#and then your mom (the only connection you have to your culture) is killed

[chepib3]

dick and clark would have such interesting conversations about being ripped away from your culture and your family and about becoming a symbol of hope and resilience in the face of complete loss and all of those fun topics i'm going to pour my feelings about anglo/eurocentrism into those guys any day now

[punkeropercyjackson]

Afro-dominican Percy Jackson headcanons but by a black dominicana cause y'all write him like an oreo

His name is actually short for Perseo and his middle name is Isadore.Percy is a nickname given to him by Sally so he took it on willingly instead of assimilation but also gringos are always pronouncing Perseo wrong,including monsters and that only encouraged him to not use it in full

Sea green eyes but also darkskinned,4d textured hair,thick lips and a big nose.He's 6'4,his gray streak naturally faded to white and he has a wide variety of hairstyles per book:Baby dreads(TLT),wicks(TTC),twists(TLO),afro(for most of SON because he dosen't remember what styles he likes),dreads(SON finale),adds beads(MOA)and long locs(Tales of Dead Seas)

He calls Sally Mamí,obviously???

His favorite dominican food is blue flan

Third gen inmigrant and monoracial(lightskin Percy with loose hair is fake,that is a NIGGA 100%)

Sally had him grow up on Discovery Kids

Trilingual-Fluent in english,spanish and greek

Haircare and skincare king

Uses nigga enough that it's a common aspect of his vocabulary

All his durags/bonnets/beads are blue

Huge Pokemon fan(It's a latino meme that we love anime based things)

Sally taught him exactly zero latino machoism or black toxic masculinity and he's actually transfem bigender and femme.She uses she/he and a bunch of neopronouns and her womanhood is extremely afrolatina with her mannerisms and tastes(doing black woman hairstyles and makeup on herself,her favorite Disney Princesses are Tiana and Brandy's Cinderella,post transition she learns she deserves to be high maintenance and tons more things)

He listens to Mcr,D'Angelo,Meet Me @ The Altar,Rihanna,Megan Thee Stallion,Ice Spice,Lo-Fi beats and hiphop

He's demisexual and his type is princess-y black women(Perseus' wife was Andromeda,the princess of Ethopia afterall and names have power in the Pjo world)

Bro is romantic-He's a guygirl so that automatically gives him an advantege with rizz but she's autistic so that boosts it by 100+ points.No regards to social norms,just unfiltered kindness and acts of service that would kill any other nigga to even think of.Also i'm obsessed with the idea of her calling his s/o 'Strawberry Pop' because i'm a Demeter Kid

As per canon he's punk but i'm not boring like Rick so i do a deep dive into it.He uses 'Punkero' for himself too and he's crustpunk,afropunk,seapunk and solarpunk and he knows how to diy things that don't even exist,uses an emulator and only phone and secondhand bought games on anti-capitalist principal,defaces public property,did a lot of research after finding out punk is an actual culture and not just an aesthetic that was surprisingly easy to focus on and starts dressing punk too as he slowly finds the right thirft stores and learns to make clothes.He throwns black/dominican influences in his outfits and in Tods he gives himself that multicolor mermaid hair where you keep your og hair tone still for that Ocean Girl swag

She's a Latino Memes Queen OBVIOUSLY but her favorites are cat ones and she's also huge on energy drinks(cotton candy bang stan just like me fr fr)and legos(i'm pleasently surprised at how many lego shows fans are latinos).White people jokes are her jam also and Luke's colonizing fascist ass got the worst of it before he killed his ass

He is 100% Nico and Hazel's mom and dad,as per canon.Nico is black too because it fits perfectly and Hazel's got black hair and brown eyes because fuck exoticification so it gives them a special connection and La Residencia Jackson is a bit of a cultural melting pot because of it.Dominican flag hung on the wall behind the couch,even more hang gesturing and loud inside voices than normal,New Orleans cuisine and everything inbetween.Percy calls Hazel 'Mamita' and Nico 'Papito',do eachother's hair,they hang out almost 24/7,he radicalized them so now Hazel's pastel goth punk and Nico's goth punk,there's a lot leaning against him for emotional support or even just out of younger sibling/child love,Percy guilt-trips Poseidon into giving him money for Nico's meds and aids and helps Hazel out with girls,beach days with them are made straight up tropical with Percy's powers and they're every white man and Karen's worst nightmares combined as one big happy familia with Sally as the topping who seems easy to speak over but Percy said herself she got her rebellion against shitty people from her

Percy Jackson is NOT Peter Parker.C'mon now,don't fall for the boyloser propaganda and be real-We all know he's Hobie Brown and that his Spider Variant is an older Spiderpunk.Speak the truth with me

[sentfromwolves]

◈—⌈ SENTFROMWOLVES ⌋ writeblr introduction ²⁰²⁴

Hi everyone, and welcome to my writeblr 2024 introduction. My name is Eran (they/he & freshly thirty) and I've been on writeblr for awhile, so you might've seen me around. ( •̀ ω •́ ) This is my yearly post to introduce the projects I'll be working on this year, what I write, and who I am. I'll be keeping it short and sweet.

I'd love to meet more writers this year, so if you write any of the following, or just like these genres, or even just wanna shout about ocs together, come holler and I'll give you a follow!

◈ — sci-fi and fantasy of any kind! cozy fantasy, romantasy, epic fantasy, space opera? this is my bread and butter, and I love shouting about it from the rooftops with others! ◈ — found families, ot3s, complicated soulmates. I am almost always writing about soulmates who have either killed each other at least once in the past or are planning some sort of murder. Complicated relationships, especially found families that aren't all rainbows and butterflies, are right up my alley. ◈ — queer and trans protagonists, large queer casts! all of my wips feature trans/nonbinary leads, and I'm always looking for more queer writer friends to connect with! ◈ — hope at the end of the tunnel, but hell to get to. I write stories with hopeful endings, with the sun on the horizon, with the promise that something better might now at long last be on the way. I love seeing characters get put through hell, but I love it even more when they make it to the other side. (if you write tragedy though, please know I will still cry on your doorstep if you'll have me) ◈ — corruption arcs, redemption arcs, sometimes both! Deeply nuanced characters with messy attitudes, and even messier actions. I'm just as equally obsessed with cool worldbuilding as I am with character-driven things, and I will yell about ocs all day, and maybe draw them too >:3 ◈ — big, epic, and sweeping worldbuilding! I am a huge fan of delving into the worldbuilding aspect of my wips. I love building magic systems, cultures, geographies, and more. One of my 2024 projects is doing a worldbuilding experiment blog at some point. I am always down to clown over worldbuilding, whether to sound board or just holler together!

There's a lot more I could say here, but this post can only get so long! Σ(っ °Д °;)っ my dms are always open, and I will follow back most of the time! But just to get all of the basics outta the way:

◈—« here's a quick and dirty rundown of how I work! »—◈

➺ I interact and follow from @calamityeden, so if you see that username, it's just me.✌️I am most active on discord, and if we become friends, you're more than welcome to ask to add me there. ➺ I am open to being tagged in writeblr games! Just know that I am not online all the time, and might be slow to respond to them. 🐌 ➺ My ask box and DMs are open, just please be respectful. I love meeting new writers and talking about projects! I am happy to chat and make new friends. You're always welcome! 💌 ➺ This is a strictly 18+ writeblr. Please DNI with me if you are a minor and respect my boundaries.

