#Like even if its one comment and you're sure that a million other people have said the same thing

[maaaxx]

✨💌🙋‍♀️🎨 for the ask game <3<3<3

✨ - give your writing a compliment.

Even though the execution is shit, it has a good plot.

💌 - How do you feel about comments and feedback.

I absolutely adore comments and feedback. I try to be as open as I know how to be when people reach out to me, but im just shit at it. lol.

But like comments on my fics, asks, dms, everything is highly appreciated, and it makes my day every time.

I love it so much and it is so encouraging.

🙋‍♀️ - Do any people irl know you write fanfic.

I have on friend that knows i do. And what fandom, but I refuse to tell them any other details. like i know their tumblr and i have them blocked on here.

I have a list of people who if I found out they read my fic im deleting it.

(hi sri)

And my friend is definetly on that list. So if my fic ever gets deleted for seemingly no reason thats why.

🎨 - How do you feel about fanart of your stories.

I have never had fanart made of any of my stories and if i someone ever did make fanart of one of my stories i would bawl my eyes out.

[alexanderwales]

Book Review: Metropolitan Man

[content warning: sexual violence]

It's been 10 years since I wrote Metropolitan Man, and last night I read it for the first time in almost that long. Since writing it, I've written over 4 million words, and hopefully, grown as a writer. I've also forgotten parts of the story, so was looking at it with as fresh of eyes as possible. These are my overall thoughts.

I should say, before I start, that I've read tons of comments and discussion on this story over the years. I don't know how many of these thoughts are my own, or how much I've internalized things that people have said.

Writing Style

There were lots of changes I thought about making while reading, but people hate change, and this story is about ten years past when I wanted to be making editing passes on it. In many places I kept thinking of little extras I would add, things that would make the dialogue pop a little more, or provide characterization. I had this idea for a line where I describe Lois typing out two letters like she was letting loose with both barrels of a shotgun. There's dialogue to clean just a bit more, a few places where words are repeated or something is just a bit awkward, and where it could have been tighter or more clear.

The biggest thing that stood out to me was how little time got spent on scene setting and how short some of the snippets were, just five paragraphs to get a scene across before we're onto the next thing. I might have webserial brainrot, but those are definitely places where today I would give a little more breathing room and maybe use the same amount of words to describe something in a more oblique and stronger way. One that stood out as a clear example was a private investigator going home with Jimmy Olsen even though she was done pumping him for information, which could have been twice as long and benefitted from it. Another was a brief little thing about a Superman spotter on the roof, where I'd now describe everything he was doing, and only get to the conclusion of "he was a Superman spotter" at the end of the section to let the reader have this mini mystery of what they're being shown and why.

I would describe things more if I was writing this today, trying to get those nicely tight and evocative descriptions and ditch the stuff like "she wore a white blouse", but I often feel that way about stuff that I'm revising from last week, so it's not surprising.

The plot is very tight, which is good. I tend to prefer my plots tight, but it takes work, and webserials aren't conducive to it because it's difficult to know when you're writing a scene whether it's really pulling its weight as far as moving things forward. The initial idea for MM was to move as cleanly as possible through a series of events: Superman -> Superman is invincible -> Superman is Clark Kent -> Clark Kent grew up in Smallville -> the ship is in Smallville -> the ship has a Kryptonite power source -> Kryptonite can kill Superman -> Superman is dead. The only thing that would make it any faster would be if we dropped the Lois Lane subplot, but that's like half the novel.

Superman is OOC

I've gotten tons and tons of comments on this story over the years. If I hated myself, I would go back through my email and count them up, but there are some death threats and "kill yourself"s in there, and I prefer not to reread them. The major thing that people hate is the ending, which I don't care to talk about, but the other major thing is that Superman isn't Superman.

In this, I largely agree, but then, I'm pretty sure I've always agreed. That said, Superman has had a ton of interpretations over the years, and there's a wide range of acceptable behavior from "a Superman", even if we're not counting the really out there variations like Red Son or some of the alternate timelines.

... but I still would probably make him more like a canon Superman if I had to do it all over.

There are a few things that raise red flags at the beginning, which is where I think they're inexpertly placed. Superman takes Lois off the roof and flies her around, making her very afraid, and this is fine, I think, a misunderstanding that might be stronger if we got his insight into what was happening before we got hers to help bridge some of the disconnect there and characterize them both better. But there's a little note after that, where Clark makes a joke about "Superman's girlfriend Lois Lane" that I think is a HUGE red flag, and which probably comes too early in the story. It would be better as a joke someone else made that Clark laughs along with, which raises the red flag to half mast.

The other major moment I would change is when the bombs start going off. Superman pulls back, unsure whether he's actually immune to mustard gas, and I think this is one of the moments that most goes against the character of Superman. Canon Superman would just say "welp, guess I gotta find out whether I'm immune to mustard gas in a hurry". Superman making the argument that he doesn't know the bounds of his powers and so should exercise caution reads as either cowardice or as him being way too bitten by the rationality bug.

This would then obviously have to change the plot of that section a bit, because in the novel as it stands right now, Superman is convinced by Lois Lane that he can't just sit on the sidelines for game theory reasons. Better to either scrap that section or have Lois convince Superman that for game theory reasons he should offer to have testing carried out against him in a way that doesn't harm civilians, which canon Superman might submit to if it saved lives. Then the rest of the plot can proceed as normal, because Superman is immune to everything and that's the whole plot beat anyway.

I'd definitely clean up some of Superman/Clark's dialogue to nail the character voice better, but I don't think it's that bad, and it's mostly a few places where the wording is off. I think in particular the points where he's feeling anger go too far, and are not how someone internally conflicted about the anger might talk.

And then, oh yeah, Superman punches a guy's head clean off, which I think is the biggest sticking point for most people.

I've thought about that scene a lot. I personally like it. But if I were ever trying to sell this story to DC, it's one of the things I would almost certainly change. Superman doesn't kill, except in that one movie that came out just before this story was published where Superman snapped a guy's neck.

The change I am most happy/comfortable with is that Whitman, the governor whose children were [REDACTED], is the one to kill Calhoun. This happens just outside the courthouse with Superman watching and not intervening in the slightest, or maybe catching the bullets as they go through Calhoun so no bypassers get hit.

I don't know, as I type it out, it doesn't have the same weight to it. It's not cool. It's not a watershed moment. Maybe there's a plot thread to pull there, where Superman has tacitly endorsed other vigilantes, and it would be a great time to pull in other mundane street-level heroes ... but that's an entirely different story at that point.

Another option is for Superman to simply fly off with Calhoun and put him away, but that lacks punch too, and gets talky, and ... it's about the rage, right? The feeling of injustice, not just at Calhoun, but at the entire world, and it's not just an unhappy side effect that there's blood everywhere, all over the clamoring press, that's part of the point.

Social Justice

I really enjoy how wide-ranging the novel is, and how many things it touches on. Good job me. There was a line I had completely forgotten about where Lois asks "Why doesn't Superman stop abortions?" that I had completely forgotten I had ever written, and which brought a big smile to my face (but no wonder some Superman fans hate this story).

There are a few other things that I raise my eyebrow at a little bit, at least sitting here in 2024. There's a particular line that Superman gives when talking about this whitewashed mural of the past they're walking by, and he says "It's easy to forget that slavery ever happened, you know?" Now, I will grant you that this is a part of a conversation where he's saying that maybe he should have been a better student of history, and is saying this as a white guy in 1934, but I wanted him or someone else to tear that statement apart. It never really happens.

"It's easy to forget that slavery ever happened [if you and your people have not been affected by slavery]". The novel takes place ~70 years after the end of the Civil War, which means that when Clark was growing up there would have been freed slaves who were in their fifties, probably many of them in Kansas, though Smallville is (notably) small. I don't know, it wouldn't have been historically accurate for them to have a discussion of privilege, but there's way more meat on that bone, and it's all left as subtext.

Also probably the case that if I were writing it now, I would pay more attention to race in general, but that I'm less sure on, because it would mean some major structural changes to be done well. There's a single black guy in the whole thing, who is barely a character and has no speaking lines: the farmhand Ma Kent has before he gets lured away with the promise of being an actor. I have never felt that any novel needs racial balance to it, but if you're going to be talking about slavery and whether Superman would have done anything about it, you start to make black people look like props, which is not a good look.

I mean look, I think it's fine for a given story to not actually take a stance on political issues or have a diverse cast, but this story goes from abortion to the Equal Rights Amendment to Prohibition to Nazis to the death penalty, and then despite being set in 1934 sort of talks around the subject of how shitty race relations were. As a white guy, I never feel comfortable talking about race, but I think it would have been appropriate to have here in more than the cursory way it was handled. But the cast is just not that large, and the way that modern Superman stories handle that is usually making Jimmy Olsen black and then not actually talking about the fact that he's black so it's just a palette swap, which I don't think would work here, especially since Jimmy is such a bit character, and also it's 1934.

Sexual Violence

Alright, I will say it: there's too much sexual violence.

Chapter 7 is when the two Whitman kids get kidnapped. Their driver gets his throat slit, the boy gets dismembered, and the girl gets raped. I knew it was coming and I was still horrified by it.

I would not remove this part. I would foreshadow it better with a few scenes with Calhoun, the brutes, etc., and I might change some of the details to be a bit less awful and gruesome, but I don't think I would remove it. There are a few core ideas here that I think all work:

The better class of criminal has left the city now, and all that are left are the worst of the worst, the people who will not respond to incentives or symbols or rational thought.

If you cannot strike at Superman's physical self, you strike at his mind instead, and one of the ways to do that is psychic damage. In Calhoun's case, this is irrational, a pure desire to hurt Superman in any way possible while his empire collapses.

The amount of evil in the world is enormous. The pain and suffering cannot be comprehended. I love what Superman says, that this isn't really unique, that these things happen to children all the time. He's upset about not being able to save them, but they're a drop in the bucket.

I think you have to be careful with sexual violence, whether it's depicted or hinted at or just briefly mentioned. There are tons of people who are not on board with that in their media, and even of those who are on board, it has to be handled carefully and can feel very cheap, as though you're just going to the worst and most transgressive thing you can think of for the shock value. People will see it as lazy and trivializing and making entertainment out of this horrible thing.

I think the world is shit. I think terrible things happen. I have always felt both oppressed by the weight of evil in the world and powerless to stop it. I think that's the thing that I'm gesturing at here, and it feels weird to me that sexual violence would get put on a pedestal as the one thing too horrible to mention, even though we're mentioning all the most horrible things.

