#my answer is probably not. but the pose compelled me

[feelikesick]

sollux captor and the hotdog flavored water

#would he listen to limp bizkit? i labored over this question while drawing this #my answer is probably not. but the pose compelled me #alternative title: when limp is life. getting my motherfucking limp on. etc. GIVE ME SOMETHING TO BREAK. #my art #sollux captor #homestuck #hs fanart #this is me really going out of my comfort zone bc usually i dont fuck with line weight

[satoruhour]

IDK IF U WILL SEE THIS OR ANYTHING BUT! is it ok if i request smth small and it starts off with gojo and the reader having a lil bit of banter by text, and the reader then says “satoru ur so pretty u should start a kissing booth for easy money” (as a joke ofc) and he was like “good idea” and went offline, making the reader freak out for the rest of the day until they came back to their apartment….. and found satoru set up a whole kissing booth in their living room

a/n: this is so cute!!! ty for the request anon <3 in this megumi is under satoru’s and reader’s care, tsumiki never went into a coma, and you’re married too / 1.3k

you loved satoru’s compliance. when you tell him that he should never cook again as a joke, he listens with a wide grin and a face that’s burnt on one side, sweeping the hard charcoal pieces of pancake into a pan. when you tell him you have two left feet, he simply laughs and just plops you onto his own, making you look like a fool waddling around.

a lovesick fool.

you’re left smiling into open space until a notification cuts you out of your daze, smile twisting into a questionable expression as your husband sends a picture of him posing in front of some boba tea shop, a promotional banner stating get spanked by one of our staff and get a free cup of boba tea!

[9:17am, the strongest and handsomest and coolest husband 🩵]: bet i’ll do it

[9:18am, delivered]: satoru. now. youll do it even if i dont bet you???!!?!!?!! 

[9:18am, the strongest and handsomest and coolest husband 🩵]: hmm… compelling argument, i’m afraid you’re correct

a few minutes pass and you are confident it’s him asking for a spank with a blinding smile on his face, probably pointing to one of the male staff because i have a wife at home, y’know? she’s so pretty and hot-headed and hot and—

[9:20am, the strongest and handsomest and coolest husband 🩵]: photo attached

boba acquired 😈😈😈😈

[9:21am, the strongest and handsomest and coolest husband 🩵]: oh yeah, one of the staff called me pretty. was a guy btw. had to flash him one of my peace signs and i just know he swooned

the raise of your eyebrows returned, though you stifle a chuckle.

[9:21am, delivered]: he did not swoon i promise you

and another picture comes in, his face all up in the camera with a comical pout on his face and your laughter comes out more freely this time, basically hearing the looks you’re getting from the commuters in the subway, though your eyes are only focused on satoru, on the curvature of his lips and the peek of his baby blues behind the sunglasses you bought for him.

[9:22am, delivered]: joking. you’re so pretty, you know that right

years ago you would’ve told yourself that it’ll only fuel his ego, but that was long before gojo satoru had decided you were everything and more; where he values everything you say, where you’re all he worships. one compliment from you could shut him up forever.

[9:23am, delivered]: you should totally start a kissing booth for like …. $4 a kiss or something

it’ll be easy money ngl and then we can share the gains 

[9:23am, the strongest and handsomest and coolest husband 🩵]: woah… good idea baby. alright then!

and gojo satoru goes offline immediately, leaving you left out in the cold, confused and perplexed when the satoru??? where the hell did you go??? texts fail to be read. it’s not often he does it, usually sending you a plethora of hearts or some stupid ugly sticker before the conversation ends. on the way to the school, you’re continually texting him, too, looking way more distracted than you would like to be in front of the students.

“sensei? any reason why you keep checking your phone?” yuji asks after lunch in the classroom, both arms tucked under his head.

“hm?” you answer but your eyes are still glued to the screen, the taunting ‘last seen at 9:23am’ taunting you endlessly and megumi looks like he has half a mind to just blurt it out, but he thinks it’s worth seeing your reaction later as he takes one more look at his adoptive father’s updates, sending picture after picture of his progress and he keeps the device tucked under to avoid any suspicion.

[14:09pm, my terrible father figure i guess]: do NOT !!!! SEND THIS TO MY BEAUTIFUL WIFE . i wll literally humiliate you in training later if you do

megumi sighs.

[14:10pm delivered]: don’t you already? also stop texting me loser she’ll find out 

the raven-haired boy later is left to comfort you later when you’re holding onto the phone a little too tightly, and by then you’ve already gone through every possible thought. satoru dying, satoru meeting a curse that’s higher than a special grade, satoru on a rampage to kill the higher-ups, satoru—

“you’re going to die worrying about gojo-sensei like that.” and you roll your eyes, hand fishing around in your bag for the keys to your shared home while your eyes never leave megumi. it’s been like this for as long as you can remember: you being the voice of reason, megumi taking your rambles like he always has, gojo usually just laughs.

“yeah? well? how could i not?” you fumble with your keys and pick out the right one, putting it in the keyhole easily from the many times you’ve done it and you swing open the door, “not when he’s the strongest who has to take care of so many things without any rest! what if he got distracted and took down infinity? what if he—”

and sometimes you hated gojo’s compliance (you’re lying to yourself).

upon opening the door, the living room was full of cardboard boxes and cut out shapes, paint over the floor and on his jujutsu uniform, an all-knowing, but still stunning grin that you wanted to slap off of him. the chaos of the cardboard led to one thing: a small counter completed with a tip jar, his free cup of boba tea and a large sign that said kissing booth: $4 for a smooch!

and a smaller sentence is parenthesis, ‘free for my baby.’ the statement almost, almost gets you but you manage to ask him in a monotonous voice, “what are you doing, gojo satoru?”

“hi…?” megumi smiles secretly to himself before closing the door for you, putting the keys in your outstretched hand and it’s sort of the routine the three of you fall into everyday now. alas, with tsumiki staying in her university’s dorms, it was a little lonely for megumi, but the two of you were enough entertainment for him.

“well i was just listening to you!” gojo gestured to the whole place, which will probably be a pain to clean up, “who can blame my silly little brain for wanting to do a project to make my wife happy?”

you cross your arms in retaliation, but in all honestly, you wanted nothing but to greet the sorcerer with an embrace, something you’ve been meaning to do since your worrisome attitude from the morning. reluctantly, you frown while you make your way to the makeshift counter, immediately leaning forward before satoru puts a finger on your lips with a teasing smile.

“ah! four dollars please!”

bonus

“i was really worried, y’know,” the words are muffled from the way you’re buried in his neck that night, inhaling the scent that you missed all day. it’s summer in japan at the moment, but you find yourself craving his skin more than ever, a hand going up to brush through his stark white hair.

“’m sorry, baby,” satoru pulls away from you, as with you, sending you a small smile before pecking your forehead, “i promise to tell you what i’m up to from now on.”

you lean forward to close the gap, and all the kisses you exchanged earlier were definitely not enough. softly, your arms wrap around his shoulders while a leg goes over his body, gojo sounding out a little surprised hum at your eagerness. smiling into the kiss, satoru only plants more kisses to your nose, your lids, to your eyebrows and your chin, and another gentle one to your lips.

“even if it’s arts and crafts or maybe attempting to make you some strawberry tarts.”

you slap his chest lightly, a faux shocked expression filling your features, “i thought we agreed no more strongest sorcerer in the kitchen?”

“of course, sweet girl,” satoru lands one last deep kiss to show you truly the extent of his love. but even then, he knew it wasn’t enough, so he hoped, at least his words were, “i only ever listen to your voice —  none else matters.”

i love him

#anon #asks #jujutsu kaisen gojo #jujutsu kaisen headcanons #jujutsu kaisen fluff #jujutsu kaisen smut #jujutsu kaisen #jujutsu kaisen x reader #jjk fluff #jjk scenarios #jjk drabbles #jjk x you #gojo satoru x reader #gojo fluff #gojo x reader #gojo satoru fluff #gojou satoru x reader #satoru gojo headcanons #satoru gojo x reader #jjk x reader #jjk headcanons

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

AITA for “yes and”ing sexual harassment?

