#anyways. I have so many things to write non of which are relevant and are purely for my own amusement <3 love wins

[4filen0tfound4]

I love writing character analyses while on the verge of falling asleep it’s so . a .

[headspace-hotel]

I will write this thought about Veganism and Classism in the USA in another post so as to not derail the other thread:

There are comments in the notes that say meat is only cheaper than plant based foods because of subsidies artificially lowering the price of meat in the United States. This is...part of the story but not all of it.

For my animal agriculture lab we went to a butcher shop and watched the butcher cut up a pig into various cuts of meat. I have had to study quite a bit about the meat industry in that class. This has been the first time I fully realized how strongly the meat on a single animal is divided up by socioeconomic class.

Like yes, meat cumulatively takes more natural resources to create and thus should be more expensive, but once that animal is cut apart, it is divided up between rich and poor based on how good to eat the parts are. I was really shocked at watching this process and seeing just how clean and crisp an indicator of class this is.

Specifically, the types of meat I'm most familiar with are traditionally "waste" parts left over once the desirable parts are gone. For example, beef brisket is the dangly, floppy bit on the front of a cow's neck. Pork spareribs are the part of the ribcage that's barely got anything on it.

And that stuff is a tier above the "meat" that is most of what poor people eat: sausage, hot dogs, bologna, other heavily processed meat products that are essentially made up of all the scraps from the carcass that can't go into the "cuts" of meat. Where my mom comes from in North Carolina, you can buy "livermush" which is a processed meat product made up of a mixture of liver and a bunch of random body parts ground up and congealed together. There's also "head cheese" (made of parts of the pig's head) and pickled pigs' feet and chitlin's (that's made of intestines iirc) and cracklin's (basically crispy fried pig skin) and probably a bunch of stuff i'm forgetting. A lot of traditional Southern cooking uses basically scraps of animal ingredients to stretch across multiple meals, like putting pork fat in beans or saving bacon grease for gravy or the like.

So another dysfunctional thing about our food system, is that instead of people of each socioeconomic class eating a certain number of animals, every individual animal is basically divided up along class lines, with the poorest people eating the scraps no one else will eat (oftentimes heavily processed in a way that makes it incredibly unhealthy).

Even the 70% lean ground beef is made by injecting extra leftover fat back into the ground-up meat because the extra fat is undesirable on the "better" cuts. (Gross!)

I've made, or eaten, many a recipe where the only thing that makes it non-vegan is the chicken broth. Chicken broth, just leftover chicken bones and cartilage rendered and boiled down in water? How much is that "driving demand" for meat, when it's basically a byproduct?

That class really made me twist my brain around about the idea of abstaining from animal products as a way to deprive the industry of profits. Nobody eats "X number of cows, pigs, chickens in a lifetime" because depending on the socioeconomic class, they're eating different parts of the animal, splitting it with someone richer or poorer than they are. If a bunch of people who only ate processed meats anyway abstained, that wouldn't equal "saving" X number of animals, it would just mean the scraps and byproducts from a bunch of people's steaks or pork chops would have something different happen to them.

The other major relevant conclusion I got from that class, was that animal agriculture is so dominant because of monoculture. People think it's animal agriculture vs. plant agriculture (or plants used for human consumption vs. using them to feed livestock), but from capitalism's point of view, feeding animals corn is just another way to use corn to generate profits.

People think we could feed the world by using the grain fed to animals to feed humans, but...the grain fed to animals, is not actually a viable diet for the human population, because it's literally just corn and soybean. Like animal agriculture is used to give some semblance of variety to the consumer's diet in a system that is almost totally dominated by like 3 monocrops.

Do y'all have any idea how much of the American diet is just corn?!?! Corn starch, corn syrup, corn this, corn that, processed into the appearance of variety. And chickens and pigs are just another way to process corn. That's basically why we have them, because they can eat our corn. It's a total disaster.

And it's even worse because almost all the USA's plant foods that aren't the giant industrial monocrops maintained by pesticides and machines, are harvested and cared for by undocumented migrant workers that get abused and mistreated and can't say anything because their boss will tattle on them to ICE.

[friend-of-a-cat]

So... I'm doing research for a piece of creative non-fiction (a personal essay) I'm writing for one of my uni assignments about the fact that I'm asexual and demiromantic and think that we, as a wider society, have gotten the concepts of love and attraction all wrong, and I've been researching more into the split attraction model because, well, I see it as something that's important and relevant, and this came up in my Google search:

The initial red flag of this article is the fact that it's on BetterHelp. I didn't see this at first, and did a double take.

Anyway, the first thing I would like to ask is: what are these 'cons'? As far as I'm concerned, there are none. I understand that, for many people, romantic and sexual attraction are intrinsically linked, but, for many, they're not, and the split attraction model existing doesn't harm the former - it helps the latter. The latter includes people who are on the asexual and/or aromantic spectrums, as well as people who are, for example, heteromantic and bisexual, panromantic and homosexual, biromantic and heterosexual, etc. - basically anyone whose experiences differ between their romantic and sexual attraction.

I do find it a bit annoying that, when many people talk about both of these kinds of attraction, they lump them into one 'label', which is mostly [something]sexual (e.g. heterosexual, homosexual, etc.). But, for them, the two are linked, so referring to themselves as [something]sexual to cover both seems fine and dandy. Which... it is. However, I find it wild that people don't realise that, despite the fact that the two may seem linked to them, they are actually two different experiences. People who are both alloromantic and allosexual should be able to see this, right? They can think someone is sexually attractive yet not be romantically attracted to or want to date them. That is a thing that can happen.

Anyway, I decided to read through the article. It isn't bad, per se - much of the information is useful, and it seemed to be quite positive. Until I got to the 'cons':

Now, I'm not really into the discourse surrounding the split attraction model - in fact, I didn't realise there was discourse surrounding it. This is because I tend to, either accidently or on purpose, avoid discourse in general. But... 'oversexualisation'? In what context? If anything, not using the split attraction model would be considered 'oversexualisation' (even though I don't think that that is, either - I honestly don't know why this word has been brought up here) due to the fact that many people focus on sexual attraction over any kind of attraction and use it to cover romantic attraction, too, when they talk about it. I genuinely have no idea what they are referring to here.

In regard to the second point: what? Attraction is complex. That's the whole thing. The split attraction model makes it less complex for many people. It allows people to figure out who they are and have the terminology to be able to voice it. Attraction is a spectrum and so is gender. Of course both of them are going to be complex. Society made both of them rigid in the first place, so breaking out of those rigidities is going to be confusing for everyone. The split attraction model helps people understand themselves, and I would like to think it helps them understand others. Everyone benefits.

I don't know if I can speak much on the third point, as I'm not familiar with the discourse, as I previously mentioned, and don't really know what it entails. Though, in saying this... what do they mean? When has asexuality - or aromanticism, for that matter - ever been prioritised over other queer identities? There's a severe lack of discussion and education surrounding both of them. That's just a fact. People who are asexual and/or aromantic are oftentimes even shunned by the wider queer community they are a part of. I don't really have much more to add on this point because I'm so confused by it. By the way, this article barely talks about aromanticism, despite the fact that it's an important part of this model, too.

