#it was my third most popular post for nearly a month

[antifainternational]

Does DePlatforming Fascists Work? Part Two

(this is the second part of our two-part response to a question we were posed: does deplatforming fascists work or does it backfire and actually amplify fascists' views? Please see Part One of our response here!) Looking now at the example the religious leader you cite claims is evidence of deplatforming backfiring and only amplifying the voices of fascists: Milo Yianopoulus. Well, where is Milo today? Flogging trashy Christian knickknacks on youtube. 

Milo was famously deplatformed. He was also exposing for glibly advocating pedophilia. Which of these things knocked him off the box and reduced him to where he is now? Well, what does Milo think?

Sounds like it was deplatforming that cost Milo “tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars,” forcing him to spend “all my savings.”  Further proof: after efforts from antifascists got Milo removed from mainstream social media sites, he was reduced to a Telegram channel with just 470 subscribers, which he whined was “not going to sustain people like me,” and that “It’s just not a good use of my time to be here talking to the same 1,000 people, none of whom buy books, tickets to anything or donate.”  Milo is just one example, though. If your religious leader is correct, what about all the other fascist influencers?  Take, for example, Richard Spencer, who claims to have invented the term “alt-right?” In 2018, Spencer posted a long, dull video in which he said that militant antifascist deplatforming tactics forced him to cancel a campus recruitment tour. 

In 2020, when Spencer’s own lawyer quit because he wasn’t getting paid, Spencer told a judge that “due to deplatforming efforts against me, it is very difficult for me to raise money as other citizens are able to.” So both Spencer and Yianopoulus admit that antifascist deplatforming devastated their activities. Oh, but if we deny fascists social media platforms to spew hate & recruit followers from, they’ll just start their own, like Parler or Gab or Truth Social!  Milo again: “Gab is relentlessly, exhaustingly hostile and jam packed full of teen racists who totally dictate the tone and discussion.” Parler has “zero interaction, no one is there.”  Truth Social has been a disaster, dropping to the 355th most popular download just two months after launching, with its half million daily users on the app for an average of 90 seconds/day. The shell company behind Truth Social has lost nearly $2 million dollars so far this year and its stock price plummeted by two-thirds. Not great metrics. Finally, if the religious leader you mention doesn’t think deplatforming fascists is a good idea, what is he preposing instead? We’ve already discussed how ignoring them and hoping they’ll go away only enables them and endangers the people they target.  Does he think we should debate them?

Does he think people should sit back and let the authorities deal with fascists?  Because if he does, we see several problems with that. First, authorities won’t normally intervene until after fascists have hurt or killed people. That = too late. Second, it ignores the loooong history of authorities openly collaborating with, encouraging, or belonging to fascist terrorist groups like the KKK, or just operating in extremely racist ways in the communities they’re responsible for. Examples include the Greensboro Massacre , the “IPA” gang in the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Dept., the Fruitland police department, the Williamston Country police department , the California Highway Patrol - really, we could just go on and on with examples, or you could just go to any counter-protest by anti-fascists and watch which side the police brutalize vs. which side they protect.

We understand that some people don’t feel that deplatforming fascists is an ideal strategy and has its drawbacks, but truthfully any strategy for countering fascism has flaws and we believe the alternatives people always propose are significantly less effective. That said, we can think of one platform we’re fine with giving to nazis, though:

[hermitcraftx]

I agree with your post about hermit fans in regard to things being very popular. I’ve seen more people being angry and annoyed about scarian in the last six months than people celebrating it. Not tagging shipping is shit but it’s better than harassing people. I don’t know what was put in the water but something changed drastically and I’m glad I’m not the only one who’s seen it.

IT'S FUCKING INSANE! This fandom used to be so positive and welcoming and overall way more pleasant than some... other MCYT fandoms, but now??? I can't log on without seeing untagged negative interpretations in the main tags, can't express an opinion without getting anons calling me heterosexual sympathizers and hoping that I die, everyone has turned their back on everything that used to make this fandom really... fun? Like, I don't tag ON MY BLOG, but usually I don't maintag my shipping posts, and if I do, I tag the ship name so people can filter it.... I don't maintag duo names. What the fuck happened to make everyone so- miserable. Anons are probably going to be permanently off for me, too many people comfortable with their opinions and not comfortable with mine and desperately needing to tell me that.

And like- look. I get not liking interpretations. Personally I'm not a fan of the Double Life cheating arc because of how abusive and out of character people made Grian be, and I had to avoid ao3 for a bit because of that and filter the fucking tags. Same thing with found family dynamics. Just because you don't like something doesn't make it "overrated and popular" and just because you don't like something doesn't make it immoral or unethical either!!! People have to make everything a moral standpoint nowadays and it's really exhausting-

But that's a tirade. All over all the confessions blogs there's "scarian is overrated" despite Grian having nearly 10mil subscribers and most of them being on YouTube and considering all the hermits friends or family truthing them. Yes, there is more shipping than before- that's because Hermitcraft season 8 made it very obvious that the people on the SMP and the people IRL are very different, and it's no longer considered RPF. None of the real hermits died via moon explosion, ZombieCleo often says she's doing "lore", they make different skins, even GRIAN acknowledges that he's acting and playing a part with the permit office. Despite all that, there's STILL wars on shipping and people insisting that we're shipping real people, I fought this war on the DSMP side of things and it's SO TIRING.

DND podcast listeners, do you ship the people playing the characters? NO!!!!! Unless you do, in which case, have fun with that. I don't really care about RPF and I filtered the tags for it a long time ago, so maybe they do do that.

Every other day I see "Third life is overrated" "Last life is overrated" (LAST LIFE IS OFTEN THE LEAST FAVORITE SEASON I SEE PEOPLE SAY!), "the life series is overrated" "the cactus ring is fucking stupid" "they left the desert but we didn't" "no, THIS interpretation of scarian is bad and wrong" and like... guys. Guys. Fandom is supposed to be fun. It is not supposed to be a full time job. It is not supposed to be moral or ethical and you shouldn't feel the need to police shit. Jesus Christ, every other month there's a new fad that tumblr users flock to and once it's over everyone goes "EWWW THAT WAS LAME AND OVERRATED AND I NEVER LIKED IT ANYWAY" like.... I promise you cannibalism as an allegory for love is not mainstream you are just on Tumblr.

Like Good God. If it's so bad here go to Twitter. I'm sick of all the complaining and misery and hatred and I miss when things were fun- people are so scared of being cliche that they don't want to write things that they enjoy. Where are the coffee shop aus???? Where are the fun silly things??? Where are the 100k grimdark fics with worldbuilding??? Wheres the 500k fics that aren't even about the same characters anymore but that we love just the same??? Where are the forums and people talking to each other in comments and meeting each other that way??? Where are the roleplay servers?????? What are you all doing??????

People are scared of being judged. They want to do what everyone else is doing. They don't want to be cringe or cliche and every day I see a "cringe culture is dead" post and then someone making fun of another part of fandom, an antithesis to their previous statement. They don't want to be late to things, either. Who cares if Last Life was a couple years ago? Draw the fanart anyway!

I'm scared. Maybe I'm just old, but every post I see I notice that I get maybe a 10th in reblogs of what I do in likes, and I don't even post my art or fics to this site. Every post is like that. More and more people only like posts and they die, unseen, by everyone. More and more people misuse archive of our own's functions, treating it like it has some algorithm, when it doesn't, and it never has and hopefully never will. I see fic reuploads to "gain traction" (not how it works) and people reaching out to find RP partners (breaking TOS) and all sorts of other shit on both sites and it fucking horrifies me. I'm not even that old- I'm eighteen, and I can already tell how fandom has changed for the worst for everyone. Fandom used to be a community. Not consumption.

It's just... sad. Old fandom had PLENTY of fucking problems, and we have problems here too, but at least the positives outweighed the negatives. It's so... mean here, now. Even the happy things are mean-spirited. People treat it as if certain people have invaded this fandom space, spreading horrible opinions and ruining it for everyone, but the truth is is that shipping is always going to be a thing. It's a foundation of fandom- fandom started with housewives in the 1950s writing Star Trek fanfiction. You can never get rid of shipping. You can just interact with what you want to interact with and leave others to mind their own business.

#sorry i kind of went on a rant i think i needed to get that out of my system #sort of went on several tirades but im SO FUCKING GLAD ITS NOT JUST ME #OTHER PEOPLE CAN SEE IT. WHAT IS UP WITH EVERYONE LATELY. #ugh.... thanmk u for the ask :3333 #jamies bad posts #jamie answers asks #grimaussiewitch #jamies serious posts #discourse

[httyddragonfox]

Owl House Finale Headcanons

According to Dana in the Post-Hoot, our headcanons can basically be canon at this point because she's not in charge of the story anymore. Okay, challenge accepted!

First of all, the boiling isles is now a democracy. Led by several powerful witches, but they have to be voted in. So Raine would be partly in charge, probably Darius and Eberwolf, maybe Mason, Hettie, Osran, etc, but definitely not the jerks Adrian and Terra.

Second, although Dana said Hunter and Eda don't know about the Caleb, Evelyn and Clawthorne connection, that doesn't sit right with me. So like my fanfic dictates, eventually they might make a deduction, but not a sure conclusion that Hunter is related to the Clawthornes. Even if they don't for sure recognize the fact, they will eventually come to see Hunter as family and he will have Clawthorne as one of his last names (Until he marries Willow).

Third, Alador instantly starts his work on sigil removal gloves. Several people didn't seem to have one in the epilogue, but it seemed like they were celebrating that kid getting his removed. Alador must have gone through many versions of the unbranding glove, and this one wasn't the one to blow up or something...?

Lastly, some Hexside Head-canons!

lots of more students start taking mixed tracks nearly immediately. I mean, we saw it in the epilogue, but I think as one of the final "screw you"s to Belos, lots of students just start practicing other magics.

The Hexsquad are some of the most popular students at the school, for saving the Boiling Isles and everything.

