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wizardofahz · 10 months

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Oracle Comes to National City

Fandom: Supergirl A/N: Once upon a time, I figured it’d be fun to play with the idea of Barbara Gordon coming to National City. This has been sitting in my drafts for a while, and there's no better time to finish it than Disability Pride Month. This is set in Supergirl season 5 and references some Birds of Prey comics.

“Hello, J’onn.”

The familiar voice has a grin breaking out across J'onn's face as he spins around on his stool.

And there in the middle of Noonan's of all places is the one and only Barbara Gordon. This particular branch is spacious enough that she was able to wheel her chair to just beside their table.

“Babs.”

J'onn rises from his chair to give Barbara a hug.

Pulling back, he turns back to the table. “Alex, Kara, this is Barbara Gordon. She’s a friend from Gotham City.”

"It's nice to meet you," Kara says with a friendly smile. Alex gives a little wave.

Barbara smiles at the Danvers. “It’s nice to meet you too. Though truthfully, you need no introduction."

J'onn wonders just how much Barbara knows about them. He has never been so naive as to assume she doesn't know about Kara being Supergirl or Alex being DEO. But still. With all the information of the world at her fingertips, how deeply has Barbara decided to dig?

Barbara must sense what he's thinking because sends him a sly smile. "J’onn talks about you both a lot.”

Well. He certainly can't refute that.

He hasn't told the Danvers much about Barbara, so he does so now. “Babs is a librarian, which among other things makes her a tremendous resource." It's an understatement if ever there was one, but there's only so much he can say in public. He turns to Barbara. "What brings you to National City? ”

"Business," Barbara says simply. "Though maybe we could talk in private?" She glances at the Danvers, so they know they're to be included.

They all agree, grabbing their coffee cups. Kara scoops up the remainder of her sticky bun, her late morning snack, in a napkin.

On the way to J’onn's office, he asks Barbara about her basketball league. The Danvers trail behind them. He doesn't hear them, but they're undoubtedly talking, asking if the other knows what's going on.

They enter as Brainy is putting on a coat, soon to be on his way out.

“Oh, good. You’re back. I am--” Brainy stops in his tracks and balks. “Oracle.”

“Brainiac-5,” Barbara greets. “Or I suppose you prefer Brainy.”

J'onn knows he's mentioned Brainy before, certainly not to the degree of Alex and Kara, but Barbara's never mentioned meeting him before.

“What are you doing here?” Brainy asks defensively, posture growing more rigid and standing a little taller. “You think I am incapable of being good without oversight.”

J'onn has no idea where this is coming from, but Barbara meets Brainy's gaze knowingly. There's clearly history here.

“I never said you couldn’t.”

“And yet you are here.”

“I’m not here because of you.”

Brainy lets out a little hmph of disbelief before turning to the others. “I am going to pick up my pizza, which I will eat... away from here.”

Kara frowns as they watch Brainy leave. “That was like watching Brainy interact with Kelex.”

Barbara sighs then explains, “Shared Coluan memories... they can make things a little messy.”

“So you’re Oracle,” Alex says, looking Barbara over as if for the first time.

Kara says, “Kate told me about you.”

Barbara’s brow furrows as she tries to put the pieces together. “Kate... Kane?”

Kara nods.

“You’ve met?”

“In another universe.”

Barbara mouths, Oh.

Confusion is not an expression J'onn is used to seeing on Barbara's face. It's good to know that even the all-seeing Oracle has limits. Speaking of Oracle and her vast empire of knowledge, J'onn figures it's a good time to talk business. “Would you like to see the Tower? We can talk up there.”

Barbara eyes the stairs leading up to the elevator. “We can talk downstairs.”

It's J'onn's turn to shoot Barbara a sly smile. “Babs, I’m a shapeshifter. Need I remind you that our technology can shapeshift as well?”

She accepts the teasing with a chagrined smile. “How foolish of me to forget.”

“Well, it’s nice to know I can still surprise you,” J'onn says as he transforms the stairs into a ramp.

After a brief tour and a brief interlude about the differences between this Tower and Barbara's own, they get down to business.

“You have a Leviathan problem,” Barbara says easily as if it's common knowledge.

“How do you know about that?” Alex asks before coloring slightly under Barbara's quirked eyebrow. “Right, you’re Oracle. You know everything. My bad.”

