to discuss the predators design further. They elongated his head and reduced its width as well. He looks far too bug like or perhaps resembles an odd fish. The colors are muted and bland unlike the other yautja we’ve seen in movies, comics, and games. I also noticed his “dreads” are much finer, less thick. I’m not opposed to the change of the dreads, I actually like the update, as well as the og thick dreads.

—(END OF ADDED CONTENT)—

But despite my nitpicking I must give credit where credit is due. This is possibly the best film we’ve ever seen come out of the franchise. While the original from 1987 will always be my favorite, this is a very close second. The visuals were absolutely stunning, the camera work was well done, and the casting was awe-inspiring. I would like to thank Director Dan Trachtenberg and screenplay writer and producer Patrick Aison for their wonderful job. As well as the cast and crew who worked on this fantastic piece of cinema.

⚠️This is all my opinion, I am not claiming to be an expert on the subject nor know everything about Yautja canon and lore. Please take this with a grain of salt.⚠️

If you have thoughts on this please share them, I’d love to hear everyone’s opinions. <3

[tinycurlyfry]

Character bingo: I'm gonna ask about a dear blorbo of mine that isn't treated right by the fandom - Charlotte Linlin, the Big Mother herself

BIG MOM BLORBO?! Can't say I was expecting to get Linlin but yeah yeah!!!

Big Mom:

Sorry there aren't a lot that are circle here, it's more that I don't think many of these fit my opinion of her! Even the 'the fandom is so mean' is a little of a stretch for what I think but I'll explain a bit more~ Here are some Big Mom thoughts!

I do think it is really interesting that in the post timeskip arcs we've gotten a lot of back-to-back comparisons of antagonists who are abusive parental figures, but their abuse takes different forms. We had Doflamingo then Big Mom and Vinsmoke Judge and then Kaido. Of these admittedly Doflamingo is the one who consumes the most of my thoughts, but I do find the Charlotte family interesting and tragic! Imo Big Mom is insane, meant genuinely. And I think she's one of the few characters in One Piece one could say is truly insane! And it makes her TERRIFYING! The inhabitants of Totto Land, even her own children are rightfully terrified of her because her nature in unpredictable and dangerous. She does have her faculties enough most of the time to make calculated plans to obtain more power and rule with a tight fist, but everything can change in an instance with her. She sees her own children as means to obtain more power so that eventually the whole world will be a part of her 'family'. All of which is under her control and lives for her benefit though they amongst themselves are 'equal'. Her children put so much effort into trying to keep each other safe and being relied on because their mother very often attacks, scorns, or straight up eats them. So much of who they are revolves around what they have to do to survive being Big Mom's children.

I do think a number of people in the fandom don't vibe with her as one of One Piece's Big Bads, and I feel like the reason why it seems like Big Mom falls flat for them is she lost her 'larger than life' vibes as a threat once she was fully introduced and revealed coming into Whole Cake Island. And unfortunately I think this was always going to be the case with the way Oda draws his characters. Sure when she's chasing the straw hats and allies down it's terrifying that she can control tidal waves, the sun, and the trees around them but it just doesn't have the same vibe as she'd had when we first saw a glimpse of her earlier in Fish Man Island.

I really dig the messed up fairy tale vibe, and ADORED the song numbers when she was introduced, but it is very different from our other antagonists! It's a different flavor of 'scary', and I think there are better ways of depicting Big Mom's version of horror than what we were going to get in One Piece. I wanted more of those fucked up scenes happening to antagonists singing these numbers. The scene when the Sunny "sinks" is a good example. I had my jaw on the floor during that scene! I think it would've been so cool to lean more into the vibes that when you are on Whole Cake Island you really are trapped in this twisted fairytale world completely controlled and fabricated by Big Mom. The more we see of her I don't like her less, but I do just wish Oda would do MORE with her. I want Big Mom to be MORE than Oda has her be. Her use of her powers in her fight against Kid and Law was a little more at that level though! This is the energy I wish Oda gave her more often, though maybe it's just the anime that can't capture it as well. I've only read the very beginning of the manga and then started reading the remaining chapters from 1021 when I'd caught up with the anime.

[transfemkristophgavin]

its honestly weird to me how many people who dislike aa5+6 seem to like aai1+2 (especially the latter) because to be honest i really feel like the investigations games have all of the issues that 5 and 6 do (arguably WORSE in some areas) and theyre literally written by the same teams; if anything aa5+6's biggest issues are directly foreshadowed by many of the writing and characterisation decisions in investigations.

i know that a big reason is that the 3d games completely intentionally ignore all of the plot threads left over by aa4 unless its one they feel like acknowledging but the investigations games suffer from sooooooo many of the same pacing and characterisation issues its insane. they do absolutely nothing interesting or new with edgeworth's character across two entire games and even go so far to REPEAT character arcs that he's already been through (giving up on being a prosecutor) except with lower interpersonal stakes this time around, franziska's only purpose is to dispense lines about having daddy issues, kay contributes nothing beyond little thief and both her personal arc as well as her dynamic with edgeworth remain completely static through 10 cases - including some of the LONGEST cases in the entire series, lang contributes nothing beyond presenting the shittiest arguments known to mankind and his most interesting aspect (his relationship with shih-na) is never elaborated on - not to mention how little chemistry he has with edgeworth (and no, calling him "pretty boy" as an emasculating and sexist insult does not count), justine is intimidating until she makes the exact same threat for the 15th time without any explanation of WHY this would be so terrible for edgeworth and then gets reduced to being completely passive once it's revealed she is a mother, ray gets ONE moment of tenderness when talking about gregory before being relegated to being the creepy uncle character, and sebastian gets ONE (two if youre stretching it) scene of genuinely interesting writing before fucking off for the rest of the final case even though there should PLENTY of reason for him to stick around, especially because of how much he shares with the final villain of the game. not to mention how out of character all of the characters that are borrowed from the first trilogy are.

i acknowledge that on a technical, overarching level the way the plots of the aai games are put together much more competently, and it is satisfying seeing all of the plot threads that have been sown through the whole game finally being brought together to paint one whole picture. however, i enjoy ace attorney for its character writing first and foremost and these games for me did not deliver on this front. there is no overarching character narrative and themes relating to that that are integral to the core plot the way it is in the first trilogy games, other than simon keyes - and he is not well executed as a character in the least imo. the one instance in which i did feel the games delivered on the character writing front is sebastian's logic chess scene, and it IS really good, i do really like it, but because its the ONLY scene that is this good it feels like it only wins by default, which then lessens its strength as a piece of writing for me.

aa5 on the other hand, to me, made a much more earnest attempt at telling a story with an overarching character narrative in the same vein as the original trilogy. it's definitely not great by any means, but i think that the scene in turnabout for tomorrow where simon finally relents and tells the truth about what he saw all those years ago is a shining example of what the game could have been. it was genuinely so impactfully delivered and provided so much context and meaning for a lot of the game prior to it that it made me nearly forgive the game for all of its mistakes up to that point. and they DO try to thematically tie it all together! mayor tenma takes the blame to ensure that his daughter does not, and hugh and robin claim that they are the real killers to prevent the judge from handing a verdict down on juniper because they care about her. these are genuine attempts at reflecting the ultimate endpoint of the narrative - athena and simon's shared story - but because they fumble the delivery of these other stories its not very fun to play through or analyse.

on the other hand admittedly i dont really have much of a defense for aa6. it has pretty much all of the worst issues of all of these games cranked up to 11; ESPECIALLY on the "reusing character narratives" front. not to mention the colonialism. i absolutely loathed turnabout revolution as a case.

you know what was infinitely more of a slog to play through, though? sitting through 6 to 8 fucking fakeouts in turnabout ablaze. playing through the investigations games took me MONTHS and during the process i had to take several breaks just to recuperate. meanwhile i got through aa5 and aa6 in a week or so each because even if i dont think those two are of as high of a quality as the ones written by shu takumi i still found them more fun and interesting than investigations and i think athena and simon at their core do have a genuinely interesting narrative that contributes something compelling to the ace attorney universe - a false conviction and how that impacts the life of the person in question and the people around them, as well as how the reform of the legal system plays into this. both investigations games on the other hand feel so entirely inconsequential despite being wedged between two of the most important events of phoenix's life. i know this can partially be explained by the fact that most of the cast from them do not interact directly with the mainline games, but there ARE some who do - blaise debeste, the guy who gave manfred von karma his penalty! the one who inadvertantly pushed manfred just that one bit closer to committing murder! - feel like they barely matter in the grand scheme of the ace attorney universe, and the characters who DON'T have the privilege of being directly connected to the mainline outside of edgeworth are of course even less relevant.

all this to say that i wasnt crazy about aai as a duology and i ESPECIALLY was disappointed by aai2 because of how frequently i (personally) saw it being hyped up as the "best" game in the ace attorney franchise

[tears-of-boredom]

So my like homeroom teacher just sent me a message basically saying "I heard about some bullying that happened at least last year towards you. I'd like to talk to you about it tomorrow."

