#i guess there is also a family history component

[rhymey-workshop]

Feel free to skip. TW: I'm joining the military.

Growing up is really hard, and I don't think we realize that until we're on the verge of a big change, standing on the border between two parts of your life, balancing on a precipice before you take the swan dive known to many as change.

I'm packing my things. My dad finally brought home boxes and storage tubs and I'm finally packing my things, and that makes the passage of time so much more real.

I'm packing my things. My mom opened the door to tell me to watch my sleeping brother, and said nothing about the fact my room is a mess, or that I was just staring blankly at the cardboard box I just taped the bottom of. That box is ready for my craft books and paint stuff, my origami paper, my reading stand, my books on how to make stuff like children's books and animation. She made no mention of it all, just made that same pinched expression she has for weeks and then schooled her expression into something more neutral as she nodded towards the bedroom where my brother is and after a moment I got up and stumbled in, sitting at the foot of the bed to type out some kind of vent on Tumblr.

I'm packing my things, and I'm stuck between wanting to cry and finding myself unable to cry. I'm leaving home. I've been dreaming of getting out of here off and on since I was 13. At times I had a countdown of years, months, weeks, days that I had to stay, that I had to wait for the day I could finally leave. It made being angry or sad or any other complicated emotion easier. It made hardship easier to cope with. It made it easier to get through the hard times because I knew I could leave and nothing could stop me.

I'm packing my things, slowly, piece by piece, and I'm starting to understand the weight of what my dad said, when he said I was the first person on either side of my family in generations to not run away from home before turning 18. My mom left home at 17, my dad spent more days out of the house than in it as a teenager and left the god damn country. My bio paternal family has these issues too. My maternal family is full of people that ran off, that stayed away from home and didn't look back. My mom only speaks to one sister, and can't speak to her brother as long as their mother is alive. I didn't leave. I finished high school, I got my diploma, I took my time and I didn't leave before I was a legal adult.

I'm packing my things to leave home, and it's hard. It's scary. I've never been away from home for very long, and here I am, getting ready to do something more than just "Move out".

I'm packing my things, putting my life into boxes, sorting what's going to stay, waiting for me to return, what's getting tossed, what's going to get donated or given away. I keep finding things and remembering shit related to them. I keep finding things and remembering who gave them to me. I keep finding things and remembering which parent smiled when I got it.

I'm packing my things, and in a way I'm also processing a kind of grief I didn't know existed.

I'm leaving home for something I thought through for 8 months, and I'm coming up on the one year anniversary since I made my decision. It's been just under two since I signed the dotted line, swore in, and came home to congratulations and a sureness that I'm doing the right thing for me.

In 5 days, I'm going to my last meeting. Getting a send off from a group of people doing the same thing. A couple of them doing the EXACT same thing.

In 9 days, I'll spend the last full 24 hours I've got with my family, eating a fruit tart and playing putt putt. I'll say good night and that'll be the last time I see them for months at the very least.

In 10 days, I'm hiding my key on the porch and walking out the front door while everyone is asleep. They'll wake up and I'll be hundreds of miles away from them. In 10 days, I'm hopping in a big unmarked government van (and this will never not be funny to me) with like 5 other people and we're all doing the same thing. We're going somewhere and we have no idea what is really waiting for us.

In 11 days, I'm not in civilian limbo anymore. As it stands I am subject to the UCMJ but I'm not a sailor yet. In 11 days, I'm a recruit, and that's fucking dizzying to think about.

I'm getting ready to start a new part of my life and it's going to be exciting and new and I'll make friends and I'll go a couple places and I'll have stories to tell my brother and family. I think I'll be better, when all is said and done.

But right now, I'm packing my things into boxes and tubs, and right now, I want to cry.

[coneheads-deserved-a-noble-prize]

I AM SO TIRED OF PEOPLE ASSOCIATING ALASTOR WITH ONLY JAMBALAYA SO HERE ARE OTHER CREOLE DISHES YOU HEATHENS

Fanfiction and Comic creators, this is for you especially.

Crawfish Étouffée

This beautiful dish was invented in Breaux Bridge Louisiana, where our favourite radio star is from! Although it's invention is attributed the Herbet Hotel in the 1950s -after Alastors death- it is a classic.

Crawfish Étouffée has a sauce typically made from a blonde roux with that classic cajun seasoning. It contains the Holy Trinity of cajun cooking too: bell peppers, onions and celery. The main meat of this dish is crawfish tails and it is usually served with carbs like cornbread, cajun rice or vegetables such as green beans and potato salad.

It is chock full of flavour, and a filling inexpensive dish for low income families - which I believe Alastor is from.

Some alternatives to the crawfish are chicken and shrimp.

-----

The difference between Étouffée and Gumbo.

These two often get mixed up, and I understand, they're both classic Bayou dishes. Here's how to differentiate them.

Texture: Both dishes use shrimp, chicken, or crawfish tail broth. BUT Jumbo has a thicker consistency, it's made from a dark roux and it tends to use more liquid to remain stew-like.

Flavour: Gumbo and Étouffée both use Cajun seasoning, but due to Étouffées blonde roux, it has a lighter, sweeter taste than the darker, fullness of flavour in Gumbo.

Meat: Gumbo uses a variety of meats at the same time (often shrimp and sausage are key components), as mentioned in the alternatives above, Étouffée typically does not.

-----

2. Red Beans and Rice

We're on a roll guys! This is another dish from Louisiana! Although, it is specifically associated with New Orleans, where Alastor hosted his radio show. It has a fascinating history, partly due to it's African and French/Spanish routes - But it was also a struggle meal during the Great Depression. It was originally a Creole, not Cajun dish.

(Note: Red Beans and Kidney Beans are different legumes)

This dish also contains the Holy Trinity, as well as bay leaves, oregano, cayenne pepper, garlic powder and more. Its protein comes from Andouille sausages, but like Gumbo, a variety of meats are used. If you want Alastor to be traditional about it, he should make it on a Monday incorporating the left over ham bones from Sunday dinner. It is also complimented with long grain white rice and green beans, amongst many other things.

Considering Alastor witnessed the Stock Market Crash of 1929 -which led to the Great Depression - There is no way he hasn't come across this dish before.

3. Creole Bread Pudding

The queen of Creole Dessert has arrived. Can you guess where she's from? DING-DING-DING! That's right! New Orleans Louisiana baby! Recipes of this treat have been recorded since 1885, so it suffices to say she's a classic.

Like most bread puddings, it is made by combining stale bread (preferably French), beaten eggs and milk. However, this variation often has an incredible amount of vanilla extract. What it will be complimented with varies from person to person. Some examples are: Whipped meringue and whisky, raisins and apple, or walnuts and butter.

Although not as popular in the modern day, I like to imagine this is something Mimzy, Rosie and Alastor might share together on a day out.

-----

There you go! I hope you enjoyed this - but more importantly I hope this helps people create a more diverse version of those cosy Alastor cooking scenes that I love.

[yamayuandadu]

Can you talk about MikoSeiga and why you like the ship ?

I think at least for me the appeal of Miko/Seiga lies in the plot of the game itself more than anything. As I already said at some point in the past it’s bizarre that a pairing which is in no small part based on character a declaring character b coming back to life is going to be a bigger deal than Jesus doing it is so niche. And that’s even without taking into account character a does it after waiting for nearly 1400 years for said resurrection (which she facilitated, and which involves character b implicitly transitioning on top of it all; also going by SoPM Seiga’s interest in people is often brief which makes waiting for Miko’s resurrection all the more unusual imo). If this happened in a mediocre live action tv show there’d be 10000 fics on ao3. More under the cut.

I can't deny that a major obstacle is that despite the interesting portrayal of the connection between Seiga and Miko in the Youmu route in TD no subsequent Touhou media does much with it. Things are further complicated by SoPM throwing in the reveal that Seiga basically doesn’t have much camaraderie going on with the other members of the TD cast; the fact Miko basically became a one for two deal with Byakuren doesn’t help either (will admit I think that has outstayed its welcome, I’m glad they appear separately from each other in recent Detective Satori and Lotus Eaters).  With that being said, I nonetheless think Seiga is still the most interesting option when it comes to Miko’s shipping prospects - and vice versa. Granted, Seiga’s only other real options are… Yoshika, who’s dead and barely a character (and also waste of a name; her stocks would be higher in my eyes if she was anything like the legendary version of her namesake, who according to Oe no Masafusa called himself the “greatest madman under heaven”, enjoyed alcohol and company of women, decided to become an immortal after cucking his examiner a day before his civil service exam, and feuded with Sugawara no Michizane) and I guess Kasen, who she interacted with like once for two pages... which is not much compared to other WaHH-based Kasen pairings. Yoshika arguably does have a backstory to explore but the more takes on it I’ve seen, and the more I learned about her namesake, the less the fanworks focused on that interested me; meanwhile I still feel the same about the aforementioned plot elements from TD.