The last point is just a rehash of the second point. If I was told about any of this stuff growing up, I would have realised I was ace and demiromantic from the start. Instead, I realised I was ace a few years ago after watching Jaiden Animations' video about the fact that she's aroace (I don't want to use the term 'coming out' here because, frankly, I hate it - I'll save that rant for another time). I only realised I was demiromantic in the past month after... realising that people getting romantic crushes on and/or falling in love with someone when they barely know them is actually a thing that happens and isn't fake. These two terms fit me best at the moment, and explain everything. If I had've known these terms as a teenager, that would have been great. The split attraction model helped me so much in breaking down myself and my identity, and offered me the foundation I needed to ask myself questions. Yeah, attraction and gender are confusing - I said it before, and I'll say it again. But why would you cast something so helpful aside? That will only hinder people - both those who are struggling with their own identity and those who are trying to understand the identities of others. Education surrounding the complexities and spectrums of attraction and gender are so important, and this model will help people teach other people about attraction.

I also read a bunch of hate comments, as one does whenever they go on Reddit or Twitter or literally any social media platform ever, regarding the split attraction model. This didn't surprise me. These specific people seem to hate this model because... well, I don't really know. They were mostly spewing aphobia. I don't think a single one had a constructive point. Also, most of the search results for 'split attraction model' on Google are actually critiques of it, or articles talking about critiques of it and being on the fence. Come on, people. Do better.

Anyway, the split attraction model is important. Education is important. Allowing people to figure out who they are and express it is important. This should all go without saying.

That is all.

[stelladess]

EDIT: I only now found there are more complete translations of the new lorebook, that may alter things here quite a bit depending on if it touches on relevant stuff. Ill probably write a more easy to follow and updated version of this post when I got less schoolwork anyway so yeah. Arknights Theory: The nature of the Lord of Fiends powers and the purpose of the black crown. IDK how to spoiler and non of what I find onlines helps with that so just know... spoilers ahead. I also wanna say that I havnt double checked a lot of this stuff, I did for some of it but id like to re-read a bunch of this when some of the CN only stuff has come to global anyway. So take with a grain of salt is all im saying that I remember right since I dont remember exactly where to find all of this info, altough I will mentioned where I thought I got it from for various evidence. So tl;dr here is that I think Amiya´s powers is actually about manipulating originium, the memory, emotion and energy blasts (also making a sword) is all extensions of that and NOT fully distinct powers like some believe, also the Lord of Fiends has to have oripathy. Also the black crown was made by Priestess to eventually facilitate her resurrection and the reason doctor convinced Theresa to transfer her powers to Amiya was part of that plan. Now, why do I think all this? Starting on Amiya´s powers. While dialogue indicates some skilled casters *can* learn multiple types of arts, Amiya is not a skilled caster. She is very powerful but not particularily skilled at it. Her powers are ALL derived from the originium arts her oripathy and Lord of Fiends nature grants her. She also had all these powers pretty much from moment 1 it seems so it seems unlikely she learned it trough practice to do many different things. So its likely one ability that is just very broad in its usage, similarily to how Rosmontis´s powers work (if I remember right Kal´tsit even says their powers are very similar in nature). Amiya can do energy blasts, view memories and sense emotions... according to Kal´tsit in chapter 7 the way sarkaz prophecies work is basically that thoughts are stored in originium allowing other sarkaz to tap into the memories in that originium to calculate a likely outcome with multiple people´s brains. So originium can store thoughts/minds. And by extension memory would be a part of that. There is also clearly stuff relating to the dead but ive heard several CN server events have gone into that more so I dont wanna speak about anything regarding dead souls until that comes to global because I do not wanna go reading very complicated lore stuff in a language I dont understand really, so ill adjust or drop this theory as nescesary based on future information of course. So, then the emotions and memory stuff is covered, making the sword is also simple, its just made of originium. So the energy blasts? Well the main way originium is used is as a power source and its required to cast arts for those without oripathy (who have originium inside them to channel arts anyway). Another piece of evidence here is that Manfred could disrupt Amiya´s arts with his own, which seem to revolve around detonating or manipulating the energy in originium, allowing him to harm Amiya when she tried to gather up energy from nearby originium. When she pushes herself extra hard she probably draws extra power from the originium in her own body, which is why it has such a negative effect on her physically even compared to other casters. This, and a bit from the new lorebook revealing the first Lord of Fiends was the first person with Oripathy, is why I think the Lord of Fiends HAS to have Oripathy.

So, with that established, why do I think the Black Crown is meant to resurrect Priestess? First of all, the Black Crown or Civilight Etherna, is tech from the advanced precursor civilization (it was not found by them but invented by them, its directly referenced as a different project to the AMa projects, which is part of what Kal´tsit is refered to by certain beings in the know about the previous civilization, the crown also resembles Mon3tr in appearance). Its stated in Amiya´s module that its purpose is to store information, memories and emotion. And we know for a fact that they were capable of brain uploading, as seen with Friston in Lonetrail. Its original purpose was as a historical record, but that doesnt mean it cant have been altered later. Priestess is stated by Friston to have created Originium, something we will likely learn more about in the Victoria arc on account of certain reveals in chapter 13. Since Originium is so closely linked to the crown, by virtue of the first infected being the first Lord of Fiends, originium was clearly created in relation to something to do with the Crown. And well.. when Priestess put the doctor into the sarcophagus she said they would be reunited and their love would outlast the stars. Despite her seeming convinced she would die.... Kal´tsit seems to have been either created or turned into what she is now by Priestess too, or well by their people at least. But for dramatic convenience I think Priestess makes the most sense. I think the crown getting linked to the sarkaz collective unconcious/dead souls (this is the part im most uncertain about because there is so little info on this on global especially) was NEVER part of the plan. Since it seems likely the previous civilization created the ancients (animal people) to drive the sarkaz away (and also be slave labour, this isnt like 100% confirmed but there is some hints for this) I suspect they saw the sarkaz as lower beings and had never considered the crown would link up with them. So I think the original purpose was that some sort of great calamity fell upon their people, Priestess tried to store her mind in the Black Crown in some process that led to the creation of Originium and because the first person to down the crown was a sarkaz made her unable to do what she originally intended, possessing a later wearer of the crown and reunite with the doctor. This part is of course pure speculation as well with very little evidence, but it does line up somewhat. And I think some of the concept trailers supports the idea the crown can let someone store their mind to take over a later host (altough not with Priestess specifically).