🪄You can find my core tags here under my writing and my graphics, as well as writer reminders, game train and catharsis. (❁´◡`❁) And now onto the fun part! My 2024 main project line up!

I have my main four listed here that you'll probably hear me yelling about pretty consistently, but I've also got a lot of other projects rattling around in my brain. So if you're ever curious about a project that's not here, feel free to yell at me about it! >:3

Genre: Dark Urban Fantasy Standalone.

Status: First Draft Complete (117k)—Revising for beta round one.

There's a clock tattooed on Nemesis's wrist, and when it reaches midnight on his 21st birthday, it will kill him. It doesn't help that his mom is the one that cursed him, and the demon currently possessing his car ate her before Nemesis could convince her to break the damned thing. Thankfully, Judge came prepared with an alternative: help him break into a mythical living city and steal its heart, and in return, he'll shatter Nemesis's curse for free. Accompanied by a three-headed hellhound, a haunted holy sword, and an excommunicated exorcist, Judge and Nemesis set their sights on an impossible heist. But the closer Nemesis gets to the heart, the more he begins to realize that he isn't the only one under a curse. And if he doesn't find a way to break Judge's soon, his own life will be forfeit as well.

Genre: Space Opera

Status: 2024 zero drafting from scratch

Two hundred years ago, humanity expanded to the stars only to find a cosmos filled with graves. But then their children began displaying the strange ability to commune with the alien ruins scattered across the planets, waking ancient, extrasolar mecha from their sleep, and turned the struggling colonies of space explorers into the fledgling galactic nation of Sol Galatea.  Now, Wren Akane is on the run from the whole galaxy, wanted for the strange alien powers throbbing through his veins. His luck runs out when he accidentally awakens an ancient Relic in the desert of his planet, only to be embedded with the memories of its last pilot and the revelation that the war that littered the cosmos with graves is far from over. But no one believes Wren when he tells them that continuing to wake the Relics will bring the hostile alien empire that destroyed them back to Sol Galatea’s doorstep. Only Wren’s rival pilot, Marek Khalid, seems interested in a word Wren has to say. But Marek doesn’t want to save Sol Galatea. He has big plans for what to do when the aliens arrive, a rebellion to lead, and if Wren isn’t on his side, he’s in his way. With time running out, Wren must soon decide how far he’s willing to go to save the people that never tried to save him—or if Marek is right, and he should let the stars burn instead.

Genre: Adult Romantasy

Status: First Draft (1k/100k)

Once a year, Celestials from all across the Lumina Kingdom gather together for Eventide, the season of courtship, hoping to win the hand of the most eligible star at court. Sirius knows the game they play all too well: by day, he is the forgettable, miserable daughter of the Lumina Family, least of his seven siblings and wanted only for the royal blood running through his veins.  By night, however, Sirius is the Starweaver—the mysterious dressmaker taking the kingdom by storm. Everyone wants to know the identity of the one responsible for elaborate outfits that turn even the quietest Celestial in the room into the star of the show, outshining even Sirius’s luminous sibling, Diana. When the infamous King Beyond Midnight arrives with the intent to wed Diana, Sirius finds his secret in jeopardy when the condition for their hand in marriage is a simple challenge: reveal the Starweaver's true identity. There’s no outsmarting Octavian for long, and soon, Sirius will have to make a choice: give up on his passion and stay hidden forever, or risk everything to stay true to who he really is.

Genre: Second World Urban Fantasy

Status: Outlining

Something changes the day that Nakano Touya returns to the crumbling city of Soma Lux. It starts with voices in the radio static, blurry figures caught on camera, always out of focus. When a monster crawls out of Touya's television screen and eats him, the last thing he expects is to find a strange, shadowy otherworld lurking on the other side. But his biggest problem isn't the monsters of the otherworld that want to eat him, or the talking cat that saved him, now living in his apartment without a care in sight. Soma Lux is experiencing a strange new epidemic—one that Touya is completely unaffected by. But when his half-sister falls comatose, Touya knows he has to get to the bottom of it all to save her—and find out why he's the only one immune. Accompanied by his jaded ex-boyfriend, Touya’s nosy classmates, a part-time fortune teller, and a cantankerous old hag, Touya dives into the murky underbelly of Soma Lux, where the realities have begun to bleed together between his world and the next. 

That's all for now! >:3 Here's to an amazing 2024! (also my actual blog is a mess right now please do not mind it ksjndfskfn)

[drdemonprince]

your reblog of that post reminded me. i have no connection to my indigenous culture on my father's side because i want nothing to do with that side of my family. the people i know from that side of my family are all horrifically and violently abusive. and what i often have to sit with is that this is one way various cultures are subsumed into a hegemonic whiteness. i have little doubt that the substance abuse and violence from that side of my family can be at least partially attributed to white supremacy. what little i know of my paternal grandfather is that he treated his kids and women largely the same way my father treats his kids and women. white supremacy turns trauma and the consequent violence into our culture, which (of course!) we want to separate ourselves from. so we're left with this hole where culture should be. i'm lucky enough to have (some) cultural polish roots via my adoptive grandparents on my mom's side, at least.

This is a very common story -- a friend of mine who is reconnecting with their Indigeneity has a similar struggle. In my family, the violence of assimilation and the violence of abuse, neglect, heavy substance use, and even interfamilial murder are all inextricably linked. There is this big hole in my family life, an occluded spot taking up more than a quarter of the page, but in the background so it's easy to be tempted to ignore. The family that had a distinct culture separate from the dominate white middle-class one is also the family that has almost no historical records of itself, erased much of the history that remained, took deliberate efforts to pass as white, and sometimes literally killed one another because they were so poor and traumatized and dysfunctional. Every healthy, loving, supportive link that i had to that family legacy died very early, as if marked by a curse. And my dad, who was uhh not so healthy, did too.

I can only connect to that history by doing things like talking to my one surviving uncle, exchanging foggy memories with one another to try and clarify things as best we can, reading about the region, doing geneaological research, and connecting with local tribes as well as heritage groups that preserve some vestiges of the culture, and cultures tangentially close to what once was there. I find it healing while also feeling like a fraud and an interloper, but I have settled on the understanding that keeping these words and practices alive and giving to them without demanding anything for myself is the right thing to do. And a whole lot of mourning. But if you are Indigenous at all, then mourning what is lost while fighting to preserve what is not is kind of the very culture itself, too.

On the other side of my family, it is harder. They were more present in my life, and less dysfunctional, but there is a profound hollowness there. My dad, my grandma, my uncle, my relatives who died before I got to know them, they were marked with trauma...but they were outspoken, and distinct, and so vibrantly alive. I can take the good with the bad of them and see a rich, full humanness. It sounds so terrible to say, but i find it very challenging to locate the humanity in my mother's side of the family. They do nearly all that they can to choke it out. I'm trying to not be resentful anymore of what they never learned how to do. So instead I will just be sad. Being around them is so cold. It's so lonely. Except for my sister.

