#please anyone who sees this do add on resources!! for my sake as well as spg anon please i am dying here | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

lunarblazes · 3 years

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hello hermitblr! today pearl uploaded an episode in which she built a statue on top of her base that depicted a creature known as a windigo. now, a few people may have also had a similar reaction to me, which was to say “hm. aren’t you not supposed to use that creature in things?” and if you haven’t, you’re probably wondering what everyone’s so upset about. so here’s a post about it! (putting it below the cut because i do use the name of the creature, so if that squicks you out, do not look! also, it’s decently long, so. that too.)

before we start, i’d like to say that i am not algonquian or native american in any way and i will not be providing any opinion of my own in this post. i’ve made an effort to only summarize an academic essay i could find written on why western depictions of windigos as a “halloween monster” type deal are problematic for the cultures in which they originate. i’d also like to say that it’s not my place to be mad at pearl or anything like that, nor am i; most americans (and canadians, i think the algonquian tribes extend into canada as well, but because i’m american i’m focusing more on that aspect for the purposes of this post) don’t know about the problems associated with using windigos in creative media, let alone australians! this post is just here to share a resource i found helpful in understanding windigos, the culture behind them, and why mainstream depictions sometimes upset people of the algonquian collective of tribes. i wish i had more resources to share, but alas, one of the most-cited works of academia on the topic is 27 dollars to download and i am a teenager without a job so. yeah. if anyone has more papers to add, feel free! this post will focus on a specific essay i found by kallie hunchman of ball state university.

i also know pearl responded to concerns in her youtube comments asking if calling the creature an onyx deer would help distinguish it from the myth, which is great for her to acknowledge, but unfortunately i’m not super qualified to say whether that action is a step in the right direction or not. i’m going to provide the facts i have and she can come to her own conclusions if she sees this post, as can all of you! feel free to add resources in reblogs as you see fit, and remember to listen to alonquin voices about the issue when doing research. it’s hard to learn about indigenous perspectives in a post-columbian society, but the best way to do it is from the people themselves, if you can track down such sources. i have heard of the superstition around saying the name of this creature, as well, but for the sake of clarity and because my source essay uses it, i will be using it in this post. if that bothers you, please feel free to click off, and i’m super sorry :^(

so! with that said. here is the link to the essay that i will attempt to summarize here: https://openjournals.bsu.edu/dlr/article/download/DLR.7.0.101-112/1771/. it’s a really well written and clear essay, i would highly recommend giving it a read. obviously, it doesn’t speak for all native people on the topic of the windigo (and neither do i, obviously), but i thought it was very useful to understand why the creature is misused and how it came to be originally.

hunchman’s explained definition of the windigo is either a supernatural cannibalistic spirit representing division among a person and their community or a person and their own soul/morals or a person who has been turned into a windigo by such spirit. windigos are always hungry, greed personified, and are sometimes portrayed without lips because they’ve eaten them in their eternal hunger. the original story of the windigo was used in a diverse group of different american tribes, known as the algonquian tribes, as a moral lesson to teach children of how devastating the consequences of forsaking family and friends and one’s own spiritual consciousness can be. these tribes feared the creatures so much that in some cases they avoided speaking its name aloud to prevent being infected by one, hence why people don’t say windigo now (and why i put that disclaimer at the beginning of the post). windigos are always depicted as entirely human in their native stories; emaciated, giant humans, but never with deer horns, skulls, or any fur or animal features. the humanity of the windigo is integral to respecting the origins of the creature.

the problem with using windigos as they are depicted in popular western media, according to hunchman, is that the popular, animalistic, inhuman depictions of windigos are a product of racist stories and ideologies that sought to dehumanize the tribes from which the windigo’s story came. by making the windigo synonymous with the algonquian tribes, the concept of wildness and insanity, and with animalistic traits like deer horns, fur, and claws, many authors succeeded in taking the tribes’ moral lesson and turning it into a raging anti-colonialist danger to white towns. the transformation of the windigo into a halloween monster with antlers and a thirst for blood, an entity of the wild, is a result of white americans trying to profit off of the perceived “otherness” of the natives by comparing them to things like werewolves, yetis, and vampires.

furthermore, there may be legal basis for tribes in the united states to be unhappy with the mainstream use of the windigo. native american tribes maintain the right to permit who uses their stories, how they use them, and why, but in the case of the popular windigo, the tribes from which it hails had no say in how their beliefs were used. writers like stephen king were able to profit off of it because it was considered a “mainstream” monster. (luna’s note here: i’m unsure about this last bit, hunchman didn’t go into much detail about it, but this was my understanding. please read the essay for more clarification)

tl;dr: the windigo has been systematically changed by racist authors to reflect a “creature of the wild” and an animalistic spirit rather than a very human cautionary tale, and the original story has very little ground to stand on in the pop culture interpretations. the problem is not the general usage of the windigo (at least, as hunchman says), it’s that the creature people say is a windigo is a racist caricature of an algonquian story about humanity and the importance of community.

(luna ending note: because this particular interpretation of the windigo is the problem, i’m inclined to draw the conclusion that pearl taking that interpretation for inspiration in her onyx deer is not the right solution, but i definitely appreciate that she’s listening to her audience and their concerns. again, i’m not algonquian or native, and it’s not my place to guide her actions! i’d encourage you all to read up on the topic if you can. it’s very informative and good to know in general :^D any corrections on this post are super welcome if you have experience with the spirit or if you want to correct any of my wording! i’m not very experienced in the topic, clearly, but i do like reading things and writing essays, so. yeah)

#hermitcraft #pearlescentmoon #discourse #DO NOT flood her tag with posts about this guys #i just wanted to maintag this one to get the information to her #i don’t want to bombard her with anything or stress her out over something she just genuinely didn’t know #and as always please listen to the people affected by the misuse of this creature #i’m not one of those people #i just wanted to make sure that i wasn’t like going crazy when i was weirded out by the statue lol and i found a good resource worth sharin #so. yeah! woof this is a long one

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blindbeta · 4 years

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Your Content and Accessibility For the Blind

Hello everyone! I was thinking about accessibility and wanted to make a post to help creators. This is going to cover general accessibility for blind people interacting with your content. Some of it may be obvious to some and this is by no means comprehensive, so feel free to add anything you think of that is helpful. Also, I wanted to include some ideas for DeafBlind people, but I am not DeafBlind or D/deaf, so I simply listed some general accessibility ideas. If anyone has any other tips or things to consider, please add them in a comment or message and I’ll include it here.

Remember, blindness exists on a spectrum. This post will focus on making things accessible for totally blind people, although these tips can also be beneficial for people with residual vision who use screen readers to reduce eye strain, for small text, for clarity, etc. D/deafness and DeafBlindness are also on spectrums. Some DeafBlind people have some hearing, some vision, a little of both, or none of either. If someone asks you for better or different accessibility services for your content, listen and try to accommodate them as best you can. I have provided some links and resources here to attempt to explain accessibility for blind people, which will include blind people who are DeafBlind. The point is accessibility issues can come from both sides whether it be the audio or visual sides.

Some general helpful links:

AFB’s Advice for image descriptions here

Screen-readers here

Improving Accessibility for the DeafBlind community here

How DeafBlind People Use Technology and The Importance of Braille and Transcripts: Understanding Assistive Technology

Online Content:

GIFs, Pictures, Fan-art, PSA and info posts, Memes, Screenshots of Text Posts or Screenshots of Twitter Threads- Provide an image description on your original post! This is the best option, as you probably know your content best and what you wish to draw attention to. More importantly, every reblog will include an image description, which means the blind person doesn’t need to hunt for an image description in the reblogs! If you know more than one language, include image descriptions in those languages.

Note: Always include descriptions when you post images with or about blind people or characters. Particularly fan-art you made of blind characters. If you don’t, consider why and think about how it would feel to be shut out of something about yourself.

What should you include?

Write Image Description in brackets and include End of Image Description at the end for clarification. As for what you should describe, it depends on what the picture is. Include where it is from. For example, “a screenshot of a Twitter thread by BlindBetaIsAwesome”. Include the text and describe any GIFs or images it includes. Write everything out as they appear. Describe emojis as well. When writing out screen names or hashtags, capitalize the first letter of each word. Otherwise screen-readers read it oddly. For example instead of #accessibilityfortheblind try #AccessibilityForTheBlind. If you think someone will want to search a name, include a link.

You should describe what is important in the image, especially for conveying information or humor. General ideas include: image origin, who is in the image, what they’re doing, any relevant colors or clothing, objects they’re holding, their facial expression, any emojis, and any text in the image. Blind people do like to know about color. For NSFW stuff, include ‘NSFW’ at the start, but other than that, yes, blind people also generally like NSFW things described.

Fanfiction:

Generally, fanfic is very accessible to screen-readers and Braille Displays. However, there are a few ways you can make it more accessible.

Pictures: Include alt-text for any images you post such as artwork or character social media posts. Describe it like you would any other image. Alt-text is different from an image description because instead of a screen-reader saying “image” when it finds an image, it will describe the image. An image description is the text included beneath the picture that everyone can see. Including some kind of description, especially for plot-relevant images, can allow all blind readers to experience the fic.

Chat conversations: Again, for hashtags and screen names, capitalize the first letter of each word for the ease of screen-readers. For characters who don’t use capitalization much, you can add a hyphen between each word to make it easier to read like this: blind-beta-likes-fanfic-too.

Emojis: Screen readers can’t fully read emojis like this one that uses keyboard slashes and symbols to create an image ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ (image description: emoji of a person shrugging with both palms lifted upwards. End description.) However, they can read emojis that come on a phone such as 🧁which screen readers read as “cupcake”.

Podfics are also good for hearing people with no vision or reduced vision. Having a podfic with good quality (maybe one that can describe images found in the story) will reduce some of the issues listed here and give blind people another, fun way to interact with content. However, I would try to keep in mind the things I mentioned above for the sake of screen-readers and Braille Displays, which are particularly important for some DeafBlind people who may want to read your fanfic and may not be able to hear well enough to use a screen-reader.

Lastly, keep in mind that any kind of comic may be inaccessible to some blind people. Write with them in mind. Include a message at the start of the story, maybe that it contains material from the comic, graphic novel, or print cartoon. If you know of a comic dub, link to it. If there is none, include details in the story so that a non-manga or non-comic reader would be able to understand.

Web-Comics/Web-Graphic-Novels:

First, I did research and found a comic book store for the blind called Comics Empower. Unfortunately, when I click the link provided on Twitter and the articles I read, the site seems to be down.

However, this is about you all and sharing your comics with blind readers. You have a few options:

Alt-text. This is descriptions directly ‘inside’ the image, which is not visible to everyone. You can read about alt-text for comics specially here and you can read general info for alt-text for screen-readers and Braille Displays here.

Image descriptions. These are descriptions of each comic page (hopefully with a paragraph for each panel) that can be visible to anyone. You can describe your comic, who is in it, what they’re doing, and what they’re saying, probably beneath the image.

Comic Audio Performances. These are accessible to both blind and sighted audiences. These are videos using actors for the dialogue, sound effects, and moving comic panels. Pros for this style include increased viewership, increased accessibility for the blind, and perhaps more revenue if you have a way to monetize the content. Cons include that it is more work, could potentially cost money when hiring actors initially, may not be accessible to anyone with hearing loss, and may still require a bit of audio description for some panels that are hard to follow with only sound effects.

What can you do?

A few ideas I had were to use a combination of image descriptions and audio performances to make the comics accessible to a number of people who may be blind, or DeafBlind. Having options is helpful. For ther issue of some panels needing extra description in order to make sense, I thought of including time-stamps and descriptions in the description section, labeling it as image descriptions for the blind. Include dialogue for reference. Or an audio description could be added such as:

Audio narration: “Bee sits on a couch writing.”

Sound Effect of a purring cat.

Audio narration: “Blind Beta picks up an orange cat and puts him on the couch next to them.”

Dialogue: “I’m so glad I have a cat to cuddle with!”

I will touch on this in the video section, but while it is sadly not possible to add audio descriptions onto YouTube as of 2021, you can add them manually through websites you like YouDescribe. For your comics, I suggest, reading about YouDescribe, downloading the app, creating a narration transcript for your web comic performance, and posting the described audio performance onto YouDescribe. Post both versions as close to the same time as you can, and include a link to the described version in the YouTube description. A glance at YouDescribe will tell you not all videos are available with descriptions and not all blind people are aware of this service. Not all videos are searchable in their library either. However, it is an option I wanted to include.

You could also simply include the audio narration in your main YouTube video if you would like. Or any combination of my suggestions you feel comfortable with.

YouTube Videos/Video Clips:

I wanted to cover YouTube videos and video clips shared on websites like tumblr. For small clips, image descriptions and transcripts could probably be listed together. I have seen this done and it seems to help people.

Again, the original poster should post the description with the video. This is because they know the most important parts and because all reblogs of the post will include the description, so no one will have to hunt down a description that may not exist.

For the clip or clip compilation, mention where the clips come from, who is in them, and what they are doing. You could probably have a separate paragraph for each clip and include times-stamps if possible.