So, fast forward to Amiya... she was born in Rim Billiton a normal cautus girl, her family were miners and lived on a normal landship in Rim Billiton... but one day disaster struck and the ship got destroyed in a horrible disaster. This is all gone into more in To the Grinning Valley but was already implied beforehand. To the Grinning Valley is also interesting for several reasons to this theory, they explicitly call attention to how strange it is that the doctor would bring Amiya with them after finding her in the wreckage. Saving her is in line with their behavior, but why bring her along? Its common in Rim Billiton for miners to adopt other children. Why not leave here somewhere? Why bring her with them to Babel? And this isnt just Amiya wondering or an outside observer, we find out from Savage that Kal´tsit doesnt know why the doctor did what they did. And whats more, Kal´tsit believes the doctor convinced Theresa to transfer her powers to Amiya, and since no previous Lord of Fiends had done so directly, the crown picked a successor, I think the doctor also taught Theresa how she could directly move it, circumventing the dead souls of the sarkaz will being imposed on the crown´s choices. So, why Amiya? Kal´tsit either doesnt have any idea why or just didnt want to tell Savage, but it is clear that she NEVER agreed with the decision. We have some ideas why Theresa did it, Amiya not being a sarkaz would mean she would be less strongly influenced by the dead souls and the lords of kazdel would refuse to follow her. Or at least chapter 12 and 13 heavily implies this was her motive. But why did the doctor want that? In To the Grinning Valley the question of if the doctor always intended to use Amiya for that from the start and grew to care about her over time, or if they took her in with no ill intentions and then got the idea later out of desperation, is raised but left unanswered because the doctor cant remember, and no one else knows why.

I believe the doctor also wished to undermine the crown´s link to the sarkaz, and that the plan was to use Amiya as a vessel for resurrecting Priestess. And it is an interesting topic, its often brought up how much even pre amnesia doctor cared about Amiya... but in To the Grinning Valley we focus a bit on the insecurity and uncertainty Amiya and Savage have about *why*. Savage telling an anecdote about a friend who went bad after fame got to their head and admitting she doesnt know which is worse, if the doctor did love Amiya and their circumstances made them so willing to trample over what they loved that they would force the black crown on her, or if the doctor had always been intending to just use Amiya for that purpose. And Amiya admitting she never knew why doc would care for her so much. And here is an interesting thing... in anything post victoria arc, we have NEVER seen Amiya and the doctor interact so far. Amiya is in Arturia´s oprec but otherwise she hasnt been on screen post victoria arc. To the Grinning Valley is set before it. The doctor has been doing all manner of things all over Terra in that time period, but Amiya isnt there with them, she is still with Rhodes Island is clear though. So... does Amiya and the doctor still have a good relationship post Victoria arc? Doc clearly cares for Amiya still, when Rosmontis talks about missing Amiya in Lonetrail (she had been away for some weeks or months, unclear) doc agrees that they miss her too, but they dont really go into any detail and are talking about both Amiya and Logos. Depending on what we learn in the later chapters of the Victoria arc, I could see Amiya feeling rather betrayed by the doctor. Not to the point of completely cutting them out but that it might still make her a bit more distant to them. I think it would be interesting to see how Amiya would take it if she learned that the doctor had originally intended to use her for very selfish end goals. Surely the thought has crossed her mind and she just isnt willing to entertain it, but if she learns something in the climax of the Victoria arc that shakes her absolute confidence in the doctor? That could be a pretty big deal. We already know Amiya has a habit of rather then accepting people wronged her first try to look for excuses. What Theresa did to her Amiya refuses to admit is wrong even when directly pointed out to her how messed up it was (chapter 8 Rosmontis compares what Theresa did to Amiya with what Loken did to her). She isntead focuses on how she must be failing to live up to Theresa´s expectations, an idea NO ONE tried to put into her head as far as we can tell. Altough it is a little unclear because she gets VERY defensive about it when the Damazti Cluster suggests she was forced into her role at Rhodes and given too heavy responsibilities to carry. Will she do this this time as well? Look for excuses why what doctor did was "justified"? But in chapter 13 she also finds meaning in rejecting the legacy of the black crown and that she will use its powers purely for her own ideals and not worry about what its purpose is. With that in mind how would that color her perception of finding out an even older purpose for it that implicates the pre amnesia doctor?

[acertainmoshke]

Let's Talk About Notion

So, I use Notion for plenty of non-writing things to keep myself organized, but the main thing I use it for is writing. And I love it because it can be simple--just pages nested within pages and including lists or paragraphs--or as complex as you need. The template I use for keeping track of my novels I did pay $20 for, but that was to the random person who put in all the time and effort and not to the company. There are free templates and if you put in the time to figure it out, you can make the complex ones yourself. And I do have a side page to just add pages for random ideas and not clutter my official system.

Anyway.

This is the front page of my favorite Notion template ever, WIP. I can add as many projects as I'm working on, complete with cover pages (which I use just to be thematic but if I had actual covers I could upload those too) and summaries, but those aren't the practical parts. Based on the word count goal I entered, it tells me how close I am, as well as calculating how many book pages each takes up and how long it would take to read.

There are also tabs for concept stories that I'm still planning and don't want to count towards my word count goal yet, and archived ones that I'm putting on hold.

under the projects section, still on the front page, I have word count cards where I can enter my daily word count and it automatically updates the goal based on the end word count goal for all active projects and the date I said I wanted to finish each.

If I open one of my projects, it gives me all this info in what is technically the header. I entered the summary, genre, dates, and goals, but it calculated the rest.

That page includes chapters, which I can put in different stages of development, name, and move around; characters to keep track of, which I can attach to relevant chapters, and tasks I don't really use but they work as a checklist. That may be more useful when I'm in the 3rd draft and editing.

Below all of that there's also a storyboard. I don't use it for TDATS and I don't really want to share the one I do use regularly, but basically they're pages attached to various chapters and you can use them as scenes or events to plot out the story, move things around, and get an idea of what's happening before writing.

I prefer to write my actual stories in Word, but I could write them here directly in the chapters. There's also a spot to include specific words used or introduced in a chapter. Most of what I use these for is keeping track of word count, because you have to add them to the chapters for them to be added together into the project total. But it calculating how long it takes to read each chapter is certainly fun.

Anyway, you should definitely use Notion--there are other writing templates if you want something free or just different, and you don't have to use templates at all, but as a chaotic neurodivergent author, this has seriously helped my organization and planning.

The website is notion.so and there's desktop and mobile apps and the service itself is free. I guess there is a pro version but I think that's only useful if you're trying to use it as a team for work.

[menkhu]

It's your turn to go off! What's your favorite piece of media right now and why? Do you have a favorite character??

i'm not sure i can live up to the glory of your example but sure i'd love to go off hehehe >:3 i'm interpreting these as two completely distinct questions for maximum rant ability. y'all get to hear about chrisjen avasarala from the expanse and no gods no monsters by cadwell turnbull

i've been obsessing over chrisjen avasarala from the expanse for a hot minute now, and since i'm like halfway through the show and watching one ep each week, i have many months of obsessing left. and the other day i just discovered? when i went to see if my library had the expanse audiobooks? that there's a mini graphic novel series focusing on her? i didn't look into it too much because it's later in the timeline and i didn't want to be spoiled but just by looking at the cover i saw that it also features the character that i ship her with(?) most and i'm soo excited to get far enough in the show to read it.

the question mark next to ship is because she and bobbie draper have suchh a fun dynamic that the exact capacity in which they are together doesn't matter as much to me as them being together. when bobbie was first forced to work with chrisjen, she had just been through a precipitous change, discontent making her kinda petulant and bitchy, did not like her, and then the moment things Got Real and chrisjen's life was on the line, bobbie instantly went from not caring about the old lady to being ready to die for her and it was sooo funny. and the petulance and bitchiness did not leave. and chrisjen herself--she comports herself with such grace and poise but inside, she, too, is petulant and bitchy, and bobbie is one of few people with whom she lets that part of her show. it's beautiful. i'm looking forward to reading the comic and seeing all the gorgeous illustrations of them cussing at each other.