Gus becomes the reinstated president of the Human Appreciation Society. He has a lot more knowledge to share with the group. Many people in the group keep asking to go the human realm, now that they have a working portal. Before they can even think of going however, Gus grills them with pop quizzes and disguise tutorials to help them fit in with the Human Realm and not stand out too much.

Hunter enrolls into Hexside. Like Luz, he doesn't have a normal way of casting magic (seeing as he has a palisman magic implant), so like Luz he takes a bit of everything. He struggles with some offensive magic, (construction, elemental, etc) but he excels at teleportation. He doesn't cast spell circles that much like Luz. Meanwhile, Luz is happy to have someone in the study course as her.

After some time at the Owl House, Eda realizes Hunter has a dream of carving Palismen. She tells her Dad, and thus he shows him the ropes. He becomes an apprentice to Dell.

Hunter takes some time to carve his own Palisman. He most likely waits until after he's nearly completed his first year of Hexside. After carving Waffles, he no longer struggles, and he's twice as powerful as when he had Flapjack (cause twice the palisman magic, ehhh).

Hunter and Willow become an item a few months after defeating Belos.

For Hunter's last and only two years of Hexside, Willow and Him become Grom King and Queen. Willow's biggest fear is him dying and her being unable to save him. Hunter's biggest fear is Belos returning and attacking everyone he cares about. Hunter and Willow have their own version of the Lumity Grom dance. The last Grom Hunter goes to is where Hunter and Willow share their first lip kiss. (If you haven't noticed, I believe their relationship will be taken slowly.)

Hunter graduates with Honours from Hexside, and takes a full time apprenticeship with Dell instead of going to University. Hunter already knows what he wants to do and this is the best way to achieve it.

Amity also opts out from University after graduating, instead taking a real apprenticeship with Lillith.

Willow also opts out of University, instead pursuing professional Flyer Derby playing.

Gus graduates early, also with honors, and becomes a TA at the University for Wild Magic. He starts an exchange program with the Human Realm and teaches side courses about the Human Realm and it's historical connection with the Demon Realm.

Other Headcanons.

Not that Gus couldn't be Bisexual, but honestly I thought him Matt wouldn't be a thing. I think blushes equal crushes, and Matt and Gus don't blush around each other. Heck, Matt has shown interest in Celine and the little sister "Roka," and Gus has been blushy around Bria, but not Matt.

As for the couples, I'm not sure if Raeda is married in the epilogue or if they eventually get married. They might just be content with living with each other romantically.

Lumity will wait until Luz is finished University until they get married.

Huntlow will probably wait for the marriage until Hunter is near mid 20's.

Lumity and Huntlow will start having kids around the same time.

#the owl house #caleb wittebane #toh huntlow #willow toh #toh hunter #toh luz #toh amity #toh coven heads #toh alador #toh waffles #toh raeda #toh lumity #toh hexside #toh grom #toh hexsquad #toh gus #toh eda #toh dell #toh gustholomule #toh headcanon #toh epilogue

[anarchotahdigism]

On your post re the whole prédstrogen/ white blogger hypocrisy re banning issue, when you said white queers didn’t care re tumblr blocking bipoc blogs speaking abt palestine apart from anti Zionist Jewish people, did you mean the only white queers who cared were the anti Zionist Jewish people or white queers only cared about anti Zionist Jewish people? Have issues reading tone so was wondering

Honestly I thought about editing that part but that post is just out there now There are some yt ppl who care about Palestine and boost Palestinian and SWANA voices about it, and boost BIPOC voices--- generally, these people are anarchists but while that's what I expect of anarchists, anarchists aren't nearly as numerous as other kinds of anticapitalists (unfortunately). The main demographic I see of white antizionists, however, are Jewish people. Most of the yt "left" and "radical" accounts I've seen in the past few months since Al-Aqsa Flood have both-sidesed genocide because they cannot and will not break away from whiteness and admit the truth of the white supremacist theofascist occupation of Palestine is done by and for white people. The white people most likely to see that for the evil it is are those who reject supremacy culture and/or were raised Jewish and were taught the actual, true, lived history of Palestine and Jewish Palestinians. Outside that small group of people, white queers who should be silent and genuinely listening and learning and doing are instead doing just like most white people and defending genocide in some manner, while decrying the queer genocide that occasionally affects white people but primarily affects us BIPOC. I've seen hundreds of BIPOC accounts taken out for stances against genocide and it has been almost exclusively BIPOC accounts noticing our losses. I wasn't active on Tumblr before last summer but I've heard of how this happened during BLM uprisings and I'm not in the least shocked. It's very obvious that the majority of white queers only take notice of the oppression BIPOC queers face daily when those whites happen to get the occassional taste of it. And as you touched on, white queers will pick up causes popular with other white people-- so when white antizionists started posting steadfast support for Palestine, then I saw more white accounts support Palestine. These are the same people who refused to mask once mandates ended, and thus killed third spaces for us disabled people--and indeed, have literally killed us disabled people with their ableism. And their beloved shitposters feed this ableism constantly by refusing to speak of COVID, refusing to abandon eugenicist language like ableist & saneist terms, and as said, they remain silent on other genocides. There are good white people out there but finding them is fucking hard and keeping them almost as hard because of the pressures to conform to whiteness favoring implicit & explicit biases making it difficult to call in white friends but those who do the work and open themselves to criticism are truly cherished. And I hope that they know that. I certainly tell my white friends that I appreciate and love them.

#whiteness #wear a mask #covid #white supremacy #free palestine #anticapitalism #anarchism #genocide #eugenics #ableism #anarchotahdigism

[inevitably-johnlocked]

Ahoy Steph 🙌, I was wondering if you could tell us a little bit about yourself and what kind of tropes and stories you enjoy? Wanna get to know a little more about who is behind the blog if you don't mind🤸

Hey Nonny!

Sorry for the delay in a reply... just haven't "felt it" the past couple months, and after a nice 2 week break (and now a slow day at work), I feel more up to answering a long-form ask today, LOL.

So, I won't reveal too much about myself that isn't already public, since I try to keep my online and personal lives separate (and I come from an age where people usually DID do this because no one needs to know every little bit about you). The basics are that I'm a 41-year-old Canadian dork who loves video games, animation, movies, drawing, writing, and making music. I'm a graphic designer by trade, and have been for nearly 20 years, and I love it (if you need something designed or laid out, hit me up, I freelance on the side for extra spending money). I love dragons and puppies and kitties. I've been in fandom spaces for as long as I can remember, even before the internet. First major fandom I was a part of was Sonic the Hedgehog in my teen years, used to be a pretty popular writer back then. I moved on to Darkwing Duck in my 20s, then TMNT and then Sherlock (I'm a fan of a TONNE more things, but these were the active fanbases I had a presence in). These days I'm more of a lurker than actively participating, though Sherlock has been the longest one I haven't really moved on from. I like the casualness of what I've built here, and I think that's been a huge benefit for my mental health.

Hmm... my fave food is mac and cheese, but had to cut back on it a lot, so these days it's mostly chicken, lol. Fave dessert is cheesecake. Again, not supposed to eat it because of the dairy and sugar, so if I make it, I use lactose-free cheese. I treat myself once-a-year on my birthday, usually.

My current dream is to own a home. I've been trying to make it happen for almost 10 years now, and every time I get close, the goal-post gets shifted as housing prices skyrocket. It makes me very sad.

My dream holiday is a Disney cruise OR somewhere tropical; wanted to do these since I was 20. Secondary dream WAS going back to Disney World for my 40th, but now it's for my 45th or 50th, hopefully with SOMEONE (no one wants to go with me, hence the back-burner on this one). Listen, I know how awful Disney is. I just... really loved being there. It's easy to forget a lot of things when you're there. Third dream is a cross-country LITERAL nostalgia road trip with my sister. We used to go on 2-week-long, cross-Canada road trips when we were kids, and I just... want to kind of relive those, y'know? Lots of fond memories. Again, something that's just a dream because while my sister wants to do it, she doesn't want to be an alternate driver, so. Yeah, I can't do the driving alone.

Uh... Hmm. Not sure what else I should talk about here, if there's something specific y'all want to know, just ask :)

As for fave tropes, I love fake relationship fics the most, I think, followed by pining and movie rewrites with characters... I'm actually pretty easy-going when it comes to tropes, really. Willing to read any trope at least once to see if I like it.

Oddly, though, I prefer stories that are SUPER in-character (to how I read them, anyway) AND focus a lot on character studies and relationships with other characters. Novel-length stories are usually the best for it, but shorter ones can be too. I prefer fanfics more these days because I don't have to think about how these characters SHOULD be and focus more on the world that the author created. When I do read published novels, though, they're usually fantasy books. One of my fave series ever is the Inkheart Trilogy. Just an easy read from book one.

Yeah, so that's a little bit about me, to start off 2023 AND for any newbies that have just recently found me.

Thanks again for your curiosity :) Again, if you have anything you want more elaboration on, I can at my discretion.

#steph replies #about me #chatting with nonnies #ask me anything

[megatownac]

Supertown Popularity Poll Results

So. The polls are over. All 90 of them. You can still find the list here if you want to see the breakdown of each individual poll, but what you need to know is that each islander was pitted against each other islander in every one of the 90 ways that can happen, so each islander showed up in 18 polls. I decided early on that nobody got a point in the event of a tie. Here are the final scores, in order from highest to lowest:

First place: Ankha, with 11 points Second place: Chief, with 10 points Third and fourth place: Dom and Phoebe, with 9 points Fifth and sixth place: Chrissy and Drago, with 8 points Seventh place: Tybalt, with 6 points Eighth and ninth place: Francine and Henry, with 5 points Tenth place: Cally, with 4 points

Out of curiosity, I decided to see what the scores would be if a tie gave a point to each contestant instead of to neither. These were the results:

First place: Chief, 14 points Second place: Ankha, 13 points Third and fourth place: Phoebe and Drago, 12 points Fifth place: Dom, 11 points Sixth and seventh place: Chrissy and Francine, 10 points Eighth and ninth place: Henry and Tybalt, 8 points Tenth place: Cally, 7 points

So the rankings did shuffle around a little bit. Chief, it seems, was in 4 different polls that tied.