For videos you post on YouTube, descriptions can be very helpful! Unfortunately, YouTube does not support adding an audio description track at this time. Ideally, YouTube would have a description track one could turn on and off such as with subtitles. Until then, if you want to add a description, you should add one yourself when you post the video onto YouTube or any other website.

Before I get into how, let’s go over something else.

What videos need descriptions?

-Recipe videos - especially ones with only text. Ingredients, steps, measures, methods, any flourishes or special scenery (such as when shopping for ingredients) should be described. Blind people don’t just want you to read the recipe to them. They want to know what is happening in the video and how it is being done.

-Tutorials - These often contain a voice-over and accompanying images to demonstrate. A creator can opt to simply include more visual description along with the other information in the voice-over or add extra narration later (see the “How?” section below). For these videos, make sure to avoid or expand on any visually dependent parts such as “click here” or “fold here” or “when you finish, it should look like this”. Videos that contain only text and demonstration, however, will need a more traditional audio description the same as any other video.

-Silent aesthetic videos - Sometimes containing music or focusing on natural noise, these videos are usually vlogs with soothing activities or daily routines. They often show scenery, pretty things, or tours. Because these videos are silent, sometimes containing only text, they are not accessible. However, they can be easy to describe, perhaps in a soothing or educational fashion.

-Music videos - Because these videos are by nature visual, they may not be accessible. They may also have inconsistent, poor, or changing lighting for aesthetic purposes or set changes. This means audio descriptions would be helpful.

-Text-based videos - Obviously these are not accessible or may be difficult to read depending on font size, style, or background. For these, putting the text in the description may suffice. Label it so that blind people are aware they are getting the same material. If the text includes pictures or short clips, you could also simply include your own narration on the video itself or see the “How?” section below for another alternative.

-Game Play-Throughs - Games can sometimes be completely inaccessible pe very difficult depending on the person’s level of site. A lot of video games a not accessible or difficult to play, with quick-moving graphics, perhaps small text, or other difficulties. Because of this, blind people may enjoy game plays on YouTube for video games and mobile games.

-Skits or other performances - Think of these as Netflix shows with audio description tracks. Blind people may miss out on some visual humor, plot elements, or other fun visual aspects like costumes.

-Original Films, Animation, Clips From Shows - Again, think of it as any TV show that needs to description to cover visual aspects of what is happening. Scenery, characters, what they’re doing, any text, facial expressions, etc.

Pet videos- Because pets are cute and they should be described! Especially because these videos are sometimes hard to follow, such as a pet doing a trick.

How? How Do We Provide This?

There is always the option to add your own audio descriptions. However, that way confuse already-existing narration or may not be possible for already-published videos. You may also have trouble speaking and wish for someone else to provide audio descriptions. The video may be a music video or one you want to remain silent for the aesthetic. You may want to add a description to a video you enjoy that is not one you uploaded personally.

A free website and mobile app called YouDescribe can help with that. It allows people to add audio descriptions to videos on YouTube. You can even describe videos on a wishlist. Find out more here.

If you describe your video or have it described, be sure to link to the YouDescribe video in the description of your YouTube version so that people can find it easily, or note that it is available on YouDescribe.

Here is a link to the website

And a link to the app.

This site may be a bit too niche, but I figure if it helps one person, I’ll be happy. My entire blog is niche, when you think about it- targeting writers who specifically want to write and read about blind characters. It’ll be fine.

Keep in mind that audio descriptions may not be accessible to all DeafBlind people. An inclusive option could be to include a description under your video so people with Braille Displays can read it.

Print Books, Audiobooks, Large Print Books, or Braille Books?

Let’s get into something you writers might be interested in. Books! Let’s say you wrote a book with a blind character. How do you make sure it can be accessed by blind readers? You want to have a few options.

Print books - These are accessible to people with reduced vision. It is also possible to scan print books to read with voiceover, but I can’t imagine many people buying books simply to scan unless they borrowed/found it. So it could be an option, I suppose. Scanning books also takes time because you need to do each individual page.

Audiobooks - Audiobooks are great. They are accessible to blind people who can hear. They are cheaper to produce than Braille books, take up less space, and are better for the environment. They can be expensive when you buy them. Libraries have extensive collections now, however, because libraries don’t usually have any Braille books and very few large print books, not all blind people use them, even for digital access. However,many blind people love audiobooks so it a good way to make sure your content is accessible.

As of now, my library app is accessible with a screenreader, so reading audiobooks is possible. E-books are not currently accessible with a screen-reader on this particular app.

Make sure to release your print books and audiobooks at the same time or as soon as possible. It isn’t fair for blind people to have to wait, although there are cases where not having an audiobook is understandable. Keep in mind that the less options you have, the less accessible your content will be.

Large Print Books - I used to get large print books myself. I would say it is less likely publishers will want to publish large print books because they are, of course, larger and take up more space. (Not as much as Braille books, but we’ll get into that.) As you may assume, they are also less popular with readers. Publishers make exceptions for textbooks, so if you are making a textbook or an educational book, particularly one with drawings, publishers might allow it. They also might consider making large print editions of children’s books. Large print books can sometimes be found at libraries, although they are usually crammed into their own limited section. That shows how rare it is for large print books to be printed compared to regular-sized books. I have an extra note about this in the children’s book section, but for the most part, I think you can get away with not having a large print edition of your book.

Braille Books - I should you one doesn’t just make a Braille book. Feelings toward them are generally complicated. They can wear down over time, cost a lot, and take up a lot of space. One volume of a book is several volumes of Braille books. Libraries don’t generally have them- you have to request them from various places like The National Library Service for the Blind (NLS). For more information about obtaining or borrowing Braille books, look here.

Braille Books have largely been replaced by refreshable Braille displays and audiobooks. However, they are still important. They can also help DeafBlind people, if a book cannot be read on a Braille display (see the section on e-books below). My suggestion would be to skip Braille books unless you are writing for children (see the Children’s Books section) or your book contains many diagrams that need to be embossed.

Children’s Books -

I wanted to briefly discuss children’s books. With children’s books, you will, of course, want to have a print book and an audiobook available, perhaps even someone reading the book on YouTube. If the book has pictures, descriptions of the pictures would be nice. This is also where I think large print and Braille books may be not only possible or more likely, but important. Children are just learning to read and will continue to explore a love for reading. Therefore, a lack of reading material can be challenging.

If possible, you may want to consider asking your publisher if large print or Braille versions are possible. While websites are available so that children can get books, you may want to ask for your book to be published in these formats if your story has a blind MC.

Braille literacy is declining in the blind community, with children (and frankly many others) choosing to use VoiceOver and audiobooks to read rather than Braille. Being able to read helps reinforce spelling, grammar, meaning in ways that are not possible with having things read to you. That said, children should also be encouraged to learn technology and use audiobooks when they feel comfortable.

If you are publishing a children’s book, particularly with a blind MC, consider what your options are for increasing accessibility.

E-Books:

This is one of the more accessible options, as it can be read with a screen-reader or Braille display. E-books are also common enough that they are released at the same time as print books. The text can usually be adjusted and readers usually have a Search feature. However, accessibility is still a problem with e-books. While authors cannot fix this, they should be aware of it. You can read about accessibility issues here.

I hope all this helped somewhat. I provide sensitivity reading for blind characters for anyone who is interested.

#blind #accessibility for the blind #blindbeta #writing #books #disability

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ddarker-dreams · 4 years

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Lunch Discussions. Team Bucciarati x F Reader🎀

[Scarlet Ribbons description]

Word count: 1.3k, somehow ?? Notes: this is probably the most lighthearted thing i’ve ever created. idk what’s happening here. it started as a silly idea in my head but I Could Not Stop. so here it is

“If you were stranded on a deserted island, who from this table would you want to be stuck with?”

Mista’s question goes largely unnoticed. Fugo and Narancia are in a heated discussion on if classical or hip hop is better, Bucciarati and Giorno are speaking about business, and Abbacchio is trying to zone the chatter out. That leaves you to save Mista from the throes of embarrassment. Truth be told, this innocent question is an improvement from Mista’s usual discourse.

The gunslinger’s face lights up when you hum, considering the question.

“So it’d just be the two of us? I can’t say I’d bring a radio or something?” You ask to clarify further.

Mista shakes his head. “Nope, no bringing anything.”

That means practicality is most vital here. You mull over what each of your teammates (and bosses), could bring to the table. It didn’t take too long to reach a definitive answer.

“For survival’s sake, I’d pick Giorno,” you decide, the aforementioned man’s attention going to you upon hearing his name. “Well, I guess it depends on whether or not the food Gold Experience makes is edible. If it is, we’d be able to survive a long time off of it. Say, Giorno, can you eat the stuff you make?”

“I’ve… never tried, so I’m not sure. In theory, any life created by Gold Experience is the same down to the genetics of what it’s based on.”

Narancia snorts and takes a bite of his salad. “It’s all fun and games until a coconut falls on Giorno’s head and he’s knocked out cold. Then all the sticks and sand he used to make the food would turn back in your stomach.”

Huh. That makes for a grotesque mental image.

Giorno tries to defend himself but Narancia is too busy readying his argument. “A coconut…?”

“Clearly, I’m the best choice here,” Narancia decides, pointing his fork at you. Should that be considered a threat? “Aerosmith could get the attention of a nearby plane.”

“Non-Stand users wouldn’t be able to see it, you dumbass. What are you going to do? Wait for a Stand user pilot to roll on by?” Fugo asks with a sigh, Narancia shooting him a nasty look.

“You never know! I’m sure there’s one or two. Besides, why would anyone want to bring you along? Your Stand couldn’t even hunt for food, it’d turn everything into a big ol’ pile of mush.”

Fugo clicks his tongue. “There’s more to survival than that. Food is a valuable resource, yes, but do you know how to purify water?”

Narancia furrows his eyebrows together, considering the proposition. “You have to… purify water?”

Now it’s Fugo’s turn to look at you.

“This idiot would give you dysentery on day one,” he states dryly. You hold back a laugh at the indignation on Narancia’s face. “I think my chances would be pretty good. At least I know what poisonous plants look like.”

Mista’s simple question is turning into a complex cobweb of possibilities. He can’t help but notice the others seemed more willing to chime in the moment you entered the conversation. Silently, he tells himself not to take it personally.

“Well, whatever. I’d pick [First]. She could make us a shelter and bridges to different areas. The rest of you guys can be boring and pick Giorno.” Narancia decides. You can’t help but feel a little honored that he’d pick you, a content smile on your face. His last comment makes you wonder if picking Giorno is the easy answer, due to the nature of his Stand’s abilities. Abbacchio, who none of you thought was paying attention, speaks up.

“I wouldn’t pick Giorno,” Abbacchio places his headphones around his neck. “I wouldn’t pick any of you guys, actually. Aside from Bucciarati, you’d all be dead in a week, easily.”

Bucciarati clears his throat, realizing he’s now been roped into the conversation. “I’m glad you guys are having fun, but--”

Mista is quick to rebuke Abbacchio’s claims. “I would not die in a week! I’d at the very least make it to two weeks.”

“Like hell you would. Pistols would destroy your food supply on the first day.” Abbacchio counters. Hm, he’s got a point, you think. Pistols do have a notoriously ravenous appetite. Note to self, do not get stuck on an island with Mista.

Mista puts a hand to his chin, contemplating. “Hm… actually, yeah, you’re right. Nevermind.”

You blink, incredulous at Mista’s agreeable response. He gave up that fast?!

“What if we kept it out of Pistol’s reach?” You tentatively speak up, trying to save Mista’s honor once more. He shudders at the thought.

“There is no such thing as food out of Pistols reach,” Mista sighs, to which his Stand cheers. “They will always find it.”

An idea comes to mind. Clasping your hands together, you look at Narancia with a smile, who immediately returns it in full. “Oh, I know! What if we got on Aerosmith, and it flew us to safety?”

Narancia likes the idea and nods his head vigorously. “That’s genius!”

Fugo snorts, preparing a rebuttal in record time. “Yeah, it’d be genius until you both drop into the ocean.”

“[First], did you forget what happened the last time you were on a plane with Narancia?” Abbacchio raises an eyebrow. Your blood runs cold as memories of Notorious B.I.G come flooding back. Actually, being on any form of transportation with these people seems to end poorly. Cars, boats, airplanes…

“Come to think of it, you’re right about that,” you agree with a shiver. “Being stuck with Abbacchio might be interesting. Moody Blues could replay scenes from a movie to pass the time.”

“It’d be a one-man show, but I guess it’s not impossible,” Abbacchio replies. Giorno, who had been silently watching the banter, decides to speak his piece.

“I agree with Narancia,” Giorno nods at you. “[First] would be able to treat my wounds, and I hers. We’d survive the longest.”

“Oh, please. You guys just want to be stuck on an island with [First] because she’s c-”

Abbacchio kicks Mista under the table, effectively silencing him. Beats getting stabbed with a fork, you muse. Bucciarati, who is doing his best to moderate the discussion, has remained noticeably absent. Not wanting to miss out on his input, you direct the question to him.

“What about you, Bucciarati? Who would you pick?”

Your Capo thinks about it longer than the others. “Fugo’s plentiful knowledge of biodiversity would be useful. Though, if we’re taking Stands into account, [First]’s Scarlet Ribbons could make a net for fishing.”

“Finally, a sensible answer.” Fugo sighs.

