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fogwitchoftheevermore · 2 months

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(context for watcher/listener!sausage can be found in the “videos” tag on my blog if you want it, but this ficlet can be read without said context)

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“Y’know, of all the Hermits I was expecting to be pulling me into a dark corner tonight, I did not expect you to be first, Grian! I love the initiative!”

“I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear that,” Grian says in a voice near a hiss. He’s got Sausage by the wrist, leading him into a small area of the upper floor of the tavern in Sanctaury that does look like it was built for the exact purpose Sausage is implying. Grian decides to ignore that as well.

“What are you doing here?” Grian’s straight to the point. He always has to be, with these Things, if he doesn’t want to get trapped in a loop of slant rhyming pleasantries.

“What do you mean?” Sausage asks, shaking his wrist out of Grian’s tight grip and leaning comfortably against the wall. “This is where I live. It’s my home. If anything, I should be asking you mysterious strangers what you’re doing here, but I’m sure you’ve heard that question enough for one day.”

“You know exactly what I mean.” Grian crosses his arms and tries his best not to look petulant, but he sure feels like it. “I thought They’d given up on trying to snatch me back, so why would They send you of all people? What’s your game?”

Sausage laughs, honest to god laughs, like he can’t believe Grian’s even asking him such a question. Grian thinks it’s a reasonable question, in this scenario, but what he thinks and what’s reasonable rarely seems to matter with these things.

“They didn’t send me,” Sausage looks him up and down in that way that makes Grian have to physically stop himself from curling inwards. This is why he never talks to Them. “Nobody sends me anywhere, they don’t tell me what to do and I like it that way! I just do my own thing. Isn’t that what you’re doing?”

“No you’re not! You’re not- you can’t be! That’s not how this works!” Grian begins to notice that he’s no longer whisper-shouting and starting to just-normal-shout and takes a deep breath, trying not to draw the attention of his friends enjoying themselves on the floor below. And, realistically, in the other dark corners Sausage seems to have built into this place.

“That’s exactly how this works. You didn’t think you were the only person who’d left, did you?”

Grian opens his mouth, closes it, and thinks. In hindsight… yeah, he had kind of assumed he’d been the only person who’d left. Not for lack of trying, probably- but They’d tried for so long to get him back, kept him closely surveilled even when They’d accepted he was gone- surely some people had caved to that pressure eventually. When there was no sign They’d ever let up, ever let you go… he could understand eventually letting it overtake you.

“Did- did you leave, too?” Grian doesn’t remember the last time he saw Sausage’s face. He didn’t know him back then, of course. He probably would’ve connected the man with the person Pearl so often spoke about sooner. But he knows it’s been a long time, maybe even longer than the last time Grian had gone There. He doesn’t think Sausage had been There, that day. This might explain why.

“Eh, not quite?”

“What-“ Grian flails, both mentally and with his arms a bit. “What do you mean not quite?”

“Exactly what I said! I was never- it’s complicated, y’know?”

“Explain. Now.”

“Well, uh,” Sausage seems to flounder for the first time since this conversation started, which Grian is choosing to take as a victory. “Look, I wasn’t- they didn’t pick me. For this, or for anything, ever. Sometimes things just happen and you get yourself into a place you shouldn’t have and then… they can’t get rid of me, I can’t get rid of them, it is what it is.”

Grian stares at him for a long moment. Really stares at him, in the same way Sausage had looked him over earlier, in the same way that makes you feel like you’re under a microscope. Judging by the sudden nerves in his eyes, Grian can assume he feels it too. Grian remembers his face. That had been the first thing he’d noticed, when the Hermits had arrived. It had been a long time since they’d seen each other, but Grian knew his face. And now that Grian was studying him, really trying to remember… he’s not sure he quite likes what memories he’s dredging up.

“What are you?”

“Grian!” Sausage’s voice drips with mock offense as he puts his hand up to partially cover his mouth. “We only just met, do you think that’s polite?”

“Answer the question,” Grian sighs. How Pearl deals with this man on the regular, he doesn’t know.

“Well, if you insist.” Sausage sighs, somehow even more exaggerated than his previous movements. “It’s just… if you’ll believe it, it’s somehow even harder to answer the first question.”

“It shouldn’t be,” Grian says. “They’re two very different People, you know.”

“But they’re the same species, when it all comes down to it. Like, you might be very different than a chicken, but you’re both birds in the long run.”

Grian pauses, fanning his wings out a bit behind him as he considers. “I don’t think that metaphor’s quite landing the way you want it to.”

“No, me neither. Anyways, let me continue.

When they don’t pick you, things go a little differently! You don’t get sorted onto one side or the other since, well, you’re not really supposed to be there? So I’m… whatever I want to be, really. I think I’m feeling like more of a Listener, today, but we’ll see how the mood shifts.”

Grian flinches at the Name, on instinct. He doesn’t know how to feel about that, so he files it away to be dealt with at a later date. As for the rest of what Sausage said-

“What?”

“You heard me.” Sausage shrugs. He’s so nonchalant, Grian thinks he might strangle him, if not for the worry that that’s exactly what he wants out of this, somehow.

“Did I? Did I hear you?” Grian wants to pace, but that requires leaving the security of the corner, so he forces his feet to root themselves to the floor. “I thought- I thought you had to- if you wanted to change sides, I thought you had to-“

Grian closes one eye and takes his thumb to it, twisting the finger into his eyelid. The gesture seems to get the point across.

“Well, that’s the funny thing about this, actually.” From the way he’s been talking, Grian assumed Sausage thought this whole thing was funny. He restrains himself from saying that out loud if only so Sausage will finish his explanation.

Sausage reaches up to his left eye, pulls his eye lid back a bit, and unceremoniously pops out his prosthetic eye.

“All these processes and rituals actually have a lot of loopholes.”

Grian doesn’t know what face he’s making, but it’s enough to make Sausage giggle while he pops the eye back in. Because of course he does. Because this how his day is going, apparently. Walk through a weird portal in his basement and wake up in a world filled with his friends who don’t recognize him and also a guy he only ever saw There, who he was never supposed to see again. Sure. Of course he’s laughing about it. Grian thinks if he was a slightly different person, he’d be laughing too. It is, undeniably, absurd.

“Well, I think we’re done here then!” Grian would probably object if he weren’t so shocked about the loopholes. As it is, he just stands there a bit stupidly.

Sausage turns away to return to the party before turn around again for just a moment, reaching over, and ruffling Grian’s hair. That shocks him enough to shake him out of his stupor and swat Sausage’s hand away, though not before his hair is suitably messed up.

“What was that for?!”

Sausage smiles as he reaches up to rough up his own hair as well. “I assumed you didn’t want your friends asking questions about why you were dragging me into a dark corner, you know?” Sausage even goes far enough to pull his shirt a bit out of where it’s tucked into his pants, because of course he does. Grian tries not to cringe, but Sausage is right about this one thing. It is the easiest way to dodge any questions about where he’d gone off to- at the expense of the many knowing looks and teasing remarks he’ll be getting from the other Hermits instead.

“Have a good night, Grian!” Sausage calls over his shoulder as he turns to leave for real this time. “And remember, drinks are on me for all you guests tonight! You look like you need it.”

#empires smp #hermitcraft #grian #mythicalsausage #hermitfic #empiresfic #long post #my writing #….do i need to tag shipping on this #they’re not actually DOING anything. and i would say i’m not really going much further than sausage usually does #but like. idk man. if i wake up in the morning and decide i need to tag shipping i will #anyways. fics for an audience of like two people total #but that’s ok cause i like this SO MUCH #the first few sentences have been rotting in my tumblr drafts for like at least two months #and i finally kicked myself into gear to just finish it #and i had fun! i liked the way i used capitalization here to really wedge the difference between how these two think of the watchers #(and listeners)#grian doesn’t necessarily respect them but he does still see them as Other. and he’s maybe a little afraid #so all the important stuff gets capitalized #sausage doesn’t. he doesn’t respect them and he doesn’t fear them and they’re just a weird bureaucracy to him #so no capitalization!#also ten seconds after posting this i got a post on my dash #of sausage posting a screenshot of e’s tumblr post about him checking tumblr in their twitter replies #terrifying. hey king if you see this keep the bit up. i think it’s funny

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wiseatom · 10 months

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i tried for a well thought out post. instead you get this mess that i’m begging you not to twist:

the outraged cries of “cliques” are people being actual friends with each other. the people complaining about certain blogs or creators being on pedestals are usually the same people putting them there. i’m not one to belittle feelings - i understand where the upset is coming from. i even understand my place in it! but at the end of the day, we’re working ourselves up over what? notes? followers? hits on a fic? things based on luck and timing??

i can only speak for myself, but i work a full time job and i’m hard scheduled 45 hours a week. all of my free time goes towards fic writing, because that’s For Me and that’s what’s important for my mental health, and even then, i am usually too exhausted to do that. i would love to read fic and interact more! my to-read list is a mile long! it is just genuinely hard for me to find the time. i prioritize my friends because they are my friends — real, actual people i know beyond tumblr mutualship, who i talk to about more than just fic writing — and even then i am late getting around to it. i’m not saying this as a “woe is me, my life is hard” moment, but moreso trying to offer a perspective that is not even being thought of. and i get it, no one wants to hear it, because you’re frustrated, and being vocal about frustration feels nice (i know, bc here i am)!!

someone is going to come for my throat for making this post as a “big author” and “part of the clique we’re all vagueing” and maybe it’s juuuuust me but like. if you’re that unhappy, log off. if seeing a friend group you’re not part of interacting makes you unhappy, log off. if seeing the engagement other people get on their posts or fic or art makes you unhappy, log off. you cannot force people to interact with you or your creative work, and aggressively posting about it when they don’t is not inviting them to. i am begging you to stop having expectations of people you do not know, because at the end of the day, you’re setting yourself up for disappointment.

#i will be the first to recognize my quote unquote privilege when it comes to this topic lol #but it’s like. idk. you’re welcome to reply to this or rb with thoughts or tear up my ask box lmfao #i’ve been trying to word this more eloquently for hours and this is all i’ve got #but yk. whatever. i still can’t even word what i’m trying to say #know that this comes from a place of genuine concern and kindness i really am not trying to sound like a bitch here lol #again feel free to ask for clarification or whateva cheddar but the hostility has been Poppin #and i know y’all gonna be like IF YOU THINK THE POST IS ABOUT YOU IT PROBABLY IS!!#and it’s like ok well i think it’s interesting that i made a silly blog for a silly fic and made silly promo stuff with my silly friends #and suddenly we clique posting again. like i’m not being so conceited as to say OBVIOUSLY this is abt me but the timing is interesting lol.#believe me i would love to have time to read more things so like. tell me what you want fr lol #i know this is abt to get me into a mess lmfao hitting post anyway

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fisheito · 3 months

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my princess nonsense is being encouraged watch ouyt imabout to be eneaabled

OK WHATF ATHAT'S SO CUTE I HAD TO MAKE IT i know realistically there's little to no chance that rei DOESN'T know how to work heels 🤣 BUT IMAGINE.....ING.... YAKUMO GENTLY GUIDING REI IN HEELS, WEEKS BEFORE THE BIG GALA AND HAVING NONE OF HIS NORMAL FEAR OF PHYSICAL TOUCH BC HIS [TEACHER MODE] IS OVERRIDING HIS INSECURITY

#rei looking directly at the camera like why are you subjecting me to this. i do not need any of this. i know how to do it #rei wearing stilettos the size of your head so he becomes ur very tall bird goth gf #you know how yakumo gets when he instructs someone on how to cook something #he becomes confident and just tells ppl how to do stuff without his usual amount of stutter and secondguessing #i'm gonna pretend that after his stiletto training in misty vale he gains a TINY MOLECULE of confidence due to experience #like [i can help you if you've never done it before?]#honestly i can't imagine this scenario happening because i am so SURE that rei can walk in heels HAHAHA even tho nothing has proven that #SOMETHING COME PROVE ME WRONG SO MY DELUSIONS CAN SLIDE CLOSER TO POSSIBILITY #anyway even if rei didn't know how to wear heels #would he ever mention it? would yakumo ever learn of it?#rei would probably be all . i don't need to wear heels. they can't even see them under the dress. i'll wear my practical shoes #but if he can't get away with that and will be forced to wear heels at the party...#maybe he'll go [meh. i'll figure it out] and just not wear them until the day of the dance #at which point his feet will hurt after 20 minutes and for the whole night he takes any chance to sit down #rei can be frequently spotted on SOME surface SOMEWHERE in the palace. sitting all splayed out and uncaring of propriety #because he is in PAIN and these shoes are STUPID and why do people wear them for ANYTHING . Royals are so IMPRACTICAL #yakumo keeps trying to avoid heels for the dance because he doesn't want to be any taller than he already is #i bet there's a full convo about it between him and eiden #eiden trying to reassure him that if he wants to wear heels then he shouldn't let others' perception stop him from doing so #but if he genuinely doesn't want to wear them then that's ok too #eiden craning his neck up at yakumo in heels like you're my pretty princess 1-2 heads taller than me your height doesn't matter 🥰#i'm now torn. yakumo and rei both wearing heels now? in order to stay at similar heights?#or. rei starting out with heels. getting tired of them. going barefoot for the rest of the night lol #yakumo and rei still dancing in their ballgowns together but a much shorter rei leads a yakumo in heels #yes. yes this is the vision #yakurei #replies #nu carnival yakumo #nu carnival rei

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keep-looking-to-the-sky-me · 1 year

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ok so I've been shipping sidlink for years now and been in the zelda fandom for longer(fandom since 12, shipping since 16) so I'm used to seeing bad faith takes trying to explain why a ship between two adults who aren't related is "problematic" but "if you don't ship z/elink your a misogynist" is definitely the newest and most disheartening.

out of all of my LITERAL YEARS of shipping these two I haven't once seen a post bashing zelda or another female character. Even with the interruption of Yona I haven't seen much hate, sure there has been somethings here and there but for the most part everything's been chill.

what I wish people would do is analyze racism and sexism on the Gerudo, discussing how although link is gender androgynous in botw it comes at the price of orientalism, and how Zeldas powers being connected to birth right calls into question how much sexual agency she has. not you know....trying to prove moral failings based on what you ship(sidenote, please don't read this line and think im p/ros/hip I got beef with yall but that's for another post)

what I have seem instead was toxic z/elink stans putting sidlink hate directly in the ship tags. I can't look up sidlink on here and especially twitter without seeing a post saying that if you ship them you're a pedo when I haven't seen this behavior for all my years I've been shipping. only in the last year that I've seen it. I personally think the problem is (that isn't unique to z/elink) is that fans feel the need to feel justified when hating a ship, it isn't enough to just not vibe with it, there has to be a valid reason. so instead of ignoring it they come up with reason why liking something that's completely fine is a problem. so they come up with a reason like pedo are most recently misogyny. I don't like z/elink but I would never try to make a moral reason as to why.

you can understand sexism in zelda, and fandoms as a whole without shipping the main girl character. infact I would argue its more sexist to imply you can only understand a female character only when they're with a man. so if your gonna callout non-z/elink shippers for misogyny can I also callout z/elink stans for internalized homophobia with their weird need to nitpick every mlm ship?

#rant #ok to interact #ok to reblog #this is kinda a reply to a self proclaimed ceo #but mainly about stuff I've seen in general #mainly from new fans #sidlink #also don't yell at me ill c**#this is getting tagged #zelink #too because it shows my point better #legend of zelda #totk #tears of the kingdom #my post

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oneknightstand-if · 26 days

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@sapphirestones09 replied to your post “Would the ROs prefer a hot or cute mc ?”:

Sorry Broderick all players are insane here...

#Adrian: Hey Broderick... stop stealing my stuff!#Broderick: No 눈_눈 #oks-replies #oks-Broderick #As you can see Broderick never gave back Merlin's kaomoji he 'borrowed' either

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stealingyourbones · 2 years

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You have so many braincells bestie it makes me stim so hard in excitement. Your brain is wrinklier than a 16 year old Sphinx cat that has been sitting in a tub of water for Far To Long.

Tim is blissfully unaware of the biggest Arkham breakout in years as he lays curled up against Bruce's side while holding Dick's hand and watching Jason, Bart and Kon play cards. He thinks it's go fish, or maybe Uno. Judging by their faces though, he's quite sure that Jason is winning. This is by far the calmest and happiest he's been since before the Joker took him. Not so much as a pained giggle in almost three hours. They stay that way for another four without a single giggle.

Things are a bit ruined when Dani walks in, not realizing there is still blood on her hands as she says, "well, the Arkham stuff is delt with. How's Tim doing?" As he starts to give panicked giggles, she notices her hands and says, "oh don't worry kid! It's not mine I swear- the clown pushed his luck and-" she is cut off as Tim starts to full on cackle and shake as he cries, sounding almost exactly like the end of a certain flashback. Dani is now also panicking as she tries to make it better by saying, "it's OK! He can't hurt anyone anymore, he'll never get near you again and-"

Kon pulls her out of the room as Tim simply laughs harder, nearly breaking Dick's hand from how hard he is squeezing.

At least Joker has been delt with. For good.

Homie no yOU! You got so many folds in your brain it’s incredible.

Dani realized her mistake and rushed to wash her hands

It was too late. Tim was howling with laughter. His entire frame wracked with shivers as he clutched Jason’s jacket and Dick’s hand like a lifeline. He smile growing so wide that the cuts along his mouth started to reopen and split.

The cheerful sounds that everyone in the room now associated with pain grew louder and louder as some weird shit started happening.

Tim's eyes were momentarily squeezed shut as the clear tear tracks that seemed seemed have a permanent residence on his face started to flow with a strange green liquid. Dick gasped as Tim's eyes flew open and his eyes weren’t his normal blue but instead a bright toxic bright green.

The laughter grew to ear piercing shrieks of pure mirth. The Bats watched in a state of hopelessness and concern as the lights around the room started flickering wildly. Random objects around the room became encased in a bright green glow and started floating on their own volition as Tim howled.

Slowly more and more objects around the room started levitating as any lose item in the room started to swirl around the current residents like they were in the eye of a very spooky land hurricane.

Eventually the laughter slowly died down and in a very sudden motion, the green light left Tim's eyes and everything that was floating fell to the ground with a deafening crash.

For a long moment there was silence. Then Danny spoke up, his eyes were wide with shock and concern for the cackling boy cradled in Bruce's arms. “How did he die?”

The bats were confused. They didn’t understand.

“What?” Dick’s whispered as he gently squeezed his brothers hand, he will definitely have bruises from today but if it helped his brother it made it totally worth it.

Danny’s eyes flashed the same color as Tim’s were moments ago, “How. Did. He. Die.”

Tim's hands went towards his throat. Kon scrambled over to Tim and used his TTK to envelop his friend in a full body hug. Stopping his friend from clawing at his throat to make the laughter stop. The smallest whimper of relief between the laughter was the only sign of acknowledgement Tim gave as his shaking slowly ceased. His eyes still locked in place from where he saw Dani's bloodied hands, tears still glowing a bright toxic green.

Danny gestures all around the room to the hurricane of broken items. "This all says otherwise. He didn't have the meta gene and he feels like a ghost."

Bruce remembered what Joker said to him as he went on and on about his son, “The shocks and the chemicals took their toll.”

Looks like this is an even more complicated situation than they initially thought.

Pt 1, Pt 2, Pt 3, Pt 4, Pt 5, Pt 6…

#danny phantom #dp x dc #dc comics #dp x dc prompt #bones replies #anon #back and fourth anon #jokes on him au #ok the writing and descritions could be better but im too lazy to fix it #tim turning fully liminal from getting shocked to death and joker pumping the kid full of ectoplasm #back on my bullshit #ey yo anon if u ever wanna just dm me and brainstorm stuff id love to pick apart your brain for ideas :)

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liquidstar · 6 months

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Hi I don't really know how to say this so I'm going to kinda do it under the cut so it feels quieter

I don't really like to be too open about personal struggles online, I mean, I share some stuff from time to time but mostly tiredness w work or missed appointments and other simple things. I don't like letting a lot of people know about the specific things that are going on irl, especially if they're heavier so.... Idk but. TW for pet death going forward, so this should kinda let you know what it is

A couple days ago I was told that my bunny died that morning. He was a fairly old bunny so it wasn't a huge shock, and I think he had a good life, but it was still pretty sudden. My mom said that the night before he was running around completely normally and eating/pooping just fine, plus noting unusual at his last visit to the vet, so we have no idea what could have happened. And I think I feel extra bad because I wasn't there, even if I'd be back home pretty often the fact that I moved out and had to leave him there is sad. Of course I still saw him because well he's my pet but I'm bummed because I also wanted more time. I had a dream last night that I went to my parents house as usual and they said they made a mistake and he's actually totally fine, and I woke up sooo bummed after that too. Overall just bummed.

I'm mostly posting this so at least some people know, because I still do get asks about him from time to time and I'd sort of feel really bad breaking the news every time... I hope that makes sense. And I hope I'm not also bumming other people out too much by doing so. But I also don't want people to think it's not okay to talk about bunnies with me now because I still love them <3 and I hope you will still see me as the bunny guy. Don't feel bad about rbing funny old posts with him or anything I think it's a nice way to keep his memory alive, and I don't want everything to be all sad all the time... He's just a bunny and I think we gave him a good life by the end of it, even if it was a sudden end. I'm sorry little bunny I wish I was there for you when the time came but I think we had fun together too. Thank you

#it's personal stuff for anyone who doesn't care feel free to just scroll on it's ok 👍#but if i seem a little more lethargic or low energy for a while this is mostly why #I'm sorry if i get worse at stuff like replying to asks and such but I'll still do my best to not become impossible to talk to 😅

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halowife · 2 days

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i actually do feel like ive been doing slightly better at this lately though.. like replying to peoples posts and trying to initiate conversations and dms and stuff... so i am winning a bit

#🎇#and i mean. i actually do know how to socialise. i am fine at it #i just experience the horrors constantly & dont like to burden people with my existence when its unwanted & say things uninvited & etc #i do want more people in my life im comfortable with so i dont feel these things talking to people all the time but man #ig it's hard because i don't blame people for not being that interested in talking to me when i don't make it easy to talk to me #and i struggle so much with like. when i bring up a topic and they dont really show interest & im like o. ok. and then i just never want to #bring up anything because it keeps happening and it's easier to just talk about things they like #but then that makes me boring and hard to talk to because i dont offer anything to the conversation but its because i feel like my existenc #is pointless to the conversations we have because nothing i say going to get a response so we may as well just talk about what u want #idk. i know its a personal problem of mine and i should be fine just saying whatever i want etc and i might be misinterpreting the signs #because im hypersensitive to it after the shit ive been through #but its something im conscious of at least and i do try to continue to bring things up and offer things to talk about and stuff anyway #ive been trying to do it more lately. and starting conversations even if i feel unwanted because i know its likely just me being #overly sensitive . and continuing to reply to peoples post even if they never reply because im probably oversensitive about that too. etc #i want to make friends arg

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holopossums · 2 months

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okay quick question since i'm surrounded by younger folk who seem to use tumblr very differently than i:

#ok to reblog #this is for the purpose of understanding engagement!#bc i've noticed that younger folk or people from other platforms (like twitter)#feel like they tend to use tumblr replies more like tagging than a direct discussion with the OP? at least that's how it feels anyway #and i could understand how it could be used more like other soc media where you might not expect replies from OP #just very different than how i or some older folk/tumblr veterans use it #so i'm sometimes at a loss of what to say back or if i'm expected to say something ig?#like i genuinely don't know if most are actually trying to strike up a convo or if they're just saying some stuff that i should ignore #hence this poll to help me figure out what's expected #sky sez

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beautifulhigh · 1 year

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I had a funny thought of Carlos using "I'm gonna sic TK on you" as a threat to someone when he's being frustrated/want something or just want someone to leave him alone and everyone knows that TK has an uncurable bitch syndrome and they don't want to be subjected to that expecially when it's about Carlos 🤣

Usually when it comes to wedding people try and upsell you, add in additional costs, try to push you for the bigger packages.

Those people had never come across TK Strand, Carlos mused.

They had sat down and planned out their budget, what they wanted, and started visiting a range of Austin venues with their requirements in hand. The first time someone started with the, "well you want your wedding day to be special" they had politely tried to redirect the conversation back to their wishes. The second attempt of, "this will reflect your love clearly" was a little more forecfully dealt with. The third attempt - Carlos had forgotten what was said because he knew what was coming - had released TK's inner bitch and Carlos had to admit he kinda liked watching it when it wasn't directed at him.

"It will be special" and "I think people know how much we love each other without needing it embroidered on napkins" and then something about their day and their plans and their wishes and many other options in a city this size so if they don't need or want the business then that's fine.

His favourite was the one time someone tried to suggest rainbow suits, or rainbow ties, or rainbow underwear? He wasn't paying attention, just waiting for the show to start.

("We like classic, we like simple, and we want to match because surely that is a symbol of us coming together and wanting to spend the rest of our lives together?")

Eventually it started to wear a little, and Carlos didn't want to get a reputation (even if they were starting it) and so on the first attempt the (new) caterer made about upselling he was very firm.

"Look, I know you want to try and upsell but let me be clear. This is what we want, we've told you where we're open to discussion, and trust me when I say you don't want to engage my fiancé's bitch mode on this."

TK had scoffed a little, then laughed and admitted it was true.

They got their menu, as requested, with some cute little flourishes on the mini desserts as the concession.

"Maybe I should reign it in a little," TK said as they got ready for bed that night. "I don't want to be a groomzilla, and I certainly don't want to be that kind of a dad."

"Why not?" Carlos challenged, biting back the smile that always seemed to try and force its way onto his face when TK brought up kids. Them having kids. Being a family. "It's not like you don't give people chances to back down."

"No, but--"

"And are you telling me that if someone came at our kid and tried to push them towards something they didn't want to do, you'd be so kind as to give them three chances?"

The look TK shot him from across the room made it clear: TK would burn down the city at the first hint of that.

"Sometimes you need to be a little bitch," Carlos said, "and you shouldn't apologise for that."

"Just... promise me you'll stop me from going too far?"

"What? And ruin my fun watching them realise the error of their ways?" Carlos laughed. "Not a chance."

#I don't know where this came from #I saw the ask and went to write a reply #ended up writing a ficlet instead #hope that's OK #jen answers stuff #writing jen is writing #anonymous #tarlos #tk strand #carlos reyes #911 lone star #911ls

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muckmage · 7 months

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Your imaginary number explanation only works on paper and not in a physical space. That's kind of what pisses me off about math - so much of it just isn't physically real and most of it is just used for tracking wealth/money/other capitalist bullshit. Math should be about efficient ways to count and measure, not arbitrary ways to put people into debt or make rich people seem even richer so they can scam other rich people.

I also think this is why so much of our understanding of physics is flawed - our counting system has less to do with the real world and more to do with social structures, so attempting to apply it to physics doesn't work.

I just. Maybe I'm just out of the loop bc I genuinely cannot process simple math equations but I really feel the reason for that is bc it's not grounded in a sense of reality OR in a mindset I can understand. Idk I'm autisitc and also there's a likely chance I have discalculia or some other learning disability/disorder that impairs math comprehension but seeing talk abt these kinds of math problem really make me think that I'm not the problem here.

enter at your own risk, you've been warned

ok oouuh i- Well. I think you seem to have a pretty cynical outlook on maths. To say that it's all about putting people into debt and letting rich people scam each other is just. That baffles me, to be honest. It's like saying language is all about constructing the most brutal insults possible and telling people to kill themselves. Like yeah a lot of people use language to do just that but that's just one tiny part of it. Maths isn't just about efficient ways to count and measure either, by the way, it's its own language, its own art form, a vast mountainous landscape with peaks we've yet to climb and valleys we've yet to discover. Forgive me for getting poetic but maths just isn't that... small, y'know?

I also disagree that this is why our understanding of physics is flawed. To be clear: It's flawed because we're idiots. We're idiots figuring out how our new toy works by throwing it around and pulling and squishing it randomly, because it didn't come with a manual and we have no idea what we're doing. Also, mathematics isn't our way of understanding physics, it's our way of building models that try and predict what would happen in certain circumstances. That might just sounds like I'm being semantic, but I think it's important to point out that nobody actually, truly, has any idea how physics really works. In fact, no ones ever even seen physics, when we make observations about the physical world, we're just seeing what physics does. So we use maths to make models that predict what we expect to see in our observations, and then we use those models and our observations together to try and infer the nature of reality. But we're all just guessing at that point, really.

So with all that in mind, to say that our understanding of physics would improve if only we had a better suited system of mathematics is. Well, I disagree. I also think that there isn't just some "better" system of mathematics out there waiting for us to discover it. I'm reminded of Gödel's incompleteness theorem. I encourage you to look it up on your own if you want, but basically, in any reasonable mathematical system there will always be true statements that cannot be proved. So there certainly are other systems of maths and we have looked into them. They do have their own upsides and downsides depending on how they work, but to say one system is better than another is, well, if I may use the language analogy again, it's like saying one language is better than another, when really it's just different sets of words and rules for us to say the same sentences.

So when it comes back to our current system of mathematics, it's not better or worse than any other system except for how widespread it is, just like how most of the world uses metric, a standardised system of maths makes it easy for anyone to communicate the same mathematical ideas to one another. But there are other systems of mathematics that become useful tools in more niche areas of maths for people to talk and understand those difficult topics.

With all that being said now too, I don't think our current system of mathematics, or any other system really, inherently has any less to do with the real world than it does with our social structures, or anything else for that matter. In fact, I don't think any system of mathematics inherently has anything to do with anything except itself. People didn't invent maths, we discovered it and then we invented ways of talking about what we learned. But numbers are their own thing. Their own abstract metaphysical objects. And they'd exist whether there was anything alive to know about them or not. Saying that there's a special way to use them to understand physics to me implies that numbers are what physics is, in a way, but like I said we have no idea what physics is. It just so happens that numbers are an incredibly useful way of talking about what physics looks like. But it's also incredibly useful to talk about our social structures. Frankly we're incredibly lucky that we've been able to saddle these concepts from abstract space, that our minds are powerful enough to reach out beyond the real to give us these tools of ideation that we can use for so many things.

You said that maths difficult for you because "it's not grounded in a sense of reality OR in a mindset I can understand" and I think those two things are the same problem in a way. I know I just did some big talk about how maths is really this abstract thing that isn't inherently connected to the real world, but we're all still the idiots I said we were, so a lot of maths does need to get grounded in reality for it to be reasonably comprehensible. And being able to ground a mathematical concept is often about shifting your mindset until you can see it at an angle you understand.

Like, you also said that my explanation only works on paper and not in a physical space, and I actually disagree! But I do think I get where you're coming from. I suspect you're thinking about numbers like physical objects, as in, the number 1 is like having 1 apple. So well of course, negative numbers kinda make sense right? I mean you can't just have less than 1 apple but you can get an apple taken away. But when you introduce i, it's like. What does that even mean? And you'd be right that it really doesn't make sense when you think of numbers as objects like that. But numbers aren't physical objects, we're just taught like that as kids, 1 apple, 2 bananas, 3 oranges, because they want us to build the association between the symbols (1, 2, 3) and the idea of that amount of something, of that value, of 1 being 1 apple or 1 step. But that's it, 1 isn't the apple, or the step, it's the idea of "oneness" or "singleness" and 2 is the idea of "doubleness", 3 is "tripleness" etc. It's difficult to even describe the idea of "singleness" without using physical metaphors, which is why we rarely ever do think about numbers in their purely abstract forms. And it's of course why we teach kids with apples and bananas, and why we go on to teach addition and subtraction by giving them more and taking them away. Even though, likewise, addition and subtraction isn't really about giving and taking. Now, I'm not saying you can't or shouldn't think about numbers as physical objects, or addition and subtraction as giving and taking. I'm just saying those are the initial ways we ground maths in reality in order to teach the concepts in the first place. And for a lot of people, this understanding of numbers is all they need for the rest of their lives. But the truth is there are different ways of understanding numbers and the operations we perform on them, and shifting your mindset on how these things work is an important part of being able to grasp more complex concepts, like imaginary numbers.

Finally, I said my explanation does work in physical space, how is that? Well if your understanding of numbers is that they're like objects, and that addition and subtraction is like giving and taking, then it doesn't work in physical space, no. What you need to do is think about numbers as a distance, and think about addition and subtraction not as giving and taking, but instead about direction. So what that means is that numbers don't tell you how much of thing you have, they tell you how far away from zero you are. Now when people talk about the number 1, what they usually mean is positive 1, like 1 = 0+1. (We just don't always draw the addition symbol out front.) So now if 1 is the distance away from 0, then positive + is the direction you travelled away from zero in. And when you write -1, the negative symbol isn't saying you have an "opposite 1" or that you're "taking 1 away", it's that you're travelling a distance of 1 in the negative direction, which is exactly the opposite of the positive direction. On a number line, this idea is pretty easy to comprehend since you only have two directions you can travel.

However, i is defined as being the square root of -1, which doesn't make much sense if you stick with the traditional understanding of what a square roots is, since it seems impossible to take the square root of a negative number. You can take take the square roots of +1, which are just 1 and -1, since obviously 1*1 and -1*-1 both equal 1. I'd also like to point out that taking the square root of any positive number works like this, you always get two solutions which are both the same distance away from zero in opposite directions.

(Square roots and square numbers are usually taught using, well, squares, introducing exponent notation where, say, 5*5 = 5² = 25, which is explained visually with how a square of side lengths 5 naturally has an area of 25, then that the square root is the opposite of this process and that 5 = √25. As you may expect, there are other ways of defining the notion of a "square" and "square root", and I'm sure that some of those ways can help make the existence of imaginary numbers become much more obvious, it's just, to be completely honest I don't know them.)

Now, if you do try to take the square root of a -1 anyway, and you just don't accept that it looks impossible, you'll have to invent a new number that explicitly has the property of squaring into -1, and since this new number won't be able to fit on the number line what ends up happening is that the number line gets extended into the second dimension, as in, it used to be a number line but now its a number plane. And if this sounds ridiculous let me remind you, this isn't the first time we've invented new numbers and extended the number line, again: negative numbers didn't always exist.

Also, remember how I said +1 and -1 are both square roots of +1? well +1i and -1i (or just +i and -i) are both the square roots of -1, and as you can see, they also sit a distance of 1 away from zero in opposite directions. In fact, √16 = +4 and -4, and in the same way the √(-16) = +4i and -4i. I know this likely won't really be able to help you understand, but hopefully it's nice to see how it is self consistent in a way and that it does kinda help to think about numbers like that.

or anything useful at least- i'm no teacher i just like talking about this stuff:> fhsdkjhs

#viciously holding myself back from talking about the unit circle and more trig stuff and how e and pi are involved augahaugahuagh #and also from mentioning that like. antimatter exists. you literally can get -1 apples but that's so not the point fhsjdhks #oH ALSO (i) does have a use in physics too like it's used in a ton of electrical engineering it's not just a pure maths thing it's real #02 #maths moment #no joke i started writing this post hours ago. i literally got on my computer just to reply to this cause i knew it'd be a while lmaofdhkjs #ok but i. i think that's it. ouh.... i think i can finally post it ffdsgfks

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