#it's a whole lot of flavor

[annabelle--cane]

a good under-the-radar jonathan sims repression moment has to be simply never mentioning the archivist dreams. I think the first time he says something directly about them is mag 113? just a fleeting mention that his dreams are already full up and probably can't get any spookier. I see no reason why they wouldn't have started as soon as his first live statement, so that's a good [does quick math] eighteen months of extremely distinctive recurring nightmares that he just. never brings up to anyone. sure, one could easily brush those off as normal nightmares for a while, but he must have connected the dots at some point.

#this is utilized a lot with daisy on-podcast but as some additional characterization flavors to keep in mind: #melanie and basira would have been constantly getting the dreams before they officially signed-on #and georgie would have had them the whole time after mag 94 #tma #marina marvels at life

[canisalbus]

Your art tastes like aged paper, sugar, and chocolate to me, with a hint of salt every so often

Machete looks like white chocolate, and Vasco's like buttery caramel

.

#aw #that sounds nice #anonymous #answered #I was wondering what the aged paper is doing there but it reminded me of something #so I'm going to share a weird personal detail totally unprompted #I think I used to have pica disorder when I was a kid I would gnaw on and eat a lot of small inedible objects #pieces of cardboard rubber bands and blu tack #the plastic animal figurines I had had bitemarks on them and were often missing bodyparts like if a dog had gotten to them #also a ton of uncooked pasta #I think it wasn't a flavor thing I had obsessions for specific textures that weren't found in actual foods #I particularly craved those candy wrappers that are made of waxed paper #(finns might be familiar with pihlaja or marianne wrappers for example or those translucent inner wrappers in lehmäkarkki/ cow cream fudge) #can't say for sure when it stopped but one day I realized that hey hold on this probably isn't normal human behavior #I think I was over 10 but under 15 #and I had forgotten the whole thing but got such a vivid flashback from that line it was actually kind of alarming

[gammija]

ok since the Magnus Protocol is confirmed AU from tma, and jonny and alex have purposely not said that their voices are not reappearing in TMAGP, consider:

evil AU jon and martin. mostly because I just know jonny and alex would have such a good time acting that out. And also because i want to see a completely unhinged jon and a web!martin used to their full potential damnit

#they're au! so its fine! and also fun! #you get to decide what entity Jon ends up with (eye or not) but im claiming martin for web. gimme. #tmagp #tma #tmu #jonathan #martin #web!martin #why do a sidequel of a horror podcast if youre just gonna give a lil office romance easter egg. yawn/j #joos yaps #im still mulling it over #love that its an AU but i then do actually want au versions of jmart and others #not our jmart ending up in the AU and us catching up with them via Sam and Alice #cause thatd mess with that whole 'ah did they die or not' thing plus. there are too many amazing fanfics that they can't top #tma is still one of the only shows where I genuinely havent read a lot of fic which ks better written/constructed than the source #(ive mostly read fics for mediocre shows i am aware) #but the specific flavor of 'blorbos coming into a new world and learning to cope' is one i don't think they'd be able to capture as nicely #also. they deserve a rest. #but their au counterparts are fresh and ripe for the picking 😈

[disastergenius]

by far the worst take i've seen so far post-ep19 of Junior Year is that having a week-by-week live play would have allowed fans to essentially influence the direction of the story in the way they want it to go and that would have resulted in the cast being more sympathetic to the Ratgrinders (ie getting them a redemption arc)

why do you feel the need to try and control this story? YOU ARE NOT THE ONE TELLING IT. if you want to tell a story please go write your own, or go write fanfiction to cope or whatever but you don't get to say that the players are telling the story wrong when it's their story they are telling