Barbara smiles in response before continuing, “More than that, Leviathan is a tech problem, makes it of particular interest to me.”

“Are you sure you want to get involved?” Kara asks, concerned. “Leviathan is dangerous.”

Barbara waves a dismissive hand. “J’onn knows what I like to say.”

He does, but he'd prefer she not. “Please don’t.”

She does anyway. “Never underestimate a deathbed as an opportunity to rethink strategy.”

“Damn,” Alex says, whistling appreciatively. “That’s metal.”

“And not something you should be thinking about,” J’onn says sternly before glaring at Barbara. “Why would you say that?”

Barbara smirks. “It seemed like something they’d appreciate. Was I wrong?”

...

“I know you’re not him.”

Brainy jumps at the familiar voice, cursing under his breath.

He had avoided Oracle when possible, sequestering himself away and assuming he'd hear her coming. He would not have guessed someone in a wheelchair would be that stealthy. He underestimated her. He would not do so again.

"As do I," Brainy responds, not bothering to keep the defensive sarcasm from his voice.

"I know you have his memories. I know Coluan history. I also know that when I was shot, everyone was trying to tell me how to feel, how to move on. Even how not to move on." She runs a hand over one of her wheelchair's pushrims absentmindedly. "So I get it, maybe not exactly but... We are who we choose to be." She looks up at him, considering. “What do you think? Can we work together?”

Brainy meets her gaze and thinks, What would Kara Danvers do?

It's a question that served Brainy well in the past (in the future actually, but that was neither here nor there, or rather, neither then nor now). He considers the situation through her eyes. With their technical powers combined, they could be a formidable team.

And Oracle was right. They had a shared set of memories, albeit from opposite sides, but they could choose what to make of them. He wouldn't let them change his behavior if she wouldn't.

"I'm willing to try."

#barbara gordon #supergirl #j'onn j'onzz #brainiac 5 #querl dox #kara danvers #alex danvers #moments in the life of superfam

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iamthecomet · 9 months

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Hoot!

(Finally replying, heh)

I honestly really hope that the meds will work too. I‘ll keep on taking the same ones I take now and take the other ones in addition, but they actually benefit? each other (as in, both probably will work better when taken together)

I‘ll most likely start tomorrow, but it will take 4-6 weeks for them to actually make something change. And also my symptoms of like dizziness and headaches will likely get worse at the beginning (this will get better over time tho)

They can also make you feel more suicidal in the beginning (which is because they make you more aware, including more aware of problems) but that also gets better after those 4-6 weeks when the actual effects set in (the new one is a kind of antidepressant)

So like, I’m pretty nervous about that

Yeah, going outside is pretty good but also hella hard to do. Sometimes my friends manage to drag me along, which I very much appreciate (they also need to go slower when we go somewhere by bike because of me, but they do that without ever complaining, for which I’m very thankful).

And you‘re so right. In the past, I’ve sometimes not treated them very kindly because of my insecurities and how I’m scared of being a burden, which is also why I isolate myself a lot, but whenever I feel a little less bad they always welcome me with open arms (they‘re also the reason I can watch movies/series, because 2 of them are so aware of my phobias that they will make me feel safe whenever something triggering happens. It’s literally so damn good, because when I’m watching with them, I can actually enjoy watching without being constantly scared that something triggering could possibly happen)

Also seriously, the way one of them immediately offers her hand for me to squeeze while simultaneously covering my eyes is just the sweetest thing ever

But like, there are other good news I think!

I‘ve been thinking about using a cane for at least months now. I sometimes feel very dizzy, to the point of pre-syncope (even though I never actually fainted before) and especially in the past few days, I feel even more unstable when walking than I usually do. I‘m very scared to go outside, especially on my own and just really don‘t feel safe. And especially during disability pride month, people where explaining what mobility aids can be helpful for what, and dizziness was often mentioned for canes.

And I honestly really think that it would help me a lot, and give me a sense of standing/walking more safely.

I always wanted to wait because I was/am scared that I’m just telling myself all that because I want a cane to get attention.

But my dear ex roommate (and one of the sweetest people alive) actually was like “well if you‘d benefit from it, who cares even if would be partly for attention? What about attention is so bad?“

And I think that they are very right. (They also added that canes do look cool as hell and they are also very right about that. I cannot wait to put stickers all over mine if I actually get one)

So on the next appointment I’ll have with my doctor, I’ll ask her if I can get a prescription for a cane.