Despite what I said in the initial post on the subject, most polls did not end in ties or have zero votes. There were 15 that did. So 75 polls had a clear winner.

I could play around with the numbers even more if I wanted to. For example, what happens if ties gave half a point to each islander? But I won't. I also won't say what the results would have been if I had voted in the polls that ended in a tie. I was tempted. I really, really wanted to vote in some of these, just to do it. Just to let my own opinion influence things. Given how few votes each poll had, I could have really swayed things, I think. That's why I didn't ever vote. I really wanted to know who people liked the most.

And it's Ankha, of course.

Every so often, someone will find my blog through one of its tags and mass like a couple hundred of my posts that feature a certain character. This year, that happened at least three times that I noticed with Ankha. I wound up having to block one person who kept messaging me over and over about Ankha. I've never blocked anyone before this year. It was upsetting. I'm still upset about it. It kind of tarnishes the fact that she won this whole popularity contest for me.

I should be happier about it. This was a grand experiment that lasted nearly eight months, and I saw it through. And I've said before that Ankha is one of my favorite islanders, and that I had her in my Population: Growing game decades (literally, two decades) ago. So I like Ankha. She's a cute little yellow cat with a funny hat. What's not to like about her?

I'm also glad Chief did as well as he did. Chief is new to me. I only had him in this game on a whim: I liked the fact that his design made me think of certain middle-aged gay men I've known who are doing their best to age gracefully but are, undeniably, aging anyway. That's as much thought as I put into it. I'm sad Cally didn't do well. I had Cally early on in my New Leaf days, and I gave her away to someone who promised I'd be able to visit her again someday and then removed their blog from Tumblr and I never saw Cally again. It was sad. I think about that from time to time.

Something a bit similar happened with Henry: I had him in my New Leaf town, and I gave him away to someone whose blog is no longer active and who didn't post about him. Oh well. I didn't mind that as much. I like Henry alright, but he's never been one of my favorites. I'm fine with how badly he did in the polls.

I don't have any big conclusions here. This went, well, it honestly did go better than I expected for it to in a lot of ways. I kept holding out hope that maybe this blog would finally, after about ten years on this site, pick up a few followers and get me over that 1600-follower mark (I've had 1500-something followers for over six years--every time I gain a few followers, I lose a few), but I'm not willing or able to do what it takes to go viral. These are the kinds of posts I make.

I'm very grateful to the followers I have who stick around, liking and occasionally reblogging my stuff on a regular basis.

@vanilla-owns-chocolate @92explorer @zane275 @averygamin2 @schtroumpfalunettes @anch-vaviel @ozai @thebigjawpokemon @pie-bean

Those are in no particular order. I just went to my blog's activity page and scrolled down through a week or two's worth of notes until I saw all the usual folks I remember.

But, even though we don't talk, I appreciate you for being here for so long. It's easy to say that I don't do this for the notes, and I don't, really, but it's nice, you know? To see that there are folks out there who like what I put out there.

I'm going to be honest with you. I've given this a lot of thought. I think it's time I stepped away from Animal Crossing for a while. Focused on other things.

This isn't goodbye. It's just a hiatus. There are a few days of posts left in the queue, and then this blog will go silent, and I'm going to write some kind of actual message a little while after that sorting out my thoughts after ten years and one month of running this blog, which started on September 8, 2013. That's too long. Too, too long to have written anywhere from 4 to 10 posts a day. My activity page says 22,643 before I post this. Probably more than 22,000 of those were original, written by me, that is, not reblogs.

I'll be around. I have a main blog. @ozai has even liked a couple of my posts there, so I'm pretty sure they know about it. It's mentioned at the top of this one, even on mobile. So it's not a secret. It's right there. I write about other things there than Animal Crossing. Lately, it's been mostly about the novel I've spent the last three and a half years working on. I might actually have it done in another two years or so! Won't that be exciting? Then I can shut up about it and start writing about the next one.

I also wrote a few thousand words about Frog, from Chrono Trigger, once. It's not exactly surprising to me that my main blog has never even made it above 70 followers, is my point.

That's enough of this. I'm getting dangerously close to depressing, and I don't want to do that.

Here and now, this experiment, these 90 polls, was a triumph. I stuck with it. Ankha won. Chief came in second. Those are good things. It's good. I'm happy with that. It's the culmination of ten years of work. And it's time for a break.

Have a great day. Please continue doing your best, and I promise that I will, too.

#text post #long post #i've been considering this for over a year it was not sudden or brought on by any one thing #one way or another i will not stop writing until i am dead #and if i can think of a way to keep writing after that then i promise i will

[omgkatsudonplease]

my duty to you both (on equal love)!

Versailles, 1779

“You know, I’m quite impressed that you’ve managed to stay on your horse for so long,” said the Duke after a couple hours of slow and easy riding at the back of the company. “Your predecessor didn’t have as much luck in the saddle as you seem to have.” 

“Lord Tureis wasn’t one for hunting, then?” asked Uncty. 

“Oh, he had quite a spirited go at it, at first,” said the Duke cheerily, “but unfortunately for Thierry le Petit Chevalier, all his aspirations for hunting glory went tumbling right off the back of this horse here,” he nodded at the gelding that Uncty was currently riding, “alongside his person, when the flutter of his wife’s skirts startled the poor thing into bucking him off, nearly trampling Madame la Précieuse in the process.”

Uncty frowned. “What was Lady Virginia even doing out in the park?” 

“God only knows.” They were now approaching a cluster of nobles, Muggle and magical alike; the laughter of some of the court ladies were pealing out as clear as bells. “Despite the whole thing having played out in front of several witnesses, those two insist to this day that the injuries they’d sustained from their little misadventure stemmed from a run-in with a werewolf. As if there were any werewolves at Versailles—we haven’t seen one here since François Antoine brought us the pelt of the Beast of Gévaudan!” 

Uncty hummed. “It seems to me that Lord Tureis and Lady Virginia were not as popular at the court as they have led me to believe,” he remarked.

“In their first couple months here, the two of them kept a modest pair of rooms in the Couloir de Sorcellerie, alongside the rest of the magical courtiers, and immediately began to swan about like they were the ones who owned the place.” The Duke shook his head with a wry little smile. “Perhaps it was a happy misfortune that le Petit Chevalier’s inadvertent injury to his wife gave them the excuse they needed to fall back to Paris. Her Majesty the Queen had been most upset about Madame la Précieuse’s insinuations regarding Her Majesty’s behaviour towards her friends.” 

Uncty had yet to see the Queen. He couldn’t help but fear the possibility that his predecessor might have completely killed the Queen’s interest in receiving visits from Avalonian envoys. Perhaps Lord Black, Lord Tureis’ father, had simply been pulling strings in the Department of International Magical Cooperation to give his third son a plum posting abroad, where he and his young wife could be exposed to the world beyond the shores of New Avalon.

((Basically, it's part three of a prologue triptych to Heirs of Avalon! It covers the rise of Unctuous Osbert to the post of Minister for Magic. Osbert, per Pottermore, was believed to be a puppet of Septimus Malfoy, so this fic also covers the span of their relationship:))

With a sigh, the Duke extended a hand towards the sylph. “Monsieur Osbert, might I introduce to you my second cousin, the Comte de Landerneau?”

“My friends call me Septimus,” added the Count, with a playful little grin.

“And do your lovers call you Septy?” teased Gabrielle. “It’s what they’re saying in the latest libelles, you know.”

“And whatever is printed in the libelles must be the truth,” rejoined the Count with a wink.

“Oh dear. I had no idea our little get-togethers in the Petit Trianon were such scandalous orgies,” mused Gabrielle in mock-horrified tones. She then reached out and grabbed the Count by the hand, pulling him back from Uncty. “Come, come, Septy, the Queen’s tired of dancing with that clod Lafayette and needs a better partner!” 

“Until our next intersection, Monsieur Osbert,” trilled the Count before he was led away by Gabrielle into the crowd. Uncty watched him go with his heart in his throat.

((Thanks for the ask <3))

#pureblood culture #deconstruction #heirs of avalon #lily's dabbles #asks #slightweasel #hfpw

[vent-rat]

Presenting Katie Wolfe, a.k.a Copycat!

@homegrown-blorbo-garden

I suck at drawing without a base, so here's the references I used!

First one I genuinely have no clue. I drew it like 4 or 5 years ago in my high school-provided subscription of Photoshop so I do not have the files. I searched up something along the lines of "superhero pose drawing reference female" though.

2nd!

3rd!

4th I used HeroForge as a reference.

Now that the art showcase is complete, I shall tell her story! Well, part of it. You see Katie is part of an entire multiverse I created called FiveOh Comics. At my count right now, there's 285 characters in this universe (plus an rp Discord server which I can link to anyone interested in joining). There's a ton of storylines all over the universe, and Copycat in particular has an entire 100 episode-10 season show I'm writing about her that I want to get officially produced, but I don't have time to go through all of it today, so here's the essentials!

Katie Wolfe is an anomaly, born with superhuman powers that manifested at 10. She could copy any actions she saw other people take, so long as she physically had the capability to do so. She could also chameleon herself to look like other people, or change her own appearance. Worth mentioning also that she's bisexual and polyamorous.

She's the daughter of Timberwolf (a.k.a Theresa Wolfe), one of the most famous superheroes in the world and the leader of POW! (Protectors Of the World), the first superhero team ever. Theresa's also the smartest person in the world, and runs the company Wolfe Sciences, dedicated to creating products that advance humanity's capabilities. I'll talk about Theresa again in a later post when I've drawn a not-shitty picture of her in hero mode.

