#and I hate that. I want 100% authenticity but I also just want to post something. so.

[swinging-stars-from-satellites]

you never know what you'll get (the weather report is always wrong)

sometimes I feel like I could spontaneously combust

light up and let go

burn for a while and maybe it'll be so hot it gets cold

cool off and set it free

nobody in the world with me but me

freeze to death and burn back to life

dawn of the final days

when everything else is gonna fade away

the ambiguity is the charm, third season around

for once I'm the one who stays

what will the weather be like today?

either I end up burnt to a crisp or with frostbitten hands

one way is a light

the other just happens in the night

~ xoxo, Love yoU

[writingwithcolor]

Author with cultural disconnect: How do I write without making it seem as if I hate my own heritage?

Anonymous asked:

I’m a white-passing Asian author, and I’ve never felt all that connected with my heritage. My current story centers on a fairy (re: fantasy-world POC) child and ends with her realizing that her parents are toxic af and her human best friend’s family takes her in. This is the perfect opportunity to sort through my own issues with my heritage and finally convince my monkey-brain that it’s okay to not know how to cook Vietnamese food or celebrate tet or speak Vietnamese… But I also realize that if I’m not careful, this could easily slip into “Hey, I hate my heritage and so should you!” So how can I stop that from happening?

Writing for yourself first, not an audience

I ask you a simple question: why put pressure on yourself to have any sort of non-offensive messaging for a story that hasn’t been drafted yet and is to convince your monkey brain it’s okay to exist as yourself?

That seems like the fastest way to stop the story from being actually cathartic and instead a performance art piece when you already feel hung up on performing as “properly” part of your culture.

As I said in Working Through Identity Issues and Other Pitfalls of Representation, not all stories you write need to be for public consumption. Especially stories you’re using for your own self-processing and therapy, because you’re trying to get a cathartic moment that is rewriting your own story.

At what point does the public need to be involved in that?

I do understand the compulsion to want to post—I have definitely posted some Questionable™ material in my drive to get validation for feeling the way I do, wanting people to witness me and say “same.” It’s a powerful urge. Sometimes it’s worked, but most of the time it’s just made me feel horrifically exposed.

But you really do not have to post in public to get any sort of validation. Set up a groupchat with friends if you want the cheerleading and witnessing—people who will know your story and give you good-faith interpretations and won’t accuse you of anything. Honestly I’d suggest setting up this groupchat anyway; as someone who just got one again after quite a few years without it, my productivity has skyrocketed from being around supportive people.

Let the monkey brain have its monkey brain moment and shut off the concept the story is for the public. Shut off the concept of performing for an unknown audience. It’s for you. Be authentic, no matter how bad it would look to outsiders. They’re not reading it. Part of getting catharsis, sometimes, is being the worst version of yourself, somewhere nobody else can see it.

Deciding to publish the work

If, after you do write it, you find that you actually do want to polish it up and put it somewhere… edit it. Rewrite it entirely if that’s what it takes. Take the story through the same drafting process every story needs to go through, ripping out the unfortunate implications as you go.

Editing can be its own form of healing, as you try to figure out what this character would need to not be hateful. As you realize, once this longform journal entry is out of your head, what was bothering you now that you can see it pinned down on a page. But you absolutely do not need to write with the intention of editing in that healing. When I’ve tried, it’s fallen flat.

The healing will come from being yourself, no public involved, and writing about your feelings in their rawest form. Anything else is extra.

There’s no point in trying to put guard rails on the drafting process, not for a deeply personal piece. And by the time that drafting process is done, you’ll likely have specific scenarios and contexts that you can ask about, and you might even have ideas on how to fix it yourself once the story has a shape to it.

This is 100% a situation where there’s no real sense in idea workshopping something in the plotting stage. You’re doing something for you. Decide if it’s for public consumption later (while acknowledging “no” is a perfectly valid answer), and only figure out how to make the story not overtly harmful if you decide to put it out into the public.

~ Leigh

[sh0tanzz]

wonbin as your boyfriend based on astrology !

(reminder that this for fun and astrology is something I study for a hobby, these are all inferences based off of observations and not exact fact unless I knew him myself !!)

warnings: small mention of suggestive innuendo but nothing extremely graphic I'll only do NSFW asks if requested.

Pisces Sun : Honestly I knew from the jump when I first started to stan Riize that Wonbin would be a water sign 😭, people claim that pisces men are toxic+manipulative etc. However EVERY sign is capable of toxicity/negative behaviors so I will not feed into those stereotypes. As a boyfriend he'd be pretty shy in the beginning, before you two even dated he would probably stalk your socials and eavesdrop in your convos to gather info before even actually talking to you. He's be pretty...delusional LMAO ! especially with his venus in pisces, you could post a song on your notes and he'll think to himself... "she wants me.." yet wont text you until his confidence was high enough. Ngl he might be slightly flakey, he'd take a min to respond at times and might not be super precise when planning things out for the two of you.

Libra Moon: This makes me feel like he'd be pretty considerate and would thoroughly think out the pros and cons before doing anything just to avoid upsetting you and to ensure your comfort. He could be very observant on the reciprocity of the relationship so if he feels like things aren't even or fair he might retaliate, for example if he feels like you're distancing himself he might take a step back as well. Also do NOT make him question your feelings for him because he will FLEEE THE COUNTRY libra moons take their love and kindness seriously and will feel upset and even embarrassed when taken for granted .

Aquarius Mercury: This placement makes me giggle knowing he couldn't keep up with the whole "cold mysterious guy" persona SM tried giving him 😭. He'd be goofy especially in private and would use his wit to flirt. Would most definitely mess with you and rile you up just for jokes. In a recent vid I've seen he said he'd play/joke around since he's relatively shy to break the ice and it seems super true to me. Would also use music to communicate or send you songs pretty frequently.

Pisces Venus : Siri play Dangerously in love 2 by Beyonce !! Venus in pisces can be soo sweet. He'd love you unconditionally and for your authentic true essence. He could be pretty clingy, tagging a long as much as he can and will want your attention and this paired with his Libra moon points towards him wanting to impress you/get praised. Once again would love to bond over music. The gifts he'd give you would be things that make you feel special and customized to the info he knows about you. He'd be literally stuck and severely down bad once he fully develops feelings. Would plan dates with an aesthetic touch and would want romantic moments between you two to have a "straight out of a movie" feel to it. He would also fall very hard very fast. He'd also want to have a sense and feeling of being "taken care of" since there's sm venus influence in his chart and a lack of domineering energy. Downside he can be too lost in the glitz and glamour of the relationship that he ends up not acknowledging or downplaying the problems in the relationship or even his own red flags.

Taurus Mars : He may not be super direct or would want to take certain things slow during the beginning of the relationship since Taurus values its boundaries as well as comfort and hates to be rushed. Before the relationship even begins he might be a bit hesitant to even approach or out his feelings unless he was 100% confident or sure. Taurus rules the neck, throat/vocal cords, and shoulders. Sssooo he may enjoy receiving neck kisses/hickies, kisses along his shoulder or even massages along his neck and shoulder line or would try to do that to you. Similar to Gemini mars he also may find your voice as a sensual turn on and very attractive and would try to hear it often.

Other Aspects:

Moon/Mercury trine: Would most definitely remember facts about yourself that you've told him especially those he deems important to you. He'd also remember the nostalgic moments between you two

Mercury/Neptune conjunct: Generally sensitive and it can show in how he communicates especially in high tension or stressful moments in the relationship

Mars/Uranus sextile: Random moments where he's very spontaneous and will require a lot of freedom and could feel suffocated within the relationship if not given time to himself

Potential Toxicity: (reminder that any/everyone is capable of being toxic and everyone has negative traits these could be POTENTIALLY true)

Venus/Pluto square: His feelings can become quite intense and he can become extremely possessive as well as SUPER jealous to the point his partner might feel constricted and like he's their shadow. Can also be super sensitive and take things that you might not find as deep very personal.