How do Superman comics and shows and movies deal with this? My impression is that they don't. Surely Superman must be stopping rapes from happening, but I cannot think of a single time I've seen it happen. I'm actually having trouble thinking of a time it was implied to happen. I think this is probably a good idea on the part of the people who make these bits of media, but it's absolutely not realistic if you're thinking about how Superman would operate in the "real world". Sexual violence happens, child abuse happens, and I guess we just sort of assume that these things are dealt with by Superman off-screen.

Though ... I mean it impacts the characters, right? Does Superman not have a trauma response? Does he have a superpower where he can bottle it all up? He's definitely too late to stop certain crimes, and he definitely can't make things better for some of the victims, and I guess in the comics when he shows up to a burning building he generally has a 100% success rate and people come out with only minor injuries, but ... alright, this is definitely the sort of thing that led me to write this fic in the first place.

It's a question that the fic doesn't have an answer for: how do you go on living when you know that there's so much evil in the world?

I think dialing that particular scene back is, maybe, fine. But it's the sort of thing that would feel like I was being less authentic in a way, as though I wanted to grapple with the big questions but not that one, wanted to consider ethics and morality but silo myself away from things that actually are on my mind. I see the point of blunting that scene, and I rebel against it because I don't want to be blunted, I want to be sharp.

I would, however, remove a lot of the earlier references, or blunt those, because they didn't need to be sharp. There are, before the Whitman stuff, about five references to sexual violence, and maybe even just using "sexual violence" would be enough, rather than "rape". One of these references is to what crimes Superman is statistically most likely to stop, another is to a plot to besmirch his name, both can be massaged or they can go.

I don't know if I think about these things differently because time has passed or I've had a bunch of discussions about these issues, or whether it's just having the outside view. It's weird to think about what a conversation with myself would look like, if we were working on the story together.

Retrospective

I understand why Superman fans sometimes hate this story. There's the Superman OOC stuff, sure, but there are also a lot of questions about Superman that apply to canon equally well, and people hate that. Superman is a fantasy, maybe the ultimate comic book fantasy. He stops crimes and bullets bounce off him! You're not supposed to think about his stance on abortion rights. You're not supposed to look at the Clark Kent mask and say 'huh, that's strange'. I mean it's media, you can do whatever the hell you want, but if Superman is a fantasy, then there are a lot of questions that are fantasy-ruining.

I stand by the story as written about 80%, which is higher than I thought it would be, though there are certain things that I stand by more than others. There are certain structural changes and many line-by-line changes, and I'm glad that I didn't have the story open in edit mode, because it would have taken me three times as long to read and when I hit "save changes" people would grumble about archives or bad changes or whatever, because you can't please people.

About five years ago, I started writing A Common Sense Guide to Doing the Most Good, which was meant as a companion piece to MM. It ended up being all mechanics, no plot, and the plot that I wanted it to have was divorced from the center questions it wanted to answer. It didn't feel as grand, I guess, and the cats were out of their bags a little too quickly.

One of the Answers that MM gives is that the thing you should do in the face of overwhelming evil is to grind relentlessly, grind until your bones are scraping the grindstone and there's nothing left of yourself. The story does not believe this answer, but it's one of the places I ended up ten years ago, and am still sort of at now. The other answer is to live as best you can, be aware of the evil and do what you can against it without letting the idea of it (or the battle against it) consume your soul.

When I was finished reading, I kind of wanted to write an uncritical Superman comic. Something where Superman can be as his most loyal fans see him, someone who is Good and doesn't often have to grapple with what Good means, where the thorny edges of moral quandaries never come to light and the hero is always there in the nick of time. Where Clark Kent is a bold and noble expression of humanity rather than a deception and a mask. Maybe I will go do that.

[ac3-76]

Lloyd Garmadon Headcannons

warnings: none😋

General

He's been doing graffiti since he was 9

he started when he saw a guy doing it while Darklys was on a field trip in Ninjago City

he thought it was really cool and left the group to talk to the guy

His Tag is either Neon Dragon or Neon Echo

He decided it had to have Neon in it because he uses neon in all of his works

People speculate that he's Neon Dragon/Echo but it's not confirmed, not even the other ninja know

He has a graffiti account on Instagram that has 37.8 million followers and is verified

He also really good at painting and sketching

He's just good at art in general

He watches personal attention ASMR to fall asleep

He's good at sewing

He pretty much never posts on his socials, but when he does they get more likes and views than the other ninjas posts

he's the quote "short guys have the prettiest faces and the sassiest attitudes"

he's so sassy

when the Ninjas do interviews people always talk about his sass attacks

there are compilations of him being sassy on tiktok, Instagram reels, and YouTube

Kai's the fan favorite for his looks and how often he posts, but lloyd is the fan favorite for personality and level of cuntiness

Literally everyone in Ninjago loves Lloyd(except the badguys but yk)

Out of all the ninjas he has the 2nd biggest arms(Cole has the biggest)

Girls go crazy for his arms

He's so respectful towards women

He can start a conversation with anyone about anything

He is SO SO SO good with kids

A mom of 2 will be taking the bus home from somewhere, her youngest kid is a couple months old and her oldest is 4 years old

The older ones throwing a tantrum and the youngest is crying and the moms stressed and embarrassed bc this is happening in public and she can't get her kids to calm down

Enter Lloyd "do you want some help?" Garmadon to offer his services

the mom gives him her oldest and in a matter of seconds the kid is happy and smiling

he's not even sure what he did to get the kid so happy

THEN, bc one is never enough🙄, "I can help calm that you down too if you want"

So the mom gives him the newborn and again in a couple seconds the newborn isn't crying

kids just love him🤷‍♀️

He has really unique insults

"your personality is like a wet napkin at a party"

"your fashion sense if like a blindfolded toddler picking out clothes"

"Your ideas are so dull, they make beige look vibrant"

"Your sense of humor is drier than a desert in a drought"

"You're as useful as a screen door in a submarine"

and you best bet they all make it into the Lloyd Garmadon sassy compilations

He has FAST comebacks, he never misses a beat with an insult

Dating

He does a HARD launch

people will be chilling thinking he's single and then one day BAM

he posts something on Instagram announcing he's in a relationship

its 10 pictures of you, him giving you flowers, you guys kissing, you guys cuddling

it's like if you searched relationship goals on Pinterest

and the caption is something like "Happy 1 year babe🫶🫶 I can't imagine my life without you"

everyone in the comments is shocked that he kept your relationship secret for a year

Except the ninjas

who are commenting things about being happy he's finally announced it

I know for a fact Kai would commet "I'm glad you finally announced this, I have hundreds of pictures of you two I've been needing to post🙄"

You're his muse

He does graffiti pieces inspired by you

He also tells you he's Neon Dragon/Echo

He tries to teach you how to do graffiti

He's the type to read and annotate books you like

Collarbone kisser

Helps you figure out fits

MATCHING OUTFITS.

He would embroider a little heart in your favorite color, or your favorite flower into the cuffs of all his hoodies

He doesn't care if you're taller or shorter than him, just don't be the same height as him and ur good

After what happend with Harumi he would struggle to believe you actually like him for a while

Even after you prove you really do like him, he still struggles to express how he feels about you and be completely honest with you

Secret or forbidden relationship trope

he fell first and harder

also soulmate trope

he pays attention to everything you do and knows ur needs, wants, and actions before you do

(yk when Elenor anticipated Chidis sneeze in The Good Place, yea he's Elenor, you're Chidi)

"No I have a partner" instead of "Sorry, I have a partner"

he has awful abandonment issues so he's either really clingy or he pushes you away and doesn't talk to you

He doesn't do sass attacks or insult you(to often)

Kai will be recording a vlog to post to YouTube and you'll say something stupid, Lloyd will look at you like he wants to insult you but be doesn't

The fans see that clip and go crazy

"Lloyd holding back his insult is how you know he's in love"

The ship edits go HARD

[simplyaskfellowplural]

waddles in your inbox

Hiya! Regarding PluralKit, do you have advices/tips on how to make a neat/aesthetic descriptions? Inspirations for examples on how to make one, or like- a copy paste of the template? Sorry if I'm asking a lot whoop-

🪺 (She/Her) & 🍎 (He/Him) & 🌀 (She/Her) & <3 (She/Her) Began Writing

😐🏹 (He/Him), 😐📖 (He/Him) Finishing.

Hi, sorry for the lateness of answering this ask. And thank you for sending in an ask! ❣️ And don't worry you're not asking too much!

So pluralkit is a bit tricky when it comes to making descriptions as for some systems it might be difficult to keep your information below the character limit. We even ourselves struggle with making a very pleasant aesthetic bio for pluralkit ourselves.

Our main tips are limited with Pluralkit bios specifically; but we might be able to get something!

Actively conversate and make sure you know what you're wanting, what you need, and what you can leave out! If you can't convey everything in just the bio of your pluralkit page, possibly try working that information into individual headmates/sysmates bios!

Take advantage of online guides like discord servers that help with aesthetic pluralkit bios, and definitely maybe dip your own toes into the idea of making your own!

A lot of premade templates exist by simply googling "Pluralkit/Tupperbox System Bio Templates". Tumblr as a million, but there are few and very far between, especially taking into account syscourse and people making templates specifically for and only for traumagenic systems, limiting the resources.

We personally definitely recommend using these carrds here as its something of a common practice to use symbols that are from other languages like Japanese or Arabic as aesthetic symbols for rain or stars, and it messes with screen readers.

Make sure to take and leave as you will! We honestly in most advice asks here asking about how to organize and such will offer as much inspiration as we can! While also encouraging people to seek what they want to display if they have an idea, and leave what you as a system don't wish to explore.

So we actually are going to put our own template making skills to use and make a broad base template any system can use!:

✷ Welcome to [System] ！! ✷

Our name is [name], and this is our introduction to our [platform name]! Below is information on our system, boundaries, and fun links we/other sysmates enjoy!

ıllı ────── ıllı

**General Information**

**Name?**

⟡ Name(s), Nicknames

**Age?**

⟡ Age range or Age

**System &/ Body Gender?**

⟡ Gender Terms (with possible Links)

**System &/ Body Orientation?**

⟡ Orientation Terms (with possible Links)

**System Terms/Origins?**

⟡ System Terms/Origins/Modifiers (with possible Links)

**Status/Relationship?**

⟡ Taken/Single/Private/Etc

Possible notes: Notes

ıllı ────── ıllı

**Boundaries**

**Do NOT Interact If..:**

⟡ Following Boundaries

**DO Interact If..**

⟡ Following Boundaries

**Ask to Interact If..**

⟡ Following Boundaries

Possible Notes: Notes

**System Terms**

**Do Not Refer to us as..**

⟡ Terms

**Please refer to us as..**

⟡ Terms

**Ask if you can refer to us as..**

⟡ Terms

ıllı ────── ıllı

**Fun Information**

**Fandoms/Hobbies**

⟡ Fandoms & Hobbies

**Where else to find you?**

⟡ Individual sysmates blogs/socials/etc & System socials and such

This was a quick template that we will put in the comments as it's own thing hopefully. Thank you again for you again for your ask! And hopefully this helped in some way! And we FINALLY finished this after months. So we apologize for how long this took.

