#everything else is inconstant

[burningvelvet]

i don't actually believe that shelley and byron were directly romantically or sexually involved but i do believe byron and thomas moore definitely had something seriously going on considering everything... yet no one ever talks about this in academia or byron studies, though they talk about all the other relationships in his life, and to me this should actually be obvious.... byron considered moore to be his best friend at one point - which yeah he was inconstant but he always writes of moore with way more respect than practically anyone else - compare the way he wrotes of moore in his letters/diaries/poems to how he writes of shelley! - byron also wrote some of his best poems for moore (many of them romantic in nature, including so we'll go no more a roving, which is extremely romantic, listen to leonard cohen's and richard dyer's song versions!) - entrusted him with his work as critic and editor, saw him as a poetic equal, & although moore actively censored a lot of the queer themes in byron's works to protect his reputation it was while simultaneously spending his life lovingly preserving it + publishing a multi-volume biography of him which to this day is the best source about his life, all to make up for the burning of byron's memoirs which moore was THE ONLY ONE who fiercely tried to prevent the destruction of...... and the fact that most of their letters to each other are straight up mysteriously missing except mainly what moore quotes in his published collections, which are of course edited, though he still tried to leave in as much lewd stuff as he possibly could knowing that's what byron would have wanted.... any way!

[poems-of-the-anentomologist]

I Don’t Know Whether to Title This off of the Poem’s Gimmick or My Weird Connection to Siffrin ISaT. Mental Health Crisis. There, That Works

At night, the lights flash on

Zap, zap- That’s their constant

In my mind, the blood falls

Drip, drip- That’s its constant

Skin rips, flesh turns blue

These aren’t my thoughts, I feel sick

Cough, hack- That’s my constant

I can’t take this, I can’t think

All these thoughts feel wrong

So I escape. I escape into a connection

No longer myself, I’m someone else

I’ll take solace in this one, a person who does not exist, one surrounded by inconstant time and stars that shine like glitter

Flicker, flicker- That’s their constant

I relate to them, they’re like me

The way they suppress, hide, act like everything’s fine

If I’m them, then everything will be alright

Right?

…

No. No, it’s not working.

I still feel it, there in the back, clawing at my mind

Scratch, scratch- That’s their constant

I feel it bottling up, waiting to explode

But there isn’t an outlet. The pressure builds

Crack, crack- That’s its constant

They’re not me, and I’m not them

Feeling like them comforts me, but it’s only making this worse

It’s not healthy, but I’m scared to stop

For the first time tonight, tears drip from my eyes and fall on my pillow

Splash, splash- That’s their constant

My head spins, my heart pitter patters

And I fall asleep

I like it Cy

[myriadeyed]

I hate binaries I hate binaries I hate binaries

[OK, full disclosure, before I posted this I had a drowned screenshot of part of a post, but I decided I didn't want to blast someone who wasn't actively having that bad of a take (I just got annoyed by phrasing) or accidentally be disingenuous in cutting off the rest of the post so instead I'm just going to explain: it was an informational post about the different experiences with labels and my frustration with it was the given examples of — paraphrased —"some alterhumans don't like the word nonhuman because they're still partly human, some nonhumans don't like the word alterhuman because they don't like the word human, some beings don't like the word person because it implies they're human."]

"It implies they're human" is not ever a true statement. Please understand the difference between how you or another person feels about a word and its definition and "this word implies/means/says/etc. this." I will not ever complain about those who don't like alterhuman or person for themselves due to their experience of dysphoria, but I am annoyed by the subset of that group who makes sweeping statements like "Alterhuman/person implies you're human!" because

I'm alterhuman and I'm nonhuman. I'm alterhuman primarily BECAUSE I'm nonhuman. I am physically not a human and what makes me dysphoric, personally, is half of the community suddenly deciding that alterhuman/person is for humans and nonhuman/being (or equivalent to being) is for everyone else so anybody who considers themself alterhuman is declaring their humanness first and everything else second. I like alterhuman. I consider myself a person because I'm a thinking being with complex emotions, not because personhood is inseparable from humanness. The alterhuman community is my community. I'm not gonna "ok we will make our own place" anymore. (I also hate having to say upfront I'm physically nonhuman otherwise I'm one of those annoying human therians yapping about misanthropy again amiright but wtvr.) It upsets me when alterhuman is talked about like "word for if you're 'kin but still consider yourself human" because I don't! I do not consider myself a human and I don't want that to dictate what labels I'm supposed to use. I do not want to be seen as a human at all, without having to abandon alterhumanity! I'm sorry for wanting to have my cake and eat it too, but this is a semantic divide, not an ontological one.

TLDR "I'm NOT alterhuman because I'm NOT a human!" Good for you! I AM alterhuman because I'm NOT a human! How cool is the subjectivity of experience? Don't project your dysphoria onto me!

I love the word alterhuman because it is up for interpretation. It is open-ended, and has space for everybody who considers their relationship to humanness or species or embodiment etc. abnormal — "alternative." I love it because my own identity is vague, inconstant, complicated and indefinable, and it can't be separated into niche distinct parts for convenient labeling. Alterhuman isn't just a catch-all umbrella term, it's a word you can use if no other words work, because it doesn't necessitate definitions. It implies nothing about identity inherently; if you have personal implications for it, those are yours, not the word's.

