#because with the specific situation I'm talking about... it's very clear she didn't mean me. bc she doesn't see me as a guy.

[genericpuff]

All That Glitters is Not Feminism - An Analysis of LO's Brand of "Feminism" and What Remains of its Fanbase (The Twist)

Alright y'all, I've been waiting a hot minute to talk about this because I wanted to see how it fully panned out before saying anything about it. And it's not even specifically about LO, but I do think it's very adjacent to it in a way that I'm sure you'll be shocked to hear. Much of it speaks to how we prop up white writers even at the expense of POC.

This is 'the twist' attached to my first post that I made just a couple hours ago that concerns an entirely other topic but I feel ties into this subject very well.

If you haven't heard, there's this author who recently fucked around in the Del Rey publishing scene.

Her name is Cait Corrain.

In the original tweet calling this person out, names were not dropped, but it was made very clear that what Cait did was unacceptable behavior.

You can read the entire thread that started it all from Xiran here:

There's also a GREAT recap thread from one of the affected authors, Bethany Baptiste:

I want to make it clear that Cait Corrain isn't just a debut author.

Cait Corrain is - or now, was (foreshadowing is a literary device that-) - a debut author who had an agent, a publishing deal with Del Rey (an imprint of Random House which is a MAJOR publisher) and even an upcoming Illumicrate deal - meaning, her book was going to be packaged in a monthly loot crate subscription shipped directly to people's doors, quite possibly one of the best marketing deals a debut author could ever get, usually unheard of in this industry. All the pre-reviews were strong and positive.

Cait's book was literally set up for success. All she had to do was sit back, relax, and watch the fruits of her labors roll in. She had written the book. It was ready for release. The hard part was technically over.

But I guess the racism brainrot got to her because as it turns out, since April - for EIGHT MONTHS - she's been making alternate accounts on GoodReads to review bomb the indie and debut works of her friends and peers, most of whom were POC and did not have the same opportunities set up for them as she did. There are loads of receipts to back this up that you can find in those above threads ^^^

To say that this is appalling is an understatement. This was an intentional and deliberate act of racism by a white queer writer who claimed to be "jealous" - of what, I can't imagine - so much so that she deliberately sabotaged her peers, people who had supported her and her book.

And then when she got caught? She doubled down on it and claimed it was a "friend", also an alternate account she made up.

The exchange between her and this made-up person is actually the funniest shit out of this entire thing, it's so poorly written and as soon as people noticed the time stamps were out of order, that was when it truly cemented her newfound clown status.

"oooooh he's standing right behind me, isn't he?" energy right here LMAO

yes keep expositing cait, that's really selling the "this is a genuine conversation that really happened with a real person" bit 🤡

Anyways, it became abundantly clear that Cait was just going to continue to dig her heels in over something she caused.

This has been a hot topic in the UnpopularLO Discord, not just because of how crazy of a situation it is that we had to talk about it - and we have people within the community who work in the literature and media sector - but because we noticed one very telling thing in the list of series that she had review bombed in her very own personal act of wrath.

You see, Cait made one fundamental mistake that led to her undoing - she didn't just review bomb the works of her peers, she positively reviewed her own book and others.

What's her book about though?

It's an Ariadne x Dionysus retelling set in space.

It's literally another "modern retelling" of Greek myth.

And wouldn't you know it, guess who else created a modern retelling of Greek myth that she included in her positive review raiding while she was sabotaging the work of her actual peers?

Now, I think it goes without saying that what I'm about to say should be taken with MOUNTAINS of salt, I'm sure a lot of you are reading the headline and going, "Ugh, really? You're gonna make this about LO? Could you give it a rest already???"

I need you to understand, with the current state of Rachel's fanbase and 'modern' Greek myth literature as a whole, at this point Lore Olympus - and the works that are literally inspired by it such as A Touch of Darkness - has basically become the shopping cart litmus test of basic decency. It's like when someone says they like Harry Potter - you can't take it automatically at good faith anymore, because there isn't a whole lot separating someone who simply liked Harry Potter as a kid and still rewatches the movies from time to time from someone who fully supports the politics and agenda of J.K. Rowling. No, not everyone who still watches the movies or reads the books fondly is a TERF by default, but it's justifiably a reason for suspicion when the consequences are often too dire to risk.

There's this thing that's been happening in the LO fanbase that I frankly saw coming, but has really recently started to hit its peak. It's what I call the "Kanye Effect", where the comic has become so absurd and backwards in its misogyny and white feminism that the only people who seem to be left supporting LO are the people who are legitimate white feminists and misogynists - because all the normal level-headed people fell off the comic ages ago (or transitioned into the critical side of the community).

I mentioned it in my last post, but it bears repeating - Rachel's fanbase has literally been shipping Hera, a victim of abuse, with her abuser, Kronos. I'm really hoping a lot of them realize how fucked up that is now that Hera herself has called it what it is - abuse - within the comic, but I also can't count on the LO fanbase picking up on that or even noticing it with how quickly people swipe through it each week, it's very apparent at this point that most of LO's readers don't know how to chew their food and don't pay attention when Persephone and Hades aren't onscreen.

But I'm digressing. Or am I? We're talking about Crown of Starlight after all. The debut Dionysus x Ariadne sci-fi/fantasy romance that was quite literally advertised using Lore Olympus as its baseline-

This. This is what the ongoing cultural erasure and white feminist uwu-fication of Greek myth is doing to the literary zeitgeist surrounding Greek myth as a whole. This is why we criticize Lore Olympus and works like it that are created by disingenuous people who only seek to use the assets of Greek myth material as a way to shoot themselves up into fame and stardom. This is why we demand better standards in the literature and webcomic industry, so that people like Rachel and Cait can't use their privileges to quite literally erase the source material that they used to make themselves famous in the first place.

If anything, Cait's actions didn't just affect the people she negatively review bombed, or the people she was affiliated with, but also the people she positively reviewed. While I don't support what Rachel creates, she wasn't the only one who Cait went out of her way to review positively from her alt accounts, there were many others as evident in the Google Doc - but all this really does is tarnish the legitimacy of these books and their ratings by artificially jacking up their numbers that are advertised to others.

Making Greek myth fanfiction or fun creative retellings was never the problem, but it's now being sabotaged alongside so many other genres and mediums by toxic white individuals who can't even keep themselves from committing hate crimes, let alone create something purely for entertainment that's transparent in its illegitimacy, lest it destroy the illusion that these people are qualified to speak over those whose voices are being stifled, often by these very same people. Many of these writers get caught and are still allowed to continue what they're doing - that was certainly what we feared with Cait.

Until today.

It was revealed today that Cait's book will no longer be featured in the Illumicrate May 2024 box.

Del Rey has dropped Crown of Starlight from their publishing schedule.

Daphne Press will be hopefully following suit.

And, most telling of all, Cait's own agent has severed ties with her.

For anyone not familiar with the inner workings of the publishing industry, Cait has essentially been blacklisted. Without an agent or a publishing house, she'll have to entirely rely on her own resources through self-publishing. Unless she manages to sneak her way back in under an alias (which I wouldn't put it past her to try) she no longer has access to the mainstream publishing industry that was already guaranteed for her before she let her 'jealousy' get the better of her.

Her career was already made for her. She had a red carpet laid out for her debut. Her book was getting good pre-reviews and she had quite literally nothing keeping her from her success. The best thing she could have done was nothing. Somewhere in her head, she made up a threat that didn't exist, and sealed her fate in acting on it, a self-fulfilling prophecy.

I think in these situations such as with Cait Corrain, Rachel Smythe, and - also recently and relevant - James Somerton, we need to become increasingly aware of how white voices are still overpowering POC voices, not just in their actions, but in the opportunities they're given over others which they then use to further stifle the voices of those they feel "threatened" by or feel entitled to speak over. While neither James nor Rachel have used sock puppet accounts to "take out the competition" (at least as far as we know lmao) James did quite literally steal the words and voices of queer writers who were deserving of their time in the spotlight, and Rachel's work is being quoted as "rewriting Greek myth" as if its blatant gentrification and appropriation should be marketed as some sort of positive.

It's all too common for these deeply-rooted prejudices to rear their ugly heads and for the people who carry them to act out in this way while justifying it as "jealousy" or "a mistake". This isn't jealousy. This isn't a mistake. This isn't someone "starting drama". This is genuine, targeted hate, with the intention of snuffing out the voices of others who should be empowered, not silenced.

All that time and effort, and for what? Racism and petty jealousy? It just goes to show, it doesn't matter how many opportunities you're given, how high up on the ladder you already are - it won't fix the deeply-rooted insecurity and racial pettiness that spurs people on to do such horrible things.

I've spent enough of my time and words today talking about Cait, and James, and Rachel. So to end this off, I want to join in with all the others who have highlighted the books that were review-bombed by Cait, and help in uplifting them so they can have successful debuts. I'll be pre-ordering a few of them, so I'll be happy to make dedicated posts for them in the future after they release. Please consider purchasing them for yourself if you want some new reading material <3

The Poisons We Drink by Bethany Baptiste:

So Let Them Burn by Kamilah Cole:

To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods by Molly X Chang:

Mistress of Lies by K.M. Enright

Voyage of the Damned by Frances White:

(I'm sure there are plenty others so if I missed any here, please let me know so I can add them here and check out their books!)

If there's any silver lining to this, I hope that it makes people aware of the media they consume and who it's being created by. I hope it makes people more willing to seek out the books that aren't getting the same opportunities as Cait Corrain and Rachel Smythe. I hope it's a wake-up call to the industry that matters like this need to be taken seriously and that POC writers are still being silenced under their own noses. And most of all, I hope it's a reminder that we shouldn't even need at this point that this behavior is not okay, no matter what level a person climbs to - that just because someone is part of one minority doesn't mean they're not capable of sabotaging another. It sucks that that has to be said, it sucks that despite these groups being so intersectional there are still people within them who submit to their deeply-rooted insecurities and find ways to feel threatened that they use to justify hateful behavior.

Having a platform is a privilege. It should never be weaponized against your own peers or those who you simply feel "threatened" by for no reason beyond your own imposter syndrome or doubts or internal struggles. Because as much as you may feel like you've earned where you are, that never gives you the right to weaponize your opportunities against others who were never given those same opportunities in the first place. "Feminism" is not using your power to crush "other women". "Progressiveness" is not exclusive to the progress that only benefits you.