I (19 ?) am very visibly queer. I’ve been perceived as pretty much every gender under the sun, and I like to be as confusing as physically possible. even if I’m dressed down I don’t ever “pass” as anything. I really like this for the most part but it also means I get a lot of weird looks no matter what bathroom I use. usually I just use the women’s because it’s what I’ve used my entire life and also it’s cleaner. no matter which one I’m in people usually only react to me with weird looks. occasionally they’ll go “sorry!” and turn to walk out of the bathroom directly to the other one (this has happened in both the men’s and women’s) and I’ll have to frantically apologize before they can, but that’s the worst it gets normally

anyway, a couple months ago I was in this mostly empty women’s room (me, these two ladies, and the woman who’s about to sexually harass me). I was dressed up for an event so I probably looked pretty strange to most people. this woman (30s?40s? F) approaches me and tells me I’ve got the wrong bathroom. I take it as an honest mistake and say something like “thanks, but it’s ok, I meant to use this one.” I notice this sort of simmering rage on her face after I say this and that’s when it clicks that she: 1. thinks I’m a trans woman (she’s not totally wrong but it’s complicated), and 2. thinks that means I’m posing a Direct Threat To The Sanctity Of The Women’s Restroom. she compels me to leave Again. I give a firmer no, and turn to get in a stall

at this point she goes off the deep end and starts calling me a creep, accusing me of being a man, etc (ftr I’m intersex, was assigned female at birth. but obviously this wouldn’t matter to her and even if it did it wouldn’t excuse the shit she’s saying about trans women). I stay quiet. then she starts loudly speculating about the penis that I apparently have now (keep in mind we are NOT the only two in this restroom either, there’s at least two other women who look very uncomfortable with this whole situation). I kind of snap and say something along the lines of “if you’re really so worried about what parts I have, you can come watch me pee.” she looks totally horrified at this idea and shuts up. I pee alone, thank god

the way I see it, this didn’t cross any line she hadn’t already crossed — she was openly harassing me about my genitals in a public space, I answered in the best way I could think of in the moment that would call her bluff instead of insulting her and making it into a shouting match, which would just be even shitter for everyone involved. “ask stupid questions get stupid answers” and all that (it did occur to me the moment I left that bathroom that she could’ve attacked me. I got really lucky she didn’t call the cops or something)

I still don’t feel bad at all for how I responded, and I wouldn’t even be asking this if we were the only two there, but I’m on AITA because there were two other women in the bathroom I feel like ass for even tangentially involving. they both seemed really uncomfortable with what this lady was saying about trans people, and I know she probably still would’ve harassed me no matter what I did, but I wonder if I could’ve somehow prevented the situation altogether by not responding to her at all or even just straight up leaving the bathroom like she asked. it’s kind of useless to speculate about now, I guess, but since this is apparently a thing that happens to me now I should think about how I might respond better to harassment like that in the future

so. AITA for maliciously complying with a transphobe in a public space

What are these acronyms?

#aita #am i the asshole

[heliads]

final vigils from a cursed son

Luke Castellan is going to leave Camp Half-Blood for the final time. He reaches out to his father for old times' sake. Or he tries to, at least. Hermes never answers, anyway.

masterlist

Luke Castellan prays to Hermes one last time before he goes.

He hadn’t meant to, really. It wasn’t anything he had in mind. Praying to his father was something Luke considered fairly irrelevant by this point; either Hermes would ignore it or, worse, he’d do something stupid like give Luke someone else’s quest so he could come back as half the boy he was before he left, rewarded with no glory but a face split up the side like a ruined seam. Still, it happened. Miracles, as it turns out, can still be achieved through prayer. Fathers can listen. They can try to give you something more than isolation.

Luke finds himself in the strawberry fields. Connor Stoll once told Luke that this was where he had felt the spirit of Hermes the strongest, or maybe that was just because he’d been stealing berries right under Argus’ many eyes and got away with it. Regardless, it seemed like a good place to start. Campers tend to avoid the place this time of year, too afraid that they’ll get drafted to help with the produce. Demeter kids love it, but they’ve all wrapped up for the day.

This leaves Luke alone in the waving mass of green. Red berries dot the ground; fleetingly, it reminds Luke of blood spattered on the ground. His original plan had not been to start a war, it had merely been to Get Revenge, whatever that might entail. Kronos was the one who suggested that a total cleansing of the old ways might be in order. Eradication of the gods had seemed good to Luke, so he’d agreed. Even if that might involve more blood than just berries spilled on the soil of Camp Half-Blood. Who said revolutions were clean?

Luke kneels. Even after a few minutes, his knees begin to twinge with the ache of being locked in an uncomfortable pose. It’s either a sign that he needs to stretch more or just another bonus of being his dad’s kid. No one in Cabin Eleven is good at sitting still for long, except the unclaimed ones. Either way, Luke needs to find a way to quit it. The Titan Lord will need a good soldier, a strong one, and what has Luke ever been but willing?

He doesn’t really know how to pray. It feels strange doing it to someone who’s supposed to be your father, even an absent one. Especially an absent one. Luke lets his eyes close slowly, crosses his hands in his lap, and thinks–

Hermes?

He breathes out, slow and low. I want you dead. A pause. I also wanted to give you one last chance. It’s not like you’ve given me anything so far but a bad quest and one useless token of patronage, but here it is anyway. One final shot. What are you going to do with it?

Luke leans back on his heels. This is stupid. The god probably isn’t listening anyway, but even if he was, he’s just giving away his own plan. Even so, he feels somehow compelled to finish it, to bring closure to something Hermes had never bothered to contribute to his whole damn life.

You never should have met my mother. You cursed her. You made her what she is. You made me what I am. Maybe the other campers don’t see it yet, but I do. The gods curse whatever they touch. The only way to save all of us is to cut you out of the equation.

A frustrated, heaving breath tears through him. I don’t know why I can’t just sit back and accept it like the rest. I don’t know why none of them see it, too. You’re hypocrites. Millions of years of wisdom you have and you still ignore us. We needed you. What good is a god without an altar? Without prayers? We were never good enough for your attention. I hope this is enough to draw your focus.

Luke is struck by the sudden urge to sob. All my mother wanted was you. You could have been enough. Why weren’t we enough for you? What is it about a god that only thinks for itself?

Thunder rumbles ominously across the camp; Luke rears back slightly, but then his heart hardens. You’ll see soon enough, though. I’ll never be scared again. I’ll never need anything like I needed you. You’re nothing to me. I hope you’re the first to die.

He doesn’t know how to end this awful, soul-wrenching prayer, so he just says nothing more, forcing open his eyelids again. The shocking light of the sun makes him feel as if his eyes are about to bleed, but he keeps them open anyway, staring out into the bright sky until they adjust again.

Luke waits for something to happen– a divine message, perhaps, or a sign, or any indication at all that Hermes had heard him. Unsurprisingly, he’s greeted by nothing. It wouldn’t be the first time he’s been ignored by his godly parent. However, Luke thinks, standing up slowly and relishing the rush of blood back through his lower half, it will be the last.

Luke walks purposefully from the strawberry fields. He needs to stop by Percy Jackson before he goes. After that, he’ll be in the clear.

pjo tag list: @w1shes43, @fadedver, @anxiety-werewolf, @runawayprincesslily

all tags list: @wordsarelife

#luke castellan #luke castellan imagines #luke castellan oneshot #luke castellan fanfic #pjo #pjo imagines #pjo oneshot #pjo fanfic #pjo luke #pjo luke imagines #pjo luke oneshot #pjo luke fanfic #pjo tv spoilers #pjo spoilers #percy jackson #percy jackson imagines #percy jackson oneshot #percy jackson fanfic

[aranarumei]

you listed gsnk as an option and my dopamine receptors lit up. What dyou think about mikorin and mayu

ask me about a ship and I’ll give my opinions + classify them as does / doesn’t make sense, does / doesn’t compel me

heyyy surprise for you. yeah i actually was cleaning up my notes app today and realized I'd answered this and never posted this lol. gonna start off with a does make sense, does compel me and continue under the cut.

okay. hear me out. for a period of time I genuinely believe mayumiko was the gsnk duo closest to being, like, romantic. in a sense. horikashi, nozachiyo, and wakaseo have sure got a lot of development since then (in ch 60, kashima avoids hori and we get a REALLY good moment out of it) but like. just one chapter before that, we have ch 59. one of my favorite chapters. and at that point, I feel like the main couples have had their setup and they're really fun and comedic, but there hasn't been much... advancement, in a sense?

and then we hit ch 59, where "mayumayu" (nozaki mayu, who's been conned into posing as a girl) and "mamiko" (mikoshiba mikoto, who's posing as a girl so that he's not a creepy guy commenting on mayumayu's blog, unwittingly using the name of the protagonist of let's love by nozaki umetarou under alias of yumeno sakiko without knowing that he's the inspiration for the character's personality) basically immediately hit it off over text. seriously, past the first couple of texts where there's a bunch of people commenting on it, all they say is that they'll instantly reply to any texts that come their way. what commences is a hell of texting, probably, but it is a LOT of texting that happens. and that's not something that can be empty! both mikoshiba and mayu seem worn out by the amount of time they spend on it, but they don't seem worn out by each other in the slightest, judging by the fact that in ch 89, not only is mikoshiba still regularly checking mayumayu's blog, he's getting texts with extra art and well-wishes for his exams! they talk to each other about their lives! and it's not something that exists only online, too... mayu and mikoshiba are genuinely and obviously good friends outside of their online identities.

I'm aware not everyone sees it that way, but like, to me, ch 59 was like the most outright romantic the series had gotten. so it's very special to me. so is mayumiko! mayumiko’s so fun because they’re both soooo cool and soooo uncool. but while the mayumiko situation is objectively hilarious, the way they're friends is like... surprisingly understated? it's just something that happens and it works for both of them, even when it seems like it shouldn't. like, let's be real, mikoshiba can be kind of annoying, and mayu can be kind of grating. despite that they end up being really comfortable with each other. like. no wonder they could keep up that texting chain. they just click in general.

so we meet mayu in ch 33, and in ch 37, mikoshiba runs into him, and they've got this fun chapter together where miyako both compares them to cats. then in ch 49, mayu gets mikoshiba to lend him his... questionable? sure. questionable manga. calls him mikoto-san. and it just kind of... happens, them being friends. since they both hang out at nozaki's place. it's neat. in ch 64, post-The Incident, mikoshiba's comfortable enough to ask mayu for help with working out. and mayu knows mikoshiba enough to shout out the specific name of the fake high school from one of the games mikoshiba likes (sure, it's a super popular galge, but that's a strange thing to know well! especially for a guy who's traditionally lazy about everything but judo)

then of course we get to the mayu chapters where he's just so. iconic. in ch 76, mikoshiba needs to bring a guy to the mixer and then after nozaki rejects him sakura's like, ask mayu, who's been on the floor this whole time. side note i think its cute that when mikoshiba asks mayu, he calls himself "mikoshiba-nii-san." and mayu rejects him at first (also using "mikoshiba-nii-san" lol), but he ends up going once he's told he doesn't have to do that much work. and then he grills a girl about her boyfriend bc she says he does judo. and then tries to get some guy's number because he's apparently strong. judo freak (affectionate). and then, of course, as mikoshiba's thinking that "ah, they totally think mayu likes guys, but i guess it's fine since he doesn't seem to care" and when he's surrounded by girls mayu jumps in and says "he's mine," just like nozaki's shoujo manga advice had told him to do. love that for them. in ch 81, though it's a pain, mayu goes along with the idea that all the stuff in the back room is his and not mikoshiba's (though maybe he thought it was more of a pain to explain) and when talking about dating sims, mayu says, "well, guys or girls, both are pretty similar." love that guy for real.

then, in one of the moments of all time that make me insane, in ch 94, seo's pinning mikoshiba, and suddenly goes, it's boring without waka (makes sense! he's normally the guy she pushes around like this) and mikoshiba's like. oh! that's right! I haven't gotten a souvenir for mayu yet! (makes... sense...? because. because he's getting PINNED??? and we KNOW that mikoshiba hasn't done judo with mayu because it happens for the first time in ch 135, where after some really nice moments, mikoshiba sheepishly asks if mayu wants to try throwing him around too. it's a weird expression of care and also the fact that they're still friends after this fact, considering the violence nozaki translates it as, is a testament to their friendship.)

also in the extras for that volume, we see mikoshiba got him a smartphone case, which sucks because mayu's got a flip phone (though it's better than the hairpin nozaki got mayu) but then when mayu figures out a use for that smartphone case, he runs to mikoshiba to give him the good news! 'cause mikoshiba was sulking before... they're fun.

i think I've already said this but they really are close. and i think mayu's kinda clingy. in ch 114 when kashima rei asks to talk to him again, he's like, "go through mikoto-san." in ch 128 we find out that mayu shows girls in his class photos of mikoshiba so they make sure he doesn't get caught napping. this begs the question: HOW did this arrangement exist in the first place? because there's no way I can think about it that doesn't involve mayu and mikoshiba being at some level of closeness. and there's no way mayu can get so many nice looking photos of mikoshiba without being close to him. and in that same fucking chapter when nozaki’s making posts for his blog and turns mikoshiba into a girl, people think that he and mayu are dating. like oh my god. even in gekkan shoujo nozaki-san, when the main cast is meant to be a bit older than the canon timeline, mikoshiba and mayu are hanging out together at nozaki's place. and when mikoshiba and nozaki are getting all chummy with miyoshi, mayu walks in and he's like. ah. a challenger emerges (because he presumably wants to be pampered instead). my point is that they're close they just hang out. it's comfortable, which says a lot for both of them.

in ch 59 mayu's friends are like. his type is 1) someone who's stronger than him at judo or 2) someone older who'd take care of him and. mikoshiba's not #1 but he is #2. those two can be pretty sweetly considerate actually. as we see mayu gets dragged into quite a bit of stuff and does it. in ch 101 he actually finishes up the chapter of let's love while everyone's fallen asleep. and in the vol 14 extras mikoshiba gifts a water plant to a guy he barely knows. just because. so I feel like they're both sweet people underneath it all. and extra fact about ch 59 i know you'll feel crazy about. kobayashi (the guy who actually runs the mayumayu blog) calls mayu maa-kun. i am not joking.

anyways to me mikoshiba and mayu are both this weird security to each other. mayu’s someone who doesn’t care abt social graces and mikoshiba’s someone who cares too much. but when they’re weird to each other it’s like they accept everything. and I just think. despite all of the mistaken identity drama it’s like. idk. they just like each other. they just get along well. and for mikoshiba who’s so awkward with girls, this works out well. also the way that in ch 144 his fav ever gacha character is this kind of gloomy and lazy girl… fascinating thing you’re being charmed by. what a taste you have.

so in the end despite all of the wild situations i think it’ll be simple. mikoshiba will think a little too much and mayu a little too little. but they've gotten along well for so long that I think this will go pretty well, too. it'll just be a feeling that grows kind of slowly until it works for the two of them.

#ask #ask game #sunluvclub #mayumiko #gsnk #kiri.txt #my god i said. so much didnt i #in this essay i will

[fragiledewdrop]

TOLKIEN, MYTH AND THE EARLY 20TH CENTURY

A week ago I wrote a post about my excitement in discovering just how much Tolkien took inspiration from Anglo-Saxon poetry.

I was so lost in my little over-emotional bubble that I was genuinely a little surprised when a few people expressed their disappointment in discovering that "The Lord of The Rings" wasn't wholly original. It makes sense, though, so I thought I'd address it.

These are @fortunes-haven ' s tags:

@sataidelenn already wrote an interesting reply, but I'd like to approach the question from a different point of view. Why? Because the first thing I thought about when reading this comment was how I myself have grumbled under my breath about having to wade through someone's "personal mythology smoothie", only I wasn't reading Tolkien. I was reading T. S. Eliot.

Now, I want to preface this by making it clear that I am well aware Tolkien is by no means a modernist. He did, however, write LOTR in England in the late 30s. He was part of the same culture, the same society, and above all the same historical context that produced "The Waste Land" and "Ulysses", and I think we should take that into account when we discuss his work.

Because by the time Tolkien published LOTR, Joyce and Eliot and Yeats had already discussed and applied the mythic method. Was Tolkien aware of their debates? Did he read and appreciate their books? I have no clue. It would take some research to find out, research I currently (unfortunately) don’t have time for. But I do not think it a stretch to suggest that Tolkien might have been moved by the same need that drove other writers to look back at myth, although in very different ways.

Why did Joyce and Eliot feel compelled to return to the narrative roots of mankind? Why did Yeats devote so much time to Celtic lore? Why did Tolkien write a new epic and base it on the Saxon world?

The answer is the same: because they lived at the start of a century that posed more questions than ever, but provided no answers; a century when time and the human mind and the very structure of matter had ceased to be solid, defined, a foundation to rely on; a century torn apart by brutal, inhumane, sensless war.

When you can't find answers in the present and the future is so uncertain it's laughable, you look to the past. Because the thing is, we can talk about "personal mythology" all we want, but myths are never personal. They are universal. They are tied to a specific cultural context, certainly, but they exemplify emotions, truths and tragedies that are common (or supposed to be common) to all humankind, beyond space and time. Myths are supposed to be eternal.

They are also a very effective shorthand to communicate rather complex concepts.

I can write five pages telling my girlfriend that she makes me feel safe, that she is something I've longed for and fought to gain, something I've dreamed about but that I'm scared I'll lose. I could, and I probably wouldn’t be able to convey exactly what I mean.

Or I could say "She is my Ithaca" and you would get it, wouldn’t you?

There are whole books that try to explain the symbolism behind "The Green Knight", but Eliot can offhandedly mention a chapel and he has basically evoked the whole original poem plus the centuries of scolarship that followed.

Tolkien could have had his characters recite long monologues about how they feel like their world has been lost. Instead, he has one of them sing a song by the campfire. An 8th century song, about a warrior in exile. He achieves in a couple of lines what could have taken him a whole book to convey, and he does it in a way that goes straight to the heart, even if we don't know exactly why.

And that's the thing: not all of us spend years researching myths and old poetry. Certainly we don't do it when reading LOTR for the first time, especially if that's when we are 13 or 10 or 8 years old. But we get it anyway. We know myths, especially Western myths, one way or another, as if through cultural osmosis. We understand myths from other cultures too- we may need a bit of context, but we do- and often we find that the bones of the stories are similar, across oceans and centuries.

That means that using myths as the building blocks of your story is an amazingly effective way to cut to the quick, to get to the core of what the narrative is aiming at.

I have seen so many people talk about the feeling they get when reading LOTR, or even just thinking about it: that nostalgia? That bittersweet hurt? That longing for something bright and lost, for a star or a jewel or a land beyond the sea? That, right there. That is what Tolkien achieves by telling stories inside stories, by having his words have a meaning and weight that we would associate with a bard or a preacher, not a fantasy writer. And, as I have discovered recently, it's almost exactly the same feeling you get when reading Saxon poetry.

It's almost as if he chose it on purpose, isn’t it?

That's not all, though.

As both people tagged above(and many others, myself included) have already written, Tolkien doesn’t just use myths as building blocks. He alters them.

Yes, Frodo's hero's journey is not typical. Yes, there are a lot of similarities between the last part of LOTR and the Odissey, but they are not quite the same.

That's because Frodo is not, and can't be, Ulysses. He isn’t a warrior crowned with glory and cunning who reconquers his home and that leaves it because a god has promised him peace if he does. He is a mutilated soldier coming home from the trenches, only to find that he no longer belongs in the home he has bled for.

Frodo is a new hero, for a new age (just like Ulysses was a new hero for a new age, which I rather think is one of the reasons Joyce chose him as the model for his novel. The Odissey was already subversive in and of itself. "An odd duck", as @sataidelenn put it.)

We have to understand just how traumatic WWI was. It's a shift, a break so immense that it changed society, politics, culture, family structures, the idea of hero and even of manhood. The Western World was not the same after 1918. Of course art changed too.

Would Tolkien have written LOTR had he not fought in that war? Probably. But it would have been a very, very different book. The way it deals with war, technology, trauma, peace and friendship-all the things we love about it- are direct fruits of that conflict. I think the way myth fits into it is, too.

I can understand being disappointed that not everything in Lotr is wholly new, wholly Tolkien's invention. It didn’t even occur to be to be, though, because I am used of thinking of it in these terms.

All the myths he uses- from Kullervo to Ulysses to Beowolf to medieval fairy tales- are means to tell a new story. They come back to life, and while we perceive how timeless they are, they end up telling us something that is rooted in time. A new English epic, yes, but very clearly an epic of England between two world wars. A 20th century heroic tale which offers a desperate, brave hope for the future. How can we not love it?

And look, I might joke about personal mythology smoothies to myself all the time, but the reason I keep reading and studying Eliot and Joyce and Yeats is that they do have something new to say, something amazing. You can take them or leave them, love them or hate them, but "unoriginal" is not an adjective you can, in good conscience, apply to their work.

I think, in a weird way, Tolkien is the same.

"In manipulating a continuous parallel between contemporaneity and antiquity, Mr. Joyce is pursuing a method which others must pursue after him. They will not be imitators, any more than the scientist who uses the discoveries of an Einstein in pursuing his own, independent, further investigations. It is simply a way of controlling, of ordering, of giving shape and significance to the immense panorama of futility and anarchy which is contemporary history. It is a method already adumbrated by Mr. Yeats, and of the need for which I believe that Mr. Yeats to have been first contemporary to be conscious. Psychology (such as it is, and whether our reaction to it be comic or serious), ethnology, and The Golden Bough have concurred to make possible what was impossible even a few years ago. Instead of narrative method, we may now use the mythic method. It is, I seriously believe, a step toward making the modern world possible for art." –T.S. Eliot, from Ulysses, Order, and Myth (1923)

#tolkien #lotr #tolkien meta #literature #myth #does this make sense? I hope it does #I really wanted to reply earlier but alas life #you can tell I have put a tiny bit of thought in this over the years uh

[mmmmalo]

you do a lot of in depth readings in HS proper about like. gender and roles and stereotypes and fitting into/breaking out of them. or 8re8king out, in this case?? since I am asking specifically about vriska. I see a lot of people say she comes across as transfer, but I've been rereading Homestuck and I don't see it at all ?? I know you've made some jegbert jender posts so I was wondering if you had any insight. thank you very much, feel free to disregard this. congratulations on passing the japanese test and I hope you have a lovely rest of your week!

Thank you! Sorry for the late reply, I needed a minute.

I reread some Vriska sections to see if anything stood out, but unfortunately if you've read my June posts you've probably read everything I have to say regarding Vriska and transness. I only seem to pick up on the ways she acts as accessory to other trans narratives (those attached to Tavros and Egbert)... Her old sunglasses are a reference to the pirate One-Eyed Willie from the Goonies, which was totally a penis joke, but that alone doesn't tell you much...

Maybe a month ago I would have said with some confidence that all girls on Alternia are trans girls, because I've been reading the slaughter of the limebloods as a mass gynocide that rendered Alternia exclusively male. But recently the overlap of phallic and papillary symbolism has me wondering if some of the castration imagery doesn't double as mastectomy imagery, rendering the polarity of much of the story's transgender symbolism ambiguous... like not so much intersex as a quantum superposition of binary sexes. Like, I cited Tavros in relation to trans symbolism, and another moment for him was the struggle to get into bed because his horns are too big -- I've read this as a dysphoric moment, with the horns being phallic, but Equius (and Mallek) demonstrate that horns can be papillary as well so suddenly I'm compelled to reevaluate that moments as Tavros potentially (metaphorically) experiencing a transmasculine dysphoria posed by having enormous breasts. Or quasi-reevaluate, since the former reading would remain quasi-valid

So my answer is, I don't know and I've recently come across information that maybe undermines a great deal of what I thought I knew. I'm currently stuck between a model of Alternia where Vriska is a trans girl and a model where Vriska is Schrödinger's trans girl, existing in a story where both interpretations are encouraged. That the name "Alternia" could be self-referential, always posed as the alternative to another version of itself, feels distinctly Homestuck -- likewise the notion that the circularity of Alternia <> Beforus was anticipated by each term's self-circularity. But the matter of it feeling appropriate isn't really an argument so eventually I will need to reread to confirm and the prospect is daunting, because I'm sort of worn out.

#sorry that you've caught me in a quibbling humor #metameta

[brother-emperors]

I'm so sorry if you get tired of answering asks about Pompey and Crassus BUT your response to the anon asking if Crassus let Pompey get away with things really got me thinking! Specifically about the way that Plutarch (I think?) says that Crassus didn't hold ill-will against Pompey for "stealing" his triumph. And how it feels like Crassus just kind of decided to shrug it off and instead asked Pompey for help for the consulship elections. Crassus seems so ruthless and direct while on the field, and I have so many questions about how he and Pompey worked together in Spoletium which will never be answered 😭 But then when it comes to politics I really can't see the pattern!

oh, I love talking about Crassus (and Pompey too, by extension), literally I can't stop. you can ask several people. I'll be talking about one thing, and all of a sudden: Crassus has entered the conversation. it's terrible, I can't stop. mostly, it takes me a thousand years to articulate my thoughts in any kind of way that makes sense.

I actually think that there are two times that Crassus subtextually calls Pompey a bitch, and the triumph incident is one of them!

specifically in that Crassus's comment about it:

Crassus, for all his self-approval, did not venture to ask for the major triumph, and it was thought ignoble and mean in him to celebrate even the minor triumph on foot, called the ovation, for a servile war.

Crassus is also not the first person to hold this sentiment.

Crassus' Ovation in 71 B.C., B.A. Marshall

I think it's important to remember that for Rome as a whole, the Third Servile War was terrifying because of the scale of the threat it posed to how an imperial wheelhouse running on a slave economy functions, but also because it's really fucking embarrassing for Rome's identity.

Crassus is also not the first person who commands the leading role against Spartacus. Spartacus goes through two other commanders before Rome asks Crassus to enter the scene. Crassus specifically is a private citizen when he is asked to step into this role: up until now, Rome's own praetors and consuls have failed to rise to the occasion.

Crassus' Ovation in 71 B.C., B.A. Marshall

Marcus Crassus and the Late Roman Republic, Allen Mason Ward

this is a deeply humiliating moment for the Roman reputation and identity. Pompey taking credit for Crassus' victory is an expected power grab, but it's also kind of cringe that he did it. Crassus was doing Roman's Duty To The State (or, if you like a spicier take on it, may have pulled strings for it. after all, you can't consider a man rich unless he can fund his own army. and the army Crassus brought with him for this was is own)

and so taking credit for that is like. man. this was NOT a "glorious war" that was fought. (Lucullus cites this as a blemish on Pompey's character during his vulture speech, it's very fun!)

so while Crassus may have realized that writing back to Rome and requesting back up was a mistake because whoever showed up would have the world's easiest time taking credit and accepted that it would happen, I do think that he took alternative measures to even the playing field in a 'okay sure, have your triumph, but don't think you're going to have it all,' kind of way because he also does this

Marcus Crassus and the Late Roman Republic, Allen Mason Ward

Pliny, Natural History 15.125

Gell. NA 5.6.23

Cic. Pis. 58

which does not strike me as the behavior of someone who is letting Pompey just run away with it without any kind of pushback.

and now to throw out literally everything I just said about the Triumph Incident, B.A. Marshall (whose article I've cited several times already in this) has an incredibly compelling case to make that there wasn't really as much conflict between the two over this as ancient narratives might indicate (which. seems to be a recurring theme with them)

Crassus' Ovation in 71 B.C., B.A. Marshall

I will stick to my narrative speculation that some of their respective peers probably thought it was at least embarrassing behavior on Pompey's part, because Lucullus has a lot of vitriol to direct at Pompey, and he does cite this incident as something negative to Pompey's overall character) someone who steals credit and glory from other people). so. hm. I think the assumed personal and periodically biting rivalry (in addition to the usual political rivalry) between the two is extremely fun, but so is. this. thoughts! much to think about.

#.....i think i got a little off topic here. i actually have a writing doc up bc i wrote a whole draft for a reply #bc with patterns in their politics is like. ohhhhhh my god do i have thoughts about how they keep working together. #even when they're fighting they're working together it makes me unwell #people will speculate that pompey and crassus may have worked together to avoid another civil war during their lifetime #and i was like. well that's kind of generous. but its like. well. WELL!!!!! #unfortunately a lot of the political undermining and scheming and fuckery fully broke the republic beyond repair like RIP. so sorry for #you all. i cant even fully blame it on them. after all. they are considered sullan proteges. the ghost of sulla strikes again! #anyway i think politically he has a different kind of ruthlessness: iron clad conviction and the brains to know #how to accomplish it. terrifying combination! #like when people were in my tags going 'good for him!' about punching a fellow senator #like babes. he was not the good guy in that moment. what they were trying to pass was very much Not Good For The Republic #like he was absolutely eroding the fail safes on the roman republic political system On Purpose #ask tag #long post

[anhed-nia]

RETURN OF THE LIVING BLOGTOBER (2023)

I'm back everybody! Life has been a Whole Thing of late, in a good way, but also a way that feels like it ripped my entire being apart and reassembled me and I'm not sure if I'm even the same person anymore. But it's fine! You're not supposed to always be the same person, for the most part. Unfortunately I can't even brag about everything I've been up to because most of it has not been announced yet, so you'll kind of just have to take my word for it.

I've been doing Blogtober here for...actually I don't really know how long, because Tumblr's search is more busted than ever before, but I THINK I've been at it since 2015. This blog originally started as a repository for longform writing about whatever the hell is wrong with me, which I started to feel was unfair to inflict on the followers I had on main. Then I started doing some film writing here, kind of on a lark, and it became so consuming that I moved all my neurotic navel-gazing back to the other place because it felt so wrong to cross the streams or whatever. Blogtober began pretty casually with just a date, title, an image or two, and a few glib remarks, but pretty soon I wasn't able to keep doing it half-way, and every movie turned into a research project that resulted in a page or two (or more, in some cases) of this dense, turgid analysis that is probably not always a pleasure to read. But, this was a legitimate compulsion, a personal obligation that had nothing to do with likes or follows anything. There was no end game, it was just something I had to do.

Recently on The Last Drive-In they showed Phil Tippett's astounding 30 year art project MAD GOD, which he made for about $150,000 with no way of knowing what kind of future it had (it made more than twice its budget back, not that that's the most important thing about it). During the compelling interview with Tippett I tweeted something to the tune of, like, what singular thing can you think of doing with 30 years and all your spare change, just to do it, if you had no way of knowing what would come of it? And the EOC of Fangoria*** quote-tweeted me with a comment like "Some of us know, because some of us have done it," and then all these professional horror guys chimed in to brag about their various heroic labors of love, and I found this very annoying for two reasons: First, because I posed the question as kind of a sympathetic gesture toward people who might not have had an immediate answer, and who might have found it meaningfully provocative. I didn't mean to create an opportunity for a bunch of self-actualized snobs to just dunk on people who are less sure of themselves (or who have fewer resources, let's face it!). And the second thing that bothered me about it was, I suddenly realized I actually DO do my obsessions. The only reason the Fangoria guy follows me on Twitter is that I'm a branch director for The Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies, which takes a lot of work and care and makes practically no money, and one of the main reasons I earned that role is just my own self-directed exploration of the horror genre that I've been conducting for years and years, basically for love alone. Like nobody read my blog and offered me a book deal or anything like that--really nobody reads this blog PERIOD!--but the fact that I do this with passion, "like no one's watching" as they say, set me up with the thoughtfulness and discipline to be able to do other things when the time came.

So the things have been: For the past five years I've been working on a screenplay with someone you have definitely heard of, and there are actors you have definitely heard of who are bought in, and there are producers attached who have made things you've definitely heard of. And I mean who knows what will happen, without even considering the strikes and everything, entire movies have been shot and shelved without ever seeing daylight, anything is possible. But still, I did that, I continue to do it, and I am a better writer for it, and just a more knowledgeable and experienced person. I mean because I did that, I was ready for the opportunity I got to write the novelization of the movie SPLICE (this is like the one thing that's public already, that I can name), which sounds silly but it was an incredible, and incredibly personal experience for me, and I don't think filmmaker Vincenzo Natali would mind if I said how extremely kind and encouraging and, apparently, genuinely impressed he was. So that was huge, I'm excited for that to come out. And then because of my work for Miskatonic, and because of a certain self-directed, obsessive research project I spent the past few years on for no reason other than that I'm insane, I got the chance to record a commentary track for a new blu ray of [REDACTED, can't wait for this thing to get announced], which completely blew my mind. Then at the same time, because my work with Miskatonic got me the opportunity to introduce a certain movie at a certain major art institution last summer, I got commissioned to write THREE (3) booklets for upcoming blu rays of fascinating movies by someone I truly love, from a best-in-class company. It's been really funny in a way because when I was doing my kinda accidental art history degree, I was so depressed and immature and generally fucked up that it was a miracle they graduated me; my writing was "fun" maybe but not disciplined at all, the nicest person on my thesis board called my paper "a grand failure" and one of my advisors wouldn't even look at me once the entire time. That particular guy would be so, so mad if he read any of what I just turned in, which is, like, of actual quality. It turns out I can do what I was supposed to be doing in college, I was just too damaged and worthless at the time so sort it out. And I guess this is just how long it took me to figure out what I actually wanted to do with my time on earth. It took about 40 years.

EDIT: Fuck and then I ALSO was invited to be on a jury at the Brooklyn Horror Film Festival and I saw some amazing stuff and met some great people and I still can't believe it happened! That was so cool. I beg you all to watch RED ROOMS and VINCENT MUST DIE as soon as you possibly can, holy fucking shitballs.

But anyway I'm pretty sure those are all the things I can talk about for now, in my deliberately vague way. But that's what I've been up to when I would normally be doing Blogtober! I DID watch a Blogtober-appropriate movie every day though, and I WILL write them all up. The entries might be a little more brief than usual, and it sucks that I wasn't able to make it a daily ritual that ramps up to Halloween, but I didn't give up. Life is all about change and you never know what will happen to you, but Blogtober is forever.

***I actually really like the EOC of Fangoria specifically because he wrote this editorial about how he is constantly besieged by people who think Fango owes them a career just because they subtweet the brand and they're huge nerds and they're chronically online and own a ton of VHS tapes and shit. And I'm 100% sure this constant annoyance is why he's so bitchy. But the meat of the editorial was about how if you want a job like whatever you imagine Fangoria is supposed to give you, then you should be doing what you'd be doing there anyway. You should be writing anyway. You should be doing research anyway. You could ask your favorite B movie guys for interviews. You could start a website, or put out a zine. Try harder. Challenge yourself. Grow. You don't need anyone's permission to pursue your passion, and if you feel like you do, you might have to face the fact that it's not really your passion. The truth is that if you ever want to be acknowledged or god forbid paid for a talent like writing (or any kind of art), it's only going to happen if you're already doing it, all the time, with or without other people's money and praise. And ahem you should remain aware that even really talented people rarely subsist on talent alone--but still. In the words of Maya Angelou, who neither you nor I ever expected to have a cameo on my sleazy horror blog: Ain't nothing to it but to do it.

#blogtober #2023

[outeremissary]

14, 25, 26?

Thanks for the ask!! I'm sorry if these aren't going to be super thrilling answers, but some stuff I just don't hear much or don't remember well. ^^;;

[prompt]

14. Any favorite motifs

Haha. Have you noticed. That I like angels. And birds. And wings. And radiant light. And feathers. Do you think that's noticeable in what I draw. Kingmaker has really spoiled me for these- there are so many legitimate reasons to draw them, and I still feel like I'm not doing enough here. At the least, I feel like there's a lot more that I could be doing thematically that I'm not. But I think it's telling that as soon as I started regularly drawing Not Kingmaker stuff I just kept going with the wings- sometimes for Real Reasons, and sometimes... not really. It's my natural state. And I will draw More Wings in the future. This is a promise. I will continue to think about them and hopefully do more interesting and thoughtful things with them, haha.

And I also of course love flowers... I'm not a flower language knower, but I looooove drawing flowers and floral motifs.

25. Something your art has been compared to that you were NOT inspired by

Last summer while recovering from surgery I took an actual real figure drawing class, like in a real studio downtown with real people and real models. I had a lot of trouble adapting to the materials, the scale of the drawings (big...), and the idea of shading as one of the earliest parts of a sketch. I remember speaking to the instructor after class once about having trouble, and he was pretty nice about stuff even if it didn't help me all that much except to reduce the stress a little. But in that conversation I remember him saying my art (of which he had only seen the model drawings) had a comic book quality. That really surprised me, especially considering the context! I was trying very hard to do realism the best I could there, and besides that I have just never spent a lot of time with American comic books. Even the artists in that sphere who have styles I find really compelling and want to learn from are just not in my mind when I draw almost ever, and they certainly weren't when I was trying to sketch the model! It was interesting to hear though- one way or another, the graphic background I do have comes through that strongly both in how I interpret things into work that's not meant to be stylized and in how I work. I guess it stood out for better or worse that I leaned so heavily on lines ^^;;

26. What's a piece that got a wildly different interpretation from what you intended

I remember back in 2021 I did this sketch of Nyrissa and Tristian (I swear it is in fact from 2021 despite the post date. my art was slightly better and definitely more accurate to the game in 2022.) where Nyrissa had a hand under Tristian's chin, forcing Tristian to look her in the eyes. I don't really remember what was on my mind drawing that. I think consciously I was just looking for a typical domineering villain pose that seemed fun to draw- I like the idea of the power dynamic between them and I was interested in how that relationship had shaped the Tristian we see in game. Just doing a little thing to put that master/servant dynamic on paper was satisfying for me. Of course, the second I showed it to other people all the responses were like "this is so horny. you can't show me an image this horny." or "this is so horny, I don't know who I want to be." And at the start I think I was always like "noooooo it's super normal!! it's not horny at all!!!" But I think deep down it probably was a horny drawing, whether I did that consciously or not... And I've definitely leaned into that Vibe since then when I draw them together, haha.

That's not a very good story, but honestly I think I just have not seen a lot of interpretations of what I draw that were so different from what was on my mind that they were memorable. ^^;; I don't have a super great memory for this kind of thing though

#thanks for your patience time turned into soup recently #ask game #ask me emithing #pfkm spoilers #eurekq

[captain-sassy-socks]

GABIT INSP 2022 Part IV - Q&A session #3

Amanda started the session by asking us if we had fun the night before (80s party), and YES, WE HAD!!!

She explained the meaning behind her shirt. It was from a company called Androgynous Fox which makes gender-free and gender neutral clothes. She’s not their brand embassador but likes their message and finds it important to support local queer designers.

Another Naked Attraction joke saw the day of light when she said the fabric gently caressed her breasts, especially the right side. [side note: It was quite amazing how often a sexual innuendo came across Amanda's lips. And she didn't even blush... maybe a little bit at times ;-)]

Next, Amanda and Becca auctioned off three forgotten items: the first one I can’t remember, the second one was a pair of Helen Magnus earrings; and the last one a signed poster.

I still don’t know what compelled me to raise my hand and throw an obscene amount of money at them (I blame getting seven hours of sleep instead of less than fours hours the two nights prior), but I’m the proud owner of this poster now. I just have to find a place to hang it.

Finally, we got to the questions, and Amanda wanted to play “Charade”. So we did. She invited every questioner on stage who had to creatively interpret or even dance their question. At times, hilarious situations arose because Amanda couldn’t figure it out and tried a shot in the dark. I can’t shake the feeling Amanda would be hopelessly lost at the party game Taboo.

First of all, we got a request for Amanda and Becky to pose as flight attendants during the safety instructions. “Please fasten your seat belts, make sure your tray table is folded away, and your seat is in an upright position. And always listen to your flight attendant because they only do their job, and their job is safety.”

Next was a question about which character she would like to portray one day - the queen.

Amanda told an anecdote about an actor who forgot his lines and said “bags made for douching” instead of “douchebag”.

Someone asked which character from First Kill she would be, vampire or werewolf. Amanda answered like this.

Let’s assume this is the international sign for werewolf. In the end, she said she’d prefer to be a vampire. (I wonder where that comes from XD)

If she could turn a book into a movie, which would it be. She said Five Little Indians. The novel focuses on five survivors of the Canadian Indian residential school system, struggling with varying degrees of success to rebuild their lives in Vancouver, British Columbia after the end of their time in the residential schools. It also explores the love and strength that can emerge after trauma.

Amanda pointed out that a lot of history books from her schooldays only had a black and white view and were often whitewashed. It’s gotten better now, and Olivia learns so much more. But there’s still a lot to do, and a lot of stories to tell.

She was asked if she had read fanfiction. She admitted she had but not recently. She came across a few Sam/Janet fics, and, once, a fan gave her some saucy fanart of her and Teryl. For a while, she couldn’t look at Teryl without seeing these.

Someone asked if she would ever write her memoirs. Amanda joked it would probably only be a little pamphlet with a lot of pictures which she would turn into podcast later. (side note: our group unanimously decided at lunch that Amanda could read a phone book on her podcast and we would still tune in)

If she were a teacher which subject would she teach - history. Again, there’s so much more to learn and to be preserved before it’s lost forever.

Her favorite GABIT moment - crying / the longest curly wurly stretch for the Guinness World Records / the time at AT 1 when she threw herself on the hood of Becky’s car and rolled over like an action hero; granted the car was parked; nevertheless, Becky almost had a heart attack.

Next question was about books which needs a bit more explanation. You know the superstition if you don’t look someone in the eye when you greet them, you’ll have seven years of bad sex. From ‘would you rather have seven years of bad sex or no sex at all?’, the question went to ‘would you rather read bad books for seven years or no books at all?”

Amanda stated wholeheartedly that she would rather read a bad book than nothing at all. Then she asked the audience and was suprised that only (maybe) half of the attendees raised their hand. “What? So many people wouldn’t read at all?” Since she was looking in my direction, I blurted out, “You can always write.” And she was like, “I hadn’t thought about that.”

Last, was a question about what kind of tv show she would do if she could - cooking show. Someone from the audience reminded her she still owed us her famous Green Goddess Recipe. Amanda promised to post it on her Instagram channel. Well, let’s see.

And that’s it for this very entertaining Q&A session.

#Amanda Tapping #Grand Empress of Scifi #gabit

[5and3nevermind]

I guess those 2018 moments and even 2019 too just isn't enough for some to believe they didn't break up at that point in time. Or at the very least not enough to believe they were even a couple that acted on their feelings. I just don't know how even if they were exes or had some sort of major drifting apart at that point they would even act like that in those moments but maybe I'm just not seeing it right? I don't know.

I think we can all agree that there was a shift in their dynamic during that time. Some people interpret it as a problem, some people (me) think there’s enough to show they were still close and that it had more to do with privacy than it did about issues off-camera.

I refuse to discuss rumors or sightings or leaked photos. (If you send me asks about this sort of thing, I won’t answer!) But I will mention this one “unofficial” instance since I think most people are already aware of it. In mid-2018, they attended their m……’s ……g. There was hand-holding when they posed for a photo. Proof of very warm feelings? Absolutely, in my opinion.

But, to your point, if some people don’t see ample evidence of fondness and closeness during that time, that’s fine. People have different standards of what they consider significant.

Note: unless I get a really compelling question, this will probably be the last answer about 2018-2019 break-up theories. I think I’ve made my feelings clear, and I don’t want my posts to become repetitive. :)

#yoonmin #ask

[tallbluelady]

between you me and those two lalafall t posing that azure dragoon in submission in the corner there what is your favorite part about screenshoting writing or otherwise producing content for your character?

Buckle up cuz I've been rotating this concept in general for a while!

Okay, back in college (I still feel weird saying that) I lent a friend my notebook cuz he missed a lecture one time. He noted that I doodled all over them, and asked why I did so. My answer was something along the lines that I was going to burst if I didn't.

And it's still true for me to this day. I have to write or draw or do gpose/screenshots cuz otherwise I'm going to explode. An idea comes to me and stares me and compels me to execute it. Hell, when I get a good shitpost idea, it feels like my third eye snaps wide open and I cannot get any rest until I make some sort of token effort to try and make it real in some fashion.

As for a favorite part? I don't know! The Defunctland tweet about film making being the worst thing other than not making films is pretty accurate on occasion. I mean, I do enjoy the fruits of my labor. I was scrolling through my own blog smiling at the stuff I've made before I started writing this answer. But depending on the creation, creating the thing is more important to me than having the created thing.

Like this essay of an answer! Not only do I feel obligated to answer you, but I have to admit that writing this is going to be more satisfying to me than coming back to it later and reading it. And that's been true for most of my life. I remember goofing off with spriting at a young age and just enjoying editing the visual of Pokemon trainers without worrying about posting them for a while. It's just been this last year and like, high school that I would get consistent feedback on my creative endeavors. College and working at my last job didn't leave me with enough energy to do creative stuff and present it in a viewable fashion. So that leaves me wrapping my head around the idea that I am having positive human interactions because of my blorbos and blorbo related content.

As for Rowan being the central character of this content? She's more or less the character I've always made creative content for. Whether it be in a Night Elf form or original Elf form or Elezen form, she's just been the vessel for any creative endeavors that need a person-shaped avatar to fill. Now I can confidently say that Rowan is probably distinct from her predecessors by virtue of being worked on so much more lately, but she's just drawn from the same primordial muse ooze that I've always been drawing from.

I think I hit all the points I've wanted to here. Well, the peer-reviewed, undiagnosed ADHD is probably a big contributing factor as to why I feel like I'll burst as a way to combat boredom (and for how this reads lmao).

But, uh, yeah. Thanks for the ask, anon. I hope it wasn't far more than you bargained for XD

#rayn speaks of herself #and of creativity i guess #rayn back at it again with the essays #yeah i am still trying to wrap my head around being somewhat popular in this little niche of mine #i am enjoying the feedback but i would still create regardless of human interaction #cuz i would probably literally explode otherwise

[summersnow82]

Somethin' Bad - Part 5

My regular disclaimer stands. Thanks for reading! I enjoyed this chapter a bit too much. I hope you enjoy it, as well.

_____

Part 5

Travis knew he could be a grade-A jerk with little to no effort, and right now it was taking very little effort. The woman winced as he took her by her left arm, high towards her shoulder like an outraged parent, and walked her to an interrogation room. He didn’t really want to cuff her after seeing the damage to her arm, but he didn’t want her to know that, so left arm it was. He steered her not to gently into a hard folding chair, and sat down across from her.

She looked confused, angry, and scared. He was sure her arm was hurting, too; he’d applied enough pressure to show he meant business, but not enough to genuinely hurt her. She didn’t speak, probably out of fear, so he started. “How much of that did you hear?”

She stared at him, gauging his behavior before she answered. “Which answer keeps me safe?”

He scoffed, shaking his head. “Lady, safe went out the window the minute you came to North Kill.”

“Safe from you,” she clarified.

Travis wanted to respond so many ways to that statement. You’re safe with me. You’re safe if you do what I say. You’re safe if it doesn’t threaten my family. You were never safe with me, and there’s no where to run.

Instead he skirted the question, choosing, “I’m an officer of the law, ma’am.”

She leveled her eyes at him, and he could see her running scenarios. Finally she replied, voice honey sweet. “Of course, Sheriff. An officer of the law who saves a strange woman, tends to her instead of taking her to a hospital, watches over and cares for her, only to later threaten her safety, and keep her...what? Hostage? Prisoner? Captive?” She arched an eyebrow. “Seems like you deviated from the law just a touch, Officer Hackett.” She paused. “Sir.” She said the word hard, letting him know she meant no respect, but instead disdain. He clenched his jaw, narrowing his eyes; she’d spoken the truth, and it pissed him off she was ballsy enough to call him out.

“The nearest hospital is over an hour away from here. The local doc is out of town on business. I thought you might bleed out, but next time I’ll make sure to follow protocol to the letter, regardless of the outcome,” he sneered.

She smiled, leaning forward, and placed her left arm on the table so he could see the wounds as clearly as she did. “You see this?” She asked, motioning towards the pink gashes in her arm. They were long and jagged where the beast had swiped her with his claws. Some gashes were deeper than others, and he’d had to stitch those up. “This may hurt like crazy, but it’s not life threatening. In fact,” she arched an eyebrow at him, “The only way this is life threatening is if that thing nicked an artery, and if that were the case, you and I both know you can’t repair that kind of damage on your own.” She leveled her gaze at him, her fear dissipating as she spoke. “So stop bullshitting me, sir. I’m looking at possible nerve damage, maybe, MAYBE some limited mobility issues, and a longer healing time than I have patience for, but that’s it.”

Travis took a deep breath, sitting back in his chair, and crossed his arms over his chest. She was right, and he knew it, because he had similar scars all over his body. “And how the hell,” he began, “do you know all that, ma’am?”

He was intrigued; it was like a switch had been flipped in her brain, and her direct and confident manner left him impressed. Irritated, but impressed. Still, Travis missed the trembling damsel in distress from the shower room – she had been obedient and easy to control. A direct and confident woman was compelling and attractive, but would make his life much more difficult.

She sat back in her chair, mirroring his pose. “Medical training.”

“Hmm.” He tilted his head back. “But not a doctor?”

“No. My education was...interrupted.”

“How so?” He asked.

“That’s not relevant to this conversation,” she said. Her voice wavered slightly, so he decided to push.

“It’s relevant if I say it is.”

She laughed, shaking her head. “Officer Hackett, I hate to break this to you, but I have a feeling this long conversation you want to have is going to leave you with more questions than answers. Do you really want to know about my education, or is there another burning question you have in mind?” The tremble was gone, and the sass was back. He frowned.

“How much of that conversation did you hear?”

She leaned forward, practically hissing, “Every damn word, Travis.”

Travis narrowed his eyes. Damn it. Chris and his loud voice; that had been a problem when they were growing up, too. If she’d heard everything then she knew – maybe not everything, but more than he wanted her to know. “Then I’m going to guess you’re the Belle your boyfriend keeps talking about in his sleep.”

“My name is Annabelle. My friends call me Belle,” she said, and his jaw tightened.

“Annabelle it is,” he clipped back. “Annabelle what?” Silence. “Annabelle what?” He asked again, voice harder than before. She just stared at him. “Fine. We’ll run your fingerprints.”

She seemed unimpressed. “You can, and you might get something back.” Her eyes glittered with secrets. “But I’m guessing probably not.”

Travis cocked his head to the side setting his jaw. “And why is that?” More silence. If she was still scared she was masking it well with indignation. This interrogation was going south so fast it was making his head spin. This should’ve been easy, and he’d expected as much after her display in the locker room. Now he just felt like a fool for every nice thing he’d done so far – he should’ve left her in the damn forest. He closed his eyes, exhaling deeply, and gathered himself together. “Ma’am, believe it or not, I am trying to help you and your friend, but I can only do so much without your cooperation, so I will ask once more: who the hell are you?”

#the quarry fanfic #the quarry #the quarry travis #travis hackett #ted raimi #sheriff hackett #officer hackett #t money #fan fiction #fanfic #fanfiction.net #travis x oc #annabelle harris #sean landers #somethin bad

[ziezie13]

Thanks for the tag @everythingbutcoldfire, I actually finished this one instead of getting halfway through and then leaving it in my drafts

Relationship status: happily single

Favourite colour: emerald green

Favourite food: mashed potatoes (when I was a kid the only thing I had planned for my wedding was that there would be mountains of mashed potatoes) Also a really excellent fish especially catfish, tuna, or salmon. I also grew up in a place with excellent trout, reddish, drum, and shrimp so those are all very nostalgic for me.

Song stuck in your head: nothing currently stuck in there but there are two that I have been playing in repeat which is unusual for me. Both are remixes, I'm Good (Blue)/Bebe Rexha, David Guetta and Shrekinem (Vavo mashup). Both of them just tickle my brain in a very pleasant way.

Last thing you googled: "team rocket", I dressed up as James for Halloween and wanted to see some poses

Favourite time of day: afternoon/evening aka the time when all the work is done for the day and I can veg out

Dream trip: I really really want to rent a boat and sail around the Mediterranean for a couple of weeks stopping at random islands

Last book/fic you read: Currently listening to the CU Hockey audio book series by Eden Finley and Saxon James. Each book is a smutty romance between two queer hockey players. I started crying when I got to the one with a demisexual lead because I wasn't expecting that.

Last book/movie you enjoyed: I will answer both. Last movie is RRR, I had heard it was great and a wild rise so I watched it blind and I loved it so much. The violence in the beginning made me very uncomfortable but I kept watching and did not regret it. I will not spoil it but this is the kind of movie where the protagonist punches tigers and also has time for a dance break in the middle. Just watch it. Last book is The Lies of Locke Lamora, I feel in love with the fantasy world based on Venice. Also Locke is somehow both a bit of a mary sue (i love a mary sue sometimes what can i say) but also things kept getting worse and worse for him that I didn't know how he was possibly going to make it out.

Last book/movie you hated: it is not so much that I hated these but I have complicated feelings and lots of opinions/things to say. Thor Love and Thunder felt like Taika didn't really know what story to tell so he just had a bunch of fun with his friends on set instead. Peter Darling frustrated me so much I wrote a whole essay about it. I loved so much about it and the things it set up were so compelling but it never followed through on any of those ideas. There were narrative conflicts that were completly ignored and the ones that did get resolved had zero build up. I finished this book feeling so unsatisfied it was painful.

Favourite thing to cook/bake: probably baked catfish or chocolate pie, also @beedragony taught me how to make esfiha and I have been making it a lot lately

Favourite craft to do in your free time: writing and bookbinding :)

Most niche dislikes: soft, fluffy pillows? Idk I like a firm squishy one

Opinion on circuses: oh my mom hated the circus, zoos too, because of the exotic animals being in captivity. My dad would take us by himself and she would stay at home. My feelings aren't as strong as hers but I don't particularly like the traditional circus either. I do love cirque du soleil though, I just find it to be amazing story telling!

Do you have a sense of direction and if not what’s the worst way you’ve gotten lost?: I do have a good sense of direction and one of the first things I do when I get to a new place is figure out which direction is north and some kind of orienting marker like a river or landmark. When we would travel to foreign countries as a kid my mom never trusted my directions but I was always right and now she doesn't even question it. None of that stops me from using my gps everytime I get in the car though which drives my dad crazy for some reason 😆

Tagging: @chubsthehamster and @aryastark-valarmorghulis

#tag game

[trainingdummyrabbit]

GRABS miss rat god :D for the character ask game

HEHOO OH MAN DO I HAVE THOUGHTS ABOUT HER.

> First impression okay honestly, just seeing her ambiently around, she really did feel like that Mascot Character with 75 trademarks after. like Oh Yeah Its The Marketable One For That Series, Okay. did Not think very much of her at all at first, just an “oh ok youre one of Those” sortsa things. i did Not have a lot of faith in her writing as a character if im being honest which, now, is Immensely funny.

> Impression now oh my god shes a fucking WEIRDO. she is my poor little squeak squeak, she is the plague upon my brain, shes done nothing wrong, shes done everything wrong. she is one of the Only characters ever, actually. okay, so listen. her writing absolutely Demolishes me. i have said it before and i will continue saying it-- she is such a fascinating fucking character. a walking contradiction, a trainwreck covered gently with a sequin cape. she is SO not normal and i am forever going to be obsessed with her. her role in the story is endlessly fascinating, her strange co-dependent dynamic with the other two in the rat trio is immensely compelling, and on GOD she needs fucking therapy. shes a manipulative hypocrite that so so desperately needs some sense smacked into her.  she has So much buried potential in her that isnt even buried because of bad writing! its because she doesnt WANT to let that part of her be known. and because this isnt her story-- and in fact never was-- we never get to truly see Her beyond short glimpses of what Could be-- and what that means for her character and her motivations and who She is, it means Everything. she is the presence in an absence and i will never be over her.

> Favorite moment oh god how do you even pick. theyre all pretty equally ranked to me so im just going to single out the lines when you fuck up completing the tutorial. the “hm. so. you kind of suck at this. like a lot. try again.” like honestly. iconic.

> Idea for a story its a little basic, but i So badly would love to see/write a retelling of canon but from her perspective. i want to dive into what shes thinking, what shes prioritizing. she has so much buried down that never gets the chance to surface-- and probably still wont, in the situation theyre in-- but even just the Smallest of hints could define her so much. how does she react to things so drastically not going her way? i am rotating her like a lab specimen.  hehe.

> Unpopular opinion honestly... i dont think i have one for her? i certainly dont have any immediate pet peeves off the top of my head. all i can really think of is just. please give her pants. or tights or something, she is going to get cold :( 

> Favorite relationship well, she doesn’t really have much to go around skdjnfksdj genuine answer is her with mad rat. the way that they so completely foil each other still drives me absolutely bonkers. the way that these two are, at their core, so immensely similar, but everything else around that are complete and stark opposites. rat god being some “higher being” thats completely resigned to her fate to upkeep this perpetual cycle, and mad rat being just some guy who, by sheer force of spite, breaks every rule shes held herself up by in the span of like a day. it infuriates her to absolutely no end, but that fascination still remains. they are utterly inseparable-- and in any other circumstance, they could’ve maybe just maybe been friends. 

> Favorite headcanon she is constantly in presentation mode. because of the nature of her being, she constantly has to put up a sparkly front-- which means shes hardly ever without it. meaning that if shes on her own, she will Still chime out with little exclamations or do her silly little poses when theres no one around to see-- just out of sheer force of habit. nobody can really stop her either, shes just... like this. the only time she truly Stops is if she is truly and deeply upset by something-- and even then, some of those mannerisms still shine through. shes one of those characters you should be worried about if you dont hear or see them.

[Ask Game]

#ask game #making direct eye contact. knowingly #oh we are So normal abt the funy rats. #anyhow hey did yall know i have multiple documents rambling abt her and the others in the trio thats tens of thousands of words big. #did you know that. because i do. they arent even finished yet. im so normal.