#not only would this actively make the story worse #but i truly don't understand why people think that this would then force the players to do what the audience wants #like i'm gonna assume that the people who want this are the same people who complain too much about bits (or at least there's heavy overlap #who's to say they wouldn't double down on their decisions and then you'd just have a whole new reason to be mad #also as stated earlier in really no way do i believe that audience influence would really benefit the story #like there is something about how attached the audience gets to certain things that the cast/crew couldn't predict because it is recorded #but i truly don't think there's many instances where fan influences to the author(s) has been in service to the story #because the second you do that you are controlled by the audience and any time you go against that then you've “betrayed” them #it just goes back to a lot of the conversations about audience and specifically fandom entitlement and the way that people consume “content #also to be clear i saw this take on d20 twitter which i do think has a whole different flavor of toxicity than d20 tumblr #fantasy high junior year #fantasy high #dimension 20

[bonefall]

the clans use salt for healing and cooking if i remember correctly. im only saying this because would someone ever name their kid "saltkit"

Yes! Saltkit is a valid prefix in BB, but only after moving to the Lake.

Before then, they make a sort-of-salt out of burning dandelion root. They consider this material a kind of soot, fine ashes produced by burning something. The rough translation of this spice is "soot-salty-taste."

Salty (taste) = Byyle (Comes from blood-taste)

Soot (ashes produced by finely burning something) = Keybo (Used alone in artsy contexts, usually describes bistre, a pigment made from soot and water.)

Plant Salt (of coltsfoot or dandelion) = Keybyy

To specify if it comes from Dandelion or Coltsfoot, you'd say Keybyy Raerra or Keybyy Hakprru. There aren't two dedicated words for the difference; these are both considered "types of dandelions" by Clan cats.

Dandelion = Awpo Any flowering ground plant with fluffy yellow petals.

This is why they didn't previously have a word for salt itself! They would only ever encounter raw salt as an animal lick, which they'd call Byylebon. Salty-useful-rock. Because it was associated with humans, they wouldn't steal them or interact with them much.

Rraash is a Townmew loanword, a word they adopted for raw, powdered salt during their time trading with BloodClan. At the Lake, they now collect raw sea salt during "Salt Patrols," which are beach trips where a big collection of apprentices are brought to the ocean to learn how to collect and process salt.

So, depending on how the parents would like to name their child, those translations could be;

Byylemew = Saltykit The taste of salt. Could refer to the flavor of blood, the taste of the ocean, or the spice made from burned dandelion roots. Has a very food-y connotation, probably named by gourmands.

Keybyymew = Saltkit, Spicekit, Seasoningkit, Rubkit This is a very ThunderClan sort of name. They traditionally used a lot of keybyy in their recipes, as it's very important for a good marinade and making ham. Though, it wouldn't be too surprising to see it used in WindClan too.

Rraashmew = Saltkit, Brinekit Raw salt. Made from boiling ocean water during large expeditions to the sea called a "Salt Patrol." Used as a medicine AND as a spice, important in controlling parasite infestations, fighting infection, and preserving food. Could just be referring to an off-white colored pelt, food, or even strength in battle for its association with treating wounds.

#Clanmew #BTW I decided to publish this one today just for fun. I'm quiet because I'm answering a bunch of the asks I got on Clanmew Day. #A lot of them seem to be flavor-related so I'm also considering just making a whole Clan Culture pack for ''muzzlesense'' #Because I actually have a lot to talk about #Like HOW tracking works and the BEHAVIORS of a good tracker #I think it'll work as more than just a clanmew entry but also as a decent guide for how to 'think' like you have muzzlesense #And ergo how to effectively write a character interacting with the world who has it #Especially helpful for blind and/or deaf cats #btw person who asked me about how to adapt a blind riverclan cat I am thinking of you specifically #Because I got the ask and thought about it and realized that like #I kinda have to start from an earlier point than your ask #Because FIRST it's important to understand how MOST Clans work with muzzlesense #and THEN talk about how living in and around water affects a sense humans don't really have (not in the same way) #Aaaaand a bunch of other asks I got make me realize where I SHOULD start #But only AFTER starting at Step 1 and Step 2 can we get to Step 3; A blind RiverClan cat

[sluttylittlewaste]

One super fascinating thing about Kristen's current arc in JY is how much it reflects real-world conversations I've been following about effort and consistency and reliability in relationships. Specifically, I've been reading about the resentment in (primarily het) relationships caused by uneven distribution of mental load and repetivite, constant labor between partners.

