#With historical context and stuff

[whosplayerthree]

Me, a jew, the moment podcast hosts mention something even jewish adjacent

[shedidntevenswear]

I enjoy discourse around pretty much everything Taylor does here in this space because I can trust that everyone involved actually knows what they're talking about and has some level of investment in the fandom, but going on more algorithm-driven sites and having to see every human who ever lived spout their opinion about every breath she takes with wild amounts of unearned confidence that they know enough to be speaking is SO EXHAUSTING like truly too many people in our family business

[curioushabitforarivergod]

Pre wwii what would conditions in the orphanage Tom grew up in hsve been like? (Ie in the 1926-37 period)

Honestly, conditions would've been pretty shit. Firstly disease was rife, especially as the East End (where Wool's presumably is) was a slum throughout the Industrial Revolution and into the 20th century (with it only really changing post WWII). Tom would be familiar with stuff like mumps and whooping cough, even if he never got sick himself due to magic protecting him (as we see with Harry). But they'd also be other diseases like tuberculosis, diphtheria, scarlet fever, rickets, polio and even the flu. It's likely multiple children at the orphanage would have physical disabilities due to polio maybe even with callipers (a permanent kind of splint to help people who'd suffered from polio walk). While children would often be isolated with most illnesses, it would be incredibly difficult for an orphanage to do so, and it's probable that children died as bouts of sickness and disease spread through the orphanage. Kids who were one day at dinner are gone the next.

The first legal precedent for adopting children occurs with the Adoption of Children Act in 1926, so legal adoption how we understand it today, was fairly new. Children were lined up on Sundays, washed and in their best clothes (after attending church!) for rich people to adopt, but it tended to be a way for getting free labour rather than out of an actual desire to have children to love and care for.

I'm not sure what JKR was basing her orphanage off (likely something modern), but Tom probably wouldn't have gotten his own room, even if he was considered 'insane'. There simply wasn't enough room. Children shared a dormitory, one that could be overstuffed and cramped, sometimes even with several children to a bed. Food was similar — it was a cramped long hall (almost like a smaller, horrible version of the great hall) with rows of tables and children waiting their turn for a meal. They were probably only given one or two a day; likely gruel in the morning and bread with a stew in the evening. Tom's diet would've been vegetarian because meat was insanely expensive, although he may have had meat on Christmas and potentially Sundays if the orphanage could afford it.

On that note, Tom and the other orphans would've been Christian, most likely CoE. Although Catholic orphanages did exist, Wool's is not named after a Saint and so was more likely Protestant. Tom would've gone to church every Sunday, perhaps in a chapel on Wool's grounds, although if not, it would've been at the local church. He also would've been expected to pray. He'd go to Sunday School alongside normal school (which would've been at the local public school or perhaps, if Wool's was especially large, which I don't think it was, there would've been one of the staff who could teach or they'd bring someone in). For Christmas itself, Tom would likely get an orange which was incredibly special due to his diet likely not including fruit.

Tom would've shared everything, including clothes. He probably didn't even have underwear, and may sometimes have had to wear dresses/frocks, especially when he was younger, due to a lack of clothes. These clothes would've been stiff and itchy, potentially with lice. They would've been washed once a week, as with the orphans themselves (in large buckets!), and been hung out to dry on huge lines. Depending on how many clothes there were to go round, Tom would've spent this time in underwear (although sometimes orphans didn't even have this) or in another pair of clothes that had been worn by other children hundreds of times before. It's no wonder Tom stole — he literally had nothing, not even his own clothes (and perhaps not even underwear either).

Tom would've been expected to care for children younger than him, including babies, from a very young age. Even if he didn't enjoy it, Tom would've been good with young children and it's no wonder he was able to make Head Boy at Hogwarts because of it.

The Great Depression would've made these conditions worse. Although some of the conditions would've improved over the years, the Great Depression meant that everything was more expensive. Meals were probably downsized, if not cut entirely to one a day. The amount of kids at the orphanage probably rose during this time due to parents having to abandon children, which would've been especially prevalent in the East End which, as I've mentioned previously, was just slums and dockyard. Meat probably disappeared completely from Tom's diet, even at Christmas.

All in all, Tom's early life and conditions at the orphanage were grim. Kids died around him, conditions were cramped with diseases, illness and lice, he'd not even have his own clothes, meals would be limited, he'd spend his free time looking after kids younger than him and he'd fear being adopted. The roaring twenties were shit and the thirties shitter still. Hogwarts would've been the best thing that ever happened to Tom — it's no wonder he called it his home.