Hope you enjoyed, I might do Sungchan or Anton next :P

[khaire-traveler]

Hi! Sorry to bother you, you can delete this ask if it will overwhelming somehow.

How do I become a good follower? Whenever I see posts about paganism and/or polytheism on the internet, it's people talking about receiving signs, how their Deities talked to them, how they feel them, and I don't get any of that and it makes me feel really bad.

Maybe there are some kind of exercises or something else to experience what all other people do? Do you have any advice?

Thank you, if you will answer this ask.

Hey, Nonny, thank you for your patience!

Most of the time, people on the Internet are exaggerating or wording things in a very casual way (when in reality, it looked a lot different or took a lot more work to figure out). Honestly, the best thing you can do for yourself - as a follower or even as a person - is try not to compare yourself to others. Practices vary wildly from each other, and what works for one person may not actually work for you anyway. Maybe your happiness will be found through other means.

Nonny, you're not doing anything wrong by not receiving/interpreting signs or whatnot. You're not a bad follower for not catching onto such things. I'm certain your deities wouldn't dislike you over something like that. It's also likely that they do send you signs, but you aren't used to interpreting them yet. Or maybe they're waiting for you to ask for signs! You're more than welcome to simply ask directly. I promise they're not as scary as some people make them out to be.

As for things you can do to practice, I'm honestly not sure. I'll try to provide some suggestions anyway, though. You could try deity meditations where you focus on the thought of a deity for awhile, maybe listening to peaceful music that reminds you of them. You could try identifying the "energy" of offerings you've given them, as those are likely to have the deity's energy on them. You could light a candle in honor of that deity and ask for them to increase the strength of their energy/presence while closing your eyes and attempting to focus on it. I'd recommend looking at my pinned post in the Deities & Entities section. I have a lot of more useful information there, most likely.

But I'll be honest and say that sometimes people are just headblind - meaning you can't really feel anything spiritually at all. There's nothing wrong with it if you are. I'm not saying that's an issue for you, by the way, but I think it's important to acknowledge the possibility.

I do also want to say that "talking with deities" is a very common thing I see on sites like TikTok, though, and I strongly advise you to 1. not listen to a damn thing you see on TikTok and 2. be extremely skeptical of the experiences people are willing to share online. Oftentimes, and I hate to say it, people tend to post such things for the attention they get. Either that, or when they say they "talked" to a deity, they really mean that they sat down and did divination or had a meditation. I say these things to make it clear that many of the things you'll see online are not 100% true to the way it actually happened. Sometimes people just make shit up, too; I see that happening constantly, especially on PaganTok and WitchTok. I cannot stress enough that you don't go there for genuine information. In fact, I highly recommend trying to read books on such topics rather than Google them or read about them online; that's where you'll find the best information!

But yeah, this is what I have to say: deities love us for who we are, not for someone we wish we were. They love us for the person we actually are, and in my experience, they enjoy it when we are ourselves in our worship. They tend to support authenticity. Instead of trying to be someone else, focus on who you already are, and the many strengths and talents that you may not even be aware of yet. Maybe you're amazing at different types of divination! Maybe you're fantastic at dream interpretation! May you're a wiz at bird identification (something I see a lot for deity signs)! Focus on learning more about yourself and less about others. You are talented, worthy, and powerful in your own way. And it's a beautiful thing to be you, to be who you are.

I hope this helped, Nonny! Please take care, and I wish you the best on your newfound journey. Have a good day/night. 🧡

[strawwritesfic]

Avengers Guys Taking Care of You When You're Sick Imagines

Hello! I caught some sort of very fun disease doing work-related things last weekend, so I came up with these imagines! I thought I'd post them for funises and because making you think of the dialogue yourself is way easier when there's very little oxygen entering my brain.

Disclaimer: I don't really do imagines, so I'm not even 100% sure that's what these are. They might just be headcanons? Listen, man, I'm an old person on the Internet. I don't know what I'm doing.

Also, I wrote these starting in the middle of the night after having only eaten marginally for three straight days and sleeping about a total of two hours over the course of 48 hours. Also, I didn't proofread them on account of the cinderblock shoved up my nose being very distracting. (But if there's something wrong, do feel free to bring it to my attention, and I will change it.)

Pretend these are in a world where COVID isn't a concern. I didn't feel like dealing with masking and isolation.

Let me know if you'd like to see later phases or groups!

EDIT: I forgot Clint. I blame the cinderblock. He's been added.

Enjoy!

Tony Stark

Let's face it. This guy is not in any position to play nurse. He hardly knows how to take care of himself; you're a different person entirely! Plus, he's not exactly into the idea of catching your cooties. Once you've got the ick, he is out of the bedroom and camping in his lab until you're no longer showing symptoms.

But that doesn't mean you're facing this alone. If this is before Pepper takes over Stark Industries as CEO, Tony's got her and Happy running around making sure you have anything you want--anything. More cold medicine? Done. A house call from your doctor? Called them 20 minutes ago; they're on their way. An authentic pizza directly from Italy? It's yours. If it's after, he will go get everything for you himself; it's just going to take a lot longer, and it'll probably take him five trips to actually get the right thing.

He won't leave you completely alone either. He'll call you up on one of the tablet phones and talk to (or at) you for hours. Heck, if you're bored, he might even set it up so you can watch him tinker on the suits from bed.

James Rhodes

You don't want Rhodey to find out you're sick. He's a busy guy, whether he's working with the Air Force or the Avengers. But he's gonna find out. Maybe he isn't able to call you as often as he'd like, but as soon as he makes contact, he's going to know you're sick from the word "hello."

He hates that you're often sick when he's quite literally half a world away. He doesn't want you to deal with your illness alone--and you won't. If he's still working primarily at the Air Force, you're on base with loads of fellow military officers and their spouses, and soon you've got more casseroles than you know what to do with. If he's with the Avengers, things are a little trickier. He can't ask Dr. Cho to fly in from Korea for a cough, and it's not like FRIDAY can answer the door for Uber Eats. Pepper and Tony aren't going to let one of their best friend's SO suffer, though! They love you, too. One or both of them is going to make sure you've got a house call from a doctor very soon.

As soon as Rhodey is off work, he's back with you. He'll cook dinner--something healthy that he knows you like. Then you'll both head to the couch or bed, snuggle up under a big blanket, and watch old movies until you fall asleep beside him.

Thor Odinson

Asgardians don't get run-of-the-mill illnesses, and any illness they do get is way more spectacular than what Midgardians deal with. Because of this, Thor finds your run-of-the-mill illness fascinating. Like, almost annoyingly so. Although he's fine to leave you to go on missions or the like, he is otherwise right there with you, delighting in every cough, sniffle and sneeze. If anyone on the team points out that you're, you know, sick, Thor is quick to remind them how incredibly tough his SO is. He knows you'll pull through!

Still, he doesn't want you to feel awful, so he's going to seek out advice on what he can do to help you. The results that come from this depend on who Thor decided to ask. Dr. Strange? Probably earn you some decent medications and/or treatments, even if Thor isn't 100% sure exactly how to use them. Loki? Then you're probably going to end up with Thor trying a dozen different things that don't make you feel worse but definitely don't make you feel better either. Hey, Loki's got no vested interest in helping out his brother's SO.

At the end of the day, at least you won't be left alone very often, and there is something endearing about a guy who thinks it's cute when you're so full of snot you can't think.

Loki Laufeyson

Loki is a much less...obtrusive companion than his brother is. Sick Midgardians are boring. They just lay around all day, producing the most horrible liquids from every part of them. He's got better things to do than sit around all day watching that...

