#without characters ofc

[hobipaint]

Last Line Tag

thanks for the tags @anyablackwood and @theunboundwriter!

Here's the last line I wrote:

And suddenly - you don't even know how it happened - his lips were on yours, kissing you like he meant it - and you knew he did - pulling your face closer, holding onto you like you were but a fever dream he wanted to realise so badly.

wc: 45 words.

I don't think i can possibly tag 45 people haha so i shall just tag a few: @varietae @monvante @taegularities @jmvore @the-boy-meets-evil @temptaetions and anyone else who wants to join in, feel free to!

[tommygotwrittenoff]

i literally do not care about big emergencies on abc's 911. i want to see my characters talk to each other and have stories that are parallels to small, everyday (everyday for first responders) emergencies

[tubbytarchia]

got an urge to design ponies oops

[blondeaxolotl]

You guys are getting these small unfinished close ups of a flojami drawing I was working on before my laptop bluescreen'ed and killed the clip studio file so unfortunately it's never getting finished 💔💔💔💔💔

[wu-does-art]

dumb sf au idea where everything is the same except the gang all knew eachother since they were kids not pictured: todd observing the affects eating a bug has on sal. also bonus salvis i found in my files:

[bennetsbonnet]

Much has been made of Mr Darcy's "confession" to Elizabeth that he does not converse easily with strangers. It is repeatedly used to support neurodivergent interpretations of his character. And I suppose that when taken at face value, a character confessing that they do not easily converse with strangers and struggle to catch their tone or appear interested in conversation can absolutely scream AUTISM! (I say as an autistic person myself)

But this line is often taken in isolation. When considered in terms of the passage in which it appears in Chapter 31, it appears far less of a smoking gun than may initially be suspected. After some discussion about Elizabeth and Darcy's prior acquaintance in Hertfordshire, Colonel Fitzwilliam asks Elizabeth for information about Darcy's behaviour there. She readily supplies it:

'Pray let me hear what you have to accuse him of,' cried Colonel Fitzwilliam. 'I should like to know how he behaves among strangers.' 'You shall hear then—but prepare yourself for something very dreadful. The first time of my ever seeing him in Hertfordshire, you must know, was at a ball—and at this ball, what do you think he did? He danced only four dances, though gentlemen were scarce; and, to my certain knowledge, more than one young lady was sitting down in want of a partner. Mr Darcy, you cannot deny the fact.' 'I had not at that time the honour of knowing any lady in the assembly beyond my own party.'

What Darcy leaves out here is that it was he himself who chose not to be introduced to anybody. As we learn from the description of his behaviour at the Meryton assembly in Chapter 3:

Mr Darcy danced only once with Mrs Hurst and once with Miss Bingley, declined being introduced to any other lady, and spent the rest of the evening in walking about the room, speaking occasionally to one of his own party.

Anyway, Elizabeth correctly does not buy his excuses. Not only does she respond with a cutting sarcastic remark, but she tries to bring the discussion with an end by speaking to Colonel Fitzwilliam:

'True; and nobody can ever be introduced in a ball-room. Well, Colonel Fitzwilliam, what do I play next? My fingers wait your orders.'

But Darcy does not get the hint and continues conversing with Elizabeth rather than quitting while he's ahead. However, I don't believe him to be missing a social cue here. Rather, this is an exceedingly conceited man who cannot conceive that anyone would not want to speak to such a Superior Being as he and more-so, is determined to defend himself from a perceived slight against his impeccable character.

Then we come to the passage containing the oft-cited line which allegedly contains proof of his neurodivergency:

'Perhaps,' said Darcy, 'I should have judged better, had I sought an introduction; but I am ill-qualified to recommend myself to strangers.' 'Shall we ask your cousin the reason of this?' said Elizabeth, still addressing Colonel Fitzwilliam. 'Shall we ask him why a man of sense and education, and who has lived in the world, is ill-qualified to recommend himself to strangers?' 'I can answer your question,' said Fitzwilliam, 'without applying to him. It is because he will not give himself the trouble.'

Once again, Elizabeth does not buy his excuse for even a single second. She's fully aware of all the advantages a man such as he will have received in society (opportunities not open to women, might I add!) and draws attention to that fact. It's a brilliant, cutting line from her and she really set that one up for Colonel Fitzwilliam to deliver the knockout blow.