my fav thing about chrisjen is how she's both idealistic and calculating. she's a politician, scheming and playing chess with people, whispering into the right ear at the right time to manipulate people into showing empathy.

as for my favorite piece of media right now, i'm honestly not sure what it would be, but i've been having thoughts and feelings about no gods no monsters by cadwell turnbull. reading it is a different experience from most fantasy novels. ik prevailing advice with writing is to keep the action moving, keep the pace quick, trim out anything unnecessary, but this book takes time to sit with many different characters, to show you their backstories and motivations so that you understand what roles they take and why. like, there's a guy who you get to learn about how his marriage came together and fell apart and how it affected him and it isn't until you get to the part where he turns to online communities to fill the hole in his life that you start to see how he's relevant to the wider plot. and the story is soo much stronger for it bc ultimately, it's a story about otherness and community and the werewolves are just a cool side benefit. it plays with perspective in a fun way, it's deeply queer, and it feels more real than many non-fantasy stories.

anyway people on goodreads weren't especially kind about it so i decided to love the book all the harder for 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.

[qqueenofhades]

Hi hi,

Please feel free to tell me to get lost, but I was hoping to get some tips from you.

I'm about to start my first big girl research paper. I'm very comfortable with writing, but I'm not so comfortable with research.

I was wondering if you had any tips for doing effective research, particularly how to keep your research organized (I'm a bit of a mess).

Of course, and I reiterate that I am always open for academia questions, and will answer them to the best of my ability. As ever, my advice will be fairly general in nature and broad in scope, since I don't know what subject you're working in and what level you're at, but I'll presume it's a university-level research paper of approximately 20 to 30 pages. (Or possibly longer, i.e. 60 pages.) But this will be applicable regardless of which subject or length you're planning on, and as a solid rule of thumb for future projects, so:

1. Choose good sources. I know this might seem self-explanatory, but indeed, not as often as you would think. Wikipedia is a decent place to start looking for bibliography/reading lists, but remember that by its nature as an open-access, crowd-edited source that prioritizes what is free rather than what is recent, it leans heavily toward out-of-date and older scholarship that doesn't represent the latest work in the field. Things from the 19th and early 20th century get cited often because they're in the public domain and there's no copyright issue, so if you base your premise on what Wikipedia says, you might end up arguing against something that's 50 years out of date anyway. Besides, you can't cite Wikipedia word-for-word because you need to give your reader the ability to go back and check your citations, and since anyone can edit any article, that specific sentence or phrase might no longer be there by the time someone looks for it.

Okay, so where might you get extensive and high-quality research material instead? Glad you asked! For starters, Google Scholar, JSTOR, Smithsonian Open Access, RefSeek, SpringerLink, BASE (Biefeld Academic Search Engine), and UChicago Journals are all waiting for you! Many of these will also turn up results without the need for an academic login, though to read full text for free, you will often need an institutional/university email (which I presume you have). Just plug in some keywords from your research project/area of interest and see what comes up. Remember that the best research is:

Peer-reviewed, aka published in a journal that is reputable, searchable, run by professionals, and reviewed by other scholars prior to publication, or in a book from an academic press.

Recent, as obviously, you want to argue from the most recent work in the field and not accidentally retread an old argument; remember, don't confuse what is immediately accessible with what is the most useful or relevant.

Connected to other research: are the authors citing other publications in their field? Do they provide a summary of other literature and explain how it connects with their hypothesis? Is it clear how this contributes to/answers a current question?

Timely and relevant, especially if it comes from a non-academic source such as a newspaper, magazine article, blog, etc. It's fine to cite these things in support of your main point, but remember that your primary source material should be up to an academic standard. Are you just citing Rando Blog From The Internet as a trusted source, or a newspaper article on the Wayback Machine from 1873, as one of my students did once, bless their hearts?

Complex and representing a variety of perspectives. Even if you intend to argue for one interpretation or version of events, as most papers do, you need to show that you're aware of competing arguments, and that you know how to foil against/contrast them with your main narrative. You shouldn't just be reading or citing things that only make the point you want to make; you need to demonstrate intellectual effort and an attempt to consider sources that may agree only partly or indeed, not at all, with what you're trying to say, since you will have to include and/or refute them.

2. Save your sources! Once again, this might seem obvious, but I have a damn doctorate and I can't tell you how many times I have done something stupid like looking for a source that I had super definitely saved or a page number that I swore I had written down, only to discover that... no, I had not. If you find a PDF that looks relevant, download it to your computer! If you find a URL that's helpful, save it to a Google/Word doc (and also make sure you label what it references, so you're not confused later). Make a file folder with the name of your project and put all your documents in there. Know what information you will be required to cite in a bibliography/reference list and make sure that you take down all that at the start. Truly, it sucks to go hunting for that one missing page number when you're almost done and you swore it was just RIGHT THERE.

Likewise, I have only listed e-resources above, but don't forget to go to your friendly local university library and tell the librarian that you're working on such-and-such paper about this topic and would like help finding material. Librarians fucking LOVE being helpful and teaching you how to best utilize their vast skills and resources, and they will load you up right away, as well as giving you tips on how to navigate the catalogue and subject-specific databases. That way, you will also have physical books to reference, which can be much easier than trying to chase up a lost e-version.

(No, seriously. Go ask your university librarian. Those are your tuition dollars at work and that's what they are there to help with.)

3. Plan out your paper and create an outline. If you're not sure how to do this, take a look at some academic essays/journal articles and see how they are structured. Keep in mind that someone should be able to read your introduction, chapter headings, and conclusion, and get the gist of what the research is about, its major findings, and how it fits into/supports/challenges the existing consensus in the field. The meat of the chapters are for showing your work and demonstrating how you got from A to B to C to D, but you should be able to convey the most important points at the beginning, the end, and the chapter titles in the middle. If you're writing, say, a 20-page paper, you still need to figure out the main thematic chunks and how it makes most sense to organize them. Are you trying to write about B before you've properly introduced and established A? What information do you need to give a reader who can be assumed to have basic intelligence but not much (or any) subject-specific knowledge? Are you using too much technical/scholarly jargon without defining it? In other words, what do you need to lay out, and in what order, to make a smooth transition from A (introduction) to D (conclusion?) Are you doubling back or referencing B too often when you're trying to move onto C? Etc etc. Obviously, there will be some overall overlap, but you can usually identify main subjects, sub-headings, and how it would make the most sense to organize them. If you need to, use color-coding or other visual cues to keep your groups together.