Sorry, I made all of this about myself, but I hope some of this is resonant. I think there are ways you can connect with your Indigeneity even if your feelings toward your direct relations are quite negative. There's a lot of talk in Native spaces about pretendians and people not knowing their people and having no family ties and that exists for a reason, but it can sometimes scare the wrong people away, much as talk about straight people in queer spaces can drive the wrong people away. There are ways to forge new connections and practice a culture and find your people if you do not have them already, and some of my friends have shown me that. But you also do not have to if all the associations with that background are just...too upsetting and too linked to trauma. It might be healing to find your own way of relating to it, or maybe just connecting with the culture that you have fond warm feelings and associations with is the path for you. I miss my parternal grandmother so much. She was a truly radiant and special person. Decades after her death, my uncle, her son, still says she was his very best friend. And it's not even in a toxic way. she was just that wonderful a person. ive never been loved quite so actively, nurtured and made to grow while also listened to. i am so thankful i got that even for just thirteen years. and sometimes honoring her is just being a searcher and having a fiery spirit inside me and going to yard sales and crushing at trivial pursuit.

[bestworstcase]

grimm are manifestations of anonymity.

the narrative overtly uses the grimm as a symbol for the persecution of faunus, and there is a heavily implied cultural perception that faunus are grimm-adjacent. salem herself is effectively a grimm faunus and implicitly identifies herself as such (she's "your grace," and so is ghira).

when ruby sees the face of the man in the hound, she sees only his silver eye and jumps to a conclusion about her mother. "that's what happened to mom. when i saw its eyes, i knew." note her use of "its" rather than "his"—he's merely an extension of summer rose in ruby's mind, a horrifying revelation of what happened to her mother.

(he's anonymous.)

but!

before that happens, the narrative takes the time to provide the audience with more information. the hound is not what happened to summer rose; he's the unique experiment.

he is also involved in the paradigm-shifting power struggle between salem and cinder, being prominent in both their confrontation in 8.4 and salem's conciliatory move in 8.6. ruby imagines a connection between him and her mother because of his eyes, but the narrative invites us to associate him with cinder: salem makes the hound in cinder's absence and then involves him in both her cruelty and her concession, and there's an obvious line to draw between the hound and cinder's arm, and also their… eye situations:

and he's a faunus.

salem was human until she was transformed by submersion in magical waters—first the fountain of life, then the pool of grimm. the faunus creation myth is humans transformed by submersion in magical waters, and:

But the small group remaining on the boat were too horrified or afraid to take the leap of faith. “What kind of monster are you?” they shouted at the God of Animals.

the mythical transformation is perceived as horrifying and monstrous by the humans who choose to remain as they are. while we don't know how salem created the hound, it probably did involve submersion in grimm liquid and with him being a faunus the rhyming with the faunus creation myth is… obvious, and that raises an important question: did salem do this to him, or did he take a leap of faith?

(embedding him in the conflict between salem and cinder also casts that same question onto cinder, by association.)

the hound is important—as himself, not as an anonymous proxy for summer rose. ruby's assumption is founded on his anonymity, but… how will the reveal that summer joined salem of her own volition recontextualize the existence of the hound? if he isn't what ruby thinks he is, then what is he?

broadly speaking, there are two possibilities:

it is what it looks like, and the hound was a person salem captured, mutilated, and twisted into the core of a monstrous grimm. her villain->hero arc will have to reckon with who he was and why she did this to him in proportion with the horror portrayed in V8.

it isn't what it looks like, and the person who became the hound had at least some agency—he worked for salem and died and she reanimated him as a grimm, or he outright volunteered for some reason, or the experiment went in the reverse order of what we've presumed and she made a person out of a grimm, or something. her villain->hero arc will necessarily have to involve an explanation.

which is more likely?

on the one hand, this story is not shy about affording sympathy and the opportunity to change to villains who have done reprehensible things—hi, neo. so the gathering momentum toward salem having a villain->hero arc does not preclude the hound having been tortured and subjugated, and there is potential for dovetailing with what salem has done to cinder and oscar as moral challenges she'll have to confront.

on the other… there is set up for salem to be rather less malevolent than ozma would have people believe; she didn't kill summer, her war only properly began about fourteen years ago, and she's not about annihilation. what she wants is change—freedom. the narrative has also not been especially subtle about the grimm being more than soulless evil monsters. the hound being like salem, a person who chose to become grimm, rather than her victim, fits that pattern.

there is also a connecting thread between the white fang's grimm masks ("humans wanted to make monsters of us, so we chose to don the faces of monsters") and the shallow sea and the hound and salem's implicit associations with the faunus; the grimm masks are a symbol, the hound was a faunus, and salem attracts deeply traumatized, broken, desperate people.

his physical state—all the massive scarring and decay—make torture and subjugation the more intuitive possibility, but… thematically… the shallow sea, the pool of grimm, faunus choosing to don the faces of monsters, masks, anonymity. i keep trying to argue myself out of the choice idea and i can't because it clicks together too well. he has something ascension-adjacent going on—i definitely think salem resurrected him—and the main question i have right now is to what degree salem might have corrupted it.

[akirakirxaa]

Final Thoughts on Dawntrail

Final thoughts on MSQ. There are some positives that I will open with, but as I do have many criticisms and overall did not have as good of a time as I've had in other expacs, I will put it under a break. This will also be quite long.

I will start off by listing some of the things I enjoyed. I liked the overall themes of found and adoptive family, as well as family in general. Most of the plot threads and cutscenes around these themes tended to be quite good. I will admit, I bawled like a baby when they introduced baby Gulool Ja to Koana. I also very much enjoyed the plot revolving around the milalla and honestly wish there were more; I love Erenville's mom a lot as a character, but I feel like she took up comparatively a lot of narrative space when Krile's parents were much more plot relevant. I also liked Bakool's character arc as I'm just a sucker for the bully becoming a big well meaning lug. This is another plot I wish we'd gotten more about since, once we left the woods, we never see him outside of combat again; I'd have liked to see him struggling to connect with the people in non-life threatening situations and learning to not react to everything with violence.

Unfortunately, that is the end of what I actually enjoyed without a "but" that isn't "I'd have liked more". I am so sorry, but by the time I got to the end I did not like Wuk Lamat anymore. The sheer amount of time we spend with her and the sheer amount of that time spent on the same exact speech again and again grated by the end. There were some moments where she really shone though, and that's why I'm putting this to poor writing and misuse of her character than her character actually being bad. I loved her in the whole bit with Zarool Ja, and during the Rite it was fine because her learning to grow up was the point. Which leads to the second thing I really did not like; that we existed to be a camera for her story. 99% of the story could have happened even were we not there, and the last 1% is honestly iffy. I understand letting her have her time, and despite finding it excruciatingly dull to my tastes, the rite was fine and she should take point during it since it's to test her abilities. But...there was not one moment where we got to be the hero. Not one. Hell, in several cutscenes I could barely even see my character because it's her show the whole time. Even at the end, where it finally matters that we're here, because we have the magic crystal that lets us call backup and stay and fight...it still didn't, because she just broke into the fight anyways. Once again, we might as well not even be there.

"Well what's the problem with that!" I hear you cry, and the problem with that is this is a Final Fantasy. I'm here to play the protagonist. I'm not here to control the camera while the writer's NPC does everything. She can be the main character of the expac, but I should not be able to remove my character entirely and have everything go the exact same way. Literally any scion could've done the same things we did while we drank on the beach and nothing would change. A great example of this was when Gulool Ja Ja was killed. Not only did we just stand there and not even attempt to interfere (this could have been a good moment to push the difference of another culture by having an ally stop the WoL), we barely had any reaction at all to it and were covered up most of the time by NPCs. At that point, just have us not be there, have us out protecting civilians and we arrive too late. We've had cutscenes from other PoVs before where we show up right at the end (for good or ill) so no excuse.