Oh god, this got long again. Sorry about that

At least it included a lot of (pretty) positive things I think

At least for me, engaging a lot in fandom content helped me with my post-Ritual depression (as far as it was related to that cause I got regular depression going on as well xD)

But it seems like you‘ve been doing that /pos

~ @owlishanon

Finally digging this out of my drafts SORRY! ♥ I'm so glad things have been looking up! I hope that your meds aren't too hard on you during the adjustment period, and that your side effects are minimal. I'm glad you're friends have been so supportive, and are so good to you. I've probably already said it, but real friends are going to be there for you no matter what--they love all of you (even the not as fun parts) and I'm glad you have some like that. I'm with your ex-roomate on the cane stuff. If it's going to help you, you should do it. Who cares what other people think. If it makes you feel safer, more stable, you shouldn't hesitate to get one. I hope that your conversation with your Dr. about it goes well and you can get one and that it helps! Lots of love to you, I hope things are still going well!

#comet comments #owlish #comet's anons

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panics-side-blog · 10 months

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As much as I love preparing for pride month i am extremely scared of being hate crimed. Shit is getting worse and worse, i was lucky that i only saw one Nazi ,most of them where at a different part of the country and that people who looked at me in disgust keeped to themselves. But bigotry is spreading fast and i feel like the country is in this weird limbo of "we know it's getting bad but not bad enough to do something about it/only do a tiny bit that isn't really helping much".

Like in the whole city there is 1 police officer that works for identifying hate crimes for queer people and one giant incident of Nazis completely destroying the car of a gay man took like 4 months until they recognize "yes it was homophobia", even tho there where slurs and Nazi stickers on it.

I (hopefully) probably will be safe but I'm still really scared. My army knife won't do much if a Nazi will come to a pride march with a gun nor am I good at confrontations.

Please to all people here, be it gay,lesbian,trans,bi,aroace,black,brow, indigenous, Jewish,asian, disabled, neurodivergent,poor,muslim ECT stay safe my heart goes out for you all i wish you all a lot of strength and love. Times are getting harder and in moments like these we need to fight harder for the right to live.

Edit ; So I wrote it before pride month was going on and it stayed in my drafts because I forgor and guess what happened. I got verbally assaulted on the train :))) took me like a week to get over it and I feared for my live not even feeling safe in my own home. The biggest problem of it all this dude life's like 10 minutes away from me by foot (or something like that). Guess who is going to get pepper spray :))

#tw mention of Nazis #bigotry #lgbt pride #lgbtq rights #queer indigenous #queer poc #queer pride #queer #genuinely in a lot of fear but i still do my best to enjoy it #if something happens i can at least say i didn't hide who i was and got hurt as the person i want to be out and proud happy to show myself #pride month #pride march #and also with a community that (mostly) made me feel at home and safe #Edit ; plastered my entry door for my apartment to feel more safe #(stickers like acab punch nazis ect ect my neighbor saw it and gave me more stickers :33)#anyway it didn't really take away from my self-esteem or something like that #it just made me feel unsafe and triggered my CPTSD really badly #but besides that doing okay now been a month since it happened and didn't see him again (yet)#ramblings

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ecoamerica · 2 months

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youtube

Watch the American Climate Leadership Awards 2024 now: https://youtu.be/bWiW4Rp8vF0?feature=shared

The American Climate Leadership Awards 2024 broadcast recording is now available on ecoAmerica's YouTube channel for viewers to be inspired by active climate leaders. Watch to find out which finalist received the $50,000 grand prize! Hosted by Vanessa Hauc and featuring Bill McKibben and Katharine Hayhoe!

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sawcondeezicons · 1 year

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hiii so!!! i've been super inactive here, so here's a little long post explaining my absence:

A) i haven't been using my laptop a lot recently. due to just Life In General it's a lot easier for me to just use my phone for most things, n then use my laptop for coursework and video games. i don't have the same editing software on my phone so, whilst i still make icons there, they look quite different to my usual ones, and i worry abt the difference in visuals throwing any of you off or disappointing you.

