#I’m not saying you have to like the ship but the double standard is really annoying

[marlynnofmany]

An Impressive Number of Arms

“Hello!” I said, holding up the clear travel crate. “Here are your small hopping animals!” I really wanted to say frogs, but they weren’t from Earth, and neither were the people I was handing them off to.

“Excellent,” said the one-armed alien. She stood more solidly on that single leg than I ever would, regarding me with one large eye. It was weird to see her mouth instead of a breathing mask. The air on her ship was unbearably damp by my standards, and I couldn’t wait to get back on the shuttle.

The other Solo spoke up from behind her, a greenish-blue to her purple-blue. “Do you have the crawling animals too?”

“Yes, sorry,” I said. “Mur is bringing those.” I called back into the open hatch of the shuttle, “Need a hand, Mur?”

“Just double-checking the seal,” my coworker called back. “And why would I need a hand when I have tentacles? Absurd human phrasing.”

I turned back to the clients, setting the crate on a table. “He’ll be right out.”

Before I could get the payment tablet or strike up some small talk, an authority figure walked into the docking bay. Well, hopped. But she made it look regal. And the other two immediately folded in half to bow. I did the same briefly, hoping it was the right amount of deference.

“Are the creatures lively?” she demanded.

“Oh yes,” I said, waving a hand at the crate while keeping my other arm at my side. It wouldn’t do to emphasize my abundance of limbs.

The boss turned her one eye on the purple underling. “Open the lid and check.”

I blurted out, “It’s clear. You can see them.”

That just earned me a glare. “False sides can be faked.”

Yeah, okay. Guess we’re doing this. I shrugged, hoping it looked polite, and stepped back for the purple one to unfasten all the safety catches. Maybe the frogs will behave themselves.

Of course they didn’t. The first one leapt right at my face, and I caught it in midair. Others were springing everywhere with excited little peeps. The purple one shut the lid hastily, but it was much too late.

“Hm. Good,” the boss said. She turned on her heel and bounded toward the door. “Make sure you clean up thoroughly.”

I’d like to say I was flabbergasted at that, but I’d been working with people of one sort or another for long enough to know better. The customer is often an idiot, and you’re obliged to pretend they’re not.

“I got one!” said the green guy. “Open the lid again!”

“The others will get out!” objected the purple one, trying to slap her hand over another tiny frog-thing.

“Who designed this crate?” the green one lamented.

“Here, I can do it,” I said. “I’ve had practice.” The frog I’d caught was small enough to hold in one hand without worrying that I’d squish it, so my other was free to slide the lid back an inch, covering the rest of the opening with my forearm. I dumped the frog in and closed it, then held my hands out for the next one.

The Solos were grateful. We did our best to catch the many little beasties that were spreading across the docking bay. I caught twice as many as they did, and put them all back one at a time.

The green guy shook his head. “That two-armed advantage,” he grumbled.

“We appreciate your help,” said the purple one, giving him a sharp look.

“No problem,” I said. “I’m happy to put my arms to use.” It was only showing off a little to catch two different frogs at once. “I think we’ve got most of them, just missing the ones that have gone into hiding.”

“Hiding inside our shuttle?” asked Mur’s voice.

I looked up to see him posing in the entrance with a frog wrapped in almost every tentacle. He towed the snail crate behind him on a glider pad. The seals looked fine.

I cocked a hip. “Nobody likes a show-off, Mur.”

His grin made him look like a cartoonishly proud squid.

The Solos fell over themselves thanking him. I put my two frogs away, then took his one at a time while the Solos peeked into corners and crevices in search of strays. Eventually they were all back in the crate, none the worse for all the excitement.

I didn’t know if they were destined to be food, royal pets, or something else, but they were healthy and accounted for on my watch, dagnabbit. I even got out the medical scanner to count how many were in the crate, because there was no way they’d hold still long enough to do it the old-fashioned way.

“Yes, that’s all of them!” I declared. The Solos looked visibly relieved. “Good job, team!”

“You’re welcome,” Mur said with false humility.

“Yeah yeah,” I said. “You and your more-arms-than-the-rest-of-us-combined. What took you so long to come out, anyway?”

“Oh, that.” Mur leaned in with a tentacle shielding his mouth from lip-reading on any cameras that might be in place. “Whoever made the snail crate did a bad job. The lid popped open in transit.”

“What?” I asked while the two Solos looked appropriately alarmed.

“Not to worry. I got them all.” He looked exceptionally smug, waving his tentacles gently.

I just shook my head and took out the payment tablet.

“Don’t tell the boss,” said the purple one as she took it. She had to set it on the table so she could use her single hand to tap in the information.

“Not a word,” I promised.

“I will only brag to trusted ears,” Mur said. With a glance at me, he added. “I think now is a fine time for a round of that card-flipping game that you lost so badly at last time. I’m on a roll.”

I pointed a finger at him while I accepted the tablet back with the other hand. “Oh, you are on. There’s no way I’m going to let you be this smug twice in one day.”