I like "alterhuman" for the same reasons I like "queer." Maybe my identity isn't anyone else's business, maybe it isn't even my own a lot of the time. But I always know where I belong. I find it funny how often both of these words have someone else's personal discomforts projected onto their individual users.

Btw did anyone else notice the word human is also part of "nonhuman." Scary stuff. What else is the government hiding from us

[letmelickyoureyeballs]

Beta Reader About Me

This is going to be a more in-depth post about me as a beta reader, which will be linked in my pinned post.

First off, hello call me Shark or Spruce! I'm 19 and go by he/they pronouns. I am open to beta reading for people, whether that's stuff on here or AO3.

What I'm willing to do:

Grammer/Capitalization/Punctuation

Cheer reading(pointing out what you did well and what I'm excited to see)

Identify plot inconstancies/where something needs to be clarified

Help with canon/characterization(if I know what/who it is)

American/Midwest information and more specifically Wisconsin information

Pretty much anything else you wish me to help with

*Depending on the fandom and length of fics, some of these will differ in doability*

I am generally ok with any kind of content that you write, but I do have some fic turn-offs. *Note that not everything on this list means I won't beta read for you, but I would like more info/details around them if they are in your fic to see if I'm still comfortable helping*

Mpreg/Anything pregnancy-related

Kid fics(when the main pairing has a kid, not kid-focused fics)

Really dark stories with no happy endings(depends on the story, but I'd prefer a happy/fulfilling ending)

Major Character death

Anything that is meant to hate a certain group/subgroup of people

Really long fics over 100k words

Some things that I am comfortable reading. *Not a comprehensive list*

Omegaverse

Reader Insert

G-E rated fics

Original characters

Canonverse

Alternate Universe

Gore and violence

Potentially triggering topics

I will again read pretty much any fandom you write for including original works, but here are some fandoms that I would be able to help more in-depth with:

The Witcher(Show, Third game, All the books), The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings, Halo(Game series), Marvel, Venom, Star Wars/The Mandalorian, Transformers, Call of Duty, How to Train Your Dragon(Iffy on third movie), Spider-Man/Deadpool(Spideypool), Percy Jackson/The Heroes of Olympus, The Hunger Games, The Divergent Series, Maze Runner, Narnia(Movies only, I don't know anything in the books), Pride and Prejudice/Emma, Disney/Pixar movies, The 100, NBC Hannibal, Rise of the Guardians, Good Omens, Our Flag Means Death, Beastars, Titanfall 2, Red Dead Redemption 2, Baldurs Gate 3, Divinity Original Sin 2, Hazbin Hotel, Critical Role(I've only watched Campaign 1 and 3, and the TV show), Once Upon a Time, Anne with an E, Harry Potter, Six of Crows, Twilight, Star Trek, The Conjuring series, Descendants/High school Musical, Guardians of the Galaxy, Oceans Trilogy, Andrew Garfield's Spider-Man, Top Gun, Stranger Things, Fast and Furious, Moon Knight, Bridgerton(Show only)

I will read WIPs/completed works, multi/single chapter works, original works, and anything in between.

If you are interested or have any questions you may DM me. If you do, please provide whether I would be helping with a WIP or completed work, and whether there are any deadlines I need to be aware of. Please also include any warnings I should know about, and what you would want me to help with. I would also prefer to work on Google Docs if possible.

*Even if you are not interested, please reblog for others to see*

Edited July 18, 2024

[saemi-the-writer]

If you're still doing the pairing meme: Tikki/Plagg, Alyanette, Felinette, Adrinino and Lukanino?

Oh wow, that's quite the list. *cracks knuckle* Here I go!!

Tikki/Plagg

Screw canon with "Kwami don't understand love or human's feelings", Tikki and Plagg are the oldest married couple ever around!!! The balance, opposite attracts, fun bickering, sweet nickname Plagg only has for Tikki? They're married, your Honour!

Alya/Marinette

Best friends to lovers is a go!! It's a shame the show is so inconstant with Alya's characterization, but let's forget it for a moment: Alya is the one who openly stood up to Chloé for Marinette when they didn't know one another, Alya keeps rooting for Marinette in everything she does and helps whenever she can, is her confident and keeps giving her pep talk... what's not to love? Sure, Alya isn't perfect, and she's still a teen learning subtility among other things. And I don't think I need to expand on what Marinette does for Alya and everyone else, the poor girl even needs a long vacation! Burn whatever Lila is doing to Alya's brain whenever she appears on screen, Alya is a good friend and potential GF for Marinette!

Felix/Marinette

I am glad Felix was replaced by Adrien, I don't care if the quality of the show dropped or is imitating a roller-coaster ride. I've seen enough "girl is infatuated with a (selfish) boy who's acting like an asshole to her, whilst drooling all over a persona of hers", and I am glad they went for the "classmates-friends-to-lovers" route. Felix isn't "a jerk with a heart of gold", that's fanon Felix, and while some creators have very good AUs for the pairing (some I even follow!), it got tarnished in my eyes by the too many salt fics where Felix comes around to "save Marinette from EvUlanDsTOopiD classmates and Adrien". UGH. I despise how they made Felix an asshole only to try and make me feel sorry for him afterwards, there are two kinds of assholes, and Felix in his first apparitions wasn't in the "likeable" one.

