#it's not an ideal outcome

[not-poignant]

Hi! I’m really enjoying Stain! I started reading it right after finishing Wind because I loved your writing so much, it’s actually got me back into reading fanfic after a long slump, so thank you for that! I know this is a ridiculous ask and I’m sorry for even asking, but I was just wondering if the therapist character is going to be prominent moving forward? Tim is the name of my abuser and I know it’s silly but I find it pretty triggering seeing that name when I’m not expecting it. It caught me off guard in the last chapter and now I’m just a bit shaken and worried that it’s going to kill my enjoyment of the rest of the fic. Basically I’m just wondering if he’ll be there a lot and specifically mentioned by name? Again sorry for asking I know it’s dumb. Thank you for writing these beautiful fics, I hope you’re having a great day!

Hi anon,

As someone with PTSD, who has found character names triggering in the past, all I can suggest is that you stop reading and take care of yourself, until you reach a point where the name doesn't cause the same reaction in you anymore.

I've written a story about a character who shared a name with a rapist in my past, and for most of my life I would never have been able to do that, and couldn't even be friends with people who shared his name, and then one day I could write a long multi-chaptered story, and have a lot less problems with the name. Hopefully one day you get a bit more distance that way as well. Therapy and a lot of time helped, and also just not forcing myself to be around it until I knew I could handle it better.

But until then, it's not good to push yourself, and I am not planning this story, but the therapist is definitely mentioned again by name and will likely be in at least one scene in the future.

Since you already know this makes you shaken, the best option is to simply stop reading. It's not dumb to ask at all, you're looking out for yourself, and that way I can give you an informed answer. :)

Reading a story you're enjoying is not worth being triggered, and there are millions of other fics on AO3, and quite a lot of them are good!

[transfemmbeatrice]

the inevitable tragedy of the hero (stay hidden)

F. Scott Fitzgerald / Madeline Miller / @crazyw3irdo / @pencap / Christa Wolf trans. Jan van Heurck / Florence + the Machine / Regina Spektor

[konmics-n-stuff]

Ok so I’ve seen a lot of wacky theories about Kon’s genes in MAWS because he has darker skin than either Lex or Clark (which are often interesting or funny), but guys. The Goeffian origin is not Kon’s only origin story. Paul Westfield does have to be white in the show. What if it’s just Paul Westfield’s DNA.

[seaglassdinosaur]

What’s so interesting to me about Odysseus’s transition in Monster is that he hasn’t changed all that much. He was always capable of violence and we know that because of everything he’s done in the war and in his journey. The only change that occurs is he’s chosen to no longer feel guilty, and to stop hesitating when it comes to violence.

[poorlittleyaoyao]

An Exhaustive Explanation For Why Qin Su Took Her Life Of Her Own Volition

(Or: For God's Sake, Please Just Let Her Have This One Thing)

Okay, so let's leave aside the fact that Wei Wuxian is an unreliable narrator. At the point in the novel at which he insists that Jin Guangyao must have forced Qin Su to kill herself somehow, Wei Wuxian has also insisted that Lan Wangji would totally hate it if he knew they'd made out while drunk. Let's also leave aside that Wei Wuxian himself will reassess his opinion of Qin Su's death later on, and IIRC says nothing about it either way in the drama, because the people who insist that JGY Definitely Killed Made Her Do That sure do. A narrator being unreliable doesn't mean we can't trust anything they tell us, after all; it just means we need to compare their views to outside evidence, the way you would with a primary source document.

AND WHEN YOU DO THAT

IT STILL MAKES ZERO SENSE

Picture all this from Jin Guangyao's standpoint. Let's assume for funsies that you don't care about your wife who is also your half-sister, and have no compunctions about killing her to keep the incest secret. Wouldn't you just... do that? Wouldn't you kill her the second that little paperman flies away and you hear the alarm?

"He obviously couldn't do that! The paperman saw her alive so it'd be weird if she suddenly was gone!" Yeah, and everyone at the cultivation conference saw her alive when they came into the treasure-and-torture room, and it would be even weirder if she suddenly stabbed herself to death in front of them.

"Ah, but he needed to know who sent her the letter! He can't afford to kill her!" Wow, hey, that's right! You, Evil Jin Guangyao, have just spent the preceding scene wheedling and then threatening Qin Su so she'll tell you who send the letter, and she stood firm the whole time! So forcing her to kill herself in front of everyone when she still hasn't told you that important piece of information would be PRETTY DUMB, wouldn't it? (Almost as dumb as giving her the opportunity to interact with all the people you're trying to keep the secret from, but hey, maybe it took you longer to hide da-ge's head than anticipated.)

"Maybe he'd given up on getting her to tell him anything so her killing herself was to divert suspicion away from him!" Okay, first of all, how is "your wife (whom nobody but you has seen recently) kills herself with no warning" going to make things look LESS suspicious? Second of all, things were going JUST FINE. You hid da-ge's head. People were buying your "this cursed cabinet is where I keep my former boss's soul-stealing knife" story. You haven't even subtly brought up Suibian to change the subject. The narrative misogyny means that nobody has directly talked to Qin Su and "of course my wife also hangs out in our house, lol" is flying just fine as an explanation. You had almost put out this fire! Why would you throw gasoline on it by making Qin Su kill herself?

Honestly, the smartest thing for you to do in this situation would be to knock your wife unconscious and move her to her sleeping chambers or a couch or something in the main part of the palace. That gets her out of sight and renders her unable to talk in a way that won't raise suspicions, and gives you the option of going "omg guyyys my wife is sleeping :( this totally unwarranted search of our home is gonna wake her up :(" to make people leave!

But, okay. Let's shift our perspectives here. Jin Guangyao has a history of making deranged choices when he's in Panic Mode. Maybe his brain short-circuited and, somehow, he decided that MAKE QIN SU KILL HERSELF IN PUBLIC was the best course of action. Wei Wuxian himself tells us that she wasn't under the influence of talismans or anything, so somehow Jin Guangyao convinced her to do this with his words. Never mind that we just saw Jin Guangyao deploy an ungodly combination of feigned ignorance, gaslighting, actual sincerity, veiled threats, and manipulation with zero impact. Somehow, he used his words successfully.

What could he possibly say?

Picture all this, now, from Qin Su's standpoint. Your entire world has been shattered. Your husband who is also your half-brother has been lying to you for your entire marriage, has done nothing to reassure you that he didn't murder your son, and has sealed your meridians to prevent you from fleeing. He then brought you into a secret room in your home that you didn't know existed and which, you discover, houses his sworn brother's severed head. All you know is that you cannot tell Jin Guangyao who gave you the letter because you're certain that he will have her killed. Shit's real fucked and you have nobody to help you.

Now every sect leader in the jianghu--including your husband's remaining sworn brother, your young nephew, and your nephew's maternal uncle--has shown up to search your husband's home. His top priority in this moment is quashing their suspicions so they leave him alone enough to regroup.

One of three things must be true for you.

1.) Your top priority is survival. You don't want to die. If you care about your reputation, you know that you're as screwed as he is if word of this gets out, and unfortunately the only way to survive is to play along with your husband's weird shit, at least for now. In that case, the best way to assure him that you're on his team is to help him assure the other sect leaders that Everything Is Normal And Fine. If you don't want to die, then you're not going to be susceptible to any insistence that you kill yourself.

2.) You're so furious that you don't care what happens to you or your reputation as long as you take Jin Guangyao down with you. In that case, you'd tell him whatever he wanted to hear and then IMMEDIATELY scream to the other sect leaders where Nie Mingjue's head is currently located, or you'd drop the incest bomb yourself hoping that the paperman is somewhere in that room and can back you up, or you'd grab that dagger and stab your husband, or some combination of all three! You're not going to quietly kill yourself at his request, because you've suffered enough for his bullshit!

"Well, maybe he didn't threaten her. She's going to be worried about Bicao and her father. Maybe he threatened one of them!" Yeah, maybe, but that's a threat to get someone to cooperate. You can't make sure they're still alive if you're dead! And if you're convinced that this guy has lied to you constantly for the past 10+ years, you're not going to believe him when he says"kill yourself and I'll be niceys to them." There is nothing at all that he could say to make her harm herself if she hadn’t been so inclined.

And that leaves

3.) You're in such despair that you actively want to die. You can never trust your husband again. You can never trust anyone again, honestly, because he wasn't the only person you loved who kept this secret from you. You don't trust that the other sect leaders will do anything to help you, just as your mother didn't trust that anyone would do anything to help her all those years ago. (When they barge into the palace and walk straight past you as though you were a piece of furniture, your distrust is confirmed.) Maybe, despite everything, you still love your husband too much to kill him. Maybe you fear that, without evidence, he will be seen as an innocent victim and you will be seen as his mad, murderous wife. Maybe you don't care what happens to anyone else, but you know that you don't want to deal with this anymore, and you are the only one you trust to help yourself escape it.

The tragedy of Qin Su is that she is never permitted to make a fully informed decision about her life. At least let her final action be something she knowingly chooses.

