#touch is primary

[quotlefish]

[The skin] is the oldest and the most sensitive of our organs, our first medium of communication, and our most efficient protector […] Even the transparent cornea of the eye is overlain by a layer of modified skin […] Touch is the parent of our eyes, ears, nose, and mouth. It is the sense which became differentiated into the others, a fact that seems to be recognized in the age-old evaluation of touch as ‘the mother of the senses’ - Ashley Montagu

[chalkrub]

pwyw com from last month ! these are closed now but i will open again at the end of feb maybe

[strawburrychainsaw]

Late on my weekly flurry of severance posts but I have to say it feels very strange that there has been NO explicitly Helly-centric moments or conflict. At no point has Helly been alone to think about the fact that she lied to the others; to stew and ponder her true origins and reason for being here. She has not been shown wondering why she was allowed to return or making any personal comments whatsoever. Her proactive and volatile nature has been replaced by a woman who creeps down hallways, knocks on doors before entering, and reminds her coworkers they are safe to converse privately because Milchick said the cameras and microphones were gone despite constantly questioning whether anyone was telling her the truth in the first season. If this were any other show I would be expressing my deep disappointment at her loss of autonomy and the failure of writing to consistently capture this woman and mellowing her out to give room to her male costars and their more important internal conflicts... but this is Severance and that's not Helly at all, it is a woman wearing her skin

[beannoss]

Hi Bean!

I have a question for you! I have noticed in your writings that Twilight and Yor begin a romantic relationship after their secrets are revealed. Are you opposed to any romance between them before they find out? I assume if so, it’s because it’s morally questionable, though a lot of fans find romance before compelling as it raises the stakes considerably. I’m not suggesting one is right and the other is wrong, I’m just interested in your take on this! I love your writing! Thank you! 😊

Hello you! I'm always chuffed to see your name pop up 🫶😊!

Oh boy! Thank you for this ask — it's a big question but also I do have thoughts XD Sorry it's taken me a few days to get my ducks in a row!

I want to start, though, by emphasising that my thoughts and preferences here are exclusive to Spy x Family as a canon enterprise; they don't pertain to fanworks or other fan theories, I'm not out to yuck anyone's yum ✌️ ditto for even my own writing! You're right that I don't really have an interest in exploring that dynamic but I reserve the right to change my mind ;)!

[Reference herein to manga chapters not yet animated]

Right, so. There's lots of things I love about SxF, but one of the things that interested me early and keeps me engaged is that it operates under an interesting and complex morality. Spy work and contract killing are obviously an ethical minefield, and in the real world, generally to the bad. Within the world of SxF, Endo takes pains to write Twilight and Yor both firmly on the morally right side, even if Twilight’s tactics or Yor’s actions in a vacuum are frequently questionable. With Twilight especially it seems Twilight is currently (resisting) working through the impact and ethical implication of his actions on Anya. When it comes to Yor, I expect that’s where we’ll see him wrestle with similar questions through a romance lens. I think it was quite deliberate and important that Twilight specifically articulated that he’d been wondering if Yor had previous romantic relationships, and that it was now confirmed she hadn’t. As far as I can remember, it’s the only time he’s had that sort of reflection on Yor's life before the Forgers; I mention it because it mirrors times he’s reflected explicitly on Anya’s history and trauma and her needs as a child, with implication that his actions and motivations for adopting her could/probably will hurt her. I hazard that his observation about Yor will be similarly indicative of an arc down the line.