Okay so

1. Honestly its up to pure luck if I'll even be in school tomorrow.

2. The messge was so stunted, and I know that it's like that because he wants to talk more in-person, but it almost sounds like a threat.

3. And this is a big one...what bullying? Like I genuinely don't know what his talking about, and even more so, who in our school told him about this??

Okay so, I can think of two instances that could possibly classify as bullying.

First case, I think it was two years ago?(my memory on things like these is super bad) that the most annoying girls of my class like, they had this joke that I was a sewer rat basically. They'd act like i smelled really disgusting whenever they were near me, and told each other to "watch out the rat is there". But this lasted for like maybe two or three weeks, and at the end of the day, is rat really the worst insult you could think of? It was so weird as well because I don't really dress in any special way, like at all. Especially then, my style was so fucking basic, so I'm confused why they even did that. I have this fun theory that they wanted to be mean girls so bad but they couldn't find anyone to be mean to, so they just chose me because my locker was near theirs. Also during this whole thing, I was so deprived of any social life already, that I genuinely didn't mind being insulted if it meant that people were voluntarily talking to me.

So, the second instance. And let me screenshot this post now so I don't lose it when tumblr does an error again. SO. I think the thing earlier this year, as in 2022, not school year, where the boys of my class started their game, could be thenother one. Sorry that's messy let me start another paragraph.

I think, it started from J telling his friends that he had a crush on me. I can't be sure, but it seems logical. So all of his friends kind of started this game of yelling my name in the hallways during break. It was a bit more intense at first, when they yelled stuff like "[classmate] has a crush on [my name]!", "[my name] is cute!", and even one time "[my name] has great tits!". Now I was very much enjoying the attention (re: no social life, attention starved). It did get me nervous sometimes, because i wasn't sure how i was supposed to act. Like, eventually it became pretty clear that J was the one with the crush, and I wasn't sure if I was supposed to know that. A confusing situation, i was foolishly thinking that maybe they'll actually start having conversations with me, didnt happen. So, then it calmed down to them just yelling my name when they pass me, or only occasionally yelling it when we were waiting for the teacher, only sometimes trying to push each other into me. Then I noticed, that the "game" had spread to students from other classes as well, as in, now the guy who gets pissed at me whenever I do alright in PE is doing it as well, weird. My level of caring was the same, I loved the attention, I could pretend like they all were in love with me. I'm pretty sure J stole my ring that fell off in one class. ((This is the period where i gaslighted myself into a "crush")) but yeah it calmed down, and now they only do it seldom, and more in a way where they have plausible deniability on if they actually said my name or not. More in an inside joke way, to entertain and annoy their friends. ((Thankfully I got over the gaslighting myself thing))

Yeah so, I am not sure which one of these my teacher is talking about. I did consider once telling someone about the first thing (more of because the teachers always tell you to tell them if you know of bullying happening), but it honestly seemed like a bother, and maybe they'd learn to not be assholes if I kept on my giggling everytime I heard their comments. And the second thing is like...I don't think you'd see that, and think that it's bullying. It's more of just annoying.

And who the fuck did my teacher hear this from?? Because he said "i heard in a bit of a detour way about the bullying towards you that at least happened last year"...what is this detour you speak of? Is it another teacher? Or even weirder, is it my classmate? Or did he overhear this?? I'm so confused.....did my mom mention the fact, that I mentioned to her, that i think J stole my ring? Because that ring was like fucking plastic and it came in a pack of like 12.

[originemesis]

@kugel-bitch from xxx

There's no small amount of self-restraint she has to will forth in order not to laugh in his face when he bares his golden fangs like an irate mutt after she peeks through his obsidian barricade from the world. He might have the good sense to be embarrassed if he knew just how racked with insecurity his instance on the damned headgear makes him look. Really, truly, she hates that fucking thing with a passion that could rival the heat of the odious brimstone pits they dredge the filth from every year and she has every intention to pulverize it with her bare hands one of these days because there's so much that she cannot glean through the golden lights—there is power in that obscurity—and she feels stifled by it. Until she remembers that he has a soft face in there, and tired eyes. "I can see it." An amused expulsion of air through her elegant, pale nose, drowned out by the increasingly harmonious commingling of sounds; climbing, climbing towards a crescendo that she's sure the high council waaay upstairs would feel buzzing in their loins for a long time after they've rubbed this number out. She likes to imagine that's why they haven't kicked the doors off their hinges yet. Not because they've grown begrudgingly accustomed to the utter assassination of any semblance of peace or quietude when Adam and Lute decide its time to cause a public disturbance of the most egregious degree. It's actually pretty crazy what you can get away with when you work a job nobody else has the stones or the stomach to touch. Who says it doesn't pay to be the scapegoat? She'll give him that final cord, the last hurrah, as per the usual—he was always better at closing out. If there's anything that he has on her it is that. She? With her inexhaustible fountain of fervor and fury. She would keep this riff fest going until one of them passes out. That's why he's the big man in charge, she supposes. He knows when to quit while she absolutely does not.

Head tipped all the way back on the axis of her neck, she observes the undulating mist of flickering dust disperse like dancing embers through the tepid air, entranced in the afterglow of such a potent dose of dopamine (and also thoroughly inebriated still) she barely registers that she's teetering on the edge of the table until she has already toppled right over it. Right into one of the ornate, golden swivel chairs standing close by, fortunately enough. "Hahahaha! Yeah!!! Fuck yeah!!!" Hearing Lute laugh is about as common of an occurrence as hearing the Seraphim drop an expletive—a once in a Blue moon sort of thing. It is a surprisingly bright and vibrant sound, a stark contrast to her usual stone-cold carriage. But she doesn't have the breath to laugh for very long. Soon she slumps into her seat, chest rising and falling inside the loose confines of the oversized wife-beater hanging off her meager torso. The smile remains though. Content. "Heehee. Bet that one got Sera shaking her tits upstairs." A little shimmy of her shoulders to really drive the visual home.

Out of all of heaven's inhabitants- from the massive rings of all seeing eyes to even the seraphim that could easily open several pairs and pinpoint them towards any indication of covert purpose, he'd consider her one of the most dangerous. Her- who, even without her mask and it's menacing grin, still lounged unapologetically about the hall of leviathans in her Sunday's sluttiest wife-beater and was his biggest threat if only because her admission was that she still saw him. Through the reflection of obsidian glass and the maniacal twisting of features beneath- she saw him. And worst of all- he knew that she did. That's why he'd dubbed her Danger Tits. Well, that and because eyes were oft the windows to the soul to be bared, and it was the demand of a natural gravitational pull that they fell to tit level more often than naught, meaning there was no escape to her level of scrutiny. Not after all the shit they'd been through that made seeing through a shitstorm a menial task at this point.

Still, despite how much there was to lose if he wandered too far away from his own accepted version of himself again amidst the more monstrous-presenting forces of heaven and hell, her claim of a behind the curtain seat to his punchy performance drew a semblance of a smile that flatlined his teeth, though he played it off as a reaction to his need to scrub away the condensation her unconvinced huffing in his face left behind behind with the drape of his sleeve shortly before his ascent. If she wanted to cook him for crashing her clit-coddling reverberation party, then she'd have to wait until he peaked.