...is what he wants everyone to think. He knows you don't like be smothered either. So Loki does go about his day as usual for the most part, but that doesn't mean he isn't checking in quite regularly. He'll slip into your room every few hours or so just to make sure you're resting. He won't wake you if you are. And the things you need have a funny way of appearing on your bedside table whenever you wake up: the remote control, a container of hot tea, even clean pajamas if you aren't feeling capable of walking to the bathroom for a shower.

But just because you don't like being smothered doesn't mean you want to be alone the entire time. Loki knows that. He's probably not going to crawl into bed next to someone who is coughing and sneezing and already warmer than they want to be, but he's perfectly content to pull a comfortable chair over to your bedside and sleep there. And when you get bored of watching TV or just need something quiet to fall asleep to, he's always happy to read aloud to you from whatever book he's reading.

Steve Rogers

Steve may no longer have the ability to get sick, but he remembers being sick when he was skinny, and he knows it's no fun. He also remembers the things that Bucky did for him that helped, and he'll try all of that on you. This leads to a bit of quarreling when Tony reminds him that they live in the 21st Century and have better ways of helping people with sore throats and coughing. But Steve eventually relents, and you get a good combination of things that make you feel better.

He's good at compartmentalizing, so he can put worrying about you aside when he needs to lead the team. The second they don't need him anymore, you're back at the forefront of his mind, and he's headed right to wherever you are. Even if you don't need anything he can provide you, he wants to make sure you're okay.

Since Steve doesn't get sick, he's 100% ready to cuddle. This is great when you have chills, and not so great when you're having hot flashes. He respects you if you ask him to please get the hell out of the bed. He lets you rest when you need rest, and is perfectly happy to just hang out in the room with you, quietly drawing in his notebook so he's there if you do need him.

Bucky Barnes

If Steve remembers getting sick, Bucky remembers being the one to take care of Steve when he was sick (after Steve's mom died). He does not handle seeing you sick well. At all. He cannot stop worrying about you at all. Never mind that all you've got is a stuffy nose and a cough, he's pretty much convinced that you are going to die on him any minute.

He's very reluctant to leave your side when you're sick. Even if there's some world ending-crisis that the team needs him for, he'd rather stay with you. Oh, he'll go to help with the world-ending crisis, but he's going to be thinking about you the entire time. Everybody on comms is going to get real tired of him using any downtime to wonder aloud if this will make [Name] feel better.

If you're lucky, Natasha or Sam or Steve might take pity on you and insist that Bucky take some time away and quit worrying so much. But unless they take him on outing to get you something (food, flowers, medicine, etc.), he's not going to want to go. Unless he's directly looking at you and confirming that you're okay himself, he's just not going to be able to settle. Until your fever breaks, don't expect Bucky to leave your side for very long, if at all.

Clint is a very normal guy wen it comes to his SO being sick. He's not too pushy or too distant. When you wake up with a sore throat, he makes you a cup of hot water with lemon juice in it, brings you a small breakfast in bed, and checks the medicine cabinet before he leaves for work. If there's anything you're low on, he'll make sure to pick it up on the way home. He'll call you at lunchtime to check on you, and if you say you need anything then, he'll pick that up on the way home, too.

If he has to go far away for work, of course Natasha is there to run errands and check on you. And if they're working together far away, you might get a very rare, very strange visit from Director Fury delivering cough syrup. Coulson pops by, too. Clint's got a pretty big support network willing to fill in any gaps he can't when he's working.

When he's at home, Clint mostly leaves you alone. He knows you need rest. There's plenty of work for him to do around the place anyway. But whenever he takes a break, he'll pop into the bedroom and ask you if you need anything if you're awake. He's always quick to tell the streaming service you're still watching, too, just so it's still going when you wake up. And he buys loads of your favorite takeout to tempt you to eat.

[thewertsearch]

TheWertsearch shipping chart

Ver. 1, Act 5.1

Let's get into it!

I've included every Player and a couple of wildcards. I thought about adding minor characters like the Guardians and Exiles, but we don't know too much about their dynamics yet. For what it's worth, I think the first three Exiles would be a cute triad, and might add WQ when we've seen more of her. I don't really ship any of the Guardians, since we know next to nothing about their personalities.

I'm going to mostly focus on potential dynamics. There aren't many canon ships in here, but hopefully that'll change as we move through the comic, because I honestly got pretty invested in some of these while working on this post. Let's dive in!

Hearts

Rose/Kanaya is an obvious lock. I've talked about it before, and my thoughts haven't really changed, so I won't repeat myself here. Their dynamic is great, and it's even better now that we know Kanaya used to idolize Rose. I can't wait to see them talk that one out. At this point, I'm 100% convinced that they should be a couple, and about 90% convinced that it's going to happen in canon. Bring on the #RosemarySweep!

John/Karkat is an intriguing prospect. John's optimism is exactly what a sourpuss like Karkat needs, and their conversations are clearly having a positive effect on him. Conversely, Karkat's decisive leadership style might, in time, rub off on John. The two complement each other well - and since it's clear that Karkat doesn't really hate John, I think they're well-placed for a red romance, rather than a black one.

Karkat/Nepeta has potential. Nepeta clearly sees something in him, and I don't think it's just the 'cat' in his name. They both have a romantic streak, although neither of them seems all that experienced with (concupiscent) romance. I don't know, I just think it might be cute! I could also envision a minor moirallegiance between them. Karkat isn't that hot-tempered, but chilling out with Nepeta and bouncing ships off each others' heads might help him let off some steam.

Tavros/Gamzee would be pretty cute. Tavros is used to being Vriska's punching bag - and, more broadly, he's used to conversations where you're supposed to be punching. Gamzee, too, is frequently insulted, even by people who call themselves his friends. Bring these two trolls together, though, and Alternia's antagonistic social norms completely disappear. They're a breath of fresh air, and I think they deserve a quiet corner in the Veil to play Fiduspawn together.

Terezi/Vriska would make a great power couple, and I want to see them take on the world together - but I don't see it happening any time soon. They both have a lot of growing to do - and besides, I think another quadrant is in the cards first.

Jack/Droog. Yes, really. This one isn't complex, I just think they'd be funny together. Plus, a hot-blooded, stab happy gangster pairs perfectly with a stone-cold, calculating partner. It's like cookies and cream!

Dave/Jade is another one I've discussed before. Jade is playfully, authentically herself, and Dave, who's still treating life like a bit he needs to commit to, might have something to learn from her. There's a real person behind that persona, and Jade likes him.

I'm a Jade/Rose truther - but there's not much to report on this, since the game seems intent on keeping them from interacting much. Hopefully Act 5.2 will see them working together in the Medium, and we can really shine a light on this dynamic.

Gamzee/Eridan was initially a joke ship. Eridan wants a matesprit, but he'd only date a highblood, and Gamzee's the only one without that quadrant filled, so Eridan better learn to ride a unicycle. Except... weirdly enough, it sort of works? Unlike Feferi, Gamzee wouldn't be stressed out by being around Eridan - and despite what you might expect, Eridan doesn't even seem to dislike Gamzee. He opened up to him about Feferi, at least a little - and even slammed a Faygo when Gamzee suggested it. When talking to Gamzee, Eridan wouldn't be able to dance around the point, like he was doing with Feferi and Kanaya. Gamzee wouldn't pick on his 'hints', so he'd have to resort to direct, open communication, which might be good for him. Plus - you can say a lot of things about Eridan, but he sure ain't a quitter. Gamzee's Sopor addiction would annoy the hell out of him, and there's a decent chance he might actually be able to annoy him off the stuff. If we go with the moirallegiance angle, Gamzee would probably leave Eridan too baffled to give into any Alternian bloodlust - and any overblown genocide plans would fly right over Gamzee's head. Wow, this really did start as a joke, but I'm beginning to convince myself. I... guess we'll see what happens?