4. Double-check your required citation method/formatting. Different academic fields use different styles of formatting for their footnotes, endnotes, in-text citations, bibliographies, etc. I am a historian, so I use MHRA/MLA-style. Other academic fields might use APA, Harvard, or Chicago-style. It will save you a lot of headaches (and impress your professor!) if you check at the beginning what style you need to use for referencing and are consistent about applying it throughout. Also, yet again from the Department Of This Should Be Obvious But Somehow Isn't: make sure to double-space your paper and use Times New Roman or Arial font size 12, proofread/edit, and add page numbers, your name/student ID, and other supporting information to make it easier on your professor. If they want to tell you to double-check an argument you made on page 6, and there isn't a number on page 6, they will have to write it on your paper themselves and then they will get annoyed. Not, uh, speaking from personal experience here or anything. Make sure there isn't wonky/differently sized text or extra spaces/big page breaks, the first line of every paragraph is indented 0.5 pt (this can be set in Microsoft Word) and otherwise that it visually looks like a nicely presented and professional-quality piece of research. If in doubt, ask someone else to look it over and see what strikes them as strange/inconsistent.

(Also, use reference software such as Zotero. It will make your life SO much easier.)

5. Give yourself time to properly write. Yeah, sure, there are the people who procrastinate on their paper until the very last minute, then bang it out in a Red Bull-fueled rush and finish an hour before it's due, but that's not a way to actually do meaningful or useful writing, or come up with a product that you're proud to have your name on. Besides, you'll just create a ton of unnecessary anxiety for yourself and waste the time and effort that you've already invested, so... yeah, plan your time wisely and make space for drafting, revisions, research, proofreading, and all the rest. I usually had my papers in college/grad school done at least two days before they were due, which gave me time to read them over and check for errors, add more citations, or otherwise improve the finished product.

Basically, if you're serious about doing a good job, give it the time and effort that it deserves. If you're worried about getting distracted, there are browser add-ons/phone apps that can prevent you from mindlessly screwing around on the internet rather than working. Set a timer and work in chunks, then take a break, or whatever other method is best for you. You will have to manage your own time and nobody will hold your hand or babysit you, so have a realistic sense of how much you can accomplish each day and how that contributes to the overall progress/project timeline. If you're a slow worker, you have to plan for more time, and even if you're fast, give yourself a little extra just in case.

Anyway, I hope all that makes sense and is helpful, and happy researching!

[naranjapetrificada]

For the writers' ask game: 11, 18, 37, please?

Thanks for asking ♥️

Answers behind the cut to spare your dashboards. If you want to play the "get to know your fic writers" game, just pick your question(s) from this list!

11. Link your three favorite fics right now

I always have so many favorites but three recent favorites that I cannot recommend highly enough are:

The Tolling Bells by @edsbacktattoo, which was recently completed and an incredible experience to follow. As a writer, I will never have enough praise for what was accomplished here. As a reader, let me just say that if you like visceral longing and existential overwhelm that still has a happy ending, you've gotta give it a try.

As We Go Hand in Hand by @petrichorca, which is such a sweet, poignant, healing one-shot about Ed's post-canon headspace as he reckons with the size of his love for Stede, how badly he wants to marry him, and how unworthy he still feels of it. Ends with them in a believable but secure place.

The recently resumed Prevailing Winds by holograms. Not sure if they're on tumblr. Anyway, it's an alternate timeline AU, in which Blackbeard and The Gentleman Pirate die the deaths that happened IRL after having a completely different love story, but Ed comes back to do it all over again in the canon timeline. He seems to be the only one who knows what's going on and is desperate to protect Stede and himself from the fates they met before, and his new story is interspersed with flashbacks to the other one, where we get to see them fall in love and what ends up going wrong. It's fascinating as both a reader and a writer, and I'm so impressed with how they're handling telling such a complex story while managing to make every character believable in both timelines.

18. Do you title your fics before, during, or after the writing process? How do you come up with titles?

Titling usually happens like 2/3 of the way through? If it's a one-shot I usually figure out something that's relevant to what's been written so far that a) sounds good and b) sparks some curiosity. Although sometimes the titles are also just very prosaic.

That 2/3 rule applies for my current longfic as in I was 2/3 of my way through Chapter 1. The thing the title comes from is probably not going to actually come up in the fic until chapter 4 or 5, but the timing still works.

For the chapter titles I'm using songs, but I'm using them completely free of context. The content of the songs has mattered significantly less than their titles, and I have a whole doc full of song titles that I think I'm gonna use for future chapters. The exception, so far, might be Chapter 3. I had a non-song title for Chapter 2, then everything relevant to it got pushed back to 3. So there's a chance that anything could happen, really!

37. How do you choose where to end a chapter?

Oh my goodness this is such A Question for Chapter 2. With Chapter 1, I knew down to the exact line I wanted to end on, which meant I knew which scene it would be, which meant I just had to figure out what came before. For a first chapter I think that can work because that's when you're sort of presenting your thesis statement (if not to readers then at least to yourself). I don't think that will be viable going forward.

I had some idea of where I thought Chapter 2 could end, but these chucklefucks are so verbose (especially in their heads) that every single possibility I'd previously thought of ended up being wrong. All of those scenes got pushed back to Chapter 3 at least. I knew I didn't want chapter 2 to get too long or the trend of ever increasing chapter length would absolutely paralyze me and o would never get anything else written.

The end of Chapter 2 is literally, literally the first part of it that could have worked as a stopping point for me, and the whole chapter still ended up being ~1500 words longer than the previous one. I have a feeling that "finally a good stopping point!" might be the way it gets decided in the future, although I guess what makes a good stopping point is stuff like the end of a pivotal scene, the reveal of an important bit of information, a character resolving to do something, etc. We'll see!

[blackvahana]

There's so much on my mind now it's ridiculous. Grey was absolutely on the money (not surprised) (he always is) with coming at me with the Call Us Yog-Sothoth thing, it's relevant in so many ways. I'm staring at the network of lights forming ANVD and... to catch up to speed, they're stars they're gates they're Gravity Cores, they're a hall of gates, ANVD is a hall of gates and one gate. I have the keys to all the gates but better than that u have access to all the gates because it is one gate and I am the Gatekeeper to it.

Past weaving are coming to fruition, or more so... past subtleties and particular details I was weaving are making sense and the shapes are beginning to form. My names are written in specific aspects of the overall gate that are. where they're supposed to be?

Anyway.

This is on this blog because this has multiple topics. The second topic is what's bothering me and I want to write on it, specifically I'm understanding, I think, the relation between what I call here the Great Planes and astral realms. Ugh. It's (partly) about the whole where=what thing, specifically how Polarity and the fields of Where-ness contribute to the nature of everything that exists. Everything has a where, the position in the fields of space and time and other things define what each thing is, it's. the gateways. It's the world as gates, the gates are information, the information is Where, the information... basically the way that you transmute something is the same as changing its position and the way you transmute yourself is dragging yourself to anothed place in the code. Too complicated to get into. But effectively... no, see, I'm still hitting this road block. I know it, but for some reason I hit this point and can't say it or think it

I think it's the opposite of what I'm wanting, which is to say I think it actually supports realm creation more than I want it to. Or, rather, it's much more neutral. It's... the Gateway to a realisation about positioning. I was talking earlier in an unposted post, my first attempt at talking, about how there's a difference between mental and material and how the Great Planes mirror this one and are different states of matter and how astral realms seem to map on to the fields in non linear ways - I can explore my town in other great planes, it's linear, but filled with things like the pocket dimensions im relatively certain exist in the garden outside because I feel like fae do that a lot. Pocket dimension isn't the right word, but anyway. The fields of Where aren't linear, but can give birth to linear things, like a random number generator can spit out a sequence of numbers...