Though once all was said and strummed and the air glittered with the remnants of slowly fading angel dust, he noted how she struggled to stay atop the table as her inebriation levels locked horns with her laughter and tossed her down into a nearby chair. He followed suit by stalking to the edge of the table, but short of hopping off, he hunkered down and perched on its edge inside the tent that was his robes while cocking his head to the side to observe the wine-issued flush at the edges of her facial ridges below. The sight alone was enough to itch a flatline of a smile across his helmet's screen, though he directed it to his nails that he flexed out to observe coyly from his perch, wings still fluttering from the final note.

"HAH! At the very least~ her nipples are harder than diamonds right now." Musing with a low laugh of his own, he got himself comfy by shifting and turning his back to her shortly before leaning back and dipping to dangle his head upside down off the table's ledge where he could watch her closely from a new, dizzying perspective. Legs bent under his robe, he'd hooked an ankle to rest against one knee before the golden edges of his wings stretched out to wrap around the back of her chair and tug her in closer to his lazy perch. "Sick riff by the way, dude" Lazily, he raised a fist overhead before letting it drop via tricep extension to rest directly in her face- a demanding wiggle or two present.

"Pound it, already."

[abeautifulblog]

monsters of the week, and writing that does double-duty

So I was thinking about TWN S1 again, and thinking about the fic I'm working on at present. I'd skipped over a bunch of stuff near the beginning (to get to the good bits faster), so when I revisited it, I wound up making a list of what needed to happen in that early sequence—establishing the character dynamics at play, introducing certain plot points that would come up again later, and sowing the seeds for future conflicts.

And it turned out to be a long list—but I really didn't want to have to write a bunch of new scenes for that part, since it's less interesting (both for me and for readers) than the stuff that comes later.

Which is when you get into the territory of: how do you make one scene do double (or triple, or quadruple) duty?

For instance, the main thing that happens over the course of that sequence is Geralt and Jaskier forming a rapport, which obviously entails them talking and spending time together. (Well. Jaskier’s talking. Geralt’s all but nonverbal at this point in the story.) And since it doesn’t really matter what they’re talking about, just that they are, you might as well use the opportunity to have Jaskier reveal a soon-to-be-crucial bit of his backstory (👌), and why that makes his attitude different from his peers, and the sense of alienation he feels from that (which is going to be Hella Relevant later 👌). And since they’re having this conversation on the clock, the action going on in the background is also demonstrating what Jaskier’s job entails (👌).

Bam. One scene, triple threat. That's what I mean by doing triple duty. When I went down the list brainstorming scenes that could accomplish multiple points at once, I got a checklist of a dozen things condensed into three scenes. Tighter story, and the individual scenes are more interesting than they would have been if they were only doing one thing apiece.

And in a similar way, this is what makes casefiles/monster-of-the-week episodes such a powerful tool for developing characterization. Because they're always operating on at least two levels: what this story means to our victims-of-the-week, and what it means to our heroes.

The victims neither know nor care what Geralt/Dean Winchester/who-the-fuck-ever is going through at that particular moment in their lives—their only concern is that there's a monster, and they need someone who can handle it, full stop. They have their own priorities, their own loved ones, their own tragedies, and a good writer will be able to get audiences invested even in these one-off characters whose lives only briefly overlap with with the protagonists.

Meanwhile, any given MotW episode is also going to have certain resonances for our heroes—to remind them of moments from their own past that they might have preferred to forget, or dredge up their own unresolved traumas, or make them rethink certain assumptions about themselves, or put their values/priorities to the test.

And THIS is the episode where they're forced to confront their daddy issues!

And THIS is the episode where they question whether or not they actually desire the normative lifestyle that they thought they did!

And THIS is the episode where they interact with children and struggle with how they feel about the concept of parenthood!

Seriously—there's a reason why the casefiles/MotW format has been a staple since the invention of radio. It's a really great way to tell a slow story (the gradual reveal of the protagonist's personality/history) while keeping it snappy and interesting to the audience as you go along.

And this is what Geralt needed in S1 of The Witcher—they needed to put him in a variety of different situations (and this would have been the place to deploy the short stories it’s based on), while the overall stakes were still relatively low, and show how he responds to each. “Grouchy and closed-off” may be what they wanted Geralt's overall vibe to be, but he needed moments of contrast too, to make him a complex and well-rounded character instead of a one-note grimdark hero.

(Personally, I think it would have been a lot more meaningful if Geralt had been baffled but receptive to Jaskier's decision to be his friend. (Like he is in the books, apparently.) We've seen how he stoically endures the people who hate and fear him, so how does he respond when someone greets him with open arms? Might that be... a refreshing change of pace for him?)

(I also would have brought in Kaer Morhen and the other witchers sooner, to show what kind of background/upbringing Geralt had and give the audience some context for why he became the sort of man he is—and why it's not cowardice or selfishness to not want to inflict that life on yet another child.)

(OFMD has been going hard on Blackbeard's “I'm not meant to have nice things,” and in witcher fanfic that's a common theme for Geralt too, but it would have been interesting to see it onscreen—to give Geralt that internal conflict between what he wants and what he feels is his duty.)

Honestly, it would not have been hard to write a season of eight self-contained episodes that put Geralt through the full emotional gauntlet -- all while he solves mysteries and hunts monsters -- and it would have given the show a much stronger foundation going forward.

[army-of-mai-lovers]

in which I get progressively angrier at the various tropes of atla fandom misogyny

tbh I think it would serve all of us to have a larger conversation about the specific ways misogyny manifests in this fandom, because I’ve seen a lot of people who characterize themselves as feminists, many of whom are women themselves, discuss the female characters of atla/lok in misogynistic ways, and people don’t talk about it enough. 

disclaimer before I start: I’m not a woman, I’m an afab nonbinary person who is semi-closeted and thus often read as a woman. I’m speaking to things that I’ve seen that have made me uncomfy, but if any women (esp women existing along other axes of oppression, e.g. trans women, women of color, disabled women, etc) want to add onto this post, please do!

“This female character is a total badass but I’m not even a little bit interested in exploring her as a human being.” 

I’ve seen a lot of people say of various female characters in atla/lok, “I love her! She’s such a badass!” now, this statement on its own isn’t misogynistic, but it represents a pretty pervasive form of misogyny that I’ve seen leveled in large part toward the canon female love interests of one or both of the members of a popular gay ship (*cough* zukka *cough*) I’m going to use Suki as an example of this because I see it with her most often, but it can honestly be applied to nearly every female character in atla/lok. Basically, people will say that they stan Suki, but when it comes time to engage with her as an actual character, they refuse to do it. I’ve seen meta after meta about Zuko’s redemption arc, but I so rarely see people engage with Suki on any level beyond “look at this cool fight scene!” and yeah, I love a cool Suki fight scene as much as anybody else, but I’m also interested in meta and headcanons and fics about who she is as a person, when she isn’t an accessory to Sokka’s development or doing something cool. of course, the material for this kind of engagement with Suki is scant considering she doesn’t have a canon backstory (yet) (don’t let me down Faith Erin Hicks counting on you girl) but with the way I’ve seen people in this fandom expand upon canon to flesh out male characters, I know y’all have it in you to do more with Suki, and with all the female characters, than you currently do. frankly, the most engagement I’ve seen with Suki in mainstream fandom is justifying either zukki (which again, is characterizing her in relation to male characters, one of whom she barely interacts with in canon) or one of the Suki wlw pairings. which brings me to--

“I conveniently ship this female character whose canon love interest is one of the members of my favorite non-canon ship with another female character! gay rights!” 

now, I will admit, two of my favorite atla ships are yueki and mailee, and so I totally understand being interested in these characters’ dynamics, even if, as is the case with yueki, they’ve never interacted canonically. however, it becomes a problem for me when these ships are always in the background of a zukka fic. at some point, it becomes obvious that you like this ship because it gets either Zuko or Sokka’s female love interests out of the way, not because you actually think the characters would mesh well together. It’s bad form to dislike a female character because she gets in the way of your gay ship, so instead, you find another girl to pair her off with and call it a day. to be clear, I’m not saying that everybody who ships either mailee or yueki (or tysuki or maisuki or yumai or whatever other wlw rarepair involving Zuko or Sokka’s canon love interests) is nefariously trying to sideline a female character while acting publicly as if she’s is one of their faves--far from it--but it is noteworthy to me how difficult it is to find content that centers wlw ships, while it’s incredibly easy to find content that centers zukka in which mailee and/or yueki plays a background role. 

also, notice how little traction wlw Katara ships gain in this fandom. when’s the last time you saw yuetara on your dash? there’s no reason for wlw Katara ships to gain traction in a fandom that is so focused on Zuko and Sokka getting together, bc she doesn’t present an immediate obstacle to that goal (at least, not an obstacle that can be overcome by pairing her up with a woman). if you are primarily interested in Zuko and Sokka’s relationship, and your queer readings of other female characters are motivated by a desire to get them out of the way for zukka, then Katara’s canon m/f relationship isn’t a threat to you, and thus, there’s no reason to read her as potentially queer. Or even, really, to think about her at all. 