I wish only the best to those who were affected by the actions of Cait Corrain. You deserve to be heard and seen and appreciated for the work you do and the abuse you've had to tolerate. I look forward to your debuts in 2024 <3

#cait corrain #support POC writers #crown of starlight #the poisons we drink #so let them burn #the voyage of the damned #mistress of lies #say isn't it funny how all the debut books cait tried to sabotage accurately describe her and her actions LOL #that's what we call irony #debut authors 2024 #booktok #webtoon critical #lore olympus critical #anti lore olympus

[20dollarlolita]

My store has service technicians, trained by the companies that make the machines they work on. Our service department is very good. At any given time we have between 150 and 300 machines in the queue awaiting service, with that queue wait time being 3-6 weeks. However, people do make mistakes, and sometimes a machine will come back and the original problem will not be solved. Because of this, we have a warranty on all of our service.

There's a couple of limitations on that warranty, which means that when I'm talking to someone about warranty work, I have to screen for a couple of things. Mostly this is that the problem they want to put in for warranty work is a problem that they disclosed at the time of repair, and that this repair happened within a specific time window. If this is outside of the warranty time period or if the problem is a new problem that didn't exist when the machine left the technicians, then I can't put the machine in for a free re-work.

Customer calls and starts on a very long story about how she had the machine serviced and nothing has been right with it ever since. "Nothing's right with it" is a pretty vague problem and she can't narrow down the answer to explain what's going on. This is pretty uncommon since most people will be able to explain "when I start sewing, the thread breaks every time," or "it makes a screaming noise" or "the bobbin doesn't fit into the bobbin case anymore," or all kinds of other problems. However, since I no longer work at a store where we need to get customers addressed as quickly as possible. I can just sit on the phone and let her go on until she's ready to let me talk. I love letting people go on for way too long and then say, "I want to help you. What would you like me to do to help you in this situation?" because it helps me help them better and it's so much fun to put the responsibility on them. 10/10 recommend asking the customer what you want them to do to fix their problem after they've spent 10 minutes explaining how horrible everything is.

So we get through her disappointment with the company and the frustration that this has caused her, and she says that she hasn't been able to use it since it was serviced. So now, my turn.

"Okay, we do have a warranty on our service. We stand by the work we've done and we want you to be satisfied. If you're within that time frame, let's see if we can fix this."

At this point the customer interrupts to explain that she'll call whoever it takes to get her problem sorted out.

"I can help you here. When was your service performed."

And I really wasn't expecting her to say, "Well, about twenty years ago," like that was a totally reasonable and normal thing to say.

"...our warranty is 90 days."

"Well how on earth was I supposed to know that??"

To be fair, I don't know what our service paperwork looked like in 2003 because I was too busy being in primary school. Maybe that wasn't very clear or something.

#today at work

[evelhak]

Seen so many bad jokes about autistic people's literal black & white thinking that I wanted to talk about how it might actually look like. Yeah, sure, haha it's very funny if you say you have to turn the place upside down and someone thinks you literally want to turn the house on its roof, but who would actually think that? Sure, that image would pop in my head but I wouldn't think that's what you meant. Like, most people can understand the meaning of common sayings they've heard all their lives, even if they did misunderstand them for the first few times of hearing them. So if you're trying to write an autistic character and you're not autistic, here's some examples that could be helpful.

My mom asked me to empty the dishwasher while she was at the store. Once she came back and went to the kitchen, I wanted to ask her something, don't remember what anymore, but she replied that she was admiring my work in the kitchen. To which I just laughed and continued with my initial question. At this point my mom was suddenly enraged and I didn't understand why, until it became clear that she had wanted me to both empty and fill the dishwasher, which I had not understood, and "admiring my work" was sarcasm because she thought I was just being lazy and did know what she had meant. And her rage came from the fact that she also assumed I had understood her sarcasm and chose to ignore it.

What I want a writer to take away from this is 1) there's an internal logic to my thought process and actions that is just as logical as my mom's. It's not random and once I understood where my mom was coming from there was no longer confusion. 2) I also learned from this and didn't repeat the same mistake ever again.

Once at the doctor's office I was given a list of about a 100 things that one should avoid eating if they have IBS. I took the list and went home, immediately started to follow the list for a month. Next time at the doctor's office I was asked if I had been using the list and which things I had been avoiding. I blinked in confusion. All of them of course. The doctor's eyes widened. "All of them??" I was just like... Yeah. Apparently I should have understood that I could pick and choose.

What I think is important here is that 1) autistic people aren't necessarily "rigid" as if that's negative. We tend to process things very deeply so we assume instructions are to be taken seriously. 2) Again I learned from this and remember to ask specific instructions more these days.

This happened a LOT with my girlfriend: she would say something half heartedly, like, she wanted to go to a movie, and I immediately began to arrange when we could go and when I asked her if that day was good she didn't even remember she had wanted to go to a movie anymore. Because it hadn't been a serious statement, just a thought. But I could not tell the difference between serious and non-serious wishes because the words used for them would be literally the same, and I default to seriousness.

Here I'd like to highlight how 1) this example is more complicated because this dynamic can apply to so many different situations that it's harder to not make the "same" mistake again. 2) The default assumption for me is that all of people's words have the same weight. Sure, I have learned to tell pretty well if people are joking, but when they are not exactly joking it's hard to tell the degree of seriousness.

Obviously I'm giving myself as just an example.

All in all, my point is I want writers to consider the LOGIC, the subjective reasoning behind a character's actions just like they would for any other character. You can't just copy and paste together a bunch of autistic traits with no rhyme or reason because the traits are just the outcome of an internal process. They are just the visible part. And for any individual just being autistic isn't enough of a reason to give them a specific trait you have to figure out why their specific autistic presentation is the way it is. Autism is just the label. It's not the explanation. You have to understand how the individual traits your character has, relate to each other and work together from inside out, if you actually want to create good representation.

Obviously I know this is hard. It's almost like it's difficult to think with a different brain type to your own. But that's something autistic people who are high maskers attempt everyday, and can be quite successful at too. But there are still "leaks". These examples are some of mine.

#actually autistic #writing advice #autistic characters

[marzgurl]

OH, MAN! WHO WANTS AN UPDATE TO THE VIC MIGNOGNA MURDER PLOT LONGPOST?

I'll also be tacking a chunk of this onto the end of that reblog, if you happen to see that floating around, but I'll be cross-linking ASAP. But basically, Vic more directly addressed the Farah situation on his Twitch livestream today! Boy, Farah's not gonna like this one. Especially because we have proof that things did not go the way he said they went. He does not address the murder plot itself, but addresses the fact that, yes, he did in fact have this relationship and he's just mad at how Farah is handling learning about who Vic really is.

Watch the video above, but also, I'm putting a transcript of what he says here. I'm putting the transcript behind a cut, followed by personal commentary on how he's trying to dodge responsibility, lie, and gaslight despite the fact that we have information contrary to what he's saying.

Before that, though, I want to make it clear that before this specific block of video/transcript, he spent about 10 to 15 minutes saying that he is the way he is because his dad walked out on his family when he was like nine years old, and so he started getting really desperate to overachieve to gain everybody's attention and affections, got himself into a marriage with a wife and two of her kids at the age of 35, then she divorced him, and that's why he pursued anime and conventions as hard as he did because he just wanted to feel like people liked him (it's a really weird way he excuses a lot of his shitty behavior). Like I said, it goes on like that for, like, 10 to 15 minutes. And THEN he talks about his interactions with Farah. And boy, is it wild. Transcript and elaboration below:

"There's been someone online  and I'm not going to say their name, who's been making a lot of noise  and trying to cause a lot of trouble.  Not just for me, but even for people that care about me,  even friends of mine, which is just crazy.  And what's really nonsensical  is it's all private personal interaction. 

The simple truth here is  that I met this person a little over a year ago  and we both agreed when we met  that we were not interested in some kind of relationship  or some kind of long-term, deep, romantic thing. We both said that.  And so I felt like, okay,  we were honest from the very beginning  and we set the ground rules and fine. Just meant to be kind of fine and casual.  But several months in,  this person started expressing deeper feelings. And I was like, whoa, whoa, that's not what we talked about.  We said that we weren't gonna do that.  And there was someone in my life that I loved  and wanted to--I wanted to express--I wanted to focus more attention on that relationship. 

And so I told this person, the one that I was just casually, occasionally connecting with,  that I needed to break that off,  that I needed to stop that  because I wanted to focus on this relationship. Well, they didn't take it very well.  I started to back away.  I told them that I wanted to focus on this  and that I felt like the right thing to do  was to end the connection with them. And they did not take it well  and since then have been doing any damage they could to me or anyone connected to me. 

Now, this person claimed to love me and care about me. And I don't know about you,  but flaming somebody,  illegally recording conversations,  releasing private messages,  those are not the actions of somebody you care about. You know what I mean?  That's not what you do  to someone that you care about.  I mean, and by the way, that's a crime. Can I just point that out, everybody?  It's illegal.  I haven't committed any crimes.  I mean, I've definitely made some bad mistakes. I've hurt people, I've made bad choices that I regret,  but recording someone's phone conversation  without their knowledge or their permission  is against the law, much less releasing it. 

And I don't know about you,  but I could never do those kind of things  to somebody that I genuinely cared about. And you know what's interesting, you guys?  It's easy to love someone who loves you back, right?  Right?  It's so easy to love someone who loves you back. That doesn't take much work.  The real test of true love  is loving somebody who may not feel the same way  or loving someone even when things don't go  the way you wanted them to. That is the test of true love.  Caring about somebody enough  that you don't react badly, you don't seek vengeance or try to hurt them  because things didn't go the way you wanted them to.  That is not love.  And the real test of love is caring about somebody  and demonstrating compassion and grace and mercy  and understanding and kindness  even when things didn't go the way you wanted them to. If you are Christians and I--and I--I am and I want to be better at it, you can't treat people that way. 

God loves us and extends grace and forgiveness to us  that we do not deserve.  And we are called to do the same thing. We are to forgive because we've been forgiven.  We are to extend grace because grace has been extended to us.  We are to be compassionate in the face of anger or hatred  or whatever because it was extended to us by God.

Nothing was ever meant out of malice or vindictiveness  or deceit in my mind.  I have just struggled for a long time as I told you  because of my own past and my own upbringing  and things that have happened in my life  that have made me struggle very, very hard  to feel that I was worthy of love, that I was worth anyone's time or attention or love.  And I suspect that a lot of you do as well. 