He grinned some more. I was pretty sure he was definitely going to be that smug again, but I’d give it my best shot. On the behalf of people with only two arms everywhere.

~~~

The ongoing backstory adventures of the main character from this book. More to come!

#my writing #The Token Human #humans are weird #and so are the aliens #haso #hfy #eiad #writeblr #aliens #science fiction

[heyclickadee]

Saw another “why would Tech even be interested in Phee” take out in the wild, so here’s a partial list of Phee’s many attractive qualities, because the double standard of every other character vs Phee is exhausting:

(Quick disclaimer—this isn’t me saying anyone has to like the ship. You don’t. It’s fine. Don’t ship things you don’t want to ship. Dislike the way it’s been written in the show if you want. Ship these two with other people or with no one if you want. I don’t care. This is just me being tired of people being weird about Phee):

1. She’s smart. She can improv her way through dealing with death traps and she’s got an area (areas) of expertise that Tech knows relatively little about. That makes her interesting. Also hot.

2. She’s gorgeous. Look at her. She’s ridiculously pretty.

3. She’s a great storyteller. Yeah, she changes her stories every time, but that’s at least part of why Tech is paying attention, because he notices that.

4. She’s a stone cold badass. And she’s a FUN stone cold badass. Disarmingly charming stone cold badass.

5. She’s a remarkably good person. She steals artifacts so that refugees can hang on to a bit of their culture in diaspora. This seems to be what pushes Tech from, “Oh, she’s interesting,” to, “OH. SHE’S BRILLIANT AND I MIGHT BE IN LOVE.”

6. She’s not nice, but she is kind, and that’s honestly a quality that she and Tech share. Phee isn’t soft, she’s not going to talk in therapy speak, she’ll push a little hard sometimes, but gosh darnit if she isn’t the person who would always stop to help someone with a flat tire (or respond to finding out some friends are broke, jobless, and on the run by immediately taking them back to her secret refuge so they can rest and recoup).

7. She’s incredibly direct and unafraid to speak her mind and…okay. This is going to get long. And I know some people will disagree with this, and that’s fine because everyone is different, and wants different things. But. Speaking personally from my point of view. The fact that Phee gives as good as she gets would be a really reassuring quality to have in a partner. I see a lot of myself reflected in Tech, but one of the many, many ways in which we’re very different is that I’m a consummate people pleaser, and Tech is very much not. At all. I don’t think he has a people-pleasing bone in his body.

But, here’s the thing—about half of my people pleasing comes from being terrified that I’ll say or do something that inadvertently hurts someone, and that person won’t just tell me or give me the chance to explain or make things right. And for how that relates to dating, I had people—friends and family—keep trying to set me up with incredibly shy men through most of my early twenties, no matter how many times I objected, because they had this perception that I was soft, wishy-washy, and needed to be treated with kid gloves. And…no. I’m opinionated as hell. I’m relatively confident about certain things. I just shut down my ability to project any of that because I was terrified of running roughshod over people without meaning to. But when I’m around someone who I know is willing to disagree with me, who I know will explain why, and who I know will push back if I take something too far? About 90% percent of my people pleasing and social anxiety evaporates. I know I don’t have to walk on eggshells around them—and that they aren’t going to walk on eggshells around me, either. They’re going to be direct about their issues and treat me like a freaking adult.

And, honestly, the fact that Phee doesn’t walk on eggshells around Tech (who also gives as good as he gets—Tech isn’t soft, nice, or shy and retiring; he’s confident as hell and he should be, because hot damn)—is. I don’t know. I like that she’s direct, and that she will recognize and pull back if she’s gone too far. This is projecting a bit, but, speaking personally, I would rather be with someone who treats me like an adult and tells me what’s up even if it’s uncomfortable than someone who never, ever tells me when they’re upset because they’re afraid of hurting my feelings and just lets me stew in social confusion all the time.

8. She can more than hold her own in a fight and she carries a sword around. That’s hot, I’m sorry.

9. Phee’s fantastic with Omega. She talks to her like she’s a person, she doesn’t ever shut Omega down, she’ll tell her stories, she’ll joke around with her, and she’s generally very respectful while also not holding her to the same standard she would if Omega were an adult. She’s even a little protective of Omega, even though Omega isn’t at all her responsibility. I think the moment that took Phee from ‘cool’ to ‘fantastic’ for me was towards the end of ‘Entombed’ while the Deadly Giraffe of Death was collapsing; Phee’s right there trying to shield Omega alongside Hunter. And. Like. Omega is Tech’s baby sister, he’s probably going to notice that how Phee treats her. Massive points in her favor for this.

#techphee #I’m tired okay

[caligvlasaqvarivm]

You might’ve already got this before, and I’m asking this in genuinely good faith.

Your essay was very interesting, and convinced me of Erikar as a ship reading. I also really enjoyed your dissection of Eridan as a very honest person drawn into destructive behavior. It very much lines up with his status as a Prince of Hope! One who destroys conviction/belief through conviction/belief.

What confused me was your insistence on the hidden hand of the author. Death of the Author and all that, what’s implied in the text can be taken on its own separate from commentary but you seem to be doing an autopsy— the text implies [this] so *Hussie* must have intended for [this] and then tried to cover it up. If they genuinely thought it was a better ending, why not do it? Why the secrecy, why the feints? I think it’s a little conspiracy-brained to insist on a secret “better ending” that we don’t have author’s word or drafts on.

I’m also a little drifted on your frustration with the deaths of the trolls? You write that the theme of Homestuck— a standard coming-of-age story, a reckoning with society and the exit from youth— is undercut by the deaths of the trolls, because that means they *had* to die, in *punishment*. I disagree. Their deaths are tragic, not just.

Homestuck has a lot of methods of revival, the choice to (for the most part) perma-kill some characters (the trolls for one, and then AR, WQ, and WK) is a deliberate choice to make death mean something. If dying doesn’t mean anything, what are the narrative stakes? Murderstuck marks Gamzee as a threat, Eridan as a tragedy. The deaths there are meant. To be sad. To demonstrate that sometimes kids don’t get to grow up, that sometimes the society they live in cuts them down.

Homestuck is a sad story at times! It doesn’t need an ending where everyone gets to live to keep its coming-of-age conclusion.

I hope this made sense. I’m not trying to attack you, I’m just skeptical of some of your points. I hope you go on to do more analysis in the future!

If you want to believe that, go ahead 👍 again, arguing my points on that front would require its own entire essay, lol, so I'm not really planning to do that as the answer to an ask. The only thing I really want to say here is that while Homestuck is often sad, as you say, its underlying tone is unwaveringly hopeful right up until Game Over/the Retcon, and even kind of beyond that. If you prefer a sad story, then you can have a sad story, but it's just not a reading consistent (to me) with the entire rest of what Homestuck is.

For example, the whole narrative grapples with the debate of predestination vs. free will. Do things happen in Homestuck because they have to, or because characters are making choices? But with the introduction of John's retcon powers, it lands firmly in the "free will" side of the debate: the retcon powers outright defy the power of stable time loops - a reflection of how Breath is associated with freedom and choice. This is the optimistic option.

Another thing the narrative grapples with is the realness vs. fakeness of magic. I don't think it's hard to argue that between LE's "evil wizard" status and Godtier!Calliope's wand-induced black hole that the arrow falls firmly in the realm of magic being undeniably real. This is the optimistic option (and yet another narrative element that Eridan is extremely relevant to).

Moreover, even post-Retcon, there are elements that are kept that soften the tragedy already present in the story - for example, the concept of the Ultimate Self, and the implication that all surviving characters will eventually achieve it, takes the edge off all their doomed and dead counterparts, who won't actually be relegated to double death in the dream bubbles, since in a way, they'll live on through their alpha counterparts. It turns those sacrifices from bitter to bittersweet, and serves as a counterpoint to common takes like John being sad that he doesn't know the version of his friends that exist post-Retcon. The inclusion of it in the post-Retcon story, even with its botched delivery, says to me that Homestuck is still intended to be optimistic at its core, even with the extreme Giving Up that Hussie did.

And let's not forget how Calliope gets to come back to life, no strings attached, and that her stated purpose is only to live. Up to the end, the tone is that of HOPE, and I think there's no mistake that HOPE is supposed to be what defeats LE.

As I said in replies on that post, as an artist, I just can't imagine spending literal years, and literally a million words and thousands of images, writing something that's so thematically and tonally consistent, only to hard swerve right at the end, without extenuating circumstances.

And the thing is, there WERE extenuating circumstances, and they're fairly well-documented.

The kickstarter got funded, and while the story is muddled, we know the production of the game was extremely troubled, and Hussie was having difficulty being a project lead for that while also grappling with everything else. Everything else being, of course, an ever-increasing number of irons in the fire - more third-party artists he had to commission and manage, more merchandise he had to be on top of, bigger updates to sate the demands of the fanbase.

Which, speaking of, was infamously one of the most awful and toxic fanbases to ever exist, and one that Hussie has deliberately attempted to distance himself from since. I can't imagine the kind of daily abuse, harassment, callouts, and worse that Hussie had to endure as Homestuck's creator during the fandom's peak years. I don't blame him at all for turning against them.

Therefore, given the way the tone and themes hard swerve, the way several characters get bent entirely out of shape (you're telling me Karkat had several means before him of bringing his dead friends back and WOULDN'T SAY ANYTHING???), the way several plot threads are simply left dangling in the air, and the way some characters reach really weird and unpleasant conclusions (davepeta, gcatavrosprite), I think it's actually LESS reasonable to assume that the ending we got was the original plan. Hussie saw that to do the ending he wanted to do back in act 4, he'd need to write for a year, maybe two years more, and then looked at his mounting stress and pressure, and looked at the fanbase he'd come to hate, and just went "nope." And I can't even really blame him for it, lol. In his position I'd probably do the same.

Also, please don't mistake "the deaths are undone" for "the deaths will not have mattered" - I think there's a reason that the game over timeline characters still exist post-Retcon. Their arcs don't end with their deaths, and their failures are weights on them that must be narratively resolved - I believe that they go on to be the ones to defeat LE, although I have much less evidence to support this. It just makes narrative sense to me - the post-retcon team focuses down the Felt, various Jack Noirs, and the Condesce - the latter of which is their final boss, as the ultimate representation of the shitty society they're doing away with on their path to creating a new one.

Meanwhile, the dead and "irrelevant" versions of the characters, the ones who grappled with and were harmed the most by what LE represents - immaturity, selfishness, and cruelty - go on to band together after death, and defeat him in the bubbles, a culmination of their vengeance for the havoc he wreaked. And with him being destroyed in the bubbles by the dead and irrelevant, symbolically, he will be rendered nothing more than a bad dream for the waking, relevant, and alive.

Thus Gamzee is still an antagonist, although it becomes (Gamzee) and (Equius) who go on to form LE. Those deaths and those failures still matter, they still happen, they still have narrative weight. Even without the Game Over versions of the characters still existing and still being important, the decision to welcome antagonists like Gamzee and Eridan back into the fold is rendered more complex and more significant BECAUSE we've seen how badly they can go.

The speech originally given by post-Retcon Vriska to (Vriska) is also, to me, a weird artifact of this hypothetical original ending - as it exists within the actual comic, it's said by the wrong person to the wrong person - Vriska with her character development reset to a (Vriska) who's had her characterization destroyed in order to make the first Vriska seem more right. I think originally, it would've come from (Karkat) to Meenah, the latter of which being the one whose idea it was to fuck off with the treasure, and who caused the Beforus team's worst problems, and who has a track record of fucking off whenever she's tasked with taking responsibility. Thus, it would serve as a conclusion to Meenah and Karkat's arc, as well as Game Over Sadkat's arc specifically, would convince Vriska to go with him, and would give Meenah some narrative commeuppance, which would kickstart some sort of Beforan troll feelings jam that would rally them together to actually be useful for once in their lives/afterlives and contribute to the LE fight.

Again, if you PREFER the sad ending, I can't stop you, but the reason I'm going in on there being an "original ending" that isn't sad is because the sad ending doesn't make narrative sense. Why is the ultimate self speech coming from a combination of two characters that barely spoke? Why is it triumphant that Meenah and character-development-reset Vriska get to be the big goods in the fight with LE? Why do multiple prophecies suddenly get dropped right at the end when all other prophecies DO come true? Why does Karkat spend so long being sad his friends are dead, and also why is he deliberately set up as the Friends Troll (blood = bonds), and then suddenly not care that multiple methods exist for bringing back his friends? Why bother softening the blow of all the dead/irrelevant alternate selves if they're intended to be fully tragic? Why introduce a mechanic that would let them save whoever they want consequence-free and then not use it to do that? Why does Roxy love wizards so much and then not get to meet the wizard boy? Why is the entire rest of Homestuck so carefully crafted, so narratively satisfying, so thematically and tonally consistent, and then all of it goes to shit right at the end?