“Katara’s here but she’s not actually going to do anything, because deep down, I’m not interested in her as a person.” 

the show has an enormous amount of textual evidence to support the claim that Sokka and Katara are integral parts of each other’s lives. so, she typically makes some kind of appearance in zukka content. sometimes, her presence in the story is as an actual character with layers and nuance, someone whom Sokka cares about and who cares about Sokka in return, but also has her own life and goals outside of her brother (or other male characters, for that matter.) sometimes, however, she’s just there because halfway through writing the author remembered that Sokka actually has a sister who’s a huge part of the show they’re writing fanfiction for, and then they proceed to show her having a meetcute with Aang or helping Sokka through an emotional problem, without expressing wants or desires outside of those characters. I’m honestly really surprised that I haven’t seen more people calling out the fact that so much of Katara’s personality in fanon revolves around her connections to men? she’s Aang’s girlfriend, she’s Sokka’s sister, she’s Zuko’s bestie. never mind that in canon she spends an enormous amount of time fighting against (anachronistic, Westernized) sexism to establish herself as a person in her own right, outside of these connections. and that in canon she has such interesting complex relationships with other female characters (e.g. Toph, Kanna, Hama, Korra if you want to write lok content) or that there are a plethora of characters with whom she could have interesting relationships with in fanon (Mai, Suki, Ty Lee, Yue, Smellerbee, and if you want to write lok content, Kya II, Lin, Asami, Senna, etc). to me, the lack of fandom material exploring Katara’s relationships with other women or with herself speak to a profound indifference to Katara as a character. I’m not saying you have to like Katara or include her in everything you write, but I am asking you to consider why you don’t find her interesting outside of her relationships with men.

“I hate Katara because she talks about her mother dying too often.” 

this is something I’ve seen addressed by people far more qualified than I to address it, but I want to mention it here in part because when I asked people which fandom tropes they wanted me to talk about, this came up often, but also because I find it really disgusting that this is a thing that needs to be addressed at all. Y’all see a little girl who watched her mother be killed by the forces of an imperialist nation and say that she talks about it too much??? That is a formational, foundational event in a child’s life. Of course she’s going to talk about it. I’ve seen people say that she doesn’t talk about it that often, or that she only talks about it to connect with other victims of fn imperialism e.g. Jet and Haru, but frankly, she could speak about it every episode for no plot-significant reason whatsoever and I would still be angry to see people say she talks about it too much. And before you even bring up the Sokka comparison, people deal with grief in different ways. Sokka  repressed a lot of his grief/channeled it into being the “man” of his village because he knew that they would come for Katara next if he gave them the opportunity. he probably would talk about his mother more if a) he didn’t feel massive guilt at not being able to remember what she looked like, and b) he was allowed to be a child processing the loss of his mother instead of having to become a tiny adult when Hakoda had to leave to help fight the fn. And this gets into an intersection with fandom racism, in that white fans (esp white American fans) are incapable of relating to the structural trauma that both Sokka and Katara experience and thus can’t see the ways in which structural trauma colors every single aspect of both of their characters, leading them to flatten nuance and to have some really bad takes. And you know what, speaking of bad fandom takes--   

“Shitting on Mai because she gets in the way of my favorite Zuko ship is actually totally okay because she’s ~abusive~” 

y’all WHAT. 

ok listen, I get not liking maiko. I didn’t like it when I first got into fandom, and later I realized that while bryke cannot write romance to save their lives, fans who like maiko sure can, so I changed my tune. but if you still don’t like it, that’s fine. no skin off my back. 

what IS skin off my back is taking instances in which Mai had justified anger toward Zuko, and turning it into “Mai abused Zuko.” do you not realize how ridiculous you sound? this is another thing where I get so angry about it that I don’t know how useful my analysis is actually going to be, but I’ll do my best. numerous people have noted how analysis of Mai and Zuko’s breakup in “The Beach” or Mai being justifiably angry with him at Boiling Rock or her asking for FUCKING FRUIT in “Nightmares and Daydreams” that says that all of these events were her trying to gain control over him is....ahhh...lacking in reading comprehension, but I’d like to go a step further and talk about why y’all are so intent on taking down a girl who doesn’t show emotion in normative ways. obviously, there’s a “Zuko can do no wrong” aspect to Mai criticism (which is super weird considering how his whole arc is about how he can do lots of wrong and he has to atone for the wrong that he’s done--but that’s a separate post.) But I also see slandering Mai for not expressing her emotions normatively and not putting up with Zuko’s shit and slandering Katara for “talking about her mother too often” as two sides of the same coin. In both cases, a female character expresses emotions that make you, the viewer, uncomfortable, and so instead of attempting to understand where those emotions may have come from and why they might be manifesting the way they are, y’all just throw the whole character away. this is another instance of people in the fandom being fundamentally disinterested in engaging with the female characters of atla in a real way, except instead of shallowly “stanning” Mai, y’all hate her. so we get to this point where female characters are flattened into one of two things: perfect queens who can do no wrong, or bitches. and that’s not who they are. that’s not who anyone is. but while we as a fandom are pretty good at understanding b1 Zuko’s actions as layered and multifaceted even though he’s essentially an asshole then, few are willing to lend the same grace to any female character, least of all Mai. 

and what’s funny is sometimes this trope will intersect with “I conveniently ship this female character whose canon love interest is one of the members of my favorite non-canon ship with another female character! gay rights!”, so you’ll have someone actively calling Mai toxic/problematic/abusive, and at the same time ship her with Ty Lee? make it make sense! but then again, maybe that’s happening because y’all are fundamentally disinterested in Ty Lee as a character too. 

“I love Ty Lee so much that I’m going to treat her like an infantilized hypersexual airhead!” 

there are so many things happening in y’alls characterization of Ty Lee that I struggled to synthesize it into one quippy section header. on one hand, you have the hypersexualization, and on the other hand, you have the infantilization, which just makes the hypersexualization that much worse. 

(of course, sexualizing or hypersexualizing ANY atla character is really not the move, considering that these are child characters in a children’s show, but then again, that’s a separate post.) 

now, I understand how, from a very, very surface reading of the text, you could come to the conclusion that Ty Lee is an uncomplicated bimbo. if you grew up on Western media the way I did, you’ll know that Ty Lee has a lot of the character traits we associate with bimbos: the form-fitting pink crop top, the general conventional attractiveness, the ditzy dialogue. but if you think about it for more than three seconds, you’ll understand that Ty Lee has spent her whole life walking a tightrope, trying to please Azula and the rest of the royal family while also staying true to herself. Ty Lee and Azula’s relationship is a really complex and interesting topic that I don’t really have time to explore at the moment given how long this post is, but I’d argue that Ty Lee’s constant, vocal  adulation is at least partially a product of learning to survive at court at an early age. Like Mai, she has been forced to regulate her emotions as a member of fn nobility, but unlike Mai, she also has six sisters who look exactly like her, so she has a motivation to be more peppy and more affectionate to stand out. 

fandom does not do the work to understand Ty Lee. as is a theme with this post, fandom is actively disinterested in investigating female characters beyond a very surface level reading of them. Thus, fandom takes Ty Lee’s surface level qualities--her love of the color pink, her revealing standard outfit, and the fact that once she found a boy attractive and also once a lot of boys found her attractive--and they stretch this into “Ty Lee is basically Karen Smith from Mean Girls.” thus, Ty Lee is painted as a bimbo, or more specifically, as not smart, uncritically adoring of Azula (did y’all forget all the non-zukka bits of Boiling Rock?), and attractive to the point of hypersexualization. I saw somebody make a post that was like “I wish mailee was more popular but I’m also glad it isn’t because otherwise people would write it as Mai having to put up with her dumb gf” and honestly I have to agree!! this is one instance in which I’m glad that fandom doesn’t discuss one of my favorite characters that often because I hate the fanon interpretation of Ty Lee, I think it’s rooted in misogyny (particularly misogyny against East Asian women, which often takes the form of fetishizing them and viewing them only through a Western white male gaze)  

(side note: here at army-of-mai-lovers, we stan bimbos. bimbos are fucking awesome. I personally don’t read Ty Lee as a bimbo, but if that’s you, that’s fucking awesome. keep doing what you’re doing, queen <3 or king or monarch, it’s 2021, anyone can be a bimbo, bitches <3)

“Toph can and will destroy everyone here with her bare hands because she’s a meathead who likes to murder people and that’s it!”  