We will be uploading a self Indulgent post about a how to privacy guide, then will start being more active on this blog!

[fishyfishyfishtimes]

I hope this ask doesn't seem odd, or is out of your personal interests in biology, but; Your recent comments about Dolphin intelligence and anthropomorphizing animal intelligence (which I am unfortunately prone to) have really got me thinking about sapient/sophont alien species in specevo/specbio. If you don't mind giving your two cents, what do you think is the best way to portray alien intelligence without it seeming too 'human' or demonizing a species for being say, parasites (brood or otherwise), or practicing copulatory cannibalism? I'm not sure how prevalent these are in oceanic organisms, but I thought it'd be worth asking. Again, sorry if this isn't in the purview of your blog.

You're in luck, I love specevo and specbio! I don't reblog very much of it but trust me, I follow like five specbio alien creators right now. I dabble a little bit in creating it myself, but to answer your questions...

As humans, which are a result of millions of years of evolution, we are biased in some ways when it comes to other lifeforms. For example, parasitism often makes us uncomfortable because in nature parasites will take our resources and harm us, it's natural to feel uncomfortable even if the parasite has no choice! It can be hard to make things like that not seem icky, but you can definitely avoid demonising them. I think when it comes to making sophont aliens that partake in parasitism or copulatory cannibalism, you have to portray them in a neutral way (no "these horrible body-snatching aliens!!") and really focus on the fact that they really have no other choice, because this is how they've evolved and this is what's natural for them. It can be woven closely into their culture, maybe cannibalising one's mate is like a ceremony with a celebration of old life sacrificing itself to make way for new life! They aren't heartless, heavens no, this is just how their species evolved and this is what they do.

The same goes for parasitism! If you're going to do brood parasitism, hammer it down that this species just isn't built for raising its own young in any way and would perish if it didn't partake in brood parasitism. If you have ecto- or endoparasites, you can also do a little "twist" like the Symbiote species in C. M. Kösemen's All Tomorrows. They're a sapient human descendant really made up of two species, the small parasitic sapient species which controls the larger species, doing all the thinking so the larger species can simply focus its resources on everything else. While what they exhibit would be mutualism, the small species started out as a parasite, and I don't think I've ever seen people expressing that they feel the Symbiote is "gnarly" in any way.

As for your first question regarding portraying alien intelligence in a way that doesn't seem very "human"... well, that can be quite hard! Making a sapient species be more intelligent than us can be hard to write, since, you know, we're kind of the most intelligent things around we know. It's hard to write something you aren't. In the case of a species with a different evolution path to us (as in a sapient alien that didn't evolve from social savannah-travelling persistence hunter-gatherer omnivores), I would personally focus on writing a species with different senses to us, either heightened or dulled out compared to us. This can already help out with making the species seem less human! And then there's something that I don't often see but would love to see more of due to how "alien" it feels, colonial and hivemind aliens! And I just don't mean aliens with "queens" that control the rest, though I think those are a cool concept too. Tumblr user charseraph executes these really well, I think! They have at least three species of aliens which are "hiveminds" in a way: Trumpets, which are entire ecosystems whose individual living producers and consumers contribute to their intelligence as a whole, Wards, which are networks of connected bodies with millions of intelligences, and Towers, which consist of one main hub controlling several bodies. And how about sapient colonial aliens? Something like a siphonophore, an alien consisting of multiple individuals, either all sapient or forming a sapient unit, would be extremely cool! But I understand that this may not be what you're going for with your aliens.

I hope this helps! ^^

[a-998h]

Romantic Battle Tendency with albino reader

(Reader is gender neutral and has extreme albinism. I will not include von Stroheim)

Joseph Joestar

This man just stares at first

Untill he met you he had never seen an albino person

He is curious about you

Due to being albino, your eyes are light sensitive so you always where sunglasses

This makes him wonder what color eyes you have, or if your eyes are completely white

When he sees you have red eyes, he thinks its the most badass thing ever

Will not tolerate disrespect towards you

It's the 1930's, so people treat you differently because you're albino

He once yelled at someone who mocked your appearance in public

You've had to keep him from beating someone into a mess a sidewalk or in an alley

Is in shock when you tell him your hair is translucent, and only looks white because its grouped together

If you ask him to he will help you put sunscreen on

If you ever feel in secure about your looks he'll say stuff like...

"Your my very own snow white," and other flirty comments to make you feel better

His nicknames for you are snow white, angel, bunny, and robin

When he learns you have poor eyesight because you're albino

His willingness to help has increased

Makes jokes that your skin will blend into your wedding outfit

When he learns albinism is genetic he asks why your parents aren't albino

You have to explain to him how genetics work...

When he finds your hair everywhere he freaks out

Gets even more freaked out when you explain that because you're albino you're hair will fall out more

Ceaser Zeppeli

Has many nicknames for you

His nicknames for you are principessa, cigno, colomba, and lepre.

He was taken a back by your appearance at first

Like Joseph, he had never seen an albino person untill meeting you

When he learns about your light sensitive eyes and how you need to protect your skin from the sun at all times

He is willing to help you

He will carry extra sunglasses and sunscreen for you

Loves your eyes

Says stuff like "lepre, your eyes are just like rubies,"

While he typically has a good handle on his temper...

The second anyone insults you because of your appearance. You will need to hold him back

Will make sure you never feel insecure about your looks

When he learns that albinism is genetic he tells you that makes you even more special, that you are one in a million

It's very careful with your hair when he realizes it will fall out easy

Would want you to pick a wedding outfit in a color that makes your skin and hair stand out more

Lisa Lisa

This woman....

Smothers you with love

Is curious about why your albino

When you explain it's genetic she nods and says she understands

She is always carrying sunglasses for herself so it's no problem to carry sunglasses for you

Like mother like son

She will intimidate people who mock your appearance

A lot of people don't take her seriously because she's a woman... They soon learn the error of their ways very fast

Only uses the best on your hair when she learns it will fall out easy

Coats you head to toe in sunscreen

Wraps her scarf around you as sun protection

Buys you some sun hats that she thinks are cute

Makes sure you are always protected from the sun

Calls you nicknames like robin, swan, angel, and frosty

She would buy makeup for you, so she can "enhance your beauty"

Suzi Q

You have to explain to her multiple times what being albino means

She buys you cute clothes, that also work as sun protection

She writes note to remind you both to wear sunscreen

If your eyes hurt from being over exposed to light, she'll make your bedroom dark while you sleep it off

When she learns that albinism is genetic, she doesn't understand at first

She loves you no matter what

She will pick out clothes that stand out against your skin

She would love to do you hair

She calls you snowy, honey, and snowflake

She calls you snowflake because she think you're one of a kind

Would help you with sunscreen

She will pout if anyone makes fun of you

She doesn't do well with confrontation, but will try if someone insults you

Would brag about you

She compares your eyes to cherries and roses

Another that would buy makeup for you

Would color match your makeup to make your skin stand out

[the-travelling-witch]

Hello! I'm sending this to my favorite writers to enable you to brag about your own writings! (But don't feel pressured to reply and take your time!) :D

Pick one fic you wrote and would recommend to us readers for each of these genres:

Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Hurt/No Comfort, AU (any AUs!), Selfship (If you selfship!), [Insert a genre you've written but is not in the list].

Have fun, and just a reminder to always be proud of what you created!! You're amazing!! We love you!!! 💗

Extra // Feel free to ramble on why the fic is your favorite, whatever thinking process you have when you wrote it, which part(s) are your favorite, etc!!

ahhhh this is such a cool ask to get, thank you so much!! also your favourite writers? and that includes me of all people??? don’t mind me, someone might be cutting onions in here 🥺🩵

i hope you don’t mind me rambling, i might have gotten a little carried away ^^; (i’ve also not really heeded the one per genre rule, i’m just bad at picking one or the other hshsh)

Fluff

one of each huh? i think we’re already running into a problem on the fluff genre, i don’t really have anything to recommend, i’m afraid; none of them really stand out to me personally (that aren’t aus or so), so i’d much rather talk more about my other works

Hurt / Angst

now to hop into the categories i really like talking about, hurt and angst!! :D out of anything comfort related, i think i like my period comfort scenarios for both obey me and twst. i wrote them to alleviate my own pains in a way, but it’s great to see other people getting comfort from them as well (also to all my folks who told me you felt included by the gn reader instead of a fem reader, i see you and i love you)

with the mushy gushy stuff out of the way, let’s dive into my absolute favourite genre to write ever, angst (no comfort hehe ^^); here’s the problem to not list too many fics but i’ll use my spare from not naming a fluff fic :]

long-time ramble and tag readers will know what to expect; what could’ve been is the first angst fic i really got into and could’ve easily been a series if i had thought about it at the time. while looking back on it, sure there are things i could’ve done better, but it still has a soft spot in my heart and despite the low notes, it’s the fic i got the best feedback on ever (those asks, comments and reblogs are so precious to me, you have no idea)

similarly a million miles away and the loneliest (same premise, different characters) are some of my favourites too. overall, in its entirety, i prefer the former, i think most parts in there came out very well. however, if i had to pick one part out of all eight that i would recommend, it’s xiao’s part from the loneliest, it didn’t gather as much attention as part 1 but my friends left so many amazing comments in my document and i myself love how it came out, which makes it so special to me

Selfships + OCs

while i do selfship, i hardly ever write about it on here (or much in general outside some hcs i pester some moots with); for one, i find it hard to write about, my thoughts seem to leave me the second i try to type them out. i also don’t think many people are interested in the topic anyway and i hate feeling like i’m shouting into a void (i’m trying to keep a lid on how much i babble on dash anyhow, with varying amounts of success ^^;)

i thought i read ocs on the list, so i’ll include them, as well, especially since i have a little more to say than about selfships, considering i post about some of them every now and then. dantalion and his story part have a special place in my heart, not only because he was the first oc i introduced, but also bc his part resonates with me most, i think. while not seen much of yet, i also took a liking to my twst oc cheron, i think he’s fun!! (ofc i like my other obey me ocs too but these two are ranked a little higher hshshs)