“The real question is,” Mista takes a deep breath, placing his hands on the table. “Why is no one picking me?

“I thought we already went over that,” Narancia replies.

“Aside from the little caveat Pistols presents, I’d still be a valuable asset. Did you guys forget that I survived prison?”

“Two weeks of prison, might I add,” Fugo corrects, to Mista’s dismay. “By that logic, Narancia would be the best choice.”

“Which I am--”

“You don’t even know how to make a fire, much less survive in the wild.”

“If I shoot something long enough it’ll catch on fire.” Narancia shrugs. Fugo rubs his temple, fending off a headache that looms on the horizon. It looks like none of you are going to be reaching a conclusion anytime soon, talking circles around one another. Still, you feel as if this is the appeal of talking to them. You can expect it to be a thrilling adventure from start to finish.

Everyone had been too drawn into the conversation to realize the waiter, who finally works up the courage to clear his throat, catching your attention.

“The bill for today,” is all he has the courage to say.

Mista, Narancia, and Abbacchio both motion to Giorno at the same time, who sighs and reaches for his wallet.

#no thots head empty #giorno #giorno x reader #bruno x reader #abbacchio x reader #mista x reader #fugo x reader #narancia x reader #JoJo's Bizzare Adventure #vento aureo x reader #Vento Aureo #golden wind x reader #scarlet ribbons #jjba x reader #jjba #my stuff

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probablytenderjourneys · 3 years

Text

THE FOLK OF THE AIR

I went into reading this trilogy with low expectations because I've seen a lot of people saying that it wasn't worth all the hype. I am very pleased to say that those people are very wrong and this trilogy is worth all the hype it has been given, and more.

I love everything about it- the characters are extremely well written, the plot is immaculate and unlike some other series I have read, the sequals did not feel dragged out, or boring in any way; the story is very cohesive and never boring. I love how well developed the enemies to lovers trope is and how Jude and Cardan never really stopped their cute banter.

I love Jude and her growth- she truly becomes Madoc's daughter, with all the resilience and hunger for power that he installed in her. But I also love how she isn't never cruel for the sake of being cruel, and how everything she does is for a purpose. She wants to follow her own dreams and pursue her want and need of power but she also takes into consideration how what she does may affect other people. She is willing to make the diffcult choices, do the wrong things, sacrifice her own heart to achieve what she wants to. She is fierce and powerful and the best part of it is that she knows it. She's confident in her own skills and abilities and even when she doubts herself, she proves herself more and more resourceful than even she would think.

Cardan... so many things I can say about Cardan. He broke my heart. Everything about his story and his life broke my heart, just as Jude's did. However, Jude had her family- she had Taryn, Vivi, and for all its worth Madoc. But Cardan, he never had anyone by his side. Forgotten by his mother, discarded by his father, made a criminal by Dain, abused by Balekin, ignored by his sisters. Even his friends- if anyone can call them that- were by his side for their own reasons. For Locke, being by Cardan's side gave him the thrill he needed, the possibilites of an interesting story arising everyday. Valerian, who was by Cardan's side because it gave him the opportunity to be cruel. I believe Nicasia was the only one who cared for him, truly cared for him, enough to beg Jude to help him in The Queen of Nothing. I just think she realised how much she cared for him way too late, and by then, Cardan finally had other people he could count on. Nicasia might've loved him, but she wasn't there when he needed him most. I like how Cardan's cruelty is not just a product of him being a prince and being able to do whatever he wanted to. His cruelty is the only way he knows to protect his heart. The only times he is in control, is when he hurts others, when he makes them feel insignificant, when it's his words and his actions that cause pain. Just imagine, being forced to live with your abusive brother, who not only hits you, but finds ways to belittle you as much as he can. The court, who is supposed to respect their prince, view him as a fool. He knows he has no way of escaping his life, and he knows that no matter who takes the throne, it won't be good for him. He has lived in fear most of his life, and when it wasn't fear, it was shame, or fury that could not be unleashed on those who deserved it. He was the weak one at his family's hands, especially Balekin's, and so he used what little power he had over those who he saw as weaker than him. Once he becomes king however, he does not rule by cruelty. Because of Jude, of course, but also because he simply might not be as inclined to cruelty now that he isn't the most vulnerable member of his family. He's not frightened anymore, or at least not as frightened as he was before, and therefore has little need to be cruel every chance he had. And his feelings for Jude are even more overwhelming once you realise that of course he doesn't know how to deal with these big emotions he is feeling- he never experienced love, no one ever gave it to him- so how could he know what it looks like, how it truly feels like, what to do with it except bury it under cruel acts and remarks? He knew he cared for Jude, falling in love with her, so he started to feel vulnerable because of it and decided to protect his heart the only way he knew how.

What I like best about Jude and Cardan's dynamic is that they understand each other. Like truly understand each other; they can see their own feelings mirrored into each other- the fear, the vulnerability, the need to protect themselves, the shame of not knowing how to do so- it's all there for the other to see and recognize. They simply had dfferent ways of coping. In the end, they do complete each other so well and become what the other needs and wants. They rely on the fact that one has what the other lacks, and it works incredibly well. Their relationships doesn't take away from who they are, but much rather enhances what is already there. The only thing I wanted to see more of was the two of them being vulnerable to each other- I would've loved to see Jude and Cardan talk about her time with Queen Orlagh, or her being stabbed by Madoc. I have so many thoughts that it is difficult to put them into words, so I'll just add some of my favourite quotes.

'If I cannot be better than them, I will become so much worse.'

'Instead of being afraid, I could become something to fear.'

'Sweet Jude. You are my dearest punishment.'

'Mortals are fragile.

Not you. You never break.'

'After all, being born mortal is like being born already dead.'

'Cardan won't forgive you for what you're doing with her.'

'Kiss me again, he says drunk and foolish. Kiss me until I am sick of it.'

'If you're the sickness, I suppose you can't also be the cure.' '

'If he thought I was bad, I would be worse. If he thought I was cruel, I would be horrifying.'

'I have heard that for mortals, the feeling of falling in love is very like the feeling of fear. Your heart beats fast. Your senses are heightened. You grow light-headed, maybe even dizzy.'

'By you, I am forever undone.'

#the cruel prince #the wicked king #the queen of nothing #holly black #cardanandjude #cardan greenbriar #jude duarte #quotes #the folk of the air #faerie

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shrimpmandan · 4 years

Text

Alright I’ve had this on my mind for a little while and I just need to type it out.

Acecourse absolutely fucking eludes me. Both sides of it. I do consider myself an exclusionist but holy shit both sides of this discourse are completely fuckin’ wild. (Quick TW for the uncensored q slur just being used in a general context)

For context, I am not asexual or aromantic. I’m doing my best to understand the perspective of ace inclusionism, and I apologize for any inaccuracies.

Just to outline the main points:

- What IS the LGBT community?

- Why would an asexual/aromantic person want to be included in the LGBT community?

- Why would the broader ace community want to merge with the LGBT community?

- Can cis asexuals/aromantics reclaim “queer”?

{What IS the LGBT community?}

As most people probably know, LGBT stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender/Transsexual. It exists as a civil rights movement to combat centuries of both social issues and systemic oppression. The main activism seen in the LGBT community is the rights to marry, adopt... exist, really, and has had close ties with the leather/kink community, especially during the height of LGBT protests. I’m not gonna get into every bit of history, but this is the base I’m working off of.

{Why would an asexual/aromantic person want to be included in the LGBT community?} If I had to guess, especially for adolescents who identify themselves as asexual or aromantic, the sense of isolation that inherently comes with any “atypical” sexual experience makes the idea of a community very appealing. The LGBT community is very widespread at this point and generally accepted in the mainstream online world, making it appear extremely welcoming to any person who feels lost and isolated from their peers for their orientation.

My counterargument to this is -- asexual communities and groups do exist. I’ve heard the argument before that “exclusionists invaded and ruined ace communities”, but I have not seen any proof of such a claim, nor is it like that communities exclusively for asexual/aromantic people don’t exist. For starters, there’s AVEN, which I would think is a great place for a young person who’s questioning if they’re ace/aro to turn to for information and support. Additionally, doing a quick search, there’s quite a few Discord servers specifically for asexual/aromantic people (most notably Acecord and The Aro & Ace Cafe, which both have 500+ members), as well as Twitter pages (such as AsexualOutreach). There IS a decently sizeable ace/aro community, and this is just surface-level resources I’ve found.

{Why would the broader ace community want to merge with the LGBT community?}

Activism, I guess. The LGBT community is already sizeable and pretty well-known, with a strong presence both online and in the real world. From pride parades to campaigns and media representation, more people are generally aware of LGBT than they are of asexuality/aromanticism. It does initially seem like a good idea from the ace/aro community’s perspective to combine forces with a larger community in order to get a boost on their own activism. The issue comes with what I can only describe as a conflict of interest.

As I stated towards the beginning, LGBT is a civil rights movement. The community exists to fight oppression and civil injustice first and foremost. In many places, it is illegal to just be openly gay or transgender. It is illegal in many places to get married or adopt if you’re LGBT. Many LGBT people are still imprisoned, murdered, or demonized as predatory simply for expressing their sexuality, love, and/or gender. From what I can tell, this has not been an issue prevalent within the ace/aro community.

I’m not gonna claim that asexuals/aromantics don’t face social issues. That would be ignorant of me to say. However, they do not face civil rights issues, or at the very least nowhere near on the same scale as LGBT. I can’t really think of any places where it is illegal to express being ace/aro, or where being ace/aro would deny you basic civil freedoms such as marriage, adoption, a job, or your life. Some people have made the argument that the LGBT community shouldn’t or isn’t about oppression, except... it is. Again, that’s why it was formed at all. If you are not oppressed, what do you have to gain by being in the LGBT community and being involved in our activism -- most of which has to do with fighting oppression? I can certainly see the overlap in social issues, don’t get me wrong, but when it comes to the rest of it? I genuinely don’t see what the ace/aro community would have to gain from a majority of LGBT activism without oversimplifying it to “accept other people for their orientation”.

Additionally, the LGBT community has been historically VERY sex-positive and expressive. Many pride parades involve kink and shameless sexual expression, which makes sense after centuries of being denied even the most basic of sexual expression. Also as stated before, the LGBT community has/had close ties with the leather community. Personally, I don’t see why an ace/aro person would want to be involved in that. Obviously not every ace/aro person is sex/romance-repulsed, but even allos tend to be uncomfortable with some of the shit that goes down at pride events, for example. It also creates a bit of a dilemma. Should LGBT people curb their sexual or romantic expression for the comfort of aces/aros, or should aces/aros curb their discomfort for the sake of LGBT people’s sexual/romantic expression? It’s a win/lose on either side, generally speaking.

{Can cis asexuals/aromantics reclaim “queer”?}

Aaaand here’s the dreaded queer discourse. I’m gonna put this as bluntly as possible: if you do not experience same-gender attraction or are transgender, you do not get to reclaim a violent anti-LGBT slur. You have nothing to reclaim if you or your community have not been the target of the word. I’m just gonna leave it at that. “Queer” has always been used against people who are attracted to the same gender as their own, or transgender people. It isn’t a fun word to describe an atypical sexual experience, and it should not be treated as such. Just in general. I can’t even play the devil’s advocate on this one, it’s just completely beyond me.

Please, if anyone wants to add onto this, feel free to do so. I’m just spewing my brain out on how I feel about this whole discourse. Ultimately, I don’t care that much if aces/aros are included within the LGBT community. Like, that doesn’t directly harm me. I just don’t understand why they want to be/should be.

#tw q slur #acecourse #ace discourse #ace disk horse #ace exclusion #exclusionist #exclus

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robininthelabyrinth · 4 years

Note

Nice! I'm loving how you write, you write really well! 😍 could you write jiggy as a rogue cultivator? His Nie brother was angry enough that he thought it would be a good idea to bail for a little. And something something 😊

“Of course I’ll recognize him,” Jin Guangshan said when the war was won, and those were the words Meng Yao had been waiting for so long to hear. The validation he’d craved, that he’d demanded, that he’d betrayed and killed and schemed for – his mother’s first and last dream for him, the one he’d sworn to her memory that he would honor no matter what the cost.

The man wasn’t even talking to him.

“He’s my son, isn’t he?” Jin Guangshan said, puffing his chest out as all the cultivators around him oohed and ahhed over his generosity. “He’ll be part of the family, with a proper name and everything – you can call him Jin Guangyao.”

“A good name,” one of the sycophant sect leaders that always hovered by Jin Guangshan’s side said, sickening smile on his lips; it was echoed by those like him.

Guang – that was the name of the prior generation. Properly speaking, given his age, it ought to be Jin Ziyao, but that would be too much, wouldn’t it? It might imply that he had anything to do with the next generation, with the line of succession, and Jin Guangshan clearly didn’t want to give anyone the wrong idea, least of all him.

This is what I’ve sacrificed so much for?

“He’d already joined the Jin sect, you know,” Jin Guangshan was telling someone now. “Before we sent him off to be a spy – his merits should be counted in the Jin sect’s favor, when we begin to split up the spoils. And since he was the one who brought down Wen Ruohan, that should get us the most…”

Meng Yao instinctively tensed, waiting for Nie Mingjue to give Jin Guangshan the tongue-lashing a shameless statement like that deserved. When it didn’t come, he turned to look at the man.