Follow me now-

I've seen a few posts on here from people who have ADHD highlighting how realistic it is to their experience that Kristen is SO GOOD for doing grand acts and big miracles, but struggles so deeply with "the boring stuff". Upkeeping social media for Cassandra/YES!, consistently holding meetings to maintain whatever following she does develop for her gods, even just bi-weekly essays. I can't speak to the ADHD experience myself. However, from my relationships with people who have it and a decent amount of the posts I see on this website, that is a consistent manifestation of the disorder.

Dovetailing from that is the very real conversation I've heard time and time again about people whose family/friends/partners refuse to help with the little tasks of keeping a home in order or a project on track, but will pull through for big events under the assumption that it balances things out. It's a conversation that occurs a lot in spaces of studying gender dynamics in relationships - i.e. In a dynamic where the wife is responsible for doing all of the cooking/cleaning/grocery shopping/organizing, the husband will do a singular, high-effort task or grand gesture, "I built you an armoire!", "I took the kids out for a full day so you could relax!" and reference that singular event or task as a counterbalance for smaller tasks they do not aid in (daily dishes, laundry, running errands). This can also take the form of one partner doing grand gestures on occasion, but not showing up in smaller ways throughout the relationship on a day-to-day level.

-Ex. Partner A indicates that would appreciate more frequent affection in the relationship, such as date nights, flowers, non-sexual physical contact, etc. Partner B responds by planning a fancy dinner, gratuitous non-sexual contact/complements, and buying a lavish gift - but they do not increase displays of affection in their daily lives. Partner A mentions that though they appreciate the gesture, it didn't solve the initial problem, and Partner B doesn't understand why all of the obvious effort they put in isn't enough. The cycle continues and resentment grows as both people feel like their needs aren't being met/their efforts aren't being appreciated.

(Sorry if that's an over-explanation, I'm trying to be clear lol)

I think a lot about two things Cassandra said to Kristen:

"You're unreliable." and "It's not fair." in the context of these dynamics.

I've seen a decent number of people talk about how mutually unfair bringing Cassandra back was for both her and Kristen. I have also seen a lot of very valid arguments about Kristen being a LITERAL CHILD who makes a lot of impulsive (re: bad) decisions because she cares so deeply about specific things. We've also seen that Kristen CAN be so good in the little ways (Giving Lydia Barkrock the Help action, supporting Tracker through her bullshit, trying to do okay in school to help Riz). For all intents and purposes, there is no actual lack of effort on Kristen's part - she very obviously cares deeply. However, those efforts are more occasional and case-by-case than something constant, like going out every day to spread the word of Cassandra or doing something boring like homework.

Cassandra, whose entire thing is that she's always there to offer support -"I'm there holding your hand in the dark"- knows these things as well. She knows what Kristen is capable of. The hurt, then, doesn't come from the fact that Kristen can't but because, for some reason, she won't.

In conversations about how certain partners... underperform in relationships, one theme that often arises is that of, "I know he can do it, he simply doesn't." Whether that be daily chores or consistent acts of affection, Partner A has seen Partner B be helpful or put effort into things that they find interesting. There is no question of capability - Partner B can do whatever it is Partner A requests. Partner A thus concludes that Partner B doesn't because they don't want to. -Ex. "He refuses to help me because he doesn't care about me/He doesn't think I'm worth the effort."

While I obviously cannot make a true 1-to-1 comparison between this particular manifestation of Executive Dysfunction in people with ADHD and lackluster partners in relationships (I am aware that it is deeply harmful to imply that being a "bad" partner is in any way correlated to any singular disability), this is a degree of parallelism to be found in the Kristen/Cassandra dynamic and the type of dysfunction I reference in above examples. There is the caveat that if you have ADHD and know you struggle with doing things that are smaller or more tedious/repetitive, you can work with the people in your life to accommodate that. Additionally, men (at least in the US) are traditionally socialized to undervalue the traditional female labor that is caretaking.

