#but if any of my followers fall somewhere on that spectrum

[strawberrycowtime]

being aroace must be so nice cuz like you don’t have to deal with romance. you must have so much more free time to dedicate to like. fostering healthy friendships and stuff. idk it seems like it would be easier to live like that

edit: im muting notifs on this sorry i justdidnmt expect it to blow up to much so. yeah

#i don’t think im aroace #bcuz i want a partner and stuff #but if any of my followers fall somewhere on that spectrum #is it like this? #like you just don’t think about wanting a relationship? #lmk if i’m being stupid/rude tho #asexual #aromantic #aroace

[cripplecharacters]

Mods

[large text: Mods]

Sasza

[Large Text: Sasza]

Hi! My name is Sasza and I use he/him pronouns. I am a disabled artist who loves to write and draw characters like me! I am autistic, (mildly) intellectually disabled and have several physical conditions including-but-not-limited-to dyspraxia, severe hyperkyphosis, cranial nerve diseases (causing double vision, chronic pain and a facial difference among other things), and hypermobile joints. Sometimes I use a cane. I'm very passionate about accessibility and disability representation in all kinds of media - books, comics, video games, and any other kind of art that's out there!

Bert

[Large Text: Bert]

Hello! I'm Bert (previously Mason), and I use he/they pronouns. I am a writer who loves to write plays and fiction with characters like me and my friends. I am autistic and have ADHD, I have psychotic PTSD and a DID system. Physical health-wise I have migraines, fibromyalgia, and a lateral lisp. I love talking about representation and ways we can make a kinder and more inclusive space everywhere we go.

Sparrow

[large text: Sparrow]

Hi, I’m sparrow, they/he for me. I’m a disabled artist who makes a lot of disabled characters like myself and probably like a quarter of the world. I have autism and ADHD, among other brain things, as well as chronic pain in both my jaw and my knee and ankle. I also have POTS and some sort of sleep disorder. I am a sometimes cane user as well. I really enjoy research and thoughtful art that makes people feel seen. Aside from that, I am a huge fan of historical fiction and really enjoy fantasy as well.

Rot

[Large text: Rot]

My name is Rot, I use all pronouns including neo pronouns as well as any rot and insect themed nounself pronouns. I’m an artist who loves putting disability in my stories. I’m mostly undiagnosed due to medical neglect and have chronic fatigue, hypersomnia & chronic pain that ranges from mild to debilitating. My known disabilities are pots, ganglion cysts, nerve damage, tics, autism (level unknown), asthma, GERD, anxiety and psychosis. I have a metal implant, use a cane and am mostly verbal and use aac infrequently. I have experience with temporary palsy, needing carers (family members who stepped up, not hired carers) and being in a wheelchair, though I currently don't have any of those.

Patch

[Large text: Patch]

Hey! We’re The Patchwork Quilt but please call me Patch! I use sof/soft/softs, red/red/reds, they/them/their, and ae/aem/aeir pronouns. I’m autistic (level 1, the very high end of low support needs, unreliably/semi-speaking, AAC user), and I’m a system with highly complex dissociative identity disorder (we use we/us and I/me language interchangeably. Please don’t ask who’s fronting). I also have hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, specific learning disorder with impairment in mathematics (AKA dyscalculia), developmental coordination disorder (AKA dysgraphia/dyspraxia), chronic fatigue syndrome, essential (kinetic) tremor, avoidant restrictive food intake disorder, dependent personality disorder, severe auditory processing disorder, psychosis (likely somewhere on the schizophrenia spectrum), and Tourette’s syndrome. I use a rollater that can turn into a powerchair. I love drawing, writing, and playing D&D and coming up with creative ways to incorporate disability into those three things. I will be attending college for a degree in disability studies this fall.

Virus

[Large Text: Virus]

Hello! I go by Virus and I use She/Her but anyone can use any pronouns for me, have fun with it. I'm a writer—mostly fanfiction—who has been in fandom very long and used to be a classical musician. I have Hypermobile Ehler Danlos Syndrome along with it's fun co-morbidities (MCAS, POTS, Gastroparesis, Fibromyalgia, and Von Willebrandes). I also have Pan-Hypopituitarism which is the following: Adrenal Insufficiency, Hypothyroidism, Diabetes Insipidus, Precocious Puberty, Growth Hormone Deficiency, Hyperprolactinemia/galactorrhea, as well as High Estrogen and Testosterone issues. I have Pituitary Dwarfism/Proportional Dwarfism, Myoclonic Epilepsy, and a Speech Disorder. I used to have a Port-a-cath, Picc-Lines, and a feeding tube, amongst many other things. Phew, now that that's over. I love every art form with a favour towards music, writing and the fiber arts. I love seeing representation no matter how big or small especially in medias that rep is often glossed over!

Rock

[Large Text: Rock]

Hi! I am Rock; any pronouns are okay. I am a writer, mainly of sci-fi and fantasy, and I love adding all sorts of disabled characters. I am hard of hearing (mild-moderate bilateral hearing loss) and have profound auditory processing disorder. I have scoliosis, POTS, and lower-body muscle weakness so I am a full-time mobility aid user. I am also intersex; I have several hormone deficiencies among other conditions as a result of my intersex variation. I am excited to join the mod team!

#mod sasza #mod intros #cripplecharacters about #mod bert #mod sparrow #mod rot #mod patch #mod virus #mod golem #mod rock #long post #not writing advice

[yourlocalbreadenthusiast]

Hi. I exist.

Ello. I'm a Pinterest convert who happened to join at the same time as the great Reddit migration, so that's fun. Anyways, figured I'd make a post to give people some info about me.

I'm in a large number of fandoms, including (DEEP INHALE), SCP Foundation, Wanderer's Library, The Owl House, Gravity Falls, Amphibia, Generation Loss, Murder Drones, Marvel, Star Wars (Somewhat), FNAF, DnD, Wings of Fire, Percy Jackson universe, Grishaverse, The Dragon Prince, Nimona, The Hunger Games, and probably some other I forgot to mention.

I'm also a bit of a nerd and hyperfixiate on both fictional and nonfictional things, I know wayyyyy too much about things like Chernobyl and Plague Doctors. I also sometimes write as a hobby and am learning how to art, still kinda figuring it out though. Due to the writing thing, I know a lot of incredibly random facts that I shouldn't, as well as just random science stuff.

I like helping people, so don't be afraid to reach out with questions or concerns if you need help with something. If you want info on things, I'm more than happy to help. Here's some things I know a lot about:

The Black Death, Plague Doctors, Chernobyl, oddly specific horrific events in history, the fandoms I've listed above, the lowcountry region of USA (Southeastern coast, I live in South Carolina about 15 minutes from the beach) and the ecosystem of said area (Marshes, swamps, beaches, and our temperate forests), mythology (Greek, Roman, Egyptian, and some Norse), SCIENCE, and other things I'm probably forgetting.

Seriously gimme asks I wanna be a living encyclopedia.

For writing, I mainly like to do fantasy, some sci-fi, and a bit of horror. I'm far from consistent with when I write, you know how it is with motivation.

This IS a safe space blog for LGBTQIA+ people. I don't care if you're straight, gay, lesbian, bi, pan, omni, somewhere else on the spectrum, like asexuals, aromantics, and aroaces, or maybe you're enby, or maybe you're trans or genderfluid, or something else I forgot to mention. I do not care. You are all welcome here, my only DNIs are if you're going to be rude. One of my mottos is "I'll respect your opinion as long as your opinion doesn't disrespect anyone else's existence or rights."

I sorta use a persona for some areas of Tumblr, such as Wizardblr, so here's a reference for that:

Name: Dr. Corvius (Will respond to Doc, Doctor, and Crow), Official Title is "Corvius The Plagued."

Appearance: Dr. Corvius appears human at first glance when wearing full attire, but this is not the case. They are actually an avian, with feathers covering most of their body and rough, scaled skin similar to that of bird feet covering their hands, forearms, lower legs, and their feet. Their fingers have short claws on the ends, and their feet are structured like that of a crow. They don't wear shoes, as their feet are not well shaped to even wear them, and they frequently perch on branches and the like, which is far easier with their talons exposed. They do have wings, and usually will tuck these in under their mantle, giving the appearance of a feathered cape. They wear the outfit of a plague doctor, with a long black robe, mask, and other accessories, including a pouch of supplies. They also carry around a plague doctor stick, which doubles as an arcane focus. Under their plague doctor mask, they have an actual beak. (Essentially just take a Kenku from DnD and give it wings, and a plague doctor outfit.)

Abilities: They are a magic practitioner, specializing in necromancy, alchemy, chaos magic, and experimentation. She is also good with medicine, and despite not being licensed in any way, is incredibly good at healing people. Birds, specifically corvids, seem to follow them around, and will obey their commands. Their "flock" consists mostly of crows and ravens, but has a few magpies and rooks as well. This Flock is actually tied to her, so protection spells and immunities that she has extend to them. They can make noises like that of corvids, allowing for communication with their flock, and can also mimic sounds.

Behavior: They are generally a wise and intelligent person, taking the logical approach to things. They are kind, and are always willing to lend a helping hand.

Background: [ERROR: DATA LOST]

(The persona reference is a WIP im writing this late at night and I gotta go to sleep, I'll finish it later.)

(Contact me if you want an autopsy or reanimation done)

Ok byeeeeeeeee

Stealing these crows from this post

#informative #about me #hi hello #fandom #plague doctor #wizardblr #lgbtq safe space #lgbt safe space #safe space #lgbtqia+ #gimme asks #ADHD

[chickenparm]

a little chilly (Scaramouche/gn!Reader)

ever had your parent or guardian lecture you about being careful in the cold? what about some fuckin dude you beat up in an giant mech suit and now he's convinced he's indebted to you-

AO3 Link

Scaramouche/gn!Reader 1,353 Words - SFW

---

Dragonspine is most often a destination that you venture to alone.

Your traveling companions - whoever you have at your side at the time - conveniently have a thousand excuses on hand to avoid following you into the mountain's snowy landscape. You managed to coerce Kaeya into it once, and as a result, he's developed something of a sixth sense when it comes to impending trips into the frigid mountain range.

Even Paimon keeps herself tucked away in her pocket dimension with a request for you to simply call for her when things are a little warmer, a little less snowy.

Really, you don't mind it so much. Dragonspine has become a place of peace for you; it's somewhere that you can get away with the assurance you'll be completely alone. That isn't something you get very often these days, as much as you appreciate your friends.

So, when the time comes around for you to make a trip there, you don't bother to ask anyone if they'd like to accompany you. You can't fault them for not wanting to go there - it's really rather cold, and the activities you have planned don't involve much combat. Albedo requested your presence for a few experiments that only you can help with, and with the wrap-up of Sumeru's numerous fiascos, there's an abundance of free time on your hands before you start the cycle all over again in Fontaine.

Organized and ready for travel, you completely miss the eyes that look from the second level of your teapot home, elbow on the railing and chin in their palm. Only when the bag is swung over your back do you look up and see the Wanderer, looking for all the world like he wasn't watching you pack and re-pack and second guess how many warming bottles you'd need.

“Snezhnaya hasn't been moved ahead in the order, has it? You look like you're ready for a blizzard.”

“It hasn't, but close enough.” You shift the straps so they don't bunch up the fabric of your cloak and the warm clothing beneath it. “Albedo asked me to join him in Dragonspine for a little while.”

“Alone?” An eyebrow raises, the single word feeling rather weighty for something so innocuous.

Rather than question it, you focus more on trying not to lose your balance as you crane your head back to look at him. Maybe the bag is a little heavy, its weight tugging on you as you clarify, “He didn't specify that, but you guys don't seem to like the cold so I figured I'd go on my own.”

The Wanderer's sandals hit the floor with a quiet tap as he lands next to you, effortlessly using the vision at his chest to safely fall from the second floor to the first. There's an arm's length between you, a careful proximity he keeps from everyone, and it's something you find yourself noticing a little too often with a little too much annoyance.

He doesn't have to keep his distance from you. But if that's what makes him comfortable, you're in no place to be demanding things that he's unwilling to budge on.

“First of all, don't lump me in with them. I can't even feel the cold.” That could be the truth, or it could be a lie. You've heard a complaint or two out of him about the humidity of Sumeru, certainly the opposite end of the spectrum must also affect him.

He doesn't give you any chance to call him out on that before he promptly invites himself. “And second, it's dangerous. Someone should go with you - it'll have to be me, I guess. Lucky you.”

“Lucky me.” You parrot back, and while it's meant to sound derisive, it fails to do so when there's a smile spreading on your face.

---

“Use another warming bottle. You're shivering.”

“I’m fine. I need to make sure they last the trips to and from Albedo's lab-”

“Surely he can make more when you get there. What sort of alchemist would he be if he can't make something to keep you warm?”

The snow crunches under his feet and your own as he keeps pace next to you. The distance has grown smaller, so much so that the wide brim of his hat keeps the soft flurries of snow from landing on you too much.

The Wanderer isn't warm. He hasn't bothered to change into thicker clothing, despite you offering him a cloak at the minimum. There's no body heat coming from him, nor is there the faint clouding of his breath in the air. You wouldn't think he was affected at all if it weren't for the dusting of pink across his cheeks and the tip of his nose.

But rather than worry about him, he's far too worried about you. First, it was your scarf being wrapped around your neck incorrectly. The moment the snow had begun to fall, he tugged you to a stop and unraveled it a little too roughly, only to snugly tie it back around the lower half of your face.

And when you nudged it down to breathe easier, he tugged it back up with a pinch of his fingers and an annoyed sound.

Then, the issue with the warming bottles. You had enough to reasonably get you to and from Albedo, but the Wanderer seemed convinced you needed to have one in use at all times, regardless of how wasteful that might be.

Equal parts annoying and endearing is the way he'll occasionally tug on your cloak to pull you to a stop, his hand sweeping across your shoulders to knock off any built up snow before telling you to stay put. After the third time he does this, you petulantly ask what he's doing and he shrugs with all the nonchalance of someone that's reading a grocery list, rather than being a complete mother hen.

“I’m checking around the bend for Hilichurls, obviously.”

“Without me?” Your answer raises in pitch, only mildly annoyed that he’s been leaving you behind. 

A disbelieving sound leaves him, and he gestures to you broadly as if that would explain things. When it doesn’t, he has the grace to clear things up. “When humans get cold, their reaction times get worse. It’s easier for me to handle it if there’s something ahead.”

And then, a knowing smile starts to spread across his face, ominous and far too reminiscent of a time when he wasn’t someone you could depend on to keep you safe. “Unless you use a warming bottle to counteract that.”

Without complaint, you let him travel ahead around the bend to verify that it’s safe. When he comes back with the scent of burning clinging only faintly in the air, you keep your mouth shut. There’s something smug about him as he dusts himself off from imaginary dirt and says, “What a coincidence, there’s a fire up ahead. You should warm up there.”

Coincidence indeed. 

His fingertips graze the skin of your cheeks as he tugs your scarf up on each side, up and over your nose once more. As an afterthought, he tugs your hat down over your ears as well, spending a little too long making sure you’re situated to his liking.

“And keep your scarf up. Your nose is more likely to get frostbite than anywhere else. I’m not above holding it for you.”

“I’ll suffocate!” Your words are muffled, but he understands them just fine as he turns away and sets off down the marked path. 

Over his shoulder, he calls, “But you’ll be warm doing it. Let’s go, I didn’t put in all the work to get this fire going just for you to mess around until it burns out.”

The hilichurls that once sat around this fire have been pushed into the thin bushes, their leafless branches doing nothing to hide the prior occupants. You don’t say anything about it, neither does the Wanderer. He sits close enough to you next to the fire for his shoulder to press solidly against your own, you don’t say anything about that, either.

#just a lil shorty i banged out in like an hour cause i had a brain worm #scaramouche #wanderer #wanderer genshin #genshin wanderer #scaramouche x reader #wanderer x reader #fic #fanfic #fanfiction

[gimmequeerbooks]

Carry On by Rainbow Rowell (review/rec)

Genre: Fantasy

My rating: 9/10

I feel like Tumblr is well aware of these books already, but I figured it was a solid start as any.

Carry On and its subsequent books was such a pleasant surprise! Years ago, I had read Fangirl, another book by Rowell. And I loved it! I also recommend that one, but there are no LGBTQ+ characters or themes from what I remember. In it, the main character, Cath, was writing a fanfic from her favorite book series from childhood, Simon Snow. Simon Snow evidently involved a teenage boy named Simon whom attended wizarding school. Oddly, some sort of event or disaster would happen at this school every year, with Simon and his friends (but mostly Simon), being at the center of it. Simon would appear to be some sort of “chosen one”. Sound familiar?

Carry On, is the fanfic that Cath was working on. From Fangirl, we already knew that it followed Simon through his last year at wizarding school and that Cath possibly made the best enemies to lovers story known to the world of fanfiction. I actually avoided reading Carry On for a long time because I usually really hate Harry Potter fics. Not to mention that I thought it was going to be a lot like other spin-off books that end up just being boring. Eventually, out of desperation to find more queer stories, I caved, and I found out that my assumptions were absolutely wrong. It turns out that Cath really did write an excellent enemies to lovers story!

The characters are extremely relatable, and over the series we get to see how these characters develop from teenagers to young adults. I love that we also get to see how they react emotionally to the things that have happened to them as well. Unlike a lot of Chosen-One stories where the main trio can just take on challenge after challenge and make it out seemingly unfazed, it feels like Carry On pulls back the curtain on what these sorts of characters would actually be dealing with after facing huge, life-altering events. I’d like to say more here, but I’m afraid that I will spoil them!

The world of Simon Snow is also pretty hilarious. Every once in a while, Rowell will seemingly poke fun at Harry Potter’s plot holes or stupid rules. These books had me laughing when it didn’t have me in Deep Introspection Mode. What with its tongue-twisters of spells taken from nursery rhymes and the main villain being named “The Insidious Humdrum”. That being said, while Carry On perhaps has its roots in Harry Potter, it is a complete story in its own right. Instead of being about the up-and-coming Chosen One and the chaos that ensues, Carry On is more-so about how people can and do move on and grow after their world was turned upside-down. Most Chosen-One stories, and really most young adult fiction books, end with high school, and I can't tell you how much I appreciate the Rowell gave Simon and his friends a future beyond just high school. I love how she shows how at every age there are new challenges to face. Life goes on beyond high school!

Of course, I don’t want to forget the reason that these books have made it onto my blog! Where is the gay content!? The main characters, Simon and Baz fall in love, and it’s adorable. Simon doesn’t realize at first that he may be into men, so he has to have a bit of self-discovery there. Meanwhile, Baz thinks he’s pining for a straight boy who could never fall in love with his enemy and rival and hates vampires, like him. It’s like if Malfoy and Harry were to fall in love, except Malfoy actually has some redeeming qualities and proves that he’s quite nice. I feel like this comparison still doesn’t do Simon and Baz justice though. Rowell also shows the awkwardness between first loves and how it may not always be smooth sailing throughout the books. In addition, I have a headcanon that Penelope, another one of the main characters, may be somewhere on the demiromantic and/or demisexual spectrum.

If your in the mood for laughing, some crying (or both at once), discussions about change, and the feeling that you just want to reach into the books to give a hug to people that don’t exist I highly recommend the Simon Snow trilogy.

#queer books #lgbtq+ books #rainbow rowell #simon snow #carry on #simon snow series #gay books #lgbtq+ #booklr #books and reading #book review #book recommendations

[frodo-with-glasses]

Do you just not like gay people? I'd rather you just say the quiet part out loud so I can block you

With all due respect, Anon, I fail to see what this has to do with Lord of the Rings. 

Oh, but you’ll probably want a serious answer, tho. Very well. I mean, I’d rather talk about any number of more interesting things than sex—like walnuts, or toenail clippings, or watching paint dry, or perhaps the consistency of squirrel droppings—but in the interest of making my own stance clear, and answering the questions that I’m sure have hovered unasked in the minds of many of my followers, I will provide the most kind and thorough answer that I can. 

But I’m still putting it under a read-more, because, as aforementioned, it has nothing to do with Lord of the Rings. 

The short answer is no. No, I don’t dislike gay people. I’m sure most of my follower count identifies as gay, or somewhere along that spectrum, and y’all have been lovely ever since I began this blog. To be fair, I know more than half of you half as well as I should like, and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve, but so long as you’re nice to me and leave fun interactions on my artwork, I like you plenty. If that’s satisfactory to you, good!

Because the long answer is more complicated. 

Hate the Sin, Love the Sinner

The first thing we must do is define the difference between “liking someone” and “approving of what they do”. If you’ve been anywhere near most Christian circles—or just listened to Hamilton—you’ve probably heard the phrase “hate the sin, love the sinner”. That phrase applies here. I have religious reasons for believing that the lifestyle of homosexuality is wrong, but I don’t harbor ill will towards the people who practice it. There’s a difference between disliking a person and disapproving of their actions. 

I don’t approve of smoking. I think it hurts people. That doesn’t mean I hate people who smoke. On the contrary, I care about them, and I would rather they don’t get lung cancer and breathing problems later in life, so I would urge them to quit smoking. 

I don’t approve of gambling. I think it hurts people. That doesn’t mean I hate people who gamble. On the contrary, I care about them, and I would rather not see them form an addiction that squanders away all their money to an uncaring corporation, leaving them poor and unhappy—or just as bad, winning the jackpot, and then being rich and unhappy—so I would urge them to quit gambling. 

I don’t approve of any and all forms of self-harm. It hurts my heart. I watched my best friend go through a long period of depression and self-harm, and it utterly broke me, that someone I loved would have to cause themselves external pain in order to get a reprieve from the pain they felt inside. I didn’t hate my friend. No, no, no, that couldn’t be further from the truth. I loved my friend more than my own life, ached for them, and wished more than anything they’d stop this thing that was hurting them, because I couldn’t stand watching a sickness slowly torture someone that I dearly, dearly loved (and still do). 

In the same way, I believe in a loving God who made us, knows us inside and out and front and back, loves us deeply, and wants what’s best for us. He once said, “The thief comes to steal and kill and destroy, but I have come that they may have life, and life abundantly”. I believe that, in His wisdom and kindness, He left us a Book of instructions on how to find that life. He laid out the road to that destination—the straight and narrow path—and He said, “Just follow Me, and I’ll get you there. I’ve put up guard rails along the way where there are pits by the side of the road.”

And I said, “What if I fall in?”

And He said, “Just turn around and take My hand. I’ll pull you out.”

If you’d known someone all your life, and they’d always proven themselves worthy of your trust, you’d believe them when they said “this is the right way that will lead you to safety, and that is the wrong way that will lead you into danger”. So it is here. He outlined, very clearly, in His Book, what is the sexual ethic for which He designed us. Contrary to popular belief, there’s actually a lot of freedom within that ethic; He basically said, “Lady, here’s your man, and mister, here’s your lady. Now you promise to be good and loyal to each other and take care of one another forever? Yes? Great, the rest is yours, have fun, kids.” The Bible actually has very little to say about sex as long as it’s in the right context. But anything outside of that context—including homosexuality, beastiality, incest, fornication, adultery, lust for someone other than your partner, etc.—is a pit by the side of the road, a bug and not a feature. 

So you see that I have religious reasons to disapprove of homosexuality. I have been told—by Someone I trust more than my own judgment—that it is outside His planned parameters for the world. But this does not mean I automatically dislike those who do not share my faith and convictions. I can believe they’re in the wrong without disliking them.

To put it simply, “I don’t like what you’re doing” DOES NOT EQUAL “I don’t like you”. I’d urge you to keep that in mind; it’s a good life lesson in general. 

So now that we’ve established that baseline, let’s look at how it applies to this blog. 

The Rep Sheet of Frodo-With-Glasses

Now, of course I’m a biased party, by nature of being the defendant in this trial (and my own lawyer LOL), but I think you’ll find that a fair and honest analysis of everything on this blog will reveal that I never even once expressed disdain for gay people. 

I’ve made it very clear where I stand on shipping through disclaimers on my art. I don’t ship Frodo and Sam, or Legolas and Gimli, etc. But to jump from that to “you must not like gay people” is like saying that because I don’t ship Romanogers in the MCU that I must hate Russians. 

I have repeatedly expressed that I see my own friendships reflected in the friendships in LotR. For that reason, they’re very important to me, and I feel no need to interpret them as anything else. To jump from that to “you must not like gay people” is like saying that because I am perfectly content with plain vanilla ice cream, I must have a personal vendetta against chocolate fudge. 

I have posted a disclaimer setting expectations for a passage I knew could be interpreted very differently. I expressed my own understanding of the nudity involved, and asked that my followers please have the decency to respect my interpretation of the story, with a few tongue-in-cheek jokes to lighten the mood. To jump from that to “you must not like gay people” is like your high school English Literature teacher giving an F on your perfectly formatted and well-argued paper just because your interpretation of the blue window curtains doesn’t match the one in the textbook. 

I have engaged in polite discussion with an anon who complimented my art. When the discussion came to “immoral relationships” between the characters, my response was to celebrate friendship. All I have ever done on this blog was celebrate friendship. I have never insulted gay people, I have never called them slurs or hateful names, I have never even confronted anyone who tags my art as ship art against my wishes. All I have ever done was try to be civil and polite and celebrate friendship.  

Have you ever considered, Anon, that I have been silent for a reason? That “the quiet part” has stayed quiet on purpose? That, perhaps, I did not come here to police my following and force my views upon them, but simply to celebrate a book that I love, and invite people of all stripes to come and celebrate it with me, if they so wish?

Have you considered that, if I disliked gay people, I could block every single one of my followers who express such views on their profiles? I didn’t get to over 800 followers on tumblr, of all websites, by policing those who are allowed to interact with my blog. I didn’t cultivate the community I did by shutting down people I disagree with. 

I am here to entertain myself. I have always been here to entertain myself. I was doing it before there were 800 of you, and I will be doing it long after this blog is gone. Whether or not you would like to join in with me is entirely your prerogative. 

You wanna see how much I hate gay people? You wanna see how far the vitriol goes? Watch this! Sir Ian McKellen is a fantastic actor and seems like a splendid person in real life. No one else could possibly be Gandalf the way he is. To see his face on the screen when I watch Peter Jackson’s trilogy makes me feel warm and fuzzy and happy inside, because I feel like I’m looking into the kindly eyes of an old friend. I enthuse over it every time Phil Dragash manages to perfectly replicate McKellen’s iconic cadence in his audiobook, because it’s like hearing the Gandalf I grew up with speaking the real words on the page. Sir Ian McKellen’s contribution to the fandom, and to the community surrounding Lord of the Rings, is invaluable and irreplaceable. Middle Earth would be a lesser thing without him in it. 

This is now a thing that is on my blog: enthusiastically singing the praises of the work of a gay man. His lifestyle choices, though I don’t agree with them, are separate from the mark he’s left on this fandom, and everything I could have to say about the latter category is positive. 

So, now. Would you like to ask me that question again?

The Dismount

Here’s the TL;DR, in case I rambled on too long:

I do not, and will never, approve of the act of homosexuality. I have religious reasons for doing so; much the same, actually, as I believe Tolkien himself held. 

I harbor no ill will towards gay people. No matter what you believe on this topic, you are welcome to continue interacting with this blog if you so wish. All I ask is what I ask of everyone who passes through here: Be kind and polite. 

Your response is your prerogative. I have expressed what I believe is right, and I will not budge or apologize for it, but I’m not demanding that you agree with me. Heck, I can’t tell you to do anything, and even if I could, I wouldn’t want to. I’m not your mom. I’m not God. You don’t have to answer to me any more than I have to answer to you. How you choose to respond is your choice. 

If that means you have to leave, that’s fine. I wish you all the best, and I hope you find what you’re looking for. 

If you ever want to come back, I’ll still be here, talking about Lord of the Rings. 

#asked and answered #lady glasses speaks #my writing #mention of: #christianity #theology #on sundays we fly our jesus freak flag

[arabriddler]

On the subject of Ed and Kristen:

I feel like with Ed's relationship with Kristen, it was like he was studying for a test and she was the elusive "A+" he was aiming for. Through trial and error, he looked for ways to get her and once he did he was happy... but also quite anxious since an A+ can soon turn to an A- or B very easily. I think this anxiety was most apparent in the episode he killed her in, with him eavesdropping on the conversation Kristen was having with Lee, then taking that information and adapting to it, trying to be more dominant and forceful, all to keep his "A+". This was, at least from my point of view, a very materialistic love, based on what Kristen could do for him. Even when Ed talks about what he can do for her, it's less "I can make her happy" and more "I can make her grateful (to me) by making her happy". Then the moment he told her about Daughty and he felt like he'd lost his "A+" he killed her.

I feel like all of this stems from Ed's low self-worth. He focuses more on what his partner can do for him rather than the reverse because he doesn't believe he has much to offer in a romantic/friendship sense. This is validated by his environment, other characters calling him weird, trying to avoid him, constantly enforcing the idea that there's something different/unpleasant about him.

When he meets Oswald, something starts to change. Oswald helps him realise his self-worth over time and highlights the qualities he is able to bring to a relationship. By the time s4 comes along, he has a firmer grasp on these things and uses it to try and engage with Lee (which doesn't work because of her only being interested in Ed as a tool, not a boyfriend, which I mean fair enough, good for her, we love s4 Lee). And then, in s5, when he and Oswald become partners in the submarine build, it's clear that Ed recognises his own worth as well as Oswald's when it comes to the relationship (romantic or otherwise). They may bicker a lot, but when under stress, it's clear what Ed really thinks (killing Penn during the Scarface incident because he does value Oswald, staying to protect Gotham because it's important to Oswald).

Anyway.... I just think it's so interesting to watch and I love where Ed ended off on this arc. Do you have any thoughts?

oh hey I like this. You’re so right. I’m remembering the whole Isabella arc and when Ed insisted that “ love is about sacrifice. It’s about putting someone else’s needs before your own.” He has this understanding of love that Oswald doesn’t really follow. Kind of like, Ed learns it by the book and Oswald learns it by passion, his own feelings. kind of makes me think that most of his love is performative and he does fall somewhere in the aromantic spectrum

#This is very cool thank you! #gotham #Eddie

[bettsfic]

Hi betts! I was wondering if you had any advice for writing Feelings. I feel like my fic writing is often a lot of this happened then this happened and then this event happened. I want to make sure it feels like things are being told by my character and not just a robotic narrator reporting the events. I've been going through your writing advice tag but haven't found a super relevant post to this so thought I'd ask if you have any thoughts on injecting more Feelings into writing.

this is a great question! unfortunately it has a very Big answer.

i think it's important first to consider the greater historical context of prose. prose is a relatively new invention in the history of humanity. prior to prose, there was poetry, oral storytelling, playwriting, and what we would consider now to be nonfiction. the concept of written fiction is kind of miraculous. it allows us to perceive the nature of being another person, within the quiet of our own minds. in other words, prose allows us access to a consciousness outside of our own. a fictional story is thus one in which a given consciousness, translated into language, experiences events in a cause and effect sequence, which is called a narrative.

what you're talking about, injecting Feeling into fiction, is a concept that tends to invoke debate based on separate schools of aesthetic thought. i know writers who would read your ask and go, "uh, good? reporting events is what you're *supposed* to do." and i know writers who believe that the entire purpose of the form is simply to convey conscious thought, external events be damned. personally, although i respect the opinions of these writers, i think it's all kind of silly to think one kind of writing is better than another. it is, as all things are, a creative choice of the author. i, the reader, am only meant to bear witness to those choices.

visualize, if you will, a spectrum between these two schools of thought: the reporting of actions and external events, which we'll call exteriority, and the reporting of inner thoughts and feelings, which we'll call interiority. all fictional prose falls somewhere on this spectrum. on the exteriority side we have writers like william faulkner, cormac mccarthy, chuck palahniuk. on the interiority side, we have virginia woolf, henry james, garth greenwell, donna tartt.

this spectrum is one of narratorial access. how much access do we the reader have to the experiences of the narrator(s), and how accurate are those depictions? how much detail are we given? how are those details chosen and why?

the most exterior writing is what some call "cinematic." many people are in the exterior school of thought because they believe "show don't tell" to be literal. "show don't tell" is ridiculous for many reasons, the most obvious of which is that (when taken at face value) if i wanted to be shown something, i'd watch a movie. the real meaning of "show don't tell" is the idea you shouldn't tell the reader the conclusion they're supposed to be drawing from the events of the story. again, personally, i think it's baffling why anyone has an opinion on this, when the truth is that showing and telling is yet another spectrum and every story falls somewhere on it. to have opinions on these things would stifle my enjoyment as a reader and closes me off to discovering new things.

when the reader has the least possible access to the narrator, the events of the story can follow any character at any time, and detail only what can be seen from the outside. my favorite novel that does this is Plainsong by Kent Haruf. i once tried to write in this style and found it tedious and difficult, but i'm a very interior writer. nevertheless it was a good exercise for me, if for no other reason than it sharpened my understanding of my own style.

if you move the down the spectrum just a skosh toward interiority, you invite inner observations. these are largely sensory: what a character sees, hears, smells, etc. here's an example:

an exterior action would be, "the door slammed." an interior observation would be, "she heard the door slam."

i have heard many arguments as to why the latter is "weaker" writing. i've heard them called "filter phrases," and have even read an essay on why you should avoid them. which, again, ridiculous. it's far more important to know when and why you might deploy a "filter phrase" than to deny yourself use of a potentially necessary tool.

inner observations force the reader into the perception of the narrator. "the door slammed" is a fact. it can't be contested. the author is telling me this event occurred and i cannot dispute it or interpret it. "she heard the door slam" can be questioned. all we know is that she heard it; we have no evidence it really happened, only our trust in the narrator to convey events with accuracy, which is how we get the idea of an unreliable narrator.

let's move one notch closer to interiority. now we have inner reactions and opinions. exterior: "the door slammed. the woman stood up and locked it." now we have the opposite scenario to the one above. with an exterior action, we're given doubt. why did she lock it? we have to use context clues to determine motivation and emotion. interior: "she heard the door slam. in a rage, she stood up and locked it." the second sentence confirms for us that the door very likely did slam, and also tells us outright that she's mad at the person who slammed it.

the reader has to perform an equal amount of work for both of these scenarios. in the exterior example, they have to puzzle out the emotions and motivation of the character. in the interior example, they have to puzzle out the accuracy of events and reasonability of emotional response. both create different kinds of tension.

generally speaking, the closer we move toward interiority the less exteriority we have, because the external events of the story matter less than what the character thinks or feels about them. using our example above, an even more interior approach would be, "when she heard the door slam, she knew it was over. how had it come to this? he was no different than the last one, or the one before that, or the one before that. as she went to lock it, she vowed: never again."

since i don't have a full story drafted out, pretend "the one before that" are all examples of times this situation happened before, and so two actions, the door slamming and the woman getting up to lock it, might take ten thousand words to tell, to give us context as to why she's in a rage about it.

here's an example of nearly pure interiority from a novel i'm working on right now:

And the only logic that came to me was that everything was made up of the souls of the dead and the yet-living. It felt blasphemous—in Kinraden, the afterlife is unity in a place beyond limited human understanding. But I believed the opposite. I believed we all came from things and would return to things, and that everything, at its fabric, was the same as everything else. I was a toy truck rolling across a hardwood floor, and a sunflower opening up in the light, and a can of Campbell’s soup heated on the stove, and a pig headed to slaughter, and my father giving a sermon to an audience of people looking for answers in the wrong place, and everything has a soul and so everything suffers. And that suffering crushed me, not because it exists, but because it is eternal. Suffering is the base of everyone and everything. 

(i apologize for using my own writing as an example, but i tabbed over and this was the first paragraph i saw, and it was surprisingly relevant, even though i am 100% going to end up cutting it.)

i know there is no exteriority here because i can't tell you where his body even is while he's thinking these things. i also don't know when exactly this is happening. the physical existence of the scene and his body within it is irrelevant to the information being conveyed, which is a major life philosophy and how it differs from his father's. within one paragraph, he's building a kind of polemic that will hopefully allow the reader to understand exactly how he managed to defy his father's indoctrination.

even though there's no exteriority, though, there are still images present. toy truck, sunflower, can of soup, etc. and they create visuals to hang onto so that it still feels, in a way, exterior. those physical objects, however, are not actually physical, but metaphorical.

what's also important is that this is a super fucked up line of thought and builds the state of his emotional unreliability as a narrator. he's conveying the events of the story with relative accuracy but his logical and emotional responses to them are in constant conflict. (he needs lots of help, which he will get.)

there is kind of a default in fanfiction, particularly fanfiction based in visual mediums, to convey all information within a physical scene, i suspect to stay as close to the canon portrayal as possible, because film/tv are also sequences of scenes. when in scene (direct discourse), characters are always physically embodied in spaces, moving and doing and saying things, at a specific point in time. but, circling back to my initial point, prose does not have to be embodied. it's not film. you can be fully in the mind of a character and have no idea when or where they are existing, and merely recount the events from an unstated time, if any happen to be relevant (indirect discourse).

(side note: specifically direct and indirect discourse refer to dialogue but i'm using the terms more broadly. direct discourse: "i just want that sandwich, man," tommy said. indirect discourse: tommy said he really wanted a sandwich.)

even though i've talked at length about narratorial access as relevant to consciousness, i want to touch base again to the idea of Feelings. it's hard to convey feeling in fiction, because your only tools are brain and body. either your narrator expresses their feelings in thoughts, or they express them in the description of physical experiences. it's kind of a constant battle which path you choose, but i hope some of the above can help you decide.

so now that you know the broader theory around (Thoughts &) Feelings writing, here are some exercises you can try:

begin a story in direct discourse, present tense, the events of which can only be understood through prior context. (for example, two characters are having a heated argument with no explanation as to why.) then, through the POV character's narration, move into indirect discourse, past tense, to explain the events that led up to the argument.

find a story you've written in third person and rewrite all or part of it in first person. the trick here is to become as disembodied as possible. in fact, your approach can be that you're simply writing a monologue from the character's perspective, in their voice, with all their potential misunderstandings intact.

try swinging the opposite way: write a fully exterior story (the shorter the better). then go back and thread in internal observations. and then go through and add thoughts and opinions to the events that have occurred. and lastly, go through and add greater context and cognition to deepen our understanding of the external events.

whew. this was a lot. but i hope you found it helpful!

and because i am trying to be better about self promo, i'd like to mention here that i'm a freelance editor and writing coach, and also i have a newsletter with more thoughts on craft.

#writing advice #narratorial access #interiority #exteriority #direct discourse #indirect discourse

[redley-of-many-noodles]

Hello there,

Welcome to my blog.

I’m Redley. Relatively new to Tumblr still, but I’ve been finding that I’m comfy here. Though it still feels awkward (thanks, dysphoria), I prefer she/her pronouns. I don’t mind they/them, but… meh. Note that Redley is neither my legal or chosen name; it is solely a handle, and I will only tell you my chosen name if I feel comfortable with you. If I extend that trust, please treat it with respect. If you don’t, I will remember.

Here’s the main stuff I’m comfortable sharing or want you to know about me:

1) I’m transfem, but haven’t had an opportunity to do much actual transitioning yet. Dislike my voice, adore my hair. My luscious, glorious, flowing hair.

1.5) I am likely pansexual, but I haven’t done enough research to know for sure. All I know is, people are… well, people are hot.

2) I live in Florida, but was not raised here. The climate and scenery are nice; the local government sucks ass though. Also, I miss snow.

3) I’m a diagnosed autistic, falling somewhere on the high-functioning end of the spectrum. I’m on prescribed antidepressants, but have not been able to find a psychologist/psychiatrist yet because it’s fucking Florida.

4) There are a lot of things and people I don’t understand, but I’m always open to learning. Trying new food is a special passion of mine, and I’ve met some quite fascinating new people since starting this blog. (*eoughck* @potentially-a-poser *aucghk* @analogue-system *ahem*)

5) I will not tolerate hateful behavior. You will be immediately blocked for shit like denying any of the shades of aro/ace individuals as being part of the LGBTQIA+ community. If you see me spreading misinformation or saying something that excludes members of the community, please tell me. I’ll research the matter, as well as review any sources you send me.

5.5) okay so I think I’m demiromantic

6) I do not mind being tagged or sent asks or otherwise brought into conversations. People who abuse that will likely get blocked, but whatever your social anxiety is telling you probably comes nowhere near ‘abuse’ in my book. Anonymous asks are enabled, but that can likewise change if the feature is abused. Hate asks will be blocked, naturally.

7) I would prefer being asked before you directly message me. If you don’t, there is a possibility you’ll be blocked, but it’s not a guarantee. I don’t want me and my friends’ conversations getting buried by anything.

8) If you consistently and frequently post tiktok/reddit memes with little to no commentary, I may block you simply out of annoyance should you repeatedly show up on my dash. It’s not personal. If something about you makes me suspicious or uncomfortable, but not outright offended, I’ll most likely notify you of my reason before I block you.

9) Age: pick a number between 1 and 100 because it’s none of your fucking business. None of you are entitled to any of my personal information, regardless of the reason. I will share only what I want.

My Behaviors

There are certain things I gravitate towards or away from on this site. Here’s some:

1) I am most likely to follow people who are part of the LGBTQIA+ community, are mentally ill, or are dealing with some variety of personality disorder. This is mostly just due to the fact that I find the most common ground with those people. But even those who I have little common ground with, I’ll tend to find very interesting.

2) I don’t mind things like roleplay and hornyposting on my dash, but will almost certainly not interact myself, or make original posts in that category. More extreme examples won’t necessarily get you blocked or unfollowed, but… well, my filtered tags list may grow.

3) I don’t always tag reblogs. This may mean that my followers will see random things that caught my interest. It could be art, shitposting, tender affirmations, politics, or just goofy-ass Tumblr shit. If something I regularly reblog/post about bothers you and isn’t properly tagged, let me know.

4) I am discovering that maybe, I might, perhaps, be a little bit nosy. When I see someone receiving hate or suffering and stressed, I am likely to take it upon myself to do or say something to try to make them feel better. If I bother you with this, I will not be hurt or offended if you block me. In general, I will do my best to be respectful of it when people draw boundaries, so don’t hesitate to draw any you feel necessary.

5) If your intentions are pure, you will likely find that I try to be forgiving and/or understanding of your mistakes, at least in regards to interacting with me. (The /or is a very important distinction.)

6) I will often be attracted to dark, tragic, or dystopic works of art/fiction. I get a form of catharsis from such media, and some of my writing will reflect that.

That’s about it.

That’s all the important stuff I can think of, aside from tags which are at the end. Still, this post may be updated or rewritten in the future. In general, just be kind and open-minded, and we’ll get along fine. Even if you disagree with me, as long as you are civil and rational about things, I’ll likely have no problem interacting with you.

Be safe, and be yourself! <3

🇵🇸🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈

My Tags:

#redley’s playlist - Some of my favorite songs!

#redley’s photos - Photos taken by/of me!

#writing - Writing related things and occasionally stuff I’ve made! (#poetry will also contain some of my work)

#let me just frame this one - My personal favorite posts by others. Put that right up on the wall!

#cw/tw: [content] - I will tag posts that I recognize may be disturbing to others with content warnings and/or trigger warnings. This way, you can filter content that may be harmful to your mental health to view. If a post is missing an important one, let me know.

#intro post #transgender #autism #writers on tumblr #lgbtqia+ #demiromantic #queer #free palestine #🚗🔨⚒️💥 #not really a part of any fandoms but i love browsing them. it’s very fun #fuck tumblr staff #fuck the us government #maybe if the site survives photomatt swinging his cock around i’ll upload timeline photos one day

[rowenablade]

INTJs and Management, or Why Izzy Hands Was Always Doomed to Fail as a Captain

Warning: Meta shitposting ahead. Please have your tongue lodged firmly in your cheek before engaging.

So one of the more “legitimate” criticisms I’ve seen of Izzy is that he’s clearly, canonically, a bad leader. Anytime he’s given any sort of managerial control, he either:

Lords it over everyone as obnoxiously as possible

Tries to impose order while keeping his employees entirely in the dark about what’s actually going on

Panics and throws up

Clearly, the explanation here is that Izzy isn’t nearly as competent a pirate as he likes to think he is, and he’s just somehow managed to manipulate Ed into thinking he’s indispensable. Right?

Let’s go Business School on this.

The Myers-Briggs Personality Test was made up by some smart business people (probably, I can’t be fucked to Google it right now) to divide people into specific personality types and, in doing so, make it easier to build teams, manage people and spot potential areas of conflict. It’s basically astrology for MBAs. (My business school professors would probably not approve of me explaining it this way, but they don’t follow me on Tumblr, thank the good Lord in Heaven above.)

Side note- I have mixed feelings about Myers-Briggs. I think it can be useful as a framing device when you’re trying to figure out why someone might think or react differently than you. I like it as a theoretical exercise. I would never work somewhere that wanted me to take it as a prerequisite for being hired, any more than I would answer a classified ad that said something like “No Scorpios.”

So back to Izzy. I know, deep in my boniest of bones, that Izzy is an INTJ personality type like me. How do I know this? I just do. Go with me on this. Google it, read the description and tell me I’m wrong. I’ll wait.

INTJs are people who fall on the Introverted, Intuitive, Thinking and Judging ends of the four spectrums the MBTI uses. Known as “The Architect” or “The Mastermind”, this personality type tends to manifest in sidekicks, tragic villains, and that guy in your office who you’re pretty sure the department would collapse without but who you know absolutely nothing personal about.

They’re usually competent, often annoyingly so, but they tend to view things like social niceties, networking and team-building as a waste of time. So you don’t usually see them in leadership positions unless they’ve clawed their way up through the ranks and outlasted everyone else, and if they lose a position to a charismatic rival that they consider less intelligent or hardworking than them, rest assured they are NOT happy about it.

(These are also the guys who just write “Happy Birthday.” on your birthday card with no personal message or smiley face or even an exclamation point. It’s not that they hate you personally. They just don’t understand why we have to do this every year. Doesn’t everyone just immediately throw these cards away? They do.)

Anyway, because of their competence and the rigid standards they tend to impose upon themselves, INTJs can and do end up in positions of power. However, I would argue that not everyone views attaining these positions in the same light. INTJs don’t accept these positions because they want to manage people. They do it because they want the ability to hold everyone to the same standards they hold themselves to.

When an INTJ is promoted to be the boss, they don’t think see a fun, interesting interpersonal challenge (like Stede) or an opportunity to act with total creative control (like Ed). They see a chance to finally make sure that everyone is doing exactly what they’re supposed to, to make this machine run as efficiently as possible, and maybe be able to actually sleep at night without worrying what mess they’re going to have to clean up in the morning.

Essentially, Izzy’s dream crew (and mine, and I would argue a lot of INTJs) is an army of clones of himself that know everything he knows and require no communication. Just a ship full of Izzy’s quietly toiling away at their assigned tasks, asking no unnecessary questions and never causing any drama because you bottle that feelings shit up where it belongs.

(Now’s as good a time as any to mention the time I worked somewhere for six months and didn’t tell them I was getting married until two days before the wedding, when someone asked if I had weekend plans. Hi, @stanningjay!)

This dream is unattainable, and I, as someone who has been to both business school and therapy, know this. Izzy, unfortunately, has been to neither of these things, and is therefore completely unable to manage his expectations of what being in charge will actually be like.

Am I saying this excuses his shitty behavior toward the crew? Absolutely not. I’m just saying I get it. When I’m put I charge, I have to constantly fight my instinct to look over people’s shoulders and correct their mistakes, roll my eyes when someone asks a question I already answered, or schedule all birthday parties to take place on the same day so we can get it all over with at once and get back to work. And I do resist these impulses! That’s the beauty of taking some time to reflect on yourself and also not being in weird, doomed love with your immediate superior. Everyone has different circumstances they’re dealing with.

Honestly, I think Izzy’s cringetastic “Izzy’s Revenge” performance was him trying to do things he’s seen more charismatic leaders do, and failing horribly because he doesn’t understand the context. Humor, irony, theatricality- all things he’s seen used to great effect. Ed does cringe shit all the time (remember that little rope swing?) and people love it. Stede’s constantly lording his wealth and status over his crew, with his massive cabin and fancy breakfasts for two, and they’re apparently willing to face down the British Navy for him. All Izzy has to do is the same kind of things. Hell, he can do them even harder, skip all that tedious rapport-building and establish himself as a leader as efficiently as possible! Needs more salt! Hey, why isn’t this working? Okay, fuck this, everyone shut up and get back to work!

Izzy’s never going to be a good captain unless he can understand why the things good captains do work for them. And until he gives up on that beautiful dream of a clone army who he never has to explain anything to.

Can INTJs be good managers? Of course! The MBTI is not meant to be used to figure out who has aptitude for which job. It’s a tool to help you realize your own biases, habits and blind spots, and be mindful of them when you’re making managerial decisions.

Can Izzy ever be a good captain? Hard to say. Unlike most managers, Izzy doesn’t have the luxury of clocking out at the end of the day, or of finding personal fulfillment outside his job. He’s got his livelihood, identity, emotional connections and sense of actual, physical safety all wrapped up in a big spaghetti ball of unspoken assumptions, and it would take a huge amount of work to untangle all that. Work that, let’s face it, would be a pretty thankless job for whoever took it on.

It would probably have to be a team effort. Maybe Ed and Stede could invite him over for a drink and *gunshots*

#our flag means death #ofmd #izzy hands #ofmd meta #izzy hands meta #myers briggs #mbti intj #I’m like half serious here at most #i apologize for nothing

[bbygirl-aemond]

Hi! I just saw your posts about the hair colors of Targaryen children and now i'm very curious, have you ever done a similar analysis on Ned and Catelyn's children and why 4 out of 5 of them had auburn hair and blue eyes, both being (very) recessive traits? I remember reading somewhere that Rickard and Lyarra Stark were first cousins, both trueborn Starks who bore four long-faced, grey-eyed brunetes, so i think that its safe to say that Ned had BB genes; meanwhile, we don't really know anything about Minisa Whent, but since Cat and both of her siblings were born blue-eyed gingers, they all probably had bb genothypes. So, technically, a Ned/Cat pairing should result in all Bb children, isn't it? How come most of those babes inherited their mother's coloring, then?

ooh yes this is so interesting! so my original post here only talked about one gene, so that i could use mendelian genetics and punnett squares and everything: the gene for the protein eumelanin, which is the pigment that makes brown hair. this let me treat inheritance like it only involved two possible versions of one gene for the trait of hair color, one dominant and one recessive. if you don't meet these requirements, you can't use the punnett square probabilities to predict traits, since inheritance won't be that simplistic.

the pigment that makes hair reddish in color is actually an entirely separate chemical called pheomelanin, which is encoded by more than just two genes (it results from a polymorphic mutation in the original brown hair gene, but there are way more than two types of mutations that count so there are easily like 5+ versions of this gene). as a result, there's no simple dominant or recessive inheritance pattern here to follow the way there is when we're just talking about brown vs blond hair.

but for simplicity's sake, let's denote eumelanin with a B, and pheomelanin with an R. in the absence of either of these genes, hair will be blond. the more B's you have, the browner your hair will be, and the more R's you have, the redder your hair will be. the possibilities aren't either brown or red; it's a spectrum rather than a binary. and remember, each version of the R gene encodes a slightly different intensity and brightness of red hair, so we don't have enough information to even compare two R genes to each other since they'll likely affect hair color very differently.

we know that ned has two copies of the B gene, but we know nothing about if he has any R genes since the two copies of eumelanin will overpower everything else. we know that cat has no B genes because she's a tully, but has at least one copy and likely two copies of the R gene. so their kids will have:

no more than one copy of the B gene

0-2 copies of the R gene

but we know nothing about what types of R genes are involved here. we don't know which specific mutation it is. we don't know if it encodes really faint color or really intense color, and we don't know if it encodes light orange or dark orange. we also don't know how it interacts with the B genes; it won't be 100% dominant or 100% recessive, but we can't determine if it's more 90:10 or 20:80 or what. i will say that given cat's hair color is very much red and not faint in color, and given that ned can only pass down one B gene onto his kids, at the very least i expect every child to have hair that is much redder than their father. something like auburn, lol.

lastly, there are also epigenetic and epitranscriptomic factors that determine how much a gene is expressed. this adds a layer of complexity on top of whether or not the genes are inherited and how strong the genes are in and of themselves. and here, how much the B and R genes are expressed relative to each other will play a big part in where the kids fall on the brown to red hair spectrum.

as for the eye color, it's really not a shocker that the blue eyes would be dominant! i know we think of blue eyes as being encoded by recessive genes, but the inheritance patterns for eye color aren't super black and white. they have a lot to do with where pigment is expressed in the eye, not just how much. for example, both brown eyes and blue eyes have melanin in the back layer of the iris, but only brown eyes have melanin in the front layer.

grey eyes are actually the rarest eye color, even rarer than blue eyes, and they aren't necessarily dominant over blue eyes! they're not gray just because they lack that front layer of pigment, but because they also have higher levels of collagen in a particular part of their iris, causing the light to refract in a specific way. it's a different mechanism than the mechanism for blue eyes entirely, and it's not necessarily dominant. when a grey-eyed parent and a blue-eyed parent have children, they're usually almost all blue-eyed as a result.

tldr: red hair is a completely different and unique pattern of inheritance from brown hair! grey eyes are completely different from blue eyes in the same way. neither of these traits follow mendelian patterns of inheritance, and they also don't fit into neat dominant versus recessive categories, so this isn't a case where we can apply the statistics of things like punnett squares or dominant/recessive genes. it's very difficult to try to support the claim that it would be "unlikely" for ned and cat's kids to turn out this way as a result. hope this helps!

#ask #asks #got meta #game of thrones #ned stark #eddard stark #ned #eddard #catelyn stark #catelyn #catelyn tully #genetics #meta

[in-flvx]

follow-up question to your answer abt prongsfoot vs wolfstar: who would you *not* ship Sirius with? and along those lines, how do you read his sexuality?

Hii James!!!

I don't really ship him with golden era pupils (though now that I think about it, I think him and Seamus could have fun..) and the Dursleys even less. But in general I can be convinced of any pairing, even if they're not my favs or something I'd seek out. At least for Sirius.

But to your question of his sexuality... he is basically anything but straight. I think I typically hc him as gay and somewhere on the aro or ace spectrum. But tbh he is also bi and/or slutty. But all of them come with a side of genderfuckery. Everything else can be mixed and matched. How the dice fall

#James tag

[oraclekleo]

Joshua Hong (Seventeen) Kinky* Reading

Disclaimer:

All readings have purely entertainment nature

I don’t know any of the celebrities personally

Don’t base life decisions purely on tarot readings

I can never guarantee any of what’s said in the reading

Before requesting, read the pinned post and appropriate linked post

Tarot readings are my hobby - I’m not obligated to accept any of the requests nor to complete them, it’s my choice, not duty

Waiting time is long, even several months

If you can’t wait, please, seek other tarot reader

Reading Info:

Rating: 18+

Reading Type: Single - Couple

Requested: Yes - No

Deck: Poe

Spread: Kinky*

Questions:

Position

Libido

Turn On

Kink

Dirtiest Secret*

Celebrity Info:

Full Name: Joshua Hong

Stage Name: Joshua

Group: Seventeen

DOB: 30.12.1995 (dd.mm.yyyy)

Sun Sign: Capricorn

Chinese Sign: Wood Pig

Life Path Number: 3

Masterpost: Seventeen

Ko-fi - Voluntary Tip for Readings

Joshua Hong

Joshua (Seventeen)

Deck: E. A. Poe

Spread: Kinky*

Position - XII The Hanged Man

Joshua is more on the submissive side of the spectrum, though he’s not super strict about it. He’s likely to simply let his partner lead and guide him in everyday life because he mostly agrees with them anyway. Joshua doesn’t like conflicts and drama, he prefers sensible conversation and solving issues through compromise.

Libido - Page of Cups

Joshua is passionate in a more innocent way. He's a curious lover but he’s not into too wild experiments. He’s also likely to build the emotional bond first before he agrees for the relationship to become physical. He’s a gentle and adoring lover and he’s faithful. Joshua is likely to enjoy cuddling and tickling as foreplay.

Turn On - Knight of Pentacles

Joshua might feel attracted to someone serious and committed, someone loyal and thoughtful. They’re probably not outstanding when it comes to looks, more likely people don’t even notice their presence, but they are hard-working and methodical. Joshua needs to respect and admire them.

Kink - Page of Wands

Playful boy Joshua! He likes to unwind and relax when he’s with his lover. He likes to laugh and play and explore. It’s likely for him to suggest playing some contact games like Twister, where he’s gonna get handsy and tease his lover and try to make them lose.

Dirtiest Secret* - VI The Lovers

Joshua is actually a romantic soul. He believes there’s his perfect match somewhere in the world and he believes he will meet them and instantly fall in love with them.

Thank you for reading!

Hit the Like 💖

Comment! 💬

Reblog! 🔁

Follow for more! 💌

Any Feedback is Welcomed ✅

#joshua hong #joshua hong smut #joshua hong scenarios #joshua hong imagines #hong joshua #joshua #joshua smut #joshua scenarios #joshua imagines #joshua seventeen #joshua svt #seventeen joshua smut #seventeen joshua #svt joshua #svt joshua smut #svt #svt smut #svt scenarios #svt tarot #svt imagines #seventeen #seventeen smut #seventeen tarot #seventeen scenarios #seventeen imagines #seventeen kpop #svt kpop #kpop seventeen #kpop svt #oracle kleo

[ashpentagram]

how many of these am I gonna do fr

I’ve been mulling over wasting my time trying to give a whole speech as a decade-long writer about experiencing growth and gaining inspiration from various medias and go into a small dive into how refusing to grow by creating a fervent echo chamber will only harm your process and ruin a pretty feasible creation and turn it into a battlefield that just leaves everybody miserable, as well as leave you as a stunted writer from the early 2010s.

I basically wanna say that Viv has the potential and the resources to grow as a writer. Animator, designer, world-builder — set all of those aside and focus solely on the writing aspect.

Personally, Viv has astounding concepts. Her world creation, introducing these ideas and offering a different perspective are fantastic.

Her execution is piss-poor, to be blunt.

As a small contextual tangent — there’s a sad situation that any sort of critique on her writing is seen as an attack (both by her, and her fans) and anybody who wants to offer any sort of advice or feedback are shunned and written off as haters or nihilistic assholes. Don’t get me wrong, I feel as if there’s an annoying amount of people out there who just really hate Viv and all she is, and that’s stupid. The parasocial breech on both sides of the anti and stan spectrum is so absurd, because you have her crew (I understand they do not fall under parasocial due to actually working / communicating / “knowing” her) claiming her as innocent as a lamb, and her fans praising her like she’s the second-coming of Christ, and then you have antis who attempt to doxx her and send her incessant death threats and slander her name. Neither of these things are appropriate, even if one side is technically positive.

I don’t think Viv is a saint. I don’t think she’s the most atrocious person on the planet. I am simply a fellow writer and creator who is looking at her work and pointing out places where improvement can be made. I would be much more lenient and understanding if she was a beginner or an amateur, but she’s working professionally and has been working professionally for quite some time now. People who act like she’s some helpless writer because she doesn’t have the experience don’t understand she has been making overarching worlds and stories for a decade. As have I.

So, with that preamble aside, I wanna discuss the aforementioned echo chamber Viv has locked herself into. It’s relatively well-known by now that Viv cannot handle criticism. Most amateurs can’t — it’s hard to hear that somebody doesn’t like your work, or experience the initial feeling of not being good enough. I myself for the longest time hid away from criticism and wrote rather harsh responses to people when I got it. That was wrong of me, however I was also only somewhere between 11-15. Viv was 19 or 20 when zoophobia began to release, which to some people would still consider exceptionally young. However it’s been ten years since Zoophobia, and the same writing flaws are apparent.

We’re given a premise — be it simple or not — of a show or a comic that really digs in the interest of the audience. That’s how hooks work, and hooks are not always solid in the sense of being anything more to grab your audience and sit them down to invest in your story — however, when you look at your premise for the story as the hook, and treat it as all that it is, it’s much harder to stray from it and explore different ideas and perspectives without the audience feeling confused as to why so much has changed. In Zoophobia’s case, while yes, it was a hastily dropped project for the sake of Hazbin, it fell rather fast from its initial premise of following Cameron as she navigated her job as a councilor for creatures she was petrified of (hence the name). It was handed to us under the guise of us following her journey as she learned to sympathize with something she feared, as well as aid them despite her wariness and confusion. Granted, it was present throughout most of the comic, which is probably why I enjoyed it more than I currently enjoy Helluva Boss, but it had its moments of teetering away from Cameron — her story was essentially done within the first 7 chapters of the first book. She was warming up to the animals around her, and while she was still tentative, she handled her first counseling case with almost no discomfort. I feel like in the sense her growth was rushed, because Viv really wanted to move on and look to the other cast of the comic, and that’s completely valid. It’s hard not to rush to important parts, but that’s an amateur mistake.

The problem is this mistake never corrected itself due to the filtering of criticism under the pretense of it being nothing more than mindless hate. There is a subtlety to refinement, sure, don’t fix what isn’t broken, but don’t just let it sit and get old and worn either. In Zoophobia the hook was the story. By the end of the released content, the hook was abandoned for the additives, and I do personally enjoy Damian’s moments and learning more about the world, I won’t deny that it strayed very quickly from what grabbed us in the first place. In Helluva Boss, the book was little lowborn demons going to earth and killing people already-dead people wanted offed, as well as the boss of the ragtag team being tied down by the royal he outsmarted. It was an excellent idea, and I was beyond excited to be invested in it. I was invested until about episode 4, with the cracks growing cavernous the longer I mulled over the story and the actual implications and portrayals they were giving us.

I won’t deny that I was perhaps the harshest on episode 4 due to the angels being downright disappointing, but I also recognize that introducing heaven to us in any capacity in Helluva Boss instead of keeping those cards close to the chest for Hazbin was a drastically horrible choice in a writing aspect. Yes, I know there’s an appeal of showing the opposite side of the universe and how there’s an opposite to our main cast, but it shouldn’t have been on the table in the first place. Heaven was securely wrapped in intrigue and mystery for an explicit reason of “demons don’t know angels” hence Charlie’s naïveté. Showing us, and IMP experience angels and heaven was… terrible. It has completely isolated Heaven as a joke of pastel softness instead of a force to be reckoned with. Those exterminators gave us everything we needed to know about heaven and all that should have been given — giving us the CHERUBs in episode 4 has demolished Heaven into a ridiculous joke of “oh well they have these super cool murder angels, but there’s also stupid babies who get bested by Hell’s canonical lowest-born demons :)”

This is poor writing. This is jumping forward and abandoning your hook as easily as it was brought to the audience. Technically episode 2 was the first drop of IMP, but episode 4 really kicked us down.

Another episode that comes to mind with writing issues is episode 7. Episode 7 showed us that Stolas was so depressed and in love with Blitzø after the entire season showed us he exclusively fetishized him. So much as calling him the plaything Striker assumed Blitzø to be in episode 5. Stolas was never portrayed as being in love except for outside the “grey-area instagrams”. Relying on non-canonical posts to build a relationship where canon actively fights it has the same tonal dissonance of the merchandise showing Blitzø and Stolas perfectly happy and enjoying each others company when Blitzø has smiled a total of three times around Stolas in the entire season (two of which were Blitzø being cheeky, not genuine). Episode 7 felt as if it took place 20 episodes in and not 7, and relied so heavy on Stolas being a lovesick puppy that they made all the progress and context of the literal episode prior just jump down the drain head-first. Blitzø realizing his emotions towards Stolas are negative and he feels like he’s being used? Moxxie and Blitzø seemingly becoming more attuned to one another with newfound respect? Gone. It’s all gone. Blitzø is back to stalking Moxxie and Millie and ignoring their gripes, and the crew decide “oh well we’re gonna make it Blitzø’s fault that Stolas thinks it’s a date, because Blitzø’s growth is gone and we need him and the plot to roll along.”

Then we meet a spineless king of Hell Asmodeus, with his imp, Fizzarolli who is also Blitzø’s childhood friend. You can say whatever you want about these two, I don’t care, but their relationship in any capacity is really out of nowhere. They are a foil for Stolitz, and while they work, they also make no sense. I have a long-winded tangent for Fizz and Oz, I’ll really need to organize my thoughts on them because a lot of my gripes are built out of frustration of taking an easy-way out instead of really giving us the “dark” in dark comedy.

To be short, episode 7 did not feel connected to the series. It felt like it should have come much later, and acted as if it was hot shit when in reality it was flat and hamfisted. It was so desperate to give Stolitz an episode where their relationship was put on a pedestal, and then break it back down, but the fact they were building with rubble just made the thing a disaster.

Going into season two, the writing fell harder than it ever had. Somehow, somewhere, Viv decided making these two disasters into childhood friends, or at least, force them to meet as children. As to add insult to injury, they crumpled Stella’s character, they made Paimon a joke, and they made Blitzø subjected to literally being sold by his father and bought by Stolas’s. Idk about you but even if I was capable of loving somebody romantically, if I knew my parents bought them to spend time with me, I’d instantly lose all attraction because of how disgusting that situation would be perceived as. Also as I’m writing this, I’m wondering where the hell Stolas was when Paimon was talking to Cash, since Paimon left Cash’s tent with his butler but like. Where’s the kid. Did they just forget Paimon had gone with Stolas? It could’ve been as simple as showing Stolas sneaking off to see Blitzø after the show and him, Blitzø and Fizz interacting with each other.

Anyway. Episode 1 of s2 was a mess. It single-handedly tore down everything coherent in the prior season. I don’t know how you manage to do that, but I guess when you’re stuck in an echo-chamber and hellbent on forcing every imaginable trope into your favorite ship, Viv is sacrificing quality for self indulgence. And yes, doing what you want to do is completely valid, and you don’t have to care what people think, but the fact you play it for excellency and perfection and astounding ground-breaking storytelling when in reality it’s just glorified yaoi fanfiction is disastrous. Add all of these with a rabid fan base that white-knights Viv at every chance because during a time period where she was genuinely being harassed over long-old issues she’s consistently apologized and grown from, the fan base has this weird conditioning that everything that goes against her is an intent to destroy their “perfect queer demon show.”

I don’t even have the energy for discussing season 2 episode 2, since it’s basically just digging its grave as hard as it can. It had a great moment with showing us Loona’s backstory and finally giving me a crumb of dark content, but other than that, it was a flat and boring episode. The writing was subpar since it couldn’t decide what it wanted to do, and bloated itself when it literally didn’t need to.

I’ve been writing this post over the course of three or two days now, I can’t remember but just recently Erin Frost made another post about Viv and while this isn’t the place I want to discuss it, the fandom has been saying some truly disgusting things towards a victim and I think y’all need to think about what you’re saying to people. What if all of these allegations are true? What if Viv really did say these things and really was harming her workers? Would you like these things said to you if you were in Erin’s place? What happened to you all preaching kindness and being a welcoming community? Seriously. Just sit and think for once before you say something so abysmally cruel. Viv is not gonna give you a one-way ticket to exclusive content just because you called somebody a slur.

I’ve strayed really far from the initial topic of this post which was the lack of letting yourself hearing criticism will only harm you and leave you ignorant. Viv should know by now how to write something coherent, yet she fails to do so. She should know that criticism is an excellent gateway to growth and understanding your work and how to create. Criticism is not going to go away just because you block it out. You will grow in certain areas but you will always remain stunted if you don’t let yourself be vulnerable to the views others may have. Forcing yourself into a room where all you hear and process is praise and worship, you will become so so deaf to those with genuine desire to share their views on how you could not only create something better, but create something that would flow beautifully with the rest of the creation. Right now, the writing is swimming against the current. The composition and the animation (while not perfect) are astounding in their own rights. The backgrounds are beautiful, even when in an episode where the cast is stuck for the majority in one room. The music, while not adhering to my personal tastes, is passable to the majority. I suppose the writing can be viewed that way, but most of the time I can’t tell if people are actually enjoying the show, if they’re fetishizing gay people, or if they’re just so desperate for anything queer-run and queer-oriented they lose all sense of self and devour and obsess over it because it’s content that we have been starved of for generations.

I don’t want to come off negative. These are my thoughts as a writer. These are my thoughts of a once die-hard fan who would and has white-knighted Viv before. This is coming from a place of concern and a desire to share my thoughts on how writing can grow. Just because Viv has matured from writing “wuz” to “was” doesn’t mean the piece has grown from a half-assed stick figure attempt you don’t put any soul into to Leonardo Da Vinci or Picasso. Art is supposed to be about continual growth, and when you force yourself into a box you will not be able to branch out in the ways you want. You will be forced to live in that box unless you yourself allow others to nurture in your growth. You do not have to create and grow on your own, you can allow others with conflicting inputs to interact with you.

#helluva boss #long post #helluva boss critical

[inkdemonapologist]

i’ve seen a lot of your works ever since getting a tumblr account and this question is eating away at my insides. i saw that you ship sammy and joey, but some of your older things from earlier this year (june? august? not too sure) seem like they aren’t in any relationship anymore but miss each other dearly. or one misses the other a lot, but anyway if you’re okay with clearing up any confusion, what’s the deal with that? other than that have a good day :]

Hiya! Without knowing the exact pieces you ran into it’s hard to be sure, but I suspect this might have something to do with me having a few different AUs that I post about? And the Sammys in some of those AUs being fairly similar, design-wise.

My usual canon-based take on Joey x Sammy is a relationship that falls somewhere on the spectrum of unhealthy to abusive, where it doesn’t end well for Sammy and sort of foreshadows his desperate loyalty to the Ink Demon. Then the Cthulhu AU has an on-going story following our tabletop game; in THAT one Joey and Sammy are in a relationship that is still messy, but care more genuinely for each other… and also Sammy is sorta split into two people who swap back and forth on who’s piloting the body. The second person (the Prophet) is NOT on good terms with Joey, while Joey still cares about Prophet a lot, as he’s still a piece of Sammy. And the last one I can think of is Escape AU, a post-studio AU that follows my original take on canon, where Sammy has, uH…. COMPLICATED FEELINGS ABOUT JOEY…….. Escape Sammy is fully aware that Joey is NO GOOD but also they had a genuinely really intense relationship back in the studio and it’s hard not to fall back into that…

So, my best guesses are, you might’ve seen Cthulhu AU art from a moment where some kinda in-game thing was keeping the two of them apart, you might’ve seen Cthulhu AU art where Prophet was piloting the body instead of regular Sammy and thus seemed to have a very different relationship to Joey, or you might’ve seen something from Escape AU where Sammy is not with Joey anymore but sure does have some intense history with him.

Or it could be something else I haven't thought of! Though I think most of the other AUs I’ve drawn this past year have more distinct designs. BUT YEAH if this does not clear up the mystery for you, please feel free to send a followup with whatever sparked the question and I’ll be happy to explain more if I can!

#i know you have questions you always do

[eldunari-ignasia]

➵ Howdy! This is Mari [she/they/he], the moderator of this Inheritance Cycle centric blog. If any other fans of the series interact with this post or message me I’ll be sure to follow them <3.

➵ Spoilers for the whole series abound!

➵ I will try to make sure to tag posts that contain spoilers appropriately! The tags will be: #Spoilers: Eragon, #Spoilers: Eldest, #Spoilers: Brisingr, #Spoilers: Inheritance, and #Spoilers: FWW.

Obviously, when Murtagh comes out it will get its own tag.

➵ I’m 25+ and first read Eragon as a preteen. Over the years, especially when I was younger, I loved making my own character and stories within the world of Alagaësia. It’s only been recently that I’ve managed to kill my cringe sufficiently enough to start posting about it.

➵ There will be oc x canon here. My tweenaged self had a lot to learn about drawing and writing so I’m here to do what she couldn’t. You’ll be seeing a lot of my oc, Immogen, here! Maybe someday I'll get around to writing that fic.

➵ A few ground rules: 

-I’d prefer to avoid overly adult content so try to keep it PG-13. I don’t mind vulgarity or profanity but let’s keep it tame. -This is an LGBT+ safe space. I won’t abide any slander or derogatory language to those who fall somewhere within that spectrum. Don’t be an ass to anyone with headcanons about the sexuality or gender of the characters that you don’t agree with either. I'll happily block you. -Sexism and Racism will also get you blocked. -If needs be, I'll add to this but here's hoping I wont <3

#inheritance cycle #eragon #eragon oc