So that's the only thing I'm going to say.  I would like to encourage you guys once again, do not engage, do not engage and fight or argue  or post or reply to this stuff  because you know what the overarching umbrella  over everything that I just said is? It's nobody's business.  Your private life, your private interactions with somebody  are yours and theirs business, nobody else's. And just by virtue of the fact  that a lot of people may know who I am,  makes it very inviting for someone to make a big stink  and make a lot of noise on social media. Why? Not because it's gonna change anything,  but just to get attention or to somehow seek revenge  because you're hurt or things didn't go the way  you wanted them to. Don't engage with these people online, okay?  Can I ask you that?  Please, please don't, for yourself as well,  for your own sanity. 

The, these people are so desperate to feel important. They want so badly to feel noticed.  In fact, think about this, you guys.  They probably don't think very highly of themselves. Do you see the connection?  Do you see the similarity between me  and my childhood and my upbringing? Do you see it?  Not feeling worthy.  Not feeling like you're a very much value.  A lot of people feel that, and the only difference is how they deal with it.  How does it come out?  Some people will do just about anything  and say just about anything online or in person  to get some attention because that attention  makes them feel valuable. It makes them feel noticed.  Do you see it?  Do you see it? 

I remember a psychology class when I was in college.  And I remember them saying that,  I remember the professor one day saying  that children or people in general  would prefer negative attention to no attention at all. Think about that for a minute.  They would rather be known for something bad  than not to be known at all. They would rather be noticed for creating a scene  or destroying somebody's career  or trashing someone who they don't like  rather than not be known at all or noticed at all.

And the problem with social media,  I'm sorry, but this is important.  I'm sorry that I'm talking about this,  but the problem with social media guys is  you don't have to prove anything. You can get online and you can say anything you want.  You can make any claims you want.  And nobody really knows whether it's true or not. And I'll tell you something else.  If any of you have ever worked with Photoshop  or editing programs, you can edit text messages, you can edit emails, you can edit photos.  You can make something appear to be a certain way.  And I happen to know for a fact  that there have been an awful lot of lies, flat out lies that have been propagated, that are not true.  But there's nothing you can do  because people have the right to say whatever they want. Social media has given everybody a voice  to hurt someone from thousands of miles away  with no accountability, no proof of anything, nothing."

MAN, this guy lies like he breathes. For one, he does everything in his power to dodge saying he had a sexual relationship with the person he was describing. Just incredible.

For another thing, even if he and Farah started off as casual partners, Farah was absolutely not cool playing the part of a homewrecker. She has stated this herself multiple times, including here on TikTok.

Vic deliberately leaves out the actual timeline of events. Why? Because it's SUPER messy, because he's a super messy dude. Okay! Wanna know what that timeline looks like? You're not ready for this.

Vic dated/was engaged to Michele Specht between the years of 2006 to 2018. That's a long-ass amount of time! During that time, Vic cheated on Michele REPEATEDLY, with prostitutes, other fans at anime conventions, even people on his Star Trek Continues fan film (that Michele ALSO stars in, so that's super fuckin' shitty). But a very SPECIFIC super fuckin' shitty relationship that cropped up during that time was with Haileigh Todd (maybe you recognize that name from the previous longpost!). Haileigh and Vic met somewhere around 2016. By 2017, Vic was the ADR director of the one and only Funimation anime he'd ever get to direct, Juni Taisen. And guess what! Haileigh Todd got to be in it. Also, another one of his side chicks, Chelsea Beard, ALSO got to be in it! Fuckin' gross, goin' around behind at least three different women's backs! How do we know it was even just those three?

Anyway, a bunch of shit happens, and by 2018 Michele finally left Vic. All the shit about his behavior hit the fan in 2019, and you guys know how that went. He's had some more girlfriends since then. And guess what! At least one of those girlfriends was Haileigh Todd! AGAIN! And this time, Haileigh is a little more permanent, and a little more public with her relationship with Vic. She starts posting about him on Instagram in late 2021, and by early 2022 she's saying they're the real deal now. Aww, how cute and sweet!

But then Bak-Anime 2022 happens, in Bakersfield, California, May 21-22, 2022. This is where Farah meets Vic! And they apparently hit it off and become an item! A SEXUAL item!

But, oh no! Vic had never broken up with Haileigh! Haileigh's still posting about her relationship with Vic at Anime Matsuri, which was at the end of July, 2022! UH-OH!

So then Farah has her little Discord chat in December 2022 that got leaked to me later. Farah is saying that Vic has been telling her that he needs to "go back to his ex, to give her closure, because she's been hounding him because she could tell he was talking to another woman". But is it REALLY his ex when he never broke up with her to begin with? But also, he wanted to leave her as an open option, and didn't want their break-up to be permanent???

From what Farah says online later, she and Vic didn't talk for a few weeks while he "gave Haileigh closure", and then there they go, going right back to being in a relationship again! WITHOUT ever breaking up with Haileigh! AGAIN! And this happens up until May, through her harassing me on his behalf, potentially planning my murder (very maybe yes), until I dropped these Discord screenshots. And then SHE decided not to forgive him, and their relationship ended.

So, hey, Vic! Way to leave out the part where your "casual little friend" you had there was a sexual relationship you were having behind your monogamous partner's back, that you told neither Haileigh NOR Farah about before engaging in! Very cool, 60-year-old man guy! COOL!

And, like, come on now. It's kinda fucking sick to do all this lying and manipulative shit to multiple women, and then shame the women involved for being mad that you did that shit to them. Like, if God will just forgive you for everything you do, how dare they not forgive you for being a lying, manipulating piece of shit? Like, if this was just a one-off instance, that'd be one thing. But this is a thing you have been KNOWN for and CAUGHT DOING for DECADES to COUNTLESS WOMEN. But this time you were legitimately caught in 4K. You don't get to just pretend that these are just crazy, lying, vindictive, vengeful bitches, man. We all know. We ALL know!

And to top it all off, the man confirms that he had this relationship (albeit while trying to gaslight his audience into thinking it wasn't all that it actually was), and yet turns around and says elements of the things Farah has been sharing are fake. As a reminder, Farah faked an absolutely abysmal Change.org petition, as well as an abysmally terribly faked "CNN-Anime" article on Medium.com (she wrote my name as Kaylyn Dicksion-Saucedo, and that's not my name--my name is Kaylyn Dalene Saucedo, not using my maiden name, and not hyphenated). I cannot stress enough to you that when Farah fakes things, SHE IS EXTRAORDINARILY BAD AT IT. I ran so much of the stuff she was sharing via Discord and other screenshots since then by so many other people, and we all came to the conclusion that when it came to this, she was absolutely not faking it. Like, it was way too COMPETENT to be faked. Do you understand what I mean? She is not good enough to convincingly fake the important parts of her relationship with Vic that she has been sharing. Top that off with video recordings of phone calls she's had with him (which he confirms in the video are real), and it more than proves that she's been telling the truth about the nature of their relationship. And it's ALSO what makes me that much more able to believe that it's entirely possible they'd had conversations about plotting my death.

This man has repeated the same rhetoric for decades now--that people only say negative things about him because he's famous and his detractors are just looking for attention. DO NOT BELIEVE HIM. Sometimes, when people are trying to warn you, it's because they've seen enough shit and don't want other people to get hurt. That's where we're at right now. At this point, we are not signal boosting these stories because it earns us brownie points within our communities. We do it because we CARE about those communities enough to not want them to get hurt at the hands of some fucking 60-year-old Screamy Broccoli Man narcissist. We earn nothing by spreading the message. As you saw from my longpost, clearly, we get death threats and possibly even future hit jobs put on us! What good does this actually do me in the end?

Just come away from everything you've read with this:

Be safe out there in this community, and let manipulative gaslighting narcissists like this asshole get bent.

#anime #assault #vic mignogna #cheating #cw #death threats #harassment #voice actor #murder plot #long post #Youtube

[whitleyschn33]

…that Whitney post was just beautiful despite that tragic past.

I think the worse part about this: when weiss came back again she insulted, look down on Whitney and worse of all pointed a sword at him. (A gun sword where god forbid it goes off: accidental or worse)

Honestly I truly hated how Whitney was supposed to give that hug to weiss despite weiss not earning it.

Whitney should had pushed her away or even slapped her. (Maybe I am too harsh but you don’t get to do all these awful actions and expect me to be civilized with you)

If anything those scenes made me hate weiss, winter and especially willow for their actions.

I'm pretty sure I've made this joke before but -

Because, like, we get the set-up for a reconciliation where Weiss recognizes why Whitley would be angry with her and take that chance to reach out to him with her scene with Willow, but then the next time she sees him, she threatens and scolds him, treating him like a child. Then the next scene after that is her acting like she forgives him and hugging him and all is well, and that's all well and good on her end since we've never seen Whitley do anything but be a brat so it's easy for her to forgive him, but then what about Whitley?? Like - you still left him behind, multiple times, and until this very moment when he does something genuinely kind and decent for a friend he has no reason to give a shit about, specifically saying he's not doing it for you, you decide that that's the end of it? And then Whitley's anger just vanishes and it's all good? That's bullshit.

Whitley still has every right to be upset and angry when nothing on his end of the emotional situation was concluded. Weiss never talked about anything with him or acted like she did anything wrong - and let me be clear, leaving an abusive environment was not wrong for her to do, but that doesn't mean it didn't still hurt Whitley - or even apologize for forcing her way in and threatening him with her weapon. Weiss does nothing with the insight Willow gives her and does nothing to earn any sort of goodwill on Whitley's part, but because Weiss has chosen to forgive him, Whitley just has to accept it I guess because we can't have anyone actually remember their motivations when it's time for them to join the good guy squad. Doesn't matter how angry you might have been about being left behind in a neglectful and abusive environment, boy, your sister has forgiven you for the sin of being pissy with her, so it's all in the past now! I'd rant more, but I've actually got an entire breakdown on these scenes here, so, uh, check it out if you're interested, lol.

I... can't see Whitley actually slapping anyone, it doesn't seem his style, but he sure as hell looked very uncomfortable to be hugged by Weiss until he was forced to accept it!

And God, Willow. The fact that she's well aware of what she's done with regard to raising Whitley but then just... doesn't seem to care until he's almost killed? Miss me with hasty redemption - you abandoned your children for years, abandoned your son for the past day or two, and suddenly because you saved his life it's all okay? No. It's not. And the fact that Whitley is made to just smile and nod is frankly a bit sickening.

(Thank you, though! Just kinda wanted to put into perspective how young Whitley was when all of this was going down. Like I said in the post, I do personally lean more towards him being 15 or 16, the idea of him being 12 when Weiss leaves for Beacon just feels wrong, but with how vague the timeline and their ages are, Whitley being 5 when their family falls apart for good is a very real and very tragic possibility.)