Toph is, and always has been, one of my favorite ATLA characters. My very first fic in fandom was about her, and she appears prominently in a lot of my other work as well. One thing that I am always struck by with Toph is how big a heart she has. She’s independent, yes, snarky, yes, but she cares about people--even the family that forced her to make herself smaller because they didn’t believe that their blind daughter could be powerful and strong. Her storyline is powerful and emotionally resonant, her bending is cool precisely because it’s based in a “wait and listen” approach instead of just smashing things indiscriminately, she’s great disabled rep, and overall one of the best characters in the show. 

And in fandom, she gets flattened into “snarky murder child.” 

So where does this come from? Well, as we all know, Toph was originally conceived of as a male character, and retained a lot of androgyny (or as the kids call it, Gender) when she was rewritten as a female character. There are a lot of cultural ideas about androgynous/butch women being violent, and people in fandom seem to connect that larger cultural narrative with some of Toph’s more violent moments in the show to create the meathead murder child trope, erasing her canon emotionality, softness, heart, and femininity in the process. 

This is not to say that you shouldn’t write or characterize Toph as being violent or snarky at all ever, because yeah, Toph definitely did do Earth Rumbles a lot before joining the gaang, and yeah, Toph is definitely a sarcastic person who makes fun of her friends a lot. What I am saying is that people take these traits, sans the emotional logic, marry them to their conception of androgynous/butch women as violent/unemotional/uncaring, and thus create a caricature of Toph that is not at all up to snuff. When I see Toph as a side character in a fic (because yeah, Toph never gets to be a main character, because why would a fandom obsessed with one male character in particular ever make Toph a protagonist in her own right?) she’s making fun of people, killing people, pranking people, etc, etc. She’s never talking to people about her emotions, or palling around with her found family, or showing that she cares about her friends. Everything about her relationship with her parents, her disability, her relationship to Gender, and her love of her friends is shoved aside to focus on a version of Toph that is mean and uncaring because people have gotten it into their heads that androgynous/butch women are mean and uncaring. 

again, we see a female character who does not emote normatively or in a way that makes you, the viewer, comfortable, and so you warp her character until she’s completely unrecognizable and flat. and for what? 

Azula

no, I didn’t come up with a snappy name for this section, mainly because fanon interpretations of Azula and my own feelings toward the character are...complicated. I know there were some people who wanted me to write about Azula and the intersection of misogyny and ableism in fanon interpretations of her character, but I don’t think I can deliver on that because I personally am in a period of transition with how I see Azula. that is to say, while I still like her and believe that she can be redeemed, there is a lot of merit to disliking her. the whole point of this post is that the female characters of ATLA are complex people whom the fandom flattens into stereotypes that don’t hold up to scrutiny, or dislike for reasons that don’t make sense. Azula, however, is a different case. the rise of Azula defenders and Azula stans has led to this sentiment that Azula is a 14 y/o abuse victim who shouldn’t be held accountable for her actions. it seems to me that people are reacting to a long, horrible legacy of male ATLA fans armchair diagnosing Azula with various personality disorders (and suggesting that people with those personality disorders are inherently monstrous and unlovable which ahhhh....yikes) and then saying that those personality disorders make her unlovable, which is quite obviously bad. and hey, I get loving a character that everyone else hates and maybe getting so swept up in that love that you forget that your fave is complicated and has made some unsavory choices. it sucks that fanon takes these well-written, complex villains/antiheroes and turns them into monsters with no critical thought whatsoever. but the attitude among Azula stans that her redemption shouldn’t be hard, that her being a child excuses all of the bad things that she’s done, that she is owed redemption....all of that rubs me the wrong way. I might make another post about this in the future that discusses this in more depth, but as it stands now: while I understand that there is a legacy of misogynistic, ableist, unnuanced takes on Azula, the backlash to that does not take into account the people she hurt or the fact that in ATLA she does not make the choice to pursue redemption. and yes, Zuko had help in making that choice that Azula didn’t, and yes, Azula is a victim of abuse, but in a show about children who have gone through untold horrors and still work to better the lives of the people around them, that is not enough for me to uncritically stan her. 

Conclusion    

misogyny in this fandom runs rampant. while there are some tropes of fandom misogyny that are well-documented and have been debunked numerous times, there are other, subtler forms of misogyny that as far as I know have gone completely unchecked. 

what I find so interesting about misogyny in atla fandom is that it’s clear that it’s perpetrated by people who are aware of fandom misogyny who are actively trying not to be misogynistic. when I first joined atla fandom last summer, memes about how zukka fandom was better than every other fandom because they didn’t hate the female characters who got in the way of their gay ship were extremely prevalent, and there was this sense that *this* fandom was going to model respectful, fun, feminist online fandom. not all of the topes I’ve outlined are exclusive to or even largely utilized in zukka fandom, but a lot of them are. I’ve been in and out of fandom since I was eleven years old, and most of the fandom spaces I’ve been in have been majority-female, and all of them have been incredibly misogynistic. and I always want to know why. why, in these communities created in large part by women, in large part for women, does misogyny run wild? what I realize now is that there’s never going to be a one-size fits all answer to that question. what’s true for 1D fandom on Wattpad in 2012 is absolutely not true for atla fandom on tumblr in 2021. the answers that I’ve cobbled together for previous fandoms don’t work here. 

so, why is atla fandom like this? why did the dream of a feminist fandom almost entirely focused on the romantic relationship between two male characters fall apart? honestly, I think the notion that zukka fandom ever was this way was horrifically ignorant to begin with. from my very first moment in the fandom, I was seeing racism, widespread sexualization of minors, and yes, misogyny. these aspects of the fandom weren’t talked about as much as the crocverse or other, much more fun aspects. further, atla (specifically zukka) fandom misogyny often doesn’t look like the fandom misogyny we’ve become familiar with from like, Sherlock fandom or what have you. for the most part, people don’t actively hate Suki, they just “stan” without actually caring about her. they hate Mai because they believe in treating male victims of abuse equally. they’re not characterizing Toph poorly, they’re writing her as a “strong woman.” in short, people are misogynistic, and then invoke a shallow, incomplete interpretation of feminist theory to shield themselves from accusations of misogyny. it’s not unlike the way some people will invoke a shallow, incomplete interpretation of critical race theory to shield themselves from accusations of racism, or how they’ll talk about “freedom of speech” and “the suppression of women’s sexuality” to justify sexualizing minors. the performance of feminism and antiracism is what’s important, not the actual practice. 

if you’ve made it this far, first off, hi, thanks so much for reading, I know this was a lot. second, I would seriously encourage you to be aware of these fandom tropes and to call them out when you see them. elevate the voices of fans who do the work of bringing the female characters of atla to life. invest in the wlw ships in this fandom. drop a kudos and a comment on a rangshi fic (please, drop a kudos and a comment on a rangshi fic). read some yuetara. let’s all be honest about where we are now, and try to do better in the future. I believe in us. 