Adrien/Nino

Underrated, underdeveloped, wasted potential, WHY?! They would make a very cute couple!! Also, gimme more of their friendship on screen goddamnit!!!!! They would be so fun to follow, example: Nino is usually being chill and smiling yet he (internally or not) completely freak out when Adrien makes a social faux pas due to his upbringing or casually buys him some expensive stuff "DUDE PLEASE DON'T 😨" "Did I do something wrong?? Are you mad? 😢" "Nonononono I'm not mad but... next time, just follow my lead and keep your money, please??" (still he lets Adrien give him gifts though because it's one of his love languages)

Luka/Nino

Anon, either you've been through my main blog (respect, for it's so chaotic and mostly untagged) or you're a mind-reader because it's a rare pair that I'd love to see more!! I admit that the idea crossed my mind kind of randomly, mostly when I was working on my Miraculous Team AU, but then I couldn't stop thinking about it. With good development, these two could work well! They'd make a fun, cute and chill couple, both music lovers and artists in different fields. Nino could be the shoulder Luka could lean on, he who is so often the one to dry people's tears, the two would support each other in a calm, steady way. Nino's perseverance would inspire Luka, and Luka's hidden sneakiness would come in handy for Nino... so much potential!

[vickyvicarious]

"Well, well, my dear Edmond," continued the owner, "don't let me detain you. You have managed my affairs so well that I ought to allow you all the time you require for your own. Do you want any money?" "No, sir; I have all my pay to take—nearly three months' wages."

Chapter 1

"Yes—yes," said Caderousse; "but you were right to return as soon as possible, my boy." "And why?" "Because Mercedes is a very fine girl, and fine girls never lack followers; she particularly has them by dozens." "Really?" answered Edmond, with a smile which had in it traces of slight uneasiness. "Ah, yes," continued Caderousse, "and capital offers, too; but you know, you will be captain, and who could refuse you then?" "Meaning to say," replied Dantes, with a smile which but ill-concealed his trouble, "that if I were not a captain"—

Chapter 2

"I mean, Mercedes, that you are thus harsh and cruel with me, because you are expecting some one who is thus attired; but perhaps he whom you await is inconstant, or if he is not, the sea is so to him." "Fernand," cried Mercedes, "I believed you were good-hearted, and I was mistaken! [...] Unable to have me for your wife, you will content yourself with having me for your friend and sister; and besides," she added, her eyes troubled and moistened with tears, "wait, wait, Fernand; you said just now that the sea was treacherous, and he has been gone four months, and during these four months there have been some terrible storms."

Chapter 3

Now that I'm rereading, there's such an interesting reflection of later events in these first couple of chapters. The first chapter has Edmond arriving home with a (relatively) large sum of money, which he intends to deliver to and share with his father. He's worried about his dad's health. Everything with his father hiding how poorly he is doing is a preview of his eventual fate as well, but I think Dantes' arrival in particular is a fun kind of almost mirror to his later return.

Also find it interesting how both Edmond and Mercedes are led to doubt one another. Edmond is shown to be uneasy about Mercedes moving on to someone else, even though he dismisses the possibility. And Mercedes, while more easily ignoring the suggestion that Edmond may have cheated on her, is afraid he might have been harmed or even died. Later on, both their fears are proven somewhat 'true': Mercedes doesn't stop loving Edmond but she does marry someone else. And Edmond doesn't actually die but metaphorically sort of does, and certainly is legally dead/assumed to be dead.

Neither of them come up with these fears on their own, and neither want to let them gain any ground, but it's really interesting how they foreshadow some later events in a way. I can tell there will probably be a bunch more moments like this that are rewarding on a reread.

[man-down-in-hatchet-town]

Celebrity Skin

AHHHHHHHH!

Spoilers for Episode 10 of The Case of the Greater Gatsby under the cut!

GUYS THIS WAS THE BEST EPISODE! I don’t think I’ve laughed out loud so consistently while listening to a podcast in years. Obviously, the Persauds should be proud of everything they’ve written, but they should be extra proud of this complete and utter gem of a farce.

But let’s start with the bad news. As much as No Cop, No Cop absolutely exceeded my expectations, I don’t think Ford felt the same. It might be awhile before we get him in on another caper. Also, ironically after what I wrote last week, Cliff has already blithely broken up with his contractor. Must be nice to have so much money that you can build all those bathrooms for nothing and then not even be upset about it. But while much poorer than Cliff, I too am resilient and apparently inconstant, because I’ve already jumped right on board the good ship Cliff/Rex (Riff? Callowhistle? Punchaway?) and am ready to sail!

Meanwhile, we can unsurprisingly cross Zelda off the murder suspect list and add Willie, Cliff, and Leery to the guest list at Mel’s party the night Fitzy died. And I’m pretty sure Ford and I are on the same page as to the location of the missing tapes (they HAVE to be behind Zelda’s painting at Sheila’s place, right?). Dash setting fire to Bixby's does feed into the plot thread of the bar's potential financial troubles (if those are even real), though whether the pyrotechnics will make the problems worse or the insurance will make them better remains to be seen. It would be kinda' hilarious if the answer to Bixby's money woes ends up being Dash-with-a-fan.

The part of me that is forever living in the opening performance of Eugene and Ramona Trousers' delightfully inane but extremely plot-relevant The History of Sleepy Hollow really wanted to scan this episode's improvised travesty for potential clues, but unless Fitzy's murderer got into his house by disguising themself as a chaise lounge (tragically unlikely), I really don't think there's anything there.

But it wouldn't be a Brooke-rambles-about-GG post without at least one bit of wild theorizing so we go: Eugene Punchwhistle is the Hinge Highway Man. I'm not saying I believe this, but I am saying that we have two completely tertiary mysteries, and it would be kinda' funny if they ended up simply answering each other. And I don't know who else Eugene could possibly be.

So yeah! What a fantastic episode! Grip Holdstuff might be my new favorite gag in all of Shipwrecked history! Clark Baxtresser's voice coming from a character that was just described as short might be my new favorite unintentional gag in all of Shipwrecked history! AND we got to hear Clark sing Cole Porter (😍😍😍😍😍😍😍)!! What a high-light! Good news, indeed!

Excited to hopefully get those tapes next episode. And when are we gonna check in on Donald Ogden Stewart?

[honeyblockm]

The Death Poem, Part Two: New L'Manberg

Masterpost | Part One: L'Manberg | Part Three: Empowerment | Part Four: Legacy

Text:

12/6/2020: Karl Jacobs stages his death in a bid for independence

Or death. 

People seldom listen to anything else

Even my fiances agree 

Here I feel like a ribbon snapping in the wind--

Sovereignty must be anointed with flesh

It is known

and what have I to fear?

Not death, 

Death will come in a thousand more times

for me, like the tide

Taking with it the sand

and all the shells, pulled to sea

12/11/2020: Tommyinnit shoots down Jack Manifold 

You’ve been missed, I don’t know

if anyone’s told you that. 

Not that they need to. It’s hard

not to hear the silence you’ve

left. To forget that you had once

lived here as if Tubbo’s found the heart

to wash your graffiti off the walls yet. 

There you are. I’ve been looking. 

We've been trying 

to reach you. 

12/13/2020: Mexican Dream is murdered

My best qualities, if asked:

I am good at making friends. 

Even better at protecting them. 

1/14/2021: Vikkstar and Lazarbeam disappear, dying an unknown number of times over an unknown number of days

now that my memory’s begun

to blur let me hold your head in my 

hands Cradling your cheek for these

brief moments Minutes here are 

only minutes but in the darkness years

and years Between these intermissions I do not 

remember so clearly anymore your last 

birthday or our anniversary or the color

of your eyes but slowly I’ve watched

your hair streak gray Just like we’ve

planned I am at your side as our bones 

turn brittle O for everything at

least we are growing old together

1/?/2021: Punz and Dream kill and revive each other an unknown number of times

We take turns holding each other’s heads under the water just 

to see what it’s like to drown It’s his arms hooking under 

mine when I stop thrashing against the hand on my 

neck Pulling me out Licking from my mouth the taste of 

chlorine Now I can't tell you what it is to trust without 

reservation I have left behind the tenets of unconditional 

loyalty and the boys who carried them everywhere I 

went Love it's been shown is strong but the heart is 

inconstant I’ve seen it spasm blood through my 

fingers Cutting its gliding way into 

flesh No I do not love but this I find 

acceptable The brush of knuckles against my 

throat His skin a pressing 

warmth What affection it is that a spider must have for its 

web or the branches on which it’s 

attached His reassembling of 

me is the softest I’ve been touched in a long 

time If my heart gives out now it will only 

be because he has gripped it and held it still

12/16/2020: Technoblade takes an anvil to the head and lives

I've made it clear that I 

cannot die, though not for lack 

of trying and you have surely tried 

the hardest of them all. Even 

through the bitter tundra, chasing

me. For your

efforts here it is, your

brief victory. I watched the anvil and did

not flinch and it shattered

my skull. Bone cracked and splintered like

ice and then the totem did

too, but in the interval between that I was no

longer alive. You laughed, I commend 

you. The scale’s shifted and now

that the ball’s rolling you’d do

well to remember what

violence begets.

12/16/2020: Quackity takes a pickaxe to the teeth

All men can die. Nothing else remains 

constant and therefore just, so

I must become a butcher. Swinging

down my knife before you hit

back. Do I think I can take

you? Well, I’m not a man of half 

measures--this is how

high I had to stack the odds just

to look you in the eye. Now 

that we see each other clearly I catch, 

also, a glimpse of a harder 

truth and do not flinch. Your 

pickaxe, slate gray, cleaving in two the

bones of my face, crunching

like Arctic ice. I must be still too

soft, if I cracked open just

like that. 

1/6/2021: Jack Manifold falls into hell hours after doomsday

as per usual this one 

is also an afterthought 

the floor pulled out under me

a sly trick 

nothing too serious is reserved

for me

even hell is lonely

the fire my only companion

as my charred bones pull themselves up

I don’t know why I thought

when my hand finally hit overworld air

that someone would be there

pulling me up

the rest of the way

1/20/21: Tommyinnit kills Dream twice, nearly three times

      It didn't hurt. 

Not the first time, 

by the second strike 

    he was beginning to feel the sting of axe 

            and cloth and bone. 

     Everyone watched: 

     that part was new. 

     He couldn't say he liked 

     the attention, 

     as if the eyes alone would make it real. 

In his pooling blood's indigo reflection he caught 

            glimpses. Colossal sleeping beasts 

         of blackstone, boxes, 

         years lost down bodies of water. 

            At pressures like these, there is only room in your chest 

            for turgid lungs or beating heart. 

One of them has got to go. 

[kittycatautism]

Friday, May 17, 2024

I was about to start typing but I just realized I think I’ve written my past entries as 2023 rather than 2024 so give me a moment… ok I have returned and they are fine apparently I’m just being silly!

Anyways!!! Not my normal posting day, I know, but I want to talk about ✨chronic illness/pain✨ today because I have some words!

I am 21, and yet I have had constant body pain since I was about 10 or 11 years old. I am just realized as I type this that I’ve been dealing with this horseshit for ten fucking years, most of which without help!!! Wonderful!!!!!!!

My doctor of the past, was an awful awful doctor. When I first came to him as a tiny 10-11 year old child about having pain in my back and legs and hands, he told me “you’re just fat and lazy, you need to work out more. You’re too young to know what pain feels like”. When I came to him a couple years later, the pain more than doubled, he said “your depression is making you think you’re in physical pain, and you’re still fat. Just go for a walk once in a while and you’ll be fine and your depression will be cured”. I never talked about pain with him again because it was the same old answer - I was fat and lazy.

Fast forward a couple more years, I’m about 18 I’d say, and that fuckass doctor retires and I get a new doctor. Within months of seeing that doctor I decide to mention the pain, and instantly I am met with more care and compassion and understanding than I ever was before. I got scheduled for x rays and blood work and this, was the beginning of many many tests of all sorts to come.

Now I’m 21, and I have chronic pain and illness, one of which is identified as fibromyalgia, one of which is thought to be ehlors danlos syndrome, and who knows what else there is hiding in me. I’m a shit show of issues with little to no results from testing, which feels awful given my wonderful past experience!! I mean, I literally got gaslit that nothing is wrong with me for years and now I have someone who will listen and I feel like I have to fight to be heard because nothing shows up on these tests, when really in all honesty I know my doctor believes me. I just am so scared that he will one day go “Welp! Nothing seems to be here so everything is alright and you’re just not in pain! It’s all in your head!!!”, I know it won’t happen but I worry nonetheless.

I’ve been on a few medications, none of which have helped in any way whatsoever, and my pain is just getting worse and worse and is deteriorating my body. My bones creak, I can feel every muscle move, and it ALL hurts, head to toe. Some pain is electric, some is just a general ache, it all sucks. I can hardly get out of bed, and I have a whole set of stairs to walk down to go to the bathroom (which, by the way, I have an inconstancy problem and for those who don’t know that basically means I pee myself every day!), I use a walker to get around when I’m out and honestly should be using a cane in the house, it’s a lot and I’m just barely scratching the surface. I mean, I am literally waiting for my doctors office to open back up on Tuesday so I can call about my disability covering a fucking wheelchair!!

I’m pretty sure I have a disc out of place or a pinched nerve now too, which if I remember correctly means I get to have another mri (I hate mris). I have so much pain that is just suddenly coming on in the last few months AND even better I am in a flare up right now that’s lasting for fucking ever!!! I mean I have to use a bunch of my money to buy a pair of orthopaedic shoes now because regular shoes cause me so so so much pain!! This shit sucks man!

I’ve completely forgotten what I was gonna close this off with originally, but I just want to say that if you struggle with chronic illness/pain I see you and completely understand. I would kill to have my pain taken away, I genuinely wish I would break a bone so I could focus on that over this, anything has got to be better. And having problems mentally already does not help as my mental health has been down the drain lately, so thinking about my pain and what it’s taken from me sucks so bad. But I know I’ll get through it, probably with like 20 years off my life but still, eventually hopefully things will get better or at least tolerable. Thank you for reading this awfully long rant about pain and wish me luck in getting a wheelchair covered by my disability (more specifically getting a wheelchair that will fit in my tiny car to be covered)

Song of the week is The Moon Will Sing by The Crane Wives, I love this song so much ehehehheheheh

[goforth-ladymidnight]

On ACOTAR Faeries and Lying

I don’t know if this has been talked about before, but I think SJM really kneecapped her faerie characters by taking away everything that made them, well, faerie. Pointy ears and eternal youth are not enough for me. There’s some great faerie lore that we’re introduced to in the first few chapters of ACOTAR: their aversion to iron, addictive food, their inability to lie, etc. And then later on it’s revealed that faerie food just tastes really good, the aversion to iron was a ruse, and they can lie. They lied about lying.

Lucien leaned back in his chair, smiling with feline delight. “Of course we can lie. We find lying to be an art. And we lied when we told those ancient mortals that we couldn’t speak an untruth. How else would we get them to trust us and do our bidding?”

I think the only reason that was mentioned was because of a “provision” in the Treaty:

“That was all a lie. There was no provision for that in the Treaty. You can kill as many innocent faeries as you want and never suffer the consequences. You just killed Andras, sent out by Tamlin as that day’s sacrifice.” [Alis]

Imagine if there was a provision after all, and Tamlin meant it when he said that he would take on Feyre’s life-debt and let her return to the mortal lands. That way we have no reason to doubt Tamlin when he says that he loves her, because faeries can’t lie. I’ve seen the argument that he was only using her to break his curse, when he made it clear in canon that he wouldn’t use her that way:

Lucien: “By the Cauldron, Tam—there isn’t much time, and you’re just sulking and glowering. You’re not even trying to fake it anymore.“

Tamlin: “It was a mistake from the start. I can’t stomach it, not after what my father did to their kind, to their lands. I won’t follow in his footsteps—won’t be that sort of person. So back off.“

That’s not why I bring this up, though. Amarantha hated humans because of what a human general (Jurian) did to her sister. What if it went deeper than that? What if Clythia thought Jurian actually loved her, and it was a lie? Yes, we know it’s a lie; we’re told that Jurian betrayed Clythia, after all, but it holds a lot more weight if humans are the only ones who can lie.

In popular faerie folklore, faeries are very good at getting what they want, and it never involves lying. Trickery, yes. But not outright lies.

Feyre’s bargain with Amarantha was as close to faerie trickery as we got.

1. Amarantha turned Tamlin’s heart to stone, so technically Feyre didn’t win the Third Trial (”Stab each of these unfortunate souls in the heart”), but that was overlooked in the text.

2. When Feyre “won”, Amarantha claimed there was a loophole in the bargain in that she didn’t specify when she had to free Tamlin from his curse. The text tries to claim that she lied to get her way out of it, but it was technically true. Now, she could have said she didn’t make bargains with human pigs, or that she had lied and what were they going to do about it, she was queen, so there... but she didn’t. Because ACOTAR faeries can lie, so there’s no real weight to Amarantha claiming there was a loophole.

Finally, we get the scene where Amarantha tries to tear Feyre apart for winning, since there’s nothing in the original bargain that says Feyre can live. But Amarantha doesn’t just want to kill Feyre; she wants her to admit that Feyre never loved Tamlin.

“Say that you don’t truly love him,” Amarantha spat, and my body twisted, breaking bit by bit. “Admit to your inconstant heart.”

She doesn’t want Feyre’s love to be true. Maybe it’s just me, but if faeries can’t lie, then Amarantha’s rage here is magnified ten-fold. In her mind, her love for Tamlin is true and Feyre’s is false, because humans can lie and always will. Consider this minor tweak:

“Say that you don’t truly love him,” Amarantha spat, and my body twisted, breaking bit by bit. “Admit to your lying human heart.”

I think it could have been a much stronger story that way, even though I am still fond of it as-is. More than anything else, I wish this story had defined rules and stronger worldbuilding. It’s good, but it could have been so much better.

[boooklover]

“The only constant in the soul of man is inconstancy; anything and everything else can pass out of fashion"

Scott Lynch, The Lies of Locke Lamora

[random-conspiracy]

The Extraordinary Oracle

Oh, well. Here's the actualized (5 minutes ago) list of cards. Remember, the deck has NO names but I need to keep track of them in some way so here we are :]

Consultant 1

Consultant 2 (the partner in couple readings, optional)

Young person 1

Young person 2

Adult 1

Adult 2

Old person (age, pass of time, wisdom, grandparents)

Baby (innocence, begginings, novelty, children)

House (comfort, privacy, family [found one or blood one])

Field house (optional for extended family)

Heart

Happiness

Fidelity

Hope

Dandelions in concrete (constance, stability over everything, grow)

Tenderness

Peace (reconciliation, rest, tranquility)

Kindness

Medal (fame, improvement, high honours)

Pride

Friendship

Delight

Desires (dreams, ambitions, ilusions)

4 leaf clover (small luck, odds at your favor, some money, good omen)

Money

Party (celebration, fun)

Bouquet (gift)

Doctor (educated person, who brings you help and advice)

Fortune (Big luck. Sudden success)

Date (flirting, meeting)

Energy (enthusiasm, motivation)

Conversation

Fire (passion, horniness, out of control)

Crossroads (decisions, possibilities, taking different paths)

Bootlicker (SIMP [I doon't like the term but you understand])

Waiting

Garden (an awful lot of people, town, city, social circles)

Ring (compromise, romantic couple, formal bound)

Butterfly (lightness, inconstancy, short duration)

Travel

Work (occupation, effort)

What's coming (news, visits, novelty, someone in the way)

What goes away (someone running away, lost things)

Curiosity (desire to know, meddling, spy)

Clown (ridicule, clown of the class, 🤡)

Change

I don't see, I don't hear, I don't talk (wisdom, negation)

Wall (obstacles, boundaries)

Judgment (legal or social)

Justice

Boredom (disinterest)

Shrimp (time's running out, laziness, lack of attention)

Surprise

A long road

Brave

Intellectual

Private room

Mesage (phone, computer, letters, documents, texts)

Thoughts

Lunatics (dellusions, madness, being very high)

Autorithy (someone in power, institution, order, building)

Key (solution, answer, "get free of jail" card)

Repentant (guilt, one who seeks forgiveness)

Drama

Plant pot (conformism, limited grow, superficiality)

Rat (thief, parasite)

Fear (doubts, anxiety, uncertany)

Rage (anger, fights)

Disgust

Misery

Siren (seduction, tramp, under someone else's control)