In addition to what is directly said or implied in the game, I think imagining how Seiga and Miko met and what their interactions in the past were like is another major draw of this pairing. It doesn’t seem like this is a popular position either though - Seiga doesn’t appear much in fanworks focused on Miko’s past even though you’d expect her to hang around for a while - you don’t learn Daoist secrets in a day, in legends immortality preparations might take decades. Granted, Miko’s pursuit of immortality honestly feels glossed over in most fanworks about her in general, even though it does reflect an actual legend. Tragic! Speaking of legends, funnily enough if you dig deep enough you can even find direct precedent for adding a romantic component to the transfer of immortality knowledge itself, “Daoist adept falls in love with a female immortal” is basically a stock type of Six Dynasties/Tang romantic and/or erotic poetry. I like to think Seiga would read or even write these herself and that she sneaked some into whatever more standard Daoist literature she provided her with. As a joke, of course. Totally not a suggestion or anything. I think even just the fact it can be a purely romantic relationship is interesting in itself in the context of Miko's backstory, tbh. Sure, if she is prince Shotoku, she has 4 wives - but most if not all of these marriages would be political (and let's not look deeper into the family tree, too). Romantic love and marriage were not necessarily the same, as the cases of many famous literary characters and historical figures attest. Also, do any of the wives have immortality elixirs to offer? Yeah, thought so.

A final angle I think offers room for interesting is considering what impact Seiga might have had on Miko’s decision to take the form she did. Fwiw, Ge Hong recorded a legend about an immortal named Liu Zheng who after being mentored by Change’s could change own gender (and also magically ripen fruit and vegetables and hide armies as animals to let them surprise enemies, among other things; I sadly think in context the gender fluidity is just meant to be an outlandish wacky power, based on that). The precedent for Seiga discussing magic hrt with Miko is there. A potential issue with exploring the last option is the common weird fandom opinion that Seiga is uniquely immoral or whatever, which might bring unsavory implications, but it’s not like I’ve ever endorsed this view. Save for the grave robbing Seiga isn’t really very different from how actual immortals act in legends, and her actively facilitating Miko’s transition would go well with the symbolism of an immortal choosing to stay out of heaven (which typically served as a way to display opposition to prevailing attitudes of the time and a desire for freedom - heaven mirrored the earthly bureaucracy, and historical texts about seeking immortality often reflect disillusionment with the latter).

[gender0bender]

Steel closets : voices of gay, lesbian, and transgender steelworker by Anne Belay, available on the Internet Archive

Transcript:

Miles began working in a steel mill in 1999 as an out lesbian, but he quit about eight years later because of repeated shoulder injuries and general exhaustion. He says it's not really accurate to say that he transitioned while working at the mill, since "we never really have a transition. We'll always be transgendered because our past experiences and history go along with us. So I'll always consider myself transitioning." I met Miles at the Cornwall Iron Furnace just outside of Philadelphia. It's a National Historic Landmark, pre- serving a nineteenth-century ironmaking complex and documenting the ironmaking process, as well as its effect on the area around the furnace and the workers' lives. Miles had suggested this meeting place, noting that he had always wanted to see the exhibits. He was curious about the history of the steelmaking process, and tickled by seeing his huge, powerful, mascu- line job echoed within this seemingly fragile incarnation made of bricks, and described for us by local elderly ladies.

For example, once the iron in Cornwall was molten, it was poured into one central branch, from which it flowed into a row of troughs pressed into the sand, which we were told resembled baby pigs nursing a sow-hence the name "pig iron." Miles noted that his job used many of the same tech- niques, since "I was a spruer. Parts will come out of a didion [a brand of metal separating equipment], which shook off the sand, and my job was to break the pieces apart. You see them come out on that long bar, they were lying them into them troughs, that's called a sprue tree, OK, as it goes down along, now in modern times, we have machines that press sand blocks together if you're work- ing on small parts. 'Cause we don't work on really big stuff, we work on cou- plings so it was smaller stuff. It would come down and this didion would spin it around, and little stars inside would clean off the material, but it still wasn't fully clean. It put them down on this table, which would shake up and down, and they were split in half, and the stuff would go and be remelted and what we wanted to keep for good pieces would go down and be cleaned and checked. I would stand there with a lead hammer and whack those pieces off the sprue tree. Separate the sprue tree from the good stuff." Seeing the shape of the sprue tree pressed into sand on the floor in front of a gigantic, prehistoric ladle made this whole process more comprehensible to me. And though the scale was much smaller than that of the big production mills still in op- eration, it was nonetheless vast-the blast furnace was about three stories high, with tap holes at the bottom from which the finished product ran.

The human component of steelmaking similarly remains fairly constant. After we examined a replica of a nineteenth-century steelworker dressed for work, Miles showed me his respirator, noting "The kerchief on the man's face? This would be more of a modern version of the kerchief." He also showed me his leather apron, adding that "they still use the [wooden] shoes, by the way. Nothing has really gotten up to date I guess you'd say. It's really an old art form. I would call it an art form." His burn clothes are made of Kevlar but oth- erwise duplicate the old patterns. This continuity is part of the cultural and historical context crucial to understanding how masculinity gets defined and shifted within the mills. The work remains the same, even though the larger culture's definitions of gender and masculinity are shifting. Count- less published accounts document the struggles of steelworker families when the man of the house is laid off and the woman has to find work. Though this shift occurred well after second-wave feminism, when most American women were in the paid workforce, the consistency of steelwork, and the corollary consistency of steelworkers' gender roles, made it hard for these families to adjust. Miles attributes his fascination with the consistency of mill work and mill workers over time to his experience with occupying both genders while working in the mills. Though he became a man, he did not change his tasks, his garments, or his self-presentation at work-he had always been masculine. Which parallels the "enormous struggle within the gay male community to come to terms with the stigma of effeminacy. The most strik- ing result has been a shift from effeminate to masculine styles" (Newton, Mother Camp, xiii). An exaggerated masculinity linked, if only rhetorically, to working-class culture, reinforces traditional gender roles, even as it sug- gests that only one gender is really worth doing.

[acavatica]

not to get political but... where would the andalite government be in the political spectrum? :O

This is somewhat based on my worldbuilding in Lies Agreed Upon, but I think it’s generally supported by canon.

Non-Marxist Communism: government-regulated collectivism; land is not owned by individuals, but assigned by the electorate based on status and need; there is no need for currency, and “gainful” work is optional; post-scarcity economy

Social authoritarianism: highly nationalist/imperialist/racist/ableist; military police state; rigid gender roles; canonically reorganized population into pastoral life instead of cities; canonical population/fertility control; canonical eugenics; propaganda game strong; illiberal democracy

The Andalite Chronicles has this bit of worldbuilding that really fascinates me:

<Long ago we had cities,> I explained. <But we were free-roaming herd animals to begin with. I mean, that's how we evolved. Millions of years ago Andalites moved in vast herds, which would split off into smaller herds at different times of the year. Then, gradually, we got used to forming smaller herds. Families, really. Each family made its scoop, and we each held our own grazing lands. All this Andalite environment you see is part of my family's grazing land.>

We came to a patch of Yeerkish territory and skirted around the blackened vegetation and sluggish pools. On the other side was a wide band of Andalite land which we walked through.

<Once we evolved to form families, we began to study science and nature. And again, over millions of years, we learned to build things. You know — weapons and vehicles that let us fly over the land. And communicators for extending the reach of thought-speak. Scoops became larger. Families joined with other families. Building grew. Soon we had thousands of Andalites all crammed together without enough grazing space. But we were learning space travel at the same time. Still, we weren't happy. We knew something was wrong. We broke down our cities, divided the land, and went back to life in simple family scoops. We kept building spaceships, but we did it in little bits and pieces, here and there, spread out through the tens of thousands of scoops. My own family does some of that. We design heat transfer components for fighters. Another family builds the pieces from our designs. Another family transports the pieces to the spaceport. I guess the three spaceports are about as close as we come to what you would call a city now.>

— The Andalite Chronicles, p. 79

This really stuck with me because I cannot conceive of every single Andalite in every single urban setting agreeing to willingly relocate. The way Elfangor describes it doesn’t make sense—“we broke down our cities, we divided the land.” Huge sweeping reorganization of society requires a central authority to undertake. What did they do with the Andalites who didn’t want to leave? Imagine telling literally ANY city “we’re dismantling this place, it’s for your own good, you’re moving to Montana.” You don’t have to imagine it, because it happens and some people stay until they are FORCED to leave. To me, the story that Elfangor tells is obvious propaganda.

It also reminded me of The Great Leap Forward (CCP 1958-62), but in reverse. imo, there’s no real-world analogue, but early in the process of conceptualizing the government and political history, I thought a lot about the Chinese Revolution, and asked myself “what if Maoist policies had been implemented ‘successfully’ and resulted in functioning authoritarian communism, and it’s thousands of years later.”

But also functionally, they’re Space United States in terms of being cops and telling the galaxy how it should be run.

Here’s what I got from the political compass test when I answered it ~as if I were the Andalite government~, but I think they should actually be higher on the authoritarian scale. They got skewed because they aren’t homophobic or theocratic, I think.

(I was a political science major; this is the part of the worldbuilding I get horny for. The nature parts are set dressing.)

[worhmngd]

Cultist Simulator aspects for QSMP members in order of the wiki:

BBH: Winter, Knock, and maybe a bit of Edge, in that order. Maybe switch Knock and Winter?

FitMC: mainly Edge, like 6 edge and 2 Grail, or Moth. I think more in the Grail side tho.

Foolish: Moth and Grail, need I say more?

Jaiden: Heart with a tiny bit of Moth. She’s not chaotic for the sake of chaos or yearning to experience things, she just wants to preserve her family.

Philza: Heart and Winter in equal measures. He wants to preserve and stays out of conflict (stasis and silence). If needed, he gives an ending. (Also a touch of Secret Histories for the 4th wall breaks lol)

Quackity: Forge. He doesn’t build machines, but he builds schemes and relationships. I’d even call him a Power Know. Not a Long, he’s such a failure at it he barely made it past the Stag Door lol

Slimecicle: Moth, but like 2 points. Also Gegg is a summonable entity that has 4 points of Secret Histories and can teach you about anarchy and how to speak the Gegg language.

Wilbur Soot: Basically the Vagabond, lol. heart, Moth, and Secret Histories.

ElQuackity: Winter and Edge, basically a Hunter who used to be a Know.

Luzu: Ascended Lantern Long?

Maximus: Forge and Lantern, in that order. Maybe a bit of Grail cause he’s apparently Aypierre’s sugar baby now, lol.

Roier: pure Heart :)

Vegetta: Moth, just skips out on Forge cause he bombs people for fun instead of any real reason

Cellbit: Lantern, HIGH lantern, like 10, Knock, and 5 Grail for cannibal serial killing. Only Grail person on this list that doesn’t have a sexual component to it, but eating people for pleasure is a Grail thing, not a Winter or Edge thing.

Forever: Forge and Heart in that order

Felpa: I honestly don’t know, he’s just kinda…there? I guess like 2 Moth for his weird chaotic tendencies lol

Pac and Mike: They’re like the Witch-and-Sister. PAC’s order is Heart, Forge, and Knock, and Mikes is the inverse.

Aypierre: Grail, duh. Dude is collecting the briefs of all the men on the server. He made a vineyard and a winery.

Baghera: Like a tiny bit of Moth? She strikes me as a Regular Person in the cultist simulator world.

Etoiles: Dude is a Lionsmith kinnie, he’s definitely an Edge Know.

Anyone I skipped I don’t know enough about or they’re definitely a Regular Person in the cultist simulator world.

[mswyrr]

Ahsoka, ep 1 & 2 [SPOILERS]

I really enjoyed these. List of things I liked:

-Lighting, set design, costumes, everything was done so beautifully. It felt very lived in and everything had weight and history to it. I loved the design work on the ancient ruins, the map itself, and the way each location had a distinct visual feel. The framing of shots and mise en scène is often thoughtful and evocative. Film quality work overall.

-When I was growing up I dreamed of Sci Fi/Fantasy stories with this many women getting to be distinct and interesting. It's a pleasure to see. It's not absent male characters, but women's journeys and struggles are foregrounded.

-I'm fascinated by the two master and apprentice duos - a father and daughter relationship that is more formal and distant (IMO) because of the introduction of that (and what DOES Dad feel about Jedi??? I'm intrigued) - and then Ahsoka and Sabine, for whom that bond is about moving closer. Perhaps, in many ways, it is all Ahsoka knows of being family with someone, and Sabine (in light of her grief and equally broken/war torn childhood as Ahsoka?) needs "structure" and a sense of purpose.

-It totally works for me how Ahsoka is sharing with Sabine the spiritual, philosophical, ethical, and martial components of force training - that it doesn't matter whether Sabine is super gifted in the force. The force is with her, and within her, as it is with all living beings, and exploring it is a discipline that offers her and Ahsoka a bond they need and a sense of grounding that Sabine longs for. The power levels obsession is something I dislike; it turns the force into just another superpower, where only superheroes with super gifts matter. I like the Rogue One and TLJ more mystical pov.

-I thought I'd be all about Shinsoka before watching, but so far I'm shipping Shinwren [edit: I guess people are calling them Wolfwren?] pretty hard and having fun with it 🤷 PUNK girl/Emo Goth girl Enemies to Lovers ship ftw lol Shin didn't stab Sabine center mass - she hit her on the side and Shin's dad is reluctant to kill Jedi trained/force using people, perhaps his daughter is too? Also perhaps she's lonely - how much social interaction does she get with other force users? Esp ones near her own age? We'll see!

[laforzadelvoila]

Loreen: how a legacy of warrior women helped the star win Eurovision

I get to sit down not once, but twice, with Loreen, all in the space of a week. Our time together has done my soul a lot of good, she’s definitely calmed me. The first thing you need to know about the Swedish pop star is that spirituality is everything to her. This also leads to the Libra quickly trying to guess every crew member’s star signs on set for her Rolling Stone UK digital cover shoot. We’re meant to delve into the enigma that is Loreen right at the end of a frankly delirious day on set (soundtracked nearly solely by FKA Twigs’ and Pa Salieu’s banger ‘honda’). But everything runs well over and a planned eight-hour day, quickly slips into 11 hours, and she’s pretty exhausted. Our interview is subsequently moved to the weekend to take place at her London hotel. And breathe.

Loreen, a name now so synonymous with Eurovision, never watched the singing event, or its Swedish feeder, Melodifestivalen as a child. She’s one of six kids, raised by a single mum. “I was just a weird kid. I preferred my own company,” she recalls. “I was raised in a big family. A lot of siblings, a lot of helping Mother out because she was alone, trying to make ends meet. We didn’t have much. We had three channels and I didn’t know anything about Melodifestivalen or Eurovision. I just knew at some point in my life, very late though, that I wanted to work with music. I was just trying to find my way wherever I went.” Loreen, 39, has now competed in the Swedish Eurovision selection process four times, making it through twice, and winning both years – pretty good going. Her determination means her name will forever appear in pop music history books.

Raised in a spiritual family, it continues to act as a key component to her personality and outlook on life. She loves nature, star signs, meditating and even has a house she can take herself away to on the remote Swedish island of Gotland. Her Moroccan roots and heritage, she says, provide for a very spiritual backdrop and are a massive influence here, too. “I know what suffering feels like. If you’ve been in pain, and allowed yourself to be in pain, or life has given you painful situations, at some point, when you see another person in pain? Ooof, I can feel that, and I know what you’re going through, I can imagine what you’re going through. That’s why you can’t stop from reacting.”

Her childhood wasn’t easy. Along with her five siblings she grew up “poor”, which led her to start questioning things at an early age. “Why is that happening? Why am I doing that, what is this all about? That’s where spiritually starts,” she says. “So in my house, these conversations happened. ‘Why don’t we have what they have? What’s the purpose of that? That’s unfair. Those people died over there. Why is it like that?’ Spirituality is about questioning your environment and understanding the bigger picture of things.”

Meeting the artist for a second time feels like a huge intake of fresh air. I arrive at Kings Cross, albeit 10 minutes late, and there’s a massive air of calm ready to greet me. Loreen is sitting in the lobby of The Standard London hotel drinking a slightly tepid cup of Earl Grey tea. This time she’s dressed down in an all-black ensemble and instantly recognises me when I arrive. After giving me a hug, she is desperate to know what we’re going to talk about. We settle on: everything.

The star has been vocal about her initial reluctance for a possible Eurovision return. So much so that she originally turned down the idea of using fiery pop anthem ‘Tattoo’ for Melodifestivalen after being sent a demo. How different things could have been. “I was afraid,” she admits. “That was just my initial reaction [when asked to return to Melodifestivalen], because everything went so fast for us. First there was a song, and I loved the song. There was no talking about Melfest. It was just a beautiful song and I wanted to release it.”

From all directions, she was firmly nudged into entering it, in what turned out to be her fourth whirl at Melodifestivalen. “Initially, I said, ‘No, no, no, no!’ I usually do that when I don’t know the purpose of why I’m doing something. Initially, I said no, because I needed time to figure things out. When I say time to figure things out, what I mean is, I need to understand why I do things.”

Everything that happens in Loreen’s life acts as a test, she believes. The prospect of a Eurovision return is a prime example. “What is the story? What can I give you guys? Is this meant for me to do? If you’re at a crossroad, are you going to go right? Or are you going to go left? You can’t really rush into that. That’s why I said no. I said no for a while. I just thought, ‘How do I navigate this?’”

As time passed, signs it was lining up to be a good call started to appear, pointing in her direction. “They were beautiful, beautiful signs. The first was the song, the second sign was the people that I trusted around me, they were so happy whenever I said, ‘Yes’. There were so many positive things happening. People were happy and curious. That’s why I said yes, basically.”

There is such a strong sense of purpose that ripples through everything Loreen does. When she competed in Azerbaijan back in 2012, a country marred by its questionable human rights record, she was the only entrant to meet local human rights activists. She told reporters: “Human rights are violated in Azerbaijan every day. One should not be silent about such things.” An Azerbaijan government spokesman responded critically, calling for the contest to not “be politicised”, and demanded the EBU (European Broadcasting Union) prevent such meetings. But Swedish diplomats stayed firmly on her side. They replied that the EBU, the Swedish broadcaster SVT and Loreen had not acted against the competition’s rules.

Loreen is publicly bisexual, coming out in a TV interview in 2017. Eurovision and the LGBTQ+ community have strong ties, too. Previous LGBTQ+ contestants and winners such as trans star Dana International, drag queen Conchita Wurst and Duncan Laurence have all found success in the competition. She loves her queer fans dearly, too. The ‘Euphoria’ singer told TV host Renée Nyberg at the time: “Many people are so focused on sex, on sexuality. Love is so much more. I usually say ‘Love is where you find it’”. When asked to clarify whether this meant she identifies as bisexual, Loreen said she “quite simply” was.

Unsurprisingly, she has LGBTQ+ fans messaging her all the time. “I absolutely love that. Queer or not queer, I don’t see that, I just see us as people with certain attributes. That’s why I say these are my people. We have the same mindset. The thing is, if somebody asked me, ‘What is freedom, what is feeling free?’, that is just doing exactly what you feel like, expressing yourself exactly the way you want to express yourself. Clothe yourself the way you want to clothe yourself, talk the way you want to talk. Don’t care about what other people think. This is true freedom.”

She goes on passionately: “This community, we know what freedom is about and what that feels like. If you compare it to another community where there are rules and regulations… where someone says, you need to talk like this and be like this, that’s a f**king jail! I cannot do that. For me, when somebody says, ‘You are weird’ to me, that’s [them saying] that I’m free.”

“The women from my mother’s mother’s side, these are real warriors. Historically, the women from my tribe, they’re called Berber.” She explains that this word comes from ‘Barbarian’, and adds: “They were called Barbarians by the Egyptians because they were so aggressive. The women were so aggressive. Isn’t that interesting?” She smiles: “The women from my tribe, they weren’t so interested in monogamy, but being in a relationship. Historically, they went out to the village in search of a man. ‘You’re coming with me,’ right? They did whatever they wanted to do. Then they said, ‘Ta ta,’ and they raised their children by themselves. This whole concept of husband and wife was never a concept. They used these women in war, because they were like, ‘Ahhhhhh!’”

This energy is “generational”, Loreen confirms, but that seemed obvious from the get-go, and especially reflective, she says, through her grandmother. “My great grandmother, my grandmother, all of these women, they had a life presented to them. They were told, ‘This is what your life is going to be like,’ by men, but instead, they were like, ‘F**k no!’ They fought for their freedom. My great grandmother, she loved her husband, he died in the war. They wanted her to marry someone else. So, what does the bitch do? She says, ‘F**k no’.”

Her grandmother took her two children away to a different city, dressed as a man “with a kaftan and everything” and they fled, alongside her housekeeper. “I have pictures of her at home, seriously! She left everything behind, dressed as a man, so that nobody would notice her. She had a cousin in the next city, opened up a store, still dressed as a man, till she got f**king old. She raised those two children by herself with some help from her cousins and never married again. I have a picture of her; she didn’t stop wearing male clothes, she did until she died. The kaftan, the hat, the gold tooth. That was hardcore from my grandma!”

The unravelling of these “huge” stories leads her to repeat my initial question back to me: “So how was it, raised by these women? It’s a lot of pressure!” she laughs. “They have a lot of expectations of me. Like, girl, you better step up your game, change something in the world. It’s crazy to see what women can do. Women are so much more powerful, stronger than men are. That’s why we can have babies and s**t like that, just saying!”

It’s not just the women in her family who provide inspiration, but “all women within the industry that stand their ground”, she tells me. “You can tell when women are standing their ground and not buying into that whole concept of what a woman’s supposed to be. I’m not saying that women aren’t supposed to be sexy. Grace Jones, for instance, she owns her sexuality. She can run around naked. She’s still doing it! There are so many, not even just in the industry. All women [inspire me] because they’re taking positions for the next generation, they’re balancing things up. It’s necessary and it’s inevitable. It’s going to happen. The shift is going to happen, and men will take a step back. The thing is, they’re longing for it, because they’re messing things up…”

Her Eurovision victory was Sweden’s seventh win, and means the nation will host the competition on the 50th anniversary of Abba’s 1974 win. Many fans are begging the group to make a triumphant return to the stage, but after Abba recently created the Voyage experience featuring avatars of themselves, surely that amounts to a deliberate act to make sure they’d never have to perform again? Loreen is convinced they will be at the event. If I were a bookmaker, I’d feel inclined to back her on this.

“They’re going to be there,” she insists. “Maybe not all of them, but they won’t miss it. I promise. How old are they? They all have their own lives. They haven’t really played together in a while. But I’m pretty sure that some of them will be there. Don’t tell them I told you!”

Before she returns to Eurovision again, there’s a giant 2023 in store for Loreen. With tickets for her ‘Tattoo’ tour selling out in literally seconds, it seems Loreen’s going absolutely nowhere. “I’ve been waiting for this tour for years,” she exclaims. “My fans are like, ‘Can you please come to England? Can you please come to Spain? Can you please come to France?’ and now I’m coming! Finally, I’m doing this, and with everything that’s happened with ‘Tattoo’ it’s just a perfect time. I’m longing for it. I’ve longed for it for many years. So it’s going to be nice. I’m a people’s person, I just want to connect.”

Connection is the key feeling again for Loreen. It all feeds back to her spirituality, which has been the dominant force in her life since she was a kid. I point out that there’s no better place for an artist to connect with all their fans than taking themselves on tour. “Yeah! because we gather,” she notes. “They’re there because they want to be there, and I’m there because I want to be there. It’s effortless.” Loreen is already full of ideas. She is, she reminds me, “a bloody creative” after all. “I’m working with the same team that I did ‘Tattoo’ with. It depends on the venues, but it’s going to be a visual performance, obviously.”

She’s heading straight to the studio after our interview. “I haven’t released that much music over the years,” but she promises that absolutely will change. “Now there’s a shift going on, there’s going to be a lot more releases, which is nice. This year and next year. My medium, she told me that!” A move to London is likely, too. “I think it’s actually going to happen. I’m pretty sure. Hello, London! I don’t know what it is, but it’s almost like the UK is a creative hub.” Her top picks of UK artists to work with? Labrinth and Burna Boy. Watch this space.

As our interview wraps, Loreen gives me a huge hug. She made a point of hugging the whole crew on our shoot day earlier in the week, too. It’s a warmth that exudes from her at every stage. “I know we’ll meet again soon,” she says before she departs. “I just know it will happen.”

• Source: Rolling Stone UK •

[thenightlymartini]

Not really an ask, but the way you write Commieburger. I've secretly shipped it for almost 8 years, but didn't search for content or make it because I was afraid and didn't want disappointment. I recently saw one of your posts and I binged all of your posts.

The way that you write them as having so many issues, but actively working on communication. How they keep their personality, but learn to communicate. Amazing. Relationships that come easy and appear to not need work are good, and all but ones where both sides have to actively work on communicating, and they do because they value/like/love eachother. Phemonimal.

Thank you so much for having the courage to write this to me and the praise for my work. I was in the same position as you for a long time as well, before I took the chance and found a tumblr user who actively posted about Commieburger herself and communicated with her about it. In fact, I only started writing about Commieburger because of the courage I found in myself and through her as inspiration. I've always struggled with publishing because I'm always second guessing myself on if I even put out good content, so the praise means so much to me.

A lot of inspiration behind how I construct Commieburger's relationships in the headcannons comes from both the original blogger I was inspired by, as the North Korea used is their OC that I asked permission to use, and from personal experiences, both traumatic experiences and observations of people. One of the biggest points I learned, from education and from seeing how family and friends react, is that one should never underestimate the power of human emotions and desires, as they can be some of the most powerful tools a human can have. This can have great benefits and great determents, especially when it comes to toxic relationships, manipulation from higher powers, or making relationships work. Don't get me wrong, I love to read about and watch relationships that are very wholesome and fairly smooth sailing, as all humans strive for such kinds of relationships in their lives, but I find fictional character relationships more intriguing when emotions are that strong but the relationship isn't an easy road or they have to work at it, as it seems more in line with reality as far as my own personal experiences go.

One of the other main reasons for portraying the character's relationships like that is because trust is such a crucial component to making the relationship work. Considering their history, NK and America need to have serious faith and trust in the other, plus an understanding that a lot of arguments and tensions are due to the need for complete faith and trust, which can be extremely scary for people who are either so unused to blindly trusting (NK) or having to gain and earn trust when there was already a rocky start with someone that is harder to read than most (America).

Lastly, I feel the core of Commieburger is also the two characters learning about each other's true, core personalities as individuals rather than as immortal representations with strong associations with their respective governments. It goes into the dynamics of what makes a nation versus what makes the representative human, along with exploring the topic of separating the nation from the person, between fellow nations.

[burlveneer-music]

James Holden - Imagine This Is A High Dimensional Space Of All Possibilities

“I wanted this to be my most open record, uncynical, naive, unguarded, the record teenage me wanted to make,” says electronic explorer James Holden of his generically unconstrained new album of rave music for a parallel universe 'Imagine This Is A High Dimensional Space Of All Possibilities'. “I used to balance my clock-radio on a wardrobe to catch the faint pirate FM signals from the nearest city, dreaming of what raves would be like when I could finally escape and become a New Age traveller. So it’s like a dream of rave, a fantasy about a transformative music culture that would make the world better. I guess it’s also a dialogue with that teenage me.” Standing in contrast to the expanded band and live take recordings of its predecessor 'The Animal Spirits' (“Dramatic, colourful and Holden’s fullest-sounding work yet” 9/10 Loud And Quiet), Holden’s fourth solo artist album is more of a continuous sound collage, artfully juxtaposing audio worlds in his own inimitable manner, with a respectful hat tip to the pastoral classics of his early nineties youth (notable mentions to The KLF’s timeless 'Chill Out', and the sprawling radio soundscapes of Future Sound of London). But where his first wave forebears pilfered freely from the history of recorded music to date, Holden’s sample sources are custom generated, drawn from recordings of his own performances on the modular synth, keyboard, organ and piano plus the lesser explored drones of his childhood violin, cut-up bass guitar, overblown recorder, all manner of percussive trinkets and the serendipity of the odd field recording, as well as guest contributions from various members of the wider Animal Spirits live family: long-time touring companion drummer Tom Page, tabla-championing percussionist Camilo Tirado, multi-instrumentalist for hire Marcus Hamblett (here, on double bass and guitar) and saxophonist Christopher Duffin (on loan from Xam Duo and Virginia Wing). 'Imagine This Is A High Dimensional Space of All Possibilities' will be released via Holden’s own proudly DIY Border Community label on 31st March 2023, on double vinyl, CD, digital download and streaming. For the album’s distinctive hand drawn artwork and accompanying twelve page comic booklet insert, Holden called upon Amsterdam-based illustrator and musician Jorge Velez to help flesh out the visual component of the immersive fantasy world that is conjured up in 'Imagine This Is A High Dimensional Space of All Possibilities'. The result is a twelve panel storyboard (one per track) documenting the rave rituals of an alternative reality populated by magical creatures, which owes much to the pair’s shared love of the soothing retro-futurist colour palettes of the late and truly great French cartoonist Moebius (included in pdf form exclusively with Bandcamp downloads). Cover artwork and all illustrations by Jorge Velez. Instagram: @jvelezdrawings

[thepalmofyourfreezinghand]

I don’t care how public they are when she’s off stage, but she’s working… and I’m very against mixing work with your personal life.

//

I feel like maybe you don't understand what makes Taylor Swift, The Taylor Swift ahah

The reason why Taylor is not just another singer-songwriter, and is one of the most important artists of all time, is because of things like this... She's a fantastic songwriter, but the relationship she was able to built with her fans is out of this world and never seen before... We all feel like she's family and so when we go see her show, we don't just want her to do her job (sing, dance, play..) we want her to include us in her life (sing The Best Day to her mom, sing Fifteen when Abigail is there, look at Blake and Ryan's kids during Betty, play a Max Martin medley when he's there, etc..)

Plus, in 50 years when you're talking to somebody saying you went to the Eras tour, they'll find it fascinating and will ask you a million questions about the biggest tour of all time, but one of those questions will be "was it a show that Travis was on?"..

We're witnessing music history in the making ahah

TL;DR: Most fans eat this shit up, yeah, but I don’t like it! Is getting personal an important component of Taylor the artist? Yeah, and I don’t think I’ve ever denied it! Do I have to like it? No. And I don’t. I like her for other reasons.

Okay, first of all… I don’t do well with condescension, so please don’t use this tone when you talk to me hahah.

Second of all: I’ve been a fan for 15 years, I think I know her pretty well. Do I always get her right? No! Still, some of the things I’ve gotten right during the years include: I guessed she was writing an album during the pandemic (before folklore was released); I guessed that Joe and her were having relationship problems waaaay before it became evident (particularly at the end of 2021); I was adamant back in 2013-2014 on Twitter saying that she was dating around even if she was publicly single (and I got shit for it because it was 2013 and people weren’t kind to the idea of women having casual relationships, at least in Italy); I said that hoax was about Taylor dealing with Joe’s stuff from the beginning…

Just because I don’t like something, it doesn’t mean that I don’t understand it. Just because I don’t like certain things about Taylor’s character (like how often she gets personal) it doesn’t mean that I don’t see that she’s that way.

ALSO, I was strictly talking about relationship stuff here: Taylor singing Fifteen for Abigail (she is featured in the song and in the video! - also give me a break, you can’t compare a 20 year long friendship with a 10 month relationship) or singing TBD for Mother’s Day (again - the song is about her mother) or singing the Max medley (he’s her work collaborator) have absolutely nothing to do with Taylor singing Hey Stephen and introducing it as a song for someone special while MH was in attendance or Taylor singing specific songs to Travis because it’s the 87th show. It’s very very very different. (If you go back in time there are other examples: she sang Ronan when his mum was attending the show during 1989 tour, for example - which is very different from when she sang So It Goes… more often than not when Joe was in the audience during rep: the first is personal but still work-related, the second is exclusively personal).

Beyond that: Taylor has “always” mixed her personal life with per work life… yes and no. Most songwriters are actually much, much more personal onstage than Taylor is. So many of them name names. Or they sing new songs they’ve never released just because they’re going through stuff in that moment. Or they spend so much time talking and telling their audience personal stuff hahah. Taylor is actually much more “professional”, in that sense, than a lot of her (less famous) peers.

This stuff has also happened in waves: she was extremely open and “personal” in 2006/2007 and Fearless and partly SN, then she became more “serious” on stage. And there’s a reason people go crazy over the surprise songs now: it’s a peak into her mind to an extent she’s never given us before during a tour. Never ever.

I also don’t agree with the idea that the relationship she’s built with us (the fans) is what makes her The Taylor Swift. I do think that she’s a master at that and that very few people probably care about their fandom and cater to it as much as she does. BUT there are A LOT of fans who love her so much and attend the concerts and know every song, but they aren’t online. They don’t know every piece of the lore and they still think she’s the most amazing songwriter. They don’t enjoy fandom spaces and they never tried to get Taylor’s attention on Tumblr and they don’t even know what wonderfuck is hahah, but they still really love her and her music. Taylor has cultivated a big fan base who cares about every move she makes, but there’s an ever bigger chunk of the population that considers her The Taylor Swift without ever getting a taste of the parasocial.

I just also wanna point out that:

1. We can have different opinions! I grew up in a family that really values work and really values separating work and personal life. It’s informed so much of who I am.

2. I can know Taylor and still not like something about her. In fact I don’t always like how open and personal she is! It’s not one of the main reasons I like her. And yet, I still like her!

[corbenic]

Hii, I saw your comment on cambridge-madness post about the royals storyline and I have a royal too, for the last 8 years or so, and for the first time since 2018 I’m doing major changes (for reference, I don’t have a “real” country, I made up one because I wanted to use the relation to other royal families).

With that, I started reading you posts and they are amazing, I’m at the Swedish abdication right now, but I have some questions!!

1- I have the same question as anon, on how do you organize the storyline, do you use a different way to document everything? because your story it very detailed with two monarchies (France and Sweden)…

I use google docs and google sheets (I make up some random templates to try to make sense of the all the information on the country and monarchy, but at times it gets messy). I tried to use notion but didn’t adapt well to it…

2- In regards to the royal family tree, what yours do like, I know that you use the Bonapartes as a way to explain the continuation of the monarchy, how many monarchs you have since?

And what software do you use to make the family tree (assuming you make a family tree… I used to use paint, very time consuming, now I use Libre Office (there’s a YouTube that makes royal family trees and I love it he did a tutorial on how he uses it, the page is UsefulCharts)…

3- another question (for now 🤓) You use any of the real royal families, as I notices that you have French, Swedish and Italian royals in your story

Well, thank you!! It’s nice to find someone who have royals too 😆😊

I'm glad you're enjoying the story! Thank you for reading

1 - All of the most important bits are stuck in my brain. Evie and Julien have been with me since I was sixteen. Their story has changed a lot (Julien spent several years as the heir to the fictional country of Mufrana rather than France, for example) but the key components have always stayed the same: they're in love, his family is messy, and they are going to find a way to be happy together.

Other key bits I know: how many children they're going to have, how Julien comes to the throne, what Fiona's happily ever after will look like.

Having said that... I also use a TON of other resources to keep it all straight. I have a notebook with a bunch of research on the Bonapartes and other royal families. I also have a Discord server where I dump a bunch of information. I have an enormous Scrivener file with over 100,000 words of earlier versions of this story, too! I comb through that occasionally for good lines, scenes I can adapt, or information I forgot.

I plan the site on a month-by-month basis. I comb through the real events I've compiled, decide which ones Evie and/or Julien should attend, and plot out their schedule. It's also helpful at this point to remind myself of plot points I need to continue! The list of scene ideas lives in my everyday bullet journal along with my to-do lists.

2 - I once built the Bonaparte family tree in PowerPoint, which was a nightmare. Do not recommend. The most complete version lives in (you guessed it) a story-specific notebook. I really should create a nice version for the website, though.

I can write out the family tree here, but it would overwhelm this already long response, so it'll have to be a separate post!

3 - Since Princess Imperial is alternate history, I decided to make up all the royals. It's easiest that way.

Is it a bit weird for Sweden, Denmark, Luxembourg, Monaco, UK, etc. to have different royals than the ones we know and love? Yes. But hopefully the completely fictional royal houses make it less jarring when the Egyptian, Iranian, Italian, and Russian royals appear!

[reconditarmonia]

Dear Yuletide Author

(thanks for your patience!)

Hi! Thank you for writing for me! I’m reconditarmonia here and on AO3. I have anon messaging off, but mods can contact me if you have any questions.

Redwall | Shadow Campaigns | Sleep No More

General likes:

– Loyalty kink! Trust, affectionate or loving use of titles, gestures of loyalty, replacing one’s situational or ethical judgment with someone else’s, risking oneself (physically or otherwise) for someone else, not doing so on their orders. Can be commander-subordinate or comrades-in-arms.

– Heists, or other stories where there’s a lot of planning and then we see how the plan goes.

– Femslash, complicated or intense relationships between women, and female-centric gen. Women doing “male” stuff (possibly while crossdressing).

– Relationships that aren’t built on romance or attraction. They can be romantic or sexual as well, but my favorite ships are all ones where it would still be interesting or compelling if the romantic component never materialized. Stories whose emotional climax or resolution isn’t the sex scene, if there is one.

– Uniforms/costumes/clothing.

– Stories, history, and performance. What gets told and how, what doesn’t get told or written down, behavior in a society where everyone’s consuming media and aware of its tropes, how people create their personas and script their own lines.

Smut Likes: clothing, uniforms, sexual tension, breasts, manual sex, cunnilingus, grinding, informal d/s elements, intensity.

General DNW: rape/dubcon, torture, other creative gore; unrequested AUs, including “same setting, different rules” AUs such as soulmates/soulbonds; PWP; food sex; embarrassment; focus on pregnancy; Christmas/Christian themes; infidelity; unrequested polyamory; focus on unrequested canon or non-canon ships; unrequested trans versions of characters; breakups; jealousy; focus on grief; unequal levels of investment in a relationship (including concerns about same that turn out to be unwarranted), or the idea of a character accepting something they're unhappy with as the most they're going to get; characters who are written in a sexual context within the fic being ignorant about sex/anatomy (inexperienced is fine); the word "pussy"

Fandom: Redwall

Character(s): Martin the Warrior (or anyone)

Redwall is SUCH a nostalgia fandom for me - literally, my first fandom in the sense of something that I wrote fanfic for and sought out a fan community online. It was also possibly formative in terms of some tropes I’ve turned out to like (riddle quests! sad paladins! sieges and resistance!) Getting a Redwall gift would be so cozy and nostalgic for me. Martin is in fact my fave - like I said, I love a sad paladin - but I'd also be equally happy with new adventures in the Redwall world focusing on anyone, canonical or original. Anything you write that’s in tone with canon will give me the warm fuzzies, whether dramatic adventures or slice-of-life.

Other things I like about Martin, which you could write about with regard to him or anyone:

his fulfilling his seemingly impossible vow against the villain to destroy the fortress of Kotir - being a defiant determinator in general, but I especially like that

his being a legendary hero but also a flesh and blood human mouse that an ordinary person can emulate, and who inspires others to fight for justice

the fact that the Abbey, and its future heroes, are his children/heirs/family rather than any biological children

I guess also just the tension between those things! the fact that his strength comes from his ability to inspire and lead and organize, not just his prowess as an individual fighter, but also how he's so alone

Some general prompts (for Martin or anyone):

a cozy wintery story! A feast, or bundling up and skating on the frozen pond and then roasting nuts on the fire, or waking up to the first snow and seeing how it makes the Abbey and the surrounding woods look, or returning to the Abbey in the winter from a long journey/quest and being amidst warmth/friends/familiarity for the first time in a while…

a wandering warrior or pair/trio of warriors, driven to aid resistance movements against tyrants wherever they find them! What is the resistance doing and how does the warrior or warriors help? What is their backstory? Are they from the Abbey - an idealistic place of peace/justice/refuge, but one whose people sometimes engage in violence/war to ensure that peace and justice can exist - or somewhere else? If there’s more than one of them, what is their relationship to one another like? (For this prompt or other relevant prompts, I love loyalty kink - see my general likes for elaboration.) Or a hero who isn’t a wandering warrior/paladin, but someone being oppressed by the tyrant themself - how do they come to form or join the resistance, and with whom?

A quest (riddle-based or just puzzling out non-deliberately-left clues) to solve a historical mystery or uncover something hidden in the Abbey! (If you do go with riddles, I’d rather it be a situation where the riddles actually lead to something, like the Pearls of Lutra or OG Redwall riddles, rather than the ones in Taggerung where it’s about solving the riddles for the sake of solving them.) What answers or objects or secret hiding places are the characters looking for, and why have they been undiscovered until now - were they intended to be found much earlier but the knowledge of how to find them (or the knowledge that something was there to be found at all) was accidentally lost, is it a time of greatest need (such that people start following up on a known riddle-poem and/or researching the dusty old library tomes when they hadn’t before, or get their first clue in a dream)? Why/how were they hidden or lost?

A couple of other things I like in the series that I haven’t really managed to put into a coherent prompt: knowing your home well enough to fight from it even as the bad guys encroach on it (as in siege and resistance plots);…food…

I don’t expect (nor, I think, particularly want) shipfic, but it would be very special to me if the world of Redwall as depicted in your story had gay/bi characters or couples in it, even in the background, just in the same way that there’s plenty of background het in canon. (I think I do headcanon Martin as bi.)

Fandom-Specific DNW: I’m fine whether you maintain canon’s division of animal species into “generally good” and “generally evil,” or ignore it and have good weasels and wicked mice mixed in with the rest - but I don’t want a story to be about that, either way. The existence of a monastic order in an abbey shouldn’t be taken to contravene my DNW of Christian themes (it’s a non-religious commune, and the Redwall Abbey-centric parts of canon are some of my favorites), but I still don’t want Christmas fic, so please, if you write any of the wintery prompts, don’t attach them to a holiday (including a fictional one). Consider my poly DNW waived if you want to assume that Martin hooks up with Gonff every so often, but I don't see it as a true ménage a trois and I'm not interested in it being the focus of the fic or in Martin being in a committed LTR. No smut for this fandom, please!

Fandom: The Shadow Campaigns

Character(s): Winter Ihernglass

The loyalty kink and competence kink in this series is so tasty. Winter just keeps getting promoted and accomplishing things! I don't have a lot of specific prompts, to be honest, because I kind of feel like anything I would say is " *gestures at canon* MORE OF THAT."

More of Winter being good at the job that was initially just the furthest place she could hide but that became her real job and something she was good at and that was her life.

The delightful and hilarious running gag of Marcus thinking that she is a male soldier who went undercover as a woman for a mission and only Marcus knows the truth.

The loyalty and protectiveness she inspires from her subordinates, even when asking them for things that are risky or hard - I found her relationship with Bobby and Folsom and Graff in the first book VERY gratifying to my id, and then there's her subordinates in the Girls' Own.

BOBBY. I ship them a lot. (I liked it as a platonic loyalty kink thing even before the disguise reveal, and then!) Winter trusting Bobby! Bobby having her back in battle and against Davis et al! Cuddling for warmth/comfort! Bobby begging her commanding officer to take care of her herself if she was ever wounded instead of going to a surgeon. *___* More trust and competence and mutual protectiveness, Bobby being so instrumental to Winter’s plans, her right hand person that she can use and direct as readily as she can use her weapons…

I also LOVE the developing mentor-mentee relationship between Winter and Janus. (I know this will be difficult, but you have yet to disappoint me.) Janus manipulating Winter but also explaining to her that she has something he hasn't, the ability to understand and relate to people. Jane's accusation that Winter has fallen in love with him, not because it's a romance-romance or because Winter, as a lesbian, would be capable of it in that sense, but because that's a way to talk about someone's platonic relationship to the leader they follow. What other Janus things does he want her to learn or need her for?

(As of writing this letter I've read through The Price of Valor. Don't feel that you can't write about later books, I'll catch up!)

Fandom-Specific DNW Info: to avoid my infidelity/poly/breakup DNWs, if you write Winter/Bobby I'd prefer to assume that Bobby/Marsh didn't happen or was a fling that didn't become a relationship; Winter/Jane breaking up as per canon is fine if it's not a central focus of the fic, but if you write Winter/Bobby set during the Shadow Throne/Price of Valor period of canon, please write as though Winter and Jane simply never rekindled their relationship. (I know that Winter/Cyte happens but I am not up to that yet.)

Fandom: Sleep No More

Character(s): Female Speakeasy Bartender

Speakeasy was female/nb when I last visited, which INSTANTLY, massively raised my interest in the character. Speakeasy's easy confidence and utter mastery of their domain, combined with that animal devotion to Hecate, are very cool and sexy when the person in the waistcoat and the sleeve garters is a bald butch with tattoos, apparently. I loved seeing this fairly small and wiry woman get to do those fighty dances (the one with Fulton!!) and the lifts with Bald Witch.

(side note: I'd read the character as a butch woman, learned afterwards that the performer is nb and uses she/they pronouns, but either way, it's interesting to me that this Speaks is a gender non-conforming character in a way the usual one is very much not. I'd prefer feminine pronouns but don't feel the need to make a big deal of this Speaks's Identity As A Woman or anything.)

So - what's her story? Were her GNC presentation or sexuality a factor in her getting involved in the underground booze business and/or Hecate's service, and how do they affect her dealings with people now?

Did she do small magic before becoming Hecate's familiar, or did that come after? (Everyone's small magic and folk magic is one of my favorite things about the fourth floor - the vibe is really different from the Porter's magic in that it's simultaneously so normalized for a bunch of them, this reaching-out to the other world of darkness and magic and nature that is Outside their town but also underlying/intertwined with it, but also something secret and furtive.)

Does her relationship with Hecate give her any powers that it's not possible to represent in the physical performance of dance - like, can she go through walls instead of just unlocking all doors? (Not meant to be a leading question, "she can unlock all doors" works too, I'm into the fact that all the magic necessarily has to be represented by stuff the performers can do.)

How do she and Hecate think about each other - is Speakeasy in love with Hecate, is sex one of the ways Hecate controls her human pet? How does it work to be or to have a human familiar? How/why did Hecate choose Speakeasy and what does she think of or do with Speakeasy's devotion and service? (THE VIAL OF TEARS SCENE asdsjhasjkhd, it killed me.) Anything with Speakeasy being Hecate's creature/enforcer/weapon will be delicious, I love loyalty and fealty.

I also really loved the scene with Fulton, with this version of Speakeasy- it has a really different vibe to me in that not only is Fulton entering this underworld location to confront a creepy magic person, but there's also the gender transgression aspect that maybe he doesn't know how to deal with and finds confounding. (But on the other other hand, she's not the way he might have envisioned a witch either!)

Speaks and the witches! Tell me more!

Fandom-Specific DNW Exception: dubcon is fine for Hecate/Speakeasy, as is "unequal levels of investment in a relationship" as long as no one is under any impression, in that event, that it is equal and Speakeasy isn't upset by that.

Thank you!

[nerdygaymormon]

My moms in a byu class and was talking about “a great discussion [they] had about gender” (heavy quotation marks) and how ‘sad it is that some people don’t realize how essential gender is’ (specifically referring to biological) and I asked her to stop because I was uncomfortable with the subject (really I just wanted her to stop being transphobic) and she went on a whole rant about how it’s ‘such an important doctrine’ because it’s in the family proclamation. *very deep sigh* I wish she would learn how to be kind to people, especially when they’re different from her.

All I can say is obviously your mom isn't in a biology class.

In 2019 I put together a summary of different scientific studies into this post on the biological differences of queer people.

I highly recommend the podcast episodes from Radiolab about Gonads. They do an excellent job in describing the weirdness of nature and gender.

Science shows gender is complex.

Genetics

In middle school we learn people have either XX & XY chromosomes. Guess what, there's also XXX, X, XYY. Through a set of complex genetic signals, sometimes a person who has XX chromosomes will have male gonads, or a person with XY chromosomes will have female sexual organs.

Radiolab does a good job of describing that there's a process in our cells that wants to push us to a different sex, but there's genes in place that continually shut that down. But if these genes stop functioning, gonads can change and exhibit characteristics of the opposite sex. Even in adulthood certain components of your biological sex can change!

Neurobiology

When we move from the body to the brain, the binary breaks down again. There are brain structures in gay men that more closely resembles female brains than male brains. Science is discovering some differences in the brains of trans people from cisgender people.

Endocrinology

As if the brain and body aren't complex enough, we add in hormones. Like all things in biology, hormones can't be limited to the binary idea that estrogen = female and testosterone = male. All humans possess levels of estrogen, progesterone and testosterone.

The binary sex model can't predict the levels of hormones in individuals, there's a great deal of variation. At best, the binary sex model can be said to influence the levels of hormones.

South Africa's Caster Semenya can run 800 meters faster than any woman on the planet, but her body naturally produces enough testosterone that she isn't allowed to compete as a woman. She was denied a spot at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. While in the rest of her life Caster is a woman, in the world of sports she is not.

The science is clear and conclusive: sex is not binary.

The danger of unscientific claims is they have such harmful impacts. Nonscientists are dehumanizing trans people and denying their existence and then that turns into denying rights. Nonscientists say gay people are confused and should present as more masc or femme and fit into cultural gender roles. There's a long history of oppressing people who don't fit the binary.

The ideas your mom is learning in her class are dangerous and have real-world impacts on people. Given "how essential gender is," you'd think her class would want to understand it. They have the biology wrong, and they don’t seem to comprehend that gender identity and roles are not the same as biology. They're relying on outdated ways of thinking to judge and condemn people who don't fit their ideas.

[rheawritessometimes]

Not Part of the Deal

{ Childe x GN!Reader }

{ Summary } Living with Childe is starting to feel a little too comfortable. Series Masterlist

{ Warnings } Swearing, Physical Intimacy, Alcohol, Intoxication, Undefined Relationship.

{ Notes } This took a long time, I'm having a hard time writing. I can't decide what I want to write but I didn't want to leave this unwritten for too long. Hopefully, I'll be able to wrap this series up nicely soon. Masterlist

{ Word Count } 1,846

The bed was empty when you woke up to the sound of laughter, which was reasonable considering it was Childe’s laughter coming from the kitchen. You sat up, noting that this was the second time your sleep was disturbed by the Harbinger being loud in the kitchen. Groggily, you rolled out of his bed to figure out the source of his amusement.

When you entered the kitchen, bright blue eyes shining with laughter met your gaze. They were so beautiful, framed by long lashes and accompanied by a goofy smile that could probably light up all of Teyvat for weeks. Were those dimples?

“I thought you didn’t want me ‘cooking enough to feed a small army’, why so much food?” Childe asked through his laughter, seeming much more amused by this than he reasonably should be. Not that this stopped you from laughing along with him.

“Well, I didn’t know what you might like to make, so I decided to err on the side of caution,” you replied somewhat bashfully. It was the truth, minus the fact that most of it was fueled by panic.

“I guess that means I should make a lot of dishes for dinner!”

This turned into quite the ordeal, with several different things being prepared simultaneously, Childe needed to split his focus and time things correctly. You couldn’t even help with much of the preparation, too focused on clearing counter space of his used cookware and cleaning dishes so you wouldn’t be left with a mountain of them afterward, it was especially useful that you cleaned dishes he would later need to reuse for a different component of the meal he had planned.

“Childe, this all looks really good but I think this is enough food to feed all of Liyue.”

“I don’t mind sharing.”

Scoffing at his reply, you could only shake your head. You assumed Childe would pass the leftovers off to his subordinates in Liyue so you didn’t mind too much, so long as the food didn’t go to waste and you didn’t have to do the distribution. Not many of the Fatui in Liyue were very fond of you, considering your history of fights with them. Maybe that’s why the guard didn’t like you.

Redirecting your attention to the food laid out on the table, you were impressed by the array of dishes. There was a cold, primarily vegetable soup that had caught your interest when Childe began preparing it. There was also some sort of potato salad with plenty of mayo, something similar to dumplings with meat filling, and fruit cooked in a syrup. Several other dishes filled the table and you felt bad not sampling at least a little bit of everything, so you kept your portions small.

Throughout dinner, you listened to the Harbinger tell you about the times he made these dishes with his family or sometimes a little bit about the history of a dish. While you didn’t say much, it was pleasant to have his chatter fill the air. He continued to talk about his family back in Snezhnaya and the long days spent fishing even after the both of you had finished eating and were clearing the table.

“I need to start exercising again, I don’t want to get out of shape,” Childe lamented once you had finished with the cleaning. You had both settled on the couch, sitting on opposite ends facing each other.

“Have you forgotten about your broken ribs already?” you ask, a bit of incredulity dripping into your tone.

“No, but it won’t hurt that bad. I can handle it.”

You really couldn’t tell if he was being serious or not with that statement, his tone was serious but he couldn’t be that careless. Surely he understood the strain would impede recovery, perhaps even make things worse.

“No, you can’t. You’d just mess up your recovery trying. Not to mention we have a deal,” you try to reason, wondering briefly if that kind of thing even worked on him. You knew Childe wasn’t one to break his promises but he also cared greatly about his strength.

“I will exercise restfully,” he said decisively, though his playful undertone made it apparent he was joking.

“You’re impossible.”

“And yet you adore me.”

Scoffing at his response, you meet his gaze. He wore a cheeky grin, eagerly awaiting your response in hopes of being able to further tease you. You know if you hesitate for too long he will also tease you about that, so your options were limited.

“You sound awfully confident in that,” you reply coolly. It was not an ideal response, but it was the best you could think of in the moment.

“Because it’s true, you didn’t even deny it,” the Harbinger gloats, seeming very satisfied with himself.

“Maybe,” you reply vaguely, rolling the thought around in your head. What were your feelings for him, exactly? It was clear you weren’t just friends, but it seemed like a lot to say you were in love with him and it didn’t seem to be enough to say you just liked him. You felt confused about him.

For the rest of the night, you thought about the same question, but even by the time you were falling asleep, you couldn’t bring yourself to give a solid answer. It left you feeling restless for the next few days, though things remained the same with Childe. To pass the time you took the dog Harbinger on regular walks through Liyue. Sometimes the two of you would stop at the various vendor’s stalls in the markets and others you would walk closer to the harbor.