[redladydeath]

...You wanna see something silly?

[yardsards]

just read this part of the adventurer's bible and

do you think toshiro was originally attracted to falin (whilst still being irritated by many of her same traits in laios) because he thought his father would find her interesting???

[lucabyte]

i need to know if the people who are following me who are currently in the process of reading homestuck for the first time are doing it through the Unofficial Homestuck Collection because if you aren't please say so because um. Veteran homestuck here who wants to give you the best possible experience . please. <- guy who's prepping for an upcoming homestuck reread and as such has a whole list of reccomendations

[proudfreakmetarusonniku]

OK NO WAIT just remembered something before eepy.

saw people be like “well the Hamilton references r clear hints that lmanberg is evil bc the founding fathers were evil” and like one yes they were awful people but also like. wilbur and tommy who started the L’Manberg arc… aren’t American? like, your history just has different Weight here. we don’t like hold the founding fathers in any esteem or even really think about them we barely know their names. they’re known as the guys who broke away from Britain here lol. we do not think about them at all. they’re long dead historical figures and that’s it. no one idolises them unless they’re a fucking weirdo.

wilbur and tommy were not looking at stuff through the lens of an american where the mythos of the founding fathers still is used by politicians to hurt minorities and their evil acts are swept under the rug for national pride because they’re not American. we don’t have american exceptionalism shoved down our throat (we have british exceptionalism shoved down our throat instead). the founding fathers simply don’t have the weight they have here bc their effects on us were mostly just fobbing off (and that was like the one based thing they did). we in fact don’t have an encyclopaedic knowledge on your history lol. we'd have probably used like the monarchy or Churchill or sommat to make that point bc they’re actual relevant political figureheads used here.

[m87gallium]

A little Scooby Doo “fanart” thing heavily based off the following pic of Alaska y los pegamoides (a New Wave group from the early 80’s in Spain 😁😁😁). Retrospectively the staring at the camera reminded me of the intro shot in the original scooby doo where Velma is reading a book and is at the centre. :-)

[vitalconviction]

Vincent Valentine for the ask game?

Sexuality Headcanon:

Unlabelled, but if hard pressed will say "doesn't make a difference to me" -- I also think he's full on demiromantic

Before he 'dies' for the first time I think he was quite casual about sex and the like in Midgar which was mostly a hobby of sorts since there wasn't actually much else to do in Midgar after the initial coolness factor wore off

After he wakes up different though, he's repressed city. The drive is still there, or it would be if he looked for it and if someone in particular he was soft on prodded him--but he is almost always rocking some level of derealization or depersonalization, if not totally dissociative in general so you have to Ground him first.

Romantically... eeh he's less restrictive on that because he's making the rightly false assumption he couldn't possibly be human enough to feel something, you know, NICE instead of BAD AND SHAME AND GUILT ALL THE TIME!

Gender Headcanon:

This one was a shrug always, just a vague who cares thing! I think overall he's GNC and likely agender or something along the lines of nonbinary, but after coming back wrong he's mostly concerned about whether or not he's even still a human so the gender thing is just beyond him LOL -- If anything, the lack of gender in general he feels after coming back probably plays into his fear of not being human anymore

As for how he presented himself, as a Turk he would be sauntering around below plate in whatever he thought looked pretty enough OR if it looked cool enough--whether it be a camisole with a dark colored lipstick that had alluring packaging Or a blazer he found that had amazing fabric that seemed to change colours in light! He's drawn to the abstract qualities of stuff!

As red bandana man, if he isn't sauntering around in his cloak, he's sauntering around in the most nondescript clothes ever. In the process of his slow recovery, given that he recovers, I think he would be inclined to go for a full-on androgynous look which would be the most comfortable for him. For work, though, he really associates it with masculine presentation so he feels quite weird when he makes the gradual shift Lol

A ship I have with said character:

VINSENG! Valenstrifesodos is also great :D I can be drawn in by the idea of Vinseph but in practice, ehhh, it doesn't fully hit LOL --also past-vinveld/future-vinveld, or even vinreeve, those two also are nice ships if the other guys aren't available to kiss vincent themselves

Vinseng is seriously the ship I have for him, and it's all based off the one au I have rattling around in my baby brain. TLDR for the ship basis is, Vincent finds purpose in caring for others and has chronically and historically been the person who cared too much for the role he was in. Tseng is literally THE SAME GUY but he didn't get turned into a science experiment. Every compilation expansion featuring Tseng has further added the narrative of him being far too invested personally, having too much compassion, caring in the way turks aren't supposed to.