[wheelsup]

a friendly bet

category: fluff/humor, spencer x reader warnings: briefly jealous Spencer word count: 1.34k A/N: this blurb was requested by loml @rigatonireid! the prompts are: "you're absolutely dreadful" + "you're my favorite know-it-all"

Spencer Reid really does know it all. His intelligence might be the most attractive thing about him — tied with his face, his hair, his height, his kind eyes.... Maybe Spencer Reid is just overall attractive and you love everything about him, inside and out.

So yes, you’re completely biased on the topic of your boyfriend, but you are aware not everyone shares this fondness of his brain.

He can’t really help that he corrects people all the time — his impulse just takes the steering wheel and makes his mouth move before he can consider if it’s appropriate to comment. The rest of the team is familiar with the quirk, but even they still take offense from time to time.

And the strangers you meet on cases are even less receptive to it. Local law enforcement tends to think that the FBI only shows up to throw their weight around their city, and Reid’s little know-it-all interjections only increase the tension.

It makes it that much harder to get along with them, which isn’t always something your team can afford when the stakes are high. So, you decided to make him a friendly bet that he couldn’t go one whole day without correcting someone on an instance it wasn’t truly necessary.

“I thought you liked my rambling?” Spencer’s bottom lip curled into a pout that you quickly smoothed away with your thumbs.

“I do! I just… think it might make things easier if you hold back a little. Some of the guys here are getting their feelings hurt.” You laughed and stroked his cheek, coaxing a smile out of him. Your proposition wasn’t a criticism of him. It was of everyone else.

“There’s no way I correct people that much,” Spencer scoffed and rolled his eyes, playfully pushing your face away from him like you were being ridiculous.

“Then take the bet and we’ll find out.”

And sorry to say, there was a way.

Not an hour into the day, the vein on Spencer’s forehead was at danger of bursting through his skin. It only came out when he was angry or deep in focus, and you really couldn’t pick which of the two were causing it now. (It was a bit of both.)

This morning, you were trailing about thirty feet behind everyone when coming into the station and Spencer, being the good boyfriend he is, held the door open for you the extra ten seconds. The receptionist at the front desk subsequently chewed him out about ‘letting all of the cold air come into the office’.

That was Spencer’s first test of the day.

Surely, every person in the world knows that’s not how thermodynamics work. Not even close. And if she didn’t know that, that was definitely cause for concern. So really, this felt like a necessary time for Spencer to speak up. For her sake.

But he saw the way your eyebrow quirked up and he knew it was a challenge. It was too easy of a win for you. So he decided to bite his tongue and apologize for the inconvenience.

His second test rose from an argument between Morgan and Prentiss. The barista Hotch picked up drinks from messed up the team’s order and they discovered they were short one coffee. Both threw empty threats at the other and insisted they needed the drink more, but it had come to a stalemate.

“Emily, I worked late last night.”

“What happened to ladies first?” She slid the cup to herself, and Morgan snatched it right back.

“I’m not seeing any lady here!”

Before Emily tossed her chair at Morgan’s head, Hotch suggested they just flip a coin to make it totally fair.

Spencer’s brain was screaming inside: The odds of a coin toss are actually 51/49! Trials have shown that a coin favors landing on the side that was facing up when it was thrown, so really, whoever picks that side has a better chance!

It isn’t so much a correction as it is a fun fact. A harmless little fun fact, surely people would like to hear it! He should share it, they’ll love it.

But you remembered Spencer telling you about this once before, and your eyes are narrowing on him with a smug expression.

‘Come on. Tell them’ your face seems to say. He knows it’s bait, and he doesn’t bite. Thirty-seven minutes into the day. He can do it.

And to your surprise, he did last. For a while. (A while being an hour and twenty-four minutes.)

After the morning briefing, Spencer saw some young male deputy follow you into the conference room. Where you were working. Alone. Why the hell did he need to speak to you alone?

He’s tall with cover-boy good looks (much like Spencer himself), but the thing that Spencer hated most about him was the way he’d been looking at you all week. It’s a nicer word than Spencer would use — he’d say it was more like staring. Watching. Creeping.

Yeah, that’s the one. He’s a creep and Spencer’s very suspicious of him.

So, he did what anyone would do and hid behind a tall potted plant near the window to peek into the room through the blinds. (It’s very inconspicuous, they should use him to go undercover sometime.)

“Can I help you with something?” You gave a polite, tight-lipped smile.

“Yeah, I was just, uh—” he forced a laugh and rubbed his neck in some lame attempt to be charming that made Spencer roll his eyes. “I was wondering if you could fill me in on the investigation.”

He placed a couple of files onto the table next to you and rested a hand on the back of your chair.

You blinked uncomfortably between his sudden proximity and the flirtatious expression adorning his face. “Oh, uh, did you miss the briefing?”

He shook his head no. He was there, he was just making an excuse to come talk to you.

“Could you talk me through it again? I guess I’ve got the memory of a goldfish.” He flashed a smile and leaned his elbow on the table, effectively boxing you in with his whole body.

Before you could tell him to kindly fuck off, you got distracted by the sound of rustling leaves. Then four seconds later, Spencer burst in through the door.

“Actually!” he huffed, a little out of breath, “Goldfish have a long-term memory ranging from three to five months.” Once he catches it, he crosses his arms over his chest and straightens out his spine to make himself bigger. “So you should be able to figure it out on your own. Unless your brain is smaller than a goldfish’s, of course.”

You have to clamp a hand over your mouth to keep from laughing at the deputy’s beet-red face. Spencer scrambled to pick up the files and shoved them back into the deputy’s arms as he “gently” ushered him out the door.

“That was cute of you.” You left a soft kiss on that protruding forehead vein that was finally beginning to go away. “You lost, by the way.”

.

“There’s no way you’re making me do this.” Spencer stood in front of your bathroom mirror with the grimmest expression on his face.

“Sorry, cutie, but you lost,” you teased, preening his hair into place.

A few weeks ago you saw an old picture of Spencer with his hair slicked back, and it’s all you’ve been thinking about ever since. You thought it made him look model-level good and begged him to do it again, but he was of a different opinion. Now, he had no choice in the matter.

“I can’t go to work like this, I’ll look like a joke. There has to be something else!”

“This is the only thing I want.”

He sighed, shoulders sinking as his whole body deflated. “You’re absolutely dreadful.”

You planted a sloppy, exaggerated kiss on his furrowed brows and continued combing the gel into his hair. “And you are my favorite know-it-all.”

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visual aid (tumblr wouldn't let me insert it ugh)

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taglist: @ellesgreenaway @suburban--gothic @sturmmhond @ssa-sarahsunshine @mercy-burning @reidspurple @mediocre-writer @honeyboysteezy @blondefrnk @andreasworlsboring101 @ssa-m-187 @calm-and-doctor @drayshadow @s1utformgg @reidgifs @no-alarms-no-surprises-silence @you-sunshine @altsvu @reidtheprettyboy @goose-eats-god @sonnydoesrandomshit

broken tags: @iamonlyhereforcriminalmindsthings

[incorrect-ikevamp-quotes]

hey so I’m not trying to be gross but this genuinely something that I wonder about like how does mc survive on her period in a mansion full of vampires? Especially with a pure blood like Comte or Leonardo like can’t they sense it? sorry if this is weird I’m just genuinely interested In like pure blood and vampire lore and like what they pick up on especially comte as he’s a fave. I’d love to hear your thoughts as always I love your posts and I hope you’re doing well and staying safe and healthy 💛☺️

Haha, please don’t worry! 😂😂😂 I’ve often wondered about the very same thing, and while I don’t have any canon answers, I can offer the most likely scenario from my understanding of the game. Hope you’re doing well too, lovely, thank you! Stay safe out there~💛💛💛

Given what I know, and the fact that blood is only a small component of the discharge that comes with one’s period, I’d wager it poses a low risk generally speaking. I think the plan would be to make sure everyone’s on guard and has been keeping up with their usual doses of Blanc/Rouge (no waiting until you starve, Jeanne, yes that is a threat) but otherwise everyone proceeds as they normally would. I think it would be hardest on the vamps who are most sensitive to the presence of blood/have a harder time controlling their thirst, like Isaac and Arthur. 