That said, in universe, Kristen doesn't seem to know she has ADHD and thus could not articulate her limitations to Cassandra - and even if she could, it might not have solved the problem ( though it could have kept Cassandra from getting so upset).

The entire reason I wrote all of this is that I've seen several responses to the most recent preview for FHJY wherein Kipperlily Copperkettle accuses Kristen of not caring (and, to be clear, Kristen fully does not care about the Presidency. That is very likely what KLCK was referring to, and she is not wrong in being upset if Kristen wins this thing she hasn't even bothered to campaign AT THE SCHOOL for). The trend in the responses has been people listing Kristen's miracles more than anything, and while those do prove that she does CARE about SOME THINGS, it doesn't address the fact that for most people care is displayed through active, consistent, reliable effort rather than big dramatic displays: While the shrimp jump was cool, it does nothing to prove that Kristen gives a shit about student government.

#this is barely coherent #there's just this wild juxtaposition that I feel like comes up a lot on Tumblr #it seems to happen specifically with ND characters that people see a lot of themselves in #where even if the flaws and complications of that Neurodivergence are being assessed and deconstructed #people will plant their feet on “she can do no wrong!” #and sometimes it's whatever because it's just a fictional character #but other times #like with Kristen Applebees #where the defensiveness has the flavor or being deeply honest #which concerns me #like I truly hope y'all are putting more effort into handling real world criticism than you do with fictional shit #the instantaneous demonization of anyone who isn't tooth grindingly supportive of the Bad Kids (namely Kristen) is worrying #kipperlily is allowed to be mad at Kristen for winning! She may have done some shifty shit #but you can't say she didn't try really hard to win #and Kristen didn't even do her own shrimp jump. she only ran because she immediately disliked kipperlily #and ever Kristen's reason for disliking Kipperlily isn't fair??? #Like it started before they realized the whole rat grinder conspiracy #she just didn't like that Kipperlily was a Type A overachiever #which has nothing to do with Copperkettle #and everything to do with Kristen's own insecurities #as for the relationship aspect #i have a lot of concerns about how people on Tumblr talk about relationships #let me die #if i die #d20 fhjy #fhjy #dimension 20 #rant #kristen applebees #i guess

[chungledown-bimothy]

show-only fans aren't gonna know the agony of the percabeth slowburn like the rest of us did, are they?

#percabeth #percy jackson and the olympians #pjo spoilers #i miss annabeth's luke crush it flavored a lot throughout the whole series #including the percy/luke foil situation that otherwise the show has done a lot to strengthen

[essencering]

↳ summary: you are not a part of his family, but you make his heart shake in such a way that only his brothers have the ability to do so. so, to have you standing there, with a smile and a promise on your lips to see you fall shakes his heart.

↳ Tags: Gender Neutral Reader, Demon Attendant Reader, Lucifer (Obey Me!), Nightbringer Setting, NB Spoilers, Lesson 11-16 Spoilers.

writer's blurp: i absolutely LOVE the idea of NB lucifer just feeling as if everything is right when the MC is with his family, but not being sure of what to really do about that. my favorite flavor. <3

Lucifer puts power behind his words, looking down at you as nothing more than a gnat in his path you simply look at him without a care for what he could do to you. You smile at him with pride and defiance, standing your ground as if the two of you are equals.

You fit into the cracks of his family with ease, bringing a sense of normalcy to each of his brothers simply by being at their side. Often joining whatever schemes that tickle their fancy even if it is at his expense.

You are not a part of his family, yet you seem to fit into it like a missing piece of a puzzle. You are nothing, but a stranger, someone who was asked to keep an eye on them, to help them settle into their new lives as Demons.

You are an enigma, you are a danger.

You are Human. You are a Liar.

So to find you standing before him, with a smile and a promise on your lips while handing the grimoire back to him.

"Are you sure that you understand what you're doing?"

"Of course I understand, there are more important things than this. I love all of you. I promised as your attendant to help you find joy in the Devildom and to protect you."