So yeah lol this is the SHORT version lol this isnt even the LONG version of this essay

#anon i think u just like tragedies which is ok 👍

[milesgmoralles]

Hi! Do you mind sharing your coloring tutorial or tips? especially for the animation ones, they're so good! your gifs are crisp and HD

hi, anon. tysm! 🫶 i don't mind at all since i’ve gotten more than a few requests from before, ig it's time to give it a go. (more) details are under the cut. 😁

before we start, i want you to take note of the following things that will be helpful in the process of making/coloring gifs.

if you want to get the know-how on making gifs, @redbelles did us a solid and gave us this comprehensive guide that will save me the time for explaining lmao. 😅✌️

make gifsets without skipping frames. keep frame delay 0.05 and 0.06 for less than 25 frames. anything more or less is too fast or too slow. additionally, it's also important to note that if you're dealing w videos that are faster than 30fps you change the frame delay to 0.04.

gif using the the new dimensions (in this tutorial i used the dimensions of 540px x 510px since it's all about big gifs now 🙄).

use the standard sharpening settings (smart sharpen, amount 500%, radius 0.3px, remove gaussian blur and tick more accurate) also note the sharpening settings for 2d as you've specifically requested.

 you can use action that will convert your gif back to frames and set your timing to 0.05 with a single click. basically photoshop will follow out all of these time-consuming steps for you! just download the action and double click it. it should now be added to your list of actions.  to see your actions, go to window > actions. find the folder that says "GIF ACTION" and select the lines that says "CLICK HERE" and voila! ps will do all the hard work for you.

the coloring on your gifs will look good if you have a good base so try not to skip on video qualities. use high quality copies like 1080p or 2160p (4k ones are good) the higher the gb the better. it makes coloring so much easier and reduces grains.

*cracks knuckles* let's start!

for 2d animation's sharpening settings, it usually varies so i just move the amount around and see what looks or works better for a specific gif. i used amount: 189 and radius: 0.2 for this ponyo gif. anything can work between 189 to 350 for me but i maintain the radius at 0.2. again, you can just play the amount around until you find the one that looks good for your gif.

when i’m making gifs. i look for that notorious contrast between the light and dark parts. i think it gives life to the gif- so exposure, levels and curves are best to achieve that. for curves, just go to layer > new adjustment layer > curves. this layer is going to help brighten up the gif in certain areas, and darken others. select the white eyedropper. click the lighter part of the gif like the white/light part of the ship.

next, select the black eyedropper and click on a black/dark area of the gif (refer to the arrow bc i don't know which part of the ship is that called lmao).

you can skip the black eyedropper if you're already satisfied w the result of the white one.

color balance and selective color are your two best buddies. they’re great when you’re trying to change some tones or specific colors of the gif, like the skin tone which is very tricky.

using selective color is pretty simple, here’s a really useful guide:

if you pull any of the tabs to the right, it increases the amount of color (cyan, magenta, yellow and black), and reduces the amount of opposite color (red, green, blue and white).

i also use the blacks and whites in selective color especially if the gif is saturated w colors to tone down some parts and make shadows more visible (idk if this is still making sense 😅).

in working with color balance, i use midtones and highlights sparingly. it's really helpful in removing or balancing out a certain tone.

here's my save setting ⬆️

idk why but ps puts the default frame delay to 0.07/0.03 so open your gif in ps again and don't forget to change the delay to 0.05.

and we're done!

i sometimes go back and forth and do some tweaking until i’m satisfied with the result. this is how i color and i know it’s not perfect but i learn by constant practice. there’s really no standard in coloring so you can make yours the way you like it. just enjoy- until you get the hang of it and it becomes less daunting (or something like that). i hope this helps. if you have more questions, my askbox is always open 😊.

#completeresources #usergif #userpayton #usersugar #rresources #yeahps #itsphotoshop #userbells #dailyanimatedgifs #usercharl #usersavana #Chaoticresources #hisources #ps help #tutorials #ask replies #anon

[lovelylivelyv]

Beware This Person

Before we begin, obligatory disclaimer: do NOT harass the person I am about to bring up. I don’t want things to spiral out of control and I am simply here to warn you guys about a potentially harmful person I advise you stay away from. Ok? Good. Also a TL;DR is at the bottom of the post just in case.

It has been brought to my attention that someone I had beef with on Discord took to Tumblr and has been badmouthing me for months. Sidetable-Drawer (also one of the mods on Hottoepecker) and I met in a Foster’s Home For Imaginary Friends server though I came across her blogs around the same time. We initially got along well, but then I noticed her behavior would change when it came to disagreements. It got to the point where I felt she was getting extreme, and she blocked me shortly before leaving the server entirely. I thought that would be the end of it, but I find out that two months after she left the server (and two months before the post was sent to me with monthly reblogs), she made an entire rant about two sides of the fandom. However, I noticed for one particular side she seemed to talk less about the side in general and moreso one person, and that person is me. Since she blocked me and made me powerless to defend myself on the post itself, I’m here to warn you all about her behavior.

The post is about how the “Bloo is basically Cartman” and “Bloo did nothing wrong it’s everyone else’s fault” sides of the Foster’s fandom are really annoying. But when she talked about the latter, she brought up multiple things I did specifically, in addition to how her saying she won’t pretend Bloo is an UWU Soft Baby or whatever was something she only started saying after I had the audacity to claim…that the rest of the main cast are flawed individuals that likely don’t understand the weight of their actions against Bloo (ex. excessive yelling, hitting, double-standards; for more info watch The Hidden Pain Of Blooregard Q. Kazoo). For the record, I never claimed “Bloo did nothing wrong”, I only claimed “Bloo deserved better”. But enough about that, I’m going to point out the tip-offs that give away she’s using me to cover up how she’s actually a bully.

“Guys he's just a goofy little asshole who's fun to watch (most of the time) but sometimes needs to be thrown against a wall.”

-She said this a notable amount of times in the Discord server and it sounds unironic. I don’t want to read into this too much, but I firmly believe children don’t deserve to be abused. Yet I’m the demonizer?

“He’s got his own problems…but it also doesn’t justify him being a jerk.”

-I never said his reasons make it ok for him to be a jerk, all I said was he has reasons for acting out. Understanding is not the same as excusing. This is also the same person who thinks Mac was in the right for abandoning Bloo twice but three a fit when Bloo dared to “cheat” on Mac with another kid later on (she can believe it if she wants, but I find it funny that she makes excuses for Mac while having a zero-tolerance policy for Bloo).

“I've seen some people come up with BS takes defending everything Bloo does and throwing every other character under a bus and demonizing them (we had an entire video post about FRANKIE derailed with a reblog about how everyone is "too mean" to Bloo. Please make a new post for your bad takes)”

-As I said above, the first half is not true. Sidetable-Drawer specifically accused me of demonizing them when I explained how leaving Bloo to die in the pilot episode despite mustering the courage to save Mac mere seconds later was the catalyst for his behavior. As for the other…yeah, I derailed one of her threads (because she mentioned Bloo was being a little shit for wanting credit for a rescue), but it was one time. A singular time. This is hypocritical of Sidetable-Drawer to complain about because she’s guilty of doing the exact same thing MULTIPLE times. She not only derailed Bloo conversations to gush about Mac, but also invaded Gloo shipping spaces and constantly called me and others disgusting proshippers over a HEADCANON. Here are some screenshots of Sidetable-Drawer’s continuous derailments, as well as others trying to get her to stop ship-policing: (for privacy sake I’m blocking out all pfps and usernames aside from mine but will put “SD” next to Sidetable-Drawer’s messages)

So much for not burning me at the stake. Imagine calling my opinions bad takes when she’s the one actively harassing others over a ship she can’t accept is genuinely harmless, simply because it doesn’t fit her interpretation of a tweet Craig McCracken made. I’ve talked many times about how the aging thing is not necessarily set in stone for Bloo because of the existence of loopholes (Land Of The Flea) and the implication that Mac’s subconscious reason for creating Bloo was to have the big brother Terrence should have been, so I’ll just leave it at that.

“He's a funny jerk. Sometimes you just have to leave it at that.”

-Mac is a happy little kid, you could just leave it at that too. But you love to dissect how he’s a powerful character for coming out of his trauma a better person and theorizing how Mac’s life used to be before the show’s events. Why shouldn’t Bloo’s complexity be talked about? It sounds like you take issue with the idea that Bloo can be as layered as his peers.

“People are allowed to like Bloo but people are also allowed NOT to like him for these reasons, and you have to deal with it.”

-Then why did you accuse me of demonizing the main cast for saying the others needed to do better too? Why did you harass Gloo shippers to the point of trying to guilt-trip them out of shipping it? YOU’RE the one who’s not allowing people to think differently from yourself.

“(In the tags) Sometimes I remember that horribly squicky ‘Bloo Defense’ video and die a little bit. Sometimes you need to back up and tell yourself…it’s JUST a drawing :p”

-Ship-policing wasn’t enough for you, now you’re policing character analyses just because my view is wildly different from yours. How would you feel if someone told you that for saying Mac deserves better? You yourself are adamant against using “it’s just a cartoon”, but I guess you have no issue using it when someone else’s opinion doesn’t fit your idea of how things should be. Also if you really hated my video that much, you could have left a comment on the video proper instead of dragging my name in the mud for months.

All of this happened over simple disagreements I tried to be polite about despite her ignoring boundaries and shaming others time and time again. Normally I don’t respond to hate comments, but after having to deal with Sidetable-Drawer’s behavior on Discord for months and eventually finding out how she went out of her way to mock me and leave me powerless to defend myself, I knew I had to speak out about all this. If anybody figured out she was actually talking about one person and knew it was me, I could have been harassed. If I can help at least one person avoid being on the receiving end of her bullying, so be it.

TL;DR A Foster’s Home fan vilified me for having a different perspective, disguised a Tumblr post and subsequent reblogs targeting me to be about another group of Foster’s fans, and I’m warning others to stay away from her so they don’t go through the same thing if not worse.

#important #foster’s home for imaginary friends #fosters home for imaginary friends #fandom discourse

[questioninqthings]

I’m probably not someone whose opinion you really want to hear. But I still want to share my thoughts on the matter.

I’m very much neutral about the topic. I don’t mind people shipping the twins, actually having the feeling that shippers have a much better understanding of their characters than the antis (probably because they are mostly fans for longer and not just "popularity tourists" who didn’t even have played a single game as it is with most antis)

Personally I’m not much of a shipper myself… (I don’t care about shipping at all since it’s usually causing horrible discourse in fandom and can bring out both the best and worst in people in my opinion)

But I have seen enough of the side of the antis that I don’t want to be associated with them and their practices.

Personally I understand if a ship is making someone uncomfortable regardless of the reason. But it doesn’t justify any harm or vile treatment towards people who are interested in these ships. We are talking about fictional characters who aren’t real. As long as the shippers keep their interests only in fiction and don’t practice it in the real world I don’t see any problem with that. Where I do have a problem is when people put a fictional character above real life people and wish or even cause harm upon them because of a ship they deem problematic.

I have seen vile comments and treatment towards the shippers so much that they either deactivate their accounts or just leave the fandom or main tags. (Both here and on twitter and japanese)

At the same time there are many other questionable parts of the fandom that are acceptable and tolerated but are also kinda bad if you think about it. It’s literally a double standard.

Recently a big name artist has been exposed to having made commissions of shipping content and I feel like this has further split the antis. To be okay with commissions and not being okay with them.

Since this has happened I feel like the fandom has become more tense, like something is going to happen sooner or later and I don’t know what it’s going to be…

Only time will tell…

Hope you’re okay with having me drop in and share my thoughts. You’re free to delete this since I don’t participate on either side really.

I'm pretty much the same way. I'm not a Blankshipper myself, but I've become leaning more neutral towards the idea of people shipping it. But because of my place in the fandom, I feel myself confined and stuck to only making friends on the "clean" side.

Furthermore, if I were to openly accept people from the neutral / Blankship side, I would be burned at the stake.

