#being a deeply weird kid in school was definitely an experience | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

thethirdromana · 2 years

Text

Dracula characters based on how likely they would be to eat a worm

Jack Seward There’s scarcely anyone in this story more likely to eat a worm than Jack Seward. As an experiment? Yeah, sure. When he was bullied at school? Almost certainly. Because a somewhat overbearing father figure suggested it? Without question. This man has eaten a worm before and he would do so again.

Arthur Holmwood Arthur is the son of a Lord, the Victorian 1%, one of the most wealthy and privileged individuals in one of the most wealthy and privileged countries in the world. Until the events of the novel, do we think Arthur Holmwood, future Lord Godalming, ever had to do anything he didn’t want to? Even in the horrors of the Victorian public school system, rank has its privileges. He would not eat a worm.

Quincey Morris An adventurous type like Quincey? He wouldn’t just eat a worm, he’d fry it in a little butter and cayenne pepper and do his best to enjoy it.

Lucy Westenra as a human I was going to say absolutely not. Surely she would be horrified at the very idea. But equally, Lucy is by far the biggest people-pleaser in the whole novel [edited to redact unreasonable slander of Jonathan Harker]. If she thought eating a worm would make someone she loved happy, she’d dig right in.

Lucy Westenra as the Bloofer Lady Small children have been known to eat worms, and Lucy has been known to eat small children. So indirectly, yes, she would eat a worm.

Jonathan Harker It strikes me that we don’t know much about the eating habits of any of the characters in this novel – for instance, we know which pub Jack Seward likes, but not what he eats when he’s there.

But we have a wealth of information about Jonathan, and we know he is the kind of man who will have an unfamiliar paprika dish for dinner, have “queer dreams”, then go down for breakfast and have even more paprika.

Jonathan Harker would eat a worm.

Mina Harker née Murray Mina would do anything for her friends and loved ones, and that includes eating a worm. But come on guys, really? You would force Mina to eat a worm after everything she’s been through? You monsters.

Van Helsing Van Helsing thinks astral projection is real and parrots live forever. He’s the first person to consider the possibility that Lucy is being vampired. This man has the most open mind in the entire novel. He is a deeply weird individual and he would definitely eat a worm.

Mrs Westenra Mrs Westenra is a respectable Victorian lady of the upper-middle or upper-classes, and under no circumstances would she eat a worm.

Unless it was the last-ditch treatment for her ailing daughter, I guess.

Dracula You know the song you might have sung as a kid – “nobody likes me, everybody hates me, think I’ll go and eat worms?”

We know Dracula eats solicitors and Lucys, he doesn’t eat worms. But he should.

Renfield Do I even need to answer this one?

#dracula daily

3K notes · View notes

seeker-of-stories19 · 6 months

Text

Autistic Jaime Reyes Headcannons

(Warning for descriptions of autistic meltdown)

- Bonding with Khaji makes his sensory issues so much worse at first but eventually they work it out and Khaji learns that enhancing his senses doesn’t actually keep him safer because he gets so overwhelmed he pays less attention to his surroundings and not more

- Jaime realizes that Khaji can manipulate his sensory experience, they can’t completely stop him from having a meltdown (or more accurately they won’t because cutting off sensory information completely leaves him vulnerable) but they start tuning out background noises when they feel it’s safe

- It won’t stop him from having meltdowns completely but it makes it so he can usually hold it together until he gets home or somewhere safe

- Takes a lot of stress off of him about how people perceive him as an autistic Latino male and the danger that comes with that

- There’s definitely a few instances where Jaime does get negative attention and it is a fight to keep Khaji from transforming him because that’s not going to make some racist ableist asshole feel less threatened by him

- Misses being in Gotham where he could stim way more and people didn’t care, everyone was so desensitized to craziness that anything short of an imminent threat to there lives was unremarkable

- He could flap his hands, mumble, bounce etc. without anyone even glancing up

- Sometimes he forgets how different Palmera is and does something that brings a lot of attention to them which always makes Milagro tease him intensely, only to turn on anyone else who so much as looks at him wrong

- Everyone thinks Jaime is the only autistic one in the family but whenever anyone says it he just stares at Rudy pointedly

- He’s so obviously autistic but completely clueless

- Secretly though Jaime is grateful because he thinks his dad knew how to help him as a kid because he grew up with Rudy

- Got diagnosed in seventh or eight grade when he had a really good teacher who stuck out the whole public school process with his family because everyone else dismissed them

- It probably saved his life in high school to know he wasn’t losing his mind even though it legitimately felt like it

- Does decent in professional interactions and with adults but cannot for the life of him make friends, the only people he knows at school are through Milagro or kids he knew growing up

- Isn’t very interested in kids his age anyway because he doesn’t relate to them and even when he likes someone he’s not good at pursuing a friendship

- Doesn’t have much of a social life but gets perfect grades and has a job to save money for college

- Is definitely really lonely but struggles to sustain relationships even though he wants friends

- Milagro, Rudy, and his dad are his best and only friends which makes losing him even harder because he’s so close to his family

- College is a real game changer for him though, he’s still awkward but he can find a lot more people who want to talk about his interests and generally more people who are accepting or even just used to weirdness because again, Gotham

- He has more casual friends and goes out from time to time which makes his family really happy but a part of him is always a little lonely

- Being bonded to Khaji is absolutely remarkable because for the first time someone understands him without him even needing to explain things

- And Jenny is also an anomaly, she’s the first one outside of his family who he really bonds with deeply, at least outside of symbiotic relationships with alien tech

- She’s neurodivergent as well and they balance each other out really well, Jenny helps Jaime get out more because she’s very social but naturally communicates in a way that makes sense to him and helps include him in social situations

- Khaji will sometimes use the suit as sort of a weighted vest to apply firm pressure to his body, there are times it’s too overstimulating during a meltdown but sometimes it really helps him

- The first time he has a meltdown after fully bonding with Khaji is after getting back to Jenny’s dads house with his family, Khaji can feel something is really wrong with him and is freaking out a bit about not being able to put a name to it when Jaime collapses in the shower crying, rocking, and pulling his hair

- Khaji absolutely looses their shit but when they try and control Jaime and make him stop it only increases his distress and after he gets so panicked and overwhelmed he throws up Khaji stops trying to interfere even when he slams the heels of his hands into his head

- When he finally cries himself out he stays curled up at the bottom of the shower until Rudy comes to bring him clothes

- He seems to understand what happened and gets Jaime dried off and into cleanish clothes, tucking him into bed

- Jaime’s thoughts are so jumbled even Khaji can’t make sense of them and he passes out pretty quick and sleeps twelve hours only to not get out of bed the next day, scrolling through Instagram and barely communicating with Khaji for two days while his family brings him meals and he barely moves

- But the time he’s feeling more normal Khaji is losing their shit and he ends up having to explain the technicalities of autism which goes better than any other time he’s had to explain it because Khaji could feel everything already and just didn’t have the technical understanding to support him

- It’s still rough to find a balance between them of handling Jaime’s challenges, sometimes Khaji accidentally makes it worse by interfering too much but they learn how to manage things together

- When he’s overstimulated and he needs complete silence he flies to space until he’s grounded enough to come home

- He wasn’t a runner as a kid but his parents would turn around and he’d be in a tree or on a roof

- Would literally climb anything in his sight, even at University he snuck into the roof with a weighted blanket, headphones, and comics whenever he needed a moment

- He’s a major nerd, a lot of his special interests are anime and video games, and of course justice and law

- Even being aware of the injustice in the world and having faced it his whole life as a disabled immigrant he still believes in people and he can get really down when he can’t help everyone both through his job and being a superhero

- He never had a lot of vocal stims as a kid but since bonding with Khaji he’s constantly making clicking and humming noises

- It drives Milagro crazy but Rudy thinks it’s cool

- It takes a year or two before he goes back to school and when he does he stays in Palmera city this time to be close to his family and be able to watch the city

- He graduates with honors and his family is actually able to come this time

- Was incredibly obsessive about his schoolwork and is no better with his actual job once he finds one

- He won’t except a job from Jenny at Kord Industries but he regularly helps her out with looking over legal stuff and sometimes gets in way too deep

- He can’t ever leave anything unfinished and it drives Khaji crazy

- Khaji spends more time combatting Jaime’s interoception issues than protecting him from supervillains, they’re constantly reminding to eat, drink, sleep, and go to the bathroom

- His eyes will flicker yellow as he starts getting overwhelmed and turn gold before having a meltdown which helps his family try and get him somewhere safe where he can calm down

- Although it’ll sometimes happen for other reasons too which can confuse people

- Gets so overstimulated after sex, he will literally just curl up in bed for hours and sleep or watch YouTube

- Jenny and Khaji take good care of him, making sure he’s staying hydrated and keeping the sensory environment as controlled as possible so he can rest

- At first he’s nervous about how Jenny will feel but it becomes a running joke that they have to clear their afternoon after having sex

- Jaimes family are always trying to find ways to help him move through life easier but it doesn’t stop his mom from freaking out when she realizes Jaime goes on the roof less because he’s flying to space instead

- Khaji becomes Jaimes biggest confidant because they’re the only one who can truly understand what’s happening in his head

#jaime reyes #blue beetle #blue beetle 2023 #milagro reyes #rudy reyes #khaji da #autistic jaime reyes #jenny kord #dcu #headcannons #reyes family #dc

69 notes · View notes

steddieas-shegoes · 10 months

Note

first off i just wanna say im loving everything youve written for ppls requests! how do u feel abt jock el? i feel like she maybe wouldnt understand sports at first and might struggle w the rules and fair play, but ends up really loving physical activity that has nothing to do w her powers, just her own hard work and sweat and skills she’s honed through practice all by herself, and the experience of being on a team. i can totally imagine her getting super competitive too, and being a super aggressive player in literally every sport. also, hopper is definitely the parent who yells at the referee and coaches during his kids games.

also i hope your day is going well whenever you see this!

Okay this was cuuuuuute. I really love the idea of El fitting in so well with sports people, but still never leaving her little group of nerds and badasses. I also love her just naturally being so good at every sport she tries because she is deeply in touch with what her body is capable of because of her powers, but never once using them. I maybe threw Wayne in a bit more than anyone would expect because I will always find a reason to do that. Also, this is a weird coincidence, but the Olympic swim trials for 2024 will take place in Indianapolis.- Mickala ❤️

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

When things settle down, El goes back to school with everyone.

It’s hard at first. She never really fit in before, and she definitely doesn’t fit in now that people have seen official government security pretty much standing guard over her.

Even after they left, people still whispered when she ran errands with Joyce or Hop and went out with the rest of the party.

But she was determined to have as normal a life as she could, and that meant going to school.

High school here was better, even with the weird looks and silent bullies.

She had her friends.

She also had gym.

In California, she’d hated gym. She didn’t like getting dressed in front of everyone so she always got in trouble for taking too long. The girls in her class usually found ways to be lazy and she didn’t want to make herself more of an outcast, so she just didn’t participate most of the time.

But here, Lucas was in her gym class. So was Will, though he was a little hopeless when it came to anything beyond walking the mile.

Max was excused from gym for the rest of high school if she wanted.

Hard to argue with a letter from the literal President.

Mike and Dustin had a different period, but that was fine since they hated gym.

El didn’t hesitate to participate here.

She ran the fastest mile, always had the most push ups and pull ups, won every tetherball game. Her team always won volleyball and softball. She won every category in swimming.

The only sport she didn’t play was basketball, much to Steve’s disappointment and Lucas’ secret delight.

The coach recruited her for every sport he could, insisted that she could be the type of player that brings them championship wins.

Hopper was ecstatic, of course, especially when he saw how much El loved it.

She knew better than to use any powers, especially in competitions, but she was so naturally good, it didn’t even cross her mind that she could.

She was physically stronger than most other girls her age, and had already had so much done to her body that she could easily push through a little exhaustion during the 500 meter butterfly race or playing the entire soccer game with only one break.

She watched baseball games with Wayne and Hopper, asked if she could play.

Hopper had her signed up for softball the next day.

She saw a beach volleyball match during the Olympics and asked to play.

Hopper took her to tryouts for the school team as soon as he possibly could.

She made the swim team, made captain within a month. Steve was ecstatic, especially when she won against him every time they did a practice race. Eddie and Will were judges, and El was pretty sure it was just to see Steve shirtless, but she didn’t really mind.

She was having fun.

She was using her natural abilities to get out some of her aggression in a safe way according to Dustin.

Everyone came to her games and meets, but no one was as loud as her dad.

He was on his feet more than he was in his seat, usually pacing and yelling at refs and judges from the stands. Most people didn’t seem to care, or at least didn’t want to say anything to the reinstated police chief.

Steve was always there to remind him that El was learning, and that that was actually a penalty or that the judge was being fair on her tie with another girl in the butterfly.

Even as good as she was at just about every sport she tried, she struggled with some rules. Once they were explained in a way she understood, she was careful, but it cost her volleyball team a win in the process.

Steve helped her understand what he could, or took her to the library to look things up if he didn’t know. Wayne helped her understand the differences between softball and baseball while Eddie tried to take notes in the corner.

Actual notes.

“It’s so I know if she does good!” He explained when Wayne raised his brow at him showing interest in a sport.

To his credit, he immediately lost the notes he took and still had to ask Steve a bunch of questions at her next game.

She earned the MVP awards for every sport she played, gaining more positive attention than she’d expected. It was welcome, especially since it made a lot of people forget about the negative attention surrounding her the last few years.

Will designed shirts for everyone for her games and had Eddie get them printed at the same place he got the Hellfire Club ones made. They all wore them happily, too proud of her to not show all their support.

——————

Her senior year was when it hit that she had decisions to make.

She’d done fine in school; not straight A’s but never failed a class.

Sports are where she excelled.

But senior year was hard, and schedules were difficult enough without having to balance two sports at once immediately followed by two more.

The coaches did their best to offer accommodations since she was their star, but she didn’t like that. She didn’t want to be treated as “other.” That wasn’t why she did this.

So she dropped softball, much to Wayne’s heartbreak. He still smiled at her and said he was proud of everything she’d accomplished and hoped she’d still find time to come throw the ball with him.

She dropped volleyball in the spring, used the excuse that she needed to focus on swimming because she had scouts interested in giving her scholarships and the Olympic committee showed interest in recruiting her for Team USA.

Steve let her use his pool for extra practice, and usually joined her on the weekends for a morning swim, even on the still too cold mornings in February and March.

She held the Hawkins High and Indiana state records in most categories, and Midwest and National records in a few of those.

The olympic committee invited her to trials, and of course she’d enlisted Steve as her personal coach.

She trained for hours every day, Steve pushed her just enough using his new knowledge of the requirements she would have to meet to make the team and her competition.

She didn’t want everyone there, only Steve and Hopper.

She was worried having them there would put too much pressure on her and now wasn’t the time to perform poorly.

The morning of the trials, Steve let her cuddle up to his side on the couch.

“You’re ready.”

“That is not a question.”

“No, because I’m not asking. I know you’re ready,” he smiled when she rolled her eyes.

“I am ready.”

She was.

She outdid herself, actually. She ended up breaking her own record in her first event, and tied her own record in the second event.

She not only made the team, but was named captain almost immediately, the rest of her teammates incredibly excited to be on her team.

Hawkins had a parade for her, Hawkins High had a pep rally, the family had a huge party for her.

She still had to graduate high school, still competed on the high school swim team, even found time to be a lifeguard at the city pool every Friday and Saturday afternoon.

El had found her place.

—------------------------------

When USA won gold in every event for swimming, no one was surprised.

It’s hard to beat a team led by El.

She accepted a full ride scholarship to Purdue University, where she broke all their school records and got her degree in Physical Therapy so that she could work with athletes.

She competed in the Olympics again, winning gold in four events, silver in one.

But she always had her family there. They came from all over the country to watch, to support, wearing the same shirts that Will made years ago.

#stranger things #ficlet #anon request #el hopper #the party #steve harrington #eddie munson #wayne munson #jim hopper #jock el #i may have to write jock el into more stories actually

93 notes · View notes

wisteriagoesvroom · 1 month

Note

say more about this casino situation…..

@supercollide jul girl ur up to bat, over to u lmaooo

my contribution to casino!gax au lore: max learned to count cards from a young age. grew up with his dad, dad was a deeply unscrupulous guy. put into scary situations too young etc. was not obviously good at school but smarter than most of the kids in his class. definitely ran some sort of trading cards cartel on the school yard by the time he was twelve. he has a surprising amount of knowledge about indycar strategy because, as strategist ruth buscombe says, race startegy usually shares the same fundamentals as poker. he is a millionaire but drives a beat up honda civic because he thinks it’s funny. his favourite drink is whatever the person next to him is buying because he gets a kick out of doing something out of pure chance and seeing what happens.

meanwhile george went to a state college for mathematics with a minor in security and defense. he got headhunted by several defense industry companies but decided to go into casino security cus he actually fancied being able to tell people what he does, and he likes the people side of it (read: dealing with weird personalities cus he is one too). george’s favourite game outside of casinos is monopoly because he likes to keep friendships but also come close to ruining them only in the confines of the game. the first time he sees max try to be shifty at one of his tables he experiences a huge rush because this is the one all his industry folks talk about. this is the guy. the legend of the circuits who doesn’t stay longer than two months at any known location. the guy who is known by a code name but is somehow never photographed or seen: the golden lion.

now, the lion is in his den. and george, despite the teasing he gets and the bullshit he puts up with, is a hunter.

that’s all i got chief.

#casino!gax au #party with the Gax ers #asks

18 notes · View notes

pynkhues · 8 months

Note

So I know you’ve discussed this a little before and not sure if you’ve seen this (or care that much lol) but recently Jesse Armstrong confirmed that Logan treated all the boys the same when it comes to physical abuse. Link here to the clip if interested [just remove the parentheses https://twitter(.)com/princekendalll/status/1696683862976336042?s=20]. This aligns with my own read of the show too which is nice but if you listen to the clip Jesse further clarifies that the reason it (the physical abuse) stays with Roman in the present is because he feels like a victim or like he was bullied whereas Kendall and Connor have found a way to like…slot this into their worldview, I guess. I found this interesting because I tend to read Roman as having something of a victim complex but I also think this brings up a few other interesting ideas I’d love to hear your views on if interested.

If we think of Roman as understanding himself to be a victim or bullied within the family unit, do you think Roman is aware that his brothers have had similar experiences with Logan’s physical abuse, or does he think of himself that way because he think’s he’s had a unique experience? Further, how do you think Connor and Kendall were able to move past it. I tend to read Kendall as just…not thinking he was abused. But Connor’s the one that I find kind of fascinating in this context because his past is kind of a black box – narratively we have no one to give us little nuggets of his childhood the way the Trio are able to recount childhood stories of each other to shed light for the audience.

Thank you so much for sending that, anon! I hadn't seen it / heard it, and as someone who's always felt Logan was physical with all of the kids, but especially the boys, it's pretty vindicating.

Which is - - y'know, a weird thing to say about a topic like this ,I guess, but it's always nice to think your read of something is what was intended.

I'm pretty fascinated by victim complexes in general. This is a bit of a personal aside, but I'm really close with my uncle, who's my mum's baby brother, and he's bright and funny and has lived such an interesting life, but he's definitely got a victim complex. For him, he knows it, and he's trying to work through it, and it probably comes from a not dissimilar place to Roman now that I think about it - my uncle never felt like he was enough of a man to his father, and when his father died when he was just 17, he joined the army reserves to 'prove' himself, which went.

Not Well.

That kind of snowballed into a very complex relationship with his own masculinity, especially as my uncle was pretty heavily engaged in counter culture and queer and punk scenes in his twenties after being in the reserves only to get into rural journalism which - - y'know. Certainly didn't help his sense of being targeted and bullied, particularly as the organisational culture in rural newspapers as he was coming up were aggressive to say the least.

My point though is that his sense of victimisation is really tied pretty deeply to his sense of not feeling like enough of a man, which was a sentiment established by his father, reinforced by the army and further abused in male-dominated rural towns that he was reporting in.

While Roman, of course, doesn't have the latter, it's an interesting thing to think about in the sense of the first two with Roman clearly feeling his masculinity under threat by his father, and there is an argument to be made about that being reinforced by St. Andrews, but funnily enough, I kind of feel the opposite about that particular point.

Probably because I disagree with St. Andrews being a military school at all.

So let's talk about St. Andrew's

It's pretty widely accepted, I think, that when the show named St. Andrew's they were referring to the St. Andrew's-Sewanee School in Tennessee, in no small part because there were no other St. Andrew's it feels like it could've been. This is a wealthy school (in fact their school fees, with boarding, are almost exactly the same as Buckley without boarding where Kendall canonically went), and the show's attention to details like this feels too deliberate.

And I think it works in no small part because St. Andrew's had stopped being a military school in 1971, about a decade before Roman could've been born (in my timeline I will one day post, haha, probably when nobody will even want it, I think we can pretty cleanly put Kendall as being born in 1979/1980, so Roman at the earliest would be born in '81). It was also during the 1970s, long before Roman would've gone, that St. Andrew's became co-ed.

Of course, this is an area ripe for speculation, but I think it rings true of the show for the kids to treat St Andrew's like it was a military school when that was a fragment of a past (and not even technically a part of St. Andrew's past - it had merged with the Sewanee School, which was the military school). What St. Andrew's became was not the school that Roman actually went to, but a symbol of this sense of being victimised and ostracised. Cast out, in a punishing system, which - - looking at this particular school, while bougie is also co-ed, outdoorsy, freer than Buckley, but that doesn't matter.

Roman's not fixated on the conditions of it, he's fixated on the othering of it. He sees Kendall and presumably Shiv too going to school near Logan (although I doubt Logan was there all that much) in Manhattan, while he's out in the midwest. I kinda think you could argue he played up the military history of the school to perform a strength and masculinity for his brothers and sister he felt he lacked, which could also be a part of why the narrative stuck.

But yes, that's not your question, haha.

Do I think he's aware that his brothers have experienced similar abuse? Yeah, actually, but I think it probably has its ebbs and flows and takes on different meanings depending on the moment or the circumstances, right?

An Aside

So my best friend's grandmother's was in an extremely violent and abusive marriage (I promise this is relevant), and every now and then, he would hit their two daughters too. He died young and unexpectedly, when the girls were still teenagers, a blessing to everyone, but the elder of the two girls - my bf's aunt - has developed a very complex and sometimes hostile relationship with her sister and their mother.

She feels their mother should've protected them better, that she should've left their father years before he died, and she deeply resents her sister for forgiving their mother so easily.

That's warped over the years - both daughters are in their 50s now, their mother close to 80, they're genuinely all pretty close - but it's gotten to the point where the elder daughter feels she was The Most Abused.

I know them all pretty well - me and my bf have known each other for almost 16 years - I've vacationed with them, gotten drunk with them, been involved in multiple weddings, not just my bf's but other members of her family's too.

One night, I was chatting to her mum after she and her sister had had a fight at a party - my best friend and her brothers had gone inside looking after their grandmother - and she just said her sister couldn't move past it. That they all knew what their mother experienced was unimaginable, that he hit them every now and then, but what he did to their mother was so much worse, and that she just didn't see what the point was with holding onto any of that pain when they can just push forwards.

More than that, when you can move on.

My bf's mum became a neonatal nurse, and she thinks she can see it sometimes. Men like her father, absent usually from delivery and controlling or too physical in the ward after, and she feels it too. The way she can throw lifelines to women who are ready for them, or just let women who aren't know where the lighthouses are. It's not a perfect system, but she loves her job, and this part of it - - I think she finds it healing too.

My bf's aunt was a receptionist to a guy who works high up in a bank, and she married him.

She hasn't worked since they had kids 25 years ago.

But back to your question

I think one of the interesting things about the show is that it's showed Roman as typically fairly directionless. He's out of the company at the start of the series, and doesn't seem to have any other thing he's driving towards. Shiv has politics, Kendall has the company, but even Connor has Austerlitz and his water planning before he jumps on his presidential campaign.

I do think a lack of purpose probably can become a bit of a feedback loop psychologically which has caused him to stew in resentment and has probably rationalised his abuse as 'worse', because if it wasn't, then why's he the fuck up? Even just of the Golden Trio.

Probably helped by - as you mention - Kendall's unwillingness to acknowledge it, and the fact that none of them take Connor seriously.