How foolish, of you to do such a thing. To hold such power over himself and his brothers, to just hand it back over… how to give back the one thing that could protect you from Lucifer's wrath and his brothers.

"To do that, I won't be needing this. For something like this love, and care is how it should be rather than power or commands."

How bold. How brave. How unflappable. How human of you.

To have you standing there, with a smile and a promise on your lips to see you fall shakes his heart. You slowly sink deeper, and deeper into the curse's embrace, your smile stubbornly remains present despite how your heart slows and your breathing becomes so impossibly difficult to hear.

Wake up. His brothers are calling out to you. Wake up. That Reaper and Solomon are arguing.

To see that you are unable to look at him with your own pride and defiance feels wrong. To see you fall, and then to see you laying before him. You seem so small, so fragile, so.... human. It's baffling to see you without that smile on your face, to see you standing beside his brothers.

Lucifer wonders if this is how Lilith felt for the human she loved. Willing to do what she could for the one she loves. Upon falling, something was already missing in his family Lilith. Now another piece is missing.

It is you.

Maybe, just maybe if he claps his hands together after running his fingers through your hair, tucking the sheets in better around you, and gathering the many gifts his brothers have left for you... maybe a little prayer can help you open your eye's once more.

#obey me! memories #reader insert #gender neutral reader #reader is gender neutral #sfw #obey me! x reader #nightbringer x reader #lucifer x reader #lucifer x gender neutral reader #nightbringer spoilers #love that special flavor for the NB boys of just how things feel right to have the MC with them #but not being able to figure out WHY it feels right to have them around #love this brand a lot with luci because omg this man just wants to keep what remains of his family safe from harm #and he's got a whole ass other entity whose been able to get scary close with his still grieving and adjusting family

[timeisacephalopod]

The type of Christian who asks atheists how they don't like, murder people on the reg are so funny to me because they seem to think their religion makes them the Peak of Morality when statements like "if you don't believe in God how comes you don't do X thing" all but outright state they have no idea why shit like murder and rape is bad except that God doesn't like it lmao. Like way to admit you have no intrinsic sense of morality and need to be afraid of a higher power to be a decent person, but I promise if you're not a piece of shit it's actually very natural not to want to do heinous evil shit all the time potential punishment from a higher power or not 🤷🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️

#winters ramblings #seriously its SO funny when that happens because every time its like ??? the FUCK kind of thoughts do you have #to ask HOW i resist doing evil shit all the time because i dont fear god because i dont believe in God?? #what kind of fucked up person do you haveto be to only resist killing people because of fear of a higher power?? #these are people to avoid because typically they also come with the issue of using their religion to make any action they want #perfectly Good and Moral because GOD said it its in the BIBLE whether thats true or not and like bible or no #if you have no intrinsic sense of morality i dont want to hear about atheist morality from you lmao #not that athiests lack issues i swear to god white dudes who evangelize atheism like its their new religion #have WILDLY missed the point and often suffer the same problem as the aforementioned Christians #wherein the onky thing thats ever given them any kind of pushback is the church so they decide RELIGION is horrible and bad as a whole #which isnt true religion can be a perfectly lovely amazing thing for people but that brand of atheist #doesnt seem to understand that people turned away from the church because of wide spread abuse and discrimination not because #believing in god makes you literally mentally ill like some of these fuckos act like. abelist AND shite to religious folks in one fowl swoop #so you know atheists have problems too but like they arent making laws in their beliefs images across the world so you know #temper the criticism with how influential the group actually is although richard dawkins types DID get a lot of space to spew their idiocy #like dawkims if you think youre SOOOO much smarter than christians how come you have ALL the same misogyny problems?? #youre not that smart and logical if youve decided a whole kind of person is inherently less than you buddy. in fact thats very Christian #of him actually. funny when that happens but again if you dont actually know WHY something is a problem #its very easy to say Thats Bad and then literally do the exact same thing you just condemned because when YOU do it its no longer bad #because its got YOUR flavor of fucked up morality on it now instead of being like hmm maybe Christianity isnt a problem #because it EXISTS but because a lot of people use their religion as a pointed barb to discriminate against huge swaths of people #and often the intolerance becomes a legal issue when Christians and other religious majorities shove through laws based on EXCLUSIVELY their #religions and opinions and that doesnt mean religion should be dismantled it means we ahould tell religious folk who would know what #morality was if it fucked them up the ass to shut up and figure out what morality is outside of rekigion before they start legislating about #it and whatnot. also i wish extreme opinions werent ALL the news focused on exclusively on the political right #can we platform some NORMAL well adjusted christians who are god loving AND not a bunch of wingnuts #who are two steps away from arguing thou shall not kill only applies to people they LIKE because they dont seem to understand #maybe murder is bad when EVERYONE does it not just The Bad People??!?!