B) as i may have mentioned in my carrd or an earlier post (idr lol), i have hypermobile ehlers-danlos syndrome. i was diagnosed when i was 4 and have known abt my disability my whole life. that being said, sometimes i still can't anticipate how or when things will effect me - the way i made icons on my laptop started causing my fingers to subluxate a lot more often than they used to, and so it took me a lot longer to get through requests and, by the time an icon set was finished, i was too tired to post it. if i do continue taking requests on this blog, i'll probably have to change the way i make my icons - and, again, i worry about disappointing people by doing so, but it just isn't sustainable.

C) i do have a bunch of requests (from months ago now - sorry for the wait) in my drafts that are waiting for image descriptions etc. my only real excuse for not posting these yet is that i find it difficult to focus on things sometimes, and therefore just sort of... leave them for later. and then either forget, or end up getting really busy and just not having the time or spoons.

all this to say - it's been a really long time since i last posted anything properly on this blog, and it may still be a while until i get around to answering your requests. some combination of perfectionism and internalised ableism made me nervous to admit that i may have to change the way i make them for this to work out - it felt ridiculous to admit something so simple was difficult for me, but it is, and that's not ridiculous at all.

i still make my own non-request icons for fun all the time (i don't have the same worries about disappointing people, and so i make more simple icons for my own use) and may start posting a few to ease back into it - my birthday is in 2 days, and i found an EDS pride flag that i really like, so i'm tempted to post some self-indulgent projection icons

anyway! sorry for the long explanation. if you don't wanna stick around, i totally get it, but if you do, then thank you for your patience :] happy belated holidays!

#og

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delphiniumjoy · 11 months

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Headcanons as Representation?

Happy Disability Pride Month everybody! Now I have a discussion question for the class. Where is the line between non-canon representation and accepted representation? I’m talking specifically in the context of autism because that’s my disability, and because hidden/speculated representation is less possible for visible disabilities. How do we define the canonicity of an autistic character? Do we consider ACD’s Sherlock Holmes to be autistic because he shows numerous traits and was created in a time before the word existed? Do we refuse BBC’s Sherlock because despite showing many of the same traits, he’s a negative stereotype to fulfill the creator’s intellectual power fantasy (the same creator who has specifically rejected people’s headcanons because his ableism means the label would ruin the fantasy)? Does representation need to be explicitly stated onscreen, or is a creator’s Twitter confirmation satisfactory?

I want to look at a very specific (and at this point irrelevant) piece of media for this. The fandom has mostly died out, but I was an active member in the heyday from 2017-2019, and as much as it pains me to admit it, I still have a lot of opinions about Be More Chill. I’m referring specifically to the musical, because I simply never read the book by Ned Vizzini, and because many elements were changed between the two. The question is, can we officially consider protagonist Jeremy Heere to be autistic? In original drafts of the show, the word was mentioned but eventually written out, presumably for “sensitivity” purposes. There’s audio from a workshop performance that has floated around TikTok, and while autistic creators are using it in a reclaimed sense, it’s understandable why it might’ve been uncomfortable for some. I’ll just type out the lyrics:

Every lame characteristic makes you come off as autistic. We’ll fix your vibe then fix some more… I am autistic… We’ll fix that.

This brings up another aspect to this conversation, though, and that’s how everything about the plot and Jeremy’s character arc aligns with ideas of unhealthy masking and even ABA therapy. Jeremy doesn’t fit in. He hates himself, and hates the idea that he’ll always be an outcast. He feels pathetic, which has been repeatedly reinforced by the society around him. So when he’s given a magical macguffin to make him more popular, he goes for it, despite knowing he’s doing so selfishly, and he faces the consequences. Those consequences, of course, are that the Squip is verbally, emotionally, and physically abusive (it regularly shocks him) to get him to alter his personality and behavior. One could argue that it is also responsible for the sexual assault in the second half of the show, because while another character is making unwelcome advances, the Squip makes it impossible for Jeremy to escape. It isolates him from what little support system he has, shames him for every unsightly aspect of his personality (even those he was personally okay with), and promises him that it is all in the interest of improving his life. This aligns pretty clearly with the methods and goals of ABA: forced compliance until the child can consistently appear “normal.”