I very much did not like any of the plot around Alexandria and Living Memory. It strikes me as that meme of "can I copy your homework?" "Sure, just change it a little so it doesn't look the same". Tell me if you've heard this one before. Immortal being, unable to bear loss, creates a city full of the memories of their lost loved ones in a recreation of their former home. They want to sacrifice the people of the Source to restore these loved ones. When we try to reason with them, they tell us that they cannot give up on their fallen loved ones and refuse to move on. They show us their memories of their loved ones in their former home. At the end, they turn into a big damn monster that we fight. We're close to losing when an ally falls from the sky to our aid. When we win, they ask us to remember.

It's knock off brand Shadowbringers.

Not to mention it seriously feels like the writer forgot while doing Living Memory that, not only does no one remember these people we're erasing, but their souls were eaten so that people can not worry about, idk, falling pianos and such. These people literally just do not exist anymore and we are now the only people who remember them. What's worse, there are probably millions more people we didn't get to meet that we still erased, so they're just gone forever. That's...literally the opposite of the plot of Ultima Thule from EW. We, in this case, are playing the role of Meteion, and not a single Endless seems to have an opinion on it outside of Erenville's mother and Krile's parents.

Never mentioning Dynamis really bugged me too. I was kinda hoping that Wuk Lamat's "specialty", the thing that set her apart, was maybe she was just very good at subconsciously wielding dynamis, letting her easily befriend others and draw greater strength when she needs it. But, like many many pieces of lore, it's never even suggested. In fact, if a piece of lore was in EW, you can almost guarantee it isn't mentioned. Like the boy with a lightning aether imbalance. We literally have the cure for that, but say nothing at all, not even to our allies when we meet back up. I'm hoping this will be addressed in a later patch since it was specifically pointed out (chekov's gun and all) but still. It felt over and over that things we learned in ShB and EW were glossed over at best or outright ignored at worst. The pacing of everything after the dome appeared was strange; some parts went too fast, then some went on forever.

Unfortunately, this comes in as my least favorite expac. Even below SB, which I famously dislike. I'm hoping moving forward we'll see some more interesting stories that once again require us to be present to be told, and I am curious about why the key bears Azem's symbol, but I will not be rushing to play through this expac again any time soon. And will most likely be tweaking the scenes in anything I write to make more sense, flow better, or actually require Akira's attention.

[isthisrealliiife]

Lawdamercy

tl;dr: life has happened in mostly good ways but consequently progress on an echo a stain has been necessarily delayed.

Next chapter will be up probably in mid-July.

First of all, Dave Chapelle is a transphobe piece of shit and I won't forgive him for it. But also a thousand years ago, when I was just a little baby teenage deviant in my first year of undergrad, I imprinted on a half-baked as my stoner movie so thoroughly that I feel certain that the above moment in that movie is a reflection of my very soul when I'm in distress. Also, Killer killed Nibbles. I will never pay another dime for anything he's done and it can be argued that by posting this gif I'm contributing to him remaining in the cultural consciousness of the West or the US or tumblr or whatever, but listen, y'all, sometimes there's tension between the things we connect with and there is no way to be ethical in the current late capitalist imminently apocalyptic hellscape, so I'm just gonna keep half-baked.

I'm Gen X and tired af. I will provide seasoning when Gen Z eats the rich and the boomers and whomstever else (lol not me I'm a public servant / educator / librarian who will never own property nor submit to these PWI motherfuckers for love or money), but just let me sit here in middle age with my smoke, my edibles, and my gotdamb movie lines. I love y'all. So in case you hadn't guessed (and why would you have? It's very unlikely you've read this far -- but if you have, maybe you HAVE guessed), I'm fucking exhausted.

Despite my well-laid plans, some things have happened in the past few weeks that demanded my attention. 1. My mom injured her knee and needed me to help her, so I did for about two weeks. 2. I finished my fucking project from hell.

I FINISHED MY FUCKING PROJECT FROM HELL.

I have to give a presentation on it Friday but then I'm going to be DONE with that fucking thing and the last class of this MLIS and I cannot describe in human language what it has taken for me to reach this point looooool lord bless Google Slides I guess

3. I completed two trainings, one to be a mandated reporter (which I already am but the laws have been updated) and one to learn how to prevent school violence and they were long and tedious and annoying to do because I'd already completed both and knew pretty much all the content already from being a public school educator for 10 years but the school where I got my MSEd lost my paperwork so here we are.

4. Secured a practicum / internship, the last missing puzzle piece to unlock my Master of Library and Information Science achievement, so my fatigue-d ass as been exhausting myself daily interning for a fuckin DOPE school librarian who is queer and my age and went to pride with her wife and two daughters and I've learned so much in the past two weeks I don't even know where to begin. So all that is to say, despite my previous promises, obviously, I have not posted any updates to an echo, a stain, nor will I be until at least mid-July because I'm going to sleep for a week once all this shit is wrapped up and my status as a Mistress of Library and Information Scientists is secured.

(Mistress Library and Information Scientist? I need it to be clear that I will not only be a Mistress of Scientists, but also a Scientist myself. If you want to know if my Mistress status will be as a kept woman or as a domme, the answer is yes and I'm currently accepting applications and formal proposals via asks and dms/pms/whatever tumblr calls them. All genders and identities welcome except stupid people with no imagination. GTFO. But if you've read this far, while it's plausible you're fucking unhinged, it seems highly unlikely that you're stupid OR unimaginative. WELCOME <3

So anyway please make any propositions or promposals fun and funny, and if you gonna be nasty, use your words and please make it hot. The world doesn't need more unsolicited nudes, genital pics, or milquetoast descriptions of sexytimes.)

ANYWAY Once my plate is clear and I can do other things with my time besides grind my bones to dust to prove to the PWI powers that be that I've humbled myself sufficiently to be worthy of their blessings, I'll be getting back into aeas with a thorough reread, revision of the next chapter (which yes, is already written, but is not fit for human consumption until it's been properly revised), and I guess its third act? I honestly don't know how many acts there are. I know I should. Maybe there are four. I know this is something I should know but I'm not a fiction writer by training or trade so I don't know how y'all frame these things. Anyway some wild shit is about to go down, don't think I've forgotten or gone soft. Errybody hold on to your panties because when I get back up in that shit we got some reckoning to deal with.

But first deadass animal antics because I WANNA AND IDGAF.

loooool OK seriously I'm crazy sleep deprived and I have a job interview Thursday and I need to create a slide deck for my internship mentor so I'mma go work on that byyyeeeeeee

[panimoonchild]

Explore and fall in love with the cities of your country before it's too late; before Russia wants to wipe them off the map

On the 26th day of the music challenge, which is dedicated to love. I want to share some of the once charming cities of Ukraine, some of which have remained so. I regret that I was not able to visit some of them when they were radiating with life. Let's begin!

Bakhmut one was the city of wine and roses but now Russia wipe it off to complete ruins. I can't talk about it. I'm sure you all see hell with Bakhmut in the news. No more words can describe that experience.

Song: Austin Mckenzie - Crazy Beautiful

Melitopol was known as the city of the delicious cherries with a rich aroma and taste before the Russians came. Residents never give up even in the occupation. I hope I will see you in the all beauty of yours.

Song: Halsey - Honey

Izium is famous for its huge strawberries and pine forests rich in mushrooms. After Russia, it was destroyed and tortured. It was here that the most torture chambers and a forest with mass graves were exposed. It has been liberated for a year now. And the town is slowly but surely recovering. It is a long process after the horrors Ukrainians have experienced.