They're both internally in opposition to their roles, still view it as a necessary evil (Tseng in particular doing mental gymnastics that would make an olympic gold medalist blush), think they're bad guys, and are RIPE for atonement but neither of them have canonically moved towards helping themselves because it's their disposition to let themselves rot. They both tried, and failed spectacularly, in going against their roles, with Tseng in trying to save Zack and directly going against the company and trying his damndest to keep Shinra away from Aerith for as long as possible--and Vincent in trying to stop the experiments on Lucrecia, and therefore also on Sephiroth. If they had been successful they would have literally changed the course of the entire fucking story.

I think if you smashed them in a room together and forcibly socialized them like two cats, which is what happens in my au, they would do the thing they always do which is care too fucking much. In this way, they seriously have the capacity to slowly heal together! I just want their cycles of pain and violence and self loathing to break man.

A BROTP I have with said character:

Honestly, not any! I suppose Barret and Nanaki would fit this dyanmic though! I really like seeing it in fics so I'll go with this :D

A NOTP I have with said character:

Vincent and Hojo existing in a relationship together, namely with Lucrecia. I can't even entertain the thought of Vincent/Hojo in general--and I mean this in a romantic ship sense, fucked up stuff I'm so down for, but I take ship to mean literal relationship in which there is a semblance of happiness LOL

Honestly Vincent/Cid is the only true NOtp for me because I can see someone who was an abuse victim falling back in with another abusive person, but I can't imagine myself liking this ship in any circumstance LOL I don't even like it in the fucked up way. I just am not the biggest fan of Cid I've found.

A random headcanon(s):

His mother was absent and he never met her, and his father was negligent in that he was abroad for work and rarely spared time for Vincent, so his childhood was pretty lonely.

He's from one of the islands off the coast of Wutai, their region was under occupation and he was almost displaced. He grew up under the occupation and subsequently learned their language as a tool of survival. During the fullstart of the fight back against the Kisaragi led occupation, his father panicked and pulled strings to get Vincent out. He started going fulltime to university as a student after that and even graduated early but it still wasn't what he wanted, so he left for Midgar.

Names and stuff of the place and language of the Island he's from I'm sparse on as I haven't gotten around to settling on etymology, but generally the basis will be Korean and Thai oriented :D In a similar vein, the Midgar language I had considered Nordic but since they're directly next to the plains there's probably Celtic too, but since the President Shinra is THE white guy of all time in the story I gravitate towards calling the language in Midgar Seaxe (anglo-saxon)

General Opinion over said character:

I LOVE YOU BANDANA MAN! This guy deserves to heal so hard. FUCK! He's an amazing character and I want to put him in so many situations. I also want to put him in my mouth like a chew toy.

[thesolitarygrape]

I may cause a war in the notes for this one, but is lo-fi the modern equivalent of lounge music?

[owltypical]

as much as i object to timothée chalamet starring in a bob dylan biopic due to 'too tall and too pretty' reasons, i gotta say i'm also extremely amused at the people freaking out and meme-ing over the hat he's wearing in the latest preview image because they don't understand the historical context of young dylan and why he dressed like that

[thatscarletflycatcher]

Short documentary by the American government about my country (despite the Spanish title, the video is in English)

Another one, focused on education.

[raayllum]

This might be because I’ve been working on the same story idea for close to 12 years, but I’ll never understand the “This wasn’t worth the 3 year wait” complaint about S4, because it’s a muddled complaint and an inherently emotional one. Having issues with the pacing, or characterization, or progression? Those are also subjective, yes, but they’re structural. They can be debated, discussed, explained, etc. But saying “this wasn’t worth the wait” is an emotional complaint. Which is also fine! But it’s entirely subjective. It’s saying your enjoyment of the season (a story that is separate as a concept out of time) is dependent on the time you spent waiting for it, something that means nothing to the story’s structure, because it was never built to take that into account from a Plot standpoint, never mind a narrative one

How I structure and write the plot progression of my novels does not change depending on how many years there are between books, or how long it takes even to write them. Particularly for something that’s long form and developed/created the way something as time consuming as an animated story is. 

I also think separating emotions from analysis is sometimes an important part of understanding and analyzing something, i.e. season three of Trollhunters left me absolutely devastated. I was so upset about a story decision they made I had to take a day just to process and think about it. But I also knew in my heart it was the best decision not only for the characters, even if it wasn’t what I was expecting or hoping for, but also because it worked best thematically and therefore for the story as a whole. My emotional reaction didn’t matter, and now it’s probably my all time favourite thing the show ever did. 

This is also informed by my personal experiences watching Steven Universe. I watched a couple episodes a day and made my way through the show like that from start to finish until SU: Future came out and I think that’s the strongest, story wise, way to consume the show, because I could fully enjoy each peace of filler while also not having to wait forever between drops and/or for lore. 

All of this to say:

S4 didn’t work for you pacing/plot wise is a subjective reading about structure. S4 wasn’t worth the wait after the season three hiatus isn’t grounded in anything other than emotion. Saying “how S4 was plotted/progressed wasn’t worth the 3 year wait” is still saying the structure is dependent on how it makes you feel; it’s an emotional complaint dressed up as a structural one. It’s not grounded in analysis. And you can evaluate stories wholly on how they make you feel, if you want to. That’s entirely within your and anyone else’s right. It’s just not very interesting to me, and doesn’t really do anything from an analytical perspective, which is my own prerogative. 

[kenobihater]

here's my ring found in an old trench by a metal detectorist in ukraine. it was almost certainly made in the trenches due to its imperfect construction and by nature of literally being from a trench. it makes me kinda sad he cleaned it up this much (i'm guessing via electrolysis? he has a big shop and that's quicker) and i wouldn't have bought it for (OCCASIONAL) wear if it wasn't already both removed from the dig site with no notes on context and likely cleaned with aggressive measures, but it was, and it's not like i can undo that lol. so, cool belt ring

the guy also threw in two free buttons of which i believe the left is prussian or german and the right is russian (tho it may be austro-hungarian, but i'd bet russian judging by the basically illegible print on the back which resembles cyrillic if you squint)? i admittedly know jack shit about uniform buttons and this is my best guess after 30 minutes of research. also this guy seems to travel a lot so i have no clue which battlefield any of this was taken from aside from somewhere on the eastern front. incredibly cool regardless!

[konoa-t]

As anticipated, here's some random tidbits about Ackley and Oron, the two silliest and goodest boys in my fan OC arsenal :D The info here isn't in any particular order (°▽°)/

There's gonna be a bit of text, so I'm putting it behind a cut. Enjoy! And thank you again to everyone who showed interest in these two!

[TW: SENSITIVE CONTENT (see tags)]

Ackley:

Ackley is the cool-headed mercenary of the colony, hired to fight alongside them or run recon and gather intel. He joined their ranks not because of pay, but because both he and the other knights he works with share the same goal: to get rid of those annoying little dark essence creatures.

A while back, Ackley had a bit of a violent run-in with a man named Metus. He was travelling through a planet when he got captured by Metus' subordinates and brought to his lair. Metus had known of Ackley's exploits and how much of an effective warrior he was, especially with the help of those interesting wings of his... He gave Ackley an ultimatum: either join him (which would most likely require him to kill off his own kind), or suffer the consequences. Ackley wasn't interested. And so, off goes the ends of his wings (sawn off roughly at the wrist joint). The whole ordeal made his wings go mostly numb from nerve damage, as well as giving him occasional phantom pains. Injured and on the verge of passing out, Ackley manages to escape and bumps into the colony. They patch him up and help him recover from his injuries, giving him medicine for the pain. Though he was too exhausted to speak, Ackley thanked them from the bottom of his heart, and vowed to crush Metus for what he had done to him. When he was offered a job with the colony, he accepted it almost immediately. Not only would this help him pay back his debt to them (/m), but it would also help offer him a straight line to Metus.

Whether its to cope with the trauma of his past or for some other reason, Ackley will occasionally light a cigarette to take the edge off. (I did make him smoke cuz I thought that it would be funny, but now I'm trying to fit it in with the plot). He doesn't like the taste of plain tobacco though, so he usually buys flavored ones.

He will often (jokingly) flirt with people he knows well (the vibes of it are kinda sorta like the whole "kiss the homies goodnight" thing).

Ackley has a habit of not taking things very seriously. He often treats battle as some sort of game and make jokes of things, even if its serious. (Though, if its serious enough [like murder], he wont be as likely to make light of it).

He had once looked at a portrait of Oron. He thought that he looked handsome. (the portrait had somehow come up in a conversation he was having with one of the colony's members. The colony member took him to Oron's memorial where the portrait was being kept.)

A pastime of his is stargazing!

Oron:

Oron is the chivalrous and kind-hearted elite knight who served directly under Empress Vita alongside Yumi (they were, in some aspects, like retainers). Many knights often looked up to him, sometimes referring to him as a "fairytale knight*" due to his strict following to the guidelines of chivalry and exemplary behavior both on and off of the battlefield. Civilian women within the colony also took quite a liking to Oron due to this fact, often sending him gifts or flowers (mostly as platonic tokens of appreciation, though some women would send him gifts to try and woo him).

He had died during the events of The Great Raid, and now his soul roams the Azure Plane**.

To elaborate on the previous point, he had perished while he was defending the Empress from the corrupt invaders storming the palace. One of the creatures had gotten a pretty good hit on him, leaving a large gash in his side. He ultimately died of blood loss. (Fortunately his death wasn't in vain! The Empress was saved and unhurt thanks to his efforts!)

A small statue of Oron (that serves as a monument) lies on Draconis, the planet the colony currently lives on.

Oron has golden retriever energy! He is a very happy and pleasant person in general. He also gets easily excited about things. Many people have noted him as having some kind of "sunshiny aura."

When Oron talks or writes, he almost never uses contractions. There isn't any real known reason for this; it just seems to be a little quirk of his.

He often roams around the Azure Plane aimlessly, looking for opportunities to keep his sword skills sharp (he often practices on trees) or for other things to do to pass the time. Occasionally, an entity known as Mors will appear and speak with him for a while; he always enjoys her company!

One time, Oron was allowed to peek into the living world. He was surprised to see that the landscape had changed drastically. When he asked Mors about it, she stated that his home planet had been destroyed, and that the planet he was now looking at was Draconis. After that, Oron went silent for several days, almost as if he were in a state of mourning.

*Historically, knights did not always follow all the tenets of chivalry, often assaulting peasant women and rich widows as well as abusing their status and power as a knight. That being said, Oron is referred to by this name due to his almost unrealistically ideal nature as a warrior. In other words, he acts just like how a "proper" knight would act, or how knights in fairy tales or other fictional stories/legends would behave.

**The Azure Plane is a place that I can only describe as limbo. It is a hazy, plains-like environment that is devoid of any (intact) structures. Souls who still have unfinished business or unfulfilled wishes are normally transported here. Until their problems are dealt with, they remain in this desolate area, sometimes being driven mad by the isolation.

BONUS INFO!! :DD

Many people in the colony have mixed feelings on Ackley's smoking habit. They're glad that he doesn't do it very often (it takes him like a week to finish a pack; dontcha wish all smokers could be like that? /hj), but they are still very much concerned for his health. Ackley insists that he is fine, but they have their doubts...

Although beings sent to the Azure Plane are often isolated, this isn't to say there isn't ANYONE else around. The Plane is vast; spirits sent here are normally scattered about. It may take a while, but you could potentially run into other souls there.

Time does not pass in the Azure Plane. It is always midday.

Oron has no idea who Ackley is, but I think he would like him :D

Both Ackley and Oron have recurring nightmares about their respective traumatic incidents. :((

[jessicanjpa]

The Cullens see Benny Goodman and his band at the Read House Hotel in Chattanooga, 1935 (this chapter)

(This is the closest image I could find--I think this is a Chicago appearance.)

Rosalie and Edward were avid fans of bands like Benny Goodman's in the 30s. Benny Goodman often toured in these early days playing Fletcher Henderson's music:

The son of a former slave, Fletcher Henderson grew up in Georgia and went on to become the most influential arranger of jazz swing music. But like many Black musicians of his time, he often had to sell his music to White bands for very little profit. He had his own band in the end, but the unsung King of Swing never got the fame he deserved.

On this particular occasion, Carlisle surprised Rosalie and Edward and brought them to see Benny Goodman. (Esme grudgingly went too.) After a night of fun, the last dance was slow and sweet. Rosalie was having a hard night as she watched the humans around her, so Edward held her close as they danced. And he tried, he really tried, in that moment, to love her the way Carlisle and Esme were hoping he would.

To no avail.

But before the month was out, Rosalie found a love of her own.