because sometimes there are invisible tests and invisible rules and you're just supposed to ... know the rule. someone you thought of as a friend asks you for book recommendations, so you give her a list of like 30 books, each with a brief blurb and why you like it. later, you find out she screenshotted the list and send it out to a group chat with the note: what an absolute freak can you believe this. you saw the responses: emojis where people are rolling over laughing. too much and obsessive and actually kind of creepy in the comments. you thought you'd been doing the right thing. she'd asked, right? an invisible rule: this is what happens when you get too excited.
you aren't supposed to laugh at your own jokes, so you don't, but then you're too serious. you're not supposed to be too loud, but then people say you're too quiet. you aren't supposed to get passionate about things, but then you're shy, boring. you aren't supposed to talk too much, but then people are mad when you're not good at replying.
you fold yourself into a prettier paper crane. since you never know what is "selfish" and what is "charity," you give yourself over, fully. you'd rather be empty and over-generous - you'd rather eat your own boundaries than have even one person believe that you're mean. since you don't know what the thing is that will make them hate you, you simply scrub yourself clean of any form of roughness. if you are perfect and smiling and funny, they can love you. if you are always there for them and never admit what's happening and never mention your past and never make them uncomfortable - you can make up for it. you can earn it.
don't fuck up. they're all testing you, always. they're tolerating you. whatever secret club happened, over a summer somewhere - during some activity you didn't get to attend - everyone else just... figured it out. like they got some kind of award or examination that allowed them to know how-to-be-normal. how to fit. and for the rest of your life, you've been playing catch-up. you've been trying to prove that - haha! you get it! that the joke they're telling, the people they are, the manual they got- yeah, you've totally read it.
if you can just divide yourself in two - the lovable one, and the one that is you - you can do this. you can walk the line. they can laugh and accept you. if you are always-balanced, never burdensome, a delight to have in class, champagne and glittering and never gawky or florescent or god-forbid cringe: you can get away with it.
you stare at your therapist, whom you can make jokes with, and who laughs at your jokes, because you are so fucking good at people-pleasing. you smile at her, and she asks you how you're doing, and you automatically say i'm good, thanks, how are you? while the answer swims somewhere in your little lizard brain:
how long have you been doing this now? mastering the art of your body and mind like you're piloting a puppet. has it worked? what do you mean that all you feel is... just exhausted. pick yourself up, the tightrope has no net. after all, you're cheating, somehow, but nobody seems to know you actually flunked the test. it's working!
aren't you happy yet?
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Hi! Can I ask you a question about France? How common or uncommon or weird is the use of coucou as a greeting? Especially between adults. Would it be super weird if I went to France and greeted someone like that?
I don't trust the click-baity articles that show up when I google this (I'm not even sure all of them were written by humans), so I'd rather ask someone that, you know, actually lives over there.
Thanks, have a nice day
Hi! Coucou is a pretty common greeting including between adults (though it's more often used by women as it does sound a bit cutesy), but I think it implies pre-established friendly relations, unlike the neutral Bonjour or Salut. I only use it with family and friends. Friendly acquaintances too—okay now that I think about it, it's hard to say where I draw the coucou line. I use it as a greeting when I enter the library if there's no one in there but the librarian because I know her well, but if there are other people in the room I say bonjour even if they're children. And of course if I knew the librarian very well but didn't like her she wouldn't get a coucou. You kind of have to follow your heart with this greeting.
But definitely don't use it to greet people in a shop or formal context or anyone you don't know well because that would be weird (in my view!) Coucou sounds affectionate, I often use it in writing to set the tone ("Hi I am an informal unthreatening email !") (also if a French person sends you a text that starts with Cc, that's textspeak for coucou)
To me "Salut !" is "Hi!" while "Coucou" is Hi :) <3
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Introducing everyone to my Alastor headcannon!
He's a deer right? And what are deer well-known for? Yes, yes, staring un-waveringly into your soul in the middle of a country road in the twilight hours.
But what else are they known for?
As soon as something happens, they are GONE. They run so fast and with such wild-abandon to just get the fuck out of wherever they are they they go hurtling through the brush never to be seen again.
This brings my to my head cannon - Alastor is easily skittish, he is just fortunate that his deer-caught-in-headlights instinct takes over long enough for him to grapple with his fear and restrain the part of himself that wants to flee, so instead he just stares unwavering and intimidatingly with that cocky grin until he has enough composure to begin talking again.
Now, sometimes, sometimes his instincts are too strong. And sometimes, he cannot stay composed, especially after a particularly bad fright, like bumping into Nifty or Angel Dust stalking the corridors of the hotel silently at night. What happens then? Alastor freezes for mere seconds, and then goes hurtling as fast as he can in whatever direction his feet decide to take him.
Sometimes, much to his dismay, his feet decide to propel him into the nearest wall before he even realises where he is heading.
This has led to many encounters where Alastor appears to bolt head-first into a wall for no other explanation than he felt like it, and he leaves Angel Dust as confused as ever as he bounces back from the impact, shocked from his deer-like-terror, and begins a conversation as normal, ignoring the new antler shaped hole in the wall he had just careened into.
No one dares question him about this odd behaviour, and the residents of the hotel have just had to accept that they often see the sole's of his shoes as he sprints full-pelt away from them at the drop of a hat.
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gently slides you two silly scar headcanons..
1) he has vex wings, same as cub, but thinks they're scary-looking so he keeps them folded up. they're pretty thin and only semi-corporeal so he can pull this off with minimal discomfort most of the time
2) he is a very subtle shapeshifter but just. has never noticed ghfsjf. (so things like hair color, body type, face shape, and the appearance of nonhuman traits like his ears + tail change gradually over time. scar is and has always been completely unaware of this) (this is partially an explanation for why i draw him looking completely differently depending on the series but also to account for his many characters + skins. plus it's hilarious)
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