Purebloods have been canonically established as having a much lower tendency to bloodlust by comparison to lesser/turned vampires, so I very much doubt Comte or Leonardo would react much. A blip on the screen for them, nothing more. (I often categorize Jeanne as the closest to pureblood level reactivity because his ability to control the thirst is exceptional; the only time he has ever come close to attacking MC was when he was at a point of intense starvation.) I think the only time her period could potentially become risky is if one of them was starving (and therefore reacting on the level of base instinct) or grievously injured. If they have feelings for her or she’s in a relationship with one of them, it may make them want to bite her more, but I don’t think they’d necessarily act on it. I’d assume most of them would be reluctant because MC is already losing blood as it is? Better to be safe than sorry, and all that.

As for whether or not they can anticipate it, I’m really not sure? It’s possible they might sense hormonal changes, but given I haven’t seen them react to anything so slight I can’t be sure. Purebloods I’d say it’s a coin toss; it’s very possible they can sense it before it comes--but I just have no way of knowing for sure. Lesser vampires, I very much doubt it. 

That being said, you bring up a very timely contention (for me) as of late. Which is to say: what are purebloods capable of sensing? I’ll be elaborating on a recent JPN collection story event that included Comte, as it had a very interesting tidbit that I’d like to share with y’all. It isn’t a huge spoiler as I’ll be focusing on the pureblood lore that was included, but for those who don’t want to see it I’ll be placing it under a cut. (Also some slight spoilers for Comte and Leo’s main story rt).

Mandatory spoiler warning:

So this last event featured MC and her suitor taking care of a child for a few days, in which they act like a pair of surrogate parents. Naturally, being a feral Comte stan, I got his story. In it, both he and MC are taking care of a young girl named Emma--the daughter of a fellow aristocrat (a friend of his). At some point during the story, MC accidentally loses sight of Emma while hanging up the laundry. MC searches the entire mansion but can’t find her anywhere, and she begins to panic when Comte encounters her. Alarmed, he gently asks her what’s wrong and she explains what happened. There’s a brief pause [”...”] and then he says “It’s okay, MC. Emma is–”. Comte then leads her to the gazebo where the little tyke is fast asleep, taking a midday nap in the shade. Naturally MC is relieved to see her safe, but also a little baffled as Comte led her directly to Emma. 

MC: “I’m so glad she’s okay. But…how did you know she’d be here?”

Comte: “Purebloods are good at sensing/detecting nearby human beings.”

And I ????? Granted it’s possible it got translated incorrectly but...I really don’t understand how else he would have known exactly where she was? If MC asked around and searched the entire place and still couldn’t find any trace of her, how would Comte have just known in an instant? Additionally, if he spotted her before he found MC panicking, then I doubt he would have just left her there without an adult/guardian nearby--he would have either stayed there or taken her with him. 

So this makes it plenty plausible that he really did just sense her presence in the vicinity. But........like..........howmst in the fuck. Is that even possible. I have no idea, but I find it a little shocking that I’ve only discovered this now? I mean maybe I missed it somewhere else where this tidbit of lore came up, but as far as I know they don’t discuss it much? The most I remember is Comte giving very clear indications that purebloods were able to sense each other, but I assumed that was restricted to purebloods only...

That being said I’ve been thinking about it and, well, there are at least three pretty strong instances in the game that could affirm his claim in this story. Namely: the beginning of the story itself (Comte’s POV of the prologue), the kidnapping incident in Comte’s main story, and the beginning of Leonardo’s main story.

I remember @a-maidens-dream asking about something very interesting in Comte’s POV story, and at the time I was a little unsure what to do with the information--it wasn’t aligning in a way that made sense. But I think this might help that tidbit fall into place? I think that Comte really hadn’t realized she followed him into the door until she was already in the mansion, and as such this ability to sense humans would explain why he knew she was there before Napoleon even told him anything. If purebloods can sense human people, then he would know a human being entered the house because of the species signature; the only human person living there otherwise was Sebastian. I’m not sure if the sixth sense is acute enough for him to be able to differentiate between human people. (My guess is that it’s not that specific, or if it is, the pureblood has to know the person very well to be sure.)

Building on that, this is a subtle distinction, but it still stood out for me. In his main story route, both MC and a fellow aristocrat (a woman she was friends with) are taken to these small cabin things in the middle of the woods. All Comte, Napoleon, and Jeanne have to go on is the general location of these hideouts. They decide to split up; Comte goes one way, Napoleon and Jeanne go another. I find this instance particularly interesting because Comte’s POV indicates a kind of loss of rational thought--he is 100% in a panic state, just moving to satisfy one objective: save MC before time runs out. This suggests that Comte very much could have been relying on that sense to pinpoint her and her assailants. We have no evidence to believe he was ever a soldier or somebody with extensive experience in tracking--or that knew the landscape well. But he only trusts she’s alive and unharmed for sure when he has her in his arms again, suggesting either that this sixth sense has its limits (in regards to specificity of the person being detected) or that his judgement in that moment was too compromised for it to be clear.

The last one, and perhaps the funniest possibility of the three, lies in the beginning of Leonardo’s main story route. Iirc, Leonardo spends much of that time hauling MC around the mansion to interact and properly situate herself in the mansion’s social dynamic. While this may just be a coincidence, MC notes that she actively tried to hide from him and make herself scarce, but whenever she tried no amount of stealth worked. One can certainly argue he just paid attention or asked other residents about where she was, but I do think it’s worth considering? I need to re-look at the chapters, but I seem to recall her trying to hide in a garden shed and he still found her immediately and just picked her up and walked right back out. 

Tl;dr: So does this mean Comte/Leo can sense when MC is on her period? I have no idea, but at this point I really can’t be sure what abilities they do and don’t have!

[supercantaloupe]

okay yeah actually, i’ll bite. i’ve got some of my own thoughts about the unsleeping city and cultural representation and i’m gonna make a post about them now, i guess. i’ll put it under a cut though because this post is gonna be long.

i wanna start by saying i love dimension 20 and i really really enjoy the unsleeping city. i look forward to watching new episodes every week, and getting hooked on d20 as a whole last summer really helped pull me out of a pandemic depression, and i’m grateful to have this cool show to be excited about and interested in and to have met so many cool people to talk about it with.

that being said, however, i think there is a risk run in representing any group of people/their culture when you have the kind of setting that tuc has. by which i mean, tuc is set in a real world with real people and real human cultures in it. unlike fantasy high or a crown of candy where everything is made up (even if rooted in real-world cultures), tuc is explicitly rooted in reality, and all of its diversity -- both the ups and downs that go with it. and especially set in new york of all places, one of the most densely, diversely populated cities on earth. the cast is 7 people; it’s great that those 7 people come from a variety of backgrounds and identities and all bring their own unique perspectives to the table, and it’s great that those people and the entire crew are generally conscious of themselves and desire to tell stories/represent perspectives ethically. but you simply cannot authentically represent every culture or every perspective in the world (or even just in a city) when your cast is 7 people. it’s an impossible task. this is inherent to the setting, and acknowledged by the cast, and by brennan especially, who has been on record saying how one of the exciting aspects of doing a campaign set in nyc is its diversity, the fact that no two new yorkers have the same perspective of new york. i think that’s a good thing -- but it does have its challenges too, clearly.

i’m not going to go into detail on the question of whether or not tuc’s presentation of asian and asian american culture is appropriative/offensive or not. first of all, i don’t feel like it’s 100% fair to judge the show completely yet, since it’s a prerecorded season and currently airing midseason, so i don’t yet know how things wrap up. secondly, i’m not asian or asian american. i can have my own opinions on that content in the show, but i think it’s worth more to hear actual asian and asian american voices on this specific aspect of the show. having an asian american cast member doesn’t automatically absolve the show of any criticisms with regard to asian american cultural representation/appropriation, whether those criticisms are made by dozens of viewers or only a handful of them. regardless, i don’t think it’s my place as someone who is not asian to speak with any authority on that issue, and i know for a fact that there are asian american viewers sharing their own opinions. their thoughts in this instance hold more water than mine, i think.