When it comes to canon, if the Yor x Twilight romance were to firm up while Yor still believes Twilight is Loid, I admit there’s a high chance I’d nope out. I want to emphasize firm up though… I tend to think Yor already has feelings for Loid (Twilight?) whether she’s fully aware of them or would necessarily articulate them as romantic (and I think this is being really interestingly conveyed and explored through her current feelings about kissing, though I may differ with some on how I think that may shake out). I also think there’s a… less high but not impossible chance that Twilight is aware he has or is developing feelings for Yor. I’ve argued before that he knows he has formed/is forming an attachment to her and that he knows he trusts her. I don’t think it’s too far from there to romantic feelings for Twilight: after all, attachment and trust (intimacy) are not things he's had in a long, long time. And given his current pseudo-short temper and general malaise comes out most with Anya, with Yor he’s been notably softer and more receptive. In my view, this is partially because so far he hasn't really done much that would really hurt Yor and nor has she done anything that would really hurt Twilight. So far, Twilight and Yor are on a fairly even footing.

This is a very long way of saying that I trend toward thinking we’ve got at least a few toes into the romance already.

The reasons I’d be a squicked by the firming up of the romance, pre-reveal, are related to its being morally questionable as you pointed out (I'll talk a bit more about that in a moment.) But it's also because I think it would undermine character arcs and dominant themes.

Twilight’s arc involves finding and forging a new pack, a new family. Somewhere safe and loving that he’s been denied essentially for his whole life (I don’t dispute that his mother loved him deeply and did her best to protect him: living with an abuser and then with her under war was never going to actually be or feel safe). A big part of this safety and love for Twilight is about being accepted, warts and all. Twilight started lying because he wasn’t accepted by his father as he was. There’s a fair bit to work through by way of accepting Twilight’s warts already — I think Yor will be fairly understanding as things currently stand, and that’s part of why they’re a good match. Their moral compasses, their sacrifices, how they see the world and how they want to try and make it better, align and/or resonate in foundational ways. However, given their current standing, pursuing deeper intimacy of a romantic/sexual relationship with Yor before reveals, I think would take it past the line. And particularly when considering Yor’s character arc.

Yor’s arc is also around finding love and security, but centred less around acceptance (although that obviously also explicitly features!) and more around self-worth and understanding her value. If the romance were to firm up pre-reveal, the false pretences are… I mean, to me, they lob a Molotov cocktail into that theme of self-worth and being valued, as she really would just be being used: the intimacy could never be real because Twilight is not Loid Forger. To expand a bit on an earlier point, perhaps ironically, Yor’s relationship with Loid is mostly on the up-and-up: they both know any marital connection they demonstrate is fake. They may be (are) friends, and also they’re under no illusions that it’s something of a tenuous friendship (at least for now). They co-parent Anya but are clear that this co-parenting comes with clear lines around and between their relationship otherwise. I want to tread mindfully here, because I also really like and appreciate aroace interpretations of Yor and Twilight and their relationship: I think this discussion around firming up their romance actually also holds true in the case of attempting to substantially deepen their platonic bond, pre-reveal. In the same ways, Twilight needing acceptance and Yor learning self-worth would be severely undermined by a pre-reveal apparent and false deepening of their commitment to one another.

On the point of it being morally questionable generally, yeah it is. I mean, look, it's fiction and they aren't real people who can be hurt by those actions. So in principle, Endo can write what story he wants, I wouldn't think it reflected poorly on him or anything like that. I just don't really want to read a story that goes to that place; it’s a squick. I'm sure this has been discussed before in fandom, but my read on the moral dubiety centres around the idea that it isn’t possible to actively choose or meaningfully consent to emotional or physical intimacy when one person is lying about who they are (and in this case, they're both lying about who they are... Although Twilight to a greater extent). This does tie back into SxF themes as well, as choice and consent are also… maybe not big themes of SxF exactly, but active choice and informed consent are things which have come up more than once (I have my thoughts as to why: for a character whose choices drive so much of the narrative, Twilight is actually also a character who’s shown to have little actual choice or control over much of his own life. Considering his motivations for a world where children don’t cry, imo valuing active choice and meaningful consent are important factors required for that world. And I also actually suspect the theme of choice will become more important the more we learn about Donovan, and his role as foil for Twilight.)