Not only do we have the testimony of Mr Darcy's cousin, that 'he will not give himself the trouble,' to appear cordial to strangers, but we have evidence from Wickham too. Although after this statement, Wickham quickly goes onto misrepresent Darcy's kindness to the poor, which contradicts Mrs Reynold's later testimony, I do believe Wickham to be telling the truth (for once!) here, when he tells Elizabeth in Chapter 16:

'Mr Darcy can please where he chooses. He does not want abilities. He can be a conversible companion if he thinks it worth his while.'

Which, again, demonstrates that Darcy is capable when he wants to be. That is the crucial point. Autistic people fundamentally lack the ability to understand social cues, they cannot turn it on and off as they please because they are snobs.

So, now we come to the infamous line about Darcy's supposed social struggles, and I hope that I've provided enough context to the line to make you see that it should not be taken at face value:

'I certainly have not the talent which some people possess,' said Darcy, 'of conversing easily with those I have never seen before. I cannot catch their tone of conversation, or appear interested in their concerns, as I often see done.' 'My fingers,' said Elizabeth, 'do not move over this instrument in the masterly manner which I see so many women’s do. They have not the same force or rapidity, and do not produce the same expression. But then I have always supposed it to be my own fault—because I will not take the trouble of practising. It is not that I do not believe my fingers as capable as any other woman’s of superior execution.'

Again, Elizabeth is not buying his excuses for even a single second and tells him if he feels like that, maybe he should put the effort in. She has seen him in numerous social settings and been thoroughly unimpressed with his behaviour which, when you consider his rudeness to her at the Meryton assembly, she has every right to be.

So, what do I make of the line?

Well, I think it's abundantly clear that Darcy absolutely can speak to people when he wants to. Perhaps, in his mind, he struggles to make that deeper connection and make friends easily. But making friends is not always easy, it's a process you must invest time and effort into. If you do not do that, it stands to reason that you will struggle. Plus, if you hold others to ridiculous standards (as Darcy does) without recognising and fixing the flaws within yourself, you're not going to have deep, lasting friendships.

While this quote may appear to be a moment of vulnerability where he does confess a fault of his, which is astounding given his pride, personally I do not think it was not a soul-searching exercise. It was to make Elizabeth stop grilling him. It was self-serving. Although, I don't think he's entirely lying. Darcy is veeeery careful with his words and though this statement is not considered and perhaps comes out rather abruptly, it doesn't necessarily follow that it isn't true. I can imagine that it is probably something he's felt for a while, yet it is a rather desperate attempt to defend himself from a woman who sees right through him.

I think perhaps Darcy does realise that he isn't as naturally gifted as other men he knows (such as Wickham, Colonel Fitzwilliam and Mr Bingley) when it comes to forming acquaintances. However, he looks outwards and turns that bitterness against the world rather than looking inwards, reflecting upon himself and improving his manners which would be the correct thing to do. Thankfully, he later does this, but it took him twenty eight years...

In addition, Darcy appeared to have been under the illusion that he could coast by on Pemberley's reputation... which has always worked... until he met Elizabeth. For perhaps the first time, he encounters a woman who is not awestruck by him and his reputation and delivers the rebuke that he always needed.

So, while personally I'm inclined to believe there is some truth to his statement, as Mr Darcy is many things but he isn't a liar, I think it is said in desperation. His feeling stems from him knowing what he should do, but he can't be bothered to enact it... rather than any inherent social deficiency stemming from being neurodivergent.

Although, even if he does struggle socially, it's still no excuse for the rudeness he displayed to Elizabeth! My main issue with neurodivergent readings of Darcy is when they are deployed to defend his behaviour, when they attribute his rudeness to any potential neurodivergency and when they excuse his laziness. That is an awful message! Autistic people who struggle with social cues often do not, nor should they, go around insulting others. They should and often do put plenty of effort into being considerate and polite. In fact, I think, if anything, a love of rules makes us more likely to have good manners, rather than the reverse.

Ultimately, I'm not sure this line makes Mr Darcy the sympathetic-poor-sweet-innocent-shy-boy-autistic-representation that people want him to be. In fact it makes him look even worse, if anything. On matters such as these, he is every inch the conceited proud man he was widely believed to be at the Meryton assembly. Luckily, Elizabeth is an incredibly smart woman, who doesn't fall for it and immediately calls him out on his behaviour in a way that he has never experienced before. As she should!