Trying to follow in her mother's footsteps, Katie helped found Alpha Sentinel, the most popular hero team in the world, since it had two former members of POW! leading it and never seemed to lose. In the fight that formed the team, Katie met a shapeshifter from a doomed civilization in the core of the Earth, who'd been jettisoned to the surface to save her. Confused and angry, she lashed out, until the soon-to-be team pacified her and they slunk off. Katie later tracked her down and brought them to her mother. After a while of acclimating to the surface and its society, she took a human form, naming herself Emily and choosing to stay with Katie and Theresa. Theresa officially adopted her, and she became Katie's sister.

After 3 successful years of Alpha Sentinel's career, tragedy struck. One member was trapped within his own mind, one was killed, a third was traumatized so bad she quarantined herself in her room for nearly a year, and a fourth was hospitalized, leaving only Katie and Stingray (aka Steven Raye, Theresa's best friend) still active heroes. Of course, though, Katie was not unaffected by this event, and she retreated into a shell for over a month, right up to the start of the Copycat series, the events of which I won't spoil.

Over the course of the show, however, she deals with her own emotional scars and brings together friends, even saving the old AS member who was trapped in his own mind, and created a new Alpha Sentinel, consisting of herself, Stingray, the previously mentioned member of AS, Riptide, Timberwolf, her sister Emily, calling herself Goop Girl, her best friend Cassie Wright, or Libra, and a wizard named Stardust.

Oh, also there's a strong chance she's a daughter of Athena. At the very least, she's been blessed, as Athena has allowed her to summon Aegis and Astrape.

I'll get to all of these characters in due time, of course, but for now, that's Katie's story! Here's some quotes from her for good measure.

Katie: I live in fear of John Cena brushing my mouth like Colgate.

Katie: Hey, y’know how some people get birds released at their weddings?

Emily: …yes?

Katie: I want Cassowaries released at my wedding.

Theresa: "Katie, if you ever utter the phrase 'copyright incringement' in my house again, I'm kicking you out."

Katie, dying: I’m sorry… you know I had to do it to ‘em…

Katie: You're not a copycat. Nothing has ever been done the way you do it before. Everything you do is special and unique to you.

#blorbo harvest #fiveoh comics #copycat series #katie wolfe

[gisellelx]

For the fanfic writer asks, want to do 29, 33, and 44?

Thanks @jessicanjpa!

29. What's your most popular fic?

Ithaca Is Gorges, by far. It totally makes my day any time I see someone rec it, and the fact that it's still kicking around at the top of a lot of people's rec lists is such a terrific compliment. I use reddit mainly for my hobby of investing and personal finance, so I only lurk on the Twific reddit but there's usually not a month that goes by where someone doesn't suggest somewhere that someone else read it. It's one reason I refuse to be shy about the value of fanfic writing. I work alongside people whose whole job it is to publish novels and teach fiction writing, and sure, nobody's written about my fanfic in Kirkus reviews, but for sure far more people have read and recommended my novels than have any of theirs. 😆 I'd rather have the latter.

33. Do you ever read your own fics once they've been posted?

Perpetually. In fact, I just managed to lose/break two Kindles in one month and am on my third since the beginning of October. I noticed when I added my Calibre library to the one before this one that my table of contents weren't working properly for several of my ebook versions so I actually took the time to regenerate them last week. Of course, then I sat down and read the entirety of Present Perfect—it's the gnarliest one to format so at first I was just ostensibly checking to make sure it was done correctly, but then I got sucked in because it's a pretty good story if I do say so myself.

It's helpful both because it spurs my own writing, but also keeps me aware of my own canon. Whenever possible, I try to write such that every story I write takes place in the same universe as every other one, and being reminded that oh right, this is the year I decided that Alice and Jasper showed up, and where, helps me make sure a reference I make to it six years later isn't different. Wouldn't mind if Stephenie Meyer paid as close attention.

44. How often do you write?

Trying to bring this back to a more regular practice. I add a few words to things almost every single day. But really getting into the groove of it isn't nearly as often as it once was. I keep trying to get back into a daily fiction writing practice and it's hard. Part of that is, I fear, the easy allure of other kinds of online distraction which did not exist as completely when I used to write fiction, both ofic and fanfic, more prolifically. But other of it is just that I do a lot of writing these days. People think professors are mostly teachers and nope, we're mostly writers. So when work is writing, having fun also be writing is sometimes a lot. On the other hand, I write a lot when I'm writing a lot. 😅 When the ole's sideblog is very active, it's a really good sign that I'm also throwing thousands of words down on the WIPs. So, trying to write more and read more and reddit less.

Ask me things

#Kirkus aside someone did once write about the existence of The Unlikely Meeting in a major rag #and I am just gonna humble brag here in the tags that not only did that happen I DON'T REMEMBER WHICH ONE IT WAS #because these days I talk to reporters a lot #I think it was WSJ? I can't find it on WaPo

[sotwk]

Sorry for bothering you with so many asks recently but here goes. I haven't read The Broken Shield (yet) but I think it is really a shame when fics that aren't romance-oriented get less attention, despite all the effort people clearly put into them. I guess all I can do is encourage you by saying that although non-romantic fics may not be as popular, that doesn't mean that their stories are less interesting or important and I personally think they're great.

Aww @hobbitwrangler you're so kind and sweet and supportive (especially since we're relatively new Moots) and I cannot believe you think any of your Asks would ever bother me! <3 Thank you so much for this encouraging message. You are 10,000% welcome in my Ask Box any time with whatever thoughts pop in your head!

There's a quote from my favorite childhood sports movie, "D2: The Mighty Ducks", by Julie Gaffney, that pops into my mind when it comes to this particular fanfiction woe:

At the end of this month, I will celebrate my 1-year anniversary on Tumblr. I came here to share my "Sons of the Woodland King" AU stories following a nearly 10-year hiatus from writing any fanfic. Before that, I was doing forum roleplaying, mostly in Marvel, so it was very action-oriented. Eventually I became unable to keep up with the posting speed of my peers, and I decided to try something new.

Don't get me wrong; I have enjoyed writing and sharing all the Reader Insert romances that have gained a decent amount of attention and wonderful feedback that I am grateful for. But if you were to ask me what my strongest suits/genres are, romance isn't at the top of the list. It's action, drama/angst, and then romance is tied for third with family relationships.

I like writing about badass heroes kicking ass. If my fics get Mature ratings, it would be likely for Violent content, not Sex. I like making readers swoon, but I also want them to be like this:

Unfortunately, it has become clear to me during my time on Tumblr and Ao3 that most fanfiction readers aren't quite that interested in stories that feature this. That's the primary reason why none of my fics so far have featured much action. (Broken Shield probably contains the most.) I know writers are supposed to write whatever they want without a care for feedback, but that hasn't been what I have done.

So, even though I am happy to write and share things that are popular because they make others happy, I just feel like by not writing and posting the fics that I am probably most skilled at and feel passionate about, I'm not "showing the world what I can do".

My hope is that eventually, after I have earned the trust of my readers and followers, they will enjoy my writing enough to give my Gen fics a chance. After all, there is so much potential when you have amazing kickass characters like Thranduil and sons, Boromir, Eomer, Thorin, etc. to work with!

#sotwk answers #i have the best mutuals #feel good #spread kindness #writer life #writer things #writer problems #fanfiction #fanfiction writing #sotwk personal

[bedlamsbard]

Oh, apparently it’s been a minute since I said this the last time:

The Ouroboros series and the third story, All Along the Watchtower, are permanently on hold because over the past nine years I’ve gotten so many nasty comments on Wake the Storm and Queen’s Gambit that the idea of working in that series or with those characters again makes me literally sick to my stomach.

You can see a sampling of things people have said about them here, here, and in my talking about feedback in public tag generally.  I’ve been in fandom for over twenty years: these were not my first fanfics, I’d been in fandom for well over a decade by the time I wrote Wake.  I’ve gotten every kind of comment under the sun since my LJ and forum days (I came in at the point where listservs were on their way out).  Wake is coming up on its nine year anniversary at the end of this year (I wrote the first chapter in November 2013), Gambit will be eight years old next year (first chapter posted March 2014); to this day I still get something on the order of one really nasty comment a month, every two months, which doesn’t sound like much until you realize it’s been happening for nearly nine years.

I’m sorry to everyone who likes those stories, I get way more positive comments than I get negative ones; I consistently get more comments on Wake and Gambit than I get anything else including my active WIPs, Wake is my most popular fic by a long shot; I will never touch this series again.

#every time I sit down to write there's a tiny portion of my brain dedicated to making sure I never ever get the response wake/gambit got #a lot of people who write those comments delete them later but like...I still get the notifications and I Remember #and it's TEENY-TINY STUFF #it's not just the big things! #talking about feedback in public #ouroboros #all along the watchtower

[meryton-etc]

Rest on Your Oar (and See) Commentary Track

It’s been two years, nearly, since I published Rest on Your Oar (and See). According to AO3, it is my 6th most popular fic by hits, and my 4th most kudos’ed. By Popular demand (twitter poll) here is some commentary about politics and references in the text! It may be THE MOST PRETENTIOUS THING i've ever written

Read this with the fic (here) open beside you, I guess? I don't know how to do this kind of thing

Content Warnings: Discussions of the holocaust / Shoah, mass death on the Mediterranean and English Channel, depression, suicidality, parental abuse

Rest on Your Oar began life in my green notebook, which also contains fan favourites such as every Silmarillion fic I’ve ever posted, and ‘An Ebb, a Wave, a Soft Crash.’ I write most things longhand first, and then type up the second draft. If something strikes me as having potential i’ll polish the second draft into a third, but not always. 

Rest on Your Oar wasn’t so much something that I wrote as much as something that created itself. It felt like it was in my hands already as I began to put it on the page, although that’s not to say I didn’t put a large amount of work into it. The longhand version follows the same structure as the published one, although it’s about half as long and it’s not as good. I don’t spend much time thinking about law in draft one, which is funny, because I think that’s the most important element of the entire thing.