Diamonds

I'm convinced Kanaya -> Terezi would work. Terezi is violent and dangerous - but unlike Vriska, her violence takes the form of mind games. Kanaya is good at mind games, and I think she'd make an excellent, Machiavellian moirail for Terezi, using ConversationWithAVeryStupidGirl.txt-style rhetorical traps to trick her into good behavior. She could even collaborate with her future girlfriend, Rose, to design clever ways to keep Terezi from getting more of her friends killed. And you know Terezi would love it.

That leaves Vriska unattended. We can't have that, so it's time to make a case for Feferi -> Vriska. I think Feferi would make a lot more progress with Vriska than she ever did with Eridan. The biggest problem with Eridan was that he was insincere - he wasn't honest about his proclivities or intentions, and Feferi was working her ass off just to figure out what he was thinking. By contrast, Vriska is extremely sincere about her emotions - I don't think she can fake a feeling. Feferi will know exactly what she's getting with Vriska, because Vriska will constantly tell her. Feferi could pacify Vriska, I'm sure of it. She's cheerful, persistent, physically powerful, immune to Vriska's psionics, and has killed thousands to feed her lusus. Feferi understands Vriska.

Sollux <--> Aradia is a potential bidirectional moirallegiance. They both have their violent moods, and they know each other well enough to recognize and help each other through them. Aradia could potentially use her necromancy to get the soon-to-be-dead out of Sollux's head - and he might be able to remove Aradia's violent impulses entirely, using his technical know-how to revert Equius' changes and turn her body into a true reflection of her living self. Honestly, they still have a shot at hearts, too - but I think diamonds is the way to go for now.

Feferi -> Equius might work - he'd have to listen to a violet-blood. Plus, spending time with the princess might help Equius learn that the Empire is bullshitting him about the hemospectrum. After all, she's at the top of the totem pole - and yet, she's against a lot of what the Empire stands for. What gives?

Spades

Jack\Lord English was originally just a joke, but I've decided to start shipping it earnestly for shits and giggles - especially since we've learned about kismesissitude, a quadrant they fit perfectly into. Maybe there's more than one reason that Slick was so single-minded about catching the guy.

To be honest, Vriska\Terezi is basically inevitable. There's no way they peacefully talked it out during the session, and now they're stuck on a tiny meteor together. These are resourceful girls - they're probably already plotting their next moves, and they'd be fools not to factor each other into whatever plans they're making. They will come to blows, and then they'll realize how much they're enjoying the experience. I think this will be our first truly balanced kismesissitude, and I'm very interested in seeing where the chips fall.

Clubs

Aradia -> Vriska/Tavros. Someone needs to keep these two apart. Robot!Aradia doesn't have the ideal temperament for auspisticism, but things are far from ideal at this point. She's Tavros' old FLARP teammate, and even in her current state, she's still invested in his well-being. This might also be a way for Aradia to reconcile with Tavros, since it doesn't seem like they've spoken much since they died. What does Tavros think of this new Aradia, and will his opinion change if she starts to intercede against Vriska on his behalf? I want to find out.

Feferi -> Equius/Aradia. This one would be so easy. All Feferi would need to do is tell Equius to back the fuck off, and he'd be obliged to obey. I don't like the hemospectrum, but if we're stuck with it for now, let's at least use it for good, hm?

That's it! It was the first shipping chart I've ever made, and I had a lot of fun with it. I'll be doing this again the next time we 'finish' an Act, and it'll be interesting to see how this evolves over time.

See you next time, for the beginning of Act 5.2!

[whiskerknittles]

This Is A Jenna D’Sora Callout Post

Most of you won’t know her by name, but this is the despicable ensign who briefly dated Data in the season 4 episode “In Theory”. I hate this woman. She fills me with a rage so intense I can’t even describe it—but that won’t stop me from trying!

Background: D’Sora, after leaving a relationship with an emotionally unavailable boyfriend, decided to try a relationship with Data because they had similar interests and enjoyed spending time together. The relationship fell apart when D’Sora told Data that he, by virtue of being an android, is even more emotionally unavailable than her ex, and they break up.

Thesis: Data was the most authentic and attentive partner anyone could ever ask for, and D’Sora is an idiot.

Evidence:

1. D’Sora routinely disrupts and changes their plans, doesn’t communicate her own needs, and flat out lies* to Data multiple times in the episode. In fact, she disrupts his personal time in order to start one of their dates early, denies that’s why she showed up, and then when he accepts her denial as the truth and goes back to what he’s doing, she gets upset. What is up with that?!??

(*lie is probably a strong word to anyone who knows what I’m talking about—the thing in relationships where someone says something like “oh no I’m not mad” when they are or “oh we don’t have to do that” when they specifically do want to do that. It’s some kind of mind reading game you’re supposed to master to prove that you love your partner because expecting honesty and explicit communication goes against the rules of romance, apparently.)

2. Data not only pursues the relationship despite having no experience in romantic intimacy, he writes himself an entire program to help him perform romantic behaviors. Sure the code wasn’t perfect, but it was a massive effort and also a work in progress! I guarantee Data built other intimacy programs in the past (friendship at the minimum) that he spent a lot of time working bugs out of, but he didn’t have to write a romance code—he did it explicitly for her!!

3. She gets upset when she asks Data what he was thinking about when they were kissing and his first thought wasn’t her. I get why that could be seen as a sign he doesn’t care, but as a person with a partner whom I kiss with regularity, sometimes you’ve got other shit on your mind! It’s not that you don’t care or don’t want to kiss them, it’s that mushing mouths together really doesn’t take up that much brain power and if you’re doing it for any length of time you’re gonna think about other stuff! If that’s true for humans, imagine how it must be for an android built to do literally hundreds, THOUSANDS, of calculations all at the same time. That’s not a sign he’s emotionally unavailable, that’s just how his brain works!!

Conclusion: there’s actually a bunch more I could say on the point of Data having emotions that we as humans just can’t understand, and everyone’s emotional needs are different. However! Data was not the failing partner in their romantic venture, it was 100% D’Sora, who has a 20th century attitude toward romance in the 24th century future (yeah I know the writers are from the 20th century, that’s no excuse) and the fact that she walked away from it implying that Data wasn’t enough for a human romantic partnership is a crock. If given an opportunity to make out with Data I’d do it, and I wouldn’t be a coward about it

[noctivague]

Revamping my altar - Part 01🙃

Let's ingnore the fact that I ghosted my blog for the most part of this year and jump right in as if nothing happened....

Starting point

I'm a very aesthetically driven person and I'm bored with my current altar, which has been remained the same for a long time. (I thought I had a picture but I don't and it's gone now so oops...)

I want to create something that puts me in an inspired mood just by looking at it. That looks inviting and beautiful and brings me delight and motivation. A little sanctuary nook kinda.

I want to revitalize things and symbolize the new era i'm in, due to the fact that i recently moved into a new flat, got a new job, and overall my life is very different than it was last year.

So here is the journey of making my new altar :) At the moment it's far from done but here is the first part of the process!

Part 02 will follow once I've received the things I ordered, probably at the end of November or early December.

Inspirations

So i went on a quest to find inspirations on pinterest that would sort of align with what i wanted to make.

ngl I dislike most of what I see because I find them too cluttered for my personal taste. The main issue is that i'm clumsy and i hate the idea of my hand having to slither through a forest of objects to be able to grab what i want lol

Still managed to find a few cool examples, here they are:

I love the rough, folk-esque, natural aspects of them, the blend of stone, marble and wood. The branches, the sculptures, the iconic symbols and the fact that there is a variety of heights of things, if that makes sense. I also like having a strong art piece in the middle, which i prefer over having a mirror like many examples i found. Idk i just find the idea of having to stare at myself at my altar a bit uncomfortable lol

But it's still different from what would be authentic for me and also i gotta do with what i have or what i can buy.

The thing is that my altar is not dedicated to a single deity so i can't go with one strong themed vibe but i have to put them all together. Currently, Apollo, Artemis, Hekate, Dionysos, Hermes and Demeter share the same space.