Unsurprisingly, many autistic teenagers (myself included) really saw themselves in this show. Fortunately, Jeremy learns his lesson, the Squip goes away, and he’s able to build a community with old and new friends because everyone is now more able to drop the facade of social expectations. It gave us hope that maybe we would stop feeling so out-of-place eventually. Also, many of the characters were somewhat flat caricatures, in the way that most teenage characters written by middle-aged men tend to be, so the doors were WIDE open for extrapolation through fan-made content. And even though the explicit mention of autism had been written out of the version we all knew, many fans were headcanoning Jeremy as autistic anyway. Even those of us who didn’t explicitly have the headcanon were writing him as if he was, because we related to him (even if we didn’t know we were autistic at the time either). By the time the show was revived off-Broadway and transferring to Broadway, there was an incredibly dedicated fanbase of neurodivergent teenagers, and the show knew that was their audience. I have not seen the original source, but Will Roland, the actor who came on to play Jeremy in this later production, has apparently said that he also views the character as autistic, and portrayed him as such.

So returning to the question at hand: can we consider this canonical representation? Even if it’s not textually explicit, and even if the writers haven’t made any public statements, there were traces of intent in every era of the show. Despite all that, do we avoid doing so because the show actively frames autistic traits as shameful? Even though the intent is clearly to use the ordeal to come to a “just be yourself” conclusion, the resolution is quite rushed and sloppy, and could easily be misconstrued.

Obviously intentional, healthy representation will always be preferred, but is there a place for these characters to be considered?

#autistic #actually autistic #disability pride month #discussion #be more chill #jeremy heere #bmc jeremy #i could write a whole other essay about intellectual property in fandom #and how the show got SO MUCH worse when they rewrote it for Broadway #but that's not really relevant here #i have a degree in musical theatre i think i can speak about it with some authority #autistic representation #autistic headcanon #listen bmc is a bad show in a lot of ways #but it was a fun show #and there are things in it worth talking about

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redhairedtroublemaker · 2 years

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When I was initially asked to write something for Pride month, I readily agreed. As a member of the LGBTQIA+ community, and a therapist who specializes in working with this community, I believed that of course, it should be an easy way to help support my community. I can talk about queer related things for days, normally. But these are not normal times.

After weeks of staring at my screen, and several scrapped drafts, I have come to a realization: I am tired. And I am not alone. Our fatigue, not only felt by the LGBTQIA+, but by every oppressed community from women to bipoc, neurodivergent to disabled, is unrelenting and growing heavier. I have benefited from many privileges that made my load lighter: my education, my employment, my whiteness, and my ability to pass, have served to stave off the fatigue for a time. And recognizing that my load was lighter is why I agreed to write something, to do my share of the work.

I had been attempting to figure out what I had to say, what I wanted to say, what needed to be said, and unfortunately, there is nothing left for me to say that has not already been said over and over, by others who are smarter, more informed, and more articulate than I, for decades.

We have been saying the same things since before I was born, and nothing has changed. If anything, things have gotten worse. We gained the right to legally marry, yes, but we are not protected from discrimination or violence. I work with queer youth who are routinely bullied, and then ignored by teachers when they ask for help. I work with these children struggling to see a future for themselves, searching desperately for any reason to hope. Trans women die under mysterious circumstances and the half hearted investigations turn up nothing. There are bills being pushed designed to legislate me out of existence, and we are still met with lip service and rainbow branding and police. We are met with excuses about how thee chicken is just so good, and xyz politician has some good points even if he supports anti-queer laws.

We see through it. We know that this month is more about self proclaimed "alies" putting on a show and patting themselves on the back while not doing anything substantive. Pride month is treated as a false lent, and as long as people put on a good enough show, they can check their "be a good ally" box for the year and go back to not thinking about us or caring what happens to us. We see through it, and we are tired of it. Stop asking us to speak. Stop asking us to explain. Stop asking us to educate you. The information is out there, but a google search away. We are tired.

If you want your support to be more than lip service, don't expect your rainbow flag to be enough. We need action on your part. We have been working so hard, for so long. We are tired. It is time for you to step up. It is time for you to take action. Educate yourselves, educate your friends and family, do not support companies and organizations that are openly hostile to our community, do not vote for politicians who want us dead. Do something. It is far past time for action. We are tired.

#pride #lgbt #allyship

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samwisethewitch · 2 years

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May 2022 Update

I just wanted to update you all, since I've been kind of absent from blogging lately. I've got some exciting plans for the summer!

First of all, as you may have noticed, I have a new website. The WordPress blog just felt a little bit dated, so I decided to do something a bit more modern. The old blog is still up, but it is strictly an archive now.