[topazshadowwolf]

Me: I'll only put a little FuzzyNight into GoopTales.

Also me: *dumps a ton FuzzyNight glitter into GoopTales.*

#GoopTales #FuzzyNight #Nightmare flavored Soriel #Part 23 has a lot #and I mean a LOT of FuzzyNight in it... #I dumped a whole barrel of FuzzyNight glitter into that part #and we all know how glitter is

[solradguy]

A random guy on Etsy that I have never spoken to in my Life asked me for tips on how to build the Outrage. Like, there is nothing Guilty Gear about my Etsy profile. Do I just exude Sol energy that hard or something damn lmfao

I told him probably more than he needed to know. This was like an hour ago now and I'm still thinking about it

#textpost #Drinking this kinda apple spice flavored beer and it's making me realize that I haven't eaten a whole lot today oops rofl #Just had dinner (BBQ pulled pork w/garlic naan) but maybe I should eat some more....

[canisalbus]

I just recently started following you so i don't have the full lore of your murderous gay religiously traumatized doggos, BUT, from my understanding, they are Italian and i don't know what part of Italy they are from, yet i can't help headcanoning Vasco as Tuscan, while Machete is probably from some part of Veneto. And as an Italian who has heard Tuscans and Veneto dialet, well it's an hilarious mental image.

Vasco is indeed Tuscan, Florentine to be specific. He comes from a wealthy and influential noble family that has lived in Florence for centuries. He's proud of his roots, and it's usually easy for strangers to tell where he's from. He's a resonably successful politician and has worked as an ambassador and representative of Florence on numerous occasions.

Machete is originally Sicilian (ironically about as far from Veneto as possible), although he was taken to mainland at young age and has lived in several places since then, before ending up in Rome. The way I see it, he exhibits very little local color, his demeanor and (even though Italian hadn't become a standardized language yet) way of speaking are formal, neutral and scarcely give away any hints about his personal history, at least in the 16th century canon.

#I tend to take the easy way out with the various Italian dialects/languages and temper their effect on how the dog world works #even though to my understanding in reality they differ drastically from each other even today and they aren't always mutually intelligible #especially when you compare northern and southern ones #I know at least Sicilian is so different from modern day Italian it's considered a separate language entirely #it isn't the only one but I'm not a linguist and not even Italian so I'm not really qualified to be explaining any of this to you #main point is that my dogs are well traveled educated and adaptable so I'd like to believe that they manage #otherwise making this whole scenario work would become very complicated #language barriers aplenty #Machete is a fast learner with a natural knack for languages so he absorbs/decodes new ones easily #and I can see him acting as an interpreter if necessary #which is a valuable trait for someone working as the secretary of state I'd imagine #a lot of people he ends up dealing with speak at least passable Latin so at a pinch they might perhaps try switching to that? #Vasco might have a Tuscan flavor but Machete is more of a blank slate (at least in public and at work) #answered #fallenoftheromaempire #feel free to correct me if I've gotten something wrong I'm not an expert and this stuff is complicated for an outsider

[pummelingbat]

see, i actually think the problem with Gorillaz getting any kind of feature-length film and/or an animated series that is plot driven at all is that by this point in the band's existence it would be impossible for them to produce something that would meet fan expectations...