Furniture

Thankfully the new book shelf I got is quite wide and has three levels, which is plenty enough space to give everyone their own space and even host my incense, tarot cards and spiritual books.

I almost sold a kidney to get an antique cabinet, which looked really cool but was not going to fit in with the interior style of my living room, where my altar is located.

So I went in with a more modern yet slightly organic-shaped one:

Not 100% what I was looking for but at least the space is there. Love the curves an the contrast of the two colors, but I wish the wood was darker. I could sand and re-varnish but who's got time for that.

Current state of the sculptures

I've been collecting sculptures and hand painting them for a while now (you can check out my pinned post for pictures of some of them), and although I love what I made, I really want to get some new ones that are higher and I'm even wondering if I should just keep them white and gold instead of colorful.

Also, for the life of me, I can't find a sculpture of Hekate that I like. They either look too bland or too new-agey for my taste. At the moment, I have the classic three women holding torches and stuff that I hand painted in blue, yellow and silver, but idk it's not what I have in mind and I think I'm just going to resort to do clay modelling myself. I'll probably do a separate post for the process!

Btw I'll do a free giveaway in the future to re-home my old sculptures so stay tuned for that!

What I have in mind

Sooo I'm not sure of the exact height and width of the things that I have coming in, and I'm still looking for a strong art piece or relief to go at the center back so I'm not sure if my disgusting mouse-drawn photoshop sketch is going to be accurate at all lol

The more I stare at it the more I think it makes no sense 🙃

So basically, from left to right; Apollo (new statue incoming); Artemis (old statue at the moment but need to upgrade); Hekate in the center (need to craft that); Dionysos (new bust incoming); Hermes (new bust incoming); and on the lower lever Demeter (still love the statue as I think it's my best one so it will stay this way).

Still missing:

one or two candles i use during worship, preferably gold

art piece in the center, either a plaster relief or canva print of something

plant with long falling ''arms'' (idk the word in english)

dried branches to go in the left vase

a way to fix the antlers to the wall

an old key for hekate (need to go to a thrift store)

maybeee a bigger box to store my incense and ritualistic plates and glasses

I don't think I want a table cloth simply because I had one in the past and it was always a mess to clean. Having the bare table is much easier, especially considering that I will burn incense and candles and that gets messy.

---------------------------------

Okay that's it for this long ass post, see ya in a few weeks for part 02!!!

[jeannereames]

Do you see memes and shitposts about Alexander and his time? If yes, do you like them, you hate them? Would you change something about these memes?

I’m sorry. I’m just really curious about what a professor thinks about this. Do you perhaps have a favorite Alexander meme?

Well, for me there’s a big difference between memes and shitposts. The former can be rather entertaining, the latter are just trolling. Don’t feed the trolls. I realize I’m perhaps defining shitposting more narrowly than some, but there’s enough of the narrow sort out there I don’t want to confuse it with memes.

Meme are great. I have two favorites, although not about Alexander, ironically. I’ve shared them below. Both show up in my class Power-points, btw! Many of my colleagues also enjoy clever memes. My buddy Borja Antela was trying to collect some on Alexander last year. For a while, I followed Alexandergoatmemes on Instagram, but finally left because about 85/90% of them seemed to be about Alexander naming cities after himself. Sure, it’s funny maybe the first 20 times, but at 100+?

So memes are great. Shitposting and ignorant-posting, however, are annoying.

I’m deliberately creating that third category. Shitposters know they’re posting shit; ignorant-posters (usually) don’t. The latter put up videos, tweets, or blog entries about (in this case) Alexander that perpetuate a lie, a false quote, or an oversimplified-and-mostly-wrong factoid. Some ignorant-posters are just reposting what they heard because they don’t know any better and may receive correction well enough—especially if offered politely. Yet others get upset (sometimes disproportionately so) when their errors or distortions are pointed out.

This can be about controversial matters, such as Alexander’s putative “sexuality” or it can be something surprising. I once had a fellow fly off the handle when he posted that Alexander was left-handed and I (gently) corrected him.* You’d have thought I’d called his mother a whore. It seemed quite silly…except that left-handedness used to be considered a Very Bad Thing. So being able to claim famous people as lefties was apparently more for him than just leftie pride.

Aside from oddities, most of the ignorant-posting I’ve seen comes in three main types.

First, we have the religious/spiritual/life-coach sorts who usurp Alexander for a moral lesson—not unlike the orators of the (Roman-era) Second Sophistic, or both Muslims and Christians in some of the Alexander Romances. Alexander has ALWAYS been a malleable figure for lecturing. Ergo, he pops up in homilies/sermons as a parable, like his supposed Last Three Wishes. It is, of course, total bullshit, but there’s quite a lot of stuff like it out there. People read it, go “Aww,” and reblog without bothering to check if it’s correct. It has “the authority of hearsay.” These can be either Alexander-positive or Alexander-negative parables, btw.

See also: quotes attributed to famous celebrities that they never, in fact, said. Alexander gets these too. The ¡Inspirational! “Army of Sheep Led by a Lion” is especially egregious, as it’s a general proverb that appeared well after Alexander (no, he didn’t say it). It seems to be currently popular, along with, “There is nothing impossible to him who will try” (also not ATG). Yet these make great quotes for those damn “Inspirational Posters.” Here’s a whole page of them, lion quote right at the top, suitable for a Power-point!...with no attempt to verify their authenticity or say where they got them. But the image with the quote below is especially funny as they even put a date on their fictional quote. If it has a date, it must be true! Netflix, btw, used that bloody quote even though I told them not to; it was fake. Didn’t matter.

Second, we have the alt-right/white supremacist groups, or hangers-on who might reject the label (coyly or not) but embrace much of its Eurocentric thinking. These folks present Alexander as spreading good [white] Western values to the poor benighted East [brown people]. It’s essentially warmed-over Plutarch with a dash of Curtius and some Arrian. Their Alexander even sometimes has longish flowing (blond) locks and is oddly tall.** Like Thor. I stay the hell away from them but have occasionally stumbled over them on Tik-Tok.

Anyway, the alt-right crowd may have read some about Alexander, written by other alt-right guys who take material from a carefully curated set of “accepted” histories: Arrian and Plutarch, and not just Plutarch’s Life of Alexander, but his double-essay from the Moralia, “On the Fate or Fortune of Alexander.” They tend to be war/conquest-approving and see the Greco-Roman past as some pure Aryan utopia from which we’ve fallen into our “wretched age of iron.”*** Of late, a lot of their associated images are AI generated, btw. A couple examples below.

Last, and on the opposite end of the spectrum are the Alexander-was-Queer-AND-Wonderful, and oh, boy, some of them also don’t want a single bad thing said about their hero. They may know relatively little about his life aside from his putative gayness, but are just as resistant to/resentful of being corrected in their errors and romantic oversimplifications.

And that is what all of these categories share: oversimplification for the sake of a particular social and/or political agenda.****

Isn’t it, then, also shitposting? No. Because shitposters intend to stir the pot. They may or may not believe what they say, but they’re saying it TO get a reaction. Like the Tweet Heard Round the Alexander-verse after the Netflix thing (below). THAT was a shitpost. His entire goal was to go viral, and he succeeded.

By contrast, ignorant-posters usually aim for a particular audience and rarely expect to go viral outside their circle. Nor do they expect to be corrected. When they are, they react with surprise and anger. (Again, there are exceptions.)

I tend to observe these things, but rarely engage—although I did engage more when I was a young grad student. Now if I reply, it’s general (as here), not to the original post/tweet itself. TBH, I have books and articles to write, classes to teach, and papers to grade. 😉 I don’t have time for flamewars.

-----------------------

* Yes, I made Alexander left-handed in Dancing with the Lion, partly for the hell of it. But there’s zero evidence one way or the other—which I point out in my Author’s Note at the end of book 2, Rise.