I'm also offering tarot readings online for the first time! You can book a reading on the website, or on Etsy. I'll be using the Queer Tarot for all of my readings.

AND, I have a merch store now! You can get T-shirts, tank tops, hoodies, and tote bags in two different fat-positive witchy designs, in sizes ranging from XS to 5XL. You can also get Canvas prints of my art! I have big plans for the store -- I've got several designs that I'm currently testing, and I have something special planned for Pride Month in June.

On a more personal note, this is the last week of my undergrad. As of the day of this post, I've taken all but one of my final exams for my last semester. Hopefully this means more free time and more spoons for the things I actually enjoy doing.

And the biggest news: I'm working on a second book! I'm about 1/5 of the way through the first draft, and my goal is to finish the first draft this summer, edit in the fall, and hopefully start submitting to publishers by the end of the year. I had a really positive experience self-publishing my first book and would absolutely self-publish again, but I feel like this new project would do better as a collaboration with a pagan publishing house.

The new book looks at the connection between witchcraft and social activism, specifically the ways race, gender, sexuality, and social class interact with our magical practices and the historic connection between witchcraft and marginalized identities. If you've ever wanted to read a witchcraft book that quotes Karl Marx, this one is for you.

Because I am currently living and breathing antiracism, queer theory, postmodern feminism, and disability justice as I do research for this next book, some of those topics will probably make their way onto this blog. On the other hand, I'll definitely need breaks from reading and writing about how capitalism is killing us, so I'll probably also use this blog and my YouTube channel as a place for lighter subject matter and discussions.

So yeah, that's what's going on with me and what I'm working on right now. Big things are happening!

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dallonm-archive · 3 years

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[image description: a cropped image of a pink sky. on the right hand side is a bunch of darker pink clouds. Just left of the centre is a full moon. In the centre, in a white serif font reads "writing update" /end id]

july writing update

Hi friends! This writing update is me pretending I did Camp Nano and didn't kinda give up a week in! I had a proper goal and everything, but a lot of things got in the way that I'm not gonna talk about here because I already ranted about it in another update I'm drafting rn. Lets just say it's Disability Pride Month and being not neurotypical or able bodied in writing communities and their inherent focus on productivity is Hard.

But I did get some writing done and wanted to do a little Camp wrap up post regardless. And I'm doing it now because I'm cancelling the last week of July for some rest/self care and I do not want to think about writing for that time and if I write a tumblr post about July Nano being over my brain will think it's actually over <3 I will probably do updates like these for most months tho! Depends on how much I write lol! This one is not too long (by my standards) and has some Revelations, Revelations, Life Cycle of Massive Stars, Nocturne for the Holy and a new wip idea 👁️

excerpts under the cut!

general taglist ; ask to be + or - ; i only have one! ; @childhoodlovers @svpphicwrites @abiandwriting @kowlazovdi @avi-why @ryns-ramblings @kitblogsthings @bijouxs @bookphobe @moonhungers @alicewestwater @bookpacking @shaelinwrites @onlyganymede @theelectricfactory @write-like-babs @oceancold @sidhewrites @wolf-oak @oasis-of-you @coffeeandcalligraphy @cecilsstorycorner @howdywrites @keira-is-writing @flip-phones @piyawrites @avakrahn @goose-books @finch-goes-write @ziyin @aphaimaniis @isherwoodj @laughtracksonata

I'm also editing this in to say I only just realised that July is my writeblr birthday month and that is very weird to me! A year and a couple days ago I impulsively turned an old blog into a place to document writing for me and ended up meeting people who now mean the world to me and my writing blossoming in a way I never thought it would. And the funny part is it doesn't feel like it's been a year, ever since I joined it's just felt like life has Always been this way and I cannot fathom that it hasn't. I'm sappy bc it's 4am lol but ultimately the friends I made (you know who you are) and the community I found is what retaught me the value of writing and helped me unlearn toxic ideas and whilst the last year was tough I wish I could tell July 2020 Dallon (who did not realise he was Dallon yet </3) what July 2021 would look like.

revelations, revelations ;

Oh the absolute state of affairs with this book rn. Nothing bad but I don't know when I'm gonna update y'all because sometimes I do not know where to start when talking about this wip lol! Currently on a break with it (but also my thesis work is on late 20th century queer lit/history rn so am ever really free of RR? <3) but had a lot of fun with it at the end of June/start of July. Anyway here's Dorothy finally revealing more of herself to me after a year. Dorothy as a character is like, I truly believe she is capable of killing a man but the story she is in just does not allow that so I am trying to grow her unhinged side a little bit in other ways bc I know she has it in her but I also really cannot deal with the plot repercussions of her actually killing a man! I'm sorry Dotty but this'll have to do!

