while im (takes a deep breath to hold back my rage) sympathetic to the fans of Those Wizard Books who're taking a death of the author approach so long as they're not supporting the series financially or actively promoting it and are sticking to fan communities, I really, *really* wish people would put away their merch. Because when I see someone in public with merch from it, I always have to wonder if I'm safe around them as a trans person, if my trans friends are safe. And that's a sucky feeling to have, especially when talking to people who otherwise seems perfectly fine and nice!!! A lot of HP fans are just, people!!! Who maybe don't know what the big deal is, or have chosen to deal with the problem by doubling down to spite the author!! But even when I know for a fact they're totally safe or even trans themselves, I don't want to be constantly reminded of the series whose author is an incredibly rich and powerful person whose whole agenda for the past several years has been to push back against the rights of people like me, and who people like my own god damn mother is more willing to listen to about trans people than her own nonbinary child.

I know it's irrational to feel surges of rage at the mere mention of a popular multimedia franchises, but while I know not every trans person is bothered by it, I also know that a lot of trans people and even allies *are* bothered by it. Just... begging for some understanding, and for people to just PLEASE dial back their fandom-ing in public spaces, especially mostly queer spaces. You don't know how much difference it might make in the comfort and feeling of safety for the trans people around you

Man I try not to get involved in online trans discourse because it’s so fucking stupid. But something about watching a 16 year old nonbinary kid be beaten to death by cis girls while people debate what kind of trans person has it “the worst” is just. So tiring. We are so focused on debating the validity and morality of different genders while children are being beaten and left to die by their peers and adults who are supposed to protect them. Does anyone else feel like they are going insane.

you know if we do accept the last epilogue-esque sequence as a sort of dream/wish of ted's and therefore not necessarily canon, very funny if we then simply go "yeah, trent's book is called 'the lasso way' actually. he didn't change that. nope."

been playing bits and pieces of horizon forbidden west! game's pretty as hell

Between TF and my other fandoms like BG3 and TES, I keep finding myself making OCs that have some element of "battle hardened hero who is actually good and righteous, but so traumatized by the toll of war that even after the war ends they feel empty/wrecked and can't enjoy the fruits of victory" and I'm not sure if it's bc I gravitate to a certain type of media where such OCs fit in best, or bc I have a specific character archetype I like and gravitate towards media that contains those things.

I’m not sure how to feel about Vikings not showing the discovery of Athelstan’s body.

On the one hand? Kinda impressed. They went the classic horror route of “Nothing will ever be as good as what you can imagine from a few hints” and in a lot of ways I think that’s perfect. As a viewer, I get to imagine who found him. I get to imagine how each character reacted (with the assumption that Ragnar was probably hit hardest), and nothing I assume will ever be wrong because the actual event isn’t shown (if I’m wrong and they show it in full a few seasons from now, just ignore me lol)

On the other, Ragnar’s best moments are when he’s reeling from loss, and while we did get that fantastic burial scene (it also says so much that he’s the only one there. Did he insist on it, or was there really no one else that cared to go?) it would have been SO good to see the exact moment he finds out Athelstan is dead, especially since it’s just one episode shy of him being like “You cannot leave. You cannot leave me! *hug* I love you. You are the only one I can trust so you must stay. *prolonged unblinking eye contact* While you are in Kattegat, no one will hurt you *another hug* I shall protect you.” You just know Travis Fimmel would have eaten that scene right up.

btw my mom said it. she said it to me looking me in the eyes. i told her about how difficult it was for me to get through those family reunions, and she admitted it was very important to her, important enough that she was just going to do it anyway.

local audhd having idiot has to do something not related to their hyperfixation and fuCKING EXPLODES!!1!!!!!! /j

am finally back home and can say without a doubt that i am just fundamentally not built for long distance travel however the train was much nicer than planes

I genuinely will not be surprised if the "you're a hot mess is" a) about TK's previously unknown third coma, b) stressing over Iris, or c) just stuff in general and Carlos trying to break the tension

terfs when a study shows literally anything positive about trans people/transitioning: 'hm i think this requires some fact-checking. Were those researchers REALLY unbiased? Because if they were biased this doesn't count and if they weren't knowingly biased they probably were unconsciously biased, woke media affects so much these days. Have there been any other studies on this? Because if there haven't been this could be an outlier and if there have been and they all agree that's a bit odd, why aren't there any outliers, and if there have been and any disagree we really won't know the truth until we very thoroughly analyze them all, will we? Were there enough subjects for a good sample size? Did every single subject involved stay involved through the whole study because if they didn't we should be sure nothing shady was going on resulting in people dropping out. Are we 110% sure all the subjects were fully honest and at no point were embarrassed or afraid to admit they didn't love transitioning to the people in charge of their transition? Are we 110% sure none of the subjects were manipulated into thinking they were happy with their transition? In fact we should double-check what they think with their parents, because if the subjects and their parents disagree it's probably because they've been manipulated but their cis parents have not and are very unbiased. How many autistic subjects were there because if there weren't enough then this doesn't really study the overlap between autistic and trans and if there were too many then we just don't know enough about what causes that overlap to be sure this study really explains being trans and isn't just about being autistic. How many AFAB subjects were there because if there weren't enough this is just another example of prioritizing AMAB people and ignoring the different struggles of girls and women and if there were too many how do we know sexism didn't affect the results. Was the study double-blinded? We all know double-blinded is the most reliable so if this one wasn't that's a point against it even if the thesis literally physically could not be double-blinded. Look i'm not being transphobic, i want what's best for trans people! Really! But as a person who is not trans and therefore objective in a way they cannot possibly be, i just think we should only take into account Good Science here. You want to be following science and not being manipulated or experimented upon by something unscientific, right?'

terfs when they see a study of 45 subjects so old it predates modern criteria for gender dysphoria and basically uses 'idk her parents think she's too butch', run by a guy who practiced conversion therapy, 'confirmed' by a guy who treated the significant portion of subjects who didn't follow up as all desisting, definitely in the category of 'physically cannot double-blind this', completely contradicted by multiple other studies done on actual transgender subjects, but can be kinda cited as evidence against transitioning if you ignore everything else about it: 'oOOH SEE THIS IS WHAT WE'RE TALKIN BOUT. SCIENCE. Just good ol' unbiased thorough analysis. I see absolutely no reason to dig any deeper on this and if you think it's wrong you're the one being unscientific. It's really a shame you've been so thoroughly brainwashed by the trans agenda and can't even accept science when you see it. Maybe now that someone has finally uncovered this long-lost study from 1985, we can make some actual progress on the whole trans problem.'

morthal, solitude and markarth for the skyrim ask game >:)

Morthal - Do you enjoy exploring dungeons and ruins? Why or why not? I doooo! I LOVE dungeons and Ruins! They're fun! I do get lost in them which bothers me but I love goin around Blackreach with Cicero, it's so so so pretty.

Solitude - Who's your favorite Jarl? Who's your least favorite? Why these? Hmmm! I'll be honest I think they're all pieces of shit and hate them all lmao, Ig I'll go with Elisif because her castle is where you can do the Sheogorath quest.

Markarth - If you could rewrite one questline in Skyrim, which would it be? The Dark Brotherhood. Make it so that you have more options such as being able to find that Astrid is sellin the Sanctuary out to the Penitus Oculatus; maybe by rifling through Her belongings or Maro's. I wish there was a way to be able to convince the others to also join Cicero, or that there was a way for the Listener to be able to like go Against Cicero without the killin him section as well for people who refuse to realise the Old Ways are better like Astrid. Perhaps there could have been a way to allow Astrid to realise the error of her ways and repent to the Night Mother and Sithis!

I also wish there was a way to rebuild the Dark Brotherhood properly aside from the Two Random Initiates who don't even have names. Like I wish you could recruit more people, fix up the Falkreath Sanctuary, set up More Sanctuaries (Like how Oblivion's got apparently over 200 sanctuaries in all of Cyrodiil), Have Speakers, Silencers. Also perhaps a way to reinstate Cicero as an Assassin assassin rather than a Keeper who's allowed to kill just because the Listener says so. And maybe Listener can marry the Keeper.

We need better fucking care infrastructure. I should not be trusted with anyone's care ever 💛

And so ends the mini drabble regatta!

My thanks to everyone who read, liked or even left a little comment in the tags for these short attempts at different WN pairings <3

I want to hope that these humble offerings might inspire others to give other ships a chance, too, or to try their hand at drabbles in general. If I didn't please you with my interpretation of a given relationship, I am sorry; perhaps someone else will give it a go or maybe I'll do another one of these parties in the future and do better -- maybe you'll even consider joining me then.

For now, this blog returns to its regular schedule of doctor superion drabbles posted on Friday, at least until the end of the year. For early 2024, I want to have the next oneshot ready for publishing and I'll be focused on that until it happens. In the meantime, I'll be loitering around Tumblr as usual and sometimes on Dreamwidth as well :)