Also, honestly for me, it would be too close to a common trope in a lot of popular western fiction/media that I don’t like: a woman being taken advantage of by a man in some way, shape or form, and then through the magic of her non-specific womanness, forgiving him his gross transgressions under the thinnest of pretences. Particularly as Endo has already taken pains to sidestep that as a foundation of their arrangement. To be fair, I wouldn't be surprised that were Endo to take the pre-reveal romance path, it would be a deeper interpretation of that trope, but as with other sexist tropes utilised in pop fiction/media, I have to ask why the choice couldn’t have been for a more interesting path, rather than retreading that one. And particularly given everything he's established for Twilight and Yor: it goes against much of what Twilight stands for — and indeed goes against much of what he meaningfully brings in his current relationship with Yor, that of encouraging her, supporting her, and shoring up her thoughts, opinions and self-image, particularly when she voices upset or doubt about them. It also goes against much of what Yor stands for: while the power imbalance would lie firmly with Twilight, it remains true that Yor’s lies in an apparently deepening intimacy would also undermine the safety and security she ostensibly creates for Twilight. She also so obviously hates lying, the prospect of her keeping her secret into what she believed was a real relationship would wreck her. Doubly so, given the weight Yor puts on Loid's acknowledgement of who she is and what she believes: something she hangs her self-worth on, a recognition of her value. And I'd argue here that it would actually, conversely, be impossible for Loid Forger to acknowledge or accept Yor's truth: that's only something Twilight can do.

And so I guess there’s also just the bare fact following from the above that I think a pre-reveal firming up of their relationship is the less interesting choice for what is a major franchise that has otherwise done innovative things. Another reason I love SxF is that it subverts tropes and complicates cliches. One of which includes communication: for a pair who have crossed lines as a foundation of their relationship, Yor and Twilight actually do a lot of communicating. That’s a subversion of many heterosexual romantic tropes and norms, at least in a Western context, and, to put it sort of flippantly, it would bum me out if it failed at the final hurdle.

I just want to emphasise one more time, my opinions and preferences here are strictly related to Spy x Family in an official canon capacity, and nothing to do with fanworks or fan theories or what fans want to explore in whatever fashion. Part of my feelings here are also honestly because of the tone and pacing of SxF. I think it entirely possible to do interesting things with those tropes and actually think Endo is the type of writer I would trust to do so. But the way SxF is written by way of tone, pacing, narrative priorities and audience demand, I don't think even Endo would be able to do them within SxF in ways that wouldn't squick me out and make me lose love for Twilight, specifically, pretty entirely. I'd rather he just didn't 😂

Tl;dr: in canon exclusively I’m not into a firming up of their romantic relationship pre-reveal! Their situation is complicated enough as it is; give these goobers the love they want and can share with one another, kindly and gently, when the world has been neither kind nor gentle with them. In my view, it’s already primed in their character and thematic arcs 🫶

[wh40kartwork]

Salamander

by niellustrate

[aurantiumred]

the overlap between the dc and pjo fandoms is. a concerning amount. ill be looking at tt and scrolling though, find a dc tt, turns out 3 of the percy jackson accs i follow reblogged it. is this a canon event. do all of us go through a dc phase. i got hit in the face with the brick that is jason todd lore by @whosthatredguy via infodump one day and the next im scrolling through a sketchy website for comic #408 for jason's first appearance. and like. I'm still annotating the lost hero. wrong jason, thought my hyperfixation was on jason grace, not like. the definition of parental issues. not the definition of "role two, the scapegoat" cmon man

AND THEN THERES A GYMNAST! AND I IMMEDIATELY GO "mmm pretty, mmm cool moves" AND I PERISH INSTANTLY AT THE THOUGHT OF THEM BECAUSE THEY'RE SO FUCKING COOL???