AUs

this one… might be obvious. i think we can all see the modern au coming from a mile away (perhaps even from a million miles away haha). it’s kind of the only au i have really going on but, even so, there’s a reason my inbox fills up the second i mention it. though, when i wrote that piercer! xiao fic all that time ago, the au wasn’t even a thing in my mind yet, funny how that works. it’s currently on a bit of a hiatus but it’s certainly not dead ^^;

more excitingly however, and as a treat for the people who’ve read this far into me rambling about my own writing, the aus in my drafts!! i want to work on all of them (and then work on none of them)

the oldest of the three i’m thinking about is my haikyuu isekai au. i’m 10k into the draft (plus like 2k notes) and i still think the premise and plot is super fun (i was thinking/hoping it would end up somewhere between 20k and 25k) buuut the problem is i’m currently stuck on one scene that’s just not turning out fun at all, so i’ve been neglecting it ever since ^^;

second on the list of aus that occupy my mind is my twst pokemon au!! this one is more recent but i’ve been enjoying doing world building for it + the people i’ve let read over my first draft of a intro seem to have liked it too!! i’ll have to give more intense and focused thought to brainstorming the story we’d be follow, but i get excited every time i think about it hehe

and lastly, the most recent thing i worked on, an au for barbarian bakugo and… well i won’t say anything on the identity of the reader yet. it is a little enemies to lovers and i have already planned out part 2 in my head despite not even remotely finishing part 1. it doesn’t help that the book i’m reading rn evolves the same themes and makes me think about it every time i look at it or pick it back up :]

(there’s also an au i might want to write for mermay but idk if i can finish it in time + the bakugo au weighs heavy on my mind rn hshsh)

as a last point, i’m also keeping in mind that i had an event planned!! i haven’t finalised it yet and haven’t given much thought to my own entries but maybe i can get there some day (perhaps towards the end of the year?) ^^

anyway, thank you so much for indulging me and prompting me to talk about my writing, as you can probably tell, i love doing that haha and thank you again for the kind words, it really means the world to me <3

if you have any questions or thoughts on any of these, feel free to ask me!! i’d be happy to talk about any of this :> (though i can’t promise fast replies…)

[tadpolesonalgae]

Okie i'll copy you for a bit a do the quote for each comment thing so i dont get lost hehe

I don’t know? I think to us as readers of the series I kind of agree, but then he cooperated with the alliance, and also I’m on the side that if anyone should be able to see through his mask it should be the IC since hello Rhysand? UTM? CoN???? The idea of a mask/persona???

honestly this is one of the million problems with acotar because yeah when i say the ic has no way of knowing that eris isn't all bad i mean sjm keeps writing the story like that but you're right it doesn't make any sense. i mean even apart from eris doing literally what rhys has been doing since forever, how am i suppose to believe that mor knows all truth or whatever her powers even are and that rhys is a mind reader, and azriel and amren are supposed to be able to read people so well, that azriel's shadows see things that others don't but they still think eris is as bad as beron. that and both eris and mor kinda have made it seem like there's something else there (i genuinely think sjm planned on making mor and eris mates or something but then people started calling her out on having no diversity and she made mor gay out of nowhere). im also pretty sure its common knowledge in the ic that yes eris dumped her over the border without any other help which sucks but he didn't actually hurt her (that was kier) and one look at the autumn court would be enough to tell them that mor would have been hurt even worse if beron had seen her so how did they not put 2 and 2 together. i guess he still hurt her enough and as her friends they probably wont ever forgive him but it doesnt make sense logically for them to still think eris is the same as beron

This might sound hypercritical or conflictive but I’m not writing/don’t want to write Mor to be a bitch? I like Mor and while it might add to the angst and drama to have her be cruel to reader I just wouldn’t be able to commit to it 😭 In my mind it was Mor acting on the hurt reader has caused her and while it was unnecessary, emotions should be let out?

im sorry to say but mor was in fact a bitch but i get what you're saying like she's justified in her anger (in a way) but yeah trying to make someone who just attempted suicide feel bad about themselves is beyond bitchy. but im saying this as someone who doesn't really like mor most times (to me there's no depth to her character tbh like she was just there as the obligatory female friend for feyre, if you compare how developed cass and az are to mor... yeah she just falls flat idk if its bc cass and az will become the main characters in their books and mor might not get one or if its just not so great writing coming from miss maas once more)

Azriel calling Mor out??? After some of the things he’s said to reader????

i feel like this could be a good turning point though. like imagine azriel heard it and calls her out and has to admit not only to himself but out loud about all the shitty uncalles for comments he's thrown reader's way but even while admitting to it, deciding that he wants to be better to her and calling out mor on her bullshit is one way of doing it. also calling out mor is especially significant because of the whole he was in love with her for 500 years (i refuse to go with sjm's shitty ass "he loved her for 500 years and one day just stopped" bullshit - if she was a decent writer who cared a little more about character growth and plot instead of superficial romance tropes and smut she would write a whole book for azriel with no love interest but of him finding his own way and letting go of his love for mor that lasted for 500 fucking years before ever thinking of making him fall for someone else anyway i digress)

That would be so ooc of reader but I think it would be funny (in theory) for reader to suddenly do a 180° and act with them how she does around Eris and snap something smart and sassy back 😭🤭

i hope the ic gets to see her being herself with eris though and realize they really dont know shit about her

But then also idk how much the ‘thinking loudly’ was amplified by Rhys and Feyre’s bond, so whether it would even apply to reader in that way?

honestly sjm refuses to explain anyone's powers or even how magic works atp so who knows

also i saw another ask of you going in on cc and i would like to join a little. i have to start by saying i havent read the books bc i didn't do anything wrong but from the bits I've seen her writing really has been going downhill and it shows the most in the cc books. i never thought she was an amazing writer tbh like acotar reads to me like a teenager book almost but with smut so it's supposed to be ya and if it wasnt for fanfic i wouldn't be here or even remember the books. i read the first one and already had to skim through some of it but then the 2nd one was a bit more promising, unfortunately the 3rd book was going downhill by the chapter, i dont even like to talk about acosf because how is that supposed to be a book about healing when everyone that's supposed to love nesta treats her like shit and most of it is just smut that does nothing at all for the plot. so im not surprised that not only has cc been having a lot of these critics but also that sjm doubled down on the smut in that book. i also heard some of the characters are kind of copy paste from acotar but again i havent read the books. i honestly dont even know if i'll read any other acotar book because they keep getting worse and whether elain ends up with az or lucien or az with gwyn or elain, i dont think sjm will be able to pull a good book out of it when there's this big mess between all of the characters i mentioned plus her insistence on making the ic act like assholes to each other, creating a found family to make it shitty is just dumb in my opinion, but i know for a fact im not gonna read any of the other sjm series (even though tog is supposed to be the best one) and even if i did i wouldnt touch the modern fantasy if it was the last book on earth tbh. technology ends up taking a lot of the magic out of fantasy and obviously im reading fantasy because i like magical aspects. one of the reasons the later books fell off for me too tbh, she started modernizing things too much (like leggings and cans of soup?? when there are no factories or anything?) like the spring court had so many fun magic things and then velaris was a city with clubs, the moonstone palace and the hewn city felt more magical at times than the court of dreams.

i also agree that one of the biggest problems with the later books is the amount of smut. i like smut as much as the next person and dont mind reading pwp but in fanfictions not in books i pay for and that are written by professional authors. sjm tries less and less to write good characters and to keep up a plot because she knows her fantasy books were one of the first of the "spicy fantasy romance" to become popular and she's not losing that place and smut sells so who cares about a good story? definitely not her.

and with the bryce thing you're absolutely right, from what i've read she acts like a petulant selfish child most of the time and correct me if i'm wrong but she's not supposed to be like 19 like feyre so she's a grown ass woman. and yeah i definitely think sjm made her plus size because again she got called out for having no diversity in her books but treats it really weirdly. im someone who may not be plus size but pretty close to it and the way sjm writes bryce definitely gives me weird vibes. what i've seen most and even some people talk about is that a lot of characters keep mentioning how they're attracted to bryce, like sjm doesnt expect us ymto believe bryce is really hot by the descriptions she's made unless she keeps reminding us that people wanna fuck her. idk it may just be a bit of my trauma reading into it

im sorry if this ran too long im a bit drunk apologies - 🧶

Warnings: CC spoilers!, plus a little more slander, please consider looking away if you like the series! 🧡💛

‘when i say the ic has no way of knowing that eris isn't all bad i mean sjm keeps writing the story like that’

Right? Please miss Maas I want everyone to get along and be happy, let the drama between Eris and Mor be solved so that everyone can be happy and peaceful 😭

‘how am i suppose to believe that mor knows all truth or whatever her powers even are and that rhys is a mind reader, and azriel and amren are supposed to be able to read people so well, that azriel's shadows see things that others don't but they still think eris is as bad as beron.’

Also we’re kind of kept in the dark about specifics too? Mor’s just said to have ‘truth’ but what does that mean!! Can she force people to tell the truth? Can she see things in their true form?? Has she come out of the cave and seen the sun and the shadows it casts???? (Plato’s cave reference 😎)

Like I can understand to a degree why Rhys doesn’t look into people’s minds and appreciate that part of his character—that while he is morally greyish he has his own rules if that makes sense? He has his own perception of right and wrong which makes him interesting? But I might be confusing canon with fanon here 🫣

And yes I can see how miss Maas has written the IC to be flawed and Eris even says how Rhys is blinded by his love for his family so he has trouble seeing truths or discrepancies in those around him?

‘(i genuinely think sjm planned on making mor and eris mates or something but then people started calling her out on having no diversity and she made mor gay out of nowhere).’

Haha I hadn’t thought of it like that!

I’m still unsure what I’d choose between no representation vs. bad representation? On one hand it’s kind of disheartening/irritating to see sexuality used as such a cheap plot point? Unless miss Maas expands on it properly it’ll feel kind of useless to me? But then on the other hand representation is representation, like at least it’s becoming more prevalent in general media? I think another angle is some of the issues with acotar wouldn’t be as problematic as they are if the book series wasn’t so popular? But because it’s liked by so many people it’s also under much more intensive scrutiny when I don’t know if Miss Maas even planned for it to be taken so seriously as it is in some places? Not that the analysis is a bad thing, though, it’s interesting to see different things pointed out if I’d missed them the first time? (Particularly with Emerie and her descriptions of beauty? I hadn’t noticed it in the first read through but then saw some other people pointing it out, as well as other things?)