Song: BTS - Love Maze

My hometown. My Donetsk. My Ukrainian Donetsk. I will wait for the blue and yellow flag to fly over you again. And those depressing and black rags will fade from your memory.

In memory, you left only like that. Strong, courageous, welcoming, and progressive. Those characteristics Russia almost sucked it out of you. Unfortunately, when we ran from Donetsk, we didn't take photo albums with us. Only photos from Donetsk and Mariupol I have because some of them were sent by my relatives. Digital copy some of them. That photo of me as a child. I was happy and peaceful to live in Ukrainian Donetsk. Me and my family never forget that we are Ukrainians. Never doubted that. If we don't run away from Donetsk, I'm sure we will end up like my classmate Bohdan Maksymenko in Russian captivity. Because we never hide who we are. My mom almost fought with the parents of her pupils who didn't understand what they voted for in the "referendum". My sister has connections and shares a mindset with Donetsk ProUkrainian artists. Who organized the rally for Ukraine. I could not go to school after that "vote". If I leave there, I am almost sure will end up killing myself. Because I can't live when my identity is not safe. And hide and lie that I'm Ukrainian. No way. It's hurt as hell to imagine. I am always thankful to my mom that she decided and leave everything, even our flat just to keep me and my sister safe and happy. She is strong as steel. Love you, mom.

Song: Антитіла - Завжди моя

Lines that hit close to home:

"You will always be mine,

Like a melody

Of my mother's songs

You will always be mine,

Like my native land.

And I love you from the moon and back!"

That video of the rally for Ukraine on 17th April 2014 in Donetsk makes me heavily tear up. Again.

Mariupol district always leaves beautiful memories from my childhood. This field of sunflowers on the road to selo (village) Berdianske where I had rested with my family until 2013 only now have all the colors of it in my memory come to life. After the occupation and destruction of Mariupol. I have two photos from Berdianske. All the memories remain in my head. I only wish I could visit you liberated and rebuilt and I'll freely run through the field of sunflowers with bare feet. Only wish...

Song: Motanka - Bosymy Nizhkamy

Lyrics that describe the humanized version of Mariupol before Russia are:

"Somewhere in the forest, there was a girl in a wreath

She lured the morning with her charming beauty

She fell in love

And the night of the day is living its last life

With her bare feet, with her bare feet"

Lviv. My second hometown. My shelter. My breath of fresh air and freedom. My cultural outlet.

There I finished high school and university. It's crazy to understand but I have lived here almost 10 years now. When in Donetsk I had lived 14 years of my life. Time is a scary thing.

Song: BTS - Trivia: Love

[morgan-n-cheese-91]

I think is really funny when people are like it's Anakin's own fault that he fell and it's like yeah did he make that choice in the end. In the end was it his choice completely? Yes and I won't argue that fact.

What I am going to argue is the fact that you do need to look back and see the factors that went into that choice. Let's break this down from the beginning of when we meet him and how that seems to have alter the fact that leads to this ending choice.

First we're introduced to him he's out in the market by himself find these strangers basically brings them home him and his mom share like the little stuff that they have. We then find out that he is a slave to a bug man, which that can be an entire another thing of the dehumanization of the slavers so that the general population was watching feels not connected and refuses to like feel sympathy for them in the same way that like the droids Stormtroopers and the clones are all dehumanized. But that's the point for another discussion. They run some tests on him and they're like oh my God this kid is the most powerful fucking being in the galaxy. That right there kind of sets him up as a bargaining chip not going to lie from that moment on Qui-Gon doesn't want him to be free because he's a person. Qui-Gon wants him to be free in that moment and continuously on because Anakin is so strong in the force and he's scared that something is going to happen and this really powerful kid is going to become a really powerful adult that's going to hurt somebody. And not even in like a caring about other people kind of way but in this kid's going to be used as a weapon why not make him our weapon first.

So he makes a bet with Anakin's owner that if Anakin can win in a fucking death race after cheating at dice. Anakin becomes in the terms of the time and place becomes Qui-Gon's property, with the intention of setting him quote unquote free. And I think the worst part about this is that when he frames it to Anakin that this is going to happen he frames it like he tried so hard to free both him and his mother not mentioning the fact that it was a "can I also free the mother as well? no she's too valuable. okay" there was no fight for Shmi not at least the same amount of fight that there was for Anakin.

Then we all know Anakin wins the damn race earns his freedom has his entire life been told how the Jedi are these mystical warriors who are bringing Peace and freedom to the Galaxy yet can't be bothered to help his mother his best friend and his community who are all slaves. It doesn't seem too far of a reach for me for that to be corrupted later on in his life of that what is this peace and FREEDOM that they are talking about when they couldn't help your people. And then is he going before a council is very important people and they basically test him on his like abilities in the force which like that makes sense intro exam. But then to be told that you're too angry about your past of like 3 days ago about being a slave and you're too attached to your mom who up until 3 days ago you've never been apart from and being apart from ment something really bad is going to happen, like being sold, so you are not being welcomed into the place you were taken from your home for and the girl you met 3 days ago said you could live with her but your mom is still a slave and not categorized anywhere as a human with rights so she could be beaten, assaulted or killed with no repercussions from the government or the people who are supposed to free the galaxy.

And then after all of that you do actually end up getting to train and be a part of the culture that you were told you were too angry for to attached to your mother for only because the man that quote unquote rescued you dies and his final wishes that you are trained. I don't know about most people but I feel like that would create a lot of resentment not only of the child who is being trained but also the feeling of guilt and that someone else resents you because the only reason you were there is because someone died. That is a lot of pressure to put on a child. Which makes it very easy for someone who is actively trying to groom a 9-year-old let's repeat that groom a nine-year-old into being the evil version of himself.

Which then also brings you on to the point of for a community that seems to very much centralize itself around its children it most definitely failed one of its most vulnerable by letting a 9-year-old be accessed by the most powerful man in the galaxy the fucking chancellor who is at least 50 years his senior with no supervision or activized dismay. Hell I wouldn't want to politician alone with a fully grown adult most of the time let alone a 9-year-old traumatized child. So does no wonder that by the time that he was in crisis he did what any logical person would have he went to the person who had been giving him support and trust for the last 14 years. Unfortunately due his past treatment that was not the people who actually could have helped him but rather the person who wanted to maintain control over him.

Tldr: it isnt any wonder why Anakin fell. He through a majority of canon was treated as something to be used or discarded rather than a person and that was used against him by Palpatine.

[papirouge]

the abortion discourse in feminist tumblr is so unhinged sometimes (I mean advocating for killing children because they're inconvenient is unhinged in any case :v), just a couple of greatest hits I have witnessed over the past ~3 years:

"disabled people sharing their stories doesn't belong in the abortion debate" I get where they are coming from, they don't want women to feel like they're pressured to keep a disabled child... but on the other hand has it occurred to any genius saying this that disabled people share their stories vis a vis abortion because the medical industry scaremongers women to... pressure them to abort (potentially) disabled fetuses? perhaps they only wish to comfort women in a tight spot who want encouragement that choosing to keep their babies is not a bad thing to do in spite of pressures from society and their medical providers to abort a child they want. or perhaps it will encourage other women that raising a disabled child is not a death sentence and that the disability isn't a guarantee that your child will be unhappy or incapable of living a full life?