[premamelody]

living

[blueberry-ry]

You guys know that you can dislike characters without being fucking weird about it, right 🤨?

[g0atbra1nz]

gay dads picking up their son from school

[faething-n-frothing]

Unicorn Academy headcanons (purely for fun)!

I think it would’ve been so cool if the show gave them specific disciplines + tack when they got their magical personality-based clothing/tack ! I gave her western tack - it’ll be harder to do jumps, but I think being a bit unsafe is fairly in-character.

Sophia edition:

Eyebags from frequently sneaking out at night, all rebellious style… she will refuse to sleep solely to avoid ‘wasting free time’

Likes to be comfortable, rides bareback or western - she’s not very used to English, since she learned western first on her family’s ranch

Plays the guitar. Badly <3

Kind of mean, simply in an uncaring + snappy way. She’s recovering! …she just hasn’t socialized with peers in a while, much less friends

Also realized she liked girls very early on, and is in a bit of denial about actually being bi… so now she’s a (slowly) recovering misandrist! (This is mainly based off her treatment of Rory being especially hostile early on- especially since he’s a fellow rule-breaker, making her frustration with him fascinatingly hypocritical)

Bonus for Wildstar : I think she’d be an Appaloosa (maybe a draft mix?) in horse terms, to account for more obvious star patterns.

And I think she gets along with Sofia because she’s also a bit overly independent, bold, and abrasive

They WILL learn to cooperate! It’s a group effort here.

[ptieuca]

[aalghul]

"claiming any writer ever intended to write that jason was sexually assaulted as a child is stealing from mia" is still one of the most ridiculous takes i have ever seen. by the way

[somewhereincairparavel]

I find it ironic that the fandom hates Jason for "having no personality" but Will solace was at his peak popularity in the fandom during the time BOO was out, that was before his personality was even properly established in TOA. Will's personality was 90% fanon before TOA was out, because the fandom cared enough to give him one even when Rick didn't establish it well up until later on.

But nobody cared enough to give Jason a fanon personality to make up for his canon absence, simply because they weren't interested and wrote him off the moment he was written as Percy's rival.

So if you put it that way, the majority of the fandom just hates Jason because he's Percy's equal. Which is why literally no one in the fandom wants jason to be loved or recognised, they just downplay him every chance they get, because he is seen as Percy's competitor and wants him to be bashed, so that Percy always has the spotlight, that's why the fandom always maintains the reputation of Jason's character as a "loser knockoff percy" and dont bother giving him a fanon one, Because they want jason's existence to be used as a punching bag to uplift Percy's achievements. That's what I take away from observing all the Jason slander lately.

The majority of the reasoning for his slander almost ALWAYS includes Percy in it, as far as I've seen.

There are many characters that many fandoms popularize and love even if they don't have proper personalities in canon or even when they are just characters in passing. And i don't see why jason is the only exception to that treatment

Saying that you hate Jason because you are salty that he's Percy's rival is basically like saying you hate him because he exists, which sounds ridiculous lol.

This is basically like a "if they wanted to, they would" type of situation, Jason is just unfortunate that he didn't get the fandom's love for anyone to give him any fun fanon personality at all

It's sad considering the possibility that Jason would've been so loved if he were just a mere side character, that way people wouldn't have hated him for "rivalling" Percy.

I guarantee you half the hate he got would've never existed in the first place if he were just some insignificant character in the series, because the fandom would've effortlessly shoehorned a personality of their own onto him and showered him with love instead of complaining about it.

Jason has LOTS of fanon potential, the fandom just don't want to utilise it :/

[bastardlybonkers]

like hes literally fine whats your problem

[saym0-0]

empires smp the musical is performed in stratos annually and has been longer than anyone can remember (you didn't hear it from me)

[brenatto-apothecary]

It so crazy to me how nott and caleb were a somewhat random pairing just bc matt wanted everyone to be in groups can you imagine how different things would be if they were paired with different pcs or even on their own???? Their relationship is so impactful they'd be so different it'd change the whole campaign and to think it was just sam and liam going yeah I guess I'll choose my best friend without any knowledge of eachothers characters!!! Aaaaaa