Dark clouds (small bad luck, odds against you, bad mood, bad omen)

Mask (false appearances, lies, deceit)

Sadness

Sickness

Sighs (nostalgia, miss something)

Misfortune (big bad luck, disaster)

Gelosy

Prision (loneliness, chained, no options)

Snake (hate, enemy, bad intentions, rotten environment)

Death (ends, funerals)

Thin ice (danger, tension)

Broken heart (treason, disappointment, pain)

Cop (oppression, authority abuse, orders)

"That person" (third wheel, ex, the other woman/man)

Handshake (teamwork, what changes hands)

The weight of the world (a lot of stuff going on, unespected complexity, stress, speed)

Past (memories, ghosts talking)

Alley (what is done in secret or under the table)

Broom (putting things in order, domestic duties)

Shield (protection, strenght)

Artist (hobbies and projects, creations, sensibility)

FLYING PIG (the extraordinary, miracle, anomaly, what shouldn't be but is)

I'm not sure if 93 (and counting) cards are a good idea but who cares hashasa. If you wish to prove this I'll let this here. Ask a question, pick 3 "cards"

[thephantomcasebook]

Wo his this Elio guy😂

Boy, do I have a story for you, Nonny ...

So, Elio and his wife Linda run Westeros.Org which, I believe, was the first fansite for ASoIaF - dedicated to keeping the lore. It was basically a Wiki for ASoIaF before Wiki was invented.

Eventually, GRRM was having trouble keeping all the lore straight in his head, so he basically hired Elio and Linda to keep track of it for him in the late-90's, I think. He would get somewhere in the book and he would call or e-mail them with a question and they'd look it up for him.

Eventually Westeros.Org became the unoffical site for the entire series. And ... Elio and Linda started acting more and more like not only gate keepers, but police, of the fandom, believing what they say and decree is law in fan spaces, and that anything outside of it is not true fandom. They were the judges of what was "Legitimate". Sort of like those "The Tolkien Society" cock-suckers for the Tolkien fandom.

When I joined the fandom in late 2009, they weren't very popular with fans of the books - pre-tv show. The place to be if you were a GRRM fan was the forums of Ice and Fire which was run by Elio & Linda and they constantly micro-managed and looked over the shoulders of everyone and everything going on there.

An example:

So someone starts a thread with a fan theory. It's outlandish but fun. People start adding to it, giving evidence, restructuring it so that it fit better. Then Elio or Linda - usually Linda - would come in and dump a big ice water bucket on everyone's fun, because, she thinks that the theory is ridiculous and not in the spirit of the series or the lore. People tell her that she's wrong and usually and successfully tell her to pound dirt - cause Linda couldn't debate worth shit.

That's when Elio comes along. Now, for context, go back to that Reddit post and read his response to the post they put up of my ask. Elio would find one inconstancy or mistake of lore in the theory and hyper focus on it. His stance being that because the people crafting the theory got one thing wrong that the entire thing was illegitimate. It didn't matter if everything else fit or that the people arguing with him was 99% right about every thing. He would take that one flaw and build an entire strawman argument around it while constantly claiming "Well, George said this!" Or "George told me this" ... shit that no one could quantify.

So, basically, the people on the theory thread was like "Whatever the fuck, dude, we're just having fun. Go away."

And that's when usually Linda locked or deleted the thread.

So, book readers started getting fucking tired of the teacher's pet, prefect, mentality of them.

However, when "Game of Thrones" started to hit big, they increased their standing as sort of the "Keepers of the Flame" of the fandom. Suddenly they were on podcasts and doing interviews for major publications. They also became gate keepers of knowledge for casual fans and new readers. Everyone fascinated with this Trans-Atlantic couple and their story about how they started off with this little fansite in the mid-late 90's and now were lore keepers for a world wide phenomenon!

Then, they flushed it all down the toilet.

So, around the time that "Game of Thrones" is hitting, fanfiction for the series is fucking everywhere. I think GOT fanfiction at one point over took "Harry Potter" in popularity. So, Linda writes an essay that gets picked by a publication basically saying that Fanfiction isn't just terrible for story telling, but that its basically fucking evil. I believe she refers to it as "Painting over the Mona Lisa" and is just really vitriolic toward all fanfiction writers in general. Of course, as everyone knows, GRRM hates fanfiction, especially fanfiction of his own characters.

There was a huge black lash to Linda's article/essay from not only fans but from other authors. Neil Gaiman then pens a counter/response to Linda's essay stating that not only is fanfiction important to Western Literature, but its is the very bedrock of human storytelling. That creation comes from imitation. And he defends fanfiction writers and their right to create new stories from the genius of other's creativity because that's what humans have always done.

Now, Elio and Linda look like douche bags in front of the entire world.

Then, the final nail in the coffin, comes when they race swapped Xaro Xhoan Daxos with Nonso Anozie - Which is a great character actor that I love in almost everything he's in. She basically condemned it, said that D&D were pissing on GRRM's legacy and she basically got catty with a bunch of blue haired wildebeests. And because she and Elio elevated themselves so highly in the public eye, they got cancelled before getting cancelled was a thing. They basically got labeled racists and got knocked off their pedestal.

Which is a shame, cause, in general, I agree with her about race swaps being inherently racist tokenism. But if they were gonna be cancelled, there is better shit to get them on than the usual leftist trash accusations.

So, GRRM, quietly, retired them from the spotlight - and public association. And by that point the fandom for ASoIaF/GOT was so massive that they couldn't control it, even if they wanted too. And they both kind of faded away.

However, recently, they tried to make a come back with "Rise of the Dragon" which was an art book that told an illustrated history of the "Conquest" and "Dance" that was supposed to tie into "House of the Dragon".

However, they were immediately met with hostility from everyone for either the Daxos incident, or their years of unpleasantness as gate keepers. Also, "Rise of the Dragon" was incredibly inconsistent and conflicting with "Fire & Blood" and the art for it was absolutely abysmal. It and them were panned endlessly. And there was no great rush to buy it and the book came and went with very little fanfare.

Now, my boy, Elio is patroling ASoIaf Reddit groups cause I'm guessing "A Forum of Ice and Fire" is pretty dead. And he's still trying to police the fandom, even now.

The lesson hear, Cats, is to have fun and a sense of humor with the stuff you like ... and don't be a fucking Percy prefect about fan stuff.

[notbythemoonrp]

Swear not by the inconstant moon, Princess Serenity. You are the Royal Cousin in Aura. At 22, you are quite the ambitious human, especially with your desire for the throne.

Can you find your way out of the darkness?

OOC:

Name/Alias: violet

Pronouns: she/they

Age: (18+, 21+, etc. is fine): 24

Timezone: est

IC:

Biography Information:

Skeleton: royal cousin

OC Name: princess serenity

FC: lee gahyeon, dreamcatcher

Species: human

Gender: female

Pronouns: she/her

Age: 22

Abilities: none

Biography:

Trigger Warnings: Child Neglect, Sexism

from the moment she was born, princess serenity had the odds stacked against her in this round of the game of life. her father was the son of a monarch, and always itching to gain more control. he wanted a son to carry on the family’s lineage, however his only heir was his sickly daughter, little princess serenity.

for most of her early life, serenity was too weak to leave her room without someone to watch her. while her mother and the servants took care of her, her father preferred to ignore her existence. over the years as she grew up, serenity would become stronger, and would learn how to overcome aspects of her illness. she would never fully heal, but it became easier to hide it.

from afar, she watched her cousin, the crown prince, grow into himself. he was older, stronger, a fine example of a king to be. she viewed him with envy, seeing him with his loving family and healthy body. he had everything she dreamed, and he didn’t even know.

once serenity was able to be more social, she tried to learn to impress her father. she learned the skills of nobles, trained her body to be stronger, and worked her social newly blooming social networks to make up for lost time. the only thing she truly knew about her father is that he wanted the crown, and serenity became determined to get it for him and prove herself, perhaps to obtain some shred of love from him.

however the more she tried, the more she ended up aggravating her father, who would have rather pretended he didn’t have a child at all. her father would snap, one final, cruel argument severing any connection serenity felt for the man. she realized then that he wasn’t worthy of the crown, nor of any power it could offer him.

from then, serenity knew she needed to take the crown for herself. she would crush anyone else beneath her heels and claw her way to the very top. even the sweet crown prince would bow to her in the end. no matter how mean, how twisted she became, serenity would take over the kingdom for her own selfish whims.

[woundedlucian]

I don't know how much people understand being so deeply in love just in the truest form where your whole body yearns to be with them all the time. It just sucks. Last year I liked this dude so deeply and passionately- it's like he fit me/completed me. So when I confessed and he started acting weird and rude then eventually cut me off without explaining anything or any closure I was a wreck. If I though I was a wreck before I met him I was even worse then. I seriously couldn't do anything. It wasn't really like a depression it was more like a part of me was missing. Because it was, I gave him a my heart and he just shattered it. I could literally not stop thinking about him. Every. Day. No exaggeration. I could not put it into words possible to express how much I loved him because everything sounds cliche. But I felt like all my ailments were cured with him, like every single trauma and fuck up before never happened. and it all just came rushing back after that with a part of me missing and constantly thinking how I fucked up what's up with him the whole 9 yards. But I got into a relationship about 6 months after and things were lovely for the first few weeks up until he started being abusive towards me and distant. Like I can't help but blame myself for these people changing and not treating me good but I don't know what my problem is- I think I'm being sweet they tell me I'm a good person honestly other people tell me that too but I can't help it. Why does this always happen. I just feel torn. I wish I could get my shit together without relying on being in love with someone. But nothing else helps me I feel, alcohol can only go so far as well with cutting chronic masturbation. They didn't help before anyway. Also same thing with "Improving my life" it barely does a thing. And I'm doing it all the time like I'm sticking with it so it's not that I just drop it within seconds. I'm just thinking of my woes while eating healthy and attempting to be productive and going outside and working out. It's a confidence issue mostly but how do I even fix that? I don't want to kill myself that hasn't been anything I've wanted to do in quite some time because I think life is beautiful regardless of it all. I don't know anymore. What I do know is that I'm about to be on my period because I gripped my boob earlier and..yup! That time of the month(s) is coming around. It's only months because my period is constantly inconstant. So I should trust the way I feel right now or make any permanent decisions because everything will just end up in the shitter and I'll do something dumb. I hate PMDD.

[noxtivagus]

i really should replay the ffxiv drk quests again