"people conceived in rape should have no place in the abortion debate" same as above, people share these stories because they wish to provide examples to put women's fears to rest. but what I find interesting is how women who do choose to keep their babies conceived in rape are ignored by the pro-abortion side of the debate, I have read articles by pro-choice women who chose to keep their babies after being raped and they have to face so much vitriol from their own side that they feel there is no place for them at all in the discourse

and what is especially frustrating about all of this is these idiots will trash talk disabled people and people conceived in rape constantly, they are the most ableist people imaginable, and then they get huffy when those two contingents aren't pro-choice or speak out against all of the crap they have to hear on a daily basis... from the pro-abort side of the debate. gee I don't know why they wouldn't gladly support abortion if abortion advocates are constantly being shitheads to them! their brains just shut off entirely when it comes to abortion, you'd blindly support it or else you hate women >:-C

Hm sorry but forbidding disabled people from entering the abortion debate is stupid lol

Disability is one of the top excuses abortionists want to remove some people the right to live, it is necessary to let the voice of disabled people be heard. Whether they're in favor or against abortion. Disabled women can be mom too so they totally have their place in the debate about abortion.

This reminds me of an article featuring a disabled woman who was pressured by her family and friends to not have a child and I think the radfem & abortion freaked out at this one lol It's all about "my body my choice" until a disabled woman wants to have a child lol

They'll be like "why birthing a human being that may have a life of suffering (passing down her disability genes)??" and I can't help but think "you radfem never shut up about how being a woman is hard and how we're constantly oppressed and abused - yet I never see you advocate to stop having baby girls, so what makes you think it's ok to say that about people with disabilities?" ....I never got an answer, of course lol

And we could go as far as any other socially "stigmatizing" traits, such as being black as well. Which makes sense considering how abortion is targeting black communities... Everything is connected.

And on a different tangent, when I see how so many pro abortion radfem had no issue full on supporting Zionism racial suprematist agenda relying on the brutalization of "brown Arab savages wired to abuse women and gays" I can't help but connect the dots. Abortion culture and genetic/racial supremacism isn't as much of a big leap than most people think.

[yall-hate-kids-tourney]

Shinji Ikari

Y'all Hate Teens Propaganda

(cw parental abandonment, possession (?), strangulation, suicidal thoughts)

Eva is all about just how shitty it is for children to have the pressure of saving the world forced upon them. He is a traumatized boy who acts in a realistic way for someone of his age and in that situation but people hate him for being a coward when he is. Fourteen.

-

His mother died, his father abandoned him, he was guilted into being a child soldier by his dad wheeling out a severely injured girl. He's had to watch people he cares about get hurt, he's gone through intense physical and emotional suffering himself, but people keep going "Shinji's so whiny, why is he crying, just get in the robot Shinji"

-

Bro was abandoned by his dad after his mom died, and is only reunited with him so he can risk his life fighting bizarre alien monsters and getting repeatedly traumatized. He’s super depressed, awkward around the girls he likes, is forced to fight and harm one of his best friends, and when he finds a boy he likes is forced to kill him. Lots of people criticize his personality and his actions and his lack of desire to fight, but his responses are a product of everything that’s happened to him. He’s a flawed and complex character who gets a lot of shit from people who don’t understand the show.

-

So, you're Shinji Ikari.  You're 14, your mother is dead, you haven't seen your father in years, and you live alone, so you're understandably struggling with your mental health.  One day, your town is being attacked by an alien behemoth/nuked by government forces attacking said alien, and so your father sends a car to evacuate you to an underground shelter.  Of course, there's a catch.  After being taken to a chamber with a giant robot, your father then appears and tells you to pilot it and go fight the alien you were just running from.  Naturally, you refuse, and suddenly everyone is mad at you.

Alas, it wasn't just the control room that thought Shinji didn't measure up, but nearly the entirety of the real-world fandom.  Nearly everywhere you go, you can find someone deriding him for being selfish and cowardly, and having a poor response to having the fate of the world placed on his shoulders, in addition to his pre-existing depression, anxiety, and parental trauma.  The series was released in 1995, which was exactly the right time for Shinji suffering memes to become the foundation of anime internet culture.  Seriously, it goes deep.  Even his creators seem to think he's a bad character, as in pretty much every iteration of the series after the original, either his personality is changed to be more assertive, or he faces even more consequences for his perceived faults.

The real kicker is that there are plenty of moments in the original series that directly contradict the idea that Shinji is either selfish or cowardly!  For starters, although the reason he keeps piloting the EVA is a desire for purpose and approval, the reason he chose to start was because if he didn't, then Rei Ayanami, who had just suffered major injuries in a testing accident, would.  The first time he ran away due to panic, it was his self-loathing that brought him back, but the second time was because when his classmate was trapped in a rampaging EVA, his father remotely took control of his suit (which is connected to his nervous system, so it was more like puppeting his body) and forced him to nearly strangle his classmate to death.  However, the next time an Angel attacked, Shinji came back because he couldn't let everyone die if he could do something about it.  Although he is shy and submissive around his commanders and fellow pilots, Shinji's self-sacrificing nature drives him to incredible feats of reckless bravery in battle, putting himself in harm's way and attacking with alarming ferocity.  Shinji's guilt complex combined with his passive suicidality causes a lot of problems for both himself and the people around him, but to reduce him to a selfish coward misses the nuance of his character.

I provide the above paragraph not because Shinji needs any redeeming qualities to justify his trauma, but because the fact that he has multiple on-screen breakdowns and is vocal about his needs causes almost everyone to ignore his genuine strengths.  Even in sympathetic fix-it fics, Shinji is often treated as a flat protagonist with generic ""issues"", when in reality he is a whole cocktail of compelling character traits!  Yeah, he regularly breaks down under his stress!  He also refuses to give up, and not always for the right reasons!  His need to be a good pilot often causes a lot of problems!  Without him and his unique personality everyone would have died before the end of the series!  He puts almost everyone and everything before himself, except when he can't!  He loves his walkman!  He looks completely unassuming!  He's an absolute maniac!  He's the folding-chair guy!  He's Shinji Ikari!

Anyway, if you also love Shinji, this is your cue to go off in the notes.  The internet may be full of decades of misinformation, but we can stay strong!  There's no running away!

[toxooz]

I saw the last post, so more in depth questions about your characters 🤩

Is Remy connected with orc culture? does he still speak the language or feel connected to the orc tribe? Ollie seems very connected to his roots, but not so much Remy. He grew up in the same tribe as Ollie, and Ollie seems to miss his tribe and still speak the language, but they had very different experiences. By the way you answered the last ask the orc tribe was kind of traumatizing to Remy