Man. I'm just. not wanting to put this crown on at all. Getting a mild tension headache again I'm gonna go sulk in my house - and eventually birth the Where. Really, though, the crown is a clue to the fact this isn't Polarity business but Polarity Leading The Other Laws business and... the function of where... This isn't just a matter of binding ANVD to more tiny little ideas and realnesses but instead an expansion into understanding the tectonic flows of. don't have the patience. going to sleep and going to Action.

[livingfictional]

hiii i love your rdr2 writing & matchups!! if your still accepting requests i'd like to make one (⌒▽⌒)

i don't use labels for gender & sexuality (aside from being asexual) but am pretty masculine and like all, regardless of gender, and my pronouns are he/him :3

about me, uhh,, im vegetarian, my favorite animal is the octopus, ive actually recently started playing rdr2 (after playing rdr1 quite a bit on my switch), my favorite characters so far is arthur of course but also javier (whenever i can find him?? i hardly see him in game </3), my dream job would be to be a paramedic if not for aforementioned chronic illness, i have a weird paradox of being somewhat strong (yayy muscles slowly growing from like half workouts and walking) while also being weak, and i cant rly do things for a long time lest i get a 200 bpm, but can still pick people up. im also punk!! better yet actually cripple punk :3

for hobbies, i enjoy reading, especially non fiction; classic lit, and danmei my friends have forced me into, video games as aforementioned (hades, gi, and ace attorney being other favs), i make art of many kinds but mainly physical sketches, i loovvvee music despite knowing absolutely nothing about it mechanically, i enjoy writing literally just fanfiction and some cringy poetry here and there, and i do tarot!!!

as for personality: with strangers i can range from actually rather confident to a bit shy but willing to talk (contributed by my goal of complimenting least one person each time i go out, its great!!), quite intuitive, can improv quite well in many scenarios, mainly w humor, friends would call me.. probably laid back with a big heart, also easy to talk to—thats actually something ive been told a few times. but i also have this lovely habit of bottling up my feelings to no end for a negative trait—and though thats been getting better, i can still never cry in front of ppl. i can also get irritable rather often because of adhd and anxiety </3. and ihave a potty mouth which i have to control around others,,

for likes: loud music/concerts but quiet rooms, cats, nu metal, uhh....what do i like... aforementioned video games, cold treats (though its not like i can eat/drink hot things..) plushies, trying new foods and going to restaurants!!! my idea of a fun time is an interesting restaurant/cafe. i also like matcha a lot, just odd foods in general, i also have chickens and they are an absolute blast to have long as they arent acting up (which i suppose would be relevant in the rdr world), and an odd love: yogurt/white chocolate covered pretzels. its delicious you gotta believe me

as for dislikes: rude people. not nice people. bigots. assholes. any variation or synonym of the type, also people who mistreat kids and dont know how tf kids brains work too—personal pet peeve. and people who dont like cats. always a red flag. but other than that not many things,, i consider myself open minded

woaw didnt mean to write an essay;,, augh anyways thank you for even reading my request, much love (*´ω｀*) and no pressure to write anything relating to disability if ur not comfortable/confident/just dont want to!!

Maaaan, having chickens sounds so fun. They're so cute 🥹

I match you up with... Charles!

Charles, just like you, is quite open minded as well.

The kind of person to go for quiet walks with you, never rushes you. He likes to just stroll through the forests near Valentine with you, just talking about anything and everything.

Well, he doesn't talk that much, but he definitely listens.

On the subject of that, he's a great listener. Mutter something quietly about craving a certain food, he's on his way to get it, if possible. You saw a thing you liked in the store window? Let's go in and get it.

Charles just wants the best for you, trying to spoil you as much as he can.

[wri0thesley]

for your monster yandere stuff you said you wanted to write about,, would it be posted on this blog or your other blog since you mentioned it won't be fandom or character based writing, but instead general yandere or oc-type content :O (I know in the same post you did briefly talk about posting it on this blog rather than ur side blog but I just wanna ask for confirmation if thats ok!)

probably right here; i try and post most actual writing here anyway! i'll tag it with something like 'fandom unaffiliated' or 'original concept posting' - i'll probably start posting some oc writing stuff here too, but i haven't figured out how best to migrate that because obviously over on my other blog there's a lot more . . . context to who those guys are!

but recently i've been feeling . . . weird, about the whole community over there in murd3r oc/etc land, and the recent events have not made me feel better. i have always felt slightly adrift from it anyway - my preferred flavours of horror don't quite mesh with the most popular ones - but with so many of my friends and mutuals over there leaving the community entirely (and my own feelings about whether or not i actually belong there), i think i would rather separate it a little more.

over on @needleanddead i'll probably continue to post my art for my ocs, reblog specifically horror and gore aesthetic images, interaction with what people in the community are left, reblogs of things that are relevant to other murd3rsims etc - but i think i'd like to keep most of my writing here.

sorry, i got off-topic there! anyway. yeah! i'll be posting writing here, including non-fandom writing. that might end up being my ocs (in which case i'll make primers/etc to post here so you have context), that might end up being monsters, that might end up being characters who are never named and exist only because i want to write about a reader being ensnared by the Very Concept Of Death Itself.

[voiddemon]

damn girl im for real gonna have to just. make a voiddemon 'here's why everything is this way and here's my bullshit' post. anyway here's every au ever made by MY ASS explained poorly

older orbs: everyone is older, maybe by like 10/20 years. sometimes when i post under older orbs it's like between them being proper adults and them transitioning into being adults. mostly do this with my gay shit because it's fun for me. :) This thing is very very old and has changed a lot as my headcanons have

streamer au: joke au where everyone streams and like every game is just a crazy livestream. most of the time it means the games actually happen and it's livestreamed, but also they just livestream on the side. idk it was fun to draw and think about

LM au: little mermaid skirfluff i've written like. a lot for this shockingly. i lied actually it was only 7k ish words but i've drawn a LOT for it. the whole thing is a lot. go through the lm au tag if you're really interested but tldr mermaids, homosexuals, shadow kirby makes one really stupid decision and it pays the fuck off, dmk is homophobic and got a divorce, prince fluff goes through way too much for a happy ending for real. yin and yarn go through a lot too but they're ultimately good guys. also kin-yarn is canon and somewhat plot relevant, as during the climax they figure out what skirby really is since KINE fuck you. hate and war.

FLIPPEd LM au: very different and not explored super in depth. it's not actually based off the little mermaid really. just makes prince fluff a mermaid who is really homosexual and shadow kirby some guy. yin and yarn are bad guys in this one, since fluff leaves them in charge of everything while he turns himself human to convince skirby to be homogay with him. they then take over but things get better.

western: it's this whole thing and one of those big aus that basically change the whole story and it's like go write a book but no i don't. i haven't posted about it enough to talk about it actually. tldr the mirror world is a physical place, and the mirror worlders start essentially a tiny war with their counterparts. dmk steals galaxia and then gets chased into the fairy lands (k64 land, which hasn't really happened yet), shadow kirby takes a lot of L's then wow what a surprise prince fluff is here, shadow dedede gets his house blown up because dmk and skirby blew up Chateau Dedede (to get galaxia).

anime skirby: Shadow kirby either voluntarily or involuntarily is sent to the animeverse during star allies and grows as a person. he and anime kirby bond and have a cute adoptive brother thing going on and it's the best part of the whole thing. skirby being sent there ultimately puts the world in danger because of how nightmare from the anime works but it all turns out okay in the end'

the unnamed au in which KATAM is delayed until after star allies, but around the time when KATAM should have happened dark mind still appears and takes full control of the mirror world: read the title. uhhh shadow kirby got split into 4 different dudes, shadow dedede is possessed forever and is reduced to a mindless pawn to keep all four of them in check, dark meta knight is girlbossing and thriving and driven by his own ego. the mirror worlders kidnap meta knight to provoke everyone and also for the lols. everyone gets their ass thoroughly kicked. all of the star allies go home happy. prince fluff is a star ally in dmk's place which really isn't relevant but i think it's fun.

evil prince fluff aus: this has so many like offshoots but the main two are: he's gay and evil AND he's just evil. in the gay ones he's usually snapped and lost his shit and decided if he can't be homosexual he's just going to take over the world. in the non-gay ones he's probably possessed by one of the uhh jamba heart things that showed up during star allies. usually yin-yarn is involved regardless of the variant, and he eggs fluff on and works with him (planning to just take over and use him as a puppet eventually)

nightmare scenario: the most out there shit ever actually. nightmare has feelings and is more of a person beyond being a being that only exists to cause nightmares and be bad and stinky and evil. he finds patchland and sets up camp there since it has a dream fountain hidden away from everyone on that planet, and dreamland is close enough on a planetary level that he can hop to the dream fountain there. he creates prince fluff for fun and accidentally brings him to life by dropping him in the dream fountain. Nightmare proceeds to have a custody battle with some fucking guy, he then goes off to be evil and is killed by kirby, then everything else happens as normal and Prince Fluff generally grows up to be haunted by who his father is. nightmare is actually for real dead so over time the universe is shifting the burden of existing as a manifestation of nightmares onto him, which sucks because he's trying to be a good person despite his instincts to do crime. for gay purposes this makes everything SUPER FUCKING COMPLICATED. also prince fluff is hiding who made him from everyone and acting like he doesn't know.

kin-yarn tnt wizards: tjhey have sex on poinjt beta

there's more but like those are the ones i remember/have revealed to the world. you have no idea how much gay shit i have inside my silly brain.

[notquitejiraiya]

🔥choosing violence🔥

8, 14, 21, 22, & 25

Lets gooooooo

8) common fandom opinion that everyone is wrong about

We’re stepping outside of Naruto and we’re stepping into territory I rarely speak about anywhere. But my opinion for this is that RPF isn’t inherently creepy, and it gets entirely too bad a rep. Yes, people definitely CAN be creepy about it, and that’s yuck. But at its core, and if one doesn’t force it upon those who are “in” the story, it’s not. Certain fandoms have overwhelmed RPF to a point it is awful, but I remember writing harmless fun adventures of my fave band travelling the world when I was like 10 and that was one of my introductions to fanfics. A blanket statement of RPF is bad/gross is nonsense.

14) that one thing you see in fics all the time

Miscommunication. It is everywhere. It is like a disease. And not GOOD miscommunication. Not like genuine accidental misunderstandings but like “X thinks Y” “have you talked to them about it?” “No” “why not” “just cause”. Ahhhhhh. Miscommunication can be good, but it’s rough when it’s bad. And it’s EVERYWHERE nowadays I swear 😭

21) part of canon you think is overhyped

I literally don’t know. I am so detached from what other people like and focus on myself and what I like to notice, but I’m gonna say the only thing I can think of which is the whole war arc 😅

22) your favorite part of canon that everyone else ignores

I don’t think it’s necessarily ignored, but I think I have to say the part of the war arc that mirrors the sasuke retrieval arc. I never see that getting much love and I adored it.

25) common fandom complaint that you're sick of hearing

It will always be people complaining that there’s not enough content for X, Y or Z thing. If you think so, and if you want more, make it. It doesn’t have to be perfect. It doesn’t even have to be good. But trying is better than whining.

16) you can't understand why so many people like this thing (characterization, trope, headcanon, etc)

This is more of a “don’t know why they like DOING this thing” type thing, but I do not get the practice of forcing characters into stories when they do not fit, just because you like them want them to fit. I do not know why people like writing it and I do not know why people enjoy reading it. I know the show has a huge cast, but it’s often so hard to connect to the characters and story in fics when they do the same, and it feels so SHALLOW to me. It becomes especially tedious when including characters with fucking TINY amounts of screen time who really didn’t need to be there in the first place, and seem to just be included in fics like a stamp of: “Wow look at me, I know this insignificant character. They’re so misrepresented.” No, they’re not. They’re just not important to the masses.

Similarly (and this is becoming a general complaint now, not a “loads of people do this/like this” thing, but it’s relevant) I do not like the attitude some people give off when you don’t know that a character is from canon rather than an OC they’ve made up. Including any character is all well and good but remembering all the characters from a massive cast like naruto isn’t easy for everyone, especially non-main story characters or novel-only characters like Amagi and the like, and shouldn’t be expected. At that point they ought to be treated like an OC, because there really isn’t much to go on in canon anyway. Don’t expect too much from your readers, and give them some MEAT on characters, known or unknown. Being confusing ≠ being good.

[plutoswrath]

Please post your opinion on what black moon Lilith represents in charts of men, women and nonbinary

Hello! Long post ahead!! Please read through everything or else it won’t make sense lol

The post about lilith I’m currently still editing does touch on gender and astrology. I think I’ve said this before but I want to make one thing clear, as someone who’s also into sociology:

Gender and astrology is only relevant because we live in a society that revolves around gender performance. It’s also a binary idea of gender. Man and woman; and both are represented and constructed as differences. This is the norm society created in order for it (and it many other social harmful systems) to work. Being a man equals to different behavior, ideas and attitudes. Same with being a woman. That’s why men and women are usually raised and socialized very differently. And that’s why we can see differences in the manifestations of certain energies BUT NOT because the stars are gendered! I want people to let go of this weird idea of bioessentialism that apparently is inherent in the stars. Gender as it is now understood in western culture (because I grew up in a northern part of Europe, this is the culture I’m most familiar with) is a social construct that serves a primary oppressive system and purpose.

That means that the different manifestations we see in men and women in astrology is due to gendered performance. We have to go with lots of nuance into these conversations, even though I want to break them down as easily as possible for everyone to understand.

People that are non-binar fall out of this heteronormative system by definition, but there’s more to it. These people still grew up in a binary system, which can lead to internalized believes about gender and sex that are hard to unlearn even though you are not cis. Gender and gender performance is also tight to race, you can also talk about class here and how these two categories alone can alter your whole perception and experience about gender performance. This intersectional approach is very important to keep in mind, even though I do want to generalize the certain aspects that people that fall into a specific section have in common.