I do feel like I've been pressured to loudly share my "disgust" with Blankshipping, even though in reality I have never cared that much, and it's difficult to admit this. I'm not a minor, I'm a bit on the older side of the fandom, and I grew up where this stuff was normalized. So really, you could say I am desensitized and possibly neutral to the whole thing.

[1908jmd]

"But she didn’t complain about others, It was Darren going to Broadway that really upset her"

I mean, it's not like she randomly singled him out. They were talking about a specific episode, and it happened to be an episode in which Jenna got sent on paid bonus vacation for ~acting up~ while Darren got to do Broadway for a bit (having spent his actual vacation to rehearse for it). So I get why it came up in this context, even if I don't quite get how this is an unfair deal for Jenna.

This episode did finally give me the push to unfollow the podcast, but imo its biggest crime is still that it's just so BORING - the ever more thinly veiled resentment towards Blaine/Darren is just the final straw.

They did single him out. They complained that “Ben” was in the episode purely so everyone knew Darren was being written out to go off to Broadway. They then said he was allowed time off to do things, and there were double standards left and right, and it was “sometimes hard to deal with”. Kevin said that in a sarcastic voice. In fact it is Kevin who was more vociferous about Darren. Listen again, I just did.

I guess you can say it’s boring, it doesn’t talk about what the majority of us want to hear, but yes their issue with him is why I’m not going to listen. They prefer to talk about getting drunk at parties, and their hair and make up at awards ceremony than the show’s iconic mlm ship. That’s their choice.

Thanks for the ask!!

#atwyrm #podcast

[throwawayasoiafaccount]

to sansa stans, take this post as an opinion from the other side, not as character hate or hate towards the OP. also, i didn’t post the name of the OP because i don’t want them to get any backlash in case a lot of people end up seeing this. (long post in coming…)

wrong. OP’s opinion of the other side is incorrect and a bit offensive at that. i used to like sansa, now i am indifferent to her because of sansa stans.

to continue on, yes… sansa does develop internally… just like all the other characters ???? (doesn’t everyone develop internally…?) the difference between sansa and other characters is that she is a pawn—meaning she is led around by the big players—develops slowly, and through her POV, grrm tries to give us insight into what these big players—littlefinger and the tyrells—are doing without spoiling anything. this is why sansa has such slow development. grrm couldn’t have her grow because if she started trying to play the game, she would’ve gotten herself killed because she would be a novice or some of the big players political machinations would’ve had to have been revealed by grrm to keep up with sansa’s development. the tyrells and littlefinger need to stay mysterious for the plot.

if anything, sansa’s slow character growth is a testament to how amazing an author grrm is. he also does an amazing job writing quick character growth.

furthermore, the character who actually bores people is bran due to his long and tedious chapters—but people like bran, do they not? is it because he’s a boy and not a girl? is the like for bran, who i’ve established as a male character who bores people, then rooted in misogynistic double standards based on your analysis? i don’t think so. if anything, there are those who are indifferent to him, those who find him sweet but on a dangerous path, or those who come up with headcanons where he’s going to take over hodor and rape meera. there are shitty theories out there for every character because people all have different perspectives on the books. but from what i’ve seen, the dislike of sansa is not rooted in hatred or contempt for her character just because she was annoying once or because people find her boring. now, if i want to get radical, the horrible headcanon where bran uses hodor to rape meera is rooted in ableism. why? because why does bran need to use an able body to rape meera? (this sounds so wrong). why couldn’t meera like bran for bran? why couldn’t they have consensual sex? (WHEN THEY ARE OLDER). is it because the person who came up with this theory is ableist and can’t imagine anyone falling for someone who can’t walk? so then the only way bran and meera could have a sexual relationship is where bran (who’s very innocent) commits a horrible wrong against the girl he has a sweet crush on? let that sink in. horrible theories rooted in discrimination are everywhere.

additionally, a character who really does inspire violent hatred is dany. now, because i’m not trying to make blanket statements, i come with a specific example. the whole dany is going to burn down kings landing thing is rooted in misogyny and contempt for her character—and it also makes no sense whatsoever when you have both cersei and jon con in westeros on a crash course. cersei has sooooo many aerys parallels and jon con is going into that tywin lannister mindset—aka he thinks he should’ve burnt the town to the ground to find robert baratheon. it’s gonna be the sack of kings landing 2.0, but it’s going to be even more devastating this time. when you look at things this way—why are people so sure that dany will be the one to do it? it’s actual misogyny. dany is a woman in power—a young girl at that—who’s much more powerful then the men in the asoiaf universe. she’s taking on a corrupt system, she openly had a lover, and is a she-king. you know what, i bet if dany was a guy then people would absolutely adore her and ship sansa with her. double standards galore right here.

moreover, saying things like, “misogynistic double standards or indifference with which she [sansa] is discussed,” is a blanket statement if i’ve ever heard one. it’s also one that is not true. there are many reasons as to why people criticize sansa without being misogynistic in their posts/discussions—people like the OP are just taking criticisms of sansa out to be something they’re usually not (i’m sure there are misogynistic antis, but saying they represent a whole group is just bs). and dude, it’s perfectly acceptable for people to be indifferent to characters. in the first paragraph OP went off and said that it’s okay for characters [sansa] “not being someone’s cup of tea,” which is something that i agree with, but then OP did a 180 and put indifference and misogynistic in the same sentence, equating them on the same level, like ???? chose an opinion, stop being wishy-washy.

continuing on with my obnoxious nitpicking lol, “people try to justify disliking her at the same level as the true villains of the series or other morally ambiguous leads.” one, she’s not a lead, two, do you know what morally ambiguous actually means in the context of calling some of the actual leads this? the leads may make some morally ambiguous decisions, but this does not make their actual characters morally ambiguous. three, i do not understand why people dislike sansa more than the actual villains, but it may be because her stans are out of control and have some of the worst headcanons i’ve ever seen—an example being queen in the north sansa, something that is not supported by the text (Lady is her direwolf, not Nymeria, and she’s not a she-king like dany). four, sansa is classist and she does have internalized misogyny. she has many prejudices that will likely be worked on in the next book as she’s forced to grow (the winds of winter are blowing, every character will be getting darker in the next book). five, she is a liar at times, but so is every character, and the OP seems to be trying to equate “liar” with “classist” and “internalized misogynist” by putting these three in the same sentence. they’re not the same at all.

and the problem with the final sentence of OP’s response is that sansa has not grown significantly. she just hasn’t. i stated earlier in this post that this is because grrm needed her to stay stagnated, and i stick by my opinion, but this doesn’t change the fact that she’s still thinking classist/misogynistic thoughts about mya stone and other characters.

opposite of this stagnation is significant growth. i also stand by my statement that grrm is good at writing this as well. significant growth is when jon snow realizes that he was being a bully to the other recruits and firstly stops his behavior, and then secondly tries to befriend them and thirdly helps them out with their training. the only trait you listed (classist, liar, internalized misogynist) that can still be applied to jon is that he’s a liar. however, like i stated before, everyone lies in asoiaf. and lying is necessary. but equating lying with classist and internalized misogynist makes it seem like lying is outright bad and that anti-sansa asoiaf fans are criticizing sansa for something as necessary as lying. jon snow quickly got over his classism and realized his mistakes, which is quick character growth. (there are some times that he makes snide remarks or has bad thoughts towards women… but internalized misogyny does not apply to him because… well… he’s not a woman *shrugs.* i also wouldn’t agree with saying he’s a misogynist. he does have prejudice towards women who sit in towers and wait to be saved, but this is likely due to catelyn’s ice eyed glare and septa mordane. also, he never brings these prejudices out in the open, meaning he doesn’t discriminate against these women).

i bet a counter argument some people would try to make is that sansa doesn’t know better and has been raised this way or that and that this is the reason she exhibits these behaviors, just like jon, she can’t help how she was raised and needs someone to explain to her why her prejudices are wrong; this is a very bad argument because it ignores the fact that none of sansa’s other siblings have classist beliefs and arya doesn’t have internalized misogyny. bran and robb do not exhibit any prejudice towards women either, likely because they didn’t have catelyn giving them ice eyes everyday. now, on the thought of sansa’s other siblings, saying that arya was exhibiting “classist” behaviors or “internalized misogynistic” behaviors in the beginning is so wrong that i wanna laugh. does no one remember aryas, “the woman is important too,” quote, or remember aryas nickname? aka arya underfoot? lmao. i need receipts cause this ain’t checking out.

i can’t believe that alicent was compared to sansa under the asoiaf tag. contrary to show alicent, book alicent is not the same. show alicent is totally watered down and this takes away her agency. she was made into a mary sue, and to be honest, this kinda ticks me off. surely this was to make the greens more sympathetic, but it takes away her culpability. she was nasty in the books. truly a “classist,” a “liar,” and an “internalized misogynist” based on her attitude towards rhaenyra. actually… all three of those traits can be applied to show alicent as well now that i think about it but it’s much more subtle and her lessened agency makes it harder to spot at times. (also i haven’t finished HotD).

and really, tyrion hate? really? there’s a double standard for tyrion if there’s a double standard for anything in this fandom. he does some horrible things, i’m not denying this, but why is it so hard for people to understand that right now he is NOT mentally stable, which is in no part his own fault. he’s not a villain in asoiaf. he needs help and hope.

finally, to answer the ask, i also do not agree with those who call sansa a villain. she is not similar to viserys, the hound, or janos slynt in any way. but i also haven’t seen the post saying that about her, so clearly it wasn’t very popular. this further supports my claim that these people do not represent the whole group of antis.

now, who does sansa abuse? well, she’s verbally abusive to arya. but that’s the only thing i can think of. siblings can be horrible. generally horrible. from personal experience i know that sometimes young kids are just nasty because they don’t understand why their behavior is so wrong—and with the societal enforcement of sansa’s beliefs, of course she wouldn’t think that what she’s doing is wrong. taking this to the real world, other people who have maybe experienced this type of abuse by a sibling may not be very understanding of sansa. this type of stuff can trigger people. and it’s also hard to be understanding towards sansa when she thinks stuff like wishing margaery was her sister instead of arya. until she has development, many people will greatly dislike her for her attitude towards her sister who she bullied (an example being horseface remarks). bullying is abuse; we usually just use bullying to identify abuse that takes place in a school between children of a similar age.

regarding the previous passage, a pet peeve of mine is the: “you’ve clearly never had a sibling” argument some fans try to make in order to lessen aryas abuse. it hits too close to home at times and makes me sneer at some people’s ignorance. dany and arya were both abused by their siblings and are finally able to grow as people now that they’re not under viserys thumb and sansa’s shadow. the same applies to jon. he’s no longer under catelyn’s nasty glare so he can finally grow. catelyn and sansa were not nearly as bad as viserys, but the abuse is still there and shouldn’t be taken lightly.

to be honest, i think most sansa-antis are just annoyed that sansa stan’s ruin other characters to fit them into their headcanons, steal other characters themes, or bash the female characters they see as rivals to sansa—aka dany and arya. i truly doubt the whole group actually hates her character and are just annoyed with her stans—i bet once she starts to grow, more of these antis will become indifferent to her. i stated before that she’s very stagnant right now, and many people are not happy with some of the things she’s done and the fact that grrm hasn’t had her learn from her mistakes—lemon cake… her opinion towards mya stone… and the whole sweet sleep debacle. honestly, i may be optimistic in my opinion that grrm will have her grow drastically in the next book. and if she doesn’t end up realizing the wrongness of her prejudices then my opinion of her character will lower significantly.

the point of this post? stop calling whole groups of people misogynistic because they don’t share your opinion.

#asoiaf #anti sansa stans #jon snow #daenerys targeryan #bran stark #arya stark #feeling indifferent towards sansa #i blame the stans and their bs #stop with the whole catelyn wasn’t an abuser shit #stop calling whole groups misogynistic

[bohemian-nights]