YEEHAW Remy is nooot connected with his orc roots in fact he'd rather just convince himself it was all a bad dream which is why Ollie may speak orcish whether by accident or instinctively when he's talking to Remy (im sure Kari hears sum orcish curse words slip out in the bedroom lmfao) but that will be the only time Remy will speak orcish is in response otherwise he'll just speak english (or whatever language they speak in that world?? could be something else entirely not of this world??)(and ANOTHER side note: typically when Ollie is speaking orcish in the comic it's in a black speech bubble but that's not rlly important until much later) and tbh maybe Ollie even has a slight accent from speaking orcish all of his childhood but Remy didn't talk much at all when he was in the orc community. The way it was b4 that orc tyrant took over was full-blooded orcs would fight in battles and get different ranks and be on leadership boards ect. while half orcs could make weapons and hunt ect. but they weren't allowed to fight in any battles or be in any position of leadership, they could even have lil coming of age events hence where Ollie got his bone necklace from was basically a "ur not a wee babby time to kill a big horrible beast by urself and harvest anything for a trophy" thing and he chose the teeth (its still goretober so im showin these off lmfao):

while the members of the community who had even less orc blood in them aka Remy being only like 25% orc bc his momma is a half orc and his dad is ssssomething else entirely??, they were only allowed to do farm work, harvesting crops, tending to animals getting supplies ect. sO that left Remy to tend to the chickens bc that's what he liked. Ollie didn't quite understand the restrictions when he was little so he'd sometimes take Remy hunting with him which never really ended well bc Remy was a tender lil soul and had a hard time killing things. That's another reason why Remy never really fit into the tribe bc all the hunting and brutally killing and eating an elf raw or even another orc was too much for him and he never wanted to be a part of it. anoTHER reason is Remy's mom wasn't reeally the best mom so she'd kinda just leave Remy in the chicken coop all day without checking on him so Remy was genuinely just alone with some chickens unless Ollie came to "pester" him or Ollie's momma made him bring Remy along bc even Mogak got more concerned abt Remy's wellbeing than his own mother. It was Super hard for him when butchering day came and they'd come in and take a bunch of chickens and Remy just had to let it happen so after finding Remy curled up in a lil ball with big teary eyes holding chicken feathers, Ollie started to keep track of when butchering day was and would trick Remy out to go on 🌄an exploring adventure🌄 before they came to get the chickens so he didn't have to witness all that. After Ollie built a lil makeshift skatepark in a cool secret spot he found he would take Remy there too so that allowed Remy a little more to do and some enrichment for him so thats how they both got into skateboarding but yeah even after all the Trauma happened Ollie did still have rose tinted glasses on for the orc community but Remy definitely gets a bad taste in his mouth over it hence this section:

[keeperofthesunandmoon]

Hey, anon who was asking about sending feedback here. Doing it not anon this time just to make any replies needed easier. Apologies in advance for the wall of text, I've tried to condense it, but I'm not the best at being concise. Also sorry if any of this has been brought up before.

First a couple technical issues I encountered. In chapter 7 I got the part about my mom taking care of me while sick, even though my parents were killed last chapter, then inversely when I went through again and saved them the dialogue option "“All my goodness died when he took my parents.” was available to choose.

Anyway onto the juicy stuff. So for the most part, I really liked the game so far, I thought it is a really good continuation of the story, and I'm definitely excited for more. But I obviously do have some notes, so here they are.

1) Being able to detect heartbeats isn't actually an accurate way of detecting bluffs (or lies in general). Heartrate raises if a person is excited or scared, and a good liar would be calm while lying. Plus with poker specifically, knowing your opponent is bluffing is only part of the equation, you still have to have a good hand, or be able to bluff yourself.

2) I feel like there should be the option to be opposed to control magic due to trauma rather than just general moral opposition, depending on the choices made. Like, at the very least, any MC unfortunate enough to have Julian Anderson as their birth father, probably has more reason to be averse to control magic than just "mind control bad cause it takes away free will".

On the same note, there are multiple instances where without player input, your character either uses control magic, considers using it, or sits there while someone else casually uses it. Which like, even trauma aside, if I’ve been picking all the “I think control magic is morally evil” options it seems weird my character would just casually use it to make someone forget a conversation, or be fine with their friends using it to get past airport security.

It also kinda sucks, for the above reasons, that in regards to the screening, your only options are let someone use control magic on you (whether or not you resist) or compel them first. Like I said, I feel like my MC would be very traumatized by the whole concept of control magic, and would very much not be on board with either of these options.

3) The jar of holy oil felt a bit like it came out of nowhere. Like I previously got the impression that holy oil was pretty hard to get your hands on, even for someone with the MCs connections, but then you just like have a jar of it in your bag I guess, no real explanation as to how it got there. Also IDK if this was intentional misdirection or not, so sorry in advance if it is, but because it’s first mentioned as an “unbreakable jam jar” directly after talking about the homemade snow globes (which are often made from jars), I thought the jam jar was the snow globe, up until you actually use it.

4)This one’s kind of a legacy issue from the previous games, so IDK how fixable it is at this point, but basically the game feels like it's in an odd situation when it comes to the MC, that I can best describe as being nonbinary inclusive, but trans exclusive. The game lets you choose the name/pronouns you want, but then the flashbacks just assume your character was still using the same ones back when they were a toddler (obviously there are people irl who do come out at a pretty young age, but, at least in my experience, that's the exception rather than the rule). Like obviously something to account for that could be added, but IDK if you can like update already published games, and if not adding it to the third game would probably introduce some weirdness, so IDK.

5) I’m confused as to what a “stereotypical drakaina” would be cause like a drakaina isn’t really like a thing in pop culture the same way something like angels and demons are, and the word itself is literally just the feminine form of the Ancient Greek word for dragon or serpent. Would it just be dressing up as a dragon? I realize this one's pretty nitpicky, I’m just confused.

6) In the dream sequence in chapter 8, the game seems to just like assume the MC and RO are able to have a biological kid together. I know that both it’s a dream sequence and also a setting with magic, so it’s not really a plot hole or anything per say, but I think taking that into mind, and maybe adding some text for situations where that might be in question, to explain that would be a good idea.

7) "…for the fact that the worst crime they’ve ever committed is jaywalking." I’m fairly certain forging a birth certificate is also a crime. /s

Thank you for the feedback! I've made some edits to earlier chapters based on it for next update

[winged-fool]

which books are you reading right now? do you have any queer book recs?

Yeah happy to share what I've been reading! I've only knocked out a few but I have a few more on my list.

The City Beautiful – this is about a young Jewish man (around 18 I think) and takes place in Chicago during the World Fair (sometime in the 1890s). Alter is in the US trying to save enough money to bring his mom and twin sisters from Romania and during this time one of his roommates is murdered and he becomes possessed by his dybuk (like a Jewish soul) and is spurred on to find his murderer. Alter is explicitly gay and has had a few relationships with other boys; the book itself is rich with Jewish culture and deals with homophobia and anti-Semitism of the time. It’s incredibly good.

Siren Queen – this one is a little dark and it’s WLW book. This one takes place in the Golden Age of Hollywood, in the 1920s, and features magical realism. It’s about a Chinese little girl who wants to be a Hollywood star and how she is willing to do whatever it takes to achieve her dream. She is also explicitly gay and has two main relationships throughout the book (and ends in a relationship with another one). Its theme focuses on what does it mean to be a monster and challenges your perceptions of monsters. As a queer Chinese woman, she finds her fame in playing monsters in films and makes connections with others in the industry that don’t fit the mold of Hollywood at the time. This one really hooked me, I couldn’t put it down.

The Once and Future Witches – this book isn’t as queer centric but it has a lot of great representation. It’s about three sisters who are witches and are trying to bring magic back to society. It takes place in fictional New Salem also in the 1890s and ties the witching movement with the suffragist movement which sounds weird but honestly REALLY works. One of the sisters is explicitly queer, she has a relationship with a WOC, while another one is asexual-coded, and there is a trans side character as well. I had a bit of a difficult time getting into this one but once it picks up, it REALLY picks up and I couldn’t put it down.