what i will comment on in more depth, though, is a personal frustration with tuc. i’m jewish; i’ve never really been shy about that fact on my page here. i’m not from new york, but i visit a few times a year (or i did before covid anyway, lol), and i have some family from nyc. nyc, to me, is a jewish city. and for good reason, since it’s home to one of the largest jewish populations of the country, and even the world, and aspects of jewish culture (including culinary, like bagels and pastrami, and linguistic, like the common use of yiddish words and phrases in english colloquial speech) are prevalent and celebrated among jews and goyim alike. when i think of nyc, i think of a jewish city; that’s not everybody’s new york, but that’s my new york, and thats plenty of other people’s new york too. so i do find myself slightly disappointed or frustrated in tuc for its, in my opinion, rather stark lack of jewish representation.

now, i’m not saying that one of the PCs should have been jewish, full stop. i love to headcanon iga as jewish even though canon does not support that interpretation, and i’m fine with that. she’s not my character. it’s possible that simply no one thought of playing a jewish character, i dunno. but also, and i can’t be sure about this, i’m willing to bet that none of the players really wanted to play a jewish character because they didn’t want to play a character of a marginalized culture they dont belong to in the interest of avoiding stereotyping or offensive representation/cultural appropriation. (i don’t know if any of the cast members are jewish, but i’m assuming not.) and the concern there is certainly appreciated; there’s not a ton of mainstream jewish rep out there, and often what we get is either “unlikeable overly conservative hassidic jew” or “jokes about their bar mitzvah/one-off joke about hanukkah and then their jewishness is never mentioned ever again,” which sucks. it would be really cool to see some more good casual jewish rep in a well-rounded, three-dimensional character in the main cast of a show! even if there are a couple of stumbles along the way -- nobody is perfect and no two jews have the same level of knowledge, dedication, and adherence to their culture.

but at the same time, i look at characters like iga and i really do long for a jewish character to be there. siobhan isn’t polish, yet she’s playing a characters whose identity as a polish immigrant to new york is very central to her story and arc. and part of me wonders why we can’t have the same for a jewish character. if not a PC, then why not an NPC? again, i’m jewish, and i am not native, but in my opinion i think the inclusion of jj is wonderful -- i think there are even fewer native main characters in mainstream media than there are jewish ones, and it’s great to see a native character who is both in touch with their culture as well as not being defined solely by their native-ness. to what extent does it count as ‘appropriative’ because brennan is a white dude? i dunno, but i’m like 99% sure they talked to sensitivity consultants to make sure the representation was as ethical as they could get it, and anyway, i can’t personally see and glaring missteps so far. but again, i’m not native, and if there are native viewers with their own opinions on jj, i’d be really interested in hearing them.

but getting back to the relative lack of jewish representation. it just...disappoints me that jewishness in new york is hardly ever even really mentioned? again, i know we’re only just over halfway through season 2, but also, we had a whole first season too. and it’s definitely not all bad. for example: willy! gd, i love willy so much. him being a golem of williamsburg makes me really really happy -- a jewish mythological creature animated from clay/mud (in this case bricks) to protect a jewish community (like that of williamsburg, a center for many of nyc’s jews) from threat. golem have so often been taken out of their original context and turned into evil monsters in fantasy settings, especially including dnd. (even within other seasons of d20! crush in fh being referred to as a “pavement golem” always rubbed me the wrong way, and i had hoped they’d learned better after tuc but in acoc they refer to another monster as a “corn golem” which just disappointed me all over again.) so the fact that tuc gets golems right makes my jewish heart very happy.

and yet...he doesn’t show up that much? sure, in s1, he’s very helpful when he does, but in s2 so far he shows up once and really does not say or do much of anything. he speaks with a lot more yiddish-influenced language than other characters, but if you didn’t know those words were specifically yiddish/jewish, you might not be able to otherwise clock the fact that willy is jewish. and while willy is a jewish mythological creature who is jewish in canon, he isn’t human. there are no other direct references to judaism, jewish characters, or jewish culture in the unsleeping city beyond him.

there are, in fact, two other canon jewish characters in tuc. but...here’s where i feel the most frustration, i think. the two canon jewish humans in tuc are stephen sondheim and robert moses. both of whom are real actual people, so it’s not like we can just pick and choose what their cultural backgrounds are. as much as i love stephen sondheim, i think there are inherent issues with including real world people as characters in a fictional setting, especially if they are from living/recent memory (sondheim is literally still alive), but anyway, sondheim and moses are both actual jewish people. from watching tuc alone you probably would not be able to guess that sondheim is jewish -- nothing from his character except name suggests it, and i wouldn’t even fault you for not thinking ‘sondheim’ is a jewish-sounding surname (and i dislike the idea/attitude/belief that you can tell who is or isn’t jewish by the sound of their name). and yeah, i’m not going to sit here and be like “brennan should have made sondheim more visibly jewish in canon!” because, like, he’s a real human being and it’s fucking weird to portray him in a way that isn’t as close to how he publicly presents himself, which is not in fact very identifiably jewish? i don’t know, this is what i mean by it’s inherently weird and arguably problematic to portray real living people as characters in a fictional setting, but i digress. sondheim’s jewish, even if you wouldn’t know it; not exactly a representation win.

and then there’s bob moses. you might be able to guess that he’s jewish from canon, actually. there’s the name, of course. but more insidious to me are the specifics of his villainy. greedy and powerhungry, a moneyman, a lich whose power is stored in a phylactery...it does kind of all add up to a Yikes from me. (in the stock market fight there’s a one-off line asking if he has green skin; it’s never really directly acknowledged or answered, but it made me really uncomfortable to hear at first and it’s stuck with me since viewing for the first time.) the issue for me here is that the most obviously jewish human character is the season’s bbeg, and his villainy is rooted in very antisemitic tropes and stereotypes.

i know this isn’t all brennan’s fault -- robert moses was a real ass person and he was in fact jewish, a powerhungry and greedy moneyman, a big giant racist asshole, etc. i’m not saying that jewish characters can’t be evil, and i’m not saying brennan should have tried to be like “this is my NPC robert christian he’s just like bob moses but instead he’s a goy so it’s okay” because...that would be fuckin weird bro. and bob moses was a real person who was jewish and really did do some heinous shit with his municipal power. i’m not necessarily saying brennan should have picked/created a different character to be the villain. i’m not even saying that he shouldn’t have made bob moses a lich (although, again, it doesn’t 100% sit right with me). but my point here is that bob moses is one of a grand total of three canon jewish characters in tuc, of which only two humans, of whom he is the one you’d most easily guess would be jewish and is the most influenced by antisemitic stereotypes/tropes. had there been more jewish representation in the show at all, even just some neutral jewish NPCs, this would not be as much of a problem as it is to me. but halfway through season 2, so far, this is literally all we get. and that bums me out.

listen, i really like tuc. i love d20. but the fact that it is set in a real world place with real world people does inherently raise challenges when it comes to ethical cultural representation. especially when the medium of the show is a game whose creatures, lore, and mechanics have been historically rooted in some questionable racial/cultural views. and dnd is making progress to correct some of those misguided views of older sourcebooks by updating them to more equitably reflect real world racial/cultural sensitivities; that’s a good thing! but these seasons, of course, were recorded before that. the game itself has some questionable cultural stuff baked into it, and that is (almost necessarily) going to be brought to the table in a campaign set in a real-world place filled with real-world people of diverse real-world cultures. the cast can have sensitivity consultants and empathy and the best intentions in the world, and they’ll still fuck up from time to time, that’s okay. your mileage may vary on whether or not it’s still worth sticking around with the show (or the fandom) through that. for me, it does not yet outweigh all the things i like about the show, and i’m gonna continue watching it. but it’s still very worth acknowledging that the cast is 7 people who cannot possibly hope to authentically or gracefully represent every culture in nyc. it’s an unfortunate limitation of the medium. yet it’s also still worthwhile to acknowledge and discuss the cultural representation as it is in the show -- both the goods and the bads, the ethically solid and the questionably appropriative -- and even to hold the creators accountable. (decently, though. i’m definitely not advocating anybody cyberbully brennan on twitter or whatever.) the show and its representation is far from perfect, but i also don’t think it ever could be. still, though, it could always be better, and there’s a worthwhile discussion to be had in the wheres, hows, and whys of that.