Nie Mingjue was sitting down, which he hated to do, his eyes blankly gazing out into the distance. His clothing was clean, and his saber was at his back; there was nothing in his bearing or posture that hinted that he’d been in chains less than a full day earlier, forced to kneel before the man he hated most.

He looked tired.

Meng Yao suddenly wanted to go to his side the way he had when he was the man’s deputy. No one would have questioned it, back then; it would have all been simple and straightforward, the way most things were with the Nie sect. They would have all assumed he had some reason, or even just that Nie Mingjue would be happy to have him there – and he had been, consistently, even if Meng Yao really hadn’t had any reason to be there.

Everyone just accepted that his rightful place was at the Sect Leader’s side.

Even if there’d been whispers implying things between them, and of course there’d been whispers, quite a large number of people had actually sounded admiring about it, of all improbable things – he’d limped once because of a rock in his shoe, and half a dozen cultivators had offered him toasts, quite sincerely, for having had the bravery to scale such an imposing mountain.

Nie Mingjue wouldn’t be happy to have him there now.

There wasn’t any reason for him to go there now, anyway. He’d done just as Nie Mingjue had predicted, the bitter words he’d hissed to Lan Xichen when the latter man had proposed they swear brotherhood when the battle had ended: you know he only wants the glory so that he can buy his way into his father’s sect, why should I let him step on me to get there more than he has already –

He’d agreed to swear brotherhood, in the end. Meng Yao didn’t know if it was for Lan Xichen’s sake, or his own, and Nie Mingjue certainly hadn’t looked happy about it, but he’d agreed.

Maybe he’d just been too tired to keep fighting. Before, Meng Yao would have scoffed at the thought - Nie MIngjue? Not fighting?

But now...

Jin Guangshan would be very happy when he found out about their agreement to swear brotherhood whenever an appropriate place and shrine could be found. A direct connection between his sect and two sect leaders? That was even more valuable than the merits of being a war hero, and more lasting – Meng Yao could leverage it into a better position than the one undoubtedly being planned for him. He could use it to win a place at Jin Guangshan’s side, and from there he could determined where to go next - how best to serve his father’s interests, to win his attention, and climb his way to the top.

It was what he’d planned.

It was…pointless.

He’d only promised his mother he’d get the name, hadn’t he? Jin Guangshan’s recognition. That’s what he’d told her as she’d faded away, her hands in his: he’d promised her that he’d make it to Lanling, and one day his father would call him by the name he deserved to have.

The promise that one day he’d be the one at the top of those stairs, looking down at those he would be able to crush beneath his feet – that’d only been a promise he’d made to himself.

Those were much easier to break.

“You honor me, Father,” Meng Yao said, suddenly full of recklessness, holding his arms up gracefully to salute. “I gladly accept the name you have chosen to bestow upon me.”

Jin Guangshan looked smugly satisfied by his meek obedience. “Yes, well,” he said. “We’ll have to find a place for you, too – something to keep you busy.”

Something to keep you out of the way.

Just as he’d expected.

“No need,” Meng Yao said, and he noticed out of the corner of his eye that Nie Mingjue had turned his head to look at him. He couldn’t see the man’s expression, but he hoped he was surprised. “Your recognition is enough for me. I will of course come to Lanling to pay my filial respects, but I fear I’ve been outside for too long to feel comfortable anywhere. With your permission, I intend to continue to be a rogue cultivator.”

Jin Guangshan looked surprised, but also pleased; the man truly was a short-sighted idiot, thinking about how much trouble it would save him not to have to bring Meng Yao – to bring Jin Guangyao home, and not at all about what he might be giving up by not doing so.

Meng Yao’s brains clearly all came from his mother.

Jin Guangshan would be kicking himself over it when he heard the news of the swearing ceremony – Meng Yao intended to do that much, at least. Abandoning a position he didn’t actually want was one thing, but he’d earned that oath, the backing of two of the most powerful people in the world. Even if Nie Mingjue hated him forever, he wouldn’t allow anyone to look down on someone who called him brother, and his support, along with Lan Xichen’s, would undoubtedly be very handy in the future, no matter what he eventually chose to do with his life.

“Of course, of course,” Jin Guangshan said, and he was saying it in public, too; it would be too late for him to change his mind, later. Not without a loss of face that he wouldn’t be able to bear. “As you see fit, A-Yao. In fact, I think it’s a good idea - don’t all of you? These young men, war heroes, they’re all so flighty, aren’t they? All they think about is glory…it would be a cruelty to tie them down with responsibilities they don’t need. You can always return to Lanling, of course, whenever you need aid, and call upon our resources, within reason –”

Lanling Jin was wealthy enough that Meng Yao could buy everything he’d ever wanted three times over without them even noticing, but Jin Guangshan just had to add in that little ‘within reason’. A sign of the humiliations Meng Yao would have had to endure, if he’d stubbornly stayed the course.

He’d had his fill of humiliation. A lifetime’s worth.

“– and of course you have the right to wear sparks amid snow if you wish.”

Meng Yao saluted again, murmured a thank you, and retreated.

“Are you sure?” Lan Xichen asked him, looking worried. “I thought you wanted…”

“I changed my mind,” Meng Yao told him. “Maybe I’ll come visit you in Gusu instead.”

Lan Xichen smiled, and Meng Yao’s heart skipped a beat the way it always did. “You’re always welcome.”

“At Qinghe, too,” an unexpected voice said, and Meng Yao glanced over at Nie Mingjue – standing now, but leaning against a wall. His clothing had gaped open a little when he’d moved, revealing a hint of white bandages beneath his robes. He must have been injured much worse than Meng Yao had realized for it to still be affecting him.

Lan Xichen brightened while Meng Yao was still wondering what had happened to Nie Mingjue during that missing time between his capture at Yangquan and his presentation before the throne at the Nightless City. “Does that mean you’ve..?”

“I’m swearing brotherhood with him, of course he can come visit,” Nie Mingjue cut him off, turning his face away in what might even be embarrassment. “There’s nothing more to it than that.”

There was, of course. Meng Yao had turned down something that suited his self-interest, a move atypical of him, entirely contrary to the shallow and ambitious person Nie Mingjue had judged him to be – he’d gotten Nie Mingjue’s curiosity up. It wasn’t forgiveness, not even close, but it was something.

He could use that.

“Qinghe, too,” Meng Yao said, and smiled. “Maybe I’ll build up a collection of fans as I travel and leave them all there for Huaisang’s amusement.”

Nie Mingjue groaned. “Don’t; it’s already bad enough – do you know he’s filled up an entire closet?”

“An entire closet?” Lan Xichen asked, amused. “Surely not –”

“I swear he got one for every day of the war –”

“Surely not. He can’t even use that many!”

“I’m telling you, Xichen –”

Some time alone would be good, Meng Yao decided. He would use the time to think about what he wanted to do with his life – what he wanted, not his mother’s dreams for him.

And when he was done thinking –

Well.

There was always Gusu and Qinghe waiting for him.

#mdzs #meng yao #jin guangyao #lan xichen #nie mingjue #jin guangshan #my fic #my fics #Anonymous

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canyouhearthelight · 4 years

Text

The Miys, Ch. 127

Annnnd a-one, and a-two, and a queue-queue-queue!

This chapter has one of my favorite things in the world to write - Interpersonal relationships (if you are surprised, I’m going to assume you are new here....).

Specifically, one of my biggest pet-peeves is when friends or siblings are written in a way that shows that the author doesn’t actually have any friends or siblings they are close enough to that all rules of societal politeness go whizzing into some far-off dimension as soon as they are in proximity.

When I get to write a chapter with such close friends/ersatz-siblings and also have @baelpenrose cackling and egging me on, it literally makes my whole day.

P.S: If anyone has wondered about the ages of the characters, several are clearly lined out in this chapter......

EDIT: Fixed some insane formatting issues.

“The food festival, Sophia? Really?” an incredulous voice asked before the door to my office even opened all the way.

I resisted the urge to scream, but did surrender to pinching the bridge of my nose and breathing slowly. “Hello, Arthur. Do come in. Long time no see. Of course I’m not busy…” My one day each week to have a few hours to myself - no mentees, no assistant, even Tyche was off work….

“We saw each other last night when I came over for dinner after sparring with Conor, and you’re never busy on Saturdays, Alistair makes sure of it.” He dragged a chair in front of my desk for what I felt was the sole purpose of putting his boots on my desk instead of the conference table.

“I thought you two didn’t even like each other, how did you - “

He waved a hand dismissively. “Enemy of my best friend’s enemy is my friend, that sort of thing. Anyway - “

“Did you just call me my own worst - “

“You are, let’s not pretend otherwise. Anyway.” Arthur arched an eyebrow at me and waited for any further objections, but I couldn’t think of any. “The Food Festival. It’s my one favorite tradition on this ship until armed combat becomes a spectator sport, and you are putting Parvati and Hannah in charge of it?”

After a beat pause to make sure he was done, I glared at him. “Everyone has asked me that, and I don’t understand the issue. They’ve both helped in the past, even before they started training to replace me. I’ve handed more and more off to them each time, and they did great! Plus, they have three months, it will be fi - Wait, why do you even care, Arthur?”

He held up one finger with the authority of a deity who would have smited me if he could. “One, Parvati Fletcher does not like mapo tofu. You do. Specifically, you like it from that one vendor who grows her own Sichuan peppercorns and uses them like they are an infinite resource. Two, I spend entirely too much time working with Zach Khan, and he won’t shut up about how stressed Hannah is. Three - “ I was seriously starting to get concerned he actually could smite me at this point - “As much as I love you in the most platonic way possible, you are an obsessive, compulsive perfectionist who insists on doing everything herself and running herself into the ground so that everyone else has the time of their lives. So why are you trusting this, the largest and oldest event on the Ark, entirely to other people?” Dropping his boots from the desk, he leaned forward, palms down until we were nearly nose to nose.

“Sophia Reid, I swear on any god I can kill if you are dying…”

“WHAT!?” I squawked, jerking back and standing so fast I knocked my chair over. “For the love of little fish, I’m not dying! I haven’t had a near death experience in four years, thank you.”

“Three, not counting the fact that there is a reason Alistair makes you drink anything through a straw anymore.”

“How did - Nevermind.” I shook my head and tried to focus on the topic at hand. “No, I’m not dying. Nor am I injured, having a midlife crisis, rethinking my life choices any more than I ever do, or so much as in possession of a stuffy nose.” Taking a deep breath, I rolled my eyes and started counting off before I could stop myself. “Conor and Maverick and I are fine. No, I’m not arguing with Tyche again. Yes, I’m still going to therapy. Else is fine. No new sentient plagues or rogue cult leaders that I’m aware of. Nor have I become immortal, queen of the universe, savior of humanity, pregnant by Noah, or possessed.” Carefully, I picked my chair back up and sat down.

“Good...to… know?” He gave me a funny look. “Who asked the most disturbing one?”

“Immortal or Savior of Humanity?” I asked for clarification. “Those were Maverick and Derek, respectively.”

The look only got worse. “I meant ‘pregnant by Noah’, but fascinating to see where your priorities lie….?”

“Oh. That was Charly.”

“Dammit,” he swore softly. “I had her pegged for ‘possessed’.”

“I’m pretty sure she is, but the suggestion that I am came from Tyche, on no fewer than 3 occasions, by 4 different entities. She seemed pretty hopeful that Else was potentially mind-controlling me in an effort to make me take a nap,” I admitted.

“That tracks.” A nod of approval prefaced the question I had been avoiding - successfully, thus far, I might add. “Now that you’ve ruled out every possible plausible reason that you would entrust this to literally anyone other than a clone of yourself, why?”

“Why what?” My face was composed in an expression of innocence so convincing that I probably deserved an Oscar.

“I can and will convince Charly to turn all your coffee to decaf, so help me, Sophia.”

Realizing that he was, legitimately, worried about me and at the limits of his usually-impressive patience, I held up my hands in surrender. “Fine. You get the scoop. Please record this and send me the loop, so I can just flick it at people who ask, please?” When he nodded, I exhaled slowly. “It is no secret to anyone that I never wanted this job. I made the mistake of establishing the Food Festival, which as you point out is the largest event of the cycle on the Ark - the last three years, literally everyone attended in some capacity.” When he opened his mouth to argue, I held up a hand to stop him. “Don’t get me wrong. I love the Festival. What basically started out as a potluck because we were homesick and needed to meet - you know, the rest of humanity - is a huge, three day holiday. It’s amazing!” I spun in my chair, arms flung wide for emphasis, before stopping to face him.

“It also consumes my life, for months, to prepare for. And that’s just implementing changes to make it more accessible so people don’t miss out! That doesn’t include adding things to make it more interesting or keep it from getting boring, or whatever. I literally don’t have time to do any of that!”

“So, you’re inflicting this on them instead?”

“Inflicting?” I snorted. “Hardly. This is their final exam, their capstone project, their dissertation. If they pull this off, I will gladly hand the entire office over to whoever is elected, cheerfully and knowing the Ark is in good hands. But, they have to pull this off. It’s the only major part of being Councilor of Resources and Relations that they haven’t done yet by themselves.”