For example, I’m not cis either, but I know, that politically I am a woman; I do feel strongly about my experience with womanhood and know that I’m not only read as a woman but have been socialized that way my whole life, even though my experience has been different to those who identify as cis. So I do think that people who are not cis fall out of the scheme and definition of certain astrological placements/energies.

Also; astrology so far is very whitewashed and extremely heteronormativity gendered (which in itself goes hand in hand with whiteness)

There’s a lack of representation when it comes to astrologers that don’t fall into the heteronormative and to see their approach and definition of the astrological practice.

Therefore I am also wondering what happens to our practice of astrology when we‘ll finally strip it from those harmful ideologies. I remember writing about the sign cancer and how it is so weirdly infantilized..that cancer women are happy as long as they have a home and a man by her side…..that’s not cancer, that’s a cancerian woman that operates as best as it can in a system that tells women that they should be with a man and become a housewife. And now I wonder, what is truly the essence of cancer if you strip away the heteronormative idea of a cishet marriage?? It’s not about dissing marriage and cishet people, but about the idea that these ideas are inherent to the energies of an astrological placement.

ANYWAYS BACK TO LILITH

We have lilith and we know what her themes are. Now we only have to set it in context and that context will look very different for everyone else. I just know and observed that lilith in hetero relationships, or at least were those dynamics are vividly present and (subconsciously) lived out, the themes often stay the same between the man and the women; if he hasn’t reflected on and works on his misogyny there’ll be a strong and often unpleasant power dynamic between the two.

Lilith is INHERENTLY very political in that sense because the story is about the power dichotomy between two people that were meant to be equal and then ended in the separation between women and man due to her own free will. And I’m not trying to girlboss lilith because our lilith can want things that are bad and makes us act out in ways that can definitely be harmful. I’m just trying to say that Lilith talks about power dynamics. Us in relation to the world/society. And we dissect ourselves in relation to what we want and are and what we shouldn’t be and crave. It’s again talking about the raw and honest nature of desire and our inner nature and how it relates to others/society.

And again the story of lilith is not historical, it’s religious so it is inherently a metaphor. This story can be read and interpreted in many ways. But I try to identify Lilith’s story with what I see in real life and make my sense out of it. And from what I’ve seen lilith always reduces itself to the political and private self (which are ultimately interchangeable) in conflict to each other or others. So there’s that.

This theme can be true for everyone, no matter what you identify as. For example I see lilith playing out as power plays in hetero relationships often but I do wonder if it’s at least somehow different if the man is aware of his own misogyny. And ofc what happens to the woman if she isn’t aware of her own misogyny.

I guess everyone who isn’t socially and politically active doesn’t like my take buy this is the type of astrology I practice.

Edit; I’m rereading this currently and realize that I haven’t touched on the way lilith can show up between two women. It can be incredibly uplifting because she is seeing in the other what everyone denied her of and honors her power and wisdom. It can be very freeing to be together and familiarity and power can be found in shared suffering. But ofc one or both can be triggered by their internalized misogyny as well. Fully in lilith nature it is polarizing, either incredibly freeing and nice or painful.

[radarsteddybear]

Questions for Fic Writers

Tagged by @rose-of-pollux. Thank you!

(I tag everyone and anyone who wants to do this!)

How many works do you have on AO3? 74

What's your total AO3 word count? 222,374 words

What fandoms do you write for? A lotta DuckTales (2017), a good deal of Hogan's Heroes, some Singin' in the Rain, and a smattering of other stuff. Though I'm not really writing DuckTales anymore (nor am I writing the smattering of other stuff).

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Ducktober 2017 (DuckTales 2017)

Numb (DuckTales 2017)

An Old Letter (DuckTales 2017)

A Phone Call and a Visit (DuckTales 2017)

It All Fades to Black (Encanto)

Do you respond to comments? Why or why not? I try to reply to comments left on AO3. Since you have to respond to reviews on ff.net via PM, I find it a lot harder to keep track of which I've responded to and which I haven't, so I usually don't anymore.

What's the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? Most of my angst comes with a happy ending, and on top of that, I don't have the greatest perspective of how angsty my angst is, but I'm going to go with Exchange (Scrooge has to pay a price to get Lena back from Magica).

What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? Jeez, I don't know. Most of them have happy endings. The two that come to mind are:

Things My Heart Used to Know (Louie has discovered who he is and not only found his family but also put it back together again)

Ashes (Cosmo gets to live out his happily-ever-after with the two loves of his life, Don Lockwood and Kathy Seldon)

Do you get hate on fics? Not quite hate, but I have gotten complete non sequiturs, people who don't seem to understand that I like to write scenes over full stories, and a couple of arguments over my chosen characterization of a character in one specific story (which I stand by).

Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written? I've never written any, though that doesn't stop me from thinking about them. Lately I've been thinking about Captain Carter visiting the 4077th.

Have you ever had a fic stolen? Not that I know of.

Have you ever had a fic translated? No.

Have you ever co-written a fic before? The closest I've ever come to co-writing a fic was when @eggs-arent-real wrote me a one-shot and I wrote her a sequel. We didn't post it, though.

What's your all-time favorite ship? Probably Cosmo/Don/Kathy from Singin' in the Rain. I'm also partial to Stucky and Aziraphale/Crowley.

What's a WIP you want to finish, but doubt you ever will? Good question. I've not given up on any of these, mind you, but my Darkwing Duck plot bunnies may fall into this category; it's just that I have to rewatch a significant portion of the show to pull them off, and I have no idea when that's going to happen.

What are your writing strengths? Back in high school, I was told by multiple people that I was really good with imagery. I also tend to like my dialogue, and I've had a lot of practice writing whump and hurt/comfort scenes, so I'd like to think I'm pretty good at those, too.

What are your writing weaknesses? Coming up with full plots (as opposed to random, out-of-context scenes). And also endings. And getting characters from point A to point B without any/much dialogue.

Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic? If that's how a character speaks, then that's how a character speaks. Personally, I try to avoid it unless it's a canon piece of the character and/or it's plot relevant. I think I've only done it for Panchito and Jose of the Three Caballeros. And also Mark Beaks, who canonically peppers his speech with Spanish when talking to Fenton because he is awful.

First fandom you wrote for? Liberty's Kids. There's a good chance I still have it, too, though I'll never post it (I never finished it, anyway).

The first fandom I wrote for and posted was Iron Man: Armored Adventures, which is also the only fic I've ever deleted off the internet.

Favorite fic you've ever written? I've gotta go with these two:

Things My Heart Used to Know

“We’ll meet up in Duckburg,” he heard Scrooge say. “I’ve got a Bin there, and…” Another explosion, the biggest one yet, shook the Bin, and large chunks of plaster fell around them. “We have to go,” Donald said. Scrooge turned to Louie and pressed something small and solid and round into his hand. “Guard it well,” he told him before disappearing into the smoke. Or, Louie gives a new meaning to the nickname “Captain Lost.”

Ashes

Cosmo drinks his sorrows away after Kathy discovers that he and Don are more than just friends.