‘but he didn't actually hurt her (that was kier) and one look at the autumn court would be enough to tell them that mor would have been hurt even worse if beron had seen her so how did they not put 2 and 2 together.’

I suppose while Eris didn’t hurt her, Mor was in an extremely vulnerable position and the with Eris already being from the autumn court it would be easy to make the assumption that he would have inherited the beliefs in his father? Also with the saying of ‘if you’re not part of the solution you’re part of the problem’—I think that’s contextual, but for the sake of the point it’s making, I’m using it here—Eris didn’t do anything to help Mor that we know of, and also according to Mor’s narrative Eris said some cruel things, but then on the other hand since Eris hasn’t done or said anything exactly to contradict what Mor’s said so I’m not going to blame the IC for being protective and standing with her on what was likely an extremely traumatising moment for her? Honestly I guess it would be kind of weird and shitty if they doubted her to be honest 😭

‘im sorry to say but mor was in fact a bitch but i get what you're saying like she's justified in her anger (in a way)’

I expressed myself wrong, sorry 😭

Mor definitely said something bad, but I’m not going to write her in cbmthy to continue making horrid comments like that when nobody else is around, it was kind of a one-off thing so hopefully she won’t be a bitch in the rest of the story, just temporarily 🤭🧡💛

‘yeah trying to make someone who just attempted suicide feel bad about themselves is beyond bitchy.’

Hard agree, I might even have to say it was a little uncalled for 🫣😳🫢

‘to me there's no depth to her character tbh like she was just there as the obligatory female friend for feyre, if you compare how developed cass and az are to mor...’

I think in the books/canon she’s a bit contradictory? Maybe? With how harsh she is with Nesta and how gentle she is with Feyre? I can understand it I suppose, thinking of it through Mor’s perception, but it does sometimes feel like Mor was added just to be the one to add drama to the books? There might be something to say about how Mor and Amren are written as female characters as opposed to the batboys who we’re supposed to like and are romantic interests? Fanon Mor though 🧡💛🫂😭

‘like imagine azriel heard it and calls her out and has to admit not only to himself but out loud about all the shitty uncalles for comments he's thrown reader's way’

Okay so this is something I (maybe unnecessarily? I’m genuinely not sure) want to stretch out for a bit and give it time so it doesn’t magically disappear? With Azriel facing some of the things he’s said to reader and why they were so hurtful to her? I think him knowing she tried to kill herself will speed things up, but only to a certain degree since there’s still a lot they don’t know about one another?

‘i refuse to go with sjm's shitty ass "he loved her for 500 years and one day just stopped" bullshit’

I guess one might be able to argue he was naturally coming out of it already but it there’s no evidence to really support that? I guess it would be difficult to implement it though due to the nature of where the story started and who it follows, but it would have made more sense in my opinion if we somehow got to see Az beginning to lose feelings for Mor, but because that would require something to be set before Feyre came along I guess it would be impossible 😭

‘i hope the ic gets to see her being herself with eris though and realize they really dont know shit about her’

They probably will, however reader is the one who intentionally or not does change how she acts around people? To a certain extent reader does try to act more ‘appropriately’ around them? Like she would never speak to Rhys the way she speaks sometimes to Eris 😭 Though I can imagine it might be funny if she accidentally did and then slapped her hand over her mouth because she hadn’t meant to 😭

‘i never thought she was an amazing writer tbh like acotar reads to me like a teenager book almost but with smut’

I was wondering, did you know anything about acotar before you started reading it? I went in blind since a friend recommended it to me, so I had no idea about how popular it was or anything, but I can see how if someone had heard how hyped up people were about it and then read it, it might fall flat and be super disappointing?

‘but also that sjm doubled down on the smut in that book.’

I know I feel quite strongly that Bryce and Hunt didn’t really have that much of an emotional connection compared to their physical one? Though to be fair I also love seeing emotional vulnerability so maybe it was just a difference in taste? If you’re someone who liked that kind of lust-fuelled romance that’s fine, but personally it wasn’t my cup of tea :/

It also felt like when Bryce and Hunt introduced that ‘no sex’ rule (I think maybe in CC2) it was Miss Maas realising she hadn’t built up and kind of tension between them and had jumped into sex way too quickly and so was trying to dial it back which irritated me? I skipped over I think all of the sex scenes in CC2 because I just wanted them to hurry along and get back to the plot? Also I feel like Miss Maas was trying to make them kind of freaky to appeal to the smutty side, like with the dry humping, the electricity (I think a vibrator might have also been used but I skimmed the scenes so I can’t remember) it was just too much for me when I wanted to read about what was happening and wasn’t interested in their relationship at all 😭

‘i honestly dont even know if i'll read any other acotar book because they keep getting worse’

I know I won’t be reading another CC book and will just wait for someone to very kindly write a summary for it, but I’m desperately hoping she won’t mess up another acotar book 😭

If she does though, isn’t it such a relief we have fanfiction? 😭

‘like the spring court had so many fun magic things and then velaris was a city with clubs, the moonstone palace and the hewn city felt more magical at times than the court of dreams.’

I absolutely adore that factor in fantasy books! I particularly like Holly Black’s version of fae, where they live off the land more and are much more tricky to deal with? More folklore-esque, and I wish we saw more of that kind of thing in acotar 😭 I agree the Spring Court with the will-o-wisps was so lovely—To Old Gods is one of my favourite pieces in that aspect and I want to write and read more of that kind of ancient/slightly mythical/sometimes eldritchy magic 😭

‘i also agree that one of the biggest problems with the later books is the amount of smut. i like smut as much as the next person and dont mind reading pwp but in fanfictions not in books i pay for and that are written by professional authors.’

I used to enjoy reading smut in books (I only started reading regularly and realising I enjoyed it in the past four years) because it was new and exciting but I think now if it’s in professionally written books I absolutely adore it and author has nailed emotional connection? And yes, pwp in fanfiction? Great! Love it! But the amount of smut in CC was unbelievable and I suppose that might be how you feel about acosf? I have to admit I liked it but I think it’s heavily to do with enjoying the characters 😭 Bryce and Hunt in CC? I don’t want to read about that, please spare my eyes 😭😞

‘so who cares about a good story? definitely not her.’

I think I disagree with you here? Maybe? I can’t remember the CC books in particularly great detail? 😭 I think actually for the most part I did find the plot parts a little slow, and Bryce and Hunt made it worse for me, however I loved the ending to CC2, and I enjoyed the asteri story but I think the power levels got out of control? (Don’t even get me started on how Bryce literally doesn’t earn her magic, it infuriates me so much!!! Feyre, Aelin, and Nesta all went through some kind of training and Bryce literally just touches a stone then inherits starlight and has the audacity to say she worked for it? Babes, no.)

And actually with miss Maas being lazy in writing—her using a pill so that Bryce can understand the acotar world was so obviously a deus ex machina. It was so cheap and basic there wasn’t a single amount of thought that went into it.

‘and correct me if i'm wrong but she's not supposed to be like 19 like feyre so she's a grown ass woman.’

Yup. She’s twenty-three 😐

‘what i've seen most and even some people talk about is that a lot of characters keep mentioning how they're attracted to bryce, like sjm doesnt expect us ymto believe bryce is really hot by the descriptions she's made unless she keeps reminding us that people wanna fuck her.’

Honestly that wasn’t that big of an issue for me? Like I get it’s fantasy so I can excuse every love interest and even some who aren’t being attracted to the fmc, but I did definitely have an issue with how lust-fuelled and physical it was 😶‍🌫️

Like with Feyre and Tarquin it’s made clear they’re both attractive/beautiful people but I got the impression that ultimately they liked (?) one another for who they were? To an extent they had a kind of understanding and felt more honest?

‘idk it may just be a bit of my trauma reading into it’

Not sure how much it will help but I’m sending you internet hugs :/ 🫂🫂🫂

‘im sorry if this ran too long im a bit drunk apologies - 🧶’

Haha, don’t apologise it was fun getting to discus all these things with you!! 🧡💛

[enneamage]

Idk if you've seen the recent Tubbo & Tommy stream. Tubbo shows Tommy the Sapnap clip of Sapnap responding to Punz's "you want to be Tubbo so bad" comment with "yeah sure, I want to lose a million dollars on a minecraft server."

Tubbo said he woke up to that and was like "oh". Tommy said he missed it when they were all friends. Tubbo says, "I'm just around. You're [Tommy] the one that causes the rifts". Tommy says "well yeah, to be fair...well yeah".

They talk about food briefly then Tubbo brings it up again saying, "No, look here's the thing. You [Tommy] do your things, you cause arguments, you cause issues, and then you're like, 'Tubbo, I miss when we were all friends. Why can't we just all be friends again?' and I'm like well, I mean, one of us is clearly responsible for this and its not me". Then Tubbo says he's going to put on copyright music so the "twitter andys" dont find them.

I'm curious to your opinion on this. To me Tommy maybe regretting some things... It's also interesting to me Tubbo goes along with Tommy actions even when he doesn't seem to agree with him.

Ah yes, I had been mulling over what to say on that one since I know I've been quiet on here.

If I go back to my old ways and draw attention back to "Minecraft Roleplay Is Real, Actually" we can pretty quickly notice that Tommy is historically not great at realistically assessing what the consequences of his actions will be on other peoples perceptions of him, or what reactions/nonreactions he is owed in return. He will hit at whatever strength level he can muster, and then wonder what other people's problems are when they hit back. This is a lifelong issue of his.

Regret would imply him accepting his agency in a way that I think he gets avoidant with-- I think he might really wish for an easier, simpler time, but I think his "I miss when we were all friends" in the video was a bit of his irony streak rather than actually sincere. If you split the difference between the sentiments, you get "I miss when I didn't have to deal with this" which is less sentimental but more on brand. 

Later on he tries to turn things by saying that two things stunlock him, Tubbo calling him homophobic and drama, so he's avoidant about the topic but Tubbo was just not having it that day. (In fact, the 'I miss when we were all friends' might be him trying to tape his own mouth shut and not escalate further because he's trying to press down his own aggression and come off well.) 

[indigosfindings]

can you elaborate more on the joyful/optimistic art vs cynical/sad art thing?

(re: this post)

sure, sorry in advance if this is messy.

the gist is that there's a slew of micro-discourses whose common thread is the inherent or automatic superiority of art and stories that are optimistic and centre 'joy', 'love', and other positive emotions over those that don't.

it manifests a million different ways: "x series is bad because it's pessimistic/cynical/dark", "x story is bad because it depicts SA/incest/abuse*", "horror is really about love/family", "love is a unilaterally healing and moral force", "dark/negative art is universally less authentic/earnest", "sad/disturbing art is easy to make while positive art is difficult," etc. (also seems to correlate w the internet's general attitude toward criticism--that even mild negative feedback toward any art is in essence insulting its author & audience)

one of the factors imo is that a lot of people are unwilling to interrogate their reactions to something. like the process is "i see disturbing art -> i feel disturbed -> 'disturbed' is a negative emotion -> this art has done something negative to me -> this art is bad" and then never question it further

as for why i feel frustrated: hmm where to start. it's an extremely flat heuristic that diminishes alll art with any aims other than to please or to be Fun. it denies that "to disturb", "to frighten", "to disquiet", "to sadden", "to critique", etc are worthwhile endeavours in art. it also just betrays a narrow view of what has the capacity to be Fun for someone! i'm especially frustrated because horror always gets the brunt of it. there's a sort of longstanding anxiety about the "value" of horror, about horror needing to "prove its worth", and i think a lot of people's answer to that is to say "it's not actually about Scary, it's about Happy :)"

one of the really popular takes that i still see today is "if you're writing a fantasy story where anything can happen, why incorporate homophobia, misogyny, etc?" and, i mean, it's a pretty straightforward answer--because those things exist in real life, and by incorporating them into a story you can reflect, comment on, and explore real issues that are pertinent to the audience! likewise re "love is virtuous and healing," it's just a simple fact that love is morally neutral. people do HORRIBLE things for love all the time. i used to be more idealistic about this, but now i honestly cant stand the idea that a saccharine, childlike stance on love is by default a better one

(there's a huge comparison to be made here with the reactionary pushback against modern art btw)

it also ties into a broader schema--"toxic positivity" is a popular line, but we can aim higher: there's a sort of cultural mandate toward positivity, where saying "x is bad" is worse than x being bad. think right and send thoughts and prayers. capitalism loves the idea of each person fending for themselves--you have the whole concept of "wellness" and "mindfulness", ie Positive Thinking as a vector for mental health (the corollary being that a person who is unwell is a person who is Not Trying Hard Enough To Be Positive), whereby to read a situation cynically (or pragmatically!) is the worst thing you can do. and well, by the same token, when we have a whole cavalcade of employers who LOVE seminars and videos about How To Manage Your Stress (and zero interest in inspecting what it is that makes employees excessively stressed to begin with!), im sure you can imagine why someone could get exhausted of positivity.

as i said in the previous post, the most insane part is the particular framing of this atittude as somehow counterculture, controversial, or against the grain. y'know, when we're discussing chipper upbeat art about how everything is good vs art that's grim, violent, negative, pessimistic--which of these is most likely, historically and today, to be censored, to be banned, or to arouse controversy?

*(obviously there are depictions of SA and other sensitive subjects that are callous, sexist, etc! but there are also plenty that are trenchant, edifying, powerful, evocative, etc!)

[the-hiero]

Confrontation

This is based on a post from @jiko670 i saw

REBLOGS ARE APPRECIATED

This was getting ridiculous, Scar concluded.

The tip toeing around each other, the glances Grian sneaked at BigB, thinking Scar wouldn't notice. The secret meetings between those two that Scar pretended not to know about. Just.

Everything.

Especially after catching them the last time around each other, Scar was furious. Grian and he were supposed to be soulbound. Soulmates. Destined for each other, not keeping secrets from each other. There was something ugly creeping in his chest, possessivness and jealousy not a look very fitting for someone usually as happy-go-lucky as Scar. But he's had enough.

That evening, when everything was quiet and they weren't in immediate danger of dying, only then did Scar finally let out what he was holding back. "So, you and BigB, huh?" He commented off handedly, barely even looking at Grian. Though, he did see the other one stiffen out of the corner of his eye. Grian probably wasn't expecting to have that talk right now, or ever.

"What about it? We're just friends." The avian sounded almost defensive and it helped the hot burning fire in Scar's gut to burn brighter, way brighter than Tango's flames would probably ever reach.

"Sure, that would explain all the lingering glances and the hidden gestures. Not to mention, how you're not desperately trying to get away from him when he's around because, Grian, I don't know if you've noticed, but he's a red life." The bitterness seeped into his voice and he let it flow easily. Grian was now fully turned towards him and Scar returned the favour, glaring at his avian friend...no, soulmate. Not only friend anymore. Not in this universe, at least.

"Just because he's a red life doesn't mean he'll hurt me, Scar! He's still my friend." Grian seemed hesitant to say the word friend and Scar just felt like he couldn't put up with it anymore. There were a million emotions raging inside of him and none of them were friendly. "Don't think I haven't noticed how close the two of you are, Grian. Don't think I haven't noticed any of the signs that lead to the two of you being way more than friends. The hidden meetings, don't think I haven't noticed how you sneaked away to meet up with BigB." He almost snarled, animalistic in its way.

Feral. Like he was about to snap and kill Grian.

"I'm allowed to talk to other people and make friends!" The avian tried to counter, voice shaky. This in front of him wasn't the Scar he used to know, and maybe just that was enough to slowly make him realise how bad the situation was for him. He knew what everything looked like and, sure, he and BigB declared each other secret soulmates. But Scar didn't know that! And he didn't need to know that. They could have just been happy like that, after all, Scar had seemed content enough with his Jellie Pandas. Grian had just felt like Scar didn't need him.

"Are you now? Well, tell me again, who's your soulmate?" Scar asked, voice condecending. He didn't care about how Grian felt in this moment, all he cared about was the lies that have been fed to him. "....You're my soulmate." Grian answered after a long pause, dread settling in his stomach. "Exactly. You can make friends all you want, I don't care. I'm not the one to decide who you're friends with." Scar said, honesty clear in his voice. "But I'm not gonna let myself be replaced." He ended, and there was something final to his words.

And there definitely was. Scar didn't care if he was a green life or not, his intent clear behind cold eyes. "I will kill BigB if I catch you cheating again. Green life or not, I'll end him." Grian seemed caught off guard by those words, but all protest was stuck in his throat when he looked into those eyes. He found himself unable to speak, so he only nodded slowly. Scar didn't seem satisfied with that response, but didn't press for another one.

The two of them spent the rest of that evening in their own minds, Grian worrying about his secret soulmate, while Scar was already contemplating on how to get rid of BigB.

[og-danny-dorito]

hello I hope you are well 🌹 I don't know if the orders are open but I can order a request of how the Turks would react when they find out that their partner the reader is a vampire?

they are! sorry about the late response i kind of forgot that tumblr had an ask box feature ^^; i'll only do 3 since i cant do all of them at once, but i can do more later if you'd like. hope you enjoy!

𝚃𝚞𝚛𝚔𝚜 𝚆𝚒𝚝𝚑 𝚊 𝚅��𝚖𝚙𝚒𝚛𝚎!𝚁𝚎𝚊𝚍𝚎𝚛

𝚃𝚆: HUGE TW FOR BLOOD, brief suggestive content, slut shaming reno (affectionate)

𝚁𝚎𝚗𝚘:

"Haha, very funny Y/n. Vampires aren't real, everyone knows that."

doesn't beleive you at first 💀

i mean why would he?? NO ONE thinks vampires exist. thats kind of the reason you've been able to survive for so long

you expected this response though,, and after a few minutes of convincing him that you're being dead fucking serious- you are a vampire -he seems to get a little... pale.

as in he looks genuinely fucking terrified

thing is- he's actually had a fear of vampires since he was a little kid??

im being so serious he was like,, genuinely terrified of them as a kid and hasn't ever fully gotten over it

i mean- its not a completely irrational fear to have, but how is he supposed to say that to you?? that he's terrified of your species and thinks you're all human mosquitos who prey on people in the night?

you almost regret telling him considering you've seen the look on his face a million times with others you've told, but it doesn't make seeing it on him any easier

part of the reason you loved him so much was because he made you feel normal for once in your life- like you belonged

and you almost feel like you've fucked that up for yourself as he looks at you, fears obviously turning in his head to try and formulate what to say

but before you can get any words out in apology he speaks up, taking in a deep breath beforehand to steady himself and looking you dead in the eye

"If... if you're being serious right now, then this doesn't change anything."

huh??

you blink at him a few times and he seems nervous when you tilt your head, a silent queue to elaborate

"It doesn't change how I feel about you. I still love you. Plus, at least you're not a werewolf. I hate dogs."

you both laugh at his comment and the air lightens up a little bit, and it seems that he was telling the truth about it not changing how he feels about you

i mean he's a little more conscious about what might be safe for you and what not be (like doing outside right before the sun goes down, making sure you have a good supply of food even though it makes him a little squeamish, stuff like that) but overal he treats you the same

expect mosquito or vampire jokes though. he already made shitty jokes but with your vampirism in mind he's going to be a fucking menace 💀💀💀

would probably be okay with you feeding on him but he might enjoy it a little TOO much and might not hide that he wants you to feed on him very well (dudes walking around with his shirt half open all the time but he gets sluttier trust me)

𝚃𝚜𝚎𝚗𝚐:

"..."

HELP HE DOESN'T KNOW WHAT TO SAY

for a second he thinks you're just messing with him and he's not catching it but he's pretty sure you're being serious and he's just ???

i mean it is kind of a weird situation, and why else would you pull him aside to talk privately when you knew he was working??

hes always been really perspective, but he's also very logical and so he passed the signs you were trying to hide off as something else

but now that you've told him and you dont look like you're joking in the sligtes, the dots start to connect

it explains why you hated going out during the day so much, and why when you DID go out you wore insane amounts of sunscreen and always wore covering clothing (he thought you just had sensitive skin tbh)

it explains why you barely every touched the food the two of you sat down to eat together. and why you didn't seem to like silver things that much. and why crucifixes bothered you. and why-

you get the idea

anyway he kinda just stares at you for a few seconds like he's just taking a second to process the information, but after a little bit (a lot a bit) of mutual silence he eventually speaks up and leans back in his chair

"Well, I'm not happy that you didn't tell me sooner."

you sigh in relief even though you'd probably have to explain why you felt like it was unsafe int he first place later, but for now you just felt like a weight had been lifted off your shoulders

tseng is already very attentive to your needs, and he approaches this new revelation like any sort of new information and treats it systematically since its how he deals with p much everything in his life

makes sure that you have an ample supply of food since he knows hunting can be a struggle sometimes, and he doesn't want you to catch any diseases (if vampires can even do that)

i dont think he'd be as open as reno to the idea, but that's mainly cause he's a bit nervous about the whole process and doesn't know the intricacies of it

he trusts you though, so he doesn't have a problem with you feeding on him when you're in a bind or need a little snack here and there

𝙴𝚕𝚎𝚗𝚊:

"Oh, for real?"

she doesn't even bat an eye

yeah she believes you since she knows you'd never lie to her even though it is really outlandish

i mean, she says crazy shit all the time and you believe her so who is she to judge? that and she already knew

yeah even though she's kinda airheaded sometimes doesn't mean she's stupid. you're not very good at hiding your vampirism babe (her words exactly)

i mean she already had a vibe from the beginning anyway. you have that aura about you, you know??

she doesn't have a problem with it though. if anything she's actually really excited about it!!

if you've been alive for a long time she'd love to hear about all the things you might've seen and experienced and asks a lot of questions about it since she's only ever watched movies about it

if you have a darker style she makes an effort to match it so you don't feel as alienated considering she would think that you'd already feel kind of set apart from others because of your vampirism and wants to make sure you feel included

if your style is lighter or somewhere in the middle then that's usually where she falls, so it won't be out of the ordinary (she already makes you wear matching outfits with her so its not much of a difference LOL)

she's cool with it though!! i think she'd be WAY too enthusiastic about letting you feed on her since she's curious about it but would get grossed out by the sight of her own blood LMAO

[ 𝚃𝚑𝚊𝚗𝚔 𝚈𝚘𝚞 𝙵𝚘𝚛 𝚁𝚎𝚚𝚞𝚎𝚜𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚐! 𝙿𝚕𝚎𝚊𝚜𝚎 𝚌𝚘𝚗𝚜𝚒𝚍𝚎𝚛 𝚛𝚎𝚋𝚕𝚘𝚐𝚐𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚜𝚒𝚗𝚌𝚎 𝚒𝚝 𝚔𝚎𝚎𝚙𝚜 𝚠𝚛𝚒𝚝𝚎𝚛𝚜 𝚒𝚗 𝚋𝚞𝚜𝚒𝚗𝚎𝚜𝚜 :) ]

[90363462]

It's Time To Break 'Outercourse' All The Way Down

Outercourse has its benefits...

Shellie R. WarrenOct. 29, 2021 04:51PM EST

A few weeks ago, KevOnStage posted a video that reminded me a lot of what fascinates me about many "church folks." OK, so if you're not familiar with what Mormon soaking is, oh, it's a trip alright. I'll let Kev break it down for you:

Have y\u2019all heard of \u201csoaking\u201d? pic.twitter.com/MgHivzbCYr— Kev\u00edn (@Kev\u00edn)1632942302

Somewhere, someone, came up with the notion that so long as a man doesn't — and yes, I'm gonna go grade school on this — put "it" all the way in or move around when he's partially in, he and his partner aren't actually having sex. Chile. CHILE. Now, before you roll your eyes over how ridiculous that sounds, do you know how many Christians who strive for some sort of sexual purity think that oral sex isn't "really sex" or that they can preserve their virginity by having anal sex? Yep. Also ridiculous. Denying something doesn't make it not so — across the board. Yet let me stay on topic.

As I thought about all of this stuff, something else that came to mind is a topic that I've been noticing on these here internets, more and more, as of late (although I'm still not quite sure why) — outercourse. I'm pretty sure you can tell, off the rip, that it's in the neighborhood of intercourse. Still, if you're not exactly sure what it is and how it's even in the realm of soaking and oral and anal sex, give me a few moments to explain.

Just What Is Outercourse?

Uh-huh. I know how some of y'all are — you like to skim, so, for you, the short definition of outercourse is it's the kind of sexual activity that doesn't include actual penetration. Although some Mormons and Christians have found a (delusional) workaround, some people consider it to be anything that doesn't include penis-in-vagina penetration. OK, so for the classic meaning of the word, outercourse is doing things like fondling, dry humping (do folks still say that, en masse?), kissing, mutual masturbation, and giving each other massages. For the "remix", oral sex, anal sex, hand jobs, fingering, and sex toys come into play.

Since there isn't any eggplant-in-the-taco (if you know what I mean) transpiring, does this mean that outercourse can qualify as abstinence? Eh. I guess it all depends on how you see abstinence. Since literal definitions include terms like self-restraint and self-denial, I'm not sure how much abstinence applies if you're somehow able to find ways to get your rocks off even without, again, putting it in. And, if you're approaching matters from a spiritual purity standpoint, lust is what the Bible frowns upon and how do you not do that when you're humping or oral-ing? Hmph. Speaking of, it's no secret that I've been abstinent for what seems like FOR-E-VER and one of my male friends once said, "Girl, if you're masturbating, you ain't abstinent. You just ain't got no n — a." He said that to me my first three years in. Ouch.

Anyway, if you've never heard the word "outercourse" before or you have yet it always sounded so — let's go with the word "unique" — that you never officially looked it up, now when it comes up online or in conversation, you know exactly what it's all about. And just why would someone find outercourse to be the lick (no pun intended)? Personally, five reasons come to mind (if you can think of more, please leave your comments underneath this post). I'll share them with you.

5 Benefits That Come from Engaging in Outercourse

1. No Pregnancy or STDs (If You’re Really Careful).

OK, so to give you some perspective, back in 2014, there were reportedly 1.9 million new STD cases. In 2019, there were 2.6 million. That's quite the leap, y'all. So, if you're looking for a way to engage in the "friction of sex" or to have an alternative to experiencing orgasm without running the risk of getting a sexually transmitted disease or pregnant, the classic definition of outercourse has your back. Now, as far as the remix goes, you can most definitely get an STD from oral and anal sex (I actually know a guy who got one from receiving fellatio; again, be careful out here!). On the pregnancy tip, you need to be using a condom when "backdoor sex" is going down, period, but you definitely need to in order to be on the safe side. Because spillage is spillage, right? And your rectum and vagina are pretty damn close together. Too close to risk it.

2. You and/or Your Partner Want to “Ease into” Sex.

One day soon, I'm gonna write an article about how love happens in layers. For many, so does sex. That said, once you've passed the kissing stage and you want more but you're not sure if it needs to be intercourse (yet), outercourse can be a good option. It can help you both to explore an intense level of foreplay, encourage you to learn each other's bodies, and still find ways to cultivate pleasure without putting the "p" into the "v."

3. You and Your Partner Don’t Have Any Protection.

Or, say that he forgot his condoms or you haven't been regular with taking your pills or you need to get a new diaphragm or you just started a new form of birth control and you're not confident enough that it's as close to foolproof as birth control can be (because NOTHING is 100 percent besides abstinence). For all of these situations, classic outercourse could be the jam because you can still climax (here's hoping anyway) without worrying about what the next week or following month could have in store.

4. You Want to “Perfect” Before-Intercourse-Activities.

OK, so here's where the classic and remix versions of outercourse can be really bomb. Whether you want you and/or your partner to get better at foreplay, you want to slow down intercourse sessions or you want to perfect a particular sexual act, this can also be where outercourse works like a charm.

For instance, say that you and your partner decide that you won't copulate until there are 30 minutes of outercourse and the focus is going to be oral sex. Then you can apply articles like "12 Things You Should Do During Oral Sex (That You Probably Aren't)", "Are You Ready To Amp Up Your Oral Sex Game? Try This." and "Want To Have Hotter Oral Sex? STOP Doing These 8 Things." to boost your technique and that knowledge added to a set amount of time can take all-things-sex to an entirely new level!

5. You’re not Enjoying Intercourse — Just Yet.

And finally, another benefit of outercourse is, I've worked with some married couples who…let's just say that they didn't see any fireworks during their wedding night or even the weeks and months that followed. Outercourse can be good for them because it's taking intercourse off the table so that there's less pressure while still encouraging them to learn what works and what doesn't…in other ways.

So, there you have it — enough info on outercourse to where at least you know what's going on and you can bring it up to your partner if any of the perks seem like a win to you. Just remember that the classic comes with the least risk, the remix is getting really close to the actual act and Mormon soaking is pretty ludicrous — and definitely qualifies as intercourse. Not outercourse.

Featured image by Getty Images

[hjellacott]

The biggest problem with the radical activism and woke lobbyes has nothing to fo with the actual collective they pretend to defend. It's their violence that's a problem.

My city is one of those with a history like "Romans now Muslims, now the Christians kill the Muslims, now the Jews win but now the Christians kill the Jews, now you can't be jew but Muslim is fine, now you can only be Christian or you're dead". Like, it's always been, until the day democracy came, about violent prosecution. One mafia of bullies that decides who's the new bad guy and threatens, harasses and kills them.

And yeah now Jews and Muslims all live at peace in the city. There are even neighbourhoods historically of one or the other and there's peace. There's respect. Even the million types of Christianism share the city as well and it's fine. But I still see that awful violence and anger towards the minority black in a school full of white, against women, against gays and lesbians... it just acquires other forms.

Liberalism and democracy were supposed to be about respect and freedom. Like, we were all supposed to live, do, say what we wish and we'd all respect each other and draw the line at actions that were actively a danger to life. But now there's this woke mafia of hyper correction and stupid moves that's ruining everything.

They first ruin it for the cause they claim to represent. I saw this first in the feminism, when extremists would violently harass people and turn them against feminism, when perhaps before they were neutral. Like, violent speech, harassment and bullying is never going to be the way to go. To me, it reminds me of the Nazis, and the way each religion was burned down in my city in different moments of its history. Prosecuted and made to disappear. And with that in my head, I'm never going to support people who harass, threaten, bully, insult and get violent. And you'll ask, but what if they were SS soldiers, wouldn't you get violent? Isn't violence sometimes justified? And it really isn't.

I'm not going to turn into those who prosecuted my ancestors. I'm a fierce believer in peaceful protest and I've been attending them and being in syndicates since my teenage years. If they behave like violent animals, burning bins and books, harassing, attacking, threatening... I'll go as opposite as I can. I stay with the law. I am active in politics, to make sure the people who'll do the good job get in the right positions, and if I see someone attack someone else, I stand in the middle. I fight one battle at a time, and adapt my weapons as I go.

So these gangsters, like I'm saying, first ruin it for their own causes, but then they ruin it for freedom of speech (hello cancel culture) and for democracy and basic freedoms. They create a world where you always feel watched and judged, so people will get so worried about others' opinions about them that they'll say what it takes to get in your good side. And that leads to performative activism. Look at how much money Adidas, umbro, primark and so on have made with lgbt merchandise. How many rich businessmen get richer by pretending to support the right causes, but do you actually know for sure that those boards of business people aren't a bunch of sexist, racist assholes? In most cases, you don't. But they do what it takes for the woke cult to shut it. I'd really be the most unsurprised if half of those celebs that look so supportive and lefty in social media are actually just performing, making money, lying... not really believing what they preach. What's trendy to preach.

This has created a world where, specially here in the left wing, you can't trust anyone. I'll explain. When Trump makes racist comments, you can trust and be sure that he really believes in that, because he's going with the non trendy behaviour. But if the trendy thing is to be against racism and misogyny and so on, then what you don't know is if the people around you that claim to support you (because they don't want to lose their jobs and that kinda thing) actually does support you. That's why we can't trust any more. Thanks to the radical leftwingers and radical right wingers who've pushed people into never again behaving sincerely, into performative activism, a pretend game, afraid of the punishment if they don't join the new trend. You can't even attempt to stay neutral. It doesn't work.

I'm a fierce believer in social-democracy. It's my favourite option. And as a bisexual woman, artist, and product of such an incredible genetic mix that nazis would've thrown me into a camp without a second thought, I'd love to believe that truly, the majority of the world would stand for a Jew, for a lesbian, for a black person, for any minority. But I can't. I look at the people with lgbt sweaters and can't help to think "yeah you'd sell us in a heartbeat, you're just going with the trendy thing". I look at people online defending BLM and I know more than half won't go to the protests or care the next week.

I know because as an activist, I'm sick of seeing millions of comments online in favour or against but then you go to the protests and where's everybody? At home. Where it was safe and comfortable, and probably sending cyberbullying and pretending to care about a new thing. A few months ago we were all about BLM. Now that's evaporated and it's all about the trans people. And while so many pretend to care, the ones who truly care are ignored, no one cares if you're a pretend activist just in social media or a real one, and the radical activists pretend to care the most and do the most harm.

[delusion-of-negation]

so I am watching a video debunking someone who was calling it delusional to hold the opposite opinion to them on this topic, the responding person brought up how the word doesn't apply here, wasn't defined by the original person, and is irresponsible to use.

I don't disagree - calling religion or lack thereof (the original clip actually was a guy calling atheism a delusion) is wrong, that's an irresponsible use because those things are cultural. but the guy brought up the dsm criteria about beliefs resisting evidence and coincidentally my reply on a post about that got some nice tags around the same time, and I wanted to repeat the points again:

delusions resist evidence. you should not try to "reality check" or badger a delusional person unless they have asked you to do so, because you're more likely to make the delusion worse and it's a violation of their boundaries if they haven't asked you to do that.

by definition, by the way:

"unquestioningly", "even when evidence suggests the contrary", "overwhelms other elements of [their] psyche", etc. and notice 6 there, you're going to emotionally harm people and put them in defence mode, where they'll reinforce the belief, at best. you're probably going to cause an argument, as I detailed in the post I mentioned a minute ago (linked below). you can't magic it away.

as the very nice tags I mentioned say, it's as real as gravity to us. you're walking over and going "gravity isn't real, look at birds, it's clearly not pulling them down" and we go "well, they use the air resistance and stuff to-" and you go "yeah sure 'air resistance' :)" obviously we get frustrated. the disorders make this thing seem completely fundamentally true, and so when you argue it will do everything in its power to explain away anything you present. it's simply how they typically work (again, people vary, each episode potentially varies from the last, etc). and as that wiki notes a bit below that, it doesn't mean reasoning is inhibited in any other circumstance or topic, it's not that somebody is "just stupid" ffs. (btw screens are from the wiki for delusional disorder specifically, disorders and individuals will vary a little, fucking obviously. I'm diagnosed with different disorders myself, shit's complicated, however your one friend who does like being corrected isn't the typical presentation and doesn't refute the medical consensus.)

if you're reading this going "well what should I do???" the post I commented on (that I mentioned earlier) goes over it in general, basically the whole "don't add to beliefs but don't argue, just be neutral and loving to people, and talk to them about what they actually want you to do, before and during" it's that simple. talk.

as an aside, cultural beliefs can't be diagnosed as delusions, it's reasonable to believe what you're raised to believe. it's also very irresponsible to decide other people are delusional for them, as insults/attempted insults, or seriously, unless you're the medical professional specifically working with them to diagnose them. it doesn't matter how weird you find them, it's just not responsible.

as I've said a million times, you just want to own delusional folks with facts and logic, if you insist on "reality checking" when you don't have prior consent to do that, because if you wanted to be helpful and supportive you would realise that when a symptom literally means "this will not respond to counter-evidence" and a symptom of it is often "gets especially upset around this" you're probably not going to help by starting a fucking debate about it. especially when you also say "don't encourage it" because you'll understand that enthusiastic "how do they hide the cameras?" questions will give it opportunity to build, but you don't see how sarcasically saying that in an emotionally tense argument is far greater opportunity for the delusion to build upon itself. my guy.

edit: and if you're going "well don't therapists treat it by-" firstly, depends on the therapy and situation and relationship there, but more importantly, secondly, you're not their therapist. my dude.

[allthemusic]

Week ending: 21 October 1954

Well, it's another week, and another week of this project, too. Two songs, this time, both by female singers. We're on a bit of a run, actually, with Doris Day last week and at least one next week. The charts, at this point, seem to be a bit of a dude-fest, but artists like this week's artists are holding their own, too. Plus, both of these songs reached Number 1, so there's that - no comment on whether they both deserved to...

My Son, My Son - Vera Lynn (peaked at No. 1)

It feels, just on an instinctive level, very old-fashioned to have Vera Lynn here. For Brits, at least, she's synonymous with World War II and the 1940s, a force's sweetheart. I knew intellectually before starting this project that she probably continued doing music after that point, but it's one thing to know it and another thing to actually hear it.

Vera would have been in her late 30s, at this point, so not exactly an old lady or anything, but definitely in "motherly" territory, and so we get a song that looks like it's about having a child.

We start entertainingly bombastic, even by 1954 standards, with a men's choir blasting out "My son, my son". It's almost comical, but they are clearly taking it dead clearly. There's also a clarinet, playing what is almost a jazzy bit, all of which made me think the first time round that this would be an edgier song than it ended up being.

Alas, it isn't. After the genuinely quite thrilling clarinet solo, we settle into a much more standard plod as Vera begins to sing. And the basic sentiment - emphasis on basic - is that she has a son, and really loves him. And so we get complex, difficult-to-understand lyrics like: "My son, my son / You're everything to me / My son, my son / You're all I hoped you'd be". It's fine, and I'm not one of those people that thinks every song needs to be complex, but I'd like to be surprised by some lyrics. You just know when Vera breaks out "my pride and joy" it's going to rhyme with something like "my precious boy". No suspense, no surprise, no real interest.

On the other hand, this does make me think of "Dear Theodosia" from Hamilton, which is a song I do enjoy, especially for the thing it does where the usually-witty character ends up just going for super basic rhymes, he's so overwhelmed with love. There aren't enough "ode to my child" love songs out there, either. So it's got that in its favour, if only by accident.

Finally, a little way in, we do get one unexpected shift, as the backing turns minor, and Vera's voice gains a bit of an edge. Here, she sings about how life hasn't treated her well, but how "For all the care and heartache life has brought to me / One precious gift has made it all worthwhile". It's just as mawkish as the earlier part of the song, but I enjoy the slightly ominous vibes, and the way that the backing singers keep up a haunted-sounded "ooooh" backing. There's also another clarinet solo, that starts in the same minor mode. I like it, just like I actually quite like Vera's performance, here. There's a touch of Brecht and cabaret to it, a kind of plaintive quality that you hear that is welcome.

And then we're back with a line that feels kind of awkward to modern sensibilities about how "Then do the best you can / Then in my heart I'm sure / You'll face life like a man". I don't know, I just feel like there's stuff about masculinity and parental pressure there, at least implicitly, and also it just comes off like Vera's not sure and hedging? "I'm sure you'll do fine, just do what you can, son".

Overall, though, it's fine. It's cute, even. I went into this expecting to dislike it more than I eventually did. Still, let's see what else this week has for us.

This Ole House - Rosemary Clooney (1)

Well, this tune is immediately goofy, in a fast, in-your-face way. It's loud, brash and cheery, with saxophone and a banjo, and later a janky sort-of-piano, and the overall effect, while not a rock and roll sound, isn't a million miles from rock and roll? It's at least got the energy!

Then the lyrics kick in, and they've got all the unexpected twists and turns that Vera's didn't. Seriously, whatever you're expecting, it's not what this song is going to be about.

First we hear about all the good times that the house has witnessed: "This ole house once knew his children / This ole house once knew his wife / This ole house was home and comfort / As they fought the storms of life." The "once" is ominous, suggesting already that "his" wife and children aren't around anymore. Plus that pays off straight away into a line contrasting the old laughter and shouting to an image of the old man living there now, who now "trembles in the darkness / When the lightnin' walks about". What a cool, evocative image!

We then - even better - get a chorus about how the man isn't going to have time to fix the all the things that are broken in the house, because "Ain't a-gonna need this house no longer / He's a-gettin' ready to meet the saints". You guys, this is a song facing up to old age and mortality! You don't get that in many songs, let along songs that sound so chipper about it, and I, for one, love it.

Lightening the mood further is a comically deep bass voice, which repeats certain lines in the chorus. It's a proper surprise when it chips in on lines like "ain't a-gonna need this house no longer", and he naturally gets the final line, an echo of "ready to meet the saints". Rosemary Clooney is a heck of a brassy performer, but whoever this dude is, he is very close to upstaging her.

A quick google tells me that this is the voice of the excellently-named Thurl Ravenscroft, who, aside from sounding like a Scooby Doo side-character, was apparently the voice of Tony the Tiger for years, and also the person who sang "You're a Mean One, Mister Grinch". So I've actually heard him in other stuff!

The song then pooters on, and we do at least get an explanation for why this man is so cheery about his prospects. And it's another excellent image; we learn that "he feels no fear nor pain / 'Cause he sees an angel peekin' / Through a broken windopane". It's striking, and cheeky, and I like it, especially when it launches us into a super chaotic piano solo. It's almost like the pianist can't keep up with the music, and it captures the shock of it all pretty well.

It's also a folksy song, with all its old-timey stylings, like "a-gonna" "a-gettin'" or just phrases like describing the man as "tuckered up". I don't know, it feels a lot like the sort of song you could sing around a campfire. And yet, underneath the quirky, jolly catchiness of it all, such a dark, weirdly deep heart, and all those perverse images. What's not to love?

I feel like This Ole House could annoy some people. Not me, though, and when the alternative is Vera Lynn, I think my choice here has to be clear. Not least because I am, at heart, a rock and roll fan, and I enjoy the chaotic attitude on show.

Favourite song of the bunch: This Ole House