He rubbed his face, looking somewhat impressed. “That’s honestly not what I was expecting.”

“I don’t think it ever is, honestly.” I shrugged at the question he glanced towards me. “For Evan, it was coordinating the weapons exhibitions. Charly managed to pre-empt her own by designing more efficient aqueducts and filtration for when we reach Von - you know, the ones that also produce light?”

“Of course she would invent glow-in-the-dark plumbing. Who else?” Something caught up with him. “Evania Josue got away with planning an event? Seriously?”

“Oh, that’s right… you weren’t on Level One…” I murmured. When he only looked more confused, I clarified. “She was Maverick’s co-pilot when we needed people to pilot the Ark, which was not designed to pilot manually, via dead reckoning, using cameras pointed out the few viewports we have, for several weeks after the sensors were sabotaged.”

“She was whose co-pilot?”

“You really never heard this story? You practically live with seven people who were there…”

“Usually I get the bits about ‘Sophia nearly got her brains bashed out’ and ‘that traitorous bitch’, then start tuning out while I try to decide what it would take to get Charly to teach me necromancy… If Evan was the co-pilot, then why is Maverick….”

“Not in line to replace any Councilors? Arthur, we know that would be a disaster for him.”

He nodded reluctantly. “Your younger partner is a nice boy.”

“For fuck’s sake, he’s thirty seven!” I groaned.

“Nice man, whatever,” he waved off. “Which is exactly what I would like for you as a partner. You need nice partners, and blunt siblings. But I see what you mean about him being a Councilor… he’d be miserable.”

“What was yours?” I asked mischievously, dropping my chin onto my hands.

That earned me a flat stare, until he finally surrendered when I didn’t flinch. “The Twentieth/Early Twenty First History curriculum.”

“Seriously?” That had literally been the first thing he had done when Eino tapped him as a possible successor.

“I didn’t budge on points even he admitted he would have, out of fear of offending people.”

“Which is a fear you very much lack,” I pointed out.

“The truth is the truth. Coating it in sugar only makes it taste worse.” He shrugged nonchalantly before suddenly looking dangerously like he was thinking again. “There’s two of them.”

“Yes, Arthur. Hanna and Paravati are, in fact, two distinct and separate women-type-lady-people.”

“Thank you, Fee, I was well aware.” I suppressed a growl at the nickname - he knew I hated it. “I meant, only one can win the election, smartass.”

“Better to be a smartass than a dumbass,” I muttered.

“Sophia, you are forty five. Please grow up just a hair?”

“Tyche doesn’t want to be HR forever, you know.”

That brought his mind to a visibly screeching halt. “Wait, what?”

“What what?” I asked. “She does it because she is phenomenal at it, but it isn’t her passion. She only stuck around as long as she did to make sure I didn’t trip over a chair and brain myself while I was at work. When I’m gone, she’s gone, loser take the spoils.”

He whistled softly before shaking his head. “It’s bizarre to think of you two retiring around the same time I’m just starting the position.”

“I’ll have been a Councilor for a decade when I step down,” I pointed out. I almost included unless I die first, but that never seemed to be as funny as I thought it was.

“But you aren’t that much older than me,” he sighed dramatically. “Anti-aging technology is frustrating.”

“Annnnd this is a natural extension of your career, with a ten year break thereabouts the middle.” My grin was so bright it made him scowl before I finally got a begrudging smile. “Think of it as getting elected head of the school board.”

The groan he let out probably echoed for several levels throughout the ship. I had basically just pointed out that he was becoming that which he most hated.

Or not. He seemed to recover with a gleam in his eye. “Pfft. Dean of Students, at the very least.”

<< Prev Masterlist Next >>

#the miys #humans are weird #found family #siblings #humans will pack bond with anything #aliens #post apocalyse #post post apocalypse #science fiction #original science fiction #haw #hfy

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apinkblueberry · 3 years

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How to go about a Bright Fantasy?

[To Long? TLDR at the bottom]

So I have an inherent issue going forward. My D&D campaigns keep getting darker despite me not wanting them to. I am hoping to write a Bright Fantasy campaign but I am having trouble doing so in the context of a D&D campaign.

I think this is because of the inherent mechanics of D&D support a darker setting. There are many official or WOTC supported classes that tend to lean towards these darker perspectives. It's not that they can't be brighter but players that play these usually end up sending their characters down a darker path them being: Blood Hunter, Rogue, Warlock, Barbarian and very often Sorcerers. For races: Dark Elves, Half Elves, Orcs, Half Orcs, Tiefling, Dhampir, Goblins, Goliath, Aasimar, Bugbear, Hobgoblin, Kenku, Kobold and Changeling. Now that may be just my experience but I think both lists should give some perspective. Now many of you may say that they are not inherently dark and I would agree but I think many players just enjoy the darker perspective of this sort of character.

Blood Hunter is pretty clear, the concept boils down to controlling people and becoming more monstrous to kill monsters. It is by no means a bad class but it does rather strongly tend towards darker characters. If you don't believe me I encourage you to Google Blood Hunter and just look at images. Rogues I personally dont think have to be dark but their tendency towards Stealth by far tends to lean people towards playing them darker and playing them with that perspective in mind. Warlocks in my experience tend to play off a dark patron and a darker world as a result. Looking at the Player Handbook subclasses for Warlock: Archfey, not inherently dark but many tend to lean towards characters like the Fairy King who tend to be quite dark rather than a brighter fey, The Fiend, I mean Demons I suppose they could be written brighter but that writing is rather rare, and Great Old One, ah yes what part of Lovecraftian horror isn't bright. Barbarians are often played as dumb brutes who only care about bashing things to death. Now by no means is this the rule but in my experience thats how people tend to play their characters. For Sorcerers very often how their power emerges in their backstory often kills loved ones and does a lot of damage. I personally see why but I think that it can very often lead to a darker character. I won't go over every race but I can make a seperate post later on if some of those aren't clear. They just tend towards darker characters.

This is by no means me saying that dark characters are a bad thing because it isn't but it does make the campaign darker as the campaign should be centered on the characters. So now the issue is how does one while still using D&D and not blocking half the classes from the players do a brighter fantasy setting. In addition, there are very few resources online for writing better bright fantasy but if you search on Youtube Not Grimdark Fantasy you get a series of Grimdark resources. Now obviously it sees the Tag Grimdark but seach Bright Fantasy you get a song. My point is there are limited resources for a Brighter setting but many on a darker one. So how do we go about writing a brighter world, unless anyone has found a brighter title I'm calling it Bright Fantasy. This is because Grimdark is Dark Fantasy so the opposite would inherently be Bright Fantasy.

Well, one primary example of a brighter Fantasy is the earlier pokemon games. For many of these pokemon they use bright and colorful animations and have fun cute stories. Now obviously there are many with dark Poke Entries but to find those you have to dig. The bad guys tend to be evil without really any remorse or if they have a reason its completely ridiculous like Team Magma and Aqua. But, and I recognize many people will be frustrated by this sentence, Generation 4 was the generation to move away from this brighter fantasy. You can catch several gods and even move through the distortion world and even catch the embodiment of death. Now its still a great game, however, from that point on in the series it never really returns to that brighter beginning. It seems like a lot of series that start bright turn dark. Obviously comic books are a great example where now everyone wants to be Dark Knight x Watchman. Even Jak and Daxter the first game is a very bright game but by the second it becomes super dark and depressing where Jak's first words are about murder.

So let me ask, how do I move my campaigns in more of a direction of Bright Fantasy. Some major elements that many stories use to move to a brighter setting is brighter characters. I can make the NPCs brighter but if the main cast is inherently a dark group than the bright fantasy will be too contradictory. It would be like Anakin Skywalker in the land of Teletubbies. Many stories add visuals that are brighter and more pastel colors but since I dont use maps and the like that would be very difficult to do. Many of the things used in other stories aren't options here so if you have any ideas please let me know.I almost forgot one final thing. Villains. So Grimdark villains tend to be morally gray but they do things so bad they can't be forgiven. Brighter Fantasy villains tend to be evil for the sake of being evil so that is something I may use but if the rest of the campaign isn't bright then it may just come off as edgy for the sake of being edgy.

TLDR? It's hard to do a a campaign of a brighter tone because so many mechanics inherently lean for a darker tone, so how do I write a Bright Fantasy in DnD?

#grimdark #fantasy #faerie #jak and daxter #pokemon

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starrysupercell · 3 years

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Brawl Fantasy AU Part Four!

Max is a rapid-fire fairy. It's difficult trying to keep up with her through the streets of the Kingdom. Especially since Shelly wants to look around. She was so curious! Ash was steadfast focused on not losing track of the Fae.

Before too long, the Trio make it to the castle where they're greeted personally by (Lunar) Princess Piper De Prim. (She's a Sylph!)

She thanks them for finally arriving. She had expected correspondence, but perhaps their messenger bird had gotten lost along the way?

Shelly and Ash exchange looks. What? Was she expecting them-?

Piper continues. Nevertheless, the De La Prim Kingdom gives its heartfelt thanks as a whole. Taking a quick look over the two, she asks if they would like... showers, and then a late lunch to discuss the urgent matter at hand?

Ash accepts for the both of them quickly, because he feels very displeased with his current VERY unclean state. Plus it'd be rude to refuse an offer.

Shelly is about to complain, because they were rushed here and now it's suddenly not that big a deal anymore, but shrugs. I'm tired of cold river water and bland fish. Gimme that tub and fancy food.

They're shown to their very ornate rooms, and are greeted by the very enthusiastic Princess Colette, who Max sticks to most of the time.

Colette very often forgets to be ~regal~ most of the time and has to be reminded by Piper.

After her shower and getting half-dressed, Shelly accidentially falls asleep because she's so exhausted.

She's awoken by Ash suddenly. He tells her to get it together!! They're guests with an urgent warning, and Shelly is keeping the acting Royal waiting!! It's evening now! (Piper had been lenient, but Ash decided to steal away and wake Shelly.)

"I was sleepy," Shelly grumbles to defend herself but Ash has a point. The princess hastily gets ready and then heads down, joined by the knight.

Barley, Max and Colette are there. It's only this handful of folks, since it's a vital discussion. Colette is sat beside Piper. And the Knights stand/hover by the Royals. Max is at human-size now.

Shelly begins to apologize as they take their seats, but Piper waves it away. "It's time to talk about what you two came here for..."

Shelly nods. "The Dragon Attack," she confirms.

"About the Curse." Piper states at the same time.

Wait.

Piper puts down her glass and speaks first. "Pardon. You aren't here because I sent away for aid from the Vandete Kingdom?"

'-'

"No," Shelly said, feeling uneasy.

Colette and Max are puzzled. Barley simply thinks, '...Oh.' hides his relief.

After bracing herself, Shelly continues. "We trekked here because.. Dragons have attacked our Kingdom. We didn't get your message because there was no way for us to get it. But I'm sure that if we had gotten it, the Vandete Kingdom wouldn't have hesitated in supporting you."

Piper sighs. Still very displeased, but she finds reason in what Shelly is saying. Still. The fact that the message is still out there can lead to trouble if another Kingdom finds it.

Plus, she had just been told one of their strongest Allies have fallen. This couldn't have just been coincidence. This had to be sabatoge. or karma.

But as she's done often lately, she kept up her grace. "We appreciate your words. You seek advice on Dragons, is that right? What do you wish to know?"

The attacks are discussed, which Piper finds odd. Dragons are territorial, but never attack unprovoked. Most types also don't have a pack-mentality, unless still in Family Broods. Did somebody in the Kingdom wrong a pack of them?

No. This was countless Dragons. Different kinds. They wouldn't stop attacking. We didn't catch the end, but our kingdom was rubble.

"Oh, dear." Barley spoke up. Both he and Piper realized the situation. Colette looked just as confused as Shelly and Ash.

Piper looked concerned. "I'm afraid we cannot aid you. You see, what you just described are the signs of an attack led by an Overseer Dragon. That requires more resources to take care of than what our Kingdom can give in our current state.”

Ash is taken aback. He didn't expect that answer.

Shelly asks what exactly is the current state?

Without skipping a beat, Piper answers that it's none of Shelly's concern. Very professionally.

Shelly: We're the same class.

Piper: From manners alone, it's hard to tell.

Shelly: Excuse me Princess, We've done our fair share of travel to get here. We told you that our Kingdom lies in ruins which puts us at risk. You don't want to help us, and now you refuse your own show of faith and insult me. How is that for manners!?

Piper exhales very slowly. She repeats calmly that there’s no benefit to explaining herself. For this kingdom’s sake, it’s safer to keep their situation well-guarded until it’s guaranteed it can be fixed. It isn’t meant to be taken personally. She then adds an offer in the chance to stay as long as they want. For their troubles.

Shelly firmly states that they’ll take their leave in the morning.

Piper: ..Oh. I see. Nonetheless, the De La Prim Kingdom will always be open to you. U.U

Dinner is dismissed.

Much later that night, Shelly opens her door to roam castle when she’s stopped by Ash.

Ash: what d’ya think yer doin’ up, lassie!? ye can’t travel on a drop o’ sleep, can ya!?

Shelly: What about you!? have you even slept at all!?