(cw for groping/a man being creepy as hell, death/funeral mention, drug mention, drowning imagery kinda)

There’s too much to tell Felix. That his sister lives on the fringe of Castro and has attended three funerals since September; that it’s January 11th and she’s already attended one this year. That his sister drives through sunsets and imagines parties: the amber dusk, warm mosaic tiles, platters of Greek salad skewers and shrimp tostadas, and sometimes Jolie joins her and they share a blunt on the hill. That his sister bought an aquamarine body-length dress for six bucks in a thrift store sale bin, so when her and Jolie broke up for the second time, she waltzed into a sunset party, locked arms with a CEO’s son and gave him a fake number and plucked strawberries out of champagne and blended so well nobody noticed when she left. That during the summer of ’83, his sister walked a neighbour’s Golden Retriever on Wednesdays, and on the sixth Wednesday he gave her a wad of tens with one hand and palmed the back of her neck with the other, so she walked his dog to the beach and stole another hundred from his wallet. That his sister bombed an interview for a Nursing school and didn’t get home until night and missed their monthly call, and Jolie heard the phone ring and didn’t take a message, so his sister snuck into the CEO’s son’s villa and floated in the centre of their heated pool like a cloud. A pause, a breath, an Opheliean threat.

life cycle of massive stars ;

Switched to LCOMS this month because I was burnt out with RR and it made such the difference! I really love working on two novels at once because it keeps me consistently creative but also both of these books are so different so its always refreshing to bounce back into one from another. I have a whole update in the drafts rn for this so keeping this part brief but still love this book, still the best thing that has ever happened to me, me and this book will have a glorious summer wedding etc etc. These excerpts are from chapters that summarise the first semester of each character's first year and have to say it. has been Very Fun to get into the mindset of Freshers Melodrama. Here's Junie having a crisis and an unhealthy relationship with her hetero flatmate :( (alcohol cw for both excerpts)

In October you are drinking double espresso and trying to breathe normally in lectures and you are trying to figure out your favourite colour because Fleur asked and you stumbled out an answer (Purple, I think. Violet? Lavender? Indigo?) and it didn’t match hers (I like yellow. I like sunlight). You buy mugs from IKEA to paint you paint cats and fireworks and constellations and moon phases and daisies. You try to scratch paint stains off your desk. You do laundry at 2am. In October you colour code your notes with pastel highlighters. You go to the library at 3am. You paint your nails sunlight and hate it. You finish an essay that’s due in December. You knock on Fleur’s door at 8am so she makes her 9am. You wear off the shoulder tops and you let a girl dab glitter on your collarbones and you are watching Fleur kiss a boy from the neighbouring hall. You bite your sunlight nails. You break the handle off your IKEA constellation mug. You leave your keys in a lecture hall and stand at the reception for forty minutes waiting for them to realise that the keys on the desk have the moon chain you mentioned - or, you are waiting to say it yourself. You are watching the rain trail down your window. In October you get a halo headband tangled in your hair you are sipping a vampire themed cocktail that tastes like acetone you rip your heels off and you go home early and do laundry at 2am and you are waiting for the courage to tell Fleur you don’t like clubbing - or, you are waiting for her to ask where you are. In October you are many things / a good student a dancer a painter an angel a big sister an alarm clock you are nocturnal and a lucid dreamer and confused about your sexuality / and it’s still October but it’s not because it’s November now and you are still Junie but not because you don’t know who Junie is. It’s November, it’s September October November December. It’s 2016 2017 2018 2019. You are fragments and you don’t know if you are a kaleidoscope or shattered glass.

And here's first year Tomas being like I Moved Countries For University And All I Got Was Homesickness And A Crush On My Flatmate And Resurging Autistic Symptoms And This Lousy T Shirt (cw: vomit mention, injection mention, parental death mention)

Kristen is seven months younger and five inches taller than you. He’s the last flatmate you met and the only one you talk to beyond kitchen greetings and passive aggressive texts about dirty dishes. He is too quiet and too loud and not the type of person you befriend. The first night, he lost Ring of Fire and downed the concoction of Echo Falls, Dark Fruits, Jack Daniels and coke, vodka and lemonade alongside a cigarette and said he’d let God figure out the rest. He held your hair back when you threw up amaretto and held onto your knee when you first self-injected testosterone. He taught you Yorkshire dialect and you pretended to understand the Yorkshire dialect. He told you he got diagnosed at four and you told him you didn’t get past the first assessment but sometimes you flick the bathroom light on and it’s fire: the orange on the orange towel is louder, the white on the white tiles are louder, the colours and light and sink and showerhead are prickly and all you can do is blink and breathe until it fizzles out. You reminded him to take his meds and asked if you were weak for wanting to drop out and hop on the first Eurostar to Rotterdam. He reminded you to take off your binder and asked if he was robotic for not grieving his mother. You spent inky nights on the kitchen floor, counting the dead flies in the lights and scooping crumbly coconut ice cream out of a maker you got for half price in TK Maxx. You spent dusk-dusted afternoons at the global street food markets, at the vegan markets. Spent student loans on raspberry lemonade in recycled cups, veggie burgers in beetroot buns, got him hooked on poffertjes and advocaat and could’ve cried when the vendor spoke to you in Dutch. Sometimes you didn’t buy anything. Just liked hovering at stalls ambered with fairy lights, writing down Etsy stores on your notes app; just liked Kristen’s impulse to trek forty minutes into the city for a market he didn’t know existed until five minutes before; just liked how he always invited only you, cancelling your other plans last minute, the feeling of being ambushed; just liked how he stopped to take photos of dogs and the sunset; just liked how he looked haloed under lampposts waiting for Ubers, golden on golden.

This is also nearing creative nonfiction because Sheffield truly is a haven for just. vegan markets and cafes lol! I experimented with veganism there and never struggled to find something and at this point I call myself a fake vegan because it's too easy to be vegan in Sheffield and too difficult to be vegan in my actual hometown. And the global street food markets!!! SO GOOD! I miss pre pandemic days

nocturne for the holy ;

Giving her a little shout out because she does exist actually! I've figured out a really good system for working on two novels at a time, so my plan is maybe to start properly on this after I finish either RR or LCOMS. Idk I got 3 novels to pick from haha oops! I did do some free drafting back in April though and found it recently and I Like It! And I edited it so it counts as Something I Did This Month :) Also have decided that I loathe this working title <3 Okay see you with an update for this novel in like a year, sorry for the absolute zero context for this excerpt hehe

The morning I was due back, I hadn’t yet decided that this would be my last visit. I wandered between rooms like an overstayed guest, like I didn’t know which crockery lived in which cabinet and which bedroom had the best view of the overlapped hills. Dad would wake for his run in an hour, plastered to his twenty-year-old routine. Mum would pretend to be asleep until breakfast. Until then, it was myself and the house, hazed by sleepy sunrise. Downstairs. The peeling paisley wallpaper in the lounge, the lilies in the middle of the kitchen table, the vases of candy floss pink peonies wilting on every windowsill, the desolate double swing-set in the garden. The mist-clogged mornings. I stood outside in my dressing-gown until my fingertips felt numb. Upstairs. The sage coloured bathroom. The bathtub I’d laze in with my clothes on and no water because it was the quietest room in the house. The dusty dance trophies on the top of my wardrobe. Wine-flushed Jeanette in my teenage bedroom. The stale grey mum painted my teenage bedroom after I moved out. Minus their room, I stalked the layout of the house three times before settling back into bed - teenage Nora’s bed. Nora who cared for peonies and pushed her brother on the swing set and flung her ceramic ballerina at the wall and jogged with her father and collected wine bottles and acorns and kisses from girls who were supposed to visit for dance practice. Before I left, I’d have cycled each room another three times. And in every room he was there, hovered in the corner like black mould.

love this update bc it's like i've got my third person, my second person, my first person! collecting all the POVs like chaos emeralds :)

eulogy for our burnings ;

-looks away-

girl help I did it AGAIN!!!! Apparently Camp Nano is just the perfect time for me to get novel ