My mom: i kept a lot of your childhood toys in the storage unit for the baby. I even still have your old blanket.

Me: aww mom that’s so sweet—

Mom: i also found your old Sega—

Me: FUCK YOUR FUTURE GRANDCHILD YOU HAVE MY OLD SEGA?!

she went to the club

bonus: individual slides

bonus if you can identify her drink^^

“Why do people hate Jews? Simply put, because we're still here. Jews are one of the oldest continuously existing indigenous groups.”

Oh would you shut up with that little sob story you sissy little girl?!

We don’t hate Jews!

We hate the Government of Israel because they have been oppressing the people of Palestine for soo long and what is it with the whole “Bring them home,” when the Israel government doesn’t even want their own people back!

They just wanna bomb children!

“They were defending themselves!”

Bombing Children IS NOT SELF DEFENSE ITS GENOCIDE!

Do I support antisemitism towards innocent Jews because of Israel? Fuck no, but I stand with Palestine because they have had the worst for so long and that goes for the Indigenous people of color as well!

“But what about the Jews!”

THIS ISNT ABOUT YOU!

NOT EVERYTHING IS ABOUT YOU!

CEASEFIRE!

FREE PALESTINE 🇵🇸 🍉

hi. what?

re: vhs

i think our ten was 1. the little mermaid 2. the iron giant 3. snow white 4. tarzan 5. thumbelina 6. the secret of nimh 7. oliver and company 8. homeward bound 9. the grinch (which we'd watch Any Time) and 10. freaky friday

Another one he’s over yours bc maybe u needed help with your fireplace or something that required boyfriend duties to be fulfilled and then u guys are cuddling and his legs are much longer than yours and yours are just kind of sort of wrapped around one of his, your feet rubbing his shins and he thinks it’s cute and is also used to it from every other night idk if this is just a me thing but I think it’s so cute

laying in spencer’s lap after the fire is going is more comforting than you’d anticipated.

you’re fluffy and soft where he’s lean and slim but he feels good and smells like home - cinnamon, clove and other warm spices- when he wraps his arms around you.

his legs pass yours easily, stretched out and over the arm of your sofa from where you’re laying. the bottom of your foot hits his shin as you cuddle into him and spencer loves it.

he loves it even more when as he flicks through the tv stations, looking for something to watch, your foot nudges his shin.

it’s a soothing back and forth motion, your toes grazing his shin. spencer thinks it’s akin to a cricket rubbing their legs together for heat and smiles.

“you alright spence?” you ask when he sighs. your eyes are toasty with sleep, and spencer nods, his fingers scratching between your eyebrows before running down the length of your nose.

“mhm, is this the kinda winding down you wanted to do?” he asks, knowing how tired you’d become with school and working being back in full swing.

on the tv is the hazy and crackly view of dvd recordings of ‘the berenstain bears.’ spencer had done some research into low stimulation shows that wouldn’t make you feel anxious or add to your feelings after work or school.

while spencer waits for your response, his fingers continue the up and down motion on the bridge of your nose and the longer he goes on the slower the drag of your foot against his shin gets.

“yeah,” it’s already slurred with fatigue and spencer feels immense pride at being able to take care of you. “s’okay if i sleep for an hour?”

you’d already showered and did your nighttime skin care before spencer came over.

spencer withholds a comment about how thirty minute naps are better to fight fatigue. “if you need to sleep bug, i want you to sleep.”

you hum, eyes shutting at brother bear and sister bear start cooking something up. spencer almost chuckles at how your foot knocks his shin till your breathing evens out.

There's something about EarthSpark that's been on my mind for a while.

Anyone who's experienced any amount of children's fiction has probably noticed that parents tend to be conveniently absent.

Either they're dead, missing, always at work, outright neglectful or just otherwise inexplicably missing. And even when the parents are present, they very rarely have an active role. This applies mostly to adventure stories but occurs in all genres.

There is a reason for this! Sometimes it's to drive the plot (like maybe the children have made a vow their mother will be found or smth) but the most common reason, in almost all stories, is that good, attentive parents are boring. They are boring, sensible, rule-setting, ruiners of fun. Ash Ketchum and his mouse can't fight a primordial demigod if his mother is around to tell him it's too dangerous. It just doesn't work.

One of the first things I was told in the first children's writing class I took was, to paraphrase: "do not have an adult show up and fix everything. It's boring and children hate it." Children love to believe that they are much more capable than they actually are, they want to feel brave and independent, and a good parent actively ruins that.

Usually, even if there is a guardian, it's a Fun Guardian - someone like an aunt, an older brother or a teacher who lets the kids get away with things a parent wouldn't. Them not being the characters' actual parent lowers the amount of responsibility the audience expects them to have.

And when there are 'fun parents' who allow their children to do dangerous things... well, except for a few very specific circumstances, it just comes off as willful neglect and endangerment. I'm actually struggling to think of any examples that are played straight, though, because it's so rare.

Obviously there are some stories where the parents are both good and present, but those stories are usually very low stakes. The Berenstain Bears never entered any illegal off-road races, for example.

Transformers has had relatively active parent characters in the past, e.g. June Darby and Charlie Burns, but the children's adventures still usually hinge on them not being around. They definitely care about their kids, but they still kind of toe the line of negligence imo. And of course Ralph's and Miko's parents barely exist at all.

But then there's EarthSpark.

Obviously I haven't read every children's book or seen every children's show, but right from the start Alex's and Dot's roles struck me as very unusual.

They're involved in everything! And they know about almost everything too. There are what, three or four episodes where they don't know what their kids are up to? And in another break from tradition, they get to be actual characters as well, with their own personalities, interests and relationships.

I really Alex and Dot. I think they're fun, fitting, and I like seeing a fresh take on the role of parents in children's fiction.

But I also think their portrayal has created a rather awkward situation for EarthSpark.

EarthSpark wants Alex and Dot to be good parents, who are involved in their children's lives and care about their safety... and it also wants the kids to have high stakes adventures, with explosions and sword fights. And these two things aren't really compatible.

Because Alex and Dot are good parents who are actively trying to protect their kids, they show genuine worry and distress, and it ends up really highlighting how dangerous the children's adventures actually are. It really alters the tone of the show.

Miss Frizzle can take her elementary class inside an active volcano and say, "it's fine!" because she is a Fun Guardian - she's not like the other teachers! She doesn't care about risk assessments! - and that's a large part of what sets the tone. We aren't worried because she isn't worried. The magma isn't dangerous because she says it isn't dangerous. We can suspend our disbelief.

Mo using a magic sword to fight a villain in the astral plane is just as fanciful (in my opinion). But when Dot starts calling out in fear while watching helplessly from the sidelines, we the viewers think - oh shit. This isn't a fun adventure at all. Mo is in real, physical danger. That's bad. And our suspended disbelief comes crashing down.

In my opinion, nothing that's happened so far in EarthSpark is more extreme than anything that's happened in children's fiction before. It doesn't even hold a candle to stuff like Goosebumps. But I think Alex and Dot's roles plays a huge part in making us realise how dangerous the events and how high the stakes actually are. There are other factors of course - like EarthSpark doesn't really do cartoon violence, everything has fairly realistic consequences that you don't often see in cartoons - but Alex and Dot play a significant part.

I think EarthSpark goes to show why parents are so often absent from children's fiction - they are almost completely antithetical to the adventure stories children want. I think this is best displayed during the big seeker battle, where Alex and Dot have to carry Mo and Robbie to safety. In another show, the kids would save themselves. In EarthSpark, the fact that they don't and can't, and need their parents to save them, removes the independence and agency that's such a staple of children's adventure.

This isn't really a critique, it's more of an observation. I've enjoyed EarthSpark so far - I like that's it's trying something new, I like that the high stakes actually feel high, I like that the parents are actual characters, I like that it has a more realistic and grounded tone - but I am curious to see how Alex and Dot will be handled going forward. There's a very difficult balance needed here and I don't think EarthSpark has struck it yet.

I feel like little!Graves loves shows like bear in the big blue house, the old blues cluse, the Berenstain bears, Bluey. but also like Criminal minds and things he used to watch with his parents growing up (even if they weren't like 'kids' shows they're cozy to him)

-🐻

Screaming/pos

🐻 anon!!! Yesss!!! He has a variety of shows he watches. I think with Graves It doesn't depend on how young he's regressed but what emotions he's feeling. (Lil bit of self projecting) but I feel like if he's quite sad then you bet bear in the bit blue house is on 💙 if he's feeling a bit happier then do not be surprised at something like Criminal minds or NCIS playing. (I definitely get the it not being a classic kids show but still finding it comforting and cozy)

I just wanna thank you for your post on the Mandela Effect as a South African! I get the whole effect people are trying to describe but calling it specifically that out of all the weird collective-memory incidents is weird af because that wasn’t even a global thing like the berenstain bears seems to be (I get that ‘cause my childhood memories are berenstein too) + it wasn’t even a phenomena in the region concerned + the people who coinedthat term didn’t seem to have actual exposure/connection/proximity to the events surrounding it.

No one who was actually in or near South Africa remembers him dying because the whole movement to free him was such a big deal it was truly inescapable. You’d have to live under several rocks of wilful ignorance to not know about it. There were a few Black freedom fighters, peers of his, that did die in jail or under police custody, notably Steve Biko, that were publicised during that same time period. I honestly do wonder often if American/European people just heard news of some notable Black anti-apartheid activist in Africa dying in jail and assumed it was him because they’d mashed all those guys together in their minds? Was it a news report about events in a far away country with bad information?

it’s could very well be because of their status as Black activists that got arrested; people in the western world often talk about Mandela as a MLK-esque figure who single-handedly ended apartheid and its flattens the whole history into a narrative about a messianic figure - the sheer determination of a special individual - when in reality he worked with a collective with many Black people and ANC members who did the same acts of resistance and even went to the same prison as him. He actively did try to push back against this narrow, individualistic idea of his role in history when he was alive. Many of these freedom fighters and political figures often get written out of history when the story is told internationally because of this, and their contributions to the movements (along with possibly one of their deaths) may have been subconsciously misattributed to Mandela.

So being from here, everyone I’ve talked to thinks it’s the weirdest thing it’s called the Mandela effect because it seems more like people living far off not taking in the news properly more than a true mass misremembering or… case of collective inter-dimensional travelling.

yes, exactly! this is what truly bothers me about the mandela effect being called that. regardless of whether or not people use it to mean the silly parallel dimensions theory or simply to refer to the mass misremembering of something (as most people tend to do today), which i do find kind of fun and interesting on it's own, still keeping it named after mandela is just incredibly tone-deaf.

no matter which version you look, every definition of this term is based around the fact that those supposed changes in people's memory vs reality are always small, mundane and inconsequential enough as to go unnoticed by someone not paying attention, and like. mandela dying during the apartheid in the 80s is the absolute OPPOSITE of an inconsequential or unimportant event that nobody would pay attention to for years. it's the sort of thing that would bring massive consequences to the history of an entire country, which in turn would also affect the world at large in different ways, most obviously when it comes to black liberation movements.

seeing this term get used to refer to actual silly and inconsequential things such as the berenstain bears misspelling or pikachu's tail not having a black tip is just crazy to me. it's hard not to see it as a dismissal of mandela, as if he is some sort of fictional character from a fictional country, whose impact in real life is on-par with monopoly's mascot not wearing a monocle. and i just know that nobody would so easily accept such a ridiculous conspiracy/concept getting thrown around like this if it were about an US or european president 🤷‍♀️

9 Fandom Peeps to Get to Know Better:

Tagged by @measured-words (I'd make a snarky joke but I am not good at the funny ha has.)

3 ships I like: If I like it I will find a ship. There are so. Many. Ships. I'm basically a fandom port. Big ones are Zelink, Weightworth (because someone in my vicinity is playing Ace Attorney and it makes me rabid, basically. Hmmm... A lot of One Piece stuff has been popping up so I'll say ZoLu too. (My Batman ships are a mess. No regrets.)

First ship ever: Y'all can't judge me but it was 1x2 (Heero x Duo) way back when Gundam Wing was on Toonami. It was the first time I ever got exposed to fanfiction and the brain rot has never left me.

Last song I heard: Just One Yesterday by Fall Out Boy. On repeat because it's got characters attached and they don't fuck off. Ever.

Favorite childhood book: I was a Berenstain Bears kid for a good bit. And then I read Into the Land of the Unicorns by Bruce Coville. I think I consumed just about everything he'd written at the time. Also Animorphs.

Currently reading: it's just a whole lot of fanfiction all the way down. Oh! I suppose you could count Are You My Mother by P. D. Eastman to my kids.

Currently watching: Dungeon Meshi. And Mashle. Look I have no taste, I just like bright colors.

Currently consuming: Last thing I had was tea, but I'm about to consume the peach cobbler pancake from yesterday.

Currently craving: Latte and scone from Specific Coffee Shop and the pizza Number One made last week. It was SO. GOOD.

Tagging: hmmm... @yadelah @vesselwiththepestle @acommonbibliophile if y'all want to!

I've sur'd the names... haha...

Take any and all meanings with a grain of salt. I cannot guarentee how accurate behindthename.com is, especially with any names that were user submitted. This also isn't confirming ethnicities or religions headcanons for any of the characters - all surnames were picked due to their meanings rather than trying to designate things like that. They probably don't even flow together the best. Oh well. These are all subject to change, especially if I find out that any of them have bad connotations that I was unaware of.

I scheduled this post - so hopefully later on I type up the mascot information for Magical Warrior AU, and go and decide on + add character tags at the very least, maybe ship names and tags too... (Also maybe add more tags, like a headcanons one. Who knows what I'll decide on tomorrow, aka today when you are reading this.)

Flippy/Fliqpy Blair - Okay, this one does kind of have a secondary meaning - it sounds like bear. It is of Scottish origin and the listed meaning is 'from any one of several places of this name in Scotland, which derive from Gaelic blàr meaning "plain, field, battlefield".'

Lifty and Shifty Steele - Another double meaning. I wanted a name that meant something along the lines of metal or shadows. I couldn't find anything with gold, silver, or copper that I liked for them, and well... Steele sounds like steal. It is of English origin and the listed meaning is 'Occupational name for a steelworker, from Old English stele meaning "steel".'

Splendid and Splendont Astra - Do aliens have surnames? Regardless, I went with a space / celestial theme. And cheated a little. Astra is on the given name site, but I think it sounds cool and it's my silly little fic so I do what I want. It's listed as a rare name of English origin, with the meaning of 'Means "star", ultimately from Greek ἀστήρ (aster). This name has only been (rarely) used since the 20th century.'

Shiver and Spice Smith - For their civilian surname I went the easy way out and chose Very Common Surname. The most common, according to the website. It is of English origin and the listed meaning is 'Means "metalworker, blacksmith" from Old English smiþ, related to smitan "to smite, to hit". It is the most common surname in most of the English-speaking world. A famous bearer was the Scottish economist Adam Smith (1723-1790).'

Pop and Cub Orsini - I considered just goving them the surname Berenstain because I thought it'd be funny. Then I saw Orsini and remembered I used it as a surname for a bear faunus RWBY OC once. She might've had a brother too, it was a long time ago. It's of Italian origin, and the listed meaning is 'From a nickname meaning "little bear" in Italian, from Latin ursus "bear".'

Cuddles Lachance - I ran out of ideas for meanings at this point. Rabbit's feet are meant to be lucky, right? Not that he gets very lucky considering the universe he lives in. It's of French origin and the listed meaning is 'Means "chance, luck" in French, a nickname for a lucky person.'

Giggles Blythe - Happy surname for her (I also just like the name Blythe, and I need to use it as an OC name one day). It's of English origin and the listed meaning is 'From Old English meaning "happy, joyous, blithe".'

Toothy Tremblay - Toothy, Toothy, Toothy... He was so hard, and for what? I went to the T section and picked from there for alliteration. It's of French origin and the listed meaning is 'From French tremble meaning "aspen". It is especially widespread in Quebec, being the most common surname there.'

Petunia Meadows - This popped into my head immediately when I thought of her. It's of English origin and the listed meaning is 'Referred to one who lived in a meadow, from Old English mædwe.'

Handy Nagel - I learned there is such thing as a nailsmith. Hm. It's of German and Dutch origin and the listed meaning is 'Means "nail" in German and Dutch, an occupational name for a carpenter or nailsmith.'

Beartholomew 'Disco Bear' Ballerini - Beartholomew canon. It's so funny to me. But this is about his last name. It's of Italian origin, and the listed meaning is 'From Italian ballerino meaning "dancer", an occupational name or nickname for someone who liked to dance.'

Flaky Tenley - Technically this probably doesn't mean point in the way I wanted, but oh well. It's of English origin and the listed meaning is 'Possibly from the name of an English town derived from Old English tind "point" and leah "woodland, clearing".'

Nutty Dufour - Another hard one sonce I couldn't find many surnames that meant sugar or sweet. So an occupational name for a baker it was. It is of French origin and the listed meaning is 'Occupational name for a baker, from French four "oven".'

Sniffles Mendel - Surname that belonged to a scientist anyone? It's of German origin and the listed meaning is 'Derived from a diminutive of the given name Meino. A famous bearer was Gregor Mendel (1822-1884), a Czech monk and scientist who did experiments in genetics.'

Lumpy Lennox - Lumpy was another hard one. Alliteration method round 2. It's of Scottish origin and the listed meaning is 'From the name of a district in Scotland, called Leamhnachd in Gaelic, possibly meaning "place of elms".'

Lammy Pecora - Sorry Mr. Pickels. No surname for you. Maybe a little on the nose, but oh well. It's of Italian origin and the meaning is listed as 'Means "sheep" in Italian, an occupational name for a shepherd.'

Russell Seaver - Easy water surname, and another one I used for a RWBY OC, except I use Zale a lot more than the bear girl whose name I've forgotten. It's of English origin, and the listed meaning is 'From the unattested Old English given name Sæfaru, derived from the Old English elements sæ "sea, ocean" and faru "journey".'

Mime Lozano- I might toy with Mime just being a nickname, but for now I'm just too lazy to find a first name. He could have just become a mime to fulfill his destiny after being named that. My family and I once saw a kid named Artistic Talent on a baby names board. This was also a tough one... It's of Spanish origin and the listed meaning is 'Means "healthy, exuberant, lively" in Spanish, originally used as a nickname for an elegant or haughty person.'

Mole Durand - Similar to Mime, 'The Mole' might just be a nickname but I'm too lazy to find a first name. 'What should we name our son?' 'How about The Mole?' 'Honey, you're a genius.' Anyways, last name. It's of French and English origin, and the listed meaning is 'From Old French durant meaning "enduring", ultimately from Latin durans. This was a nickname for a stubborn person.'

Cro-Marmot - He doesn't get one. Sorry Cro-Marmot.

reasons minnesota is the best us state

vote minnesota here, because im right and you know it

minnesota is the longest running democratic state. true blue. these colors don't run. this is probably because we want everyone to know its freaking cold here and staying blue every time we're on a map gets the point across

has the actual worst football team and everyone knows it but no one cares

home to the mayo clinic, 3m, target, and general mills who made what... that's right, count chocula, kids.

hot dish is a cool word and basically like depressioncore cooking

if you live in the south part of the state the hormel plant is slowly killing you to make canned spiced ham which is cool

one time they just elected a wrestler to office and like no one said anything

the state bird is the common loon who minnesotans have turned into indescribable monsters that attack children, cars, and trucks much like the geese that also terrorize half of the state

it is a major activity in at least one minnesotan town to tie a dollar store sled to a truck via rope and do donuts at extraordinary speeds with high schoolers loaded on top of each other in the sled until someone has to go to the er (that town is my town (no one has died (yet)))

Minnesota has the Mall of America which smells like that because there's apparently no heat. The sheer power of sweaty gross tourists helps the mall face the winter. baller.

if you like grocery bags with handles then man do i have good news for you

Diversity win! Gay icon Judy Garland is from Minnesota

Diversity Loss! Straight Icon Bob Dylan is from Minnesota

Minnesota has an amusement park named Valleyfair, which used to host the Berenstain Bears who famously smelled like b.o. and the broken dreams of children. This was good for tourism but bad for children. Now they have peanuts characters who cant dance but do smell better.

Minnesota has the world's second most mid renaissance faire, but you can bring your dog to it and I think that's something you need to know.

the average minnesotan eats 19 gallons of mayonnaise a year. this isn't a real fact but it sounds like it could be.

the minnesota state fair debuted butter on a stick. this was widely regarded to be 'an idea' and 'something that happened'

the twin cities are very flammable. burn them down.

trespassing is a very common hobby with many minnesotans breaking into private or abandoned property because there's not much else to do. this is because there is no jack in the box drive-thru in the state

Lutheran sushi is a dish that was invented by god and probably whispered to a lady named Edna in the middle of the night. It is made of pickles, ham, and cream cheese. Legend says it was the front runner for the official secret state food, bravely competing against tatertop hotdish.

Every minnesotan town is the birthplace of paul bunyan. this is because he was very big. the only place that is not the birth place of paul bunyan is eden prarie which 90% of minnesota inexplicably hates

Minnesotans love complaining about the snow and how cold it gets there, unless you mention that you feel a chill elsewhere, then all minnesotans become the picture of winter survival and mock you for disliking the cold.

in summary, minnesota is the best, screw the rest.

i was going to make a joke here about how the OG anti jedi movement was started by george lucas and is called the prequel trilogy (and they are like garbage as films but not because of that) but i realized that actually as someone whose family luckily is not in star wars a more salient irritation to me is the conversation about The Luke Of It All and like i could go on about this at length but mostly what i want to say is that in high school i decided i wanted to celebrate my eighteenth birthday by having all my friends over and having a marathon of the original star wars trilogy, which we had all grown up with and loved except one girl who had never seen them and when this came to light we were like WHAT????? HOW CAN THIS BE?????? and we were all a little judgmental when she got bored and went to bed halfway through. because we all had been star wars fans since childhood and thought the movies ruled. we were obnoxious and superior teenagers who went to the last two prequels preparing to hatewatch and eager to make fun, and it was consensus (not shared by me, a lifelong lover of critters) that the ewoks were dumb, but our love for star wars was deep and sincere. my dude friends probably had some knowledge of the world beyond the movies even from like video games and maybe some novels idk. anyway. so we sat down on my birthday to watch these movies that we all agreed were awesome and great. and one of my friends was like, “i should count every time luke whines onscreen.” and we were all like LMAO HAHAHA THAT’S SO FUNNY YES DO IT. and he got to like 110 whines by the end of a new hope and then abandoned the bit. but like. one thing that makes me feel insane is if you’d asked me in november 2017 “how do star wars fans feel about luke?” i UNHESITATINGLY would have said, “oh they think he’s a whiny bitch and the most lame character in the movies and also that mark hamill can’t act.” like i can’t emphasize how much this was the reality i knew as a person who liked star wars but in a normal way. i swear i wrote some line to this effect into a piece of fiction at one point. and in fact as a person who tends towards generosity once i’ve decided i like something i also could have told you of the years i spent alone in the luke-loving trenches, coming to his defense because yeah he does whine a lot but that’s part of his charm. it’s part of the magic of the movies, went the argument i swear to you i had made, that if luke is on the screen he’s probably whining. it wouldn’t be the same any other way! this was, i stress again, as per all evidence available to me, a niche opinion. like it was a really hot take to be like “yes luke whines so much… but i like him anyway! and i think mark hamill is pretty good once you get to empire.” so like i feel really truly berenstain/berenstein bears about this universe i portaled into 5 years ago where apparently longtime star wars fans have always thought that luke was awesome and cool and a total hero. like setting aside all debates over artistic merits and narrative consistency and how to read the best star wars movie of all time (the last jedi), it just makes me feel fucking crazy that people would act like “luke sucks” is a concept invented out of thin air by rian johnson in 2017. like it goes against everything about my experience of being a person who has thought the original star wars trilogy is pretty great since i was 8 years old in 1996.

Just discovered this blog, my knowledge of regressors is limited but this has definitely been interesting.

Even though I’m a huge Lorelai fan I can’t help but feel bad for Molly haha!

I think it would be interesting to see a reverse where Molly is the regressor and Lorelai is the caretaker.

First - Thank you for being my first ask~! Unfortunately for me I have a hard time with that because I don't really view much agere traits in Molly while Lorelai is pretty much canonically a regressor in my opinion. I mean one of Lorelai's biggest motives in the book is that she wants her sister to play with her. I feel like it would be rather out of character for Lorelai to be the CG.

In fact i personally headcanon Molly as a Trauma Caregiver. Kinda the opposite of how Lorelai is a Trauma Regressor due to the way she's grown up she's more pron to naturally fall into a more caretaker role. However - Even though i can't see Lorelai being a CG, I also do have a concept that after Giovanni's Moms have Molly for a while they mange to take Lorelai in. And with them (And Giovanni) acting as the CGs - We could get cute Molly and Lorelai interaction were Lorelai takes on a more little sisterly role and Molly gets to take on a older sister in charge role.

Below is a dabble of a story with Little Lorelai and Molly being together.

Molly and Lorelai awkwardly stared at each other in silence. The Potages rarely left the two alone together; Giovanni because he often worried how Lorelai would treat Molly, and Lorelai had developed an interesting bond with one of Giovanni's mothers - Daisy, and she had a tendency to be Daisy's shadow. The two sisters also had their therapy days on opposite days and with the Potages she had a lot more free time to hang out with her friends. So, after about 2 months of Lorelai living with them, this was the first time the two of them were alone in the same room as each other.

Daisy had asked Molly to keep an eye on Lorelai because she was feeling smaller than normal when she had come back from therapy, but Giovanni was at baseball and Rhonda was still at work. So, annoyingly, Molly was back in the role of having to be the reasonable one for Lorelai. Her older sister has been regressing a lot more lately - according to her therapist and new foster parents, it's because Lorelai regresses when under stress or when she can't cope with certain things. Honestly, Molly didn't fully understand, but she did know that her older sister was always more immature than other people her own age - even before their mother died...

Lorelai felt awkward and wished she could summon a bubble to hide away in - she wasn't used to feeling this small around Molly, but Mama didn't like it when she was feeling under 6 for her to make bubbles cause she could get hurt. She fidgets with the amethyst bracelet. "Do you wanna play?" She asks quietly, remembering Molly’s preference.

Molly rolled her eyes "What did you have in mind?" the 12-almost-13 year old answers.

Lorelai lowered her eyes away from her little sister, who felt much bigger than her right now. "You pick?" She tilts her head. Therapy always wore her out and she had no ideas. She wanted someone else to take charge.

This shocks Molly because she's more used to Lorelai taking charge of games. Lorelai was a bit bossy when it came to pretend games and a sore loser when it came to other types of games. "Well, how old do you feel?" She had seen Daisy ask Lorelai this when the teenage girl became more passive like this.

With a small humm Lorelai stops fidgeting with her bracelet, thinking. She starts with 3 fingers but then lowers it to 2, then back to 3, unsure of the answer herself. "Duh fully know" she mumbles.

Molly gave Lorelai's back a pat "That's okay. Do you want to watch the Berenstain Bears and play with your blocks?" Molly suggested. She knew there were shows Lorelai liked more than the Berenstain Bears, but it was her own guilty pleasure. Lorelai doesn't seem to have an issue with this plan as she goes to her room and brings down her blocks.

"You pwomise if we watch Beaws... You'll play blocks wif me?" Lorelai slurs a little behind the pacifier she must have gotten from her bedroom.

Nodding, Molly puts on the Berenstain Bears, and sits down next to Lorelai on the ground and starts to build with Lorelai. While Lorelai became more and more focused on building block towers. Molly couldn't help but feel rather peaceful as the sound of the cartoon and Lorelai sucking on her pacifier fills this room as the two build. A part of her could now understand why she found being little comforting - even if Lorelai's regression often wasn't due to her own choice. It was rather relaxing to just turn everything off and just relax.

Beauty and the Beast Novel Master List

I like Beauty and the Beast, I bet you do too, here's all the retellings I've read.

I'm not selecting for quality, I'm just listing them.

Art by anonymous. Beast has put on his nicest pompom shoes to win Beauty's heart.

Some of these are retellings (girl swaps places with father, is isolated with a beastly love interest of some type, leaves for some reason, returns to find the beast dying, confesses her love and saves the day), others are only inspired by BatB, but I'm including them as long as there's a clear reference. So Rose Daughter goes, but things like The Phantom of the Opera, Shrek, or Jane Eyre, despite their many overlaps, don't.

Art by Horace Elisha Scudder. Beauty has found Beast, here played by a distant cousin of the Berenstain Bears family.

Also for your consideration: What do you call your heroine when canonically she has a painfully literal name?

Hmmm...

E: explicit

NF: not fantasy or any adjacent genre

YA: young adult

BOOKS:

Beauty's names: Beauty, Lucy, Eider

A Rose for Beauty – Irene B Brand

NF. Novella length. I don't remember much about this one despite reading it just last year, but it's modern day and I think it's Christian. Featured in the Once Upon a Time collection. (No connection to the Once Upon a Time book series.)

Beauty and the Clockwork Beast – Nancy Campbell Allen (Steampunk Proper Romance)

Despite the title, I don't think this one follows the fairy tale quite faithfully enough to really be a retelling. It's more of an original steampunk gothic-mystery-romance. But the BatB inspiration is there.

The Price and Prey of Magic – Rachel Day

I wrote this one. It riffs on both the classic BatB and an alternate version called “The Green Serpent” where the beast is a snake and the Beauty character is thought to be hideous. Other fairy tales are incorporated.

Beauty's names: Belle, Violaine, Lindy

Belle – Cameron Dokey (Once Upon a Time)

YA. The Once Upon a Time series did novella retellings of the classic Disney fairy tales (as well as some outliers) in the 2000s. Some of them are fairly original, some of them play it more safe. There were multiple authors, but I always felt the Dokey entries were the strongest. Belle doesn't try to reinvent the fairy tale that much (see Spirited farther down the list), though it does make the magical rose a more central element in the story.

The Prisoner of the Castle of Enlightenment – Therese Doucet

E. Not a close retelling, but definitely inspired by BatB. Even set in 1700s France for good measure with a strong focus on the Enlightenment. Nods to the fairy tale early on, then heads off into unexpected original territory and gets magical and folkloric.

Beastly – Alex Flinn (Kendra Chronicles)

YA. Probably the best-known modern retelling. The author makes the risky choice of telling it from the beast's point of view, in this case a conceited rich prep boy, and I think a lot of the reader's enjoyment depends on how much they like being in his head. There's a companion novella from the Beauty character's perspective, but I haven't read it.

Beauty's names: Isabella, Caitrin, Beauty

Spirited – Nancy Holder (Once Upon a Time)

YA. The other Once Upon a Time retelling. This one is more original, less by-the-book, setting it in colonial America. But it makes the questionable decision to cast the beast character as an American Indian who takes a beautiful white colonist captive. I suspect this is why the series' creators revisited BatB with the Dokey version, with the hopes this one would quietly vanish.

Heart's Blood – Juliet Marillier

A historical fantasy set in medieval Ireland. This one decides to cast the beast as disabled, but if you can put that aside, he's an interesting and well-rounded character. Another book that deviates pretty substantially from the original and goes off and does its own thing. There are ghosts, not talking knickknacks. Even so, it feels like a legitimate retelling, not merely inspired by BatB.

Beauty and the Beast, The Only One Who Didn't Run Away – Wendy Mass (Twice Upon a Time)

YA. What I remember most about this one is reading it while waiting to see if I'd be impaneled for a jury. It doesn't stand out much in my memory, but as I recall it was lighthearted and aiming for humor.

Beauty's names: Beauty, Beauty, Beauty

Beauty – Robin McKinley

YA. Robin McKinley's first foray into BatB retellings. It's one of my favorite novels, period, with a thoughtful bookish Beauty (way before Disney did it) and a brooding but gracious beast. It's an intelligent slow burn with loads of introspection, but still has many sweet, warm, and funny moments.

Rose Daughter – Robin McKinley

YA. McKinley's better known BatB retelling. This one is a lot more original, expanding on the fairy tale, incorporating Beauty's siblings a lot, and overall giving you a longer, richer read. I still prefer Beauty, but this one has a lot going for it and includes an unusual twist. Also, while I won't list it as its own entry, Chalice is an original McKinley fantasy novel with a strong BatB vibe.

Beast – Donna Jo Napoli

YA. Another book from the beast's p.o.v. Also casts him as a person of color (Persian) with a white Beauty, and in this case turns him into a lion rather than a fantastical monster. Yes, him being a literal animal rather than a slightly humanoid beast does introduce some specific elements to the story. Probably part of why the cover touts it as sophisticated.

Beauty's names: Belle (Annabelle), Shelley

Belle – Sarah Price

NF. The Amish one. Modern setting. It has a YA feel (the heroine is very young), but given that it deals with marriage, and to a significantly older man, I'm not exactly sure which audience it's ultimately for. This Beauty takes a Disney-inspired approach, being bookish and spirited. But the beast is a crotchety Amish guy, so that's new.

The Gentle Prisoner – Sara Seale

NF. 1940s Cornwall. A gothic-tinged romance novel with an otherworldly, innocent, sensitive heroine, who's also very young and marries a significantly older man with a troubling scar and no end of brooding. Not exactly a retelling, but leans heavily on the fairy tale and isn't afraid to draw attention to it.

SHORT STORIES:

"The Rose and the Beast" – Francesca Lia Block

YA. Modern day. I did read this one, a hundred years ago. I don't remember much except for a general impression of the whole collection – dark, urban, sensuous. Can be found in the collection of the same name.

"The Courtship of Mr Lyon" – Angela Carter

Modern (to the 1970s, when it was published). A feminist retelling. Been forever since I read it, so I don't remember specifics, but I have a clear memory of enjoying it.

"The Tiger's Bride" – Angela Carter

As you can guess from the title, also sophisticated.

"Beast and Beauty" – Vivian Vande Velde

YA. A lighthearted, cute take on the story from the beast's perspective. VVV's writing is often very funny, and this is one of my favorites of her retellings. It can be found in Tales From the Brothers Grimm and the Sisters Weird.

That was tiring. I think I'll just lie here and stick my tongue out and die.

I would love to find more retellings, so please feel free to add to this list.

@spiderdreamer-blog replied to your post “and are the people who never watched campaign 1...”:

Wait what happened now? Also I started with c1 and love VM, but some people just get super weird about them.

​There is a currently fairly popular post that claims that people who started with Campaigns 2 or 3 and never watched Campaign 1 think of Vox Machina as legendary heroes when, in fact, Vox Machina are a bunch of dorks. This ignores the following:

Most people who started with Campaign 2 and never watched Campaign 1 are like "oh right, the first season or whatever."

We just had to explain to everyone who had not seen Campaign 1 that actually Percy is both justified in noping out of any Delilah-related scenarios but also he is and has always been an arrogant dick

The literal marketing for TLOVM is, essentially, "one day, they shall become legendary heroes of Exandria...but now, they are a bunch of chaotic losers" so if you are in any way vaguely keeping up with the fandom, this is not news.

There are people who think Vox Machina is a group of powerful heroes, and who romanticize them endlessly even when they think about their sillier or more disastrous moments! There are people who project idealized impressions of Vox Machina over later campaigns. Guess what! They're exclusively a subset of the people who started with Campaign 1.

I genuinely feel like that post broke through from an alternate universe and I say this having openly and loudly disparaged the Berenstein/Berenstain Bears conspiracy, because I cannot come up with any other reasonable explanation.

Weekly Tag Wednesday!!

Thank you pocket friends for tagging me! @mybrainismelted @such-a-barbarian @skylerwinchester @jrooc @lingy910y @dynamic-power @juliakayyy

1. which character from any media would you like to have as a father? Jack from This is Us. I need to rewatch but from what I remember, I think I'd like him as a dad. (Even though he dies when they're still kids)

2. if money, laws, time, and effort were no object, what animal would you want to have? A big cat. Either a tiger or lion.

3. what is your Chinese takeout order?  Usually something very basic like sesame chicken. Usually with lo mein unless I actually like the fried rice from the place.

4. what's your favorite emoji? I’m currently very into 🫠 and 😂

5. would you rather have a library, greenhouse, or home theater in your house? Yes.

6. what childhood tv show do you think of the most fondly? Ohh so many. I loved Arthur, The Berenstain Bears, Reading Rainbow, Liberty Kids... to name a few.

7. what was your tumblr like when you first joined? Oof that was so long ago lol. My Tumblr is basically a synopsis of my obsessions and interests throughout the years but is also full of random shit that I choose to reblog. I think that I'm alot more active and interactive with people now though.

8. what clothing style do you love but don't feel compelled to replicate yourself? Eh I don't really pay attention to clothing styles tbh.

9. if you were plopped into a fictional world, which one would you know the layout of the best? Mmm since I'm currently watching it, Bob's Burgers. Or SpongeBob. With a refresher, I think I'd do pretty good around Hogwarts too. Also maybe BOTW.

10. what is your favorite piece of art? I seriously considered putting a picture of Noel and Cam for this because I think that they are both gorgeous pieces of art but I won't. I don't have an answer to this though so...

11. do you have a water bottle? what does it look like? I have a few actually that I switch out. I usually always have one for home and one that I take and use at work though.

12. what fanfic trope is a quiet fave? Probably slow burn.

13. do you carry a daily bag? what does it look like? what's the weirdest thing in it? A basic crossbody bag. Uhh idk how weird it is but I have crystals in it that I carry with me.

14. if you had to ship Mickey with another Gallagher, who would it be? Probably Carl because they’d be absolutely ridiculous together.

15. what is a fanfic trope you didn't expect to like and then very much did? I don't normally venture outside of my normal tropes (canon compliant, smut, fluff and angst) but I am currently reading LRPD for fic club and I am so glad that I am. It has been SO good so far and I'm upset that I don't have as much free time as I used to have to read more but I'm making my way through it. So alternate first meeting? Slow burn? Whatever trope LRPD is - that.

16. Do you think s11 Mickey can still carry s11 Ian? I don't think so but I think that Mickey has tried. (I just thought of something so fucking sad about Ian being in a downswing and Mickey tries to carry him to bed but he realizes that he can't anymore and he gets mad at himself because he feels helpless. Fuck 😥)

17. who got custody of the killing bat when they sold the house? First person that I thought of was Carl but idk if that fits him anymore since he's a cop now. Ohh but I'll stick to that. It's not really used anymore though he just has it hanging up at the Alibi as more of an ode to his childhood and the Southside.

Super late but tagging a few peeps: @gallabitch73 @depressedstressedlemonzest @softmick and @jademickian unless you've already done it or don't want to - if so then here's a kitty for you 🐈 😊