Ash defends themselves by declaring it’s her job as a knight, and it isn’t like there’s anyone else sworn to protect Shelly.

Shelly: well i don’t know why you’re still here. your stupid princess just cost us this kingdom’s good graces.

Ash hesitates at telling it how it is, but eh. screw it. if she insists!

"Yeah, ye were dafty. we’re out o' shelter, and despite what the actin' royal says, I wouldn’t trust the promise o' being welcome. all this because YOU couldn’t keep yer pettiness in check."

gee, thanks. Shelly isn’t proud of herself atm already, and that definitely helped.

"...but i’d be fibbin' if I said I wouldn’t do the same. if i had a death wish, that’s the way i’d go, wipin' the floor clean with that sickeningly sweet look of hers! ...but ye didn’t hear that from me, Princess."

shelly and ash laugh over the thought, and shelly is like. well, you are right though. I guess i should go to sleep to leave in a few hours. but you should try to get some rest too.

Ash is about to answer when a third voice interjects.

“Aww! you know you guys don’t have to go in the morning!”

and a fourth.

“and at this rate, nobody in the castle will get any sleep, chatter-bugs!”

Colette and Max are there, giggling. Max is back to mini sized. (it’s her preferred form, but they were keeping guard earlier.)

Shelly and Ash are a little nervous because how much did she hear?

the younger princess handwaves it off. “Don’t worry about it. I... uh, I know how it looks like with Pi- with my sister, but please don’t be mad at her. she’s just really, really stressed."

"The truth is, somebody cursed the king and queen. they’re in a deep sleep, and we can’t find a way to break it. we have no leads and we don’t want to cause mayhem or attention to our plight.”

shelly and ash are suspicious. “and you’re telling us, because...?”

Max explains that she can sense emotions, so she knew that they were telling the truth.

Colette’s theory is that the Dragon attack and the Curse may have something in common.

The curse seems to have been done by a powerful Wizard, and the Kingdom attack could have been planned. If someone wants to take over, it seems like they're getting started.

so, if you solve one, you can solve the other.

Shelly and Ash are listening carefully.

"Obviously, I'm not allowed to leave. So... would you guys mind poking around for me based on that?? That would be REALLY helpful."

They.. agree, with some reluctance because of Piper. But if it is to stop someone from ruining more kingdoms, they're all for it.

"Great!! ....I have.. a theory. There's a kingdom that is stellar in um, wizards and magic stuff. I really think that's where you should go. Have you heard about the Grailams Kingdom?"

Shelly confirms it. Aside from the Ranger in the forest, she's heard countless tales of sorcery when she was growing up.

Colette gives them funds to travel comfortably. She also urges them to take Max along with them. Fairies are super helpful in many ways! And Max is the cream of the crop! Take her!

Shelly shrugs. "I guess. Won't they notice your Knight is missing?"

"It'll be fine!" Colette says dismissively. "Now I gotta go. Good night!!"

And she slinks away, stumbling a bit in her dress. How... weird.

Max smiles at them. "So! When are we heading out? Morning time right? I guess there's still time to kill. I'm just going to take a quick power nap." She darts into Shelly's room before she could be stopped.

"..."

Well, it makes sense why they're friends.

Shelly and Ash do settle in again for the night. They have a journey to continue tomorrow.

#Brawl Stars #Once Upon A Brawl #Shelly #Ash #Piper #Colette #Max #Ash's voice is well defined and loud in my ear to write her #but for the life of me scottish slang is so... diairjwqk #Anyway! look forward to the next part soon 👀#i know i am #...not that i didn't like this part.. but it's just a LOT of set up. ..#okay bye now

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woodlandangel · 4 years

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Mojo Bag For Protection:

I wanted to share a traditional protection spell for African Americans who are protesting and just in our daily lives. Therefore I’ve posted the directions to creating a Mojo Bag for BLACK FOLLOWERS only.

I want to preface this by saying some of this is from Stephanie Rose Bird’s book, and due to her controversy, if you are uncomfortable with following this through, that’s understandable. It’s some of the only source material I have atm and I am just desperate to give info to our people.

I understand that not all black people have family ties or connections, or even resources to learn about Hoodoo. So I want to share my research wth everyone who doesn’t have access. One day I wanna create a hoodoo book, so i’ll post my accessible notes here to my black followers.

Mojo Bags for protection:

5 Finger Grass Rite (For black people ONLY)

What You Need:

Five Finger Grass

Psalm #23

*A sachet

Directions:

Please write Psalm #23 on a piece of paper with intent to protect. If you want to, you can also ask your ancestors to be with you as you do this. Following this, place the paper into the satchel. Lastly, add the Five Finger Grass into the bag.

Keep this intent in mind as you tie it as well.

Here is Psalm #23:

“The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”

When these are placed into the bag, this satchel becomes a Mojo bag.

Traditionally mojo bags are red, due to the association with Africa and royalty, and they also differ in size. They are also usually crafted by hand.

That said, hoodoo is all about utilizing what you have, so if you are unable to create your own satchel, purchasing one is fine.

Do not let anyone see it. Do not take pictures of it. Keep it close to you. If you or any other family members or friends are going to protest, please ask that they make themselves a mojo bag.

#witches of color #black witch #hoodoo

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mytwistedhome · 4 years

Text

Pomefiore and Ignihyde when they find out you have Anorexia

Trigger warning to anyone who suffers with an eating disorder!!

I decided to write these headcanons because I've been having a really tough two weeks, and thinking of the twst boys makes me happy...

I hope this can maybe bring comfort to someone else, or at least provide some bit of entertainment. My intention is not to cause harm or trigger anyone. That is the last thing I want.

Other dorms will be coming as well! I already started working on all of them, but I just haven’t finished them. They will most likely be posted the next time I have a bad day //

One more quick thing: I will be posting requests this week! I’ve already broken several promises that I made in regards to the time I’d post, and I feel horribly guilty. I’m sorry for the wait. I know I shouldn’t tell you to expect something on a certain day and then delay it for weeks. I should be honest about my efficiency, and I am sorry.

I'm also sorry for not responding to message (this applies to all my blogs...) I see them, but then forget about them, and then cower away because I feel like I'm already too late. I hope this little apology is enough to suffice... I'll apologize properly to every person when I find the courage. I know I shouldn't be doing this to people who've been kind to me just because I feel unwell. Please know that I am very sorry, and I'm trying to be more responsible and less careless to those around me.

💜

Vil Shoenheit

So that's why your skin is so dry and you have bags under your eyes

He scolds you at first. He believes that you’re starving to get a good figure, and he tries to inform you that doing so is unhealthy and that being malnourished actually makes a person quite ugly.

As if you haven’t already heard all this before

You try to tell him that you’re not doing this to look good. At least, not anymore. Sure, it started out as a way to lose weight, but it soon became an obsession much more meaningful than beauty or weight-loss.

He doesn’t understand. Why would you deliberately hurt yourself like that? Especially when you’re aware of all these negative outcomes?

Nevertheless, he is still very worried about you

He wouldn't normally concern himself with such a personal problem, but he would feel so guilty if he just stood back and watched you whither away

So, he does, indeed, go out of his way to try and help you

He finds a psychology book about eating disorders in the library, and he reads it in its entirety

He is... quite disturbed. He never imagined that you could be suffering so badly.

He's smart enough to realize that he, himself, can't do anything to make you better

He encourages you to seek professional help, and he even searches for phone numbers you can call and therapists/counselors close by of whom you can see

You are really touched by his efforts to find help, and you promise him that you will see one of the counselors he recommended

But... several weeks go by, and you haven't done anything

Vil grows furious. Don’t you want help!?

He takes your lack of seeking help rather personally... He went out of his way to provide with the things he felt that you really needed. Don’t you appreciate that? Don’t you care about yourself? What more do you want him to do?

You try to tell him that you don’t want him to do anything, that you’ll find help when you’re ready--

Vil isn’t buying that

What does “ready” mean, anyways? When you’re already in the grave?

He’s a bit harsh on you... He points out the patches of dry skin along your neck and chest, the way the hairs of your arms always stand on end from goosebumps, the metallic taste in your mouth...

Are you happy with those things? Do you really want to live this way?

You try and try to explain to him that it’s hard to get help and go back to eating normally

It spirals into an argument...

Vil is done with this. He did what he could and got you the resources you need to begin recovery. Once you decide to get help, he will be there for you. He will be there whenever you reach out for support, comfort, or care. But, until then, don’t talk to him about it. Don’t complain about your misery until you have sought proper help. It’s your fault at this point, isn’t it?

Rook Hunt

He had noticed that you were very quickly losing a lot of weight

He was concerned, but he never imagined that the problem could be something so serious

You're actually surprised with just how much he's concerned. You thought that if there was anyone to romanticize such a disease, it would be him

But he seems to know more than you thought about such disorders

He begs you to get professional help, and he is quite a bit more pushy and earnest than Vil is...

You try to explain to him that no doctor or therapist could ever help unless you were READY and WANTED to be helped

Well, he doesn't understand why you don't want help

He's pushing and pushing you... begging you to seek a professional

You get so frustrated that you turn and leave. He just doesn't understand!

And now Rook is even more distressed. How will he ever get through to you? How can he ever help you?

Now, every time he sees you, he looks at you with such sorrow

He sadly remarks upon how your beauty is fading... and how he fears that your life may be fading as well

Your heart aches to hear such sincere worry... Your chest feels tighter than it normally does as you crumble with guilt

You promise yourself you'll get better... Just so you won't have to see Rook with a horribly sad expression whenever he passes you

You start eating more in front of him to ease his worry, which does work a little bit

You add about 400 more calories to your usual intake--enough so that your "recovery" becomes visible through the way you bounce with energy

But you stay up late at night, running laps and doing situps to burn off some of that intake

And you keep losing weight

In fact, it's worse now because your body is aching from the unfamiliar intake and exercise...

Well, at least you look better

At least you have Rook fooled

Or so you think. It'll only be a matter of weeks before he catches onto your schemes and grows so distressed once again

He tries to sit you down and have a talk with you... He just really wants you to get help

Epel Felmier

Poor Epel finds out after he witnesses you collapsing in the middle of the hallway when no one else is around

He panics and rushes to your side, trying to see what is wrong and how he can help you

You blacked out for several seconds, which is why you collapsed, but even though you have your vision back, everything is still very cloudy and you are too weak to stand up

This makes Epel panic even more

You try to calm him down, despite your weakness

"it's okay, Epel...! Just get me something to eat. Please, I need something to eat. Hurry!"

He is a bit confused, but he does what you say, and he rushes off to find you some food

While he is gone, you try to stand, but to no avail. Your stomach aches with hunger and you are cold all over. Your body just feels so miserable

He rushes back to you with an apple and places his hands on your shoulders in concern as you quickly eat it down

That apple... It's the best thing you've ever tasted, but it's gone too quickly, and your mouth waters for more as the last bites slide down your throat

Although it was small, it still gives your body such a blissful burst of energy. All your senses are ignited now that you have finally eaten something after such a long fast, and your head is hurting far less

You stand up and smile at Epel, thanking him graciously before turning to leave

Uuuhhhhh.... What was that?

You suddenly collapse on the ground and then are all better after eating a simple apple?

No way is Epel going to let you go just like that. He holds you back, demanding an explanation, for it surely seems you know quite a bit about this bizarre thing that just happened

You try to tell him it's nothing, just a strange thing that happened this one time

Well, then, how did you know how to fix it by eating something?

You quickly lie and tell him you get dizzy sometimes and fall due to low blood sugar

Well, now your story is inconsistent

He presses you for the truth, growing rather angry

His harsh tone begins to scare you, and you tell him... You tell him that, sometimes, you go days without eating, and it of course causes you to grow so weary that you faint

You watch as all the frustration quickly rushes away from Epel's face, leaving his eyes wide and mouth hanging open in shock

"That... That's really unhealthy..."

Oh, great. Not this speech again

But, it actually isn't a lecture about how this is such a "dangerous diet"

Instead, Epel pours out all his concern with a sad look upon his face

He knows that he can't do much, but he assures you that you can come to him if ever things become too tough to handle

You're touched by his offer, and you thank him for his understanding

But, now, everytime he's around, he watches you with care to see if you're doing alright and to make sure you don't fall over again

You hadn't expected him to worry this much...

If Epel ever thinks that things are getting out of hand, he will likely go behind your back to someone who can help for your sake

💙

Idia Shroud

He really wishes that he hadn't found out because now he can't stop worrying

This is the kind of thing that would just be easier to ignore and shut away from his mind

But how could he possibly ignore something as serious as this?

He keeps telling himself that this isn't supposed to be his issue

But... It is his issue, isn't it? If you ended up dying and he knew all along about your suffering yet did nothing to help, than that would mean that he aided in your death, right?

He's really starting to panic. He doesn't what you dead. Not at all

But... What is he supposed to do???

He calms himself down and tries to think

Perhaps if he built you a mechanical body that didn't need food this whole thing would seize to be a problem...

No, bad idea

Well, that will be his last resort if nothing else works...

He messages you and tries to plead with you to please just eat and take care of yourself...

You message back, explaining to him that it really isn't that simple

He decides to ask why you're doing this, and he tries to show through his words how much he really cares

You feel comfortable enough in telling him some of the reasons why you think you started, and why it's now so hard to stop and all you want is to continue with it...