With Kendall and Connor - - yeah, I think Kendall is, in many ways, a caged animal constantly trying to claw his way out of his own head. I think he distracts himself with projects, or people, or drugs, and leans into the whatever, it happened, hey, but right now... of his own circumstances. He knows what happened to him, but he can never talk about it, not to a friend at a funeral or to his own father on his death bed. Kendall's stutter exists I think in his own thinking too, a record scratch that lets him start the song where he has to instead of where he wants or needs to.

He's not quite disassociated, but he's not quite connected either.

And with Connor - - gosh.

I mean, it's interesting to talk about him in this sort of context, because as you said, his history is so much more of a black box. I do think him having a period of absence from Logan plays into his acceptance of it. More and more, I tend to think that the three years he talks about in 3.09 was before Kendall was born, and so I think he's stepping back into formal 'Roy' life at 15 with a lot of complexity that shapes his experience very differently.

Not only is there that tangible anxiety of being rejected again if you don't fall in line, but there's also these new and complicated feelings of being replaced / in competition with a new child (always fascinated that Connor so rarely expresses that in the series, but whenever he does it's with Kendall), but also I think naturally feeling immediately doting and protective of this scrap of family offered to you after a period without.

I think in that context that Connor probably long ago reconciled himself with the fact that if he wanted his father in his life, that was what it was going to be like, and that he was prepared to be the failure if it kept him out of the bloodsport between their father and his siblings. I think he does occasionally wish for a higher position, and wonder what it could've been if Dad had ever thought of him in that context, but I also think he, at some point, made the choice that none of the rest of them have been able to make, which is that he can always go home.

#one of the reasons i do think roman knows too is because he's actually pretty protective of all of them #we see that with him stopping connor taking more drugs at tom's bachelor party #or the way he picks kendall up after his relapse #or fights shiv on the letter #or the way he goes for kendall when he thinks he's grabbing shiv when he's reaching for her hand in the finale #which GETS ME #relationships are such a funny thing though #it's father's day here on sunday and me and both my siblings have a complex relationship with our dad #and i tend to characterise that through the three of us being on a merry-go-round when it comes to him #because we all feel the same way #but never at the same time #which is also something i relate to with succession tbh haha #hbo succession #succession meta #welcome to my ama #roman roy #kendall roy #connor roy #tw abuse

40 notes · View notes

ilikereadingactually · 3 months

Text

The Book of Love

The Book of Love by Kelly Link

all i knew going into this book was that i adore Kelly Link's work, particularly for its absorbing quality. her stories are dreamlike, and stay with me in the same way the memory of a dream does--everything in the memory seems both impossible and completely sensible and correct. this book really captures that same feeling! surreal, a little creepy and a little funny, intriguing, and written in what I think of as Link's typical style: a sort of syncopated rhythm of straightforward sentences in surprising patterns, straightforward words in surprising combinations, and little gems of imagery that pop out sparkling. there's a cyclical fairy tale quality to her work that appears here also, a real sense that these events have happened before and will happen again and i should be paying attention in case i'm involved next time.

and it IS a book about love as the title proclaims, but messy, muddy, difficult love. love in this book is smashed guitars and ill-fated gifts and spontaneous hookup choices and centuries-old vengeance, about embracing power or resisting it and how it changes you either way, about working around obstacles (there are so many obstacles). as Schmendrick says, there are no happy endings, because nothing ends.

it is a LOOOOONG book though. there was never a time when i wasn't eager to read more or wasn't enjoying the experience, but my personal preference is for things to be a little bit tighter. it's a sensation a bit like old movie musicals that have a ballet or some other extended wordless dance sequence in the middle--it's very beautiful to watch, it has that lovely dreamy quality, and it's related to what's happening in the plot but it's not necessary to what's happening in the plot. there are parts of this book that felt like watching the ballet Kelly Link's beautiful writing unfold--i would never fast forward through it, because it's beautiful, but i woudn't miss it if it wasn't there.

that said, i really loved this book--it was surprising, it was intriguing, it felt deeply archetypical and at the same time delightfully specific and real. the four main characters' voices and perspectives were so distinct, as was each new voice that cropped up to take over a piece of the story--a whole ensemble of imperfect people making imperfect choices and loving imperfectly.

the deets

how i read it: an e-galley from NetGalley! and i gotta say, i'm pretty excited to see this chonker in person! that red color on the cover is gonna look so nice on a thick spine. i'll definitely be buying this one when it's out.

try this if you: dig lyrical prose and stories that feel like mythology, enjoy memory fuckery, inevitably root for star-crossed weird ancient beings to finally be together, or were ever in a band in high school.

some bits i really liked: hard to pic faves in a book this long!

A girl wakes up in her sister's bed. "Laura?" she says. No one answers. Oh, she shouldn't be here. The one who should be here isn't. The girl's name is Susannah. She is too tall, lamentably tall, and she has bad dreams. Shouldn't her dreams be comforting? Restorative? Shouldn't she see the ones she longs with all her heart to see? But in dreams, too, they are inexplicably missing.

---

Like Mo, Mr. Anabin was brown in the way that made white people feel they should ask you where you were really from. Although at the moment Mo really did want to know where Mr. Anabin was from, because surely there weren't a lot of people living in Lovesend who could raise the dead. Right? Mr. Anabin: supernaturally ambiguous. Maybe Mo would ask. Or maybe he wouldn't. Mo: smarter than a lot of white people.

---

Kids brought their notebooks, because there were no plugs for laptops, and wrote poetry or Korrasami AU fan fiction or very sad and secret thoughts in their most beautiful penmanship.

---

"You guys are the three-time Olympic champions of poor decision-making in relationships. Like a figure skating pair who does the same routine every time: one Ina Bauer, one curve lift, spread eagle, two make-outs, one breakup, one makeup, followed by a messy-ass dismount." "Dismounts are gymnasts, not figure skaters," Susannah said.

pub date: February 13, 2024!

#books and reading #booklr #bookblr #book recs #book reviews #queer fantasy #fantasy fiction #the book of love #kelly link

2 notes · View notes

asexualastarion · 8 months

Text

Ok after finishing act one (more or less) here is a bulleted list of things I definitely know about Avvid:

-zero rizz no charisma no social skills whatsoever but like in a shy quiet way not in a mean way. You look at them and go “aww”

-has zero romantic experience (Astarion is their first everything) so they 100% fall for Astarion’s bs. Astarion is scheming and going “hehehehe” and rubbing his gay little manicured hands together meanwhile Avvid is planning their wedding

-still working out what their childhood and familial life looked like but I don’t think they got a lot of attention, especially positive attention. which is why they absolutely melt any time anyone is remotely nice to them

-they are very well read and studious and smart as hell but also they are so stupid <3

-they were kind of just an average wizard (especially by githyanki standards) so they never really stood out. They also picked the Weird Kid school of magic so no one wanted to talk to them

-as they grew older they became more and more disillusioned with githyanki society so they went awol and ran away to faerun (which they had read a lot about and kinda fell in love with and wanted to see for themself)

-they have been living it up the past couple years indulging in things considered “trivial” in githyanki society (good food, music, art, comfort, being nice to people, etc) but now that All This is happening they are really scared that they’ll get dragged back into the war

- they will still stand up for lae zel and other gith though! They don’t harbor resentment towards their past, they just don’t ever want to live like that and think everyone should have a choice in the matter

-they have a very complicated relationship with lae zel bc they both represent what the other does not want to become but also they are the only two in the party who actually understand what they have both been through

-they are an emo little necromancer who loooves mcr but also they aren’t edgy at all. They are deeply in love with life and the world around them and are generally optimistic and chill

-they are a nice person but also they are fully willing to go murder hobo if they think it’s deserved. They kind of have a black and white way of thinking

-they are curious to a fault (and very nosy) and they’re the kind of person to say “I’ll try anything once!” before doing something dumb (like read a cursed book for the sake of knowledge or get whipped by a pain priest to “know what it’d be like”)

-I love them very much ❤️

#haven’t figured out everything about them yet but this is a good start #working on firguring out how to draw them so stay tuned #everyon in the party desires them carnally despite their negative charisma and rotting zombie henchmen #Avvid

6 notes · View notes

meatmensch · 2 years

Note

May I request hearing about your jewishnatural headcannons????

woohoo, yippee, whee!!!

babygirl (gn), of course, 100%, absofruitly

the campbells are jewish (deanna immigrated from russia as a kid and samuel's family has been in america for a while) and john is a gentile. him being a goy is part of the reason they don't like him and mary shacking up.

sam and dean both have a bris when they're babies. mary brings them to synagogue every once in a while. they observe chanukah and she teaches them blessings and bakes them challah and rugelach and babka and other yummy treats and plays klezmer music for them and they overhear some raunchy borscht belt comedy that they're definitely not supposed to hear.

sam obviously gets way less of this because mary dies when he's six months old lmao. mary's living relatives and friends are furious that john, sam, and dean didn't attend her funeral because those kids should be able to mourn their mom.

dean remembers bits and pieces about judaism and sam knows barely anything because john is too busy being a gentile revenge-hungry loser to help his kids remember their culture.

dean becomes more aware of judaism as he nears thirteen because all of the other jewish kids at school are talking about their bar mitzvahs and the fact that he doesn't have the same experiences as them is just another thing that makes him feel like an outcast.

he starts checking out books about judaism and jewish history and fiction written by jewish authors. he reads to sammy. they watch jewish movies if they happen to be on tv or playing at a theater (mel brooks films, fiddler, dirty dancing, etc).

dean's performative masculinity is based on his dad and gentile movie stars etc but he feels deeply conflicted about this because he sees jewish men in the movies / at school / just out in the world and he finds their masculinity to be more comforting and reflective of how he wants to act and how he feels inside. but he also sees the antisemitism that his jewish brothers deal with and he already is so afraid of people hurting him for being weird and poor and queer that he represses these feelings.

he starts going to shabbat services when he's off on his own in his early twenties and he feels really out of place but it's one of the only things that's getting him through such a fucked up lonely faithless period of his life.

sam goes to hillel at stanford and is so relieved to finally be able to really have a stable place where he can learn about judaism and connect with other jews. jess is half-jewish and they bond over how out of place they feel in among jews and among gentiles. they start learning hebrew together and get some jewish cook books and when he decides he's going to propose he starts dreaming about them having a traditional jewish wedding.

a lot of my jupernatural hcs are about when they're younger so that's all i got for now boss 👍👍😎😎✡✡

P.S. in my heart they are such guys who say "oy vey". at every minor inconvenience they moan and groan and say "oy vey" or even "oy va voy" or even "oy vey iz mir" or even "oy gevalt". the only reason we do not see this is the ghostfacers effect

#i wrote a shitton omg #jupernatural #mail #my posts #spn

42 notes · View notes

jupitermelichios · 1 year

Text

so it turns out the 1996 Generation X "movie" (it was the pilot for a TV show but the show never got greenlit so they released the double-length pilot as a tv movie) is free to watch on archive.org and it's... a time

i genuinely think there are more dutch angles than normal shots. there are multiple instances of a right dutch angle twisting into a left dutch angle within a single continuous shot

jubilee is white. why is jubilee white

the villain is doing The Most acting. not the best. not the most skillful. definitely not the most enjoyable to watch. but The Most.

in a hilarious coincidence, they're filming in the same house that was used for the interior shots in the 2000s movies which really adds to the weird vibes

this was made on a budget of 50p so they can't afford for anyone to use their powers, so the danger room is a sim game played on windows 95, and instead of training their powers, emma frost makes the kids do magic eye puzzles

banshee has the worst accent i've ever heard. american attempt at irish by way of AoE william wallace

the villain has functionally inception powers, and is using them exclusively to make kids play more virtua fighter. i genuinely don't think the movie is sponsored, it would have more budget if it did, the writer just really likes the game i think?

racism exists in this universe, but only against latinos? the two black characters don't experience racism, but everyone is racist to angelo and i hate it

angelo also mentions casually that he used to manage emails for the local drug gang, and obviously latino character = gangbanger is racist as fuck, but i'm obsessed with the idea of a gang outsourcing their email admin to a contractor. what emails are they sending?!

because of the aforementioned lack of budget, there are exactly 6 students and 2 teachers at the entire school

i cannot overstate how unsettling this movie is. they're in this huge building but it's just empty. every shot is a dutch angle. 50% of all lighting is neon green and at least 25% strobes for no reason reason. sometimes scenes are spend up, but it's always so slight you're not sure it's happening. it's explicitly stated to be inspired by the nightmare on elm street despite not being a horror movie. i am deeply uncomfortable and i can't look away

this movie is fucking me up

#generation x #jupiter watches a thing

12 notes · View notes

lunarrosette · 1 year

Text

@misterdadguy made the mistake of asking so here is my full annotation line by line of how ‘becoming the last names’ by will would is a sparrow song

Quick preface/content warning - this interpretation/annotation contains some internalized and brief mentions of externalized aphobia/arophobia and ableism. If these are thing you don’t wanna read just keep scrolling. Also anytime I refer to something as “normal” I’m using this term very loosely and as what society deems as “normal” as nothing is really normal.

Okay I feel like my takes for both the song and Sparrow are important things to preface this so

Song interpretation: I read the song as a critique of traditional marriages and comparing your relationships and futures to others. But this critique comes from the person going through these things despite how they may feel and ignores them to not upset anyone.

Sparrow: Oh ho ho ho, so chronologically, Sparrow is traumatized from his experience in the Forgotten Realms, but develops a more avoidant trauma response to this. This is added onto with the guilt of helping summon the doodler and likely being the peacekeeper between his father and brother. I also headcanon Sparrow and Lark having skipped a grade putting a distance between them and their classmates. This is then amplified as they are already weird kids and now return from the Forgotten Realms as weird traumatized kids. Essentially what I’m saying is Sparrow was probably bullied throughout middle and high school. This is what instilled his desire for normality. I also am a big aroace Sparrow headcanoner which would definitely add to him feeling weird and different and out of place. I don’t think Sparrow has really realized he’s aroace at this point in canon, as I do believe he deeply cares for Rebecca in platonic way but has confused that for romantic love. Sparrow’s treatment of normal is based upon how he was treated in school. Some neurodivergent parents (especially those who went undiagnosed) push their ideas of normality and/or masking to try to protect their children from the bullying and trauma they went through. This is what I think Sparrow is doing.

Don't take the following words as reverence for tradition

I've learned to pick my battles by losing most I've fought

As Sparrow was likely the peacekeeper in the Oak-Garcia family, he may have not picked battles but it likely always felt he lost them. There was likely never any real point of Henry and Larks arguments other than to argue and Sparrow was commonly in the crossfire trying to keep peace. So he’s learned what arguments to try to ease and what to stay out of completely

The more mores subverted, the more I sense I'm missing

That sense of real normality Sparrow craves, the more he subverts tradition the more he feels he’s missed a “normal life”, pretty straight forward with this one

And I'll always do it my way, even if that's just the same way I was taught

I feel this applies a lot with parenting as his approach is a lot like a mix between Henry and Barry’s style. While Sparrow does genuinely care and love Normal and tries to parent him in a way similar to Henry, he still has that condescending nature he likely picked up from being exposed to Barry. It also applies to their philosophy with the doodle, Sparrow did not seem super accepting to change, just kill the doodler because that’s what Lark told me.

I'll bring home the bread and you'll stay home and bake it

Again playing into traditional roles in marriages, the normalcy Sparrow wants.

Weeding out the garden where the milestones gather moss

As a younger person Sparrow likely had lots of dreams of things he would want to do but because of his own shift in ideals he’s given up on them, depending on how you takes these lyrics those given up milestones could be the owns gathering moss as a gravestone would

Crack a smile at my vows, and whisper "wow, can you believe we really made it?"

As I give up on dodging rice, and fold my cape, I say "obviously not"

I think this idea of a normal marriage is something Sparrow never wanted until much later and life and by that point he may have given up on himself that he was able to do so. This also plays into my own aroace Sparrow headcanon that this is something he could never really imagine but yet it still is real.

But I want to be just like my parents before I was born

Oh can we be just like my parents?

Longing for a sense of normalcy, in the traditional nuclear family marriage before children are born is that “honeymoon phase” where the couple is truly infatuated with one another. Sparrow wants to go through all of these traditional steps.

I know you don't want kids but think about a daughter

We could name her Gwendolyn, like mom would have called me

Again with following the traditional steps of a “perfect marriage” having kids and names that have some form of familial ties

I'm not sure yet myself, but I learned from a good father

Yeah, I mean sure, they messed me up. But I think that's just the gig

Honestly this line is just like the whole moral of S2. Like the S1 dads tried to break the cycle and were good dads, but it still fucked up their sons. And that be extent fucked up their children.

And maybe it's just some hormones that kick in in your late twenties

Aroace Sparrow Aroace Sparrow. The idea that this love he thinks he’s supposed to feel and have will come in eventually and is just a thing that’ll happen later in life is such an idea society instills in us. So Sparrow think eventually I will love her like I’m supposed to

But I have laid a lot of women, and now I'd like to just lay down

He’s given up, back again with the aroace Sparrow. I believe that Sparrow and Rebecca both deeply care for each other but Sparrow just doesn’t in the romantic way (because he’s aroace because it’s my headcanon and character interpretation.) but he’s decided to settle because his feelings for her are the closest thing he’s felt to love i guess its good enough

And marriage always scared me, but I'd like to have a last love

And love can last a pretty good long while. I've seen it around

I think the fear of like these are things I’m supposed to do but I don’t want to once again spreading my aroace sparrow agenda. Also his parents loved each other a lot and like that’s just the last bit pretty straightforward.

Oh, can we be just like my parents when I was young?

Why can't we be just like my parents?

That idea that Sparrow feels like something is wrong with him, that even his parents who were the antithesis of normal could still have a marriage and be in love. As previously stated this interpretation of this song is push my aroace sparrow propaganda and his internalization of it (likely from bullying and social pressures but that's another story)

Tongue out of my cheek now, I'm done pulling faces

Iconoclasm wanes. My cynicism tires

Sparrow begins to fully conform to what society and the people around him expect him to be, he’s lost that carefree and slightly rebellious nature he had as a child, hes done “pulling faces”. He does trying to push away social norms and traditions he’s done critiquing it. He just tired.

But what do I know bout forever when so far, I've been so fleeting?

The nature of his current job as at D.A.D.D.I.E.S is like that. At any instance he could lose his friends, people he knows, place, and himself to the Doodler. But also returns to the childhood trauma of being sent to the forgotten realms and his brother bringing the apocalypse, all of these things happened in an instant and completely changed and took away things he cared about.

Babe, my frontal lobe's done growing; this might just be how I'm wired

Sparrow is slightly accepting this is just how he is. He doesn’t think he can change so he should just accept things as they are now.

But now we're kissing before brushing, smile with our whole faces

Sparrow feels as thought things are moving quickly or out of order because he doesn’t know what a tradition romantic relationship should look like. He never grew up with one with his parents (love the oaks but they are obviously weird as fuck)

If you want a hyphen last name I guess I don't mind the cadence

(Haha hyphen last names and the oaks [oak-swallows-garcia ass]) Also the element of people pleasing the things like “Oh I don’t really care, whatever you prefer” but with something so important as your name

I've seen home videos. I was there back in the 80's

And if I'm just them and they back then could do it, why can't I?

Back with the wanting to be “normal” why can’t I be like everyone else

Just like my parents in due time

Imagine me, just like my parents? Yeah, right

The accepting that he will not be like his parents however this is more to push away them as Henry and Mercedes are not exactly traditional

'Cause I've made more mistakes, than simple empty moments

Summoning the doodler, yada yada, Sparrow has a lot of regrets of things he has done, he feels he’s made a million mistakes

Each one as out of character as you know I tend to be

This is a bit of stretch but I also feel Sparrow may have developed some identity issues from being so attached to, similar, and codependent on Lark. So what really is out of character if he cannot define his, maybe everything is.

There'll be scalpers at the cemetery gates, with all my would-be widows weeping

I'd have forgotten all their names, so why should you remember me?

“Would be widows” is what stands out to me as honestly Rebecca could’ve been anyone, there were probably many other people he cared for in high school that he could’ve decided he was in love with and married. But ultimately these people don’t really matter

But if we grow old together and you talk to my headstone

That is, assuming that I die first, (which is fair) and assuming I don't leave

“Assuming that I die first” it’s likely he would and Sparrow is very aware of that. At any moment he could be killed working for daddies and his family would probably not really know what really happened

Close enough to forever, I guess, to prove what I hoped

What he hopes is that he’s “normal” and by that that he is capable of loving someone romantically and of a happy fulfilled marriage

I mean otherwise how am I to believe?

How is he to believe he he can ever be what society deems as “normal” and “correct”

#dndads #dungeons and daddies #sparrow oak swallows garcia #will wood #song recs #sparrow oak #aroace sparrow rights #this is a lot #long post #i spent far too long on this #but I am powerful #I’m proud.#lunarrosette’s shit

19 notes · View notes

altschmerzes · 1 year

Text

book club with gav! book 1: a wrinkle in time.

a wrinkle in time by madeleine l'engel

okay so i read this for the first time a long time ago, when i was a kid. and when i say 'read' i mean 'listened to as a book on tape' because that's how i read a lot of books for a while, and i do mean Book On Tape, as in cassette tape, in my little walkman. i remembered liking it but wasn't sure how it was gonna hold up reading it as an adult. i started reading it again recently because i found it on my shelf, having got it for a college class in undergrad and then..... not read it at the time when i should've, lmao, as one does sometimes. and also because they quoted a really impactful scene in it in ted lasso in a way that ended up reverberating out through the character who quoted it's entire arc in both seasons. with that in mind i was like huh, let's re-experience this.

OVERALL IMPRESSION: it did hold up. it was simply written, obviously, but smartly written, in a way that didn't talk down to its audience. the protagonist, meg murry, was a delight in all that she was a mess, and i found her deeply relatable. the other characters were fun and memorable, and i appreciated how truly otherworldly the... otherworldly places and characters really did feel. there were some things i didn't totally love but for the most part they were like. personal preference type things, and i can definitely step back and acknowledge those. there were a couple of other minor things that felt weird from a more general level - the design of one minor character had a Weird Vibe for example - but those were small and i don't think i can remove them from the context of it being written in like. the 60s. i don't do well with number out of number ratings, but overall i was incredibly intellectually invested in and emotionally moved by this book. i enjoyed it quite a lot, and would love to read it to my kids when they're old enough to enjoy it.

gonna go into some specifics now, which include major spoilers, and goes on for a while, so under a cut it goes.

characters - i fucking loved the three mrs. they ruled. they were so completely not human in a way that can be VERY hard to nail, especially with a children's book. the beasts were the same. i loved the whole thing about how they could NOT comprehend sight and seeing and descriptions of things that way because their species don't have eyes - their whole planet is grey and nondescript. meg herself was a delight of a protagonist and i can understand why i was so taken by her when i was a kid. she's... not really very pleasant a lot of the time. she gets in fights at school, and she doesn't try in classes she feels are stupid so why bother. she feels out of place in her family. she's not as smart as her parents or her littlest brother, and she's not normal like the twin middle brothers. charles wallace was INTERESTING. i'm not sure how well he came across as a small child, but i also don't know how true to his age he was SUPPOSED to come across, either. so that's fine. calvin got me good this time. i really did forget how direct and clear it is that he's being abused at home, and that got me a LOT this time around. the bit at the end where they came back and the family pulled him into their hug, and the mom gave him 'an extra hug, just for him' was gutting in a good way. maaaan. and the dad...... oof. that's what i'll talk about next i think.

i think one of the major themes of this book, maybe THE most impactful thing in it to me, was like. the theme of meg wanting so badly for the adults to fix things, for her dad to make everything better. the entire time we're searching for him, going through the other worlds, meg is thinking okay we'll find dad and everything will be fine. he'll fix it. he'll make it better. charles wallace gets overtaken by IT and she still just keeps telling herself as long as they can find mr murry, things will be okay. and then it just... isn't. he can't fix it. he can't make it better. he can't snap his fingers and make it all go away, he can't do anything about it, in fact. her father, this titan in her mind, is just as helpless as the rest of them, and learning this is like..... it's devastating and enraging to meg. she lashes out at him for it, she hates him for a bit because of how completely helpless he is. and oh my gd that felt real. that whole process of realizing that the adults can't save you, they can't snap their fingers and make everything okay. which brings us to the like, the best moment in the book, the whole... fulcrum of it, where charles wallace has been taken over by IT, the malicious hive mind type monster that's in charge of the darkness that's spreading, and their dad isn't strong enough to go back for him. the mrs can't. calvin can't. meg realizes this all at once and has a FIT about it, saying that she can't go, she knows they want her to, but she can't. and she has to be the one to decide to go, because they won't ask her to.

and it's like..... meg isn't okay with going. she isn't happy about it. she doesn't feel brave or strong - one of the mrs asks her directly, do you feel brave enough to go alone? and she says no. she doesn't. but she has to do it anyway. hough. HOUGH. and when she does get to him, and IT tells her that the conformity of camazots, the sameness of camazots, is what keeps it safe and happy, and she tells him that no, it doesn't, it doesn't keep ANYONE safe OR happy if they aren't really people, man. that scene is a lot. what finally does it, the way she finally gets her brother away from IT, isn't by outsmarting IT or fighting IT. it's by telling charles wallace that she loves him. which is predictable, but that's fine. it's a children's story. and it's a good one. predictable isn't bad.

the....... AMOUNT AND EXTENT OF JESUS. IN THIS BOOK. is something i did NOT see coming, and i didn't really love half the time, but it was honestly fine. personal preference. authors are allowed to write stories where there's some jesus in there, it legitimately doesn't bother me on any kind of inherent or fundamental level. and i actually liked it about half the time. i like a story with some jesus in there, when it's executed well! i like stories that talk about faith, that talk about religion and what it means to people and why. and how. the points where the christology gets elevated and it goes from a personal/individual faith based perspective to otherworldy beings knowing about His Love, that gets to be a bit much for me, but again that's a personal preference. people are allowed to write that sort of story, and it wasn't at all overwhelming or frequent. that came up like. once. twice maybe. it was fine, and i'm still fine with the idea of reading it to my jewish children.

#gav gab #book club with gav

11 notes · View notes

itsavgbltpta · 9 months

Text

Should You Watch Skip & Loafer?

(English title: Skip & Loafer)

(Japanese title: Skip to Loafer - or Sukippu to Roofaa)

A Brief Summary

Mitsumi comes from a super small town, but she has big ambitions. Her plan is to attend school in the big city (Tokyo) in order to become a government official and make things better for her very small hometown. She’s so dedicated to this goal, that she doesn’t realize other people may not have the same kind of mindset and would rather loaf around. Enter Sousuke, a fellow classmate she meets after getting lost on the way to her first day of school in the maze that is Tokyo. Sousuke likes to take things at his own pace (slow) and not get himself deeply involved into anything or with anyone.

The pair are almost complete opposites, but they become friends anyhow and learn a bit more about the world and themselves throughout their freshman year in high school.

So, should you watch the anime?

Definitely yes, unless you absolutely can’t stand slice of life anime.

I looked forward to watching Skip & Loafer every week as it gave me a warm, squishy dose of wholesome goodness. It’s just so gosh-dang nice. My heart could barely handle the genuine feelings in some episodes.

Skip & Loafer is also a funny show, but funny in a friendly way. It’s not slapstick violence, but instead shows off how goofy things can be when high school kids interact with each other. But to be fair, the show has its serious moments too. High school isn’t all laughs, after all. Each of the characters have darker bits to them, as do all people. The way the show explores how the characters grow is… well, I used the word before, but honestly, “wholesome” is the best description for Skip & Loafer. Because even when some darker moments happen, things end up okay in the end.

While I mentioned this is slice-of-life-esque, there is a hint of romance throughout as well. But romance isn’t the main focus, it’s just part of the high school experience - which is what the focus of Skip & Loafer really is. Kids figuring themselves out a little at a time with some bonus shenanigans thrown in. You know, your classic school festivals and sports day fun. Throw in the whole “country hick in the big city discovering new things” vibe, and you’ve got yourself this anime.

And I mean that in the best way. Though my high school days are long past, so maybe my opinion is slightly tinted by nostalgia’s rosy color.

The art design and animation add to the wholesome feeling the show gives off. The character design is pretty simple, but they do a lot with faces and expressions. I love some of the derpy faces Mitsumi makes, and the little blush marks characters get when embarrassed or nervous are very cute. While I don’t know much about fashion, the clothes Mitsumi and her friends wear seem fairly realistic to what you could find normal Japanese teenagers wearing today. I do enjoy extreme and weird outfits, but in a slice-of-life style anime, regular fashion is a nice touch.

The plot is mostly about the day to day life and ambitions of high school students. We learn a bit about the group and how their childhood experiences (such as being a child star, being made fun of, etc) have shaped them, but also how they can still keep changing. Like I said, freaking wholesome.

Besides Mitsumi and Sousuke’s developing friendship, you’ll get to peek into the lives of some of Mitsumi’s other friends and family, such as:

A tsundere classmate who wants Sousuke’s attention and has the same bangs as Misato from Evangelion (Mika).

A blonde bombshell super-model type that wants friends who don’t care about her looks or fame (Yuzuki).

A classic nerdy introverted girl with twin braids and glasses who thinks good looking people are jerks (Makoto).

The ultimate bestie from back home that is the most supportive person on earth (Fumi).

The epitome of OCD and the type who would probably plan out every bathroom break on a trip (Takamine).

A passionately dedicated drama club student who will do anything for the sake of their art (Kanechika).

And a cool aunt with a bit of an adam’s apple that helps out with good fashion tips and a place for Mitsumi to stay in Tokyo (Nao).

**Disclaimer here that I am not trans, but in my opinion, I think Nao’s inclusion in the story was very tastefully done. Pronouns were used correctly, and no big deal was ever made of Mitsumi’s aunt formerly being an uncle. She mentions it to her friends once when they are going to stay they night in case it bothers anyone. But it doesn’t. And I really like that.**

Plus even more friends and family! There are quite a few minor characters that still make a big impact, and some I’d like to know more about. As Skip & Loafer was a manga before it was an anime, I assume we do get more, so yay! But even if you just watch the anime only, the story ends at a good stopping point.

Where does it rate on my personal scale?

S: I will buy it at full price (unless it’s released by Aniplex USA, because fuck their pricing).

->A: I will buy it on sale sometime down the line.

B: I had fun watching it, but don’t need to own it.

C: It’s not my cup of tea, but wasn’t awful.

D: Dropped it.

X: Finished it out of spite, but did not enjoy it.

Skip & Loafer ranks at a solid A. It was one of my favorite shows of the season and I would like to have the chance to watch it again even if streaming services die. I’m also tempted to check out the manga to get more of my wholesome fix.

#skip & loafer #skip to loafer #skip and loafer #itsavgbltpta #anime #anime review #should you watch the anime

3 notes · View notes

lilfunnyquotes · 2 years

Text

So I finished the season finale of Euphoria and I am deeply sad. Now a Pepa monologue is being born. I...apologize but writing these super long monologues is actually pretty fun and I tend to write a lot when I’m sad so I added a “keep reading” mark for this one. ;-;

DISCLAIMER: If you’ve never seen Euphoria, do not watch it if you’re under the age of 18. It is very inappropriate and dark and contains themes that would be much too overwhelming and triggering for anyone under 18.

(Pepa narrating.)

(Imagine her waking up to her husband cuddling her, seeing clouds already formed above their canopy.)

Sometimes I can’t believe that this is my reality.

(She looks over at her husband, who’s sleeping away)

I’m married to this amazing man right here. He’s genuinely and madly in love with me. He truly isn’t bothered by my emotions. He still considers our wedding to be one of the most joyous days of his life even though I nearly killed everyone in town, including myself and him.

Sometimes I wonder if he just loves to make me feel good. The feeling that must build inside of him to see me express myself is one I could only associated with some weird mix of love and lust. But Félix...he’s just...he’s more complex than that.

Félix is someone I’d call “an angel that my father gifted me”. Even though I never got to meet him, I don’t doubt that he’s watching over us and our odd family. If he were still alive, he’d probably get on me for beating up so many kids while also being proud that I did it to stand up for Bruno. He’d probably cheer us on every day in sharp contrast of mamá cursing us out.

Honestly, the only reason I didn’t completely lose it on her and blow her away with a violent tornado was because I could fight. Those kids gave me the leverage I needed. Every time they shoved Bruno...every time they called him a name...every time they took his lunch...they would go back home with a new injury and no precious healing foods from my sister. The experience...always made school fun for me. Much more than it should have...

And it’s not like I didn’t have my reasons for it, I had plenty. A reason to be a cool older sister. A reason to beat some kids into the dirt. A reason to vent out all of my frustrations from school, community helping, life, love and lack thereof, literally everything. And I had Bruno to thank for that. I missed him dearly when he left. He was the only reason I could feel complete as a person and a Madrigal in comparison to Julieta. The original golden child.

(At the breakfast table. Pepa started breakfast eyeing her sister, who was happily chatting with her husband and middle daughter.)

To say that I envy Julieta is an understatement. She gets praise because her gift is actually useful, while mine is essentially a death sentence and Bruno’s is slowly eating his brain. She came out of puberty looking and feeling amazing and I came out of it feeling gross and bloated all of the time. I think the worst part about it all is that she not only gave birth first, but her daughter became the new golden child.

(Pepa was eyeing her brother while he ate, gesturing him to finish his food with her gaze.)

Then there’s Bruno. He never bothered with love, and I honestly don’t blame him. If people treated me like the town pariah, I’d say fuck it and never look back. Well...if Félix and I never met, that definitely would have happened.

It’s strange, though. Bruno had been back for several weeks, but it still felt like it was yesterday. I remember those first few nights without him here...

Holy shit, they were some of the worst...I think I had a mental breakdown five times...all I could remember was him making that shitty joke at my wedding and then disappearing.

Then it turned into hatred. Because all I could remember was that shitty joke.

(Many years ago at Pepa’s wedding, she was having a bit of a nervous fit when he came up to her and said that.)

“Heh heh, looks like rain, ey Pepi?” Like who the fuck says that to someone who’s sweating bullets at her wedding, let alone to someone with horrifying weather powers? I’m happy he’s back and he’s getting a free pass right now, but I’m never letting him live that shit down. That was just-

(Pepa paused. She felt a hand on her arm.)

Great. I was thundering. And glaring. You know what, I don’t really care. I have other stuff to worry about.

(After breakfast, Pepa returned to her room with her husband and their youngest son. Félix was helping Antonio get ready for his first day with his new gift, while Pepa just watched them and smiled.)

Like my little boy.

My poor Antonio had so much pressure put on him...by the entirety of this town. Every single person gathered to our house to see him receive his gift, and every time it never failed to remind me that I’m stuck with this gift. Antonio. My poor Toñio.

He was actually scared of not getting a gift. I don’t know if it was because of Mirabel or because of me or just because that much pressure is too much for a 5 year old...but he was so scared...no 5 year old kid should be that afraid, especially not on their birthday.

And I just know that mamá would have treated him just as badly as she treated Mirabel...I just know she’d have a fit and blame the magic dying. She’s always cared more about the goddamn magic than any of us and I was sick of it. My baby boy wasn’t going to come into a world where he was shunned by his abuela for something he couldn’t control. And if we’re being honest...I’ve always hated how mamá treated Mira. I never understood it.

All because she had no gift.

I envy her for having no gift.

#encanto #pepa madrigal #pepa needs a hug #euphoria like narration #encanto pepa

13 notes · View notes

that-gay-jedi · 1 year

Note

from an american—homecoming IS a weird concept, especially since high school homecoming and college homecoming are two different things. the high school one should not be called homecoming

I googled college homecoming because of this ask and you're right they're totally unrelated and I'm boggled. But also I just don't understand why the first sportsball game played at home for each school each year like has a name and a bunch of extra ceremony attached to it like ok school spirit is a thing (I guess...) but kinda doesn't seem like America is normal about it and idk never quite felt like U.S. schools were normal about sportsball either.

I mean absolutely no disrespect to sportsball or to the homecoming queen etc and take this with a grain of salt bc there's also the fact that like 1) normal things often seem outlandish to me as one of the subtle but frequent types of derealization I experience. For example during a triggered moment I might fully understand what a parking lot is but the idea of a parking lot suddenly seems alien to me and the fact that parking lots actually exist feels like something that would only happen in a culture I emigrated to and not one familiar enough to have grown up in. I definitely did grow up in a culture where parking lots are ordinary, mundane, ubiquitous, and most definitely exist, but they're suddenly unfamiliar to me, I no longer recognize the norm as normal.

and 2) I'm some kind of bio-socio-political weirdo in that I think kids should be communally raised and having school as an artificial separation between learning and living and the alienation adults experience from life/meaning and labour is deeply unnatural and unsettling to human brains on an instinctual level for the same reasons that I believe a relatively bare night sky isn't just less pretty than the full stars in absence of light pollution but is actually a chronic stressor detrimental to human health low key sending your brain constant signals it interpets as something vaguely being off/wrong/uncanny but the brain can't quite place why (because like, the human brain saw the full stars every night for a quardillion trillion gazillion years and the century or so since light pollution became a thing is probably less than a millisecond by comparison but if YOU as an individual grew up with the light polluted version you consciously think it's normal even though your animal brain is screaming and shitting its bed in your skull)

6 notes · View notes

seeingteacupsindragons · 11 months

Note

Weird Questions for Writers Ask: 1, 19, 30, 33 please

1. What font do you write in? Do you actually care or is that just the default setting?

I write in Constantia. I actually made it the default on all the writing software on my computer. I prefer serif fonts, and Constantia has just this bit of character while still being totally readable.

I did use to have a Thing where every story would have its own font and color, and I mostly haven't changed those back, but, uh, yeah, I don't do that anymore.

There was also a period where Palatino Linotype was my default, but I've switched over

19. Tell me a story about your writing journey. When did you start? Why did you start? Were there bumps along the way? Where are you now and where are you going?

This is going to be a long answer, because my writing journey has been long.

The first story I remember writing was when I was 6. I stapled a bunch of loose leaf together and decided when I filled it, I would have reached the end. That's not how anything works, but to a 6 year old, it kind of is.

You may recognize the age of 6 around the same time many kids really start to be able to write sentences. I was a very early reader and loved books deeply since, so it made sense to me at the time I would use my words, once I had them, to write my own.

I've written fiction off and on--almost always on, and more on the older I got, ever since. By the time I was in middle school, authoring because The Thing I wanted to do. I went to college for creative writing. Did my first NaNo at 17. Finished my first (different) novel at 18. Queried agents with a novel for the first time when I was 21, just after I'd graduated.

So, yeah. I've been writing for a long, long time, probably longer than many people following me on this blog (because you don't have to be that much younger than me for that to be true), and been actively pursuing education and growing as a writer for....most of that time.

I like to think it's paid off in my skill.

30. Talk to me about the role dreams play in your writing life. Have you ever used material from your dreams in your writing? Have you ever written in a dream? Did you remember it when you woke up?

I've written a couple dreams down as "This is interesting, could write about it," but with the nature of dreams, they always require a lot of work to turn into anything that could be writable that I don't think I've ever actually written a single one.

33. Do you practice any other art besides writing? Does that art ever tie into your writing, or is it entirely separate?

I've dabbled in lots! Drawing was definitely the one I did most, longest, and best, and the one I do most often these days (although not that often). I have historically drawn a lot of my characters. I made a few very very bad attempts at comics as a child.

And if you count role-playing as an art and a game, maybe that. My dad taught me how to play D&D by the time I was about 5 or so, just old enough to play, but pretending to be other characters with your friends and doing character improv (without even necessarily writing it down) is a very creative act and I think a form of art. It's another way to play with storytelling, in my experience.

I think after that, it's probably...sewing? My mother always made my costumes for Halloween growing up, and once I got old enough, I had to help with costumes. I still do a lot of the work to make my own costumes. I'm not real good, but I always have good design ideas, I think, and I like dressing up and putting pieces together that I've purchased when that's necessary. I have soooo many costume pieces hanging around. And so, so much extra cloth and thread and cording and shiz.

My apartment has the remains and bits and pieces of many arts I've tried over the years. Origami paper. Jewelry-making supplies. Stickers and tissue paper and calligraphy pens and charcoal and fancy pencils and erasers and construction paper and markers and Bristol paper and--

Creation is Good.

#me

2 notes · View notes