Even with your uncertainty about him, Childe was as easy to get along with as ever. He joked and made you laugh, cooked most of your shared meals thankfully not making quite as much food, and explored Liyue with you. Sometimes you visited the restaurants and Zhongli would join the two of you, making a habit of keeping the two of you for hours with his stories before dumping the bill on the Snezhnayan.

Though fewer than normal, you still took up commissions around Liyue, leaving Childe unattended for some time. You couldn’t be certain, but you were pretty sure he still behaved in the time you were gone. It seemed he most often did some work for the Fatui in the time you were gone, you often came back to him reading over a report or writing something he would later handoff to the guard outside his door.

All in all, living with him was becoming fairly comfortable.

“Oh fuck we’ve been eating all this Snezhnayan food and stuff and I forgot to show you our most famous commodity,” Childe exclaimed one night as he was cleaning up in the kitchen after dinner. You looked over from drying a plate to see him pull two small glasses and a bottle of clear liquid from the cupboards. You knew enough to recognize it.

“Fire-Water?”

“Yeah, have you had it before? This is a bottle of the fancy stuff,” he hummed, already pouring some into the glasses, one with a noticeably smaller amount.

“I haven’t, I don’t drink much,” you admitted, taking the glass from him when he offered it to you.

“Oh, perfect,” he said with a grin that made you think it would not be perfect for you. That didn’t stop you from drinking the small amount in your glass after watching him knock back his.

The taste was awful, but the burn down your throat and how warm it made you feel was rather pleasant. Childe had been watching you, eager to gauge your reaction. He would be disappointed by the fact you didn’t cringe at the taste but also pleased you didn’t seem to dislike it.

“It’s not bad,” you said after a moment, which Childe responded to by pouring a more generous amount into your glass. They were small glasses, so it still didn’t amount to very much.

“I think you’re fully prepared for a visit to Snezhnaya now,” he laughed, also pouring more of the Fire-Water into his glass. Being awfully classy not drinking straight from the bottle.

“Is that your way of telling me you want me to visit you when you’re back in Snezhnaya?” you cooed teasingly, emptying your glass before setting it on the counter. It was already starting to feel a little hazy. That did not stop your companion from continuing to drink.

“Maybe. Maybe I would like to take you back with me,” he returned with a cheeky grin, wrapping an arm around your waist to pull you into his side, not letting you go once you were there. Not that you particularly minded being held snugly against his side. “What do you say? You might even like the cold.”

Heart fluttering at his words, you wondered if he meant them. Of course, he had said it in response to your teasing, but maybe he did want you around. Did you want to stay with him, by his side when he returns to Snezhnaya? Perhaps even going with him when the Fatui send him to different nations?

“I don’t know, I think you’d need to convince me it’s worth going with you,” you mused, giving him a playful smirk.

“Is being with me not enough for you?” he pouts, setting his glass down before using his grip on your waist to turn you around so your back bumps against the counter. His hands rested against the surface on either side of you caging you in as he gazed down at you with an expression that made your heart stutter.

The Harbinger observed your expression for a few beats before leaning down to press his lips to yours. He was much rougher than he’d been in the past, more eager, but you mimicked his pace and intensity nonetheless. Perhaps it was the alcohol you could still taste on his tongue that caused the change.

When you wrapped your arms around his neck, he lifted you up and seated you on the counter. He pulled away from the kiss to brush his lips against your cheek before moving to your neck. The kisses he left there started out delicate but when his teeth grazed against your skin you couldn’t help but close your eyes and sigh pleasantly.

When his hands hooked under your thighs to lift you up, your eyes flew open and a surprised squeak left you. On instinct your legs wrapped around him to prevent you from falling.

“Childe?” you asked when he began walking with you in his hold. It became apparent that the Harbinger was carrying you in the direction of his bedroom, causing your heart to speed up. It seemed like things were moving too fast.

“Alcohol makes me sleepy sometimes.” Oh.

You were promptly dropped on the bed, still feeling a little shocked. He leaned down to press another kiss to your lips, smiling at your expression. That night was the second time you found yourself falling asleep in Childe’s arms.

[tomatograter]

hey dirkjake guy , what makes you so interested in dirkjake so much ?

if I were to answer this with total accuracy we would be here all day and i’d have to hand you a 60 page peer reviewed thesis but since I don't have that time and i’m assuming you also don’t; There’s a LOT of things to work with if you read dirkjake as more than just… a vehicle for dirkcentric character angst. And they’re pieces actively embedded in the story! That matter! I like building fanwork around a textual basis and these two quite literally go as far back as being part of the guardians setting up SBURB beta in Act fucking 2. You can mine motifs until you’re dead. Here’s a contained, though by no means complete, list of things I particularly like about them:

1) Dirk and Jake both have highly imperfect experiences with their own gender/sexuality, partly out of societal pressure and partly because the story has decided what they ought to be. You've got two gay characters who are both a man in the WRONG way; Dirk overcompensates masculinity so hard he thinks of himself as too brash, imposing, damaging, nearly sizzling arsenic. Jake is expected to be the most perfect dude that has ever Het'd and fails in every feasible way because its not who he's comfortable being. He's not a wife-hunting casanova, He's just kind of a blatant useless fruit. Each of them thinks the other has it together and is doing sooooooooo much better than themselves, though.

I like that even though the adoration is mutual, the relationship is not smoothed out. It's not perfect from the get-go, and it's easier to make it awkward before making it good. We see them at their most immature, they have plenty of flaws, and they're extremely self-sabotaging in the way that isn't "cute" (or romantically convenient) but rather realistically concerning. I like seeing them working through it & maybe relapsing & putting in the effort to be better. They mean a lot to each other but have no idea how to go about it without putting on a show, it's comical to the point of being endearing. 

...And they're still the one person that makes the other feel like more than just a sum of poorly stitched frankenstein parts. 

2) Moving onto The Cringe Axis Of Relevance: Dirk and Jake are inextricable from the overarching plot and cyclical nature of Homestuck itself, Dirk as a motivator and Jake as a escapegoat. You could technically “pin” the “blame” of more than a dozen game changing plot events on them, and sometimes they’re not even aware of it. Beta Jake is HIC’s bastard child, a Dirk splinter is a core component of LE, Jake Harley translates the ancient runes in the frog temple containing the game code & is the one to release SBURB worldwide, eventually going on a time-displaced quest to get the game in motion; Ultimate dirk, funnily enough, is trying to do the exact same thing but much more shittily after borrowing one of Jake’s company ships and copying jadebot’s schematics for the purpose of making a robot daughter to forcefully restart Homestuck, The Webbed Comique, after its over. (Mom lalonde was Grandpa’s assistant & vaguely familial protégé, if you remember. Funny how that works!) And this is just like, in the text. Rose in the candy postscript directly drops it: 

I guess plagiarism is a backwards form of flattery :/

Alpha Jake in turn ends up flooded with promises of giving LE’s his first defeat, kickstarts a thousand little conflicts throughout act 6, brings dirk back to life with a kiss, sends the bunny back in time in the box (he was jade’s secret penpal that far back!), eventually only knocks caliborn on his ass because *Dirk* gets hurt in a fight, then it turns out davepeta is his sprite and actually the one fated to defeat the final boss, and that’s just the major stuff. Alpha Dirk & his dastardly AI-self messily usher the alphas into a new session, we only discover what the hell is up with alpha earth through dirk’s 20 page pesterlog gifted on jake’s birthday, Hal’s existence partly relies on Jake’s unending support- and so does Brain ghost dirk’s existence, for that matter. In big-scale and small-scale stuff alike, they’re tied up.

3) Overabundance of referential motifs: Homestuck is practically a big collage of character-relevant media. You can talk about things like some of jake’s favorite superheroes being similar to dirk, or how dirk and jake’s romance is jokingly compared to the Princess Bride via their planets/personalities/BGD literally quoting the movie and acting out the same sword movements, or how they both have a thing for artisanal puppetry, or how dirk is a history buff while jake is a time-displaced verbal oddity, or how Dirk's concerns with narrative philosophy and clean logic make him squarely Apollonian in certain lit terms & that is perfectly opposed by Jake's haphazard Dionysian approach! Or how Grandpa has an orange-lit room of knights and a replica of Iron Man’s armor (widely known for his fragile heart) to stand in for Dirk while Jake has his knight genre movie posters and dreams up dirk to serve the same role, or how the brobot, built with jake’s help, eventually has a nervous conniption and rips his heart out so it can be used as a battery - and while the moment is reminiscent of aradiabot's blue blood breakdown, the heart is actually the same kind grandpa had installed into jadebot; as both were created to protect someone dearly beloved.

Funny how that works x4

Or just how like, Jake fantasizes about Avatar while kissing a poster but mentally he's having an elaborate dream of putting Dirk in the role of the movie's lead to prove how Awesome And Perfect life can be. Or how brain ghost dirk tells jake he looks good when he's feeling like shit and jake, in turn, says his gay little prince outfit looks pretty sweet and not dumb at all, in a sort of covert pep-talk system covering for both of their masculinity hang-ups. That works too.

4) They're the only ship I can confidently compare to Shrek, the Movie, and make that into insightful commentary.

And lastly: