#But it's in my drafts because I was a bit afraid of controversy

[bonefall]

As a big sibling with a lil sib with epilepsy, when they read TBC they Honestly thought if they got struck with lightning reciting the lord's prayer they'd be cured like Shadowsight is from their epilepsy. I had a discussion with them on how that's not how it works, but ge was so upset they took it away from Shadowsight that he hasn't picked the books back up and has stated that 'he hopes Ashfur wins and starts a new religion.,'

I do not even know how to respond to this besides saying that your little sibling is 100% right to be pissed and I now also hope Ashfur wins and starts a new religion.

#Legit I did not know that Shadow's epilepsy being taken away was so deeply upsetting to SO MANY people #I put it back because putting it back was just the right thing to do (even asked the small following I had at the time what type to portray #(they picked the full tonic-clonics. I would have just done localized or absence if they'd asked me to) #And I did all that research for one single anon who asked for an epilepsy herb guide #So holy cow I didn't know that SO MANY people were snubbed and upset by canon's choice to do that. I'm so sorry #Your little sib isn't missing anything btw they do just go on to confirm that Shadow no longer has seizures. #In book 4 of TBC they say that it was all Ash all along and that's what they've stuck with into ASC #I'm sitting on an essay about... That plot thread. The Ashfur Grooming one #But it's in my drafts because I was a bit afraid of controversy #because i think it was written poorly. Even on top of Book 4's pivot to retcon away Shadow's seizures #I know a lot of people like and are invested in the grooming subplot of TBC. But. I think it was executed AWFULLY #and its really telling that THIS is the plot they tout as grooming *by name* in-canon.-- #--and that Shadow has to 'pay' for what he 'did' in some way as if there was ever a choice in the books they wrote-- #--But seemingly didn't even seem to clock that what was happening in Spotted's H was grooming until there was intense backlash #and a big part of my contention is the way that Book 4 suddenly tries to retcon that Shadow was groomed from the time he was a child #when it was actually part of book 1 that Shadow was able to personally tell the difference between a real vision and Ash's suggestions-- #--BECAUSE he didn't have an accompanying seizure #So like... just know it's also NOT just 'you' if you connected to the character that was epileptic. It WAS there. It was a BIG part of him #Book 4 retconned it so that his epilepsy was part of a long scheme when before that point it was part of him #''ohh ur destiny is to see into the shadows'' BULL SHIT!! #bone babble

[dontcallmecarrie]

ye olde Stress(TM) Reaction strikes again, aka the start of this was sitting in my drafts for weeks because my brain hates me apparently:

.

“So...considering how last time went, why are we being dragged into this?” Steve Rogers heard Clint ask, and he tried not to freeze or blush, and, if Natasha was anything to go by, failed miserably at both.

“I mean,” Clint continued and it took far more willpower than it should have to not glare at the teammate who regularly ate whipped cream out of the can because he should not be sounding so amused, “after what happened, why are the Avengers being invited, again?”

Alright, that did it— but before Steve could do more than turn to give his teammate the same glare he normally reserved for when Loki destroyed the top part of his uniform again, Agent Coulson gave a very tired sigh and spoke.

“Partly because multiple ambassadors liked your response time when the pink elephants made an appearance on the premises, partly because von Doom specifically requested you all. By name.”

 Across the table, Tony gave an incredulous scoff as he leaned back and crossed his arms. “And what, you’re letting a literal dictator call the shots?”

“Grumpy because he mentioned you too, aren’t you.” Clint smirked before Agent Coulson could say anything else, and Steve really, really tried not to scowl. Honest.

However, he couldn’t help but notice the way Tony’s expression went suspiciously blank, and something in the pit of his stomach clenched as Tony shifted in his seat a little.

“Okay, so maybe we weren’t finished before Loki interrupted. I didn’t hear any of you guys complaining.”

“That was you ‘gathering intel’?” Natasha asked, and Steve pointedly ignored her sidelong glance, “I thought you were looking pretty friendly there. Way more emotion than we’ve ever seen from von Doom before, anyway.”

Steve couldn’t help but snort. Understatement of the century, Steve hadn’t missed the venom in von Doom’s glare. If not for Loki barging in when he did, there would have been an international incident, and Steve wouldn’t have regretted it one bit.

“As... controversial as he is,” Agent Coulson rubbed his temples for a moment, “Latveria’s a very hot commodity right now, and State Department’s pushing for trade agreements. We can’t afford to alienate him.”

Everyone looked at him, and he fought to keep his shoulders from rising up. “If he’s got a problem with one of my team, don’t expect me to play nice.”

“My hero,” Tony rolled his eyes and so missed the way Clint’s shoulders shuddered, “Steve, I had it under control.”

“Nay, lord Stark.” Thor cut in, and Steve did not miss the way Agent Coulson’s eye twitched even as Clint got a very sudden and convenient coughing fit as the resident alien continued, “I am afraid you did not. I may not be familiar with Midgardian politics, but I do not believe duels are as acceptable here as they are back home.”

Everyone paused at that, and the silence was abrupt enough to startle Doctor Banner out of his reverie.

“Wait, what happened?” He asked, looking up from his tablet, and Steve couldn’t help but envy the fact that he was exempt from this. Sure, the risk of having the Hulk at a UN function would have been nothing less than a recipe for disaster, but at least Steve wouldn’t be suffering though this alone— case in point, this entire debrief.

“Oh, just how Tony almost caused an international incident last time.” Natasha said and Bruce made a strange face for a second before he peered over his glasses to look at everyone else around the table.

“Well, is Justin going to be at this next one?”

All eyes were now on Tony, who scowled and looked away even as he replied, “It’s one of the annual year-end fundraisers, of course he’s going to be there.”

Agent Coulson let out a slow breath. “You are certain you cannot convince him otherwise?”

Tony’s shoulders hunched almost imperceptibly. “It’s tradition at this point. Everyone knows I’m going to be there, so he’s going— and I’ll save us both the time, the man’s about as stubborn as I am.”

“You’re sure about that?” Clint asked, gaze suddenly sharp and the look he shared with Agent Coulson and Natasha abruptly reminded Steve of the exact circumstances in which Iron Man was born.

“The number things I’ve seen him accomplish out of sheer spite is...” Tony trailed off, before he shook his head and looked around the table. “It’s something. Pretty sure the only reason Hammer Industries didn’t come out with another element after I did is because it’d be breaking the laws of physics, and even then part of me was half-expecting otherwise.”

#No Hero [Downward Descending] #No Hero [And Not Made Of Stone] #3 am musings #My writing

[commander-airachnid]

Visit the spreadsheet HERE!

Hoowee! What an eventful 24 hours it has been! I'd firstly like to thank everyone for participating and engaging with this little project. I honestly wasn't expecting such a turn out! I hope we can keep up this energy for the coming rounds too, because the next set of brackets is a real doozy!

But, before that! You wanna know what I love? Data! I love it, and i've got it, so let's dive in to some for a little bit of fun!

-> The poll with the highest win margin? Slipstream VS. Provoke ended up being the poll with the biggest disparity between the two options, with Slipstream taking the win at a whopping 93% of the vote! Round of applause for both her AND poor Provoke, who's at least getting to home with 5,000 shanix in cash and a new walkman!

-> The poll with the smallest win margin? Stormclash VS. Rosanna was the poll that cut it the closest, with Stormclash pulling ahead of the popstar at 54% of the vote! A big win for the Torchbearers there!

-> The poll with the most notes engagement? Nautica VS. Nickel was the most controversial matchup, and for good reason! A war of words well won in Nautica's favor, but gold stars to everyone that came out in support of Nickel as well. You sure know how to mobilize!

-> The poll with the most total votes? Is also the Nautica VS. Nickel bracket, at 727 total votes! I won't lie to you, that one had me nail biting in the stands for awhile! The runner up is the Windblade VS. Termagax bracket, with 705 total votes. Guess we just have lots of love to share, huh?

The next polls will be going up in a couple hours. I just need to make graphics and draft the posts, which... admittedly takes time. I was going to do that a bit beforehand but I slept in like a goofball. Keep your eyes peeled and don't touch that dial! The next set will be here before you know it!

In the mean time, if you have any questions or suggestions, don't be afraid to send them my way! Anything I could do better? Anything that could make this more fun? I'm all ears!

Thanks y'all! ♡

#ECHOLOCATION #maccadam #transformers poll #robot wife poll #poll results #do you guys like the graphic i made for this #i love that panel of nautica

[tabswrites]

Writer Questions Tag

Tagged by @writernopal here. I love these questions, thanks for the tag!

Gently tagging: @clairelsonao3 @gummybugg @rachaellawrites @zmwrites

What is your absolute all-time favorite idea you’ve ever had?

I am equally proud of Silver Sentinels and Ascension. The magic system in S.S is really cool to me, and I’m having a lot of fun creating it. I also really love the magical creatures!! With Ascension, I have been creating my own mythology within the world as well as creating an entire species, and that’s something I’ve never done before and it is going to be incredible.

Is there a question you’ve been asked in the past that really stands out to you, and you still think about sometimes?

Not really, but I’ve only really begun sharing my writing and talking to other writers for a few months.

What is your favorite part of being a writer? What parts could you take or leave?

I love being able to navigate complex themes and emotions in a variety of different ways. Playing with different writing styles to mess with people’s heads is one of my favorite things to do, because I’m secretly evil. The one thing I wish I could get rid of is the guilt of not being able to dedicate myself to my writing all the time. I am so, so passionate about my two stories but with the little free time I have it’s hard to get in the right mindset, and I feel like I’m letting myself down.

What is your greatest motivation to write/create?

Initially, I just wanted to have a bit of fun. Recently, I fell in love with storytelling again when I watched this show called The Owl House. It was unfortunately struck down in its prime by D*sney and even though there was a series finale, a lot of its world building fell flat when the writers were unable to continue developing it. It broke my heart, and a week after I finished it I got the idea for S.S. It’s like my subconscious was trying to tell me that I could fill the void myself.

What is the best piece of advice you’ve ever read or been given as a writer?

Give yourself permission to suck, especially in first drafts.

I struggle a lot with just getting the story out because I feel like everything I write is incoherent, but I also am getting really into my own plot so I want to keep going. I just have to remind myself that it’s okay if it’s not amazing right now.

What do you wish you knew when you were first starting out writing?

You can literally do whatever you want. If someone doesn’t like the direction you’re taking, they just won’t read it. You’ll find an audience some day. Just give in and be your weirdest self.

What is your favorite story you’ve written to completion? Link it if you’d like and can!

404. Page not found. (Haha, you guys finish stuff?)

What is your favorite out-of-the-box quote?

“The real violence, the violence I realized was unforgivable, is the violence that we do to ourselves, when we're too afraid to be who we really are.”

~Nomi Marks, Sense8 (my fave tv show)

Which of your characters would you say has the most controversial mindset? Why do you say so, and how do you personally feel about their ideals?

This is such a difficult question, but I’m going to go with Oliver, from S.S. His mindset is to basically do the bare minimum and expect everything to fall into place. Even from Ch. 2-4 he doesn’t even apologize or try to make amends, he just assumes Mara will forgive him because he got himself exiled too.

I think he’s a big dumb idiot, but I don’t think I try to hide that. He’s going to have very little development in book one for the sole purpose of me using him as a punching bag, so his idiocy is tolerated for now.

If you, when you first started writing, met you now, what would younger you think?

I think she would be super sad to know we became estranged from our longtime RP friends, but she would be absolutely floored that I’m attempting to write not one, but TWO multi-book series. At the SAME time. Yeah, little dude, we created characters in other people’s worlds, and now we create our own.

#writer questions tag #tag game #writing questions #writeblr #writeblr games

[imogenleewriter]

10 writer asks

Thanks for tagging me @enchantedlandcoffee

What is your absolute all-time favourite idea you've ever had?

So when I talk about my WIP's, I refer to one of them as 'My big fic' and that's because... um, it's going to be big... that one. But I have two others to finish before that one.

2. Is there a question you've been asked in the past that really stands out to you and you still think about sometimes?

If I'm okay, lol. A commenter once said that I write too well to be mentally stable and then asked me if I was doing okay and if there was anything I wanted to talk about. I still think about it quite often.

I am okay, by the way. Well, as well as I can be.

3. What is your favorite part of being a writer? What parts could you take or leave?

Favourite: - Generally the actual writing. - Creating stories and goals, motivations, and conflicts. - Developing well-rounder, believable characters. - Dialogue. - My readers. I just, can't ever even begin to explain how much I love them and the, well, everything.

My 4-month-old fic is the 17th most commented Larry fic of all time. EVER! Out of 42k fics. It's like 1600th with kudos which just shows how dedicated the readers I have are.

Leave: - How little time there is in the day. Sometimes my head is full of ideas, but I can't get them down fast enough. - I'm not going to say what because then people will go looking for them in everything I write and see them, lol, but I have some definite weaknesses in my writing technique. I would rather just not have them... so if I could just be good at everything, that would be great. - Drafting. I NEED drafts. Can't/shouldn't write without them, but I get so antsy because I just want to publish things.

4. What is your greatest motivation to write/create?

Readers. Honestly. I would struggle to get things done anywhere near as quickly without them. Reading. Often reading other people's stuff makes me want to get up and write my own. Deadlines. I've found that I need deadlines to survive. Without them I just waste time.

5. What is the best piece of advice you've ever read or bee given as a writer?

SO much stuff. I could honestly write out 1k of my favourite writing quotes. Three that stuck with me when I was writing YCHIITS were: - The thing you are most afraid to write - write that. (unknown) - Art should comfort the disturbed and distrub the comfortable. (Banksy) - Write hard and clear about what hurts (Hemingway)

Me: It was never meant to be angsty. Also, me: Those three quotes are what kept me going.

6. What do you wish you knew when you were first starting out writing?

Psssssh, um. Like ever, or publishing? I wish I spent more time editing YCHIITS because there are so many grammatical errors that I STILL go back and fix up issues. It would have been a lot quicker to take a bit more time editing chapters before posting them, rather than going back months later and editing them.

7. What is your favourite story you've written TO COMPLETION? Link it if you'd like and can

Um. I mean, at the moment, you can guess, lol.

8. What is your favourite out-of-the-box quote?

This whole thing is making me sound mentally unstable, lol. But someone sent me this the others day and I posted it. - "You write so beautifully... the inside of your mind must be a terrible place."

9. Which of your characters would you say has the most controversial mindset? Why do you say so, and how do you personally feel about their ideals?

Oooh. I don't know if this means general characters or ones whose POV I've written in. I think by the end, 99% of people said Zayn was their favourite character, but he also got a fair bit of dislike early on. I don't think his character changed so much, as he just started to make sense. If it's just POV characters - Louis by default because it couldn't be Harry.

10. If you, when you first started writing met you now, what would younger you think?

So when I was 18, I put "finishing a book" at the top of my bucket list. I'd say probably five years ago, I was like, "Okay, if I want to write, I should probably... start." That I would be very confused about the fact I was writing One Direction fan fiction because I didn't even like 1D, but would still be so proud. It's never been about getting something published, just writing something that I like and people read.

[relatablegenzwriter]

any tips on editing?

Editing! So exciting!

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I have never known a writer without a strong opinion on editing. Some people love it, some hate it. I’m hoping these tips might slowly push you to the latter.

Disclaimer: I don’t do a ton of editing. I spend most of my time trying to get my novel ideas to actually work on paper, and haven’t made it to that point yet. However, I have made it there with a few short stories, and while most of the advice probably transfers over, take this with a grain of salt if it doesn’t work for your particular wip.

Without further ado, here are some of my tips on editing your writing!

First, get rid of the idea that editing = trashing your work. Lots of writers are afraid of editing because it’ll make them realize everything they don’t like about their work. In reality, we edit our work to improve it and help it grow, not to criticize our first draft, which is undoubtedly not going to be the best work we’ve ever produced.

Whenever possible, always do your first bits of editing on paper. There’s definitely a psychology behind scribbling all over your manuscript and how it helps you make more thorough edits. If you don’t have access to a printer, try an annotation app on a computer or tablet.

Before an editing session, make a list of the things you want to accomplish in that session. “Add more physical description”, “enhance the relationship between chars. A and B”, and “break down chapter 4” are all examples of notes I wrote to myself while editing this year. That way, you’ll know what to keep an eye out for while rereading.

Split it up! Especially if you’re writing a longer work, editing can be really intimidating. Go chapter by chapter, or give yourself ten pages at a time. It’ll feel a lot more manageable.

Along with that, take your time. Depending on how thorough you are, this can be a painstaking process. This is why books take so long to come out! It’s supposed to take a long time, so don’t stress about getting it done quickly.

Do multiple sessions. Don’t expect to edit your work once and have it ready for print; you’ll need to go through it quite a bit. This is normal! Some authors have revised their books 50 times. You probably won’t need that many times, but don’t be surprised if this takes longer than it took you to write your first draft.

GET A BETA. This is probably the best advice I can give you. A beta will give you a fresh set of eyes, as well as a person to bounce questions off of (see my suggestions here). Your beta reader can be a writer friend, a non-writer friend (more opinions here), someone you meet in an online writing community… as long as they know what they’re in for (and you’re willing to compensate them for their work!), anyone will do.

Break it up. Editing is exhausting sometimes. Have another writing project going that you can work on in between sessions to prevent burnout.

Retype. This is controversial, and believe me, it is a PAIN IN THE ASS. But it’s also one of the most useful editing techniques I’ve encountered. Pull up your manuscript and a blank document side-by-side, and retype it. You’ll find yourself correcting typos, adding and removing details, and editing without really realizing it. I don’t know if I would recommend this for novels unless you really wanna put yourself through that, but I would absolutely recommend for flash fiction, short stories, and individual scenes and chapters that are really giving you a hard time.

Show some love! To keep your morale up, try editing as if you were editing a friend or classmate’s work. Instead of scribbling out that really frustrating paragraph and writing “THIS SUCKS”, mark it with a “having trouble understanding this part”. Instead of just pointing out everything that’s not working, also note where it is! Highlight your favorite snippets, characters, dialogue, etc. Yeah, you have a lot of work ahead of you, but look at all the great work you’ve already done!

Happy editing! (And please send me more questions about writing!!)

#writing #writers #writeblr #writing advice #editing #editing advice #my advice posts #answering asks

[marshmallowgoop]

[Image description: The cover art for Volume 9 of Kill la Kill, found on the official site here. Ryuko holds Senketsu in an embrace, smiling.]

In honor of the 8th(!) anniversary of Kill la Kill’s first episode, and with Venom: Let There Be Carnage out now, I kinda wanted to self-reblog a post about how this wildly and understandably controversial 2013 anime series is actually a sailor uniform love story, no, really.

But the dozen essays I’ve written on the subject are so long and meandering and tl;dr that I’m just gonna plagiarize myself here for the important bits because, like. This aspect of the show deserves so much more recognition.

So. Kill la Kill (yes, THAT Kill la Kill) is literally a love story between a young woman and her alien shirt, and if you don’t believe me, consider the following:

✄ The cover art for the final volume of the series (pictured at the top of this post)—or, you know, the number-one thing that the show wants you to take away from it—is an illustration of Ryuko and Senketsu wrapped in a tender embrace, presumably just about to Synchronize and become one. To further bring my point home, this image is constantly featured on the homepage for the official Kill la Kill website.

✄ (Plus, an earlier draft that character designer Sushio drew is maybe even more intimate and adorable.)

✄ In scriptwriter Kazuki Nakashima’s comments for the final episode in The Complete Script Book, he notes that he felt the story had to end with Ryuko and Senketsu parting because it began with the two meeting.

✄ Which, I mean, is a pretty blatant acknowledgment that Kill la Kill is ultimately all about Ryuko and Senketsu’s bond.

✄ Nakashima has also outright stated that he “wanted to make a form of intimacy that transcends love and species” with the series.

✄ Further, the OST supports that the anime is centered on Ryuko and Senketsu’s relationship because its theme and most iconic song, “Before my body is dry,” is literally a duet between the two, with lines like, “Let’s let no one break the bond that is ours” and “Don’t be afraid my sweet heart.”

✄ In the Kamui Bansho, the Kill la Kill Official Guidebook, Ryuko and Senketsu are the only characters to get a “Best 3″ section focused on their relationship, in which Senketsu is repeatedly referred to as Ryuko’s “大切 (‘important,’ ‘precious,’ ‘beloved,’ ‘cherished’) partner” and even flat-out described as her “one and only ‘partner.’”

✄ And while voice actors are generally largely uninvolved in the writing of a TV series and can’t exactly state any “canon” information, Ami Koshimizu, Ryuko’s VA, has argued for the significance of Ryuko and Senketsu’s partnership herself, saying, “Senketsu and Ryuko are like family, like friends, like lovers, are in a very comfortable/close-fitting relationship. Had they both been human, it would not have been possible for them to have this relationship. I think that is what this wonderful work depicted.” (Emphasis added.)

Long story short? The Venom films are basically a live-action Kill la Kill because their entire main focus is, just like Kill la Kill’s, the similarly loving relationship between a human and alien clothes.

And if Venom can be recognized for telling a story all about an impossible love that’s really not impossible at all, Kill la Kill deserves some dang recognition for doing the same thing!

#kill la kill #ryuko matoi #senketsu #ramblings #maybe #yes i know #cringe la cringe #clown la clown #'the kill la kill tag is good and nice until you see a post about ryuko and senketsu being in love' #but okay a love story doesn't necessarily mean that they're -in- love like venom and eddie #and kill la kill is literally a love story between ryuko and senketsu tell me i'm wrong #i know i've made this post a thousand times but maybe one will stick eventually lol #okay i'll shut up now though this is probably still too long #venom #ish maybe #for all the 'venom is a live-action klk' jokes why is ryuketsu seen as so silly smh #i mean it is but the whole show is that's what makes it fun

[grandhotelabyss]

These two controversial, viral Tweets need to be read together, because the latter explains the former’s observation (which I’ve personally observed too) better than the former’s own gloss. The brief and shallow way to put it is that abortion doesn’t weather an intersectional critique very well. The roots of “family planning” in racist and ableist eugenics are too well known not to create a bit of nausea. But we should take a wider view too. Abortion is one issue where the “right” is swimming with the deep current of American culture and not against it. 

The neoreactionaries—fans, I’m sure, of abortion, being as they are technocrats and biological racists—say, “Cthulhu always swims left” (which explains the putatively Lovecratian fetal image trending yesterday). By this they mean that the state as Hegelian guarantor of rights always finds more and more rights to guarantee and more and more subjects to hold rights in need of protection. The state has been extending rights down the west’s various Great Chains of Being for centuries now; the most advanced theorists currently speak even of the rights of objects. 

In the showdown between woman and fetus, the fetus is the novel subject in potentia (in this case, literally) and thus at least in theory irresistible to the universal emancipatory project. And since the secular left is just itself Christianity at a later stage of this emancipatory project’s gestation, the conflict here is more a family quarrel about means and ends than an actual contest over first principles. 

The canonical American poem on this subject, Gwendolyn Brooks’s “The Mother,” is not coincidentally an elegy for embryos written by a black woman of the left:

I have heard in the voices of the wind the voices of my dim killed children. I have contracted. I have eased My dim dears at the breasts they could never suck. I have said, Sweets, if I sinned, if I seized Your luck And your lives from your unfinished reach, If I stole your births and your names, Your straight baby tears and your games, Your stilted or lovely loves, your tumults, your marriages, aches, and your deaths, If I poisoned the beginnings of your breaths, Believe that even in my deliberateness I was not deliberate.   Though why should I whine, Whine that the crime was other than mine?— Since anyhow you are dead. Or rather, or instead, You were never made. But that too, I am afraid, Is faulty: oh, what shall I say, how is the truth to be said?   You were born, you had body, you died. It is just that you never giggled or planned or cried.

I myself was reared in the Catholic Church. Every January, our teachers used to have us schoolkids write letters to our congressional representatives asking them to overturn Roe. In middle school, fresh from the works of Robert Heinlein and Alan Moore, flush with Satanic Shelleyan atheism, I drafted a letter to my teachers objecting to this practice as a violation of my rights, of my freedom of conscience—wonderful Protestant phrases!—but was counseled by a prudent friend, to whom I righteously read it on the schoolbus, not to send it, so I didn’t. In college, at the height of the religious right’s power, I accompanied a girlfriend to a pro-choice protest; tastelessly, we shook clotheshangers at a cathedral. 

More recently, though, I’ve begun to fear that the terms of the defense—“It’s just a clump of cells!”—has been one source of the liberal imagination’s decay in our time, and that the “clump of cells” rubric has been climbing inexorably up the chain of being to encompass ourselves in all our personhood (call it “the epidemiological view of society”). I am still offended in a Shelleyan way on our human behalf, but offended now by the other side. (Percy Shelley, I mean; for Mary’s opinion about our responsibilities toward our subjects-in-potentia, see Frankenstein.) 

But I fear in all cases moral absolutes enforced over ethical gray areas by the guns of the state. Abortion, like prostitution or pornography or "harmful speech,” we will never eliminate absolutely, and trying will only make things worse for everybody, especially those with the least ability to bear it. Also in my teen years I read the canonical pro-choice novel, John Irving’s The Cider House Rules, whose moral is more crisply encapsulated in the movie dialogue: “Someone who don’t live here made those rules.” 

Hegel himself—who was secretly a Catholic thinker, observes Mann’s Naphta, and thus one who tempers mystical moral absolutism with material institutional structure—tells us that politics is a tragic conflict between incommensurate goods, likely, if their conflict is not mediated, to destroy the contending parties.

#american politics #abortion #leftism #christianity #political philosophy

[mira--mira]

3 things:

the first, Le gasp. Did Madara gave Hashirama the necklace that Tsunade gave to Naruto? That's always been a headcanon of mine so it'd be super cool if that was the case for OoT.

the 2nd: I now have a mental image of Gai running laps around Konoha with Lee & Hashimada bellowing about youth, like he does. Ppl just assuming that they're his Genin team. Cue either Neji, Tenten or Kakashi hearing about it and going over to check what's happening.

Kakashi will gaze upon the matching jumpsuits and give up on life

Neji and Tenten will be offended that they've been replaced.

The 3rd: Hashirama learns of Kakashi's (or well anyones) distaste for the jumpsuits and innocently suggest that when he becomes Hokage he'll implement them as the official Shinobi uniform. Legwarmers and all.

Now that I think about it, the Gai's outfit it literally Kakashi's except green and w/ legwarmers instead of bandages. So it probably wouldn't be that different, but its still kinda funny.

How are people afraid of the Gunbai? Cuz they're not old enough to have seen Madara use it and since he's a ghost, shouldn't all portraits/pictures of him be gone. I mean I guess there's still the statue. But Madara's not weilding a fan in that one. Are students just told in the academy that the fan is bad or is it more like a cultural aversion to fans. If that's the case then are they afraid of the fan or just dislike it? Cuz its kinda implied that Gai panicked upon seeing the fan and opened the 6th gate, but that's a big reaction that would only be triggered by actual fear instead of disgust.

Sorry for the long ramble. I was just so excited to see Oot update that my words got away from me. Love your fic!

Warnings for slight spoilers, it's more background necklace stuff only in point 1 but just fyi in case it’s important to you!

1. Yes! I love that headcanon but this one has a slightly different history behind it. Madara did give it to him, but it's the necklace he inherited from his mother that his father gave her. This is bc in the "canon" history, Madara and Hashirama were never public about their relationship. The traditional Uchiha courtship necklace was incredibly recognizable (the magatama ie the big "comma" symbol on sage/indra/ashura's clothes) so Madara couldn't easily make him one. However, Tajima made the same necklace for Kou but it broke into its now-recognizable shape of today and she refused to wear any other necklace but that one, saying it was unique among all the Uchiha's (she also compared it to a dick when Tajima added the two beads on either side to make it look nicer, but that's bc Kou had a rather coarse sense of humor). Typically the mother's necklace is inherited by the oldest daughter but since Kou only had sons, it went to Madara and was one of the last things he had of her. It was his declaration of love to give it to Hashirama and, considering how vilified and demonized Kou was to the Senju, his own declaration to accept and wear it.

2. Oh you better believe they’ll run laps together! (edit: I realized this got buried in my drafts so Chapter 17 has already come out, so yes you predicted part of the future 😜) Hashirama will be little more proactive in his revenge so no stumbling upon them haha! And Gai already has plans to introduce the terrors to his genin team 😉

3. He’ll accidentally stumble upon Kakashi’s specific distaste of the outfit but you better believe once he finds, he’ll just happen to bring it up to Kakashi every once in a while just to see his reaction. 

The issue with the gunbai is it’s specifically associated with the Ghost of the Uchiha. Madara’s individual name got lost (only the elders, ninja with access to classified records, and certain clans remember it). But the “Ghost” was a bogeyman to Konoha, an evil, terrible man who was cursed with only hatred in his heart, who turned on the village and tried to destroy it. 

(In the full story, it also connects Konoha’s hatred of Kurama specifically (the monster the Ghost used to try and destroy the village) which will also be connected to one reason why the jinchuriki were always set up to be pariahs, and how by killing Madara, Hashirama’s deification as the God of Shinobi was complete, as well as another reason the Uchiha were separated and held at arms length which only worsened over time as the story became more and more mythologized and Madara’s past contributions as a founder were lost.)

Because there weren’t paintings/statues of the Ghost (except for VotE which...I think is actually a bit of a controversial piece for Konoha tbh, and the Uchiha’s secret mural) the only thing that really stuck to symbolize him was the gunbai. This is a very American-centric perspective and I will be the first to admit isn’t a perfect parallel by any means but the kind of fear/hatred most of Konoha and especially ninja have towards the gunbai/Ghost can be thought of like the Red Scare panic. The “paranoia” point isn’t quite met but that kind of visceral hatred and fear over something that they’re told to fear and hate but don’t actually have first hand experience is similar. I also think it could work as a kind of dark reflection of the Will of Fire ideology. If you’re not someone who would sacrifice everything for the village and endure relentlessly...are you going to betray the village and become the next Ghost? That’s not a vocal belief in Konoha, but more something that’s kind of implied by the black/white mentality that nationalism kind of inspires. The emotion is only towards gunbai in particular, but the culture around fans in general and them being “too similar” has created an aversion to all fans esp in the ninja clans. Tenten has a small tessen (an iron hand held fan) but it’s something that very clearly marks her as clanless to other shinobi because no clan ninja would own one. 

All of this to say, when Gai first saw the gunbai unexpectedly the years of being taught this explicitly and implicitly kicked in and he reacted. It was a panicked instinct and if he weren’t the amazing man we know and love seeing Madara with the gunbai and definitely knowing their connection, other ninja in Konoha would find it perfectly reasonable for him to then try and attack Madara.

I hope this clears things up, I felt I got a bit rambly in the middle!

#asks #anon #madara uchiha #hashirama senju #hashimada #out of time #spoliers #kinda

[sugarcomatosed]

i love your stories so much!! and was wondering if you can give some writing tips perhaps? 🥺👉🏻👈🏻

Breaking this up into sections for you + putting it under a cut cause I went overboard. 😅

General Writing Tips

These work for both academic and creative writing.

Make an outline.

It doesn't have to be a formal one, but having at least a general idea of the scenes you want to include is helpful. If I know my fic is going to be a longer one (like Don't Hesitate was and my current WIP is), I break down the larger story beats i want to hit on a piece of paper or my iPad.

It's good to know what you're planning to do, in a any piece I usually have a single specific scene I want to do and depending on what it is, I might either just do the scene I want to or turn into something longer.

Draft, draft, draft.

I cannot stress the importance of going through and reviewing your work. This is a big part of any sort of writing.

Your first idea isn't always your best idea. As you work on a piece you might find your original idea is holding you back, focus shifts! Don't be afraid to let your work change as you go. It's not always easy to let go of your original idea but if you find it's not working, you have to let it change. Sections will need to be rewritten, things have to be readjusted to fit with later sections. Reread for clarity while you're drafting and look to see if this makes sense to you, or reads well to you. If you can't follow it and you wrote it, chances are your reader can't either. Did you use the same phrase again and again? Find and search it on your doc to double check.

Sometimes you have to cut things you really like because they just don't contribute to the fic anymore. Save those bits and use them somewhere else!In a lot of my longer pieces I will write a paragraph, realize that's not where it should go and cut/paste it into another part of the doc because the pacing/scene doesn't make sense where I had it originally, but it works somewhere else.

If you're stuck, skip around, come back and then stitch the bits you have written together.

Don't Focus on a Word Count

This might be controversial, but I'm of the opinion just because something is longer does not make it better. Some works are short, and that's okay! I very rarely try to aim for a specific count of words unless it's for a prompt exchange or a personal challenge. I write till I feel the piece is done. Some stories require more words, some require less.

Don't Hesitate is a great example of this again, because all I wanted to do was a bittersweet first kiss fic, but jumping write into the kiss wouldn't get the full effect I wanted. Meanwhile, with Old Habits all I wanted to do was write dumb comedic kisses, we didn't need a 2k preamble.

Get Someone You Trust to Edit

My go to editor for the past six years or so is one of my good friends. She has edited everything from college papers to my fics for me before I post them to read for clarity, find any funky phrases or misspelled words I missed, and I do the same for her when she asks! A fresh set of eyes makes a world of a difference. Find someone to trade fics with or ask a friend! They might have good suggestions you never thought of, or be able to tell what you were going for when you don't even know yourself.

I also rely on my friends a lot to brainstorm and talk my ideas out before I start because it helps me think and figure out what I need. It's super common for me to text someone and say "im gonna spitball at you, that okay?" and then spend twenty minutes chatting through my ideas.

Have Reference Material

For my 13sar fics, I regularly go back and review/screenshot videos of the dialogue to make sure I am staying consistent with story events, character nuance and small details. You don't have to go crazy, but it is really helpful to have your source material to go back to and check yourself against. In non creative writing I always had a pile of papers highlighted with my own notes on the margins.

Take Breaks/Pace Yourself

Know your own limits, and if you are working and working on something and it's not coming out leave it alone and come back to it. I'm really bad at this personally because when I get an idea in my head I want to see it through but sometimes you gotta step back! It's not healthy to keep working on things and overwork yourself. Stretch, get up go for a walk.

Write What You Want to Write

Don't focus on what people want to read. Focus on what you like. Find a topic, a scene, anything that you are passionate about and the rest will follow. The only time I write fic for other people is when I am writing for a friend. Even prompt requests I only take open ended ones, if I am not interested in writing it it's not gonna happen. I know it's super hard and I get really anxious sometimes about letting people down now, or worrying people won't like something but then I step back and remind myself this is a hobby and I'm doing it for fun.

Play to Your Strengths

You shouldn't try to write like me, you should try to write like yourself. Find what skills you have and use them to your advantage!

I can't give you a step by step list to write like me, because nobody in the world has my background! We're all unique. Everything I've listed so far I know because I'm not a beginner anymore! I'm in my twenties and have come from a strong academic writing background.

I took on an intensive course load in high school, and then went onto college for a sociology degree. I very rarely had test based finals and at the end of each semester would have five 10-15 page papers to submit. Straight up some of my skills come from having read and studied the works of anthropologist Clifford Geertz. I am not saying you should read anthropology/sociology texts. Unless you like that sort of thing lol

I also have 6+ years of theater experience (acting & directing), I use this all the time for my writing. When I think about a scene, I think about how I would work through it as an actor, how the character would move, and how would things read to an audience. The GOTE ("Goal, Obstacle, Tactics, and Expectation") method of acting by Robert Cohen is really useful hear if you want a more technical breakdown of what I mean by that.

This leads to a lot of what we called "business" in acting, doing small tiny things while you talk or move around on stage to give the sense you're a real human. I don't have to think or try on these sort of things because they're in my skill set already!

Things I do Personally

As in, these are not transferable skills this is just the stuff I do while working on projects.

Find a Vibe™️

I come into any fic with usually a goal I want to hit, a line of dialogue or something I want to capture. Just like, the general idea of a feeling a song even if the lyrics don't match up. Make a mood-board, a playlist, just find something you wanna do. It's less about the actual words on the page and what you're aiming to do.

Look to things that inspire you

Don't Hesitate got written because I wanted to write a fic that captured the same vibe as a scene in Macross Frontier, where two characters have a bittersweet kiss before the final battle and that scene still has me fucked up six years after watching it.

My current WIP is doing the same thing but with the song All I've Ever Known from Hadestown. Two characters working through loneliness, the sudden feeling of falling in love and the frustration that feeling can bring on sometime.

I don't plagiarize them word for word, but these are scenes that inspire me! I also patchwork quilt ideas together. Using Don't Hesitate again, I also ended up pulling from a bunch of shoujo anime, Toradora, Sailor Moon, Yona of the Dawn, Princess Tutu...specific scenes I enjoy to blend and create something new.

Goof Off While You Write

I name my documents stupid things, I write dumb placeholder dialogue or vague sentiments like "insert better word here", I make memes when I'm struggling and roast myself and my predictable tastes.

I spent twenty minutes texting a friend Juro's name with different letters spelt out and then the "fuck your chickenstrips" vine saying it was Juro during destruction. Just have fun with it!

Listen to J-POP On Loop for Hours at a Time

i am not kidding I do this all the time. Perfume, AKB48, anime idol osts, Sailor Moon's OPs/ED, vocaloid songs. I like technopop and Japanese is good because it usually doesn't distract my brain since I only know random phrases, but still know what the meaning og the song is.

I love music, it helps me vibe out.

Thank you so much for enjoying my work ;o;

I hope this is useful to you in some way! I'm so sorry it's so long winded but I am overly thorough and love to teach people ;w;

#sugar speaks #sugar writes #okay to reblog

[coolmomdean]

I really admire the way you're not afraid to speak your mind about stuff even when you have strong opinions people might not agree with. I'm starting to realise that I'm way too scared of what people think of me. The thing is, I really dread being mass-unfollowed because I'm a small blog with only about 120 followers so I feel like I can't afford to say anything too controversial - and I really don't like the person that's turning me into. For example, there's certain internet people who make content about Supernatural who I'd really like to defend because I think that sometimes the fandom is too hard on them - and at the same time there's certain actors (who may or may not be planning a certain prequel series) who I'm starting to realise I really don't think much of at all. And I'd love to be able to voice my opinions a bit more but I always end up chickening out because I'm scared people won't like me because of it. I feel like the internet can be so judgy about just a few small opinions, and I love Tumblr so much in general, but also... I really don't ever want to be that person who has to follow popular opinions and can't speak my mind.

Anyway I just wanted to say I really admire you because you seem to be so good at sticking to your own opinions but not alienating people and I really wish that I could be like that.

First off, thank you! It isn't something I have always been good at. Like any habit or skill it takes practice and effort. a lot of times i'm still in the same boat as you, really admiring people who are even more bold about what they think on here. I think there's a certain freedom that comes with having a big follower base and there's another kind of freedom that comes with only having only a few followers. I have like 3.5k followers here (which is insane and not something i have dealt with ever in the past) and only like 400 on my main (which I've had since 2011) so sometimes i feel more comfortable sharing certain stuff on main that i wouldn't here, and vice versa. I also absolutely still hold some stuff back here cause that feeling of wanting people to like me is still really strong. I think on the one hand the internet mentality encourages us to share every thought and opinion we have on everything, and a good thing to keep in mind is that you don't have to do that. like you fully can just have opinions that you know will cause a stir and say to yourself : hey i don't want to deal with the fallout of sharing that i'm gonna keep that one in the drafts. there's a difference between not sharing something cause you're afraid of being judged and not sharing something cause you just don't want to deal with it.

more under the cut since this has turned into another long boy

personally the actor/rpf stuff that i can get on a medium sized horse about is a really firm boundary i want to keep so it only benefits me to share my opinion and have people who disagree with me on that unfollow. last time i fielded a bunch of asks about it i lost maybe 100 followers? even with as many as i have i still notice that and it did kinda bother me, but i don't want people who are really sensitive about that shit following me so ultimately that was a good thing. on the flip side of that, people wouldn't want to follow me if i just regurgitated what everyone else said first and better. i still lose followers when i get into stuff like that but lately i also gain about as many as i lose, so people are here for a reason i guess. everyone here brings something new and a little different to the table, and whatever your opinions are there are absolutely people on here who would agree with you if you shared. when you are your authentic self you can only benefit, because you give others the chance to interact with who you really are? that got too deep for a fandom post but you get what i'm saying.

also it is good to keep in mind that it is just tumblr. you don't need to base your worth on how many followers you have on here. its just a dumb show that we talk about on a dumb website and if you're dreading consequences when you talk about it i'd encourage you to take a little step back and think about what you get out of your interactions on here. are you making friends? do you want to make friends? do you want to get in heated internet arguments? do you want people to reply to your posts with "omg yes finally someone said it!"? you never need to be stressing about this website (not to say you're wrong for feeling stress, just to say it isn't worth the stress you're feeling).

idk this is yet another ramble with spotty capitalization and no spell check but those are my stream of consciousness thoughts. yeah.

#long post short just speak your truth babe #if people unfollow you didn't want them around in the first place i promise

[andcontemplation]

Hey you ❤️

I just wanted to let you know how much I appreciate your blog as a Jopper fan, I really do. Your writing is so cool, I love every piece of it. And you were the first blog I discovered when I joined the Fandom. Now, I hope the bad shit in your life will go away at some point and although I'm just a Tumblr anon I wanted to give you some nice words! Best wishes to you! Really.

To further distract you, as you asked, here are five headcanon questions I'd like to know about Joyce/Jim.

1. What's one thing joyce has never told jim/was afraid to tell him?

2. If Joyce and Jim could time travel, and went to Lovers lake, to see their younger selves having a datenight, what would that scenario be like?

3. What is the most kinky thing they've ever done together?

4. What is your headcanon on Joyce telling Hopper about what Lonnie did to her?

5. What is your headcanon on them saying I love you for the first time?

You are so sweet. Thank you ❤️ These questions were super fun to answer btw :) :) I appreciate you sending them in -- mission accomplished 

1. What's one thing joyce has never told jim/was afraid to tell him? Ohhhhhhhh my god. Okay, this is going to be a MAJOR spoiler alert for my fic. I know this is a hot topic and a bit controversial. It’s something Joyce can barely admit to herself because she’s convinced herself otherwise but... She’s afraid to tell Hopper that Will’s his son. Yes it’s so soap opera cliche, but I love it so pls don’t @ me lol

2. If Joyce and Jim could time travel, and went to Lovers lake, to see their younger selves having a datenight, what would that scenario be like? Because ST is so in love with cliches and nostalgia (hey! me too!), I like to think that they would have a not-a-date date on a hot summer night under the new moon. Joyce packs a picnic so they can lay out underneath the stars on the hood of Hopper’s dad’s Oldsmobile. They get drunk on cheap Boone’s, maybe smoke a joint and burn a pack of smokes, staying up til dawn. Late in the night, when the heat gets to be too much to bare, they strip down and jump in the water (Joyce first, egging Hop on...) and just before the sun comes up, Hopper builds her a fire to dry off. He even carves their initials into an old oak tree, right on the shores of Lover’s Lake.

3. What is the most kinky thing they've ever done together? Haha okay, so I have whole stories written about just this, but here’s the thing... I’m super shy about posting straight up smut. I may or may not post it to an anonymous account on Ao3 in the next little while, if I can work up the courage. If you happen to read a kinky E rated Jopper story on there soon, written by a new author, it will be pretty easy to tell it’s me if you know my writing style. But just pretend like it isn’t me okay? 😅 And for a short answer to tide you over: Hop likes to give face and Joyce is a bj queen. They both enjoy getting away with it in (semi)public but still keeping it as secretive as possible because they. just. can’t. admit their feelings for one another. Stubborn idiots. 4. What is your headcanon on Joyce telling Hopper about what Lonnie did to her? I think she hid it or downplayed it a lot to Hop. 1) Because she knew what both Hopper and Lonnie were capable of and it’s not that she wanted to protect Lonnie perse, she just didn’t want to be the cause of his murder. If anyone could murder someone in Hawkins and get away with it, it would be Hop as the chief of police lol.  2) Joyce felt like she could handle herself at first and like most victims of abuse, didn’t think it was that bad the way Lonnie was around her and the boys, that was just the way he was. And maybe he could change? 3) Eventually, she felt that she let Hopper down. She used to be so confident and sure of herself, that’s the Joyce that Hop left behind in Hawkins when he was drafted to ‘Nam. But that girl was long gone after 12 years married to Lonnie Byers. It made Hopper upset to see her make excuses for him, over and over again, not realizing she deserved better until it was too late. 

TBH I think that played a small part in why they were so hostile to each other at the beginning of the series. These two suck at communication and being open and honest with each other.

5. What is your headcanon on them saying I love you for the first time? Joyce blurts it out first when they first get together as teens, but Hop doesn’t reciprocate it out loud. Joyce regrets saying it until weeks later, he blurts it out at her during a fight. She’s so mad though, it doesn’t register. They finally both say it at the same time, right as he has to leave :( These two have some bad fucking timing. But good news... I think they’ll both say it again pretty soon after Hopper comes back from Russia!

#anon asks #answered #jopper #random qs

[lindwur-fr]

Lore writing tips from a writer~

Credentials: I’ve been writing nearly my whole life and took a few Advanced English and Creative Writing courses and currently have three novels I’m aiming to get published this year

(You only have to read the bold highlights if you’re in a rush!)

LET’S PUT THIS BELOW THE CUT cuz it may get long

A few tips to get Lore off the ground when you start out, eh? People may find lore intimidating to get into, so break everything up into manageable chunks. If you have a long history/archive of Lore, make a page for it that breaks up the arcs for easy access. You can write all you want, but if people don’t know where to start, then it’s all for naught

When you write, don’t assume that people know the characters. When you introduce them for the first time, give us a slight breakdown on them. It doesn’t matter if the other characters in the story don’t know them, the reader has to know them if they’re going to be important. Give more than a passing description if they’re going to be speaking a lot. For example, I’ll use Rubrik and introduce him in two ways: One quickly, one how I would do it if it was my own material and novel.

The deep blue Skydancer entered the room, looking about the crowd. He elegantly stepped down onto the main floor, his head tilted backwards as he carried an air of authority about him. This was Rubrik- the Clan’s leader.

Not bad, right? It’s not! But we can make it better with a few little touches

The deep blue Skydancer entered the room, looking about the crowd with the  trained grace that comes with being a Clan’s leader. He stepped elegantly down the stairs, his long, limber body seemingly untouched by his advanced age. The only indication he was the eldest of the Clan were the silver-tipped feathers on the crest of his head. He kept his snout tilted up slightly, carrying an air of authority about him as he strode to the main floor. Everyone knew who this dragon was. He was the Clan’s founder and current leader, Rubrik.

A bit wordier, but it gives a lot more information about this character! You know he’s older, but still spry and able-bodied. He’s graceful, he’s respected, and authoritative. People respect him, but don’t fear him. He’s well-known. All this without saying his name til the very last word! Both examples here work to introduce a character, but one of them gives a bigger breadth of knowledge and better conveys what this dude’s about.

When writing, if you use drafts or even just go back and re-read later, don’t be afraid to regurgitate as many words as you want the first go around. So long as you clean it up afterwards, of course. When you write, the words coming out of your brain are in the moment and will always hold a lot of impact the sooner you get them down on the page. Why do this? It’s because your brain is more involved in thinking up details the first time you play out a scene. Don’t let these details go, because brains tend to forget things. Write a lot if you can, and then clean up afterwards. No shame in over-describing anything in a first draft, because that’s what I like to call the scene in its PUREST form.

If you have trouble thinking up a lore plot, sit back and deconstruct all your dragons and think hard about who they are. There’s no shame in not having a grand, Tolkienesque storyline to tell about your dragons. Every Odyssey needs a laid back coffee shop story to be its foil. Every Noir needs a romance. Every Sci-fi needs a Fantasy. Never be afraid to tell people your stories.

Now to touch on a final point that may spark some controversy- and that is writing about touchy topics that reflect real life problems. This can be things like sexual abuse, physical abuse, manipulation, domestic violence et cetera

When you write about things like this, do it respectfully and with the proper mindset. Any form of abuse or manipulation are inherently bad and shouldn’t be presented as good or beneficial in writing. If your main character does any of this, write them knowing that they are doing something bad. They may not know its bad, but it should be conveyed to the reader that what they’re doing is bad.

With topics that could reach out of their fictional world and upset real life people, convey VERY CLEARLY how you stand on the topic at hand. Yadda yadda “Fiction isn’t reality” but some elements in Fiction ARE reality. That’s a very important distinction. Just because something happens in a Fictional setting, that doesn’t mean it won’t resonate with someone in real life who has gone through a similar event in some way.

And of course, to go along and wrap up this point: If you don’t feel like you can handle writing such a topic, don’t. Nobody’s forcing you to write something you feel like you don’t have the experience, mindset, knowledge, or willpower to write.

Now you may have the question “How do I write about a scary topic when people may have an issue with it? How can people write about war and nobody has an issue with it, but people write about sexual violence or abuse and suddenly everyone has an issue with it?”

I’ll keep this short, but it’s what I personally call the “Disassociation of Absurdity”. Every event that can be written about falls somewhere on a scale of absurdity. The more unlikely it is for a reader to personally experience a written topic, the less likely it is people will be bothered by it.

Racism, sexism, gender inequality, homophobia- all these things are experienced on a daily basis by people. Writing about it must be done with grace, and understanding that these things are very real and inherently bad. Be sure to make this clear!

War, while common in many places in the world, isn’t common in the Western part of the world. We’ve not had a war on our soil in hundreds of years. It’s a bit more common to see grand-scale fantasy wars play out in Western media and writing. So it falls pretty far from reality on the Absurdity scale for us. But it can hit close to home for people who have experienced war in some form or another. Though rare, it could happen. But it’s pretty indisputable that war is bad.

Now for a truly “Absurd” situation to be written about that is seen as catastrophic, maybe the planet starts falling apart. It’s scary, but I highly doubt that anyone would be truly upset by the premise. Nobody’s ever seen a planet falling apart before

Aaanywho, that’s my Lore Writing/Writing Tips in General, hope y’all enjoy~

#writing tips #Flight Rising #fr #Lore tips

[daywillcomeagain]

since apparently people like it when i am a numenor stan on main i have decided to DEFEND MY NUMENOR OPINIONS. specifically, @lesbiansforboromir said yesterday “the divide was between faithful and not faithful but you know there were mirriad of reasons why people chose one or the other, and a bunch of people who didn't know either way” and i immediately fell in love with them for sharing my Controversial Numenor Opinion, so now i am writing a post in defense of it.

(i’ve written a longer post about my numenor opinions + why i am an unrepentant numenor stan here; this post will probably do a lot of restating but it felt worth making its own post about.)

so, like. 3,000 years is a long time. one of the main charges against the King’s Men is that they are blasphemous against the Valar, but, like, the last contact they had from the Valar was as long ago for them as the Greek and Egyptian empires might have been from us. admittedly the numenoreans lived longer than we do, though it’s hard to tell how much so given that their lifespans varied between royalty and non and between early and late numenor; but even adjusting for that with the most generous possible lifespan estimates, it has been the equivalent of almost a thousand years in terms of how many generations they’ve had, and, uh, i don’t really think a 7th century A.D. atheist is doing something weird or hard to understand either.

the numenoreans are also speaking from entirely understandable places. when the king’s men are getting their start, the elves are immortal and live in paradise and the men are spending all their days staring at the sea with longing in their hearts and there’s still a cultural memory of all the colonialism elves did to men in the First Age. and then they are chastised when they dare “envy the Valar, or even the least of the Deathless”. a bit later--before the religious oppression started; at this point, the only sin of the King’s Men is to desire a longer life and to disagree with the Valar and the Eldar--the ‘shadow’ falls on numenor, at which point their lifespans shrink: they die of old age faster, and disease, and storms, and so on. (if i lived at that time, i might have seen this as violent retaliation from the Valar, who were punishing me solely for peacefully expressing my opinion. would i have been right? i don’t know. but i wouldn’t have been evil for it. i think it is silly to characterize this as a ‘rebellion’.) later on, after some religious persecution has happened, a Faithful king sits once again on the throne. he prays to the Valar to forgive him and his people. and what is the response? “his repentance was too late to appease the anger of the Valar with the insolence of his fathers.” i don’t know about you, but when i see someone who didn’t even do anything wrong is apologizing to the valar for something his ancestors did, and then the valar go on to punish him anyway, with lightning and earthquakes and disease and madness and general terribleness... i would not exactly be the most pro-valar person in existence!!! and i think this is really, deeply understandable, actually!!!

(have another controversial opinion of mine: wanting to be immortal, or to go to valinor? isn’t actually inherently a bad thing. human sacrifice and invasions are, and i fully condemn ar-pharazon, but, like, sauron was right there. Sauron Manipulates Humans, Does Evil Stuff: entirely unsurprising, and doesn’t say anything about whether the King’s Men were evil pre-pharazon. or, well, gimilzor was pretty awful too, but--you see my point. wanting to be immortal isn’t in and of itself an Awful Rebellion deserving of punishment! desiring immortality and fearing death isn’t universal, but it’s deeply human and imho can be beautiful when turned towards the pursuit of goodness instead of used for atrocities)

as for when sauron arrives--he’s already fashioned the One Ring at this point. (was he wearing it? we don’t know; there is iirc a draft that explicitly states that he left it in middle-earth, but given all of LoTR this seems really deeply weird. shrug.) he knows lots of things that humans don’t. he arrives as a prisoner, and he teaches them to build engines. (WHY IS THERE NOT MORE STEAMPUNK NUMENOR, GIVEN THAT THIS IS CANON ACTUALLY. @ silm fandom get on this asap.)

and one of the faithful sails to Valinor, to beg the aid of manwe. maybe to be like “help with the human sacrifice problem please??” and maybe to be like “please have mercy on them, they know not what they do”, i don’t know, we don’t know, either way, it didn’t work, his ship disappeared, and “for the treason of Numenor there was no easy absolving” which imho is really fucking rich for a bunch of deities when referring to someone who has done nothing wrong and has been breaking the law and risking death to do worship them and generally be Extremely Faithful. fuck that. fuck the valar. oh man i just. the valar did numenor so dirty. i’m mad again

also, like. the King’s Men who were super into the whole anti-valar thing? who killed people and so on? were most likely part of the invasion. killing the people who stayed behind, who were civilians, many of whom likely had opinions ranging from mine to “i don’t care” to “that human sacrifice thing seems weird but my husband likes it???” to “i am a baby and don’t understand words yet”... that was wrong. that was so, so wrong. and it’s so important to me to remember that. (in my numenor fic, i make a point of having sympathetic characters on all the ‘sides’ of the various political issues through the years. because... people are people, and numenor had so many of them at this point, and the idea that none of them had sympathetic reasons and motivations is laughable to me. making generalizations of the opinions of half a continent should not be done based off of the behavior of two kings. life is more complicated than that, actually.)

in general: i, along with many of my friends, have issues with eru and the valar. lots of people are afraid of death, or want to live longer, or wish that their loved ones pining away at the shore were allowed to visit paradise. i think this is understandable and doesn’t make them bad. the akallabeth is written with zero sympathy for this kind of thing, and the eldar and the valar seem to have the same view. and, like, fuck that, actually.

#but for all this Death did not depart #i really need an OPINION TAG #for my OPINIONS #shut up þornwë

[yoolee]

Among other things in my clean-out-drafts is a sh!tpost figure skating script, but I can’t draw it for the life of me and really the commentary is just better served as text on pics of the lords in fantastic figure skating outfits. Please if someone wants to draw them in ridiculous glittery bodysuits tag me ANYWAY here is a portion of it

Matsuko: Well folks it is a BEA-U-TI-FUL day here at Divine Rule Stadium, where we are getting ready for the free skate portion of the Sengoku Skate Classic! I’m Matsuko—

Umeko: I’m Umeko, and we are here to dish the dirt on our twelve contenders. Who has the best costume? The most rockin’ song choice? The tightest tush?

Matsuko: We may even talk about their technique.

Umeko: …A little! Maybe! 

Matsuko: First to skate is the master of the triple axel, triple konpei-toe-jump, Oda Nobunaga! 

Umeko: Our boy had a supes controversial program back at the Enryaku-ji, and he really just...well doesn’t exactly ever do the same program twice.

Matsuko: His poor choreographer

Umeko: Nobunaga does what Nobunaga wants

Matsuko: Speaking of--

Umeko: OMG is that jump even legal?

Matsuko: Don’t know! Don’t care! The judges are afraid of him anyway!

Mitsuhide:

(super traditional outfit – white to contrast w/ Nobu’s black and flames, just a few sequins, run-of-the-mill nothing overly flashy) M: A very precise program, very controlled.

U: *nodnod*

Ieyasu:

(ANGRY OUTFIT torn ruffles and such a la our boy Johnny but in olive green ‘CAUSE)

M: This is a skater who is definitely tired of being in the shadow of some of the others

U: Expect big things! … Kind of an angry music choice, isn’t it?

M: I think maybe boy’s got some stuff to work out…

U: But in the meantime he is Working. It.

Mitsunari:

(Classic, bowtie or tie style, black and white MAYBE a bit of midnight blue, no sparkles)

U: You know, he once got banned for arguing with the judges over a fellow skater’s technical scores

M: I mean, he was right, but, yeah they don’t like that

Inuchiyo

(Fantastically floral, a la his waist kimono)

M: This guy’s got huge jumps, but that kind of power gets hard to control – gorgeous when he lands them, though.

U: *holding sign that says please skate shirtless*

Hideyoshi

(‘character’ costume of some sort, fun, cheerful colors)

U: Hideyoshi is kind of a sneaky skater, don’t you think? He flies under the radar, like you sorta forget to talk about him.

M: For sure he’s not as flashy, but he always puts in a solid performance – he could absolutely end up on the podium

Masamune

(Greeeen, feathers, because feathers, Maybe something like dragon scales)

M: Very classic, graceful skater. He has a very quiet style

U: Who needs depth perception!

M: omg Umeko you can’t just say that*

(*Note, OP has no depth perception)

Kojuro

(Puffy Coach jacket, kiss n cry pass around neck)

M: The retired, multi-time CHAMP!

U: He coaches Masamune and Shigezane now, but boy we wish he’d come back

M: He really knew how to pack the points into a program, you’ll see that with his skaters too.

Shingen

(Puffy coach jacket, kiss’n’cry pass around neck, but also flashback to FANTASTIC sequin covered body suit)

M: Another retired champ, known for being a big, bold skater

U: And brave enough to rock the sequin-covered body suit!

Kenshin

(IT WOULD BE RIDICULOUS whatever it is, peacock feathers, glitter, diamond choker and flowers)

M: This skater has it all! Beauty! Grace!

U: *blinded* so…many…sequins

Saizo

*pops up as an announcer*

M: Wait aren’t you supposed to be on the ice?

S: No. *smile*

U&M: *nervous laughter*

S: Don’t forget to stop by our sponsors. And spend all your money.

Yukimura

(something simple, probably black pants and orange top)

U: Our guy’s an ex hockey player, and it shows!

M: Super athletic, has the jumps down but not the delicate edgework yet

(Kansuke drives the zamboni)

#slbp #samurai love ballad party #slbp nobunaga #nobunaga #oda nobunaga #sssssh posting at its finest #I may post the rest we'll see #this is my brain #and we wonder why I'm a mess SIGH #randomhc

[douchebagbrainwaves]

WHY I'M SMARTER THAN MARKETPLACE

So I'm telling you in advance: raising money is the better choice, because new technology is usually more valuable now than later. In Airbnb's case, these consisted of going door to door in New York. It's that startups will underestimate the difficulty of raising money—that they'll cruise through all the initial steps, but when they do they're ruthlessly pruned. Most of them myself included are more comfortable dealing with abstract ideas than with people. If advertisers would let them really blow this thing out. You probably shouldn't even start a company. Nor is there anything wrong with that. This is the tone of someone writing down to their audience. Programs often have to work with someone to know whether you want them to run is something they thought of themselves. Any startup that could be described as a marketplace usually has to start in a subset of the market, but this apparently verdant territory is one from which few startups emerge alive. Like all such things, it was harder than it looks.

But except for these few anomalous cases, work was pretty much defined as not-fun. The source of the problem. But if you're starting a startup sounds pretty stressful. The danger is when money is combined with prestige, as in, say, corporate law, or medicine. When we switch to the point of view of a programmer using any of the languages higher up the power continuum, he knows he's looking down. Users are a fickle wind, but more powerful than any other. This may work in biotech, where a lot of subsidiary questions to be cleared up after the handshake, and if you searched for Lisp on our Web site, all you'd find were the titles of two books in my bio. And bingo, there it is: The Men's Wearhouse. In this case we get three: the NPD Group, the creative director of GQ.

I couldn't simply avoid the Internet entirely, as I'd done with previous time sinks. Fortunately, I was afraid of it too. You could parachute him into an island full of cannibals and come back in 5 years and he'd be the king. At first I tried rules. The reason it seems ridiculous to me when we started YC. How to make money from that somehow, and if you write about controversial topics you have to resort to focus groups, you'll wish you could go to delight your users. To be happy I think you have to create, not something that's distributed by authorities and so should be distributed equally. The startups we've funded. School has trained them to regard work as an unpleasant duty.

A lot of would-be founders believe that startups either take off or don't. Three reasons, I think, is worry about the opinion of other investors. Though simple solutions are better, they don't seem as impressive as complex ones. Nearly everyone who works is satisfying some kind of salesperson. Deals are dynamic; unless you're negotiating with someone unusually honest, there's not much correlation between popularity and quality. But there are two things different here from the usual confidence-building exercise. Life tends to get more expensive as you get older, so it's easy to get sucked into working longer than you expect. We advise startups to tell investors there are several different routes they could take depending on how long you work for a startup or not.

But once you've admitted that one high level language can be more powerful than another. But we should be prepared for whatever PR mutates into to compensate. It's in their interest to collect the maximum amount of information while making the minimum number of decisions. You either get rich, it's not because present union leaders are any less courageous. If you'd been around when that change began around 1000 in Europe it would have seemed to our competitors that we had to stay a product company that's merely being extra attentive to a customer, they're very grateful even if you never actually use Lisp itself a lot. And if you have hot prospect, either close them now or write them off. And the reason everyone doesn't use it is that programming languages are not just technology, but what programmers think in. But once you've admitted that one high level language can be more powerful than Cobol or machine language.

Though in a sense this is historically inaccurate, it is a problem if technology increases that gap? So if you're the least bit inclined to find an excuse to quit, there's always one right there. In addition to the odds being terrible, the average investor is, as I mentioned, a pretty bad judge of startups. The most important thing is not to save them from being disappointed when things fall through. They unconsciously judge larval startups by the standards of established ones. If you're Sam Altman, Trevor Blackwell, Paul Buchheit, Jessica Livingston, and Robert Morris for reading drafts of this. Imagine having to ask permission to release software to users.

The predictive power of this simple rule is amazing. This can't be how the big, famous startups got started, they think, than to be a good idea. It The second reason we tend to find great disparities of wealth alarming is that for most of them. Ditto for investors. Fear of uncertainty Perhaps some people are deterred from starting startups because they don't like the uncertainty. The conversations on Reddit were good when it was that small. But not everyone wants to answer. If we wanted to experience what our users did. The reason so many people think of property as having a single unchanging definition is that its traditions date from a time when we were assembling our own computers to save money, we were paying a PR firm $16,000 a month to the rapacious founder's $2 million. In ancient Rome the price of slaves varied by a factor of 50 depending on their skills. A lot of startups worry what if Google builds something like us?

So by protecting their kids from risk, parents are, without the owners even knowing it, nth-degree imitations of the attitudes of people who've done great things. Don't let rejections pile up as a depressing, undifferentiated heap. It was not till I was in the nature of programming languages to make most people satisfied with whatever they currently use. If there's no one where you live who wants to start a company, it doesn't seem as if the story you want them as a cofounder. If they were driven by equity they'd be looking for ways to take advantage of weakness. Our case is an unusual one. We hope that as startups get cheaper and the number of imitations, a lot of time trying to predict how the startups we've funded have, and what changed my mind is the example of the startups we've funded so far, Sam Altman, was 19 at the time and not too resistant to learning new things. In the best case, though. They're like someone looking at a newborn baby and concluding there's no way anything so short and written in such an informal style could have anything useful to say about such and such topic, when people with degrees in the subject have already written many thick books about it. Prestige is just fossilized inspiration. Then would-be founders. The Reddits pushed so hard against the current that they reversed it; now it looks like they're merely floating downstream.

Thanks to Beau Hartshorne, Richard Florida, John Bautista, Patrick Collison, and Sam Altman for sharing their expertise on this topic.

#automatically generated text #Markov chains #Paul Graham #Python #Patrick Mooney #gap #skills #everyone #continuum #users #School #parents #startups #something #factor #example #degrees #technology #Richard #PR #number #addition #company #market #Buchheit #sinks #judge #level #Altman