The Secret Lives Of Country Gentlemen - Okay this was a really fun read that's a little less plot driven but so enjoyable! It takes place in the late 1800s England and is about Gareth whose estranged father recently passed away and he inherits an obscure earldom on the marsh and it's about him trying to fit in with this new society and be accepted by his half sister he'd never met before. Prior to coming to the marsh, he had a brief anonymous relationship who turns out to be a crime big shot on the marsh. There's some mystery with Gareth's father's death but not really the focus of the book haha

Lavender House - this is basically a queer whodunit. It takes place in the 20s or so and follows Andy who was recently fired from the police force after accidentally being outed. He's hired by a woman whose wife was killed and turns out she has this house in the country that's a queer safe place where everyone including the staff are queer. It's pretty easy to guess who the murderer is so what really works is the queer relationships.

Last Call At the Nightingale - this is another murder mystery but definitely has more twists and turns than the precious one. This is the only bisexual book on my list so far so while it wasn't the best book, it's still special to me lol it's about Vivian an Irish working girl in NYC during the prohibition era. Someone is murdered at her favorite speak easy which is also her safe haven so she decides to help the owner, Hux who she may have a crush on, solve the murder so the speakeasy doesn't get closed.

I've also read The Song of Achilles which I think is a pretty well known one so I won't summarize that one. Next up I've got these books:

Giovanni's Room (mlm)

Last Night at the Telegraph House (wlw)

Nothing Sung and Nothing Spoken (wlw)

If you're interested, I'd be happy to update this post once I finish the other books :)

[shewhoeatssand]

A kaneki headcanon for you that I am metaphorically pushing under your door

Kaneki was a literary purist when he was younger, he’d refuse to buy any translated version of a book he wants to read and instead struggled his way through with a combination of the internet and a dictionary.

This was made even worse during his American lit phase because of how much cultural context is needed to understand the masterpieces. The only one he really connected with was The Grapes of Wrath, because of his upbringing and losing his mom because she was working to feed him.

Kaneki read American Psycho late into highschool and it brought down his Gpa by a decent amount. He had multiple notebooks just keeping track of everything going on in an attempt to understand what was going on. He’d spend nights up late theorizing about the book and was planning to submit his analysis on it for his PhD before he got ghouled.

Shironeki definitely speaks much better English and upon rereading it, he fell in love with fear and loathing in last Vegas, connecting it to his experiences in the ghoul world.

American psycho also was one of the things that connected Kaneki and Hide as they drifted apart as they got older, hide being a big fan of the movie saved their friendship.

OH GOD I’M SORRY FOR LEAVING THIS TO ROT FOR SO LONG, I just loved this one so much I didn’t know how to respond ❤️❤️❤️ I’m reading Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas RIGHT NOW ACTUALLY because of this ask!!!!!!!!! This whole thing is so accurate I don’t know what to add, I love it so much, I remember listening to American Psycho in the car while I was moving house and it turned my whole world upside down. And this ask also made me realise how much Kaneki would have liked this book too!!!! Aaaaaah I’d kill to have gotten to see his PhD analysis on it :((( too bad he was ghoulified. Thank you so much for this it is literally the basis for all my thoughts on Kaneki speaking/reading English or other languages

[selchwife]

idk if ive talked here about the. most of star war au tbh? hard to summarize. rambling incoming

essentially. pfeil was prince of zygerria, but it sucked for numerous reasons (terrible fascist hell culture, abusive family, etc). his mom was physically violent and during one altercation he freaks out and kills her with the dark side of the force. like jsut explodes her. obviously being like 15 he panics and flees the planet as a stowaway on the first ship he can find.

he ends up on this planet I MADE UP <3 called orphan, which is an orphan planet (hence the name). it's home to an imperial shipyard, and in essence it kind of functions like a prison colony and general shunting-off place for Undesirables. nothing grows there, it's all solid ice, its day-night cycle is managed by a big stupid orbital lamp and the ice crystals in the air cause a lot of optical illusions. the overseer lets him stay on the condition that he work, and everyone sort of quietly overlooks the fact that he gives a fake name and doesn't legally exist and the obviousness of like. i mean come on this little zygerrian guy shows up and then a few days later you hear on the news that their prince is missing and his mom is dead? DUH

anyway. orphan sucks, the optical bullshit and isolation and bad safety standards and all cause a LOT of industrial accidents and general malaise. pfeil just kind of absorbs this horrible atmosphere and gets mad about it and mad at the empire and it all sort of festers until someone Else gets into an accident and he's had Enough and steals a ship to go attack the first imperial operation he comes across and hopes he'll just get blown up. instead thrawn grabs him, and he does his typical thing of like "oh hmmm, he might be useful later," and essentially lets him go and leads him to the ghost crew.

i think pfeil meets up with everybody after the shit with maul, so between seasons 2 and 3. obviously kanan doesn't like him bc he's got the most rancid dark side vibes humanly possibly (felinely possible?) but ezra likes him. pfeil gets weird about kanan thinking he's ontologically evil since he's already got massive guilt issues and ocd also. everybody else is some level of cool with him though. he and zeb get along particularly well since they're the least humany of the crew i think, and obviously he has force shit in common with ezra and an interest in art in common with sabine. hera just kind of adopts him

i tend to imagine season 3 is kind of like...he has a lot of soul searching to do about his self destructive/suicidal tendencies and connection to the force and kanan really only makes it worse. i think a lot that pfeil would seek out the bendu and be like OKAY SO YOURE A GREAT AND WISE TEACHER. IM ALL FUCKED UP. HOW DO I STOP BEING FORCE SENSITIVE. and ofc the bendu is like Well you'd have to kill yourself (the living force is part of everyone, you can't not be alive unless you're dead, etc). and pfeil being pfeil takes this to mean "Ah, so i am morally obligated to kill myself then" which. Not what he said

the big battle at atollon is probably his nadir, really. i had been thinking he gets over his whole Thing before then but really his behavior ive written for it suggests he is in fact still up to his usual bullshit. snooping as usual i see. anyway. it is Terribly hopeless for the rebels so i imagine pfeil processes this as like "I can make a difference in the survival of the rebellion. By finally doing the moral thing and CRAZY DYING." and goes out there and fights like an insane scary reckless person until his ship does, in fact, get blown up.

i think this is where there are two sort of possibilities. either way he survives due to the horrible inside of him (dark side of the force). in an au where emet expy polydegmon is emperor, he gets scooped out of space and put in a bacta tank and shit, and there's an uncomfortable captor-captive romance thing that happens and whatever, i still haven't found a way to plot that out in my head to my satisfaction, i never like it. it's not interesting anyway.

the thing that i did this whole big long preamble for is that like. i started thinking "ok but what if i DIDNT replace palpatine with a cuntress. what would happen then." i don't think sheevy palps would scoop pfeil out of the space dirt, honestly. polydegmon initially wants to get in on that because he thinks his dark side echo bullshit might be useful and then falls in love with him and is like oh no oh fuck god dammit, but i think palpatine is too busy being palpatine to take much interest in pfeil, and beyond that i think he'd rather have pfeil be dead than potentially bring another apprentice into the stupid mix bc it's not like pfeil is as cool and badass in the force as luke or anything.

what i'm saying mostly is that i think it would be interesting if maybe in this timeline pfeil was stuck as a pfeilsicle out in space until like. idk. new republic times probably. fry from futurama ass situation