Idia is happy that you were able to open up to him this much, but what is he really supposed to do with this information? He's no therapist...

Well, being vulnerable with you emotions and talking about the problem is at least one step in the right direction, isn't it?

Idia continues to try to be a source of comfort for you, while also encouraging you to seek proper help

Ortho Shroud

Oh, no... He can’t help you with this, can he?

Why can’t he help you? Why won’t you get better?

Surely nii-san programmed him with something that could help you...

Right...?

RIGHT!?

Why aren’t you better?

Why are you doing this to yourself!?

Ortho is a mess... so distressed. He can’t understand--he doesn’t have the capacity to understand such a disorder, and he is so frustrated that nothing he does is helping!

And he does everything

He exhausts himself trying to “fix your mind”

His eyes are wide, yellow irises shaking with misery

Knowing that you are willingly hurting yourself actually traumatizes him...

He can't wrap his head around such an awful mental illness. To him, it looks as though you're really trying to harm, hurt, and even kill yourself by your own accord

Something must be wrong with your brain, but he just doesn't know what!

The poor child is so upset. He's panicked and worried sick

And now you feel even worse

Sorry for ending on such a horrible note... I was originally going to have all the dorms, so Diasomnia would’ve come and saved the day, but I just didn’t finish them.

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j-tina07 · 4 years

Text

Stony

He didn't see the point anymore. He just, didn't.

Tony just sat there - almost empty bottle of scotch in hand, dark, heavy bags under his eyes, shaking as sobs echoed throughout the cold, one mess of a lab.

Yes, Tony Stark - the genius, billionaire, playboy, philanthropist - didn't see the point in living. All his life, he was told what to do, told what was expected of him. His father gave him Stark Industries, raising him to run the business on his own. Hell, he was accepted into MIT at fourteen for crying out loud.

He was building weapons that were supposed to help people - which later on he shut down thanks to his little visit to Afghanistan. He was building, no - inventing - new technology. He built the damn arch reactor that's in his chest keeping him alive. (First one built in a cave with little to no resources - by hand - may I add.)

Thanks to his time spent with the Ten Rings, he didn't want - couldn't - keep up with his old man's legacy. He couldn't sit there in his lab, building enhanced weapons just so they could fall into the wrong hands. Not after what he saw in Afghanistan. And certainly not after the information that he received about one of his bombs forcing the Maximoff twins to start living under ruble, fighting day by day just to survive; not moving in fear of an undetonated bomb that could go off and blow their heads off at any second. Not after one of his own creations almost killed Pietro trying to rule over the world. The very creation he made to protect it.

So no, he couldn't keep up with the weapon making. Instead, he turned to making technology that was used - and boy did he make sure it did - to help people. Be it as complicated as the Iron Man suits he spends day and night on, or as simple as the Stark Phone. Theoretically, turning over a new leaf. Trying to make a name for himself and not the one that Howard forcefully passed down to him.

And where did that lead him? Right here in his lab, trying desperately to keep his sobs to himself; as to not want to disturb the other's with his self pitying. With J.A.R.V.I.S in the background trying his best to comfort his creator.

This moment was lead from Fury, and Cap, yelling at him over risking his life again. Normally, he would just brush it off, reply with some sort of snarky comment, tell them to fuck off, and keep going on with his life. But this time, he couldn't. And he didn't understand it. He didn't understand why he was suddenly running out of the conference room, silent tears streaming down his face. And he certainly didn't understand why he was suddenly bursting in his lab struggling to breath. He barely made out the voice of J.A.R.V.I.S telling him that he was experiencing a serious panic attack. Not the one where you panic about the possibilities of what could happen that could go bad, no. The one where you can't seem to get out of your own head. The one where it feels like your chest is about to collapse on you. The one where it feels like someone kicked the last breath available out of your lungs, where you can't stop overthinking and the walls are closing in an-

Knocking? No that can't be right. He told J.A.R.V.I.S to deny excess to the lab from anyone who requested. So why was someone knocking like it's the end of the world on his glass door?

"Tony?"

"Go 'way!" He pathetically replied, thinking it was Bruce or Pepper (Who reluctantly returned to SI in New York, from hearing news that the company was facing some issues, having that their former boss was going through one of his emotional downward spirals) or even Natasha.

"Tony, it's me, Steve. Please, open the door."

And then it hit him. That husky, soft, caring, beautiful voice belonged to no other than Steve Rogers. The main person who put him into his current predicament.

Being able to catch some of his breathing back, and able to figure what his surroundings are, he put on one of his famous 'Fuck off. I'm busy right now. Go away.' faces on, heading towards the door.

He swiftly opened the door, stopping it just enough so Steve could only see his full body, and not a lab that looked like someone came in and tore it to pieces. And he couldn't look in from the glass itself, thanks to J.A.R.V.I.S dimming the windows as much as he could before his master started tumbling in, grasping and clutching onto the nearest items trying to catch his breath.

Tony just looked at him with red, teary, bloodshot eyes. The super-soldier's face grew even more concerned, but his eyes showed sympathy for the younger. Those mesmerizing light blue eyes that reminded Tony of a calm day, with clear skies, were staring down at him with a mix of sympathy and sadness.

Seeing what he had caused, Steve tried to reach his hand - to offer some sort of comfort towards the latter - but grew even more guilty when he found that Tony flinched away from his touch.

"Tony-" He gasped out, feeling horrible for his previous actions.

Tony shook his head forcefully.

"No, Steve." He puffed, already feeling irritated that the Captain even thought that it was a good idea to seek him out after what he did.

"Tony, I- please just let me explain. I-"

Oh, now Tony was fuming.

"'Explain' what exactly? That you didn't intend on making me feel worse than I have for the past week and a half? And that you came down here to apologize for being such a jerk? That you're 'oh so very sorry about what you did' and that you'll 'try not to do it again next time'. Steve, we argue all the time, if you haven't noticed. And about what? Me risking my life so that you and millions of other people on this earth are safe? When you and I know damn well that one life is better than risking thousands. Civilian lives at that."

They just stared at each other in silence. Steve focused in on that cold stone look on Tony's face: his eyes. And Tony focused in on that sorry expression on Steve's face. And when Tony's strong gaze fell onto Steve's gorgeous light-blue eyes, he saw the tiniest shift in the eye color; the one of realization. And he knew - boy did he knew - that Steve finally realized that he messed up.

"Now please, just leave me be for the rest of the day. Matter of fact, don't bother me until I say you can bother me. For the sake of both of us."

Steve was too lost in his thoughts - lost in what he did, how he did it, how angry he was at himself that he did do it - to say anything; so he just stifled a small, pathetic nod.

When Steve was lost in the elevator, Tony headed back in his lab, ready for another episode of wallowing in self pity. Though this time not from the events that accrued earlier that day, no. But from pushing away the one person that he knew he needed most.

"J.A.R.V.I.S, send down another bottle of scotch, will you? Oh, and clear my schedule for the next week."

Knowing that now wasn't the best time to argue with him over his health and how angry Pepper will be, and that his Sir needed this, he replied in a soft, calming voice,

"Of course, Sir."

As always, this is also available on Wattpad: jtina03.

I haven’t been posting a lot, and the reason is because I’m trying to come up with ideas for my own book. So I won’t be posting a lot, and if I do, it’ll be mainly posts from my Wattpad.

#Stony #fanfiction #wattpad #mcu fanfiction #tony stark #steve rogers #anxiety #nick fury #marvel #jarvis #sad ending #kind of #Steve rogers/tonystark

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funkymbtifiction · 4 years

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Work problems of a 9 infp

To the INFP 9 struggling with efficiency at work, wondering if there is anything good about being a Fi-dom and a 9, and learning to self-care.

You ask how to become more efficient at work, and then say this, “I believe it is WRONG to disregard someone for an activity due to their inexperience or difficulty if they want to do that task.” See, this is part of the problem. As a Fi-dom, you want to give them the chance to prove themselves; but your inferior Te is still judging them as incompetent for the task they want assigned to them.

You will have to learn to say no. Doing this is not denying them the right to learn and grow, but for expediency’s sake. Either they need someone experienced in doing whatever that task is to work with them so they can learn, or they do not need that assignment. Part of your job as their boss is to assess who is best at what. Think about them, for a moment. What would make them happier, to get a task that might take forever and prove frustrating, because they don’t know how to do it quickly, or to be given a task suited to their skills?

Higher Te knows who is responsible and who isn’t, who can do what quickly, who turns in the best quality work. TJ does not worry as much about how they ‘feel’ about it as FP, but as a 9 and an FP, you can find a polite way to put them off. Simply explain that this task needs done quickly, so it needs an experienced pair of hands. Allow people who want to learn new skills to tackle those projects beneath the supervision of someone more experienced than them, when time allows. When your supervisors passed over you for a task, it was not personal. It was business. In business, though it may seem cold to you, everything is about the bottom line. If you have the luxury of a relaxed deadline then yes, let people who want to try things to try them. But if it needs done now… you cannot afford to hand out an assignment to someone unqualified.

If you want to develop Te, I highly suggest you search out material and learn about things like time-organization, completion of tasks, and problem-solving from higher Te users. You’ll know them, because they write books, articles, etc., on those topics. Te is about learning how to do something efficiently and then teaching others how to duplicate the results. Use some of your free time to learn ‘from the experts’ how they do it, and then see how you can implement similar techniques in your life. It won’t always work for you, but the more you know, the better resources you have to shift things around and think about how to do something more optimally. Sometimes, you just need to do it ‘wrong’ for awhile, and then you will think, “If I did it in this order instead, it might go faster.”

For example, did you know that most successful people encourage you to make lists of everything you need to do, and tackle the projects that will take the least amount of time first? Do you know how to list those projects in terms of when people need them done, and how long you can estimate they will take? Broad estimations are fine – all you need know is calling this client will take less time than finishing a four-week project. Google ‘better efficiency, learn time management skills, develop better organization, get more done at work,’ etc. See what turns up. (If you can specifically search for topics related to your job, that will be even better.)

If you always estimate too much time for a project, you will never feel the squeeze. Think about related / similar projects and how long they took, as a rough estimate, and then add additional time to that. Sometimes tasks take longer because you have to stop and figure out HOW to do them.

Is there a way to streamline your process? I don’t know what you do. Is it routine work? Do you do the same things over and over? Do you know that ‘repetition’ makes for faster work? Because your brain falls into a pattern of ‘doing’? I get way more done if I decide just to stock the queue certain days of the week, instead of shifting between doing that, working on book-editing, proof-reading manuscripts, and answering asks. Focus on one task at a time, from start to finish. It’s better if you can do one thing and repeat it. (In days of old, this is how factory work got done. Everyone had ONE THING they did all day long. It became so second nature, they could chatter while doing it.) Is there enough repetition in what you must do at work to develop a system?

As a 9, you need to monitor yourself and keep an eye on whether your attention has ‘drifted.’ 9s tend to lose focus and that can mean a task takes longer, because you were doing A then got distracted by C then remembered B and … oh, crap, I should be doing A but I’m still not done with C or B. This is why you need a list, and why you’ll have to pay attention and make sure you aren’t allowing yourself to do things out of order or get distracted.

You asked if there is anything good about being a Fi-dom and a 9. Yes, there is. As a 9, you already care about other people. Many Fi-doms of other Enneagram types either have to learn this, or never do. You are not in a constant ‘fight against the world,’ and that is worth a lot. You have the gift of being a peacemaker. You are compassionate and kind and you are not selfish. Please don’t allow work-related inferior Te frustrations to cause you to dislike the beautiful person that you are.

The self-growth for 9 chapter is Chestnut’s book that you referenced... is going to ask you to prioritize yourself more, because you are giving too much of yourself away. It is not selfish to care for yourself, though being a 9, your first thought was “OMG, how selfish!! I should think LESS of my needs, not more!” But you know what? The fact that you thought that proves you aren’t selfish, and likely never will be. Selfish people don’t think of others. You can absolutely risk becoming more independent, taking better care of yourself by learning to say no (practice!), and figuring out what you want in your own life, without ever risking becoming selfish. Because you care NOT to be. It’s the people who don’t care about being a good person who easily fall into selfishness. The people who worry about being too selfish are the ones who need worry least about it.

Learning to self-care is not selfish. You cannot help others if you do not take care of yourself. If you are not mentally, physically, and spiritually healthy, how will you have the mental resources, the physical wellness, and the spiritual wisdom to help others? You should never exhaust yourself pleasing anyone. You have a right to say no. You have a right to go home at 5pm. 9s tend to give way too much, to finish other people’s work for them, and to take on too much because they cannot say no -- but learning to say no will help you enormously.

Hope some of this helped.

- ENFP Mod

#question #infp #enneagram 9

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zach-the-fox · 4 years

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Frostfur Episode 8: Warm Hope

Our trek to New London is now much easier with the automaton. It gives us plenty of time to rest our poor soles, which had been stomping around in the slushy powder, while traveling across the frostland. The machine has even helped us with carrying our supplies, relieving us of any heavy-lifting. We’ve been cutting through the rushing, continuous storm like a knife through soft butter, in the direction of where New London is said to be. But I’m afraid our journey will have to be on pause again, though. Light seems to be fading from the distant horizon through the snowy atmosphere. It’s the sun going down and about to end the day. We need to find shelter or make camp.

Through the hazy mist, I take notice of a shadow through the darkness. My eyes can just about make it our to be a bulky, cylindrical construction standing on a small hill. The Union Jack, our country’s flag, flies over it, but there’s no sign of movement. “Up ahead!” I call out. “There’s some shelter over there!” I point. “We shall stop there for the night.” My friends agree with me as we inch closer to the sturdy building. The automaton comes up beside the shelter and lowers its body to the ground, allowing us to step off and approach the mysterious building. Upon scanning the structure, we see it’s built to withstand even the worst weather. An advanced steam heating system protects it from the cold. A signpost by the train points in two directions: “London: 1934 miles, home: 27 miles.” Walking inside with ease, having the door being easy to open, we find it to be comfortable and well equipped with emergency supplies. A notice by the heavy round door reads, “To all scientists: If you use any supplies, remember to notify the quartermaster upon your return to the city.” This was housing for the scientists of the weather station, and the city referred to in the writings is Winterhome. That does remind me… I do hope some of the Winterhome refugees managed to find their way to New London, assuming they survived long enough to make it to a safe haven. God, I also sure hope Carly and Emmy’s mothers are there in the city as well. That is, if New London is actually standing and not in danger to succumb to riots. Only way to find out is if we head there and see for ourselves.

“Well, this should do for the night,” Brook utters. “Quite cozy in this little place. Wish we could stay here much longer.”

“I sure wish we could, too,” I comment. “However, we can’t really stay here forever. By sunrise, we should journey to New London.”

“Just how much further are we to go?” juts Carly. “We’ve been traveling non-stop for what seems to be ages.”

“The site is not too far from here,” Emmy says. “We should be in New London by tomorrow.”

“And what if it isn’t there?!” the cat cries. “What if New London is Winterhome?! What if our families are actually dead?! We traveled out here for nothing!”

“For the Lord’s sake, Carly,” Brook utters. “Get a grip!”

“Don’t you understand?!” Carly lashes out. “It’s useless! Wherever we go, there’s not a single sign of hope! Everywhere we’ve been, people are dead, or they’ve left already! There’s no point of moving on! New London’s probably the same!”

“Carly,” starts Emmy. “We don’t know that. When we get to New London, our families will-”

“And what if they aren’t?! Face it, we’ll be dead like them!”

“My mother isn’t dead!” The warthog snaps back. “She’s a strong woman and she pulls through, unlike your mother!” This does not seem good.

“How dare you!” Carly steps up to the warthog. “Just because you’re an engineer, doesn’t mean you’re know-it-all smart! You may know how to fix a machine and know fancy formulas doesn’t mean you have a heart of gold!”

“And when have you done anything resourceful?!” Emmy points her hoof at the cat. “All you’ve done is nothing but complain and question every little action we’ve been through!”

“Hey, at least my height has nothing to do with it!”

I’ve had enough of this! “Order! Order!” I get between the girls to prevent anymore fighting. “Have the both of you lost your minds?! There will be no fighting as long as we’re in this together!” Both the cat and warthog make an about-face and cross their arms. “Come on, guys… We don’t have too far to go. I promise you, we’ll be in New London, and your families will be there.” Not a single word has uttered from either of them. I turn to the rabbit. “Brook, help me out here, please…”

“Don’t look at me, I’m just enjoying the excitement,” she says. “It’s quite entertaining.”

Right, I guess it’s up to me. “Listen up! We’ve come too far to give now, and we’re not stopping for any reason. Now, I know we’ve been traveling for quite a while, but maybe some rest is what we need.”

“Who decided to make you the leader?” questions Carly, turning toward me. “Why do you get to be the leader?”

“Yeah, Zach,” Emmy adds. “Why is it that we have to listen to you? Is it because you’re a guy and that we should follow everything men have to say?”

“I actually second that,” Brook butts in. “Men always say it’s their job to assert their dominance by bossing women around.”

Okay, now I’m fed up with this. Can’t they see I’m doing this for them?! “I’m not trying to boss anybody around! I’m only doing what’s better for our survival! When I joined the army, it became my duty to protect people and to help those in need of help! All the people in my group had died because they wanted to do things their own way! That’s what got them all killed, and I’ll be damned if I let anyone else die! I care about you guys. You’re my friends, aren’t you?!” They keep their eyes on me. “That’s the way I see it! You’re more than just survivors to me. You are my friends, and I care a lot about you! Your safety and health are very important than my own! When I grew up in Liverpool, I had no friends! I managed things by myself and had to do things on my own!” Their expressions relax; eyes open wider and frowns bend straighter. I let out a sigh after my whole speech and point my head to the flooring. “I just don’t want anything bad to happen to any of you… You are like family to me… But if you don’t appreciate me, then maybe I should leave…”

“Hey…” Carly takes a step closer to me and puts her paw on my shoulder. “I didn’t mean to be like that against you… I just didn’t understand why you were always giving orders… I mean, you did save me from falling to my death in the ravine…”

Emmy’s hoof lays on my leg, and I can see her by my side. “I appreciate your help too… When I became sick, you didn’t bother leaving me behind… You did everything you could to ensure I was better…”

Brook forms a slight smile. “You have quite a warm heart, Fox. You care for even the weirdest of beings, like me.”

“Oh, come on, you’re not weird,” I tell her.

“I admit it. Yet, you didn’t turn away and leave me behind… Most people would’ve.”

I reach out to her with my arm. “Come here, Brook…” She hesitates, but takes a few steps closer. I grasp her with my paw and pull her closer, hugging all three of my friends. “We’re a team, and we’re all in this together! We can make it, and no winter is going to separate us! We’ve just got to hold on a little longer. Let’s get some rest, and by tomorrow, it’s off to New London!” Smiles fill their faces. It brings joy to my heart to see I’ve reignited hope in their hearts, as well as mine. We must survive and make it to New London! @carlycmarathecat @emmy-the-absolute-goof @bendy-bear-15

#frostpunk #furryart #Fursona #furry #Fanfiction #Friends #Fox #Rabbit #Warthog #Cat

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ficsandcatsandficsandcats · 5 years

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Tropey Trope Trope time. Although, when you think about it, most things are tropes and that's why they work! 😂 Reader is being forced into a marriage with someone absolutely awful, and Jaskier comes in to object and confess his feelings. (Or if you think it would be more fun the other way around and Jaskier is getting married, totally go for it. I just love wedding objection scenes. Haha)

Fandom: The WitcherPairing: Jaskier x ReaderWord Count: 1,474Rating: T for mild violence Taglist: @heroics-and-heartbreak a/n: Gotta love an objection scene! Here you goooo!

You were engaged when you met.

Jaskier had bedded women who had been married for ages without a second thought but when you told him you were engaged there was something different about it. He didn’t just want to bed you and then move on when it became too complicated to continue. He wanted more. And that alone was dangerous enough to keep him from pursuing you. He remained your friend, though, unwilling to cut you out of his life even as the day of your wedding approached. The months that seemed long away cut down so swiftly he felt certain he was cursed.

You tried to keep him from finding out who your fiancé was which he found odd. For once he wasn’t doing anything that would warrant staying away from a husband to be and yet you were as cautious about it as if he was bedding you nightly. And then he saw the two of you together on the steps of the church you would be wed in. He had an arm around you, his hand holding you tightly in please and you looked so miserable. He wasn’t ugly by any means (though Jaskier would spend hours picking apart any fault he could find or manufacture about him later) but he was loud and boarish and clutched you like you were a pheasant he’d bought at market instead of the woman he had chosen to spend his life with. When he confronted you about it later, telling you he’d seen you together, you’d broken down in tears and finally the full story came.

How much you hated the man you were being forced to marry. How he had all but blackmailed your father into making the alliance. How he delighted in your misery over the arrangement, your pain serving to heighten his pleasure. Jaskier held you as you wept and he couldn’t keep himself from asking why you didn’t just run away.

“Just isn’t a word in our vocabulary, Jaskier,” you’d explained, “We can’t just do this or that and there is rarely anyone thinking about what would be just. I’m the only child of a man whose gambling has forced us into this position. If I don’t do this, I don’t know what will happen to him.”

He knew that arguing would only add his voice to the many men in your life telling you what to do and how to feel so instead he just held you, saying nothing more about it until the day before your wedding.

“If you had a choice,” he’d asked, hating the way your face fell and the bitterness in your eyes as he said it, “What would you do?”

“I would leave,” you’d answered. And then, to the surprise of both of you, “I’d choose you.”

Convincing Geralt to crash a wedding had been harder than he’d expected.

“You can’t tell me that you don’t get involved in these affairs because I literally stood feet away from you as you interrupted a Queen’s attempt at forcing a marriage,” Jaskier had argued.

“That was different. It was unjust and she wanted me to kill the man for god’s sake,” Geralt retorted.

“This is unjust as well. Don’t do it for me, do it for Y/N. She’s being forced to marry a monster who will treat her worse than any of those oafs at that banquet would have treated Princess Pavetta. Should she suffer a fate such as this just because she isn’t a Princess? Does she deserve less?”

Jaskier’s words hung in the air and Geralt couldn’t deny that the bard was right. It was wrong, but there were many evils in the word and he couldn’t get involved in all of them.

“Look, come with me or not but I am going to that church tomorrow,” Jaskier said.

“You’ll be killed,” Geralt argued.

“I would rather die trying to help her than live a long and healthy life knowing she was suffering and I maybe, even just maybe, could have done something to prevent it,” Jaskier retorted and no matter how Geralt called to him he did not turn back.

The church was packed with strangers. Your family consisted of just you and your father who sat in the front row looking abashed as he watched his daughter stand at the altar with a man who had made no secret of how he intended to use her. The man’s family was not all bad, but none of them knew or cared how much your heart was racing or how you felt as if a noose was being slipped slowly around your neck, tightening with ever recited vow.

“If there is anyone who can provide reason that this man and this woman should not be joined in holy matrimony, speak now or forever hold your peace,” the officiant recited. You held your breath, not sure what you were hoping for but hoping nonetheless.

Silence.

“Then by the power vested in me I now pronounce you –”

“STOP!”

The double doors to the church burst open, Jaskier standing in it, illuminated by the sun like an angel worthy of the stained glass surrounding you. He quickly ran down the aisle and behind him a larger man with two giant swords followed, walking slower, looking around the chapel watchfully.

“Who the bloody hell are you?” Your fiancé asked.

“Julian Alfred Pankratz de Lettenhove,” Jaskier introduced, as politely as if they were meeting at a party, “And I have come to bring a wedding present for the bride.”

His eyes fall to you and you’re staring at him, tears in your eyes as you try and catch up with everything that’s happening.

“What is it?” your fiancé asks, as stupid as he is cruel.

“I have brought the gift of choice,” Jaskier says, addressing the answer to you.

“Jaskier, nothing has changed. Not really. I have the same worries,” you say, a tear falling down your cheek as you push away happiness for the thousandth time. He steps up to where you stand on the altar and takes your hand in his, ignoring your fiance’s protests.

“No harm will befall your father. Isn’t that right Geralt?” Jaskier asks, calling to his friend who is still eyeing the crowd with a solemn look. He looks up at the bard and gives a smile and a slight bow to you before answering.

“Y’N’s father is under the protection of The Witcher,” he says, his voice low and husky but clear and resonant through the silent church, “If anyone harms him, they answer to me.”

You look at your father who is pale and confused but finally summons the courage he regrets not having months before.

“Go, Y/N,” he says. You turn back to Jaskier, happiness beaming in his face and yours as this nightmare is broken, and then you see the dagger. The briefest glint of steel by your fiance’s hand and you can see the arc of the blow, where it will land in Jaskier’s back, and time slows.

Jaskier sees your face turn from happiness to fear and then to anger as you shove him suddenly off the dais and launch yourself at the man you were nearly forced to marry. Your quick actions knock him off guard and you are able to topple him, the dagger falling uselessly out of read as you scratch at his face like a wildcat, months of repressed anger blinding you as you rend his face. Jaskier’s arms surround you and pull you off but before he can so much as sit up there is a sword at his throat, Geralt standing over him with a smile that could freeze flames.

“Perhaps I should have made myself clearer,” he says, “If anyone harms her father, her, or my friend, I will kill them. Slowly. With great enjoyment.”

As the three of you leave the chapel and adrenaline slowly ebbs away, doubt sets in.

“Are you sure?” you ask.

“I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life,” Jaskier answers. You smile, squeezing the hand that holds yours, and turn to face Geralt expectantly.

“And you?” you prompt, when he does not speak, “Are you alright with this?”

“You seem resourceful and unafraid of blood. That alone makes you an improvement on some I have traveled with in the past,” Geralt answers.

“Alright. Then, here we go!” you say, finally allowing giddy relief to take over as you went your way through the village. There are many stories for years later about the wedding the witcher interrupted and the mad bride who assault her fiancé and paraded around the town with her new lover, still wearing her wedding dress. The best one, in your humble opinion, is the one Jaskier writes as you walk towards an uncertain future side by side.

#Anonymous #jaskier x reader #jaskier imagines #drabble #fanfic #reader request

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