The double standards within this fandom even in fanon actually is hilariously sad to be honest. Because the same people who rant and who rave about Nettles and about how unimportant she is to the Dance, to the narrative but as well as to Daemon, are in fact the very same people whom write reader insert stories about the reader having a rags to riches relationship with Daemon. Some even have the reader very clearly using Daemon to further their position in society and the fandom loves it. Matter of fact there are even some stories with the same premise surrounding Aemond, Aegon, and Jace (speaking of Jace it is telling how whenever it is x Velaryon!Reader it’s actually a strong!reader and you know what that pisses me off). The only difference is that in these stories the readers are ALWAYS described not as Velaryon or even Valyrian looking but as Targaryen looking. Or even when they try and make it ambiguous they always slip up and add in a detail or two that obviously makes you know the “reader” is white. So no I’m not bring race or color into everything but it’s very telling that when black characters especially black women are presented in a way that shows their importance, or are seen as capable of being desired in BOTH a sexual and romantic way, especially if it’s by a white man people all of a sudden seem to becomes “uncomfortable” with the ship or think it’s “problematic.” It’s also why none of the fandom has a problem with Missendei because of how “loyal” she was to Daenerys. And when I say “loyal” I mean she poses no threat to Daenerys politically or personally (she wasn’t a contestant for the throne nor did any of Daenerys’s “love” interests ever interest in Missendei) and essentially existed to serve Daenerys and Daenerys’s character, and therefore it was okay for the fandom to like her.

You said a word and yeah no one is trying to make it about race, but they brought race into it. Honestly they are just a very unserious group of people who have chip on their shoulder when it comes to the Black(ish) characters.

Imagine being so upset about a fictional character that you want her cut from a TV show cause she doesn’t look like you and she gets with a guy who you think is hot(that’s really what this about) so you use the excuse there are too many Black people on said show and say that any Black character can replace her.

And for the life of me I don’t understand why they think that excuse makes them look totally not racist. They talk about people only liking her cause she’s Black well it’s clear that they only hate her because she’s Black.

I mean it’s already pathetic that you have people being racist to actual people in real life, but imagine being anti-Black towards fictional characters.

This is literally just a show/book about fictional people with dragons in it, but the thing they can’t accept is Black characters with their own story arcs.

#bnasks #bnask #again this is why I don’t fuck with this fandom #even Jesus can’t save them

[lenievi]

The Triumvirate in The Enemy Within

I really love this scene in The Enemy Within - it’s the prototype for Spock and McCoy offering Jim options and it set a high standard that some later episodes didn’t actually manage to reach imho

There is a “myth” in the fandom that McCoy and Spock’s arguments are only about emotions VS logic, but that’s a very simplified view imho because that logic manifest itself into “it’s fine to sacrifice a few so many can live” and the emotions manifest into “no way that’s the decision I’m willing to go with” and this scene is the very first example of what gets more explored in the Galileo Seven when it comes to Spock and McCoy

(it’s long...)

This episode, perhaps made too early in the season, but I don’t think it would work this well later because McCoy and Spock’s reactions might be different, has Kirk being split into two halves - both of them are a Kirk (and I’m not going to call them good and evil because it isn’t that), but only one can be reasoned with, which is the one we follow through the episode. But that half starts to lose his ability to make decisions soon. The split was caused by a transporter malfunction and to add some tension and drama to the episode, four men (including Sulu) are trapped on a planet where they’re about to freeze because the temperature is extremely low (like minus 50-60 Celsius and lower)

There was also an alien dog, who also got split, but they figured out that the transporter might put him back together - which it did, but the dog died (as a side note, the first filmed “He’s dead, Jim.” was actually about this dog). And now the scene

McCoy is trying to figure out what killed the dog and just from a cursory look prior to the autopsy he states

I don't know. Animal could have died of some kind of shock.

which is something Spock believes is 100% true

SPOCK: For once, I agree with you. MCCOY: I said could have, Mister Spock. We won't know until we get a full post-mortem. SPOCK: No autopsy is necessary to know that the animal was terrified, confused. It was split into two halves and suddenly thrust back together again. Thus shock induced by blind terror.

as Kirk points out, “It sounds likely.” - but it’s all just Spock’s “hunch”, a theory because other things could have gone wrong. It was an unprecedented transported accident and who’s to say that it didn’t mess up the animal’s organs?

SPOCK: It couldn't understand. You can. You have your intelligence controlling your fear.

Jim doesn’t argue and trusts Spock’s words and orders the transporter room to be ready. But McCoy steps in

MCCOY: Could be, if, maybe. All guesswork so far. Just theory. Jim, why don't you give me a chance to do an autopsy and let Spock check the transporter circuits again.

and Jim once again trusts this

KIRK: That sounds, sounds reasonable. We should double-check everything.

Kirk is obviously confused and doesn’t know what to do and he latches on anything his two friends provide him with because at the moment he doesn’t have the ability to decide. He lost his ability to be a competent captain.

SPOCK: Aren't you forgetting something, Captain? KIRK: No, I don't think I've for SPOCK: Your men on the planet surface. How much time do they have left?

Spock needs to remind him that his men are dying. He needs to remind him of the “needs of the many” (one Kirk vs four men) - he needs to remind him of his responsibility as a captain, which is always to his crew and the ship

KIRK: Yes, that's right. The men. We have to take the chance, Bones. Their lives

he remembers and knows that he needs to do the right thing and fast (note: this is the first time Kirk calls McCoy “Bones”, in production order. I like to hc that it slipped because he wasn’t in control. Before this Jim didn’t allow himself to use the friendly nickname to maintain some form of a decorum, even though McCoy was always allowed to call him “Jim”, but so was Spock, but after this Jim was like whatever, it’s not like the crew doesn’t know McCoy is my personal friend with the way I allow him to act towards me).

But McCoy disagrees

MCCOY: Suppose it wasn't shock, Jim. Suppose death was caused by transporter malfunction. Then you'd die. They'd die, anyway. Jim, you can't risk your life on a theory!

and this is a part I personally find fascinating (lol). McCoy’s emotions overshadow the need to save four dying men. They’re not right in front of McCoy (so he doesn’t need to think about them), Jim is and Jim’s life is important (not just because Jim is the captain of the ship where McCoy serves, but because Jim is his friend - and throughout the series there’s very little that would make McCoy think about someone/something else over Jim [Jim being in danger is the keyword though]). McCoy doesn’t want him to just risk his life on Spock’s “theory” because tbh it is just a theory, a hunch. If Jim goes through the transporter and dies, it’s a risk that could be prevented if they just waited for the autopsy/Spock made sure that the problem wasn’t the transporter itself. If the men on the planet go through the transporter and die, well, they would freeze to death anyway. (This is the scene I always remember when people are like McCoy thinks about all lives... except he doesn’t when Jim is concerned [I’m probably slightly more biased when it comes to Jim and McCoy’s friendship because the fans tend to not find it as important/strong as the other two, but it just doesn’t align with what is on screen]. McCoy was slightly more colder and pragmatic at the beginning of the series, his association with Spock probably made him voice the concerns about “the few” more vocally, to counteract Spock’s cold logic - but that comes after the experience on the Galileo/Taurus II)

SPOCK: Being split in two halves is no theory with me, Doctor. I have a human half, you see, as well as an alien half, submerged, constantly at war with each other. Personal experience, Doctor. I survive it because my intelligence wins over both, makes them live together.

Notice how open Spock is about his own circumstances, he explains himself where he’s coming from, so McCoy can understand. He isn’t rushing forward with some idea he just thought of, he believes that like his own, Kirk’s intelligence can also win over both of his halves. 

Your intelligence would enable you to survive as well.

In my personal hc this episode is when Spock realizes that Kirk also has to fight two halves of himself and that those halves, even when the other one is unpleasant and ugly, make Kirk the man he is. Like himself, Kirk is wearing masks all the time, he denies himself what he wants. “You're the Captain of this ship. You haven't the right to be vulnerable in the eyes of the crew. You can't afford the luxury of being anything less than perfect.” and Spock has a chance to see Kirk as not perfect, as vulnerable, and it changes how he sees him. (Like, with McCoy, I don’t think Spock is aware that McCoy too pretends, that his outward emotions also serve as protection and hide his true feelings because it’s a complete opposite to what Spock is doing and what Kirk is doing. But that’s also why he finds McCoy interesting because lbr he is the most emotional and irrational human we can see on the Enterprise)

KIRK: Help me. Somebody... make the decision. 

Seeing Kirk like this is hard for both Spock and McCoy. They see the man they admire and trust losing himself in front of their eyes.

SPOCK: Are you relinquishing your command, Captain? KIRK: No. No, I'm not.

Only a reminder of losing his command brings a little of whole!Kirk’s fight back because even in this state, losing his command is unacceptable (the same way as the other half suffers that he isn’t recognized as the captain and in command)

 MCCOY: Well then, we can't help you, Jim. The decision is yours.

and McCoy reminds him that as long as Jim is in command, all decisions must be his own. Neither Spock nor McCoy can do it for him. They can make suggestions, but the final decision should always be Jim’s. And that’s how it is in the series. McCoy can tell Jim what he thinks, and he does, but he doesn’t actually expect Jim to listen to him 100%. He just needs to give him a push if he thinks Jim is slipping or about to make a decision that would hurt him (”Don’t destroy the one named Kirk.” “Jim, if you have the awareness to ask yourself that question, you don't need me to answer it for you. Why don't you ask James T. Kirk? He's a pretty honest guy.”), otherwise he trusts Jim pretty completely tbh 

So I really love that they make McCoy say this here.

Well, at the end, Jim doesn’t actually make the decision. He takes both advices.

KIRK: Mister Spock, ready the transporter room. Bones, continue the autopsy.

because both have their merit and he trusts both McCoy and Spock and at the moment doesn’t know how to make the best decision.

(What I like about this scene is the clear difference in Kirk’s voice when he orders Spock as a commanding officer, and when he tells McCoy to continue the autopsy as a friend, underlined with his use of “Mr Spock” and “Bones” - showcasing the difference between the more professional relationship he has with Spock, and the less professional relationship he has with McCoy.)

I honestly love this scene because it shows that Kirk needs both Spock and McCoy to be at his best. That he values both of their advices and that he takes both under consideration. When he is his whole self, he knows what to take from both to make something even better. He’s able to combine the suggestions or at least get inspired when they offer him two extreme options.

This is probably the best scene for understanding what the trio is about. It also works the best because McCoy and Spock don’t argue with each other, but they both direct their advice to Jim without either of them insulting the other one. (but this is literally the first episode that has Spock and McCoy interact and only later the writers realized that hm they could be getting into petty arguments, let’s do that, but most stuff in season 1 is actually quite well balanced)

McCoy is focused on here and now and the life of an individual, whereas Spock is focused on the bigger picture and the lives of many (he is worried that he isn’t correct in his assumptions, but the men need to be saved even if it means to use the captain as a guinea pig, it’s the logical thing to do). We see this in other episodes later as well, even as far as The Paradise Syndrome in season 3, and the combination of both became one of the most Spock related things in the franchise.

AMANDA: Spock. Does the good of the many outweigh the good of the one? SPOCK: I would accept that as an axiom. AMANDA: Then you stand here alive because of a mistake ...made by your flawed, feeling, human friends. They have sacrificed their futures because they believed that the good of the one, ...you, ...was more important to them.

#jim kirk #leonard mccoy #spock #the enemy within #star trek tos #tos nonsense #this is long... why do i need so many words for one scene? #it isn't shippy but it has some mckirk bias ngl #maybe also some spones bias idek #but not in a romantic sense #in any case this is how i see the scene and the early relationships

[javelinbk]

twenty questions for fic writers

Thank you @scurator for tagging me! Let’s not compare stats, eh?

How many works do you have on ao3?

22 total, 21 J/P

What's your total ao3 word count?

367,138

What fandoms do you write for?

Just The Beatles!

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

1. Brother Dearest

2. Stop all the clocks

3. The Life of Riley

4. Take a sad song, and make it better

5. Double Fantasy

Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Absolutely! It’s always polite to say thank you, and a comment to me is a gift. That reminds me, I still need to reply to the last few comments on LoR.

What is a fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

The Songs We Were Singing has the angstiest moments, but the ending itself is one of the schmaltziest I’ve done. Get a job, cop is probably the only one I’ve done that doesn’t have a happy ending, although I tried to make it more bittersweet than miserable. And it’s still happier than what happened in real life!

What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Probably Take a sad song and make it better, where they [spoiler] end up sharing a love nest/shag pad in Scotland, go back to writing together, and raise their blended family together, and then finally get married in their sixties. What more could you want?

Do you get hate on fics?

No, generally people are lovely, but there were some weird fact-checkers on Brother Dearest for some reason - one who incorrectly tried to tell me I’d got their ages wrong (like I hadn’t checked it!) and someone who was put out that I didn’t include Ken Brown at the Casbah. Oh, and I got the bog-standard message from occasional troll Vee, but that just made me feel like I’d finally arrived in the fandom!

Do you write smut?

Reluctantly, yes, but normally only if it’s part of the plot.

Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

Nope

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of. There was a fic that came out just after Stop all the clocks that had a lot of similarities to certain parts (and I know the author read mine), but they were the types of things you wouldn’t even notice if you weren’t as familiar with it as I was, so I don’t even know if the author realised they were doing it. But people who cry ‘plagiarism!’ generally bug me, especially because we see so many of the same ideas come round all the time in this fandom. And I’ve only been around for 2 years, so I know nothing.

Have you ever had a fic translated?

Not until recently, but someone has just started translating The Life of Riley into Russian! I think they might be doing Double Fantasy too. Hit up @pinksodaaa if you want to know more

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

No. I tried doing a group fic once, but there were too many cooks, and I’m not really sure how the ‘writing’ part works, especially when you only have contact online. I love chatting with friends about fic though, and would definitely be up for collaborating one day. By which I mean I shout out plot ideas and they write the damn thing.

What's your all-time favorite ship?

I guess I’ll have to say J/P because this is the one I’ve got most heavily involved in, but faves back in the day were Lois & Clark and Father Peter & Assumpta. I guess I’m a sucker for ships involving self-sacrifice for a greater good.

What's a wip you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

I don’t really have any, although I have snippets that I’m not sure will ever go anywhere. I have half an idea for one set during Anthology, but I’m not sure if there’s enough of a story there. And I once wrote a short BYBANG sequel for @scurator, but I’m not sure I’ll ever let that see the light of day.

What are your writing strengths?

Err, dunno. I’ve written a few multi-chapter plot-based fics now, so I guess those are my speciality. And I like making my soundtrack playlists, but I don’t know if anyone else is that bothered about them (I know that’s not really writing, but it’s part of the whole creative process for me).

What are your writing weaknesses?

Oh, boy, too many to list. Relying too much on gestures and body language. Writing straightforward dialogue without showing what people are feeling. Using the same words and ideas over and over again.

Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

I can’t say I’ve really thought about it. I can’t speak any other languages other than a bit of basic German, so I doubt I’ll be doing it any time soon.

First fandom you wrote for?

First posted was for Sanditon (a period drama that had a terrible ending that needed to be fixed), but at school my friend and I used to write self-insert John (me) and George (her) fics (and by ‘write’ I literally mean we’d write them out on paper)

Favorite fic you've written?

I love all my children in different ways! I probably like the world of Double Fantasy the most, although I don’t think that fic is particularly well written. Tres bien ensemble is always a fave, because that one just appeared fully formed in my head one day. And I do like the ‘enemies’ part of Brother Dearest. RIP, McHarrison, we hardly knew you.

Tagging @zilabee @beatlessideblog and @eveepe if you fancy it

#fic writer asks

[distinguished-slacker]

saw some people on tiktok saying that Shinoa sa’d mitsuba (when she touches her b00bs (shower scene and drunk mitsu and shinoa scene) and i was just wondering if you could elaborate on it?

(WARNING: This post talks about sexual assault so you might or might not want to read it.)

Hi :3

I don’t really know much about TikTok but I definitely have seen people on Reddit and Twitter discussing about this topic before.

Fans always raise the point that Shinoa’s feelings for Yuu are being forced on her by other people like Shikama and Mahiru, and that she should be with Mitsuba instead because Shinoa looks happier, is more physically open and takes more initiative when she is with Mitsuba. However, the problem is that mitsunoa is always talked about from Shinoa’s perspective, her comphet and how being with Mitsuba would be much better for her, but it’s never talked from Mitsuba’s perspective so naturally some people would like to raise some issues here.

The shower scene is quite popular among the fandom as a cute lesbian scene but not many people stop to think about how that would go for a real life situation. That’s like going to the gym showers with your friend while being unaware that they are ogling at you while showering. Unfortunately, things don’t stop there and said friend then starts sticking to you and roams their hands over every single naked part of your body. It’s a terrifying situation and a potentially traumatic experience, and if that were to happen to me I would terminate my friendship with her right there and file a sexual assault report not caring that she was my friend and that she is a woman like me. If Shinoa was a man and did that to Mitsuba, I’m telling you he(she) would definitely be hated by the whole fandom as some disgusting pervert and this ship wouldn’t even be existing in the first place. Therefore, some fans find frustrating these double standards that a guy touching a girl without her consent is sexual assault, but when a girl touches another girl in the same way then it’s cute and shipping material.

But at the end of the day this is anime/manga we are talking about, where it’s commonplace to have that beach/pool/public showers/hot springs/bathroom episode where female characters compare sizes and there is always that one female friend that goes like “Oh! You are so big! Let me touch them for a bit! <3” to the big breasted girl. So in the end I can just turn a blind eye on this because it’s the same Japanese fanservice story. I mean, Kagami obviously did not write this with the intention of portraying sexual assault. In the showers Mitsuba told Shinoa to not go inside her shower and to stop touching her when she went in. In the drunk episode she told Shinoa to stop groping her. That’s something, but if Kagami wanted to portray a scene of sexual assault he would go further than that, showing Mitsuba uncomfortable and conflicted after those scenes (not that Kagami really shows Mitsuba that much anyways) but instead Mitsuba is still the same, being on friendly terms with Shinoa. I must add here that liking the other person doesn’t mean that they cannot sexually assault you in case the argument that Mitsuba seems to like Shinoa comes forwards because “no” is still “no”, and “stop” is still “stop”.

So what I want to say is that both sexual assault in real life and in fiction are unacceptable but in this case I feel like it’s better to not look much into it and ignore these kind of scenes because it’s just clear fanservice that you can see in your everyday anime; the kind of writing that is not going anywhere from a narrative and character development standpoint.

However, the problem here is that mitsunoa has long passed the point of going through that single fanservice episode, but rather the whole basis of what could have been a potentially well written relationship between two girls who share similar backgrounds and a story together is at this point a whole big fanservice. It’s not just the shower scene and the drunk scene. There was also another scene in chapter 54 where Shinoa rips Mitsuba’s uniform open (with her frickin scythe if I must add) exposing Mitsuba’s breasts which was so random and uncalled for (aside from dangerous). Also, in the CD drama, Mitsuba tells Shinoa that she discovered Shinoa has been looking at her in the showers when Mitsuba was washing her hair. Basically, almost every major mitsunoa interaction we get contains a sexually denigrating component that in almost all the cases is initiated by Shinoa being unable to stop obsessing over Mitsuba’s boobs.

As I said before, it’s better to ignore these kind of scenes and to be honest I feel like most fans do, and only respond when:

Mitsunoa is simply treated as a cute lesbian ship without the sexual assaulting being acknowledged

Shinoa stans see these mitsunoa scenes and still treat Shinoa as an empowering female character

Shinoa stans are trying to excuse Shinoa’s inappropriate behaviour

I already talked about the first one at the beginning so I’ll talk about the other two.

In the second case, fans are defending Shinoa’s character from other potential misogynistic fans (although in most cases the latter are not misogynistic but rather are rightfully complaining about the way Shinoa is written but this is a story for another day…) when ironically the very same female character they are defending is also shaming another female character (Mitsuba). This is not defending women, this defending you favourite character, who happens to be a woman. It’s okay to like and admire Shinoa but unconscious biases in cases like these don’t sit well with some fans (including myself).

In the third case, I’ve seen people defending Shinoa saying that she herself has had her boundaries breached when she was being experimented on while naked in front of the scientists, when Shikama tried to make her give in to lust and when he (they?) possessed her body. I acknowledge Shinoa went through terrible things but still this, in no way, does justify Shinoa breaching Mitsuba’s boundaries. Just because something bad happened to you doesn’t mean you have the rights of doing the same thing to someone else. With this kind of life I’m aware Shinoa must not have a proper sense of boundaries when touching other people or struggles to be considerate when talking to others (like calling Mitsuba “Holstein cow” in the manga or “girl with unnecessarily big breasts” in the CD Drama or just her everyday sexual dry jokes towards the squad). Her background explains her behaviour and makes it understandable, but not excusable. Not at all.

Of course, I want to make the point that this is not Shinoa’s fault but rather it’s just the same story about male authors lacking understanding about women, which consequently ends in superficial and sexualised portrayals of female friendships in fiction. I mean, even Mitsuba recently went over the line when she got drunk and called Shinoa flat and tried to grope Krul too. In the LNs Shigure also casually lifts Sayuri’s boobs and Sayuri treats it as if it was nothing. So basically no OnS female character is safe from this kind of writing and I wouldn’t be surprised if it happens again…and again. Sadly “boobs” has become a running gag in the manga.

In conclusion what Shinoa does to Mitsuba can be indeed considered sexual assault from a non-fictional and fictional perspective but not from a narrative one as this is just your everyday fanservice that most of the time comes from male writers like Kagami that think they will appeal to the audience/readers by showing female characters half-naked. By what I’ve seen most of the fans simply brush it off as fanservice too and only start debating when some other fans either deny Shinoa sexually harassing Mitsuba, elevate Shinoa’s character in the wrong areas or try to justify her actions. In the end this is the author’s fault because of the way he portrays women and no woman in OnS will never be in danger of such writing, either as a character who sexually assaults, or a victim of one, or even both.

🍍🍍🍍🍍🍍🍍🍍🍍🍍🍍🍍🍍🍍🍍🍍🍍

I didn’t know if by “elaborate” you meant whether to elaborate on why what Shinoa does to Mitsuba is sexual harassment or elaborate on why are fans pointing this out so I tried to do both and cover all the points. As for the latter, since I’m basing a big part of the analysis in this post on the fandom’s activity (mostly from other online platforms bc ofc Tumblr is dead🥲) I would mention some usernames as references but I don’t want to since this is a delicate topic and I don’t want to openly talk about these users, expose them, bother them or spark any fights at all. So if you happen to see this post, think that I used your words/analysis/discussion/conversation as reference and if it happens to be the case and you actually want me to mention you please feel free to do so. I just hope I didn’t offend anyone by writing this.

#owari no seraph #seraph of the end #shinoa hiiragi #shinoa hiragi #mitsuba sanguu #mitsuba sangu

[go-to-the-mirror]

any thoughts on basira and daisy for the ask game?

[ID in alt: @isnt-loving-lovely’s ship bingo. The title is “ship bingo.” From left to right, top to bottom, the spots are: “I’d read a fic,” “sure i can see it,” “otp x 1000,” “the angst. the drama,” “t4t,” “qpr,” “unhealthy in a good way,” “been married for 30 years,” “unhealthy in a BAD way,” “best in a certain part of canon,” “canon no, fanon yes,” “they sure do exist,” “free space,” “I didn’t know about that one,” “rotating in my brain like a microwave,” “theyre exes,” “i can see the appeal,” “I have So Many Headcanons,” “awwe I love them :),” “I used to like them a lot more;” “no,” “part of a bigger polycule,” “fandom doesn’t know them like I do,” “canon did them Wrong,” “wlw/mlm solidarity.” Crossed out in purple is: “unhealthy in a BAD way,” “free space,” “i can see the appeal,” “no,” and “fandom doesn’t know them like I do.” “i can see the appeal” is only crossed out a little. “no” is crossed out a lot. /End ID]

(CW vague mention of TMA canon-typical police stuff)

Alright, I have Feelings about Dasira, but I’m mostly going to be talking about it in an aromantic way, because I am not the person who knows enough to talk about TMA and cops. (But I will say that if one more person headcanons Daisy with BPD I am going to Die, please Stop.)

So, as an aromantic person, I appreciate that canon!Dasira is completely platonic. They absolutely suck ✨ platonically ✨. They’re a toxic ✨ platonic ✨ relationship. Basira has double standards about Daisy killing people versus Jon taking people’s statements, but her feelings for Daisy are completely platonic.

Yes, queer romantic relationships are important in fiction, I acknowledge this and I’m not going to say it doesn’t give me warm fuzzy feelings to have queer romance be a thing, I love it as much as the next person, but as an aromantic person, I absolutely adore how Daisy and Basira can be so devoted to each other — to the point of it being harmful to the people around them, don’t think I have forgotten — and have the relationship still be completely platonic.

I have a problem with the TMA fandom and how a lot of people just sort of… assume romantic!Dasira is canon, when it’s not. Some of my favourite fic authors are guilty of this (I will not name names because. No. They’re lovely. I don’t know if I have the power to make people do anon hate and I don’t want to find out), and it’s just… hhh. It makes me annoyed. Ship and Let Ship, yeah yeah, but also, aaa, just. It doesn’t sit well with me, personally.

Also, not the right person to be talking on this, but while I really like Daisy’s redemption (?) arc and the message of forgiveness not being necessary but trying to do better being necessary, I… hm. Idk. I just don’t want to say something wrong, so I tend to just stay away from Daisy and Basira as characters. Don’t have much experience with it and have not done enough reading on it.

Anyway, thank you for the ask, you’re v snazzy, and if anyone else wants to… uh you can send stuff for:

MCYT (specifically Hermitcraft and adjacent, but I can do any MCYT, I’ve absorbed some stuff via osmosis), BNHA/MHA (I had a phase), PJO (and related fandoms), TMA, Malevolent, WTNV, RQG, TMC, and any other fandoms you fancy but those are the main ones.

#tma #dasira #daisy tonner #basira hussain #the magnus archives #asks #(hopefully that’s my tag) #landscaping your mind chapter one #thank you viky youre the best #also ill get around to the other ask eventually i promise #police #viky tag

[nuatthebeach]

HI, I love your blog. My ask is

What are your top 5 fictional girls who inspire you and you genuinely love them and why?

I love questions like these because they always force me to reflect on why I prioritize certain traits over others in fictional characters in the first place. And this question in particular is fascinating because I’ve come to realize that a certain pattern that correlates with my liking of fictional characters is usually to do with how supremely underrated they are and how much hate they receive from fandom (and it's for really dumb, hypocritical, double-standard reasons in most cases).

I actually for the life of me cannot come up with a top 5 because my brain absolutely refuses to work, and I love so many female characters to the bottom of my heart, so asking me to just choose five is actually really freakin' hard. I’m sure I’ll hate myself when I do remember, like, five minutes after I post this, but until then, I’ll give you my top three.

These are ones I feel so supremely attached to that my fingers itch to write, talk, and obsess about them to the point that I’m sure I’ve scared off all my family members by now lol. Particularly because these characters are not usually a fan favorite (with the exception of one).

My Top Three:

3. Piper McLean - yep, that’s right, I said it. God, I wish I could go back to my fanfic writing days with the wisdom I have now to fully express just how underrated this character really is. A lot of people dislike her because in many ways, she appears to act like she’s “not like other girls.” They point to instances of her cutting her hair haphazardly to not draw attention, having dark skin, hating on her cabin for having Aphrodite as her mother, being “super obsessed” with Jason, and - the part that really gets to me - preferring Jason’s looks over Percy’s. I repeat, people hated Piper for saying her boyfriend was better looking than a dude she just met. And she still is (in fact, it’s literally a TikTok trend).

Reasons why I like her: all of these claims are bullshit. I think she’s just a teenage girl who is very passionate about her culture, wants to protect her father, loves her boyfriend and her friends, and desires to do the right thing. When we first meet her, you realize that all of her memories from her time at that school I highkey forgot the name of were all a lie. She had to relearn everything and get to know a boy she had always thought she knew. Can you imagine how heartbreaking it must be to lose (for lack of a better word) someone she loved in a manner she had no control over? As for all of the “wanting to be not like other girl stuff,” well, I think a lot of people forget that there is this huge stereotype of Native Americans being oversexualized in the media as well as in history itself, and while I can’t make assumptions that is what Riordan was going for, I’m not surprised that fandom has a way of focusing on dispositional factors as opposed to situational and cultural ones because frankly...what's new.

Also, at the time, people used to hate Jason as well, but now I’m seeing more love for him and even less for Piper. Again, this is one of those things I’m not surprised about. Nothing like that good-old fandom misogyny.

How does she inspire me? Y’all, hear my girl out. People are always telling her that she’s weak and the more useless one of the seven. You think she hasn’t internalized that shit? Because she’s the first to have done so. After fighting that ice goddess-villain-bitch on the ship in one of the books, she started becoming really hard on herself to improve her skills and become better. You all are forgetting that Percy, Jason, and Annabeth had years of experience over her. And she learned how to fight with a sword within that same book! Talk about badass development!

Phew, sorry for the rant. For those who agree (or still need convincing), I had written a lot of Piper x Jason fanfic back in the day if you want to check it out on fanfic.net. I stopped writing about them for…well, obvious reasons that people who are caught up on the series would know about 😭

2. Jude Duarte - this is actually one of those rare instances where I am absolutely in love with the main girl character who’s not underrated even the tiniest bit by fandom. And they don't love her because she's perfect they love her because she's morally gray. A glow-up for all of us, let's give each other a pat on the back. She makes mistakes (anvil-sized ones) both on the society- and emotional-level, but she sincerely, whole-heartedly learns from them. I think all BookTok authors have something to gain from reading and writing about her (I'm looking at you SJM die-hards) because seeing a female character who is so unmistakably and unapologetically human is just so refreshing to read. You can trust that when I say I have never read a female protagonist like her, you can believe it, and I'm almost 100% sure you haven't either (at least in American contemporary literature). I won't prattle on more about her because, again, she's fairly well-liked so I don't need to "defend her actions" (rolls eyes) as they say, and this post is getting severely long as it is.

1. c'mon. You know why you follow me. Hermione Granger.

Jk.

Ginny Weasley.

(still love you though, book!Hermione)

I'm just going to copy and paste the reasons why I love this girl from a previous post because it still sums up my feelings pretty well. Stay tuned for some additions at the end.

This girl. If she were real, I’d give her my babies. She is almost the most developed female character in the book series, considering the little number of relevant scenes she was given. I say almost because I actually do think JKR missed the concluding bulls-eye with her arc, particularly in HBP and DH. I, like everyone else, expected her to do a lot more than she did (c’mon she’s one of the only kids connected to fucking Voldemort, that had to have counted for something?!?!). With that being said, she’s the only female character who has a consistent rise in characterization throughout the books: starting off as a bubbly 10 year old waving and crying to see her brothers leave, a shy 11 year old who can’t speak around Harry but can to her diary and trauma ensues, a quiet 12 year old who still doesn’t talk to Harry but is overcoming her reputation as the girl who opened the Chamber and was victimized by literal Voldemort himself, and so on and so forth to the flawed, stubborn, angry, petty, defensive but also caring, compassionate, funny, clever, sassy girl we have by HBP and DH. As the books go on, you really see her shine and become a woman in her own right. And interestingly enough, her arc doesn’t repeat, like Hermione’s and Neville’s does; it has a clear direction that journeys from Book 1 to the end. For all of these reasons, I notice a lot of people claim she isn’t very developed - and while I agree she could definitely be more - I’d also argue she’s one of the most obviously developed too. Plus, I’ve always been fascinated by her connection to Voldemort and wish JKR explored it more herself: from her wand being made of the same wood as his (while Harry’s is made of the same core…hmmm interesting) to the interactions being much more gendered and personal than I’d even argue Harry’s. If I had to read about someone’s relationship with Voldemort other than Harry, Ginny definitely takes the cake, sorry Draco. I could go on and on about her, but if you want more Ginny meta, just check out my other posts dedicated just for her.

I'd also add that I like the fact that she doesn't always fit the mold of a stereotypical book!female hero: she isn't the absolute smartest in the room, she isn't a nitty-gritty perfectionist, she doesn't pine after and date only one boy, she likes nuances and creativity, she isn’t at the beck-and-call of the male protagonist who helps him all the time to complete His Task™, she likes sports and flowery perfumes, she is conventionally attractive and popular and knows it, she does quit her quidditch career to be a mother from an early age, and she does take Harry's last name as her own. None of the aforementioned are bad characteristics/intonations, of course, but the point is that girls' personalities (like all personalities lmfao) can and do vary. You don't have to be a certain type of woman to be a woman. Ginny Weasley is proof that if anyone tells you otherwise, they're delusional and need to get their internalized misogyny in check.

Because that is what being an independent, feminist is... having the power to choose what being a woman in this world means to you.

Thanks for the ask!

#hope the wait was worth it lol #asks make me very happy so pls ask away #ik i complain about how busy i am but i always have time for fictional characters #in defense of ginny weasley i write #in defense of piper mclean i write #jude duarte doesn't need defending but i will still write #love you bitches #my love letter to you #harry potter #heroes of olympus #the folk of the air #cruel prince

[roxannarambles]

title: second chances (chapter four)

ship: goldenlight (luz x hunter)

notes: short chapter this time but next chapter will be longer (& sooner) to make up for it!

other notes: takes place sometime after ‘reaching out’ but before ‘hollow mind.’ (set in my standard canon-divergent AU where everything’s the same except no L*mity)

other chapters: chapter one  chapter two  chapter three

The next day, Hunter went through his morning routine as usual; shower, get dressed, go over his schedule, feed Flapjack.

He was double-checking the schedule at his desk and reaching into his drawer for one of the vials of energy potions he kept there, which he took each morning, when the memories of last night's conversation came back to him. He scowled.

But then he hesitated, gazing at the little green vial. He turned it in his hand, pondering. Flapjack tilted his little head and gave him a curious look.

With an annoyed grunt, he opened the drawer again and chucked the vial back inside, swinging the drawer shut.

As he finished up, adjusting his cape in the mirror and mentally planning on sneaking some fruit from the cafeteria for Flapjack, he wondered if he should send a message to Luz. They kinda-sorta argued last night, and he didn't know if she was still annoyed with him. He didn't know what he'd say if he texted her, anyway, though. He could say 'maybe you were kinda right' but, eughh, he didn't want to say that unless he really had to. Maybe he could say something else. Like . . . something?

He dallied in his room a few minutes longer but couldn't think of anything, so he just gave a huff, annoyed at himself, and left to start his day.

As he traversed the castle halls, his scroll buzzed. He quickly checked it.

THEOWLLADY:

hey nerd, check out my mad stacks, u jelly?

It was accompanied with a picture of Luz posing next to a big pile of books on magic, arms crossed as she leaned against them, smiling smugly as she winked. Considering the angle of the camera was kind of low, it seemed likely she'd asked King to take the picture for her.

Hunter snorted and pocketed the scroll again. Ok, guess she wasn't mad.

He had a very busy morning, so there was no time for fooling around, but during his lunch break he took a very short lunch so he could spend some of his time sneaking out some extra fruit for Flapjack. He knew that today they served blipberries and they were a favorite choice of the bird's. Back in his room, he fed his palisman and talked to him for a while; Flapjack told him about his explorations of the woods near Bonesborough.

When he'd finished, he saw he had a few minutes left to spare. His eyes drifted to his scroll. He made a sudden choice about how to spend his last minutes.

After hauling out all the hefty books from his bookshelf and arranging them into ridiculously tall stacks (they nearly touched the ceiling), he snapped a photo. He prepared to send it to Luz and typed a reply to go with it.

Rulerzreachf4n:

can't be jelly when my book stacks are bigger then yours

He looked at his message for a few moments and decided to try to add an emoji. The other day, Willow had told him how to add them.

can't be jelly when my book stacks are bigger then yours 😉

Ok, perfect. He hit 'send.' Feeling very pleased with himself, he left his room to continue his day-- he'd clean up later.

His pocket buzzed a few minutes later.

THEOWLLADY:

Hey kid, uhh, I think you were probably intending that message for Luz, guess she didn't tell you I'm taking my account back from her

His face fell as he read the text.

THEOWLLADY:

On a sidenote, you might wanna work on your flirty texting skills, because that was a little weird

THEOWLLADY:

. . . although damn, you have 'Roots in Ice and Flame'?

THEOWLLADY:

not bad.

He rushed to reply, his expression horrified.

Rulerzreachf4n:

SORry ma'am

Rulerzreachf4n:

i dindnt know

Rulerzreachf4n:

won't happenagain

THEOWLLADY:

I'll let her know you were asking for her

THEOWLLADY:

but I'll be keeping an eye on you kids. no seducing her with your big books, got it buster?

Rulerzreachf4n:

what

Rulerzreachf4n:

i swear i wasnt doing anything ii was just sharingshe was curious what booksi had

THEOWLLADY:

sure.

"Whoa, easy there, sir!"

Hunter's head snapped up as he nearly collided with a coven scout.

"Sorry," he mumbled, and the scout gave him a snappy salute.

"No worries. Say, are you on that Penstagram thinga-mabob? I've been thinking of trying it out. What's it like?"

Hunter narrowed his eyes, trying to think of how to reply. After a few moments he responded cryptically,

"It's . . . complicated."

He figured the scout (after he spoke he realized it was Steve) would find this answer confusing, but Steve just nodded sagely.

"Yeah, I worry the superficial nature of social media might be acting to give us all the illusion of connection when all it's really doing is reinforcing our tendency to present perfect self-images to the outside world and never truly getting to know one another."

"Uh. Yeah . . ." Hunter answered.

"Good luck with it, sir!"

 It was early evening when Hunter got a text from a new account.

Luzura_Warrior:

Hey Hunter, it's Luz! 🌈 🌻🐦

Luzura_Warrior:

Ok so I'm super sorry about earlier, Eda grabbed her scroll back from me when I was on my way out the door for class and I didn't have time to tell you

Luzura_Warrior:

But the good news is, she gave me my very own scroll! And now I have my own account too!

Luzura_Warrior:

Oh also don't worry, I went and deleted our old conversations on Eda's account, if you're worried about privacy or whatever.

Rulerzreachf4n:

oh. okay.

Thankfully, it seemed Eda hadn't told Luz to avoid him or anything. Or if she did, she'd just ignored it.

Luzura_Warrior:

anyway, I'm really excited now, because I've decided I'm going to use this new account to start a series of videos I'm gonna post on Penstagram!

Luzura_Warrior:

They're gonna be instructional videos about glyph magic. Teach people the basics, how to do them, all the different kinds

Luzura_Warrior:

So few people know anything about them, so it's perfect. I can help re-introduce a lost and ancient artform to the witches of the Boiling Isles!

 Luzura_Warrior:

What do you think?

Hunter was in the cafeteria having a late dinner, and it was not particularly crowded; he always sat alone, anyway. Nevertheless, he felt the need to glance around and make sure nobody was watching him or peeking over his shoulder. Once satisfied, he returned to his scroll.

Rulerzreachf4n:

aren't you worried about getting into trouble? practicing wild magic so brazenly could draw a lot of attention.

 Luzura_Warrior:

well, I guess I'm not really worried?

Luzura_Warrior:

the emperor already knows who I am and where I live. but he leaves us alone, for some reason.

Luzura_Warrior:

and it's obvious by now that the coven must also know about hexside mixing magic and most of its students getting palismen

Luzura_Warrior:

but they haven't done anything about that either.

Luzura_Warrior:

why is that, anyway? it's kinda weird.

Luzura_Warrior:

you don't have to tell me if it's classified or whatever, I'm just curious

Hunter paused for a moment, conflicted on what his response should be; but it didn't take long for his heart to win out. His reply was blunt and honest.

Rulerzreachf4n:

belos said the owl lady isn't a threat. he says she's more useful to be left alone as an example of what wild magic does to a person. that it has slowly crippled her over the years and she's nothing more than a pathetic farce of a witch now. and that her human apprentice has proven herself equally feeble.

Luzura_Warrior:

ah. I see.

Luzura_Warrior:

nice guy, that belos.

 Rulerzreachf4n:

for the record, I don't agree with him. but you never speak out against belos, not if you value your own skin.

Rulerzreachf4n:

besides, I . . . wasn't really in a hurry to give him any reasons to lock you up

Rulerzreachf4n:

as for hexside, I'm not really sure. they do know all about it, you're right. but I haven't been told why we're looking the other way. all I've been told is that it's in our best interest to leave them be for the moment, and that they'll be dealt with when the time is right.

Luzura_Warrior:

Hm. That's . . . ominous.

Luzura_Warrior:

But I guess if that's their stance right now, making a few videos on glyphs probably isn't going to make much of a difference anyway.

Rulerzreachf4n:

probably, yeah...

Rulerzreachf4n:

but. I dunno, just be careful with it, ok?

Rulerzreachf4n:

maybe consider keeping it only among friends

Luzura_Warrior:

hmm. I could change my settings so only followers can see my posts.

Luzura_Warrior:

ok. I'll think about doing that.

Luzura_Warrior:

thanks for looking out for me, hunter.

Hunter felt embarassed at how easily he revealed information to her.

Rulerzreachf4n:

look, I'm just making sure I don't end up having to arrest you and haul you in, that'd be a huge pain in the ass

Luzura_Warrior:

fair enough

Luzura_Warrior:

so how's your day been?

Rulerzreachf4n:

eh. it's been all right, I guess

Rulerzreachf4n:

tired of the headache I've had all day though

Luzura_Warrior:

oof. that sucks, sorry. 😕

Luzura_Warrior:

do you get those often?

Rulerzreachf4n:

not usually, but

He hesitated briefly, but answered honestly again.

Rulerzreachf4n:

well, it's a common withdrawal symptom when you stop taking energy potions

Luz didn't make a fuss about it, though, simply answering,

Luzura_Warrior:

ah, gotcha.

Eager to shift focus, he asked,

Rulerzreachf4n:

how about you, how was your day?

Luzura_Warrior:

it was good! I got a perfect score on my potions assignment 😎⚗️🧪

Luzura_Warrior:

thanks again for all your help last night.

Rulerzreachf4n:

no problem

Luzura_Warrior:

you think maybe . . . it'd be cool if I kept occasionally asking for your help on homework?

Luzura_Warrior:

just if I get really stuck.

Luzura_Warrior:

it's totally fine if you're too busy though, I wouldn't wanna impose or anything

Rulerzreachf4n:

nah, it would be fine with me

Rulerzreachf4n:

honestly...it was kinda fun

Rulerzreachf4n:

I. well I told you before I was trained in a lot of subjects, by private tutors. but I was always curious what the cirriculum was like at the public schools.

Rulerzreachf4n:

I can sort of see what the hexside experience is like through you, you know?

Luzura_Warrior:

okay, awesome! I can be your eyes and ears 👀👂

Rulerzreachf4n:

yeah, exactly.

Luzura_Warrior:

oh, shoot, I gotta go for now

Luzura_Warrior:

talk to you later tonight?

Hunter couldn't help the smile that reached his face.

Rulerzreachf4n:

sure

 Over the weekend, Luz talked to Hunter a lot about her plans for her first glyph video. He warned her early on that he wouldn't be watching the videos, because he was too concerned about being caught. Luz said she understood and asked if she should drop the subject entirely with him. He told her it was fine to just talk about it.

She posted her first video on Sunday. He was determined to keep away from it.

He lasted only a few hours.

When the night grew very late, he found himself grabbing the scroll and clicking on the video anyway. The sound quality wasn't very good because she was far from the mic and the scroll seemed to be propped up against a book or something, so the camera angle was a little odd as well. But Luz looked so bright-eyed and excited, and listening to her talk about glyphs and how she discovered her first one was mesmerizing. His heart squeezed in his chest as he watched her. Afterwards, he told himself he needed to be more careful. He was growing far too attached, and this was getting risky.

But it seemed he was already in too deep to back out now. What had started as a tentative friendship via the awkward medium of texting had already grown into a bond. Now that he had a taste of actual friendship, he found that he was hooked. And he began to realize some rather uncomfortable truths. Such as just how profoundly unpleasant his life in the Coven actually was most of the time, and how much nicer it was to not be completely and utterly isolated.

Monday evening, Luz sent him the scenes that were cut from Ruler's Reach. He read them and re-read them, finding he was completely captivated. Later that night, when she asked him what he thought about them, he couldn't help but gush.

Rulerzreachf4n:

now that I've seen these scenes the story makes so much more sense

Rulerzreachf4n:

I mean, in the book, prince auric joined ruler's army and accomplished all these impressive things but that never made much sense to me

Rulerzreachf4n:

like, where did these changes come from, out of the blue?

Rulerzreachf4n:

but in this version, it actually makes sense. luzura was the one who woke him from his thousand-year slumber, she was the one who actually recognized him, was able to make that connection

Rulerzreachf4n:

and they grow together in the story, learn from one another. plus they complement each other so well, you know, they make such a great team.

Rulerzreachf4n:

it feels so much more compelling.

Rulerzreachf4n:

I enjoyed the book, don't get me wrong, but this . . .

Rulerzreachf4n:

this was really good

There was a long pause while Luz typed, as it seemed she was taking longer then usual.

Luzura_Warrior:

ok, wow. so this is so. validating to hear.

Luzura_Warrior:

I actually felt really self-conscious about this stuff. king kept saying it was too cheesy and mushy and stuff and, I guess...I wondered if maybe he was right. so I havent really showed it to anyone else until now.

Luzura_Warrior:

he said it was kinda cringe.

Rulerzreachf4n:

it was cringe? what does that mean?

Luzura_Warrior:

it . . . that it's so bad it's embarassing, I guess

Rulerzreachf4n:

what?? it's not bad, that's bullshit! it's amazing

Rulerzreachf4n:

the way you describe stuff, it makes it feel like I'm actually there . feeling what the characters are feeling or whatever

Rulerzreachf4n:

and their interactions are so great

Rulerzreachf4n:

the whole plot where they had to investigate pegasus valley and take on secret identities so nobody would know auric is the prince, I loved that

Rulerzreachf4n:

it was tense and exciting but the interactions between luzura and auric made it even better

Rulerzreachf4n:

I got the sense he was enjoying their secret identities a little too much

Rulerzreachf4n:

especially when he decided that part of their cover story was that they were newlyweds on vacation

Rulerzreachf4n:

it was funny

Luzura_Warrior:

oh my god yes exactly, that's what I was trying to tell king

Luzura_Warrior:

all the gore and violence gets boring if that's all there is, but a little romantic tension makes it so much more interesting

Luzura_Warrior:

I feel like you really get me 😁

 Rulerzreachf4n:

did you have any plans on where to take the story next?

Rulerzreachf4n:

I really wanna know what happens next

Luzura_Warrior:

well, I didn't have it entirely outlined, but I did have some ideas

Luzura_Warrior:

to be honest, talking to you about it is making me excited about it again, though

Luzura_Warrior:

I..might try to start writing again?

Luzura_Warrior:

maybe? it could be fun to write the story in the way I'd imagined it. not to publish, just for fun, I mean.

Luzura_Warrior:

like an AU fanfic of my own book, ha.

Rulerzreachf4n:

if you do, let me know, I'll definitely read it.

Luzura_Warrior:

okay! you could be my beta reader.

Luzura_Warrior:

dang, this is exciting 😃

Luzura_Warrior:

oh I have to go, it’s a schoolday tomorrow

Rulerzreachf4n:

sure, talk to you later

#toh #the owl house #goldenlight #lunter #huntceda #goldenluz #luz x hunter #hunter x luz #goldenlight fanfic

[twdmusicboxmystery]

Sometimes I can just never understand the hate that Beth receives from the GA. I’m always reading posts and comments about how Beth was a useless character or a brat or whatever, but they don’t really understand how important her character is. We don’t even have to view this in a Bethyl way—even if she did cause Daryl to burn down his past and become the character we all love and know now. Beth was just the epitome of good and hope and yeah even if she was a tinyyyy bit stubborn with getting a drink, she was able to drag Daryl out of his catatonic state and change him for good. Also hello—she was literally a surrogate mother for Judith and that was an extremely important role she had to play but she NEVER gets credit for it. She saved Carol at the hospital too and we all know just how much the GA cherishes Carol, yet the GA still calls Beth useless. Idk, it’s a bit frustrating and it’s so obvious people hate her mainly because she was paired with Daryl and like, kinda stole his heart..lol.

I have so many responses to this, lol. First of all, obviously I totally agree with you. I loved everything you said here.

The thing is, I don't think most of the GA hated Beth or still does. I think it was mostly the other shippers, especially the Carylers. For exactly the reasons you said: it was obvious they were setting up a Bethyl romance and that really threatened the other ships. Even though many of those shippers are very loud online, they truly are a minority. Most the GA either really liked Beth and Daryl together or at least didn't hate her. A lot of them probably had a meh-whatever-as-long-as-Daryl's-happy mentality about it. But again, they didn't hate her. It just seems like it's a lot of people because the online shippers are so loud about their beliefs.

As to her getting a drink, people's reaction to that has always bothered me. Because we've seen similar storylines with other characters. Maybe not the drink exactly, but what she did here to deal with her grief wasn't terribly different than Rick going to crazy town for a minute after Lori died. People might possibly wonder why Rick was like...frolicking with the butterflies in the yard when his family--including a newborn--needed him. But no one really said anything like that. And then there's Daryl in Find Me, who was so depressed for months and months that he hung out with the woods and didn't go back and see his family at Alexandria or the other communities for the better part of 2 years. Why doesn't anyone criticize him for that?

And don't get me wrong. I'm not being critical of either of our favorite heroes here. It's called trauma, people, and everyone deals with it in their own way. Beth dealing with it by looking for a drink probably sprang from what had already been established about both her character and her family (Hershel was an alcoholic in his youth).

So, all I'm saying is, keep in mind that the people who hate on her for that and think she's useless are being extremely hypocritical and exercising a truly shocking double standard. And the truth is, that kind of hate comes way more from women in the fandom than men. Think about that.

Obviously I also agree with you about Beth's affect on Daryl. That's been well established in our fandom, and I don't think I need to go into too much detail about it here. (Plenty of other metas already written about that.) But even outside of Daryl and their magical dynamic together, Beth's own arc was so much more than the haters make it out to be.

It's funny that you mention her taking care of Judith. My fellow theorists and I have been talking about the storyline, mostly in Fear right now, though I think the Maggie/Negan spinoff will get wrapped up in the same thing, of the children being kidnapped. From the very beginning, we saw children and babies around Beth, and we firmly believe Beth will be a big part of that storyline.

And what that means, is that the writers didn't have Beth taking care of Baby Judith back in S4 just because it was convenient or because they didn't know what to do with her character. They did it, at least in S4 and on after Gimple took over, because they were already setting up an arc for her that is just now playing out.

I get that most of the GA doesn't know or see that. Even so, these two arcs--Beth taking care of children and now children being taken by the CRM, when it's so obvious Grady was connected to the CRM--are so clearly linked over time. Believing that Beth was nothing more than a "babysitter" is severely short-sighted.

I could probably say more, but I'll stop there. Thanks for your thoughts, Nonny! As I said, heartily agree! Xoxo! 🍀💕

#beth greene #beth greene lives #beth is alive #beth is coming #td theory #td theories #team delusional #team defiance #beth is almost here #bethyl