#rwde #whitley schnee #ask reply #i know there's bigger fish to fry #but this is still atrocious writing

[blinkbones]

Nana, Émile Zola

Finally getting some French lit in. To be completely honest, I've had this book for almost a decade, and I never read it. Well, actually, apparently I tried at some point, because I found some underlined bits very early on -- but it's clear that I gave up. I remember struggling with it back then. I didn't, this time. It's nice to see proof of my improvement, although I'm not sure what specific skill is concerned.

For a quick & anachronistic summary, it's the story of a 19th century escort girl who makes it big in paris.

I was actually surprised by how easy to read this was. I kind of expected very difficult language. It is poetic, but not actually difficult. The text is easy to follow, almost journalistic. Poetic journalism.

I really, really enjoyed Nana. It's a long ride, and what a ride. It reads, at times, like a soap opera, with how she has a roster of desperate men orbiting around her. She really is the sun of her novel -- and it is her novel. I entered this book ignorantly (despite being French and a ~lit student, I'm not actually well-versed in my country's literature) and it kept surprising me. Where I expected a moralizing tale, or at least a pessimistic outlook on the arrogant seductress, I got the unstoppable, inescapable success of Nana. It's almost a power fantasy, although I doubt Zola saw it through this angle. I mean, it does end badly. Spoilers, but she fully dies in a disfiguring manner. And there is this underlying theme of Nana, the beautiful Venus from the lower classes, bringing the rot of the sewers to the silk sheets of the aristocracy. She all but ruins the entire upper class with the raw power of her sex-appeal, and I thought that there was something cosmic about it. By the time she's at her apex, she herself does not have control of her situation. She becomes like an empire, constantly conquering further reaches to maintain peace and prosperity throughout her imperial reign. She devours. And yet she's so incredibly human. She felt to me like a deity unaware of its power, and, in that sense, her death (especially because it's in the full bloom of her youth and legendary status) felt more like a shedding of the mortal form. Admittedly, I also just find it more fun to interpret it that way. I'm reading for fun, after all. Ah, the specter of academic seriousness hangs over me.

I think Nana is an easy entry point into that sort of literature. Yes, it's part of some long-ass series, but no, you don't need to read the previous books (I didn't). It's very self-contained. It's a long, very eventful ride, through Nana's chaotic and glamorous world. It's long but it feels like going downhill on a bike, and like everything's going too fast still. And it's fucking funny.

And for you, tumblr, my beloved, yes, you will find some messy queers in there. I only talked about Nana herself here, but Nana holds a whole ensemble cast of secondary characters, many interesting women (a wealth of them, really), that are really a whole other serving of delights that I just didn't have time to talk about here. But seriously, just about every character, especially the women, is interesting.

#i added white borders to make the bad quality more bearable but i think it somehow looks ever blurrier. blaming the tumblr post editor #nana #emile zola #émile zola #french literature #french lit #littérature #litblr #readblr #bookblr #les rougon-macquart #rougon-macquart #bones reads #chatterbones #my faves were satin (toxic) zoé (girlboss) labordette (ma fouine préférée) and actually the count (pathetic little sinner) #the last scene with all the women and their strange conversation is something i'm still pondering #in a good way #for context i think i finished it just a bit under two weeks ago #but still thinking about nana and about so many of the characters #it took me so long to mull it over enough to write this review that i had the time to finish two short reads in the meantime loollll #anyway. if it sounds intriguing to you you should read it #19th century literature

[starry-blue-echoes]

I'm curious now!

Why don't you like Cinderella? If you're okay with talking about it!

I don't mind, don't worry, tho slight heads up I do go on a bit of a rant so sjrbgvsrbgvd-

tldr, Cinderella rewarded Yukako for crossing boundaries and consent was iffy and I Do Not Like That

my issues with the Cinderella episode are less with Cinderella The Stand and Aya and more about the episode itself and the message it's showing. To get even more specific, my issue is how Yukako falls into things

It just felt..... really iffy to me? Like, Aya flat out explained her Stand essentially manipulated Fate to make romantic partners work out, and as we saw the effects were pretty instantaneous. Koichi suddenly found her much more attractive than before, situations kept falling into place to put the two closer together, and on the surface it seemed like a textbook high school love story, but the whole time I couldn't get out of my head how Cinderella was responsible for all of this behind the scenes. These things were not happening naturally, Koichi wasn't falling in love with her naturally, it was all because of a Stand manipulating things and creating these coincidences without him even knowing it was happening in the first place

there's also how it really didn't feel like Yukako got any consequences for her actions at the end of it. I really loved how Yukako Yamagishi Falls In Love ended, the two parter is honestly among my favorite episodes in the whole Part. Koichi told Yukako what she was doing was wrong, how she was making him very uncomfortable and that he didn't want a relationship with her. He didn't tell her "someday", he didn't tell her "if she changed," he just flat out told her no and that he wasn't interested and to me that was really awesome! That just because she liked him and was willing to do things for him, he didn't owe her anything, and her taking steps to try and force it was wrong and disrespectful of his boundaries

and then the freaking Cinderella episodes smash that into the ground. Despite Koichi making his opinion very clear, she STILL wanted him to love her and was even watching him from far away. If someone rejects your feelings, you don't do that! That's creepy and not respecting the boundaries they've set!!! Just because Yukako is a girl doesn't mean this fine, and if she was a boy I know for a fact it would be portrayed in a WAY worse light

The fact that Yukako was so desperate for Koichi to reciprocate her feelings that she went as far as to essentially manipulate him with a Stand wasn't romantic to me, it was just terrifying. She wasn't respecting his feelings or even his agency as a person, all that mattered was her feelings. Koichi didn't reciprocate them, so instead of moving on she sought to "change his mind."

If the Cinderella episode had been Yukako's first one, I would've more okay with it. It would've gone more like the Teen Romance With A Twist it was trying to do and would feel more like a "oh, she's just too shy and embarrassed and wants his attention" type thing. But it wasn't and it didn't. Yukako wasn't trying to get this stranger's love, she was trying to get Koichi to love her after everything she had done to him. She fucking kidnapped him from his bedroom in the middle of the night so she could "F I X" him for god's sake and she didn't let him go, he had to ESCAPE AND FIGHT BACK. She didn't even so much as apologize for what she did when everything was over, it just made her more determined

and honestly? when Yukako forgot to reapply the lipstick and started losing her identity I was happy. After all, she was FINALLY getting consequences for her behavior which she wouldn't be able to ignore and actively impeded her goal. She was paying the price for the lengths which she was willing to go and seeing that Hey Maybe This Wasn't A Good Idea

but it didn't stick. Koichi saved her, Aya undid the damage, and she got her happily ever after with him with no lasting punishment or consequence. It didn't feel triumphant or romantic or even remotely positive, it was just...... incredibly uncomfortable for me to watch

but yeah, that's why I Really REALLY Don't Like The Cinderella Episodes

#this was. S O much longer than I intended #also to any yukako/yukakoi fans I'm not saying you can't like her I'm just saying she doesn't vibe very well with me personally #jjba #jojo's bizarre adventure #diamond is unbreakable #jjba part 4 #jjba yukako #yukako yamagishi #jjba aya #aya tsuji #cinderella #jjba koichi #koichi hirose #sb speaks #sb answers #emotionallyglued

[beyonddarkness]

Hi. There's mixed information for and against the Witch King being a black Numenorian but who knows, Tolkien kept changing his mind. There's some strong evidence, however in the Silmarillian, chapter Akallabeth, "Sauron was ever guileful, and it is said that among those whom he ensnared with the 9 rings, 3 were great lords of Numenorean race." So I guess we will never know 100%. Some believe since the Witch King is least afraid of water that he is Numenorean. Interesting.

If nothing is random, and everything has a purpose, then we can also look at: 1. Theo's and Galadriel's encounter with each other. Does it move him in a positive direction? It must mean something. 2. These characters settle by future Gondor. Isildur is also in Middle Earth now. So we can look at it through that lens. 3. The Faithful will also settle in this location. On this show if every little thing means something, the door is open to many possibilities. Theo Witch King, possible. Or not.

Also, Sauron death glare at Elendil in episode 3, so blatantly obvious, even when I didn't know he was Sauron. Sauron death glare at Arondir, the jury's out on that one. I rewatched all scenes several times and did not specifically see it. I am trying to, believe me. I love your observations but for show only characters there are too many possibilities available using the Easter eggs we are given. It can go in several directions and Easter eggs don't clear the way for 1 specific result.😀

Yes, isn't it great? There are so many possibilities!

Even though the phrase "it is said" could be viewed as ambiguous, I think there is an extremely high chance that we will see three Númenóreans receive some rings. I am really interested in spotting foreshadowing, and the shot below looks like a subtle piece of foreshadowing in the direction of what you quoted from the Akallabêth:

"Yet Sauron was ever guileful, and it is said that among those whom he ensnared with the Nine rings, three were great lords of Númenórean race."

"Take it."

(Not saying Tamar and his buddies are those Númenóreans; they're just guys. But the below exchange between Valandil and Sauron is pretty scary. Just saying! Not definitively suggesting that Valandil is going to get a ring. I haven't thought that much about it. But you know. Talk about foreshadowing. haha)

---------------------------------

You're right about the dynamic between Galadriel and Theo being loaded with significance. I don't know if the association itself guarantees a happy ending for Theo, although there certainly is a chance that her advice will get him out of pesky situations; he may go back and forth. Being around Galadriel, Isildur, the Faithful, and even Bronwyn and Arondir, is nothing to sniff at.

But I mentioned before how Theo says a bunch of things that show that his gaze isn't in the right direction. I think the most obvious example is in his conversation with Galadriel, when he says, "What light?" Meanwhile, Bronwyn told him before to "find the light," and he's apparently failing to do so.

He certainly ended on a high note in Season 1, but he is very vulnerable to Sauron's deceit in the future. I'm jumping headfirst into the shallow end by saying that he is going to be the Witch King, because I know how far-fetched it sounds. But 1) he's a main character, 2) he's vulnerable, 3) he's gazing downward into the vast and irresistible darkness of the water, and 4) I thought that Halbrand being Sauron was far-fetched, and look where that got me. Nothing is out of the realm of possibilities anymore (although there may be many said possibilities).

Food for thought: at Comic Con, before the show came out, Lindsey Weber said that Galadriel's armor was "a gift from someone else." That's a strong indication that Sauron (the Lord of Gifts) made her armor, but in addition to making her armor, he would have made that sword.

That might be one reason why Galadriel had to stop and think before giving it to Theo; at that point, she thought Halbrand had died on her account... making that sword a gift from a fallen friend.

In any case, we know that Sauron touching things (let alone crafting things) is not a good thing. The following quotations are just two indications:

"Sauron was become now a sorcerer of dreadful strength, misshaping what he touched, twisting what he ruled [...]" (Of the Ruin of Beleriand and the Fall of Fingolfin).

Galadriel: "The powers we forge today must be for the Elves alone, untouched by other hands" (1x08)

The fact that Sauron made that sword, which is now Theo's, seems pretty suspect to me. Theo already had a 'sword [hilt]' made by Sauron, and it had made him feel powerful. Once he no longer had possession of the hilt, he didn't just feel guilt, but loss. And now he has ANOTHER sword made by Sauron.

The kid can't catch a break!

Not to mention, Sauron steadily watched Theo walk by, right after Galadriel said to keep the sword.

---------------------------------

Speaking of death glares, you're right about the death glare Sauron gave when he hugged Elendil (assuming that's the one you're referring to; if you mean another one, let me know)...

...then yes, it's blatantly obvious. His death glare at Arondir is a little less obvious, sure, but it's pretty conspicuous if you consider the context. I can't put my finger on it, but something about Arondir's explanation of how Sauron was found (and the way he says it) is odd.

Is it vague? Too specific? Does it sound like something that someone might say if they made a deal to leave certain information undisclosed?

I don't know.

But it's off.

Arondir: "Southlanders found him on the road like this yestereve." Sauron: [glares at Arondir before lifting his gaze up to Galadriel]

We won't know what happened for sure until Season 2, so you can decide what it means (or does not mean).

---------------------------------

I admit, I'm a bit confused about the "Easter eggs" thing.

I've always considered Easter eggs to be fun elements hidden here and there, with no purpose or significance in the story, just nods to fans or the general audience. By that definition, I didn't think I was paying attention to that at all, since Patrick said:

"We’re not really coming from a place of wanting to add Easter eggs, although that’s there too. We’re coming from a place of wanting to create something that is as visually sumptuous and rich as those books are, literarily. If you like the show, hopefully, maybe you’ll watch it again and you’ll notice all kinds of new things, whether it’s something in the dialogue, or something in the set design, or something in the costuming, that is hopefully communicating a whole other layer of meaning. And if you’re a fan, there’s no end to the deep dive you could be doing. We wanted the show to be something that rewarded reviewing. We wanted the show to be rich and layered and overwhelming. The way you do that is to just keep adding ideas. And when you’re dealing with Middle-earth, there’s no end to how far you could go."

In my observations, if there is something from the book that ties into something in the show, I always frame my thought process with the presumption that it is not a mere nod to the fans, but carries real weight in the story. And sometimes, a character might be aware of something in the book (particularly The Silmarillion), as if it's written history, depending on when it takes place.

I don't know if that's the kind of Easter egg you're referring to, so I may be totally missing something here.

#rings of power #trop meta #rop meta #rop analysis #halbrand #sauron #theo #elendil #patrick mckay #the silmarillion #book quote #quotes #valandil #tamar #galadriel #gifs #1x03 #1x07 #mygifs #myedit #stills #easter eggs #answers from the palantir #anonymous asks #1x05 #witch king #rings of power theories

[hamliet]

Emerald and Mercury, Chemical Wedding

So Hamliet wrote a meta about Renora, Bumbleby, White Knight, and Rosegarden getting chemical weddings (several posts for White Knight now since they just had their second one). But at the time I remarked that I didn't see any specific symbolism for Emercury.

I was dumb, and I'm sorry. There is a wedding, and it's very clearly coded as one, and I missed it. Lulz?

It's from the same manuscript as Yang/Blake's first wedding, and Renora's. It's less directly referencing the specific imagery in that neither Em nor Merc are using lances or riding animals, but it's still packed full of obvious symbolism.

The point of this image is actually that fights are often symbolic of chemical weddings. Think Jaime and Brienne having a fight with swords in front of a river in A Storm of Swords. There's a specific risk of penetration involved here (yes that's subtext), and the first chemical wedding is often violent. I'm not going to get super into the Freudian penetration symbolism because that's not really what happens, but I am going to point out that Mercury and Emerald do penetrate each other's armor symbolically here.

If you look at the framing when the fight starts, it's comparable to Weiss and Jaune's before their second one begins.

Emerald is in front of sunlight and fire. Mercury, associated with the moon, is in the shadows. Emerald is associated with red as well.

But the fight starts off with Emerald essentially asking Mercury what am I to you? But she includes Cinder in this, which is a sign of immaturity, because Cinder is explicitly paralleled with a parental figure here (Marcus). Don't bring your parents up in romantic situations, kids.

And Mercury responds kind of cruelly:

Emerald: I mean, there has to be something you want from this, right?

Mercury: Salem's promised us everything. We win this thing for her, we'll be top dogs in her new world. What more do you want?

Emerald: I just... (sighs) Cinder was the only family I ever had. She cared about me, taught me things... But without her here, I don't know if what we're doing--

Mercury: Wake up, already...

Emerald looks at him in shock upon hearing this.

Mercury: Cinder doesn't care about you! She doesn't care about either of us!

Emerald: You don't know what you're talking about!

Mercury: You're in denial. And if you're gonna start having a crisis of identity or some crap... keep me out of it.

Still, Emerald does directly tell Mercury that he and Cinder are family to her. That's pretty clearly implied.

Emerald then starts to meet Mercury where he's at. She responds to him with fights and kicks, and only when she does that--using a language Mercury understands, because for him family=pain and physical violence--does Mercury open up to her.

In fact, this is the specific framing of the exact moment he tells Emerald about Marcus stealing his semblance. He's stepped into the fire, absorbing qualities from Emerald.

Whenever Mercury makes important statements, he says it in front of the fire. For example, he tells Emerald "I think I'm right where I'm supposed to be" in front of fire (scene below).

The fight also takes place in a vault that is very much modeled on a church. I mean, don't tell me this isn't a church. It's a church, a classic wedding allusion.

The ending pose is both of them unified in light and shadows, staring at Tyrian in horror.

Because Tyrian is another key factor in this. He interrupts the wedding. He does a very creepy pose over Mercury and using his tail to make the subtext extra creepy. This makes it pretty clear that Tyrian is Emercury's Adam or Cinder/Curious Cat--an antagonistic Mercurius who represents a threat to not just Emerald and Mercury's relationship, but their very live.

I would also bet this scene foreshadows exactly what will happen later, since elevated, second chemical weddings in RWBY tend to be inverses of the preceding ones.

My prediction is Emerald and Mercury physically fight it out at some point. Tyrian will intervene and go for Emerald, but Mercury will get in the way and not allow Tyrian to kill Emerald, and they'll defeat him together.

#rwby #rwby meta #rwby theory #emercury #alchemy #chemical wedding #emerald sustrai #mercury black #tyrian callows

[letteredlettered]

as a title, “a certain persuasion” speaks to me 👀

This was something I was working on with the idea that maybe I could publish it. It was (very loosely) based on Jane Austen's Persuasion, except set in (more) modern times and gay.

In the Austen story, Anne is in love with Frederick Wentworth, but an older mentor figure convinces Anne to leave Wentworth because he is a poor sailor with no real prospects. Anne later regrets her choice, and Wentworth moves up through the ranks and becomes a fairly successful and respected sea captain. Their situations reverse: Anne is considered an old maid, and her family has fallen somewhat both financially and in respectability. But they never really stopped loving each other (even though Wentworth was terribly hurt) and so it works out in the end.

I wanted to examine a social reversal that was really relevant to modern times and isn't something I see much explored, though I will say the recent movie Bros touches on it more than anything I've seen. The reversal I'm talking about is the changed attitude, in many social circles, towards homosexuality.

In my story, Anne and Fred are two high school girls in the late 90s. Fred is a social reject about whom there are a bunch of nasty rumors. She and Anne best friends and mean everything to each other. Fred eventually confesses that she's in love with Anne. Anne, who has never once considered her own sexuality, much less anyone else's, and has only ever heard of homosexuality in the context of hate crimes, AIDS, and jokes, has no idea how to react or even what she herself feels. She assumes she doesn't return Fred's feelings, since she's never thought of it before, but she isn't very open or clear about her struggles, and to Fred, Anne's response feels a lot like homophobia.

They meet again in 2012. Fred is an out and proud lesbian who is extremely influential and popular in queer and queer adjacent social circles. She's the cool activist everyone, including straight people, want to say they're friends with. Meanwhile, despite the revolution in social attitudes towards LGBT+ people in the place where Anne lives, Anne is just as confused and uncertain of her identity as ever. The one thing she does know is that she was in love with Fred and still is; she falls in love all over again when they meet again. Fred, who thinks of Anne as That Girl so many lesbians have met--the one who will let them get close in every way except the "ew, gross" one--really isn't interested. Except she can't stop herself from falling in love again, still assuming that Anne is straight and/or at least homophobic.

This story is really important to me, because I know so many women my age who weren't thinking about their sexuality because no one was talking about it, then suddenly were because suddenly everyone was. There is a very specific confusion that comes with that, a feeling of stupidity because you didn't ask these questions before, a feeling of rejection because you feel like you realized too late, a feeling of envy for those growing up with more awareness than you did and a feeling of lostness for where you belong now.

The main problem I have with this WIP is I wrote the high school backstory for Anne and Fred but have less interest in the 2010s story, even though I really want them to have their happy ending. Austen's story doesn't even show the backstory; you just start in the later timeframe and have to glean the backstory from the present. I don't feel the need to follow the Austen framework, but really there are two stories here, the backstory and the forestory, and I've really struggled to make them feel like one.

#persuasion #jane austen #homosexuality #homophobia

[wisteria-lodge]

badger secondary + burnt lion secondary (fun bird model) (healthy bookeeper badger model) (unhealthy courtier badger model)

Hey, there! So, I've known my primary for a while now (Badger Primary) but I've been a little bit all over the place with my secondary. Was hopin' for a little help.

The one I'm positive I'm not is a Lion Secondary. I have a Double Lion best friend, and I could NEVER be as blunt as she is, and I'd never tell her this, but I honestly wouldn't want to. Lol! Being honest is an incredibly important thing to be, but there's a difference, at least in my mind, between honesty and saying the first thing that comes to your mind without letting it go through at least a little editing first.

Gotta keep the intended audience in mind.

Yeah, not sounding like a Lion secondary. And I'm kind of thinking Deliberate secondary for you (Bird or Snake.) What you're doing doesn't actually seem *automatic.*

For Bird, there's a possibility. I'm seen as very anxious, and I find new situations pretty stressful.

I mean, anyone can be anxious... and especially if it's a VERY new situation - that can be a lot for anybody.

I love collecting knowledge, and I always have an assortment of fun facts at hand that I've tirelessly collected over the years. It's a fun thing for me, and I enjoy doing it. I was also seen as very "intellectual" in school (which I know is not a requirement for being a Bird or a clear indication of being one, but I figured I'd mention it.) Loved school and loved learning, and I still love learning in my adulthood.

The issue is that, when the chips are down, and it's actually time to solve a problem, I tend to just kinda freeze mentally. The way Bird Secondaries are described, it's like, when a problem happens, they pull on a tool they've created for the situation, and then BOOM, they're using it to handle it.

Birds are good at retrofitting old tools to new situations, it's true. But I don't think I talk enough about what happens when a Bird just... comes up with nothing. And I think the answer is they start looking like a Lion secondary, kind of flailing around.

(I also think that *young* Bird secondaries have a way of looking kind of like Lions, because they haven't had an opportunity to build their tools yet.)

When bad things happen, my mind goes blank. I just kinda start doing stuff, anything. Sure, I might remember something important, like some specific training, but for the most part, my brain goes blank and I go into autopilot.

I don't know *how* bad we're talking here. But if you're in full on SURVIVAL mode, this is where the fight/flight/freeze/fawn kicks in. The reason training gets drilled in like that is so it *stays* when your brain isn't working. I've always found that the really intense stuff feels very quiet, and very dreamlike in the moment, and the emotions don't kick in until later. But the point is... that's not SHC stuff.

So far, you read as someone with a fun Bird model that you love, but your problem-solving is probably coming from somewhere else. (Or possibly it's Burnt...)

For Badger Secondary, I think that's the secondary I wish I could be, but I don't think I am. I have ADHD, so being meticulous and thoughtful are just... absolutely exhausting to me.

It might look a little different, but you can 100% be a Badger secondary with ADHD.

I was raised in a family that really pushed always being a Badger Secondary, forget about yourself, help others, others' problems are more pressing than your own.

Oooh that's not a Badger secondary family. What you're describing here is an Exploded Badger primary culture. And if you're a Badger primary yourself... I bet that got confusing.

(100% your family might have ALSO have required Badger secondaries from everyone, I would think that's likely. So I'll keep that in mind.)

Part of me didn't believe it, but much of me still does. I like to help, I want to help, but I'm also Badger Primary, which can feed that want. Secondary is about what you naturally do to serve what you want, and I'm not sure if Badger Secondary is right. But, I do try to be there for people. My natural instinct when someone is in danger is to protect and comfort them, I'm very focused on the mental/emotional state of the victim more than anything else.

Gee, you write like you're a rescue worker or a firefighter. (And a Badger primary.)

When in any kind of conflict at work, I want to soothe them, to calm them down, and I try to become what I think they might want me to be to help them calm down, but it doesn't always work. Part of me also always wants to tell those people fuck it, you caused your own problem, you're on your fucking own. Lol. And it would feel good to tell them that. I wish more tough love was accepted in the world, generally. I would feel like I could breathe more.

Okay, there's a lot going on here. You "become what I think they might want me to be" which is - Deliberate. And more Snake than Bird, because of the whole one-face-per-person thing. (It not working all the time is neither here nor there, you're human, you'll make the wrong call sometimes.)

But... you like the idea of a more tough-love Lion secondary approach. "I would feel like I could breathe more." And there's something about the Badger secondary that you like... maybe it's that "No, you move" energy.

As for Snake Secondary... this one might be it. Only problem is... I kind of don't want it to be? I know there's a whole thing about not letting go stereotypes get in the way, but I want to be the person I pretend to be, I guess. I want to be a Badger Secondary, but I'm afraid I'm a Snake Secondary because, from experience, people do not like you when you behave the way you truly want to. They shun you.

"Behave the way you truly want to."

Okay, let's unpack that.

The face-changing guys (Snake and Bird) want to be behave that way. They are authentic, in that their face-changing is consensual. Same thing with a Courtier Badger, with the caveat that their face-changing isn't as much of a deliberate choice. But it's still something that they want to do.

They can all run into situation where their face-changing is forced on them (becomes non-consensual) and is therefore inauthentic. This is a separate issue from the Lion secondary "eh, I'm going to rub some people the wrong way just by existing, comes with the territory, whatever." And I don't know which one is you.

If I wanna speak more "bluntly," not like my friend, but just more plainly, feel more like ME and less like a persona, people find me too negative, too sarcastic, I speak for too long, or I'm somehow either too passionate or dispassionate and I'm never ENOUGH either way. The performance is tiring. I want to be free to be me, but the true me isn't particularly good at anything.

Oh you're Burnt. I'm so sorry.

Because what you are talking about here is neurodivergent masking. (Which is totally different from Snake masking, I'm sorry the words are the same, I know it's confusing.)

'Too negative' shows up when you don't know if a comment is appropriate to the conversation or not. 'Too sarcastic' happens when you make a joke that doesn't land. 'Speaking for too long' - hyperfixations. 'Too passionate' - probably hypersensitivity. 'Too dispassionate' - possibly a flat affect, or a tendency to shut down.

Now I do not diagnose people here. That is impossible and unethical. But I can say that it sounds like you're masking all the time and that is exhausting. Especially especially for a Badger primary who needs communities they feel safe in, basically to exist.

I promise, I promise, I promise that there are communities out there where you can take off the mask.

I try to be who people want me to be, I try to be the puzzle piece that fits best in the world's puzzle, and I fail at that. I'm never quite what they're looking for.

It sounds like you're desperately trying to model Courtier Badger secondary, and it's hurting you.

Too clumsy, too forgetful, too focused on unimportant things, and I ultimately can't keep up the facade, the cracks begin to show that I'm a fraud and this put-together, organized person is absolutely NOT who I am, and I am shunned.

So you've built yourself a Bookkeeper Badger model. In order to keep your life organized. Good. But then you're guilty and like, sort of imposter-syndrome about the fact that this isn't your entire personality, that this isn't *enough*

Then, I try to be myself. More funny, more sarcastic, slightly more blunt, just slightly, just enough to reveal the passionate and opinionated person I am underneath. I woukd never want to actually hurt anyone's feelings, but I have to air out the things I truly feel every once in a while. I have to be me.

Sorry to break it to you, but you're a lion secondary. And you're plenty likable.

But, at least in some circles, I scare people away. Like it's sudden whiplash in the differences between my two personalities. Those I meet while trying to be my put-together persona are usually really turned off by the more real, true me. They usually don't get me, think my interests are weird, or that I'm just too intense (hearing Angelica Schuyler describe herself in Hamilton the first time... I'd never felt more seen by a character in something EVER. Some men say that I'm intense or I'm insane. Lol!)

Angelica's a pretty loud Lion secondary.

Now, I know to some degree it's my own Lion primary talking, but I read this and think "that sounds like a them problem." I know that having a Badger primary is going to make thinking that way harder, and having an Exploded Badger family culture is going to make it even harder than that.

But, I don't know what to tell you. You sound fun to hang out with. And there's a reason Badger Lion is the Protagonist sorting, and the Starfleet Officer sorting. People *like* them.

Well, anyway, that was a long winded way to ask for some help. Lol! Were you able to pick up on any clues? Thanks so much if you even attempted to read this! Lol.

Always with the Burnt secondaries and the apologies....

#sortinghatchats #sortme #wisteria sorts #badger lion #badger primary #exploded badger #lion secondary #burnt secondary #bird model #bookkeeper badger #courtier badger

[tomatosoupgroup]

HELLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO HELLO HELLO HELLO HELLO (hello)

welcome to screen shot saturday video gamers

it's ya girl

callie

let's get right into the updates!

except...

i. i had a VERY busy week. school has been metaphorically beating my metaphorical ass metaphorically

so i uh.

don't really have a lot to show this week.

so what do we do??? do we cancel screenie saturday???

NO

you FOOL

THE SHOW MUST GO ON

and i have an idea for how it could!

remember these equations?

these are the equations for the amount of hp an enemy spawns in with and the amount of exp an enemy gives upon defeat respectively

the first and third from the top are the originals, while the second and fourth are simplified versions.

this may seem complicated! that's probably because it is.

you know i'm not constantly doing the same equations by hand. that would be fucking terrible. so how do i do all this?

INTRODUCING....

THIS PYTHON CODE I WROTE LAST WEEK!

it's a bit complex, but it can all be explained in this four step process...

it'll ask for all the important variables. (min/max lvl an enemy can spawn with, min/max effort values, infection status, etc etc)

then, it'll run them through the equations, and output the result!

that's it!

no seriously. that's it.

also apparently i wrote an equation for how much damage an enemy can do, but it seems like i didn't write it down for whatever reason...?

thanks past callie you rock

i guess i'll spend the rest of my post talking about a bit of a concern of mine.

you may have noticed that when I'm writing, I write properly. but when i'm typing my tweets or gamedev updates, i kinda...don't.

that has made me feel a bit conscious, i may be implying that i'm not the one writing, or something like that.

let's clear things up with a little QnA with yours truly!:

Q: Why do you type properly when writing, but improperly when posting?

A: writing stuff out takes time! i usually feel like posting (ESPECIALLY tweeting) is like a spur-of-the-moment kinda deal. like it's a quick thought that i convert to words.

Q: But why the gamedev updates?

A: first of all, i feel like there's two types of brand (Disclaimer: Tomato Soup Group is not a legally defined brand.) accounts:

the ones who act all professional and proper

the ones who act silly to gain attention

while i can see the approach for both options, i'm not really a big fan of either one.

but you see, dear reader. i have been blessed with an aspect that i have not revealed to you yet.

when companies (Disclaimer: Tomato Soup Group is not a legally defined company.) try strategy number 2, they're trying to appeal to a specific audience.

y'know, "hEy!!!!!!!! we're cool too!!! we're just like you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! buy our product"

let's call this audience the "twitter freaks" cuz this mainly happens on twitter

i mean, i would know.

because I AM A TWITTER FREAK MYSELF.

THAT'S RIGHT. THAT'S FUCKING RIGHT

READ EM AND WEEP CHAT.

I GET A FREE PASS!

AND IT'S ALL BECAUSE (Disclaimer: Tomato Soup Group is not a legally defined brand, business, and/or company. For that reason, the main head of the group, Callie, is able to remain as a part of her own audience. This is literally just how she acts.)

Q: Do you use AI for any part of the project?

A: i use it to clean up spotty code occasionally.

it's always a last resort. like an "UGHHHHHHHHH IM SO TIRED BUT I GOTTA GET THIS WORKING BEFORE I GO TO BEDDDDDD" situation.

the code the ai generates is also seen as a "placeholder" of sorts, as most of that code must be rewritten for it to work perfectly.

tldr: i use it for quick patches to my spaghetti code, and that's about it.

Q: Do you use AI to write your work?

A: NO. i would never let my work be tainted by soulless hands.

Q: Do you have other writers?

A: nope! i will accept suggestions, but ultimately, all writing will be done by me and me only.

to clarify, i'm not against the idea of having other writers!! that's fine and valid.

but i feel like (and this may sound silly) i'm the only one who truly understands these characters.

although it may not seem like it right now, these characters have an EXTREME amount of depth to them.

so much so, that i feel like their story is worth sharing.

that's why i always sound so excited when updating!!!!! because it's actually how i feel for these characters.

i hope that one day in the future, i'll be able to show you the true magnitude of the depths.

Q: Why do all the characters have Japanese names?

A: oh, that's a simple one! a lot of the game is inspired by jpop, and the names are just kind of a reference to that.

i'm not intending to misappropriate a culture i am not a part of, i'm just a really big fan of jpop. i put it on whenever i do any work.

and then i do that neurodivergent thing where i imagine an animated music video involving my characters

like, for example:

i've been listening to お気に召すまま by Eve. (Also known by its English title: As You Like It) a lot lately.

i recommend you give this a listen:

from what i can tell, the song is about the complex emotions that the main character experiences when trying to confess to a girl. the hand man represents a part of him he doesn't like, the other versions of himself represent the other sides of his personality, etc. etc.

now THIS COULD BE WRONG. but if it's true, then i feel like this song would really resonate with rikiyo.

he would relate to how the main character's emotions seem to get in the way, because he's going through something similar.

he's scared to tell toshi he loves him for many reasons, one of which being his own emotions.

oops! hope i didn't give too much away there!

anyways thatll be it for tonight

sorry for the lack of progress, i'll try to get some done during this week!

love you all

-Callie

#game dev #gamedev #electric love #electric love game #godot engine #screenshot saturday #qna #Youtube

[m-jelly]

Soul anon yaaaal!

I loved what you did w my last request so I'm, as would Alyssa Edwards say: back back back back again!

So a Soulmate Au (oh really?), where you can see when your soulmate is in danger of dying, like you see everything w their eyes and as Levi is this badass man who is always in pre-death moments, reader constantly connects w him this way.

But, just like w the "take my pain", Levi never sees anything that connects him w his soulmate, so he has no clue who could it be.

Until someday he finally sees his soulmate is in danger, and she specifically asks for him to save her bc she saw him saving a lot of people so many times... And he has to run against time to save reader.

Happy ending as always!

Hi soul anon!! Also, I love Alyssa Edwards <3

Her eyes, his heart.

Pairing: Levi x Reader

Genre and tags: soul anon, modern AU, romance, cop Levi, fluff, angst, love, falling in love, happy ending.

Concept: Levi is always in near-death situations with his job and when he does, his soulmate sees what happens. Levi has never seen anything from his soulmate, but he knows his has been getting a lot. During a normal safe day, Levi sees through your eyes and you are begging him to help you as someone chases you down. Levi pieces together the visions and saves you just in time.

Bullets slammed into Levi's car right by his head. Levi flinched and felt his soul link in his eyes making the whites glow. He gritted his teeth as the bullets ripped through the car as he used it as cover. He could just about hear comms chatter over the sound of the gunfire.

He counted the bullets of the handgun until he knew they were out. He knelt up and twisted his body. He leaned over the hood of his car and fired at the robbers at the jewellery store. He lowered his gun and sighed when he knew it was over.

He stood up and let the smell of gunpowder, blood and dirt hit him. He scrunched up his nose a little and felt his connection go. He frowned a little in thought before clearing up the scene and calling it in and asking for an ambulance.

Levi got into his car and drove to the station with a rain cloud over his head. He called in his shot-up car and went to his office. He sat down and wrote up his report as his mind was on his soulmate. Levi had been through a lot and sent images and visions to them, but he'd never seen anything.

Hange leaned in your doorway. "Hey? You made it back."

Levi looked over at his friend. "Can I ask you something?"

"Sure."

He frowned a little. "I send a lot of visions to my soulmate, but I've not seen a single thing from them. Does that mean I don't have one?"

They hummed. "You have one because you send them. I think it's likely that they live a very safe life."

Levi ruffled his hair. "I feel bad that I send them so much."

"I'm sure they don't mind."

"It's disturbing stuff."

Hange hummed in thought. "Well, maybe they don't do dangerous to protect you. You go through enough."

Levi blushed a little. "That's kind of them."

"It is." Hange pulled back. "I'll leave you be. Maybe you should take some time to think everything over."

"Hmm."

Levi took time off work as Hange's words fluttered around his head. He stayed safe at home so he wouldn't flood his soulmate's head with bad things. He drank calming tea, exercised and didn't push himself.

He relaxed one day in the living room of his house and felt a rush. He gasped and opened his eyes to see running and heard a woman panting. He looked around and frowned when he heard you calling out places, places he knew in the city.

He grabbed his keys, jacket, gun and badge before racing out of his apartment. "Talk to me, come on."

You panted and kept running. "Help me, please detective Ackerman! Help me! He's going to kill me!"

Levi gritted his teeth and felt helpless. He jumped into his car and raced off towards where you'd been. "Show me more."

You skidded down an alley and slammed into a door causing you to fall into an abandoned building. "Shit. Ow."

Levi turned his car down a road and knew where you were. "Hold on."

You pushed yourself up and ran into the building. You covered your mouth and slipped into a room. You crouched down and hid under broken abandoned furniture. "Help me."

Levi slammed his fist against the wheel. "Come on!" He noticed the alley you'd gone down. "Got you." He pulled up and flew out of his car and raced down the alley. "I'm coming."

You whimpered and looked out to see a man with a knife. You gasped and hid further into your hiding spot. You covered your mouth with both hands as tears filled your eyes. You screamed when the table above you was ripped away from you. You fell back and crawled away. "NO!"

Levi pulled his gun out, turned the safety off and ran into the room you were in. He gritted his teeth when he saw your attacker holding your neck with his knife raised. Levi pointed. "FREEZE POLICE! Put the FUCKING knife down!"

The man glared at Levi, then back down at you and went to stab again. "Die."

Levi fired three bullets into your attacker. He ran over and slammed into the man before he fell onto you. He turned the attacker around and cuffed him. "Piece of shit." He panted and looked over to you and felt his heart skip a beat. "You must be my soulmate."

You welled up and nodded. "I am."

"Why have you not shown me anything until now?"

You sat up and rubbed your tears. "Because you were going through enough. I tried to live a safe life, but I failed. I'm sorry."

He knelt in front of you, then pulled you into his arms. "Don't be sorry. You're so sweet to...to live a safe life...for me..." He clung to you. "I'm just glad I could save you in time."

"I knew you'd find me. I figured out you were a detective from the visions. I heard people shout you and you report your name. I knew you'd figure out where I was with my callouts."

He rubbed your back. "You did good. You did real good." He pulled back and wiped your tears. He smiled a little at you and felt the urge to kiss you. "You're beautiful."

You blushed. "You're very handsome."

He leaned closer and kissed you lightly. "I should call backup." He held you against him and called it in. He helped you up and walked with you out to his car. He pulled his jacket off and put it around you as you sat in his car with your legs out. "Do you need anything else?"

You shook your head and held his hand. "No."

He squeezed tightly. "I'm going to take care of you now, okay? I'm also going to be more careful." He crouched in front of you. "I swear."

You smiled at him. "I'm just happy you saved me."

"Can I take you on a date?"

You blushed a little and then nodded happily. "I would like that."

"It'll be safe."

You hummed a laugh. "I look forward to it."

He took your hand and kissed your fingers. "Me too."

#levi ackerman #fanfic #levi #levi fanfiction #aot fanfiction #levi x y/n #aot levi #levi x you #aot x you #snk levi #levi x reader #levi ackerman x reader #levi ackerman x you #levi aot #jelly fanfics #snk fanfiction #fanfiction #fanfics

[cosmiclion]

From the news I read I’m surprised they’ll welcome Miri’s mom return in future episodes. I guess it isn’t that much of a stretch considering that Miri would eventually want to see her mother again. Though I’m interested to see how it will go. Her mom made it clear she doesn’t want to continue caring for her. Miri will be crushed of course. If that happens I just hope she remembers she has a new family now and her support network is larger then before. Miri’s mom doesn’t seem as horrible as other abusive anime parents. I mean Miri wouldn’t be as cheerful and energetic as she should if her mother at least took care of her enough to not realize her growing hatred. I could tell from her first appearance she’s a very broken woman, trying to live her dreams singing in a shady bar in the red light district, loving a man who shows blatant abuse towards her. It was for the best that Miri left her and stayed in the care of adults who will look after her needs with no regrets. Otherwise she’ll be faced with abuse and regret should Miri continue living with her.

Hi! Uh... first of all I'd like to offer my sincerest apologies for taking ages to answer this, I've been a little too busy with school and general chores plus I really didn't know how to put my thoughts into words 😭 I know it's pretty pointless to answer your specific ask by now since the show has already progressed and ended but I still didn't want to leave this ignored, and if you don't mind I'll take the opportunity to offer some thoughts.

Now that the show has ended I see why they made the choices they made and they make a lot of sense given the context of the story. I personally don’t have any complaints about the writing but I think Misaki deserved better. I'm sad she died but I understand why it happened, I suppose with her arc going that route it wouldn't have made sense for her to survive in a show where nobody's safe from violent criminals who are willing to murder women and children to get them out of their way. Still, I don't think she needed a big change of heart, I think she was already a great character as she was (it also rubs me the wrong way that some people started viewing her as a good person only once she started making an effort to do things right but I digress).

I'll be honest, I'm not a huge fan of the "unwilling parent learns to love their kid and learns to be a good parent so that they can finally be a happy family" narrative. It just doesn’t sit right with me, maybe I’m reading too much into it but the message I get from these kind of stories is that anyone can be a good parent/caretaker with enough help and resources and in the right place mentally and emotionally (ESPECIALLY because that's an argument people use in real life for why they think everyone should have kids, or hell, even as an anti abortion argument; like that's not an exaggeration, I've seen them saying pretty much the exact same thing), when the sad reality is that sometimes kids are just unwanted. I sincerely wish the show had acknowledged that some people just don’t want to be parents even when they already are, I know it’s not pretty but these things need to be talked about in fiction.

I also think it would’ve fit the story perfectly: we would’ve had an example of horrible abusive parents (Rei’s father), amazing loving parents (Rei and Kazuki themselves) and parents who do their best but would still rather be doing anything else (Misaki; as you said, Miri wouldn’t be as cheerful if her mother hadn't kept her unhappiness to herself). Maybe I’m biased, I don’t know, but I’m really starved for this kind of content. As a friend of mine as well as a few other people have said, we need more situations like in Matilda, where the bio parents admit they aren't fit for the role and happily sign away their parental rights.

(Granted that if Misaki hadn't popped back into Miri's life she wouldn't have died like that, as she got targeted precisely because she was with Miri, that's why I say I understand why the writers made the choices they made).

I also wish they hadn't given her cancer if they were going to kill her off anyway, give the poor woman a break lol.

If you (not you the asker but you as in anyone reading this) disagree with me that's perfectly okay, and let me reiterate that I do NOT think this is bad writing, I'm just tired of seeing this trope over and over again; but any angry asks or comments will be ignored and deleted.

(Edited to add some more thoughts).

#asks #not eli's art #buddy daddies #misaki unasaka #miri unasaka #i'm so very sorry i'm so late! #not kuro #not yoi

[marypsue]

would you consider doing DVD commentary for Delilah? Any bit of it at all; I personally would go CRAZY for anything about Grauntie Ford because she lives permanently in my head. I seriously adore that series, if I have not made it clear enough to you. <3 <3 <3

[from this meme]

Delilah

Thank you so much! Yeah this is a short one, so I'll do the whole thing.

It's been a while since I wrote this one, but I'm pretty sure that I wrote the first scene or two, and then the last big long scene with Mabel, and then all of the rest to connect the two together. They were, originally, two different stories, and then I realised that they could be the missing pieces for each other.

The title is, of course, in reference to the story of Samson and Delilah, and specifically to cutting Samson's hair taking away his power. Hair and cutting it is a running theme throughout the fic, obviously, so that one's a bit of a gimme. I used 'Delilah' instead of 'Samson' for the title for two reasons, though - obviously, Delilah is a woman's name, and because of the Amanda Palmer song of the same name that lent a line to the fic. Iirc she had said in an interview that the frustrating Delilah the song is sung to, who keeps trusting people who'll only hurt her and walking blithely into situations against her own best interests, is her talking to herself. It all just dovetailed really beautifully together.

The campaign takes them, tonight, through the Haunted Wastes of Aden, once a lush and fruitful valley, now a giant, open grave for the fallen warriors of a recent, vicious, and utterly pointless battle.

It's been a while since I wrote this, so I can't be sure, but knowing myself, I'm guessing this was entirely intentionally to be a nod toward Ford's relationship and recent schism with his twin.

I met a Farrah the first time I dipped my toes in the waters of playing D&D. Life imitates art.

“I was born a girl,” he says, and then, quick, “I just, I just - thought. I wanted you to know.”

I forget, now, whether this was a prompt or just in an ask about the fic, but this line was sent to me by @angelsarenamederika, I didn't come up with it. This whole scene was built around that line. Past!me also helpfully mentioned that some of the scenes - especially the second-to-last and the last scene - were also inspired by their asks.

Dipper unwinds slightly, though that only means he is drawn tight as a violin string, rather than a bowstring.

I was just particularly proud of this simile.

“Exactly! Well done, my boy, you have a better understanding of the scientific process than many grown adults I’ve known.” Ford clears her throat, trying to remind herself to stay on track, though the way Dipper is beaming at her makes it very difficult to think about anything other than how terrifyingly lucky she is to be here to be able to meet him, and his sister. “You and I, my boy - we’re theories. There’s no way to conclusively, objectively 'prove’ something you can only feel for yourself.” She leans forward just enough to rest what she hopes is a comforting hand on Dipper’s shoulder. “And perhaps someday, you’ll encounter new evidence or a new dilemma that will change everything you understand. But until then, we don’t just stop doing science because we don’t have an absolute, indelible certainty to work from! We don’t stop exploring and creating, we don’t stop growing and changing. We start from what we do know."  Dipper bites his bottom lip, rubs the elbow of one arm with the opposite hand. Ford gives his shoulder a soft squeeze, and says, "And we do amazing things that way.”

Also this! Wow, I'd completely forgotten this was even in there. I'm still really pleased with this one.

This fic went up in 2016, so it would still have been relatively recently that I had come to the conclusion that I was, in fact, some flavour of queer. Clearly I was Working Through Some Things.

“Do you know, the other day I asked her to open her mouth and she burped glitter all over my face?”

I think I took this from an unused storyboard! Or possibly an Alex Hirsch tweet. I don't...remember it having actually made it into the show, but then, I definitely need to do a rewatch.

(Ford will never forget the sight of it, emerging from the trees, caved in on itself from its fall and looking for all the world as though it had stood empty and abandoned these last thirty years.)

I think, in canon and here, that seeing the Shack in the denouement of the finale gave Ford a new appreciation for how Stan preserved it. Just a small part of realising how much Stan had done, how much Stan had cared, how much Stan had mattered, just slightly too late.

Ford and Mabel should get to commiserate about being tricked by Bill into helping him end the world. That is all. And man, I'd forgotten how delightful Mabel is and how much fun she is to write.

"...Mabel, no one in their right mind would blame you for what happened."

This was published in 2016, so...this line was definitely, definitely a little pointed.

The Gravity Falls finale saying 'hey. Your pain also hurts the people you love and who love you, and an important kind thing you can do for them is to also be kind to yourself. You can't punish yourself out of their lives and make those lives better, they're better with you in them' got me crying in the club and I'm still emotional over it nearly a decade later.

The sun is brilliant, blinding, the sky a blue so blue it’s almost black at the very centre. The sea is calm and cold, the occasional little waves hitting just right against the prow and making it echo like a drum. The rigging creaks like old bones overhead. The internet connection is crap.

I just love the juxtaposition of high, poetic, dramatic, descriptive language, and casual vernacular. Tolkien does it particularly well. I am but a humble imitator.

The less said about Gravity Falls, the better. It hurts too much to remember, how bright everything had seemed, how rich with possibility.

...

The rift is closed. Bill is gone, and the sun shining off the water is so bright it almost hurts her eyes.

I leave you with this parallel, presented without comment.

#chatter #this is mary's fic tag #grauntie ford #gravity falls

[meimi-haneoka]

Just read your drabbles and I feel like you captured the both of them really well!

It didn't quite occur to me initially that kaito would still experience his seizures. :/ if I rmb correctly, they're caused by his constant use of time magic? So his body is reaching its limit. In that case, wouldn't causing his paused time to go again make the situation worse? I'm wondering what form kaitos healing will take, because it seems that for clamp, extending a life means immortality -> Yuko's situation, which wouldn't really fit here either.

Wow thank you so much for reading them!! 🥲 It might seem like I'm seeking validation around (I am), but for me it's really the first time and I was so nervous, for many reasons, not necessarily connected strictly to fanfictions. Writing is really a "world" I've never dared stepping into. I'm also worried about how my English sounds, so there's a lot of insecurities converging...

Anyways! Yea I have the impression that MANY people haven't grasped Kaito's situation from the finale very well, and again I would blame the ENG translation for that, but it's not only that. I feel like CLAMP have glossed over the specific fact to not ruin the atmosphere of the "happy finale", but what they made the characters say is pretty clear. The fact that his time is stopped didn't erase the pain he's been constantly experiencing since long time (the so-called "seizures", which have been there even before the play started), cause if it was enough to also halt completely his seizures, Sakura would've asked Akiho もう辛かったり痛かったりにはならないってこと？ ("does that mean that he's not going to have a hard time and feel pain anymore?"), but sadly what she said is もっと辛かったり痛かったりにはならないってこと？("does that mean that he's not going to have a hard time and feel pain more than this?"). A single word can change so much. Stopping his time means that his overall situation is completely frozen at the point it was before he ended up engulfed by the Seal of D and turned into a dragon. He's not going to age, but his pain won't stop either. But this is literally what's keeping him from dying, because those seizures were meant to become worse and worse, till they would've eventually killed him. That's why Sakura is relieved to hear that "they aren't going to get worse than this". In the bigger picture of things, it's still something to be relieved about.

Now, what Akiho explained they're going to do is to find a magic that would cure him FIRST, AND THEN find a magic that could make his stopped time move again. It's very conditional to the fact that they can find a "cure" for him, and the cure is pretty much bound to extending his lifetime, cause as you have mentioned, Kaito is having these seizures cause the time magic he had used shaved off his lifespan, in the first place. This might mean that if they can find a way to "cure" the seizures, then the lifespan will automatically be extended too. I don't exactly know how CLAMP have envisioned this.

But yeah, once you dig deeper, you can actually understand just how difficult things are going to be for them from now on. It's not going to be easy to find what they're looking for. Still, we're literally talking about bringing back a guy that was supposed to be trapped forever in a dimension where time was destroyed, eternally condemned to solitude in an inhuman shape. Moreover, even if you removed the Seal of D there was still his complete lack of self worth and care for his life, which brought him to use time magic to that degree and eventually bring his body to its limit, at death's door. What everyone was capable of accomplishing in the finale is literally a miracle. Having Kaito alive, even if a bit sickly, is a miracle. I'm absolutely certain that if this was another one of CLAMP's manga, for another demographic, there's no way that Kaito would've been alive and with Akiho, by now. Because the "death flags" were so many for him, and we know how CLAMP are. Everyone gotta bear the consequence of their choices, in their manga. And it's not like they've "let him off the hook" easily either, even for CCS standards.

So yeah, as I said elsewhere some days ago, I desperately need to see a bit of serenity and happiness for them in the special chapter, I need to see for certain that despite the difficult path they've chosen, they're really going to be happy together. 🤞Not only for Kaito but mainly for Akiho too.

#reply #clear card arc #cardcaptor sakura #ccsakura #akiho shinomoto #yuna d. kaito