[milogreer]

why are people still trying to white knight for erik like he wasn't the one who said "an anonymous person respectfully told me their honest feelings and gave me the kick in the ass i needed to be more communicative with patrons and also address the bad work habits i have." like i rly don't understand how you guys see it as a bad thing that a) someone felt comfortable enough to voice their concerns directly with a creator, b) said creator took their criticisms in stride rather than getting defensive, and c) is (hopefully) going to edit his work load to be more manageable so he isn't so stressed out and anxious all the time.

where is the downside in this? i feel like i'm going insane reading some of these responses. don't you want erik to feel comfortable telling us things instead of disappearing for a week? don't you want him to enjoy creating without feeling rushed for time or like he's going to disappoint someone for having to push something back? why are people so pissed off about this, it's not like someone left a bomb on his doorstep

[fcbalding]

gregoria mariska tunjung won the first medal for indonesia in this olympics and for indonesia’s badminton women’s single after 16 years 🙌🏼

[stagefoureddiediaz]

Currently feeling a bit feral over the fact that Natalia means Christmas Day - as in the birth of Jesus Christ and Bucks story is so heavily leaning into the birth death and resurrection of Christ - the saviour - as a central part of his narrative arc. Her presence is literally about the birth of buck - as in processing his grief about why he was born - as a saviour baby.

[comfymoth]

Q!Quackity being Spiderbit #1 hater will never not be funny cause like what are his reasons for them?

1.He wants what they have?

2.He wants them?

3.He wants one of them?

4.He hates gay people?

5.He hates happy couples?

And like the answer is all of the above

HE’S SO FUNNY TO ME literally this screenshot remains so good and so true about him

like how DARE??? someone have a happy relationship???? that does not include him???? no not allowed he’s homophobic now unless they share >:[

[starheirxero]

long ahh body (yelling at lord eclipse)

consequences be damned i'm battling this robot out of sheer spite

- 📦

You could certainly try!!!

[ahalliance]

me when i and others criticise a server we love specifically because we love it and want to see it thrive under the best conditions only to see the 2937923882th post urging people to “stop doomposting”

[yalster54]

PLEASE DONT GET MARRIED UNLESS IT ENDS IN MARVEL'S FIRST GAY DIVORCE 🗣️🗣️🗣️

[short-king-enthusiast]

Hey at least we got an Oluwande/Jim/Archie slow dance sandwich and Jim looking somewhat conflicted about finalising setting him up with Zheng. I'm taking my crumbs where I can get them

[camcastle]

We need to talk about Claire (I'm so late to the party I know, forgive me)

I procrastinated a bit to start The Bear S2 for some reason, so when I finally started and almost immediately disliked Claire I thought maybe it was just my biased opinion. But no, not entirely at least, apparently A LOT of people disliked Claire. Makes sense, she's an all-tell-no-show nothing burger of a character. But why? This show is amazing, can't be that it's bad writing, not specifically for one character.

I saw a few people theorizing that she's bland like that because the way we're seeing her is the way Carmy sees her. The old tale of falling in love with the imaginary version you created of someone instead of the real person they are. That would make sense, they chose to do it in a extremely annoying way, but it does make sense. Carmy had a crush on her as a teenager but never acted on it, so he probably already had this imaginary version of her ready to go since he was younger. And that's why she seems exactly like that, an imaginary woman idealized by a teenage boy with a crush. The extreme close-ups and ASMR-dialog every scene she's in plays into that as well, we're seeing this very narrow vision of this character. Watching her feels so forced and unreal, because it is.

And even (almost) every male character in the show being like "Claire is so perfect" would play into that same ingenue-trope fantasy these men created of this girl (not in a weird way, btw), because none of them really know-know her as a person.

If that's the case, if that's what they were going for, bravo! And I'm all in to see how this cracks, how Carmy comes to realize it's not healthy to try and date the idealized version of a real person because, sooner or later, reality will prevail and not correspond to the imagination, leaving everyone disappointed.

If that's what they were going for, I'm excited to see how it plays out in S3. This will be some very interesting development in Carmy's arc. - And then we'll need Syd's to be pushed in a similar fashion (but with different means) as well. Hence the Marcus plot. - But ok, that last part is very-very biased speculation, for sure.

---

Or not, or I'm all wrong. I am delusional after all, you already knew that by my last post. Curious to see what you guys think though.

[maxedes]

lando catching up to max

[chentailai]

The scarab has lived for almost five thousand years, and he will not grow old. But jaime will, the thought that one day jaime will die of old age and leave khaji da alone makes the helpless scarab feel sad and frightened

If he asks jaime to modify his body so that he won't age again, jaime will probably refuse. We can understand that he doesn't want to lose his normal life

Just like killing the blood beetle without Jaime's consent, if the khaji da modifies his body without Jaime's consent ... What happens then?