** BTW, there’s a Whole Thing out there online about Alexander as tall, even Super Tall, claiming evidence which they don’t actually cite (correctly). Note the “many stories suggest….” Oh, really? These are? Anyway, I don’t think the author of that blog entry is alt-right—which is why I put it as a footnote—but dig the wacko AI white-haired Nordic Alexander at the top! And I’m still chuckling at a 7-foot-tall Alexander. Good Lord, how tall would that make Hephaistion?

*** Yeah, that’s a little bow to Hesiod’s theory of the Ages of Man.

**** Note that I didn’t include Greek Nationalists. While some of them also swing right (Golden Dawn, Front Line, National Reform Party, etc.), many are more moderate. Alexander is a Greek hero, and if what’s presented about him by some is also oversimplified to fit a national narrative, it doesn’t spring from ignorance so much as deliberate choice and what they learned in school/at home. Think about what the average (white) American knows about George Washington or Thomas Jefferson, or for that matter, the average native person about Tecumseh or Crazy Horse.

[thefanficmonster]

omg hi!! i luv ur work and i was wondering if u could do something similar to ur corpse husband story ‘rumours’ like the same bimbo!reader but with moist cr1tikal?🥺i have charlie brainrot atm lol💕💞

Oh for sure! Although because of the long wait you'd have to endure till a full-length fic is posted, I hope you don't mind the headcanons format. Enjoy 💕

Pairing: Moist Cr1tikal x Reader (Gender Neutral)

Warnings: Mentions of Slut shaming and other hateful comments, Insecurity, Swearing

Genre: Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, RPF (Real Person Fic)

You and Charlie had been dating for close to a year at the point when he finally thought to ask why you didn't want your relationship to be public

Yes, you were the one adamant to keep this relationship hidden from the public as long as you could and were genuinely surprised when your boyfriend was so enthusiastic about it as opposed to what you expected

As a content creator himself, you were certain he was no stranger to the way people viewed you and all the horrible things they said about you

That is mainly why his enthusiasm to tell the whole world you were his significant other was so jarring to you

However, up until this point, he never asked for the reason behind your apprehensiveness towards the idea of going public with your relationship

In the beginning, he had a vague idea of why you were so strongly against it

Of course, it was still a new and fresh relationship that neither of you was 100% sure would last even if you did put your 100% into it

But with the one year mark nearing, that theory no longer held authenticity, he couldn't help but ask

You tried dodging the question or using the 'no reason' excuse but eventually you were bound to crack

And when you did and told Charlie you were afraid that he'd be embarrassed to be with you after all the shit people would probably say in response to your relationship going public that he'd break up with you

To say his jaw was on the floor would be an understatement

“Let them say what they wanna say, ok? Let them run their mouths and watch as they clamp them shut when they have to deal with me afterwards. Just trust me, alright? Just trust me and my love for you and sit back to enjoy the show.“

This poured a whole new sense of confidence in you, enough for you to agree to the reveal which, at your request, was done in a tweet rather than on-stream like Charlie had wanted

The man had to pluck your phone out of your hands every minute to keep you off Twitter and other social media where you wanted to survey the damage and sum up the responses 

When you finally managed to get a good look without your boyfriend’s intrusion, you were surprised, to say the least

Pleasantly, but confusedly too

Both due to the same reason of the absence of hateful responses to the Tweet

Scrolling far enough found you a few and also revealed why there weren’t more

Because your man had gone off on each and every asshole that dared to even hint at something bad or disrespectful about you

In typical Charlie fashion, he did it with roasts that got you bursting out laughing and served as a great reminder to how much you love this man

And how much he loves you

Basically how off your predictions were and how you, from now on, will work harder on getting past the infamy brought upon you by judgmental people

With the strong support system, cheerleader and no.1 fan you have, success is 

[sonickinhelp]

Happy New Year! Updates and housekeeping

Everyone who is still here, thank you for your support through the radio silence as this blog has been going through all the difficulty we've all come to expect from the 2020s.

I am still the only active mod. I didn't actually realize how long it had been since anyone else posted -- two years now. I have finally lost contact with Mods Silver and Whisper and their system. Don't worry, I know they're okay, and I'm glad they've gotten comfortable living openly and authentically as a system and are doing what makes them happy.

The main blog they used to create this blog has been abandoned for two years, and even back then it was clear that they were abandoning it permanently. So even though their account is still an admin on this blog, they don't actually have access to it anymore. At some point they deleted the discord server. I'm not sure when that was.

Besides them, there are still three other admins on this blog. I'm pretty sure none of them are ever going to post here again.

So, I'm doing something I didn't want to do, because I kept hoping that I wasn't really the last one left here. I'm going to consider myself as the primary owner of this blog from here on out and do a reboot. If former admins (especially Silver) come back and get upset at me for this, I'm truly sorry. I just can't bear to see this blog gasp and die like this anymore.

What this reboot entails

Immediately after posting this, I'm going to start fiddling with the blog layout. I'm not as good with tumblr themes as the one who set the blog up, and I don't want to break anything, so I'm probably not going to mess with it much. But I'm going to clean out all the old outdated information. I might also delete a nav page or two that don't make sense to have anymore.

I'm going to clean out the askbox and trigger-tag list. I hate to do it, but it's time to start fresh. If you have a request that hasn't been done and you still want it, send it in again. If you have a trigger you still need tagged, send it in again. (The old trigger-tag list was stored on the discord, so I don't have access to it anymore anyway.)

I'm going to rewrite the rules, FAQ, and pinned post. There's a good chance I won't change them much, but I just want to make sure they're accurate to the limitations and boundaries that exist now, and that's gonna be different from when the blog was created.

And, most importantly, I'm going to take on some new mods. I'll have to figure out a way for us to communicate besides a discord server (I'm over the 100-server limit and I don't have money for Nitro anymore) but this was never a blog I could effectively manage completely on my own. I want to have a team again, so everyone can have their requests done in days instead of months.

Thank you all again for your support. I'm glad that, despite everything, this blog is still here.

[accio-victuuri]

on light signs & fandom etiquette 🚥

one cpn and a whole lot of personal opinion. i want to write my thoughts about this topic. this is my least favorite thing to talk about as it touches on how people act which can’t be controlled both online and offline. to those who have no idea, it’s about some fandom drama during sdc finale live. this will be more on what i learned and observed. this whole post can be preachy and rant-y so beware. i just needed a place to reflect.

I’ll start with this exchange. It looks like Nathan Lee was asking Bobo if the light sign was his. What it means. Fans are saying it’s because the color is yellow that Nathan was not sure. He must know in a way that “Bo” could be equal to Yibo. Or maybe not. Then you see Yibo explaining yes it’s his. Bo. Yibo.

then hangeng comes in to explain as well and back yibo up then stops him. as if to make the conversation end, less he says more — this part is cpn. to me this is an interesting exchange because yibo clearly owns up to the light sign. it’s his. i have never doubted that bobo knows there are cpfs out there and he appreciates us, tho he cannot say it in the open. we understand. we always did.

There are videos out there of 🏍 vs. turtles. confiscated bjyx green and red light signs. in general, just the two fandoms shading each other. which are of course shared to the international audience. and well, you can take a guess which garbage dump app it’s popular in. I won’t go into the details because that’s not the point. This is not something new. there’s always been friction between cpf and solos. We know how toxic c-fandom is. Hell, even their government knows and they can’t do much about it. It’s the kind of thing i never understood and would never dream to emulate so i can fit in. sadly, lots of international fans adopt the “authentic” fandom behavior and are proud of it. wear it like a badge. there is only a handful who sees the whole c-fandom toxicity for the chaotic circus that it is and avoid copying it.

So, why are cpfs so hated? It’s because we shouldn’t exist. for a time it’s fine — but not this long. not this loud and prominent. brands love catering to solo fans/groups and even their companies do. it’s always been this way and not only in China. CPFs are considered a novelty, something that happens because of a project and are expected to fade when it ends. Also viewed as second-rate fans because their attention and support is split instead of giving their 100% to one artist. They ( artist and company ) can’t endorse and have an open bias to a CP because the artist must maintain the status of being single. An individual who can be paired up with anyone as needed. We are hated and considered a nuisance because we’re still here and thriving. Example, there were far more BJYX fan sites from last night’s event than solos. We still continue to show up. Support. We continue to stay relevant. I can understand the irritation from a toxic solo’s perspective and it gets worse if that person hates xiao zhan or yibo. To them, how dare we have the audacity to enjoy something. The nerve to spend our time and resources on a fandom that makes us happy. lol.

I personally don’t care who is better. Do you want the title of best yibo fan / best xiao zhan fan? sure. It’s yours. It’s theirs. I don’t need it. I’m here for the fun. The ( mostly ) stress free space I’ve created. zz/wyb is my happy place. That’s all I want.

CPFs are far from perfect. We’ve had our fair share of blunders and I personally have certain fandom personalities that I wish would just close their accounts. It is what it is. We can’t control each other’s behaviors. Some so/o pick a certain bad incident and that’s gonna be the way they look at us forever. Or they just go with the flow because it’s a sick pre requisite to hate on cpfs to get your so/o fandom loyalty card apparently. I will never understand wanting people to shut up just because you don’t like what they do. This is not some social justice issue. I like zz/wyb, you only like one of them. So? What’s the big deal. If you don’t like CP stuff then don’t seek us out. AND I CANNOT EMPHASIZE THIS ENOUGH TO CPFs, don’t bait them. Tag stuff properly. Please stop commenting CP things in obvious solo posts. This is why I stopped thinking about their opinion. Candies are for us and not them. We don’t need to convert them — that’s not the goal. At least to me ( the goal ) it’s to support the boys. Enjoy this fandom and try to keep away from drama.

Now the big question that’s related to SDC — Should CPFs bring their dolls and BJYX lights in solo events? My answer is Yes and No.

Yes because it’s their life and they can bring what they want. Bring 10 dolls, sure. For example the dolls lined up and taking photos @ GG’s ADLAD was seen by passer by as cute. Because it is. To those who don’t understand dolls and how it relates to fandom — just shut up please. Let people enjoy things. Some people enjoy drugs and being an asshole — then you have women who loves to bring their fandom dolls to events. to each their own. Even if it’s a “xiao zhan” character doll in an event that is for Yibo ( well it’s not just yibo, it’s SDC. people who watch the show are welcome ) , honestly. who the fuck cares. it’s a harmless non living thing. As for the light signs— sure, but I draw the line on trying to catch too much attention. They know unrelated light signs are not allowed so the rules should be followed. I’m sure the security and staff were only briefed about so/o light signs. No one is persecuting them. They know the rules. I know they have good intentions but we gotta be careful to not trouble Yibo.

No when it’s blatant baiting of so/os. some people really just love drama and will incite stuff. Also i’m not a fan of attention-seeking. Don’t shout BJYX at zz or wyb please. Don’t private message their friends or ask their co-stars about them. We are supposed to be low key about this. They know we exist — no need to beg for their attention.

I may be wrong about certain things that I just said but it’s all my personal opinion. At the end of the day, we will participate and act in this fandom with our own limits. I wish offline “fights” will be avoided in the future. We can all peacefully co exist by ignoring each other. 🙏🏼

-END.

[zukkaart]

10 characters | 10 fandoms | 10 tags

Thank you @fanfic-gremlin-ft-trauma for the tag ily 😭 and I love talking about my faves so here we go 🤸 *long-ish post*

——-

1. Sokka: A:tLA: Okayyyy so as someone who is Inuk she whole S/NWT meant so much to me as a kid and still means so much to me now but Sokka just hits on a different level because he’s the oldest sibling (as am I) and therefore charged with everyone else’s safety in one way or another. He also is the one who deals the killing blows bc the others can’t or won’t stomach it which I relate to hevily

2. Bolin: LoK: He reminds me of my husband what else can I say? They think he’s a pretty, strong, stupid, earthbender/ which to an extent- he is. But he’s just smart in different ways than others and genuinely has a heart of gold and just wants to give everyone endless love

3. River Song: Doctor who: we have the same hair so immediately yes. She also has one of the best and most heartbreaking arcs in cinema history and I will fight about it. She destroyed the universe to save her husband then said “I don’t do weddings” and honestly…I get it bc same

4. Castiel: Supernatural: MY SON DESERVED BETTER. He lost his home, his family, his faith, everything he had known for THOUSANDS of years because he fell in love with humanity Dean. He constantly tried his best and yes messed up but was always treated so harshly as if he didn’t have to LEARN how to have human morals and the only people he had to base off of was the boys who are in no way a good bar to measure that by

5. Amber: House of Anubis: oooh pretty ditzy blonde girl comic relief character- but she becomes one of the most fully fleshed out deep characters and ends up being the reason they solve most of the riddles and find the artifacts. She loves her shopping and texting but when the heat is up she always rises to the challenge and shows out. Queen of my heart

6. Flame Princess: Adventure Time: raised to be evil but falls in love and has to learn how not to harm people even though it 100% goes against her nature. And even after all that she is still treated like a villain by everyone but Finn basically. I have ASPD and I constantly feel like I also have to be something I’m not in order to not harm the people around me and the ones who let me be me are few and far between. She is me I am her

7. Sherlock: See above lol, he has ASPD (sociopathy) and so do I. Plus I’m studying to be a CSI. Seeing a character with my same illness shown in the real raw form and not like the “yeah they’re a sociopath but their character arc is learning how to be a good person!” Ew. They let him be cruel and clever and just authentically HIM. Of course he’s checked when necessary but ultimately no one ever tells him he needs to be fixed because of it bc they understand that part of him can’t be changed

8. House: kind if similar as above. I don’t super love the drugs but he takes no shit and dicks around because he knows he’s the best there is. Endless pranks, self destructive tendencies, smartest person you’ll ever meet, what more could you ask for? It’s also super awesome to watch a character/show that isn’t so focused on being “politically correct” that it forgets how to make good jokes.

9. Sejanus: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (book): People say Katniss is Lucy’s revenge but NO she’s Sejanus’ revenge, and so is Peeta. Sejanus was the one who hated the games, tried to actually help the tributes and districts and stop the games. He wanted revolution way back when Snow was a teenager and didn’t even live to see it. The only difference between him and Everlark is the fact that they had a whole rebellion ready to back them. He should have been alive to take the place of Coin/Snow and I stand by that.