i've noticed that the nature of Gorillaz as a largely decentralized collaborative project means that everyone wants something different out of it, you know? fans tend to engage with it on wildly differing levels, depending on how engaged they are with a specific era of the band, a specific take on the characters, with the the actual musicians behind it, etc etc etc... by now the idea of "Gorillaz, but as a concrete narrative in a linear medium" has been so long hyped-up that i'd be willing to bet every demographic of fan has a very specific vision for what that looks like. and you just can't cater to all of them at once.

esp given the Gorillaz track record over the years of taking on projects that are way, way over-ambitious for the resources it has, i feel like through no fault of the band it'd be hard for the final product to be anything other than underwhelming...

idk Gorillaz is so interesting to me because of how amorphous it is, and always has been, as a project. i feel like that's just a quality that's been baked into the concept from the start, and i really wonder if trying to fully tie that down would please anybody as much as they think it would.

#txt #like rise of the ogre works because its so... idk. diagetic? #it feels organic bc its not. idk. trying to tell a dramatic story necessarily. its just a whole lot of flavor text essentially. #and i know i say this literally all the time but plastic beach was never finished for a reason lol #gorillaz are at the whims of so many things... damon and jamies interest in it. the capricious music industry tastes. #whether or not it can actually monetize itself in a post-mtv world. which its struggled with consistently since phase 3. #im sorry tis is so fucking long i just think thoughts

[aeide-thea]

god i know that complaining abt fic which most of you haven't read, and which i won't, for politeness' sake, identify in this post, is a great way to come across as both dickish and boring—

but i've been rereading a very long, very satisfyingly plotty series that's a fandom darling and the thing is, when you read like 400k of an author's work at once it really starts to become painfully apparent what their priorities are, by which i mean two things:

holy shit they're obsessed with 'what if strong powerful men who could hurt you didn't (but did hurt Bad Guys) (and it was sexy of them),' which leads into

holy shit they do not appear to have thought through the implications of saying 'i will have my heroes take over the same power structures that have enabled abuse, make no real changes to those structures other than swapping out the leadership, and then claim that everything is wonderful now bc Good Men Are In Charge'??

like. i don't necessarily need every passing fantasy to present me with a coherent, revolutionary system of politics and ethics—sometimes things are just fun and sexy and not especially Examined and that's fine!—but by the time someone's written literally almost half a million words, and done a lot of worldbuilding while they were at it, i am going to start squinting if they seem to think a Good Man can e.g. become an emperor by killing off the leadership of multiple countries and installing puppet kings loyal to him and still remain a Good Man, even if the justification was that the original leadership was maltreating its citizens and deserved to be extrajudicially executed. like. this shit was a bad, autocratic move when the US did it in real life and it's still bad now that you're having our mutual blorbo do it in fiction! and that's not even getting into the whole thing where like. they've got servants who the Good Man and his friends ""treat well"" but who very much remain second-class citizens in terms of how the story actually frames them and their concerns. [this was also a huge issue i had with foz m*adows' most recent book—everyone wants to write about fantasy nobles but they also want to make them good people and it's like. honestly i think it might be better to get comfortable writing about flawed people, but also—if your aristos aren't treating their servants like equals and your text isn't either, you haven't actually cracked the Moral Aristo paradox, sorry!] like, there's nothing that says your story has to depict a fully Healed World, nor should there be! but it's troubling if you seem to be convinced you've written one (and have your wide-eyed love interests constantly marveling at it!) when you very patently haven't.

#in all honesty—i've framed a lot of this as political/ethical critique‚ and like‚ it IS‚ but also— #i'm just really frustrated because like. the whole 'what if people were shockingly nice to you' thing feels like it SHOULD be better for me #but in actual fact i find myself totally turning up my nose at it and i can't totally work out why #i mean i guess part of it is that this author's Traumatized Love Interests are always really innocent victims #which i can't identify with emotionally because i feel like a piece of shit #so i need a story that's more like 'person who's been told they were a monster for so long they believe it gets convinced they aren't' #'(lovingly and sexily)' #but also i think a lot of it just. isn't subtle enough. like i need to have to put pieces together so i'm implicated in my own catharsis #being constantly told 'wow it's so amazing i'm not being abused by this person who COULD abuse me!! that's so sexy of them!' #is just. not doing it for me. like. 'not abusive' is not actually sexy to me‚ unfortunately. i need some character traits. #and unfortunately the ones this author tosses in for flavor ALSO don't convince me #because they never actually manifest in the story. it's like 'oh this character is so prickly—but never actually offends the LI.' #'oh this other character is so gruff—but the LI understands that about them from day one and doesn't take it personally.' #like. if the hero's 'flaws' don't actually cause any problems—they aren't flaws #anyway. i've definitely complained about this exact series multiple times on here at this point #but that's the thing—it's compelling enough i keep going back to it‚ so i get extra-frustrated by its flaws #whereas like. there's a lot of stuff that's much worse that i've been much less frustrated by #because i never had any particular hopes for it #anyway. thx for yr patience in this fully self-inflicted Trying Time‚ lmao #i guess this can get filed under #bookblogging

[shen-daozhang]

FINALLY found out that I got the life-changing librarian position that I applied for back in the middle of December (and that I did a teaching demo for in early May)

which is very good news except it was overshadowed by the fact that the day I got the offer call from HR was the day my grandmother died.

it's been .... A Week, I don't even know what to say about it lol

#this was all last friday i can't even believe it's been a week already #there was also just a ton of family drama going on about my grandmother which also has added a certain flavor to the whole thing #anyway! something something life transitions it's just A Lot even when it's good stuff #oh and there is a lot of drama on campus with the new admin that's causing things to take forever- if you work in academia you know things #take forever... this is even worse than that #i've worked on this campus for a long time i'm moving to a new position and you think that would make things easier but it's not XD #oh also my boyfriend got Covid at the start of the week as well so it’s just been nonstop fun here

[icewindandboringhorror]

various little Pictures of thinges

#photo context/information described here in the tags since there are no longer photo captions #(from top Left to right) image 1: BABYY!!!!! SON!!!!! HE!!!!!!!!!!!! #image 2: I found a patch of these clovers that were kind of mutated or infected or something? like they were not actually Red clovers #it was patches of totally normal green clovers except every once in a while one of them would have one leave thats red or half red or even #be completely red. AND they were growing near a patch of these wildflower weeds that have red stems to them. so I wonder if it's even poss #ble that maybe some of the red like.. got mixed in with the clovers somehow? a lot of the patches with a few red ones look spotty and unhea #thy so it could have been the sun or something. I dont know how plants work. I just thought it was really cool to find these one or two #special mutant clovers in huge patches of ohtwerise totally normal green clovers.. :0 #image 3: look at these weird round fat baby carrot things... Rotund #image 4: laying out some fabrics for a costume just drafting them and seeing what looks okay in the pile and what doesnt etc. #thats my whole process is just 'throw things into a pile on the floor that look okay and match then put them on eventually' lol #image 5: MORE wii scores lol.. I think this is my best score on this one though. There's 10 little markers you have to select so getting 7 #means I selected more than one per second. #image 6: I couldnt decide which type of muffins I wanted so I just made a batch of plain/vanilla batter and then added things to each littl #section to make multiple flavors without having to actually make a full batch or multiple batters lol. I think it's chocolate swirl (with d #rk chocolate chunks). banana cinnamon. strawberry. normal chocolate. rosemary and lemon. peach. ginger peach turmeric. and #'scraps of the other batters all thrown together' lol. Decent however the random recipe I found online for a basic cupcake batter was #not very good and they were weirdly dense and spongy. #image 7: A PICTURE OF THE dishscapes that I watched and rambled about (to the like 5 of you who saw that post #and read the tags of it lol).... beach houes..I still so much wish I could make my own Fantasy Screensaver Story.. oughh #image 8 & 9: a really cool flower from outside. I like that it has all these weird spindly little things from the center :0 #photo diary