LITTLE ASSASSIN VICTORIAN BOY? YES PLEASE!!! I LOVE HEARING ABOUT THINGS I DON'T UNDERSTAND! I NEED TO READ EVERY COMIC PLEASE SOMEONE GIVE ME A DAMN WEBSITE THAT DOESN'T ATTEMPT TO FLASH ME WITH NAKED WOMEN WHEN I FLIP THE PAGE TO READ THE COMICS ON IM BEGGING YOU

GIVE ME A SITE I DONT NEED A VPN TO EVEN THINK ABOUT PLEAASSSEE

theres also representation in already established characters and a bisexual man who frequently takes naps in impossible places. i would kill to say hi to any of them. theres so many comics and i do not trust myself to write about a character before i know everything about them so im probably gonna go and watch every single show related to batman and then die in a corner.

anyway this devolved from "why are these fandoms linked" to "angry rant about the cities i would burn to hug nightwing" really fast actually.

[starflungwaddledee]

Wait does starstruck have like a harem or something with how many people she's shipped with???

yeah! she's ✨everyone's girlfriend!✨ no oc or canon character is safe from those big shiny eyes of hers!

i've actually always said this: that if 'dating' as we know it existed in her environment, she'd be the sort to accidentally be dating everybody. as it stands, she's just very polya and has a lot of love and clingy anxiety to give! she's small, but there's plenty of her to go around!

i feel like the tourney in particular is a bit of a scott pilgrim vs the 7 deadly exes situation. except it's just... starstruck vs the 7 knights she didn't realise she'd started dating 😂

[slayerdurge]

okay i'm about 12 min into the finale. i am so glad that at least at first the two marks were nice to each other. i'm sure it won't end that smoothly but it was just so nice to see. 😭

[watercolor-hearts]

I bought a Rubik's cube knock off (shame on me for not buying a real one as a Hungarian) knowing very well I can't solve it. But at least now I have a reason to go to the Hungarian GP and ask Bez to do it for me. The master plan. 👌🏻

[myfemmeb0yfriend]

when i am upset i think about how one day i will be getting soothed to sleep by a pretty girl/person i'll get to call my girlfriend/partner in a cozy apartment that we've made a home out of and that is enough for me to fall asleep to.

- this post was made by a minor, mdni accs dni!

[plastic-pipes]

SWTICH UPDATE MY BELOTHED

[storytellering]

taps mic,,, would you guys still love me if I posted rdr2 cowboy incest,,,

[moe-broey]

Comes out of the technical difficulties covered in blood. Look At Them.

[a-list-of-moods]

stop telling people that voting doesn't matter stop it stop it

incremental change is frustrating and feels like it gets nothing done but it's how the american government works (for better or for worse) and if you get paralyzed by 'we need to revolt voting doesn't matter' that's one more effective vote for the fascists since it's one vote we lose.

I'd much rather have slow but tangible progress (or even just prevention of fascist progression) than everyone sitting around going 'let's wait for the revolution' when no revolution is likely to come while everything gets worse around us.

Obviously, still do whatever it is else to support the antifascist movement. Donate where you can (and do your research!) Go to protests if you feel safe doing so. But do all that AND vote.

[dreamerdrop]

my dearest loving kindest joyful brain of mine is acting up again so i’m gonna try to stay offline for a lil bit and try to write or draw more in the meantime.

so if don’t like, respiond to something you’ve sent me, that’ll be why.

and if you see me online anyway it’s because i have the self restraint of a starving cat next to a giant vat of full fat cream and chicken stock. ( >_>);;;;;;;

[myreia]

✦ D R A G O O N

Her lance burns bright, crackling with magic, and she plummets from the sky. Estinien and Aymeric were the first to notice her movements in combat, noting a physicality not often attributed to black mages. The years she spent in Coerthas were spent honing new techniques, following new pursuits, transforming into someone else. Though she will not admit it, the weapon is intrinsically caught up in her relationship with the Lord Commander, forever connected to her time in Ishgard. She came to the city an exiled mage and left a dragoon. —level 90 compendium