10. J.B. Merlin: Bundle of Joy: this is so crazy niche if anyone knows it DM me immediately I’m begging you. An absolute icon this entire movie. The center of a comedy miscommunication trope. Has no idea what’s going on but refuses to let his son walk out on his baby (that’s not actually his but he thinks it is), immediately assumes the baby was named after him, then delivers the iconic line “I don’t care who the father is! I’M the grandfather” homie wanted a grandkid and didn’t care what he had to do to get one 😂 10/10 wholesome character

~~~~~~

Now for tags. Sorry if you’ve been tagged already! And if you haven’t please participate if you so wish

@avatar-lorra @judebellinghamswifereal @momos-servants @chitsangenthusiast @dancergirl131 @zukosasukelovebot (I think you’ve been tagged already but ily 🤟) @picnicbitchsokka @your-royal-momoness @oldpotatoe @bisexuallsokka

[astrodoll2]

PERSONAL OPINION ABOUT ASTROLOGY

Honestly I love astrology and I think it’s a really fun thing to learn about but I also feel like it’s really annoying when we try to define ourselves with a certain placement we have that we feel such a similarity to, if you’re using astrology to find yourself and understand yourself you will forever remain lost if not taking any action to do your own introspection apart from the definition of a certain sign, aspect, house placement whatever it is. I personally would advise to use astrology as just a fun interesting thing to look at and learn about which yes can be accurate but don’t limit yourself by putting yourself in the box of what a placement acts like and blame your behavior off of it. There’s only so many words in the vocabulary astrologers use to describe a sign when you as a human/spiritual being are so much more complex than that, you can always grow out of old ways astrology isn’t meant to define you it’s to show you some qualities you might have, even the challenging ones are just to enlighten you on what it is you should work on not to just accept it and stay that way, if that were the case you’d never evolve. I think another reason why people enjoy astrology especially the observations is just because they want to see how they’re perceived by other people, there is no one size fits all, please stop focusing so much on your perception to others and allow yourself to behave authentically.

I honestly want to quit astrology for this reason, it’s fun but people take things way too personally and define themselves off it, I sometimes miss when majority of the world didn’t know what birth charts were so I don’t have to see comments in peoples tiktoks about them doing the most mundane things and everyone in the comments trying to relate it with 100 different placements and signs. You can relate to other people based on similar traits you don’t have to always include astrology into it and just because you guys don’t have similar chart placements yet relate to them doesn’t mean you have to make yourself feel excluded. Idk just a personal opinion pls don’t hate me for it

I might continue to post but I just really want to encourage people sitting in silence or meditating and really finding yourself before looking at a description and claiming it or allowing yourself to detach from your chart and reinventing yourself if you’d like, you can do anything don’t LIMIT YOURSELF

[dimplesandfierceeyes]

Writer asks! 🤲(what do YOU get out of writing?) 💝what is a fic that got a different response than you were expecting? 💥(find your least kudos'd fic - say something wonderful about it)

Hi Lauren!!! Ok so I apologise for the length of these answers haha once you get me talking about my fics, I just have a lot of feels

🤲what do YOU get out of writing? 

So I think two main things. One, it’s a creative outlet and I think that’s important to have. Two, it’s my way of accessing the fan community. I’ve never been much of a social media chatter. I’m not good at it. I find it difficult to express my interpretation of media so I’m not good as an analysis poster; I find it difficult to express my enthusiasm in a way that feels authentic so I’m not much of a ‘reaction’ poster; I find it difficult to reply to posts and asks and chain things without overthinking (hence the length of this post haha) so fanfiction is my way of doing all of those things. It also gives me an excellent excuse to keep rotating my blorbos in the microwave of my mind…

💝what is a fic that got a different response than you were expecting? 

Absolutely The Fine Line Between Home and Hormones. I truly did not expect the outpouring of love that I got from this fic. Omegaverse is such a love/hate trope and for a lot of people it’s an outright ‘no’ whatever the situation. I think this is because many omegaverse AU fics often kept caught in the trappings of the trope and lose sight of the characterisation, which is a shame because it’s a concept that has a huge amount of potential to really explore characterisation if approached from a certain direction. I’m incredibly happy that people gave The Fine Line a chance—even those who normally wouldn’t touch the trope with a barge pole!—because I was truly expecting to be passed by haha

Another special mention to the response I’ve had to The Space Pirate and the Officer of the Law. What has surprised me about that one was not the initial response, though that was overwhelmingly positive, which of course made me very happy, but it’s the way that it has stayed with people. It's not my most kudos'd fic, it's not the one with the most comments or the highest number of bookmarks, it's not even the one that people have read the most. Statistics-wise it's pretty average.

However, it is one of the most common fics that people still mention it to me, that people still want to know if there’s anymore to rummage out of that universe, that people still highlight as one of their favourites—that more than anything is incredible to me.

I love that it made such a lasting impression, not least because I didn't originally write the story for PatPran at all. In fact I wrote it several months before Bad Buddy aired. But when I stumbled back across the original mucho brainrot later it occurred to me that the dynamic between the two characters was a perfect fit for Pat and Pran and so I just had to adapt it for them

💥find your least kudos'd fic - say something wonderful about it. 

So my least kudos’d fic is in fact a Supernatural fic called Fallen Human (not a very exciting title I know haha). It was a coda for series 9 episode 1 after Castiel has become human and it only got 100 hits and 6 kudos.

At the time, I was really compelled by this idea of a celestial being for the first time truly experiencing humanity first hand, to become that bridge between the ‘animal’ and the ‘divine’. I enjoyed exploring it though. Here’s one of my favourite paragraphs on this theme:

He was still shaking from the raw physicality of it. His graceless body betrayed him. He had known, distantly, dismissively, of the toxins and electricity that fuelled the human form. He had never realised how it ravaged them, controlled them. He was, disorientingly, exhilarated yet terrified, the lungs of his body lungs dragging in great, heaving gusts of air without his permission, every limb trembling with the overload.

My least kudos’d Bad Buddy fic is Extra-ordinary Louis, (which is miles ahead of Fallen Human with a sleek 31 kudos). This is based on the concept of characters having self-awareness between the scenes of shows (which I stole from another show).

I actually really like this fic and had a lot of fun plotting it out. I also enjoyed playing with the world-building too because once I’d started I couldn’t help the questions. Like, well if this is the side characters what about the background characters? What are they, how do they work? 

I can understand why it’s not popular though. The characters are not that popular and it even focuses on a rarepair romance haha. It’s also a pretty weird concept. My joke tagline as I wrote this one was: The fic nobody will read. That was not entirely correct but it wasn't without its truth either haha.

Thank you for the questions, Lauren!

These asks were from this post here, in case anyone reading wants to join in and reblog yourself!

[writterings]

ur opinion on red white and royal blue reminds me of this one post discussing how a lot of modern queer media with "rep" is just incredibly sanitized and white and it just tells the same story with the same dynamic over and over again. it pushes heterosexual norms and dynamics onto queer relationships and it rarely feels like an authentic depiction of the queer experiences

tbh rw&rb's blue rep was like....okay. it wasn't exactly sanitized since they did have hot n dirty sex (the author is just not good at writing sex scenes) and it wasn't all white since the main character is half mexican but the rep overall was just....boring.

like it literally was handful of fanfic tropes shlunked together. like, ngl, if this book was a fanfic with a similar premise with character i already knew and loved -- it would be passable. and that's the highest compliment i can give it. the character were all...bland. their interests were literally just h*rry p*tter, star wars, and fictional politics. they also had no sex appeal. we were literally just told their character traits and not shown them at all. we were told the two main characters were attracted to each other but this wasn't shown at all -- even when they were having sex. we were told the main character was half mexican and half white, and the only representation of his mexican heritage was through food and him occasionally speaking spanish. there was no heart in this book, even if the story could keep me intrigued enough to finish it (after i took several long breaks in between my reading sessions. it's taken me 3 months to finishing it lol)

the characters were also too perfect in terms of being "unproblematic" like -- you genuinely think i can believe that a crown prince of england would believe in and support efforts to decolonize countries under britain's rule??? this author genuinely though i would believe a fictional stand in for the house of windsor would want to return all the artifacts stolen from other countries??? like these things ARE GOOD but if you don't want a character that supports the opposite then maybe don't write about someone who inherits the legacy of an empire without fully diving into this aspect of their character. that along with how all the characters also talked like they were in therapy with each other and 100% communicated everything they were thinking in a clear and unproblematic way. like this author was clearly terrified to ever show her characters as having done something that could even be perceived as "wrong."

that is what i would say is sanitized about the novel -- the refusal to make interesting characters and to actually tackle more themes that would make the novel and it's world more well-rounded. and then that just translates into sanitizing the rep a bit, both the queer and racial rep, as the characters just become one-dimensional and defined by their marginalization status rather than their character traits. so like the rep in a bubble is okay. but the rest of the novel somewhat ruins it.

anyways, i didn't HATE the novel. like the moving of the events in the story were its saving grace and it was competent. just everything else kinda fell flat. so i do overall agree with you that the representation wasn't authentic in this novel, this the characters were hardly people.