If there’s one thing this fic is about about, it’s Modernity, and more specifically the space that law currently fills in our lives (one that might once have been filled by something else [God]). It is also about Europe, History-with-capital-H, [both of which are really just Modernity again] abuse, queerness, and depression. Modernity was when the disenchantment started: the scientific method and bureaucratisation came in - both forms of systematisation - as a result racism became codified by science instead of Religion, the individual conscience became king, and the King lost his head. And more!! 

Why yes, I have read Angels in America, thank you for asking.

This commentary will explain some of my thinking on this, as well as things that I would change, now. As I said, it’s been nearly two years, and they’ve been personally eventful. This is especially true of the focus on Europe.

I should have been clearer: the [ongoing] colonialism that has endured for the last six centuries and the current focus on borders, borders, borders make this place, at this moment, an Evil one. At this moment, we would rather maintain an absurdly expensive and brutal system of social murder, rather than deal with problems we ourselves have caused. If you’re looking for a cause to throw €5 to over the next few months - and God knows you probably aren’t, given the cost of living these days - consider organisations that come under the banner of the Calais Appeal (you can find it on instagram). Over 300 people have died in Northern Europe (France and Belgium mostly) trying to get into the UK. In 2021, according to the UN, 3,231 people lost their lives crossing the Mediterranean sea. These are people with beating hearts, inner lives, families and friends that love them dearly.It is international law that you can claim asylum in any country you want. The EU and the UK are breaking international law. There are NO LEGAL ROUTES into this place unless you are already a member of a privileged minority. The EU knows that this is the case and persists in these brutal policies regardless.

A final note before starting - Edgeworth is deeply depressed during this fic, and surprise! I was deeply depressed when I was writing it. Depression is very difficult to measure when it gets that bad, because your perceptions of everything, including time, are skewed and sometimes unreliable. I know now that I was deep into it, and this comes through occasionally in the writing and the language used. I want to say that I appreciate every comment - some of the loveliest, most gracious, best-written comments I have ever received are on this fic - and would like to let people know that I’m doing better now. In case you were wondering!

-

The title comes from an Eileen Ní Chuilleanáin (pronounced Eye-leen Nee Quill-en-awn) poem, “The Second Voyage.” It’s about Odsseus deciding that he hates the sea and must leave it, and then realising that he can’t, and must go back. I love Ní Chuilleanáin so much - she writes with an acute eye for detail. Can’t recommend enough. Anyway, you should read the poem alongside the piece, and bear in mind the ending. Is it happy? 

Is fanfiction literature? I’m going to ruffle a few feathers here and say that I’ve been reading fic for a good deal more than half my life, and I think the answer is usually not, or at least it’s not usually good literature. I’ve published more than 33 fics, which is quite a few, and even then, I think there are maybe three that I could possibly, possibly, with a lot of work, spend a few months editing and send off to a magazine. I write in the fanfiction genre and mostly, for me, generally, that precludes analysis or deep themes. Some people treat it differently. I approached Rest on your Oar differently. That’s why the references to the Holocaust and the Second World War are in here. If something is about the Law, and about Europe, then it is for me very important that we mention where the law in Europe can lead. However, generally I think it is absolutely inappropriate and wrong to trivialise the Holocaust by setting a fanfiction there. Like the new trend of novels that treat Auschwitz as a tragic backdrop in which characters can self-actualise, such fics show an absolute misunderstanding of what happened, and what was done. It was important for me to acknowledge, in my fic about a kind-of German lawyer battling with the legacies of his lawyer father(figure), that it was Europe’s celebrated legal and infrastructural machinery that made the murder of roughly 7,000,000 people (of whom 6,000,000 were Jewish) possible.

 

Anyway.

He’ll disembark at Bordeaux. A big enough city that the police won’t blink twice at an anonymous body in the treacherous river. He won’t upset anyone – he won’t make anyone he knows discover – it’ll be OK once he gets off the train

The fic starts with Edgeworth on the Paris-Hendaye high-speed rail service, in the midst of a full-blown break with reality.

By poetic licence, the carriage is empty. A last-minute ticket for the TGV on this line, in the evening, in first class (of course) would cost you about €173.00, if not more. Provided you could find one. Jesus!! You can get to Greece (by plane) for that!! 

Why the Basque country? Firstly, I lived near there for a few months and absolutely adored it. The Sea, the cliffs, the people (the people!!) the towns, winding roads, villages, houses all facing the same direction, Saint Sebastian, the language, the rain, the beaches that attract tourists and the constant wind that disappoints them, and again, above all, from everywhere, the Sea, the Sea, the Sea. I use the water as a metaphor in my writing, which is really original and unique of me. Why the Basque country? It’s old, and not German at all, easy to get to, and the seaside towns are very underpopulated during the Winter. A lot of empty houses, empty apartment blocks, and rain from the Atlantic.

The platform at Biarritz is drab and rain-soaked.

You ever get the impulse to stay on the train you’re on, and get off somewhere nicer? I don’t want to get off at Marne-la-Vallée/Chessy. So rainy and cold. And for what! Disneyland!?!? I’d rather be getting off in Avignon [ ;-) ]. This is not what Edgeworth feels, except for it is. I don’t know! He’s in the middle of a breakdown! Those aren’t coherent thoughts he’s having! I wanted to express here how tar-ry depression can be. All of your brain feels heavier, and whatever thoughts you are having are unclear and move like viscous. I imagine, for quick-on-the-draw person like Edgeworth, who may have spent most of his childhood very alert to his guardian’s moods and potential violences, that state is particularly alien. Does he want to die, or does he want to live? It can be surprising, for those who have not been there, how unclear that demarcation can be.

Corrupt.

Also I don’t forgive him the corruption until he decides that he’s going to fix it. It’s very illegal and absolutely morally repugnant, what Lana did to him. It’s absolutely the kind of thing that could mess you up for life, and I imagine would be fertile grounds for a civil case as well as a criminal one. But he’s still in a position of authority. Prisons are evil places in real life, and in Ace Attorney they seem to be mediaeval dungeons with Victorian hard-labour standards. One imagines Genet thriving in the environment. It’s on the prosecutor to think long and hard about what the truth of the matter is. Can we achieve true justice on Earth? Debatable. But Edgeworth’s approach sure isn’t helping!!!

And yet, I think it’s pretty obvious that he does, even at his worst, care about Justice.

At least there isn’t anyone they could call. Not one. The thought is freeing. He used to have Von Karma listed, but his office number, not his personal line.

Not having an emergency contact - it’s very difficult to live that way. You don’t realise how much you need one - pretty much for every job application, pretty much for every club you want to join, and certainly for doctors, dentists, and any other place where you may need insurance. For more on this, read the very beautiful How to Be Alone by Lane Moore.

Von Karma had been total

I hate it when people use political theories to describe interpersonal relationships, and vice versa, because it contributes to petty bourgeois philosophy about government spending and the worst excesses of liberal twitter, but here I present my take on parental abuse. Apologies, as ever, to Hannah Arendt.

He stumbles up the street, to the bright neon promise of an open hotel, its windows reflected in the puddles on the ground.

Anyway, I spent an enjoyable three hours looking for a fancy hotel that Edgeworth might check into. I can’t remember the one I picked but it was very white-plaster light-wood beams, healthy food, open all year round. I think to be truly in-character Edgeworth would go with the Hôtel Palace, which is just as baroque and expensive as you can imagine, but he’s not in character here, as also shown by his eschewing of the SUIT. 

Where does Edgeworth buy his fancy and boring clothes? There is a shopping centre in Gare Montparnasse, where the Paris-Hendaye service originates. So Levi’s for t-shirts, the Kooples, and so on. Some aspects of this fic are so unbelievably thought out, and some are completely symbolic and not realistic in any way. Don’t think too hard about it. 

To skip forward - here is where place Edgeworth visits in Biarritz (Le Rocher de la Vierge):

Places Miles and Franziska were brought as children for educational reasons

And the little village he settles in is one of my favourite places in the entire universe, that is, Guéthary, a little further down the Basque coast.

How gorgeous?!?!? Many a happy cigarette smoked on this harbour. Also a comedically dramatic tumble from a bicycle, ripping the knee of some nice yellow jeans.

For people who aren’t aware, there is ongoing conversation in the Basque country over the topic of independence. The Basque region encompasses some of France’s South-Western coast and also a large amount of Northern Spain. It skewed Republican (good) in the Spanish Civil War (a war so terrible that any amount of reflection upon it will have you pretty much despondent) and as a result suffered heavily when the fascists won. Picasso’s painting Guernica is based on the German bombing of the Basque cultural and market town of the same name. 

Up until fairly recently, this was a conflict, with armed group ETA on one side (pro-independence) and the Spanish police and the Guardia Civil [guilty of war crimes for sure, but no charges] on the other. The EU will not tell you this because they like to pretend there hasn’t been war since 1945. When they say this, they mean “literally tanks sent between France and Germany.” (I’m not anti-EU in principle but I am a mostly unemployed leftist so I have things to critique. To be clear this is not a Brexit support blog).

Philadelphia Story had been his favourite. His father had ruffled his hair and laughed when Miles said so. He said, why am I not surprised. My clever little boy.

Katherine Hepburn forever. Gregory Edgeworth in no doubt as to who his son is.

Larry didn’t like it so much – “Mulan’s for girls” he’d said, and Phoenix had looked down at his hands and agreed, albeit far more quietly than usual.

Miles Edgeworth runs up against male socialisation and it hurts. Also Phoenix lives with his aunt - why? Not for this fic to explore.

Past empty campsites, fields full of luxury white cuboids waiting for May.

Anyway I myself was a campsite worker, poisoning the air of the beautiful small town with my shouted English. Shame on me! I know.

But here, on this cliff - he wasn’t expecting this, either – he thought he’d seen the town’s war memorial – but here’s another one, stones turning their faces to the sea, and it’s blunter – it’s -

If your mother did a master’s thesis on French historical memory of the second world war, please hit me up! We can commiserate together. The effects of this thesis on me are manifold, but one is that I MUST find the war memorial in any town I go to and see who EXACTLY is memorialised. Obviously we have the First World War dead, which is as close to neutral remembrance as you can get in this sphere - and it’s important to look at the length of these lists in small villages and reflect!!!! And then more rarely, and always a much shorter list, you’ll have the lists of the Second World War dead. Usually resistants, but sometimes civilians as well, and generally it won’t say whether they were shot on the street or deported. 

So in Bidart (this memorial is in Bidart) that is not the case. It’s very stark, hence the flashback. My favourite war memorial is in Biarritz because it goes into a lot of detail about deportees &tc.

And speaking of memorials!!! 

This is the memorial to the murdered Jews of Europe on Hannah Arendt Strasse:

And this is the separate memorial across the road to the murdered members of the LGBTQ+ community

Both of these memorials are extremely powerful; Von Karma here weaponises this power to threaten and oppress. Power and aura, for art in everyday life, can be used for both affirmative and negative ends. Memorials to atrocities of this scale are complicated places, and while I think Berlin has done a phenomenal job at limiting the potential for misuse, it is still there. The memorial does not tell you what to think.

Similarly, you have to think about coming into an understanding of your own identity in a world where the visible, public and celebrated elements are monuments to oppression, illness, institutional hatred and . What does it mean to understand your sexuality, religion or gender through displays of public contrition and grief, or as sites of public debate before you understand it as what it means for you and your heart? 

To close out this section, consider the words of Primo Levi:

It happened, and therefore it could happen again; this is the core of what we have to say.

This is why we must reflect on the Law, and on current European fascism, and on current European migration policy. I hope at least that there will be memorials to the people we have lost due to the above.

-

On his mother’s birthday, it rains.

Who is Miles Edgeworth’s mother???? Assumedly just as dead as his father, but why the complete absence from the text? Misogyny, obviously, but why else??? When you think about it it’s a horrifically sad story. Edgeworth wanting to die (more actively than passively at this stage) on her birthday is a detail I added to make it worse!! One imagines she’s buried or memorialised in his hometown. Did they go to her grave? Did Gregory miss her out loud? 

She would have been 60. All the terrible people in the world who reached that milestone.

This is a reference to the fact that Henry Kissinger is !!! Still !!!! Alive ?!?!?!?!?

The ocean revolting against itself and the pure rage of its power

The sea is a neutral force. A neutrality that is still very powerful.

His first thought is I like that bicycle, with the pink streamers on the handlebars.

Edgeworth is starting to recognise his inner child. This will be, in the end, what saves his life, and possibly what saves us all. I once had a therapist that called herself an “early childhood development professional, only one that deals with adults.” She was the best therapist I ever had!! Miles Edgeworth needs to start feeling and healing!! And so do I, and dear reader, probably so do you! Also this scene was written two years before I met this person, but falling off a cliff is a real thing that can happen. I had a coworker that fell off TWO separate cliffs. Excessive? She certainly thought so!

A Portuguese nurse asks if he’s alright as he comes in (what a question) and he tells her no.

Because mental illness is actually quite common and I imagine Edgeworth is underplaying his symptoms, they don’t keep him in for observation like I imagine they probably should. In my country the healthcare system is so broken that they don’t have the money to do things like that, but in France it’s generally efficient and well-funded. What’s going on here? Maybe he doesn’t have his EHIC card or something. Anyway, prozac made me much worse! He should be on sertraline. And then, after all of that - all that agony and humiliation - he’s still just as bad as he was before, worse maybe.

He is fourteen and lying on his back. The parquet rubs cold against his legs

There is no worse age to be in the entire world alive than 14. Is the suicidality already latent in young Edgeworth, or is it that he is looking back with poisoned lenses? 

“Hello, detective.”

You can’t escape!!!!!!!! You may desperately want to - the love of your friends and family can be the most painful and heavy thing, the most awkward burden to bear - but you can’t escape it. Thankfully.

Ride your bike down to the sea and relish in the breeze blowing the hair back from your face.

“9 out of 10 days are slightly disappointing

But on the tenth, you see that light beckoning”

Annika Norlin, “Silent Night”

Transcendence is rare, but it happens. It will happen to you. You will come to a place where you will recognise the beauty around you and inside you, and you will know that you were supposed to make it here. You will not want the mire of mental illness anymore; you will know that you are better when you are freer. 

And then it will go, and you will forget the feeling, but not that you had it. As Elizabeth Bishop says: Somebody loves us all.

The wanting of the bad thing is a strange thing to explain. There’s no such thing as true freedom from it. It is always in the back of your head, there’s always another shoe that can drop, and there will be people and things said to you - Never Quite Free by the Mountain Goats, people, don’t ask me to explain more than that.

In the future, Phoenix Wright will run into the same stretch of sea…

See High Season

he shady tactics (not illegal), the withholding of certain pieces of evidence (not illegal), the decisions on what sentence to push for, and for whom, and when to take a case and when to decide against doing so

Be VERY cautious of prosecutors. I myself am absolutely anti-prison. I don’t see any reason for that kind of barbarity in our world. I can see that not everybody feels that way. But always remember: prosecutors in most of today’s systems are on very good friends with the cops. And the cops are never your friends.

Old man, Edgeworth thinks, old man, I am not ashamed

Edgeworth is gay and now he can say “i am gay” out loud to himself. This kind of brutal repression, that either abusive parents or abusive environments instil, is violence. That is, violence as defined by Johan Galtung: the cause of the difference between the potential and the actual, between what could have been and what is. 

Thank you not-Guéthary! We are moving on!

The Cévennes! Beautiful mountains, barely populated, old old old. And I believe a place where the Maquis (part of the French Resistance) tended to congregate. Resistance… potential changes on the horizon for dear M. Edgeworth. The town that I based this town on is Florac, another stunning location. Best avocado of my entire life. I can still remember that salad, all these years later. And a very lovely skirt, silk, in blue-grey!

Oh my GOD I have got to get back there. I forgot how beautiful it was. I wonder how much rent is. I could finally write my masterwork in peace.

The man at the till, tall and dark, smiles at him

When I was there there were no handsome Spanish men selling books but in all fairness I don’t have any use for handsome Spanish men, so maybe there were some I missed? 

Unusual for a Catholic church to be so unadorned

Edgeworth does not Find Religion here. Pity! I think there are some themes in Catholicism that could help him! Not Catholicism itself, but a few of the ideas within it. Not the devotion bit - he’s maybe had too much of that already.

He liked the moomins too, although he got the feeling the other children in the class would have the same reaction to that as they did to Mulan

I must admit to taking the shame of loving the Moomins as a homage to Philip Pullman, who wrote sweetly about the same thing in an essay which I cannot find (here’s a different one), but nobody picked up on it in the comments and so now I think it’s just plagiarism??? Help!?!

He has a Spanish accent; more Southern than Northern

Javi García Cortes is from Grenada

Von Karma had slapped him, once, hard, across the face

Von Karma physically assaulting him like this is deeply humiliating, and acts as a threat to Franziska as well, though I don’t think he would do the same to her.

The chasm it will open has been a spectre, his life since he was nine years old. The dark at the centre of the spider’s web.

So the “dark at the centre of the spider’s web” is a serious image that I am using seriously, but I was listening to an improv podcast by Paul F Tomkins where “Hans Christian Anderson” is being interviewed, and HE USES THE SAME IMAGE!! But it’s so funny! Truly one of my favourite jokes ever. This is a coincidence, but it’s ruined this paragraph for me.

He was an omnipresent threat of power and violence, and he shaped Edgeworth, gave him purpose and an appreciation for Handel and Bach.

If someone gives you art, knowledge, understanding and education, feeds you - you’re a real person at least partly in their image, and - it’s unbearable, that the person that was supposed to love you and nurture you not only didn’t care enough to do that, but also hurt you, maybe on purpose and maybe by accident. Apologies would never be enough, and Miles Edgeworth does not even have that. I mean, really put yourself in his shoes: you’ve found out that this man who was responsible for your growth and development and your choice of career actually hated you and wanted to kill you and it wasn’t even for anything he thought you did. (And then it turns out your trusted co-workers were responsible for you sending hundreds of people to prison). And then also you’re in the middle of a nervous breakdown and you can’t stop thinking about the last time you were happy. Which was when you were nine years old.

lying on the shore beside Javi García Cortes, who had just kissed him in full view of the road, the best kiss of his life

I love Javi so much.AO3 user Eggybaguette posted this absolutely incredible comment, which is such a good analysis and you’re so smart for this if you’re reading this, like genuinely you are so intelligent. “[Edgeworth] seeing himself, an anonymous body in a river in the beginning, and then letting himself be recognized and experience intimacy in a river with Javi,” as they point out, is an important character progression. It’s also important in terms of borders - rivers and seas are often sites of division. Here Edgeworth is allowing himself to broaden the horizons of what he thinks his body is for. This is also true of the scene where he goes sea-swimming.

He doesn’t get out of bed except to use the bathroom for three days straight

Oh God I forgot how horrible I am to this poor man in this section. Healing isn’t linear!

He loves this movement. He loves the clarinet.

Ah, Mozart’s Piano Concerto no.23 in A Major (K488). Truly I don’t know where this man got his genius from but he understood how to express light in music! The fête de la musique that Edgeworth is attending is an annual event that has musicians play in towns across France. It’s really great! I don’t know how good an orchestra from a tiny rural town would be, but let’s pretend it’s a good one for this.

And it was not The Law that stood in his way.

IS THIS A WHISPER OF REDEMPTION? I have been a sucker for a redemption arc since I recognised a kindred spirit in Zuko from Avatar, and to be honest I am so obsessed with Ace Attorney deciding that was something Edgeworth would probably undergo, but totally off-screen. So what changed? What was the “true meaning of being a prosector?” Is the system broken beyond repair, or can it be fixed? Choose carefully, because if something can be fixed, you might find you have an obligation to fix it… not that Edgeworth is there yet in his emotional journey.

The next morning, he’s feeling pretty bad, but he gets up anyway

HE IS ABLE TO GET UP IN THE MORNING AND FEED HIMSELF!!!!!!! Just as triumphant a moment as running down to the sea imo. This is the hard work of living. 

the teachings he had to impart made a certain amount of sense. They twisted the world around, so that they confirmed your worst fears, and the more you got the more you needed

More Wanting the Bad Thing.

Sometimes the two of them, miserable on the sofa together. Miles went to a lady to talk about it, sometimes, and the way he couldn’t really make friends

It was partly inherited all along :( The thing is sometimes something happens which explains it all, and sometimes it doesn’t, and often it is a combination. Gregory Edgeworth here being an exemplary father, meaning that when he noticed his son was more sad than the usual child he went and tried to sort it out.

Oh God, had nobody – the little boy who would sleep in single bed strewn with books and signal samurai pillowcases – had nobody thought, Manfred Von Karma will damage this child

Where are the child protection systems in Ace Attorney. Mr Phoenix sir I know you care very deeply for Trucy but you can’t just take a child back to your house without some kind of documentation. Von Karma should not have been able to randomly take a child out of his community to a different continent. As John Darnielle of The Mountain Goats says, though, “Take the character seriously.” So if this was the state of the issue - what the Hell would that feel like? Not good! Edgeworth is feeling the grief of realising that childhood and its moral simplicities are over, the fact that he has been forever damaged by his upbringing, and that he will never get to be nurtured by people who loved him. And also there are fifteen years of pain that he has not let himself feel, that are all now demanding their day in court. 

Well. Miles has always cared about justice, fairness, truth (whatever those words really mean for adult lives, there is something very clear and beautiful about a child’s perception of the concepts). Edgeworth is in a position to help with that.

Try and build a life that you would be proud to show to your childhood self. It doesn’t have to be the life that they wanted.

Phoenix cried for the whole thing, pretty much

Phoenix is deep in grief! 

as the river cuts a gash across the continent more political than physical.

Goodbye, Cévennes! I will miss you dearly!! 

But there will be time enough to return. Go on, go on, let the magnets and the engineers carry you forward.

Perhaps there’s something important good and connective about trains, as well? Maybe there is space to redeem ourselves? Maybe if we leave our own interests behind and join in common cause?

I attended the centenary of the 1918 Armistice on a footbridge across the Rhine on the France-Germany border. Then there were lots of jokes about how it was about time for Alsace-Lorraine to go back to Germany, and also tears of relief that such a war hasn’t happened since 1945. If there are no wars between France and Germany for so long then surely more is possible.

Borders are weird places.

“The architecture here is, like, really weird,” Trucy says, eating her solero and looking, unimpressed, at one of the Europe’s greatest achievements. “Is it supposed to look like a spaceship?”

Trucy is right. It is weird. I love it so much. I think Edgeworth is absolutely involved in the European Court of Human Rights. It’s a bit for show, a bit actually effective, and mostly a massive symbol for… something.

While he’s there the law will change, and there will be dancing in the streets.

The Law has enormous power. In the right hands, it promotes human justice, and allows for the truth to be codified. In more mundane light, too, it orders things you hardly think about. A number of years ago, it was revealed that a mix-up on my birth certificate means that I have two available names. It took a while to actually work out what this meant; for a while I thought that I was legally registered under a name that wasn’t mine. It was upsetting! And then for trans people, getting the right name of their birth certs and personal IDs is a concrete affirmation. According to the state and its laws, this is who you are. 

Sharp Objects says: I have returned to my childhood, the scene of the crime. This refers to real crime and also a more abstract one. 

Anyway I have no way to end this. Let me know if you have any questions?

The Prodigal

The brown enormous odor he lived by was too close, with its breathing and thick hair, for him to judge. The floor was rotten; the sty was plastered halfway up with glass-smooth dung. Light-lashed, self-righteous, above moving snouts, the pigs' eyes followed him, a cheerful stare-- even to the sow that always ate her young-- till, sickening, he leaned to scratch her head. But sometimes mornings after drinking bouts (he hid the pints behind the two-by-fours), the sunrise glazed the barnyard mud with red the burning puddles seemed to reassure. And then he thought he almost might endure his exile yet another year or more.

But evenings the first star came to warn. The farmer whom he worked for came at dark to shut the cows and horses in the barn beneath their overhanging clouds of hay, with pitchforks, faint forked lightnings, catching light, safe and companionable as in the Ark. The pigs stuck out their little feet and snored. The lantern--like the sun, going away-- laid on the mud a pacing aureole. Carrying a bucket along a slimy board, he felt the bats' uncertain staggering flight, his shuddering insights, beyond his control, touching him. But it took him a long time finally to make up his mind to go home

-- Elizabeth Bishop

If you liked this, then you’ll LOVE

A Place of Greater Safety by Hilary Mantel

Elizabeth Bishop’s poems, including: Filling Station, At the Fishhouses

The Seasons Quartet by Ali Smith

Angels in America by Tony Kushner

How to be Alone by Lane Moore

The Vichy Syndrome by Henri Russo

Postwar: A History of Europe since 1945 by Tony Judt

If This is a Man and The Truce by Primo Levi 

The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel A. Van Der Kolk

All About Love by bell hooks

Our Lady of the Flowers by Jean Genet

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness

Less, by Andrew Sean Greer

Sharp Objects, by Gillian Flynn

The Mountain Goats discography, specifically these songs: Heretic Pride **Never Quite Free Cry for Judas

Can't Get You Out of my Head docuseries by Adam Curtis

22, 25 by Rosemary Valerlo-O’Connell

#my fic #commentary #writing #rest on your oar #edgeworth #aa #rest on your oar (and see) #politics #Europe #modernity #pretention #elizabeth bishop #The Law #ace attorney #fic writing

[sharenadraculea]

Half a year on AO3 - Retrospective

So, I‘ve now been on AO3 for a bit more than half a year, so I want to talk about what I‘ve written so far!

I‘ll go by number of hits

01)Made of Glass: my a/b/o-Naruto-fic and by far my most popular one! I was a bit hesitant about writing it at first but I really like it and writing it is a lot of fun! I love the worldbuilding, the mix of fluff and more serious topics, the characters… I also plan to do some art for it soon! 02) Ladies and Gentlemen: My first fic on AO3! I‘m honestly not a big fan of it anymore… I wrote nearly all of it within a few weeks in summer and it definetly was fun at the time, but now… shrug 03)What could have been: the first Warhammer 40k-fic on this list! I also really love this one, it‘s a very fun mix of slice of life and more serious plot I‘m planning. It‘s definetly going to be pretty long. 04)About Angels: This was my Secret Sanguinala gift for Mahaute (great author, go check out her work) and I really love the concept for it. But I also sat on it for two months before the reveal, so I pointed out every single flaw to myself and thus probally don‘t like it as much as I could have… I‘m honestly kind of surprised how well this one is doing. 05)Wildfire Blight: my one crossover-fic! I also really like this one, even tough I haven‘t updated it since November, shame on me. I do plan to post chapter three soon! 06)Godess of Monsters: I still really like the concept for this one, but I kind of lost the motivation to write… I do want to finish it one day tough. 07)Seal Bride: My record for fastest written fic (about 1.5 hours from idea to posting). I‘m pretty neutral about it, it was definetly fun to write but I often just kind of forget that it‘s there 08)The fight for Helwinter: Also a short one, very fun to write! I was definetly surprised by how well it was received, but I like it a lot. I really want to continue this series, but personal life keeps happening. 09)Something: Another one that‘s rather short, I wrote it pretty impulsivly after a discussion with a discord-friend about Harry Potter. I still like it, maybe I‘ll expand on the ideas and themes of it in a longer story. 10)Uprising with no winning chance: The sequel to Something and the shortest story so far. I‘m neutral about it. Definetly the story I forget that it even exists the most. 11)Heart of Hell: My third HP-fic and probally the darkest of all my fics so far. I was honestly I bit underwhelmed with how few hits it got in comparisson to my other stuff… which wasn‘t a great reaction. I really like this one tough! I love worldbuilding for it, I love the setting, love the vibe, the whole story is allready ploted out… it just takes a lot of energy to write, because of it‘s dark subject matters, but chapter three is in the works! 12)Very masculine masculine Warpaint: and last but certainly not least, my only Atla-fic so far (tough I plan to write more if I get good ideas)! I actually quite like this one, it has a pretty stupid premise but it was fun to write.

All in all I‘m very proud of the stuff I wrote! There obviously is more, I have quite a few WIPs that aren‘t yet a single chapter long. It has been really fun so far, 10/10 would highly recommend

#my writing #fanfiction #fanfic #ao3 #ao3 fanfic

[theghostpinesmusic]

Three-Fingered Jack (1/3)

2021 was a bad fire year.

I mean, really, they're all bad fire years these days, but 2021 was especially bad. It was also the first summer that things seemed to be "returning to normal" to some degree after COVID-19, so I was even more excited than usual to use my time off to get out of the house and get into the woods. I got a few short trips in near the beginning of the summer, but then around mid-July the smoke got bad. And it stayed that way. Until September, more or less. And this wasn't the "usual" occasionally-it's-bad-to-be-outside smoke. It was a full month of days where it was difficult-to-dangerous to be outside, a hundred miles or more in every direction from home. No AC, no opening the windows to cool the house off at night, no leaving town to go anywhere.

So, when I was able, in mid-August, to get a permit for a hike around Three-Fingered Jack and the air in the area was "only" around one hundred AQI, I went for it. It wasn't my number-one choice for a hike, it wasn't going to be particularly pretty, and I would be able to smell the nearby wildfires the entire time, but I decided that it was better than being trapped in the house for three more days of an excruciatingly long month.

The trip was fine. Circumnavigating Three-Fingered Jack is a fairly popular route by central Oregon backpacking standards, though it's certainly no Broken Top Loop or Sisters Loop in terms of reputation. That said, I actually found it to be much more interesting, challenging, and beautiful than I'd expected. The smoke was a bummer, though, and midway through the hike I decided that I would come back and do the loop again in a year or two when the air was clearer so I could enjoy it more.

Well, guess what this post is going to be about?

Two weeks ago now, I grabbed a permit online and headed north to the Santiam Pass trailhead to start my second trip around Three-Fingered Jack. In addition to the smoke, my original 2021 trip was complicated by the fact that I had only been able to get a permit for the Round Lake trailhead, which added four miles of distance to the hike...not a problem, in theory, until in reality I missed the turnoff for Summit Lake on the second day and ended up having to hike nearly twenty miles that day to find a water source for the night that would still make it reasonable to reach the Round Lake trailhead on the third morning. In contrast, Santiam Pass is right on the loop, making the hike a true loop rather than a lollipop and giving me a bit less work to do to complete the thing the second time around. Combine that with gorgeous blue skies on the first morning and things were off to a great start.

A lot of this hike travels through old burns. I'm of the mindset that you can't really backpack regularly in the west in the 21st century without finding a way to see beauty in these destroyed-but-regrowing spaces; however, that doesn't mean that hiking through a burn on a sunny, eighty-five-degree day isn't really hot and at least a little miserable.

The first few miles of the trail, going counter-clockwise from Santiam Pass, is all burn, and has you climbing most of the time as you move from the mountain's south to east aspects, passing over a number of ridges as you go. Fortunately, there are some great, open views of the Three Sisters and Mount Washington to keep your eyes busy, as well as Square Lake and Booth Lake for great break spots.

You also get a lot of clear views of Three-Fingered Jack itself. Foregrounded by the burned landscape, it can be a striking tableau.

Eventually, you reach a third lake, Jack Lake, and have to make a decision. If you're doing "only" the true loop around the mountain, you can continue along the trail you've already taken for a few miles, which eventually leads to the PCT, which can then be taken south along the mountain's west side to get back to your car. If you like Pretty Outside Things at all, though, you owe it to yourself to take the four-or-so mile detour into Canyon Creek Meadows. Of course this is what I did.

Because the meadows rest at the foot of Three-Fingered Jack, you have to climb quite a bit more to get to them. At first, this climb continues through more burn, and this might make you question whether you've made the right decision after all; however, before long you'll notice - consciously or unconsciously - that the forest has come back to life around you, as you pass through the burn (finally!) and into an almost shockingly green and moist pine forest. I don't know for sure, but I imagine that at some point all of the forest around the mountain was like this, before it burnt down. So it goes.

Eventually, the path through this forest leads you to the meadows proper. The "entrance" is almost comically dramatic, as it seems designed: one minute, you're walking through a shady forest, the next you emerge from the forest as if a curtain is being drawn away and wide, wildflower-studded meadows are revealed on both sides of you, while Canyon Creek burbles by to your right.

The trail gets tougher from here, but I've barely noticed either time: after a day's worth of hiking through a burn, the meadows are so enchanting it's hard to feel tired as you proceed through more and more beautiful vistas, even if you are continuing uphill.

Eventually, along the creek and in the distance, you start to get views of Three-Fingered Jack itself. Somewhere along the way, it's gone from being a distant spire to a rocky fortress looming directly above you, though the meadows at its feet make it feel more elvish than orcish.

There are a lot of great camping spots along the creek throughout the hike from Jack Lake to the foot of the mountain, but I'll likely never use any of them, because hiking all the way through to the meadows proper opens up one of my favorite views ever.

During my 2021 hike, I camped in a great, tree-covered spot just above the meadow proper, with a fantastic view of the mountain and plenty of space to spread out. The next morning, I set out to dayhike what looked like a scramble trail up to the eastern(ish) shoulder of the mountain and found it to be a really gorgeous (and goat-filled!) hike. I also found a number of great campsites on the mountain's shoulder, leading me to decide that the next time I came to the meadows, I would bite the bullet and climb the scramble trail up to those campsites with my full pack.

Well, the first day of this second hike became that day. I had to take it slow, especially after already having a full day of hiking in (mostly) direct sunlight, but it wasn't especially difficult despite the extra pack weight, led to some amazing late-afternoon views, and gave me the chance to see twenty-three (!!) mountain goats on the side of the mountain and in the meadows below.

Believe it or not, even after this climb it still wasn't close to dark yet (yay July!), so I spent some time after topping out exploring the gorgeous and weird plateau that extends from the mountain, taking in views of Mount Jefferson to the north and the Sisters and Mountain Washington to the south, along with some weird volcanic formations closer to home.

In the end, I decided on a fantastic tent spot (among many others) that both provided an incredible view and some protection from the wind before calling it a night.

I worried a bit about the profusion of goats on the mountain before falling asleep, but even thought I was woken up a few times throughout the night by sounds of nearby rockfall (likely triggered by said goats), none of them ever wandered close enough to my camp to cause any serious worry.

I'd get a bit more up close and personal with them in the morning.

#backpacking #hiking #camping #traveling #photos #mountains #bend #three sisters #central oregon

[writer59january13]

The daily star Tuesday issue... announces Summer Solstice 2023

regarding ray zing planetary earthlings

Wednesday, June twenty first at 10:57 Ante Meridian

Eastern standard time

will find Earth's North Pole tilted closest toward sun. This demarcates most daylight hours of the year for people living in the northern hemisphere. Just shy of high noon sun (lil more than twelve hours from drafting these lines) nearest star in solar system reaches highest point in the sky.

Hence hasty intent to beat buzzer sound dashing off riding figurative one seahorse open sleigh madly awk cross cyber sea, aye rudder sally forth (slogging thru virtual flotsam and jetsam) with poetic obeisance paid to average size ball of Earth, wind and fire, my out of this world quasi stellar benediction, since Earthlings traveled thru space/time continuum circa complimenting

summer solstice at Stonehenge

when the sky clear, the sun rises

behind the Heel stone, the ancient entrance

to the circle, and rays of sunlight channelled

into the centre of the monument.

Perchance bajillion years ago, when predecessors of present day primates (coon sitter terribly less a bomb bin hubble), versus twenty first century Homo sapiens predilection for total mortal kombat graphically spiraling downward zeroing (kamikaze like), analogy drawn, viz subjective mathematical roulette curves, albeit hypotrochoids and epitrochoids staining countless grains of sand, count them yourself, yielding result (somewhere very loosely approximating 7.5 x 1018, or seven quintillion, five hundred quadrillion grains.

Such minutiae less significant within the realm of present day Homo sapiens, whose lives less linkedin with phenomena affecting life on this oblate spheroid, (which could come to a crashing halt predicated on burgeoning human population

jeopardizing sustainable planet presuming industrial paradigm prevails, thence man/ woman kind will unwittingly trumpet, and

or sound claxon (ex post facto), while warming temperatures melt glaciers, asper huge popsicles drowning multitudinous habitats courtesy of

violent meteorologic cataclysms, where Noah's ark will be big enough to save majority of creatures, and (wherein no art of the deal) savvy enough to wall off sky high tidal Katrina and the waves, then nature will (make a killing) relishing tidying Atlas sized tureen if necessary applying pledged finishing touches repurposing third rock for another species slated to inherit pseudo tabula rasa after Campbells, and broth hers detox polluted primordial soup i.e. once cleansed of poisons, thus...I condense my Green New Deal spiel!

Midwinter night dream filled

with balm of June solstice rays

lackadaisical and carefree months ideal time

to while away pronounced illuminated days

outdoor sports a favorite choice

occupies athletic population,

which venues witness frequent surge

and spill of overtime plays

another popular milieu

favorable climate awakens

constitutes habitués vacationers visit

ashore popular waterways

beachfront shoreline inundated

by mass exodus of sun worshippers

tidal seaboard awash

along every square inch

human species splashes to keep cool

within ocean and bays.

Six months ago bitter cold

and dark snow filled skies

wrought undeserved vengeance

viewed from these eyes,

who after each and

every major winter storm

donned proper attire

to stay warm outside

while clearing walkway

with shovel in hand

executed repetitive motion

akin to how boater plies

similar (yet reversed)

bodily swing of arms

now readily prepares for execution

of most difficult seasonal task

requires usage of most complex muscle

the source of poetry witty and wise.

Awake to the solar celestial sea chant

mourning regarding species no longer extant thus upon figurative shoulders of youth

tasked with survival of humanity

a behemoth nearly impossible mission

younger generations unfairly saddled

with obligatory filched grant courtesy when fossil fuels

broadcast onset of

fourth Industrial Revolutions

spewing paradigm viz

free market capitalist kant now quashing, thrashing,

wrestling against rant

long fostering Homo sapiens dominance.

Starry-eyed dark matter

of infinite space

espied by countless eons

since original human race

became cognizant of her/

his terrestrial place

gilding the heavens with strings

of pearly hued lace

closer to earth charting

early skywatchers to notice moon face

held captive via gravitational brace

while zodiac archer aims

cocked bow, where knocked feathers sans arrow complete an awesome

fantastic bullseye ace.

Mother nature’s ornery

primates supreme display said massive breastworks broadcast inlay feat of awesome accomplishment

finds yours truly humbled okay

with his feeble limitations

engendering ample rocky tsuris oy vey.

Today June 20th, 2023

after a light rain, of morning mountain dew

a strand of pearls clung

to slender tree limbs

bejeweled woody flora prismatic orbs

tell tale sign recent cloudburst

cleft darkened heavens

rained watery life source liquid

downpour laced branched canopy

awash with molecular droplets

requisite to buzzfeed

burlesque Vaudeville bluster

exquisite gala performance unrehearsed

unscripted ubiquitous theatrical performance

received limitless encores

toward Gaia screenwriter

whose infinite scope

(wrought upon natural landscape palette)

exceeds the finite abilities

of those bipedal dominatrix

human organisms imbued

whose dilettante debut

(dawned these last seconds

on the clock face of geologic history)

might witness curtain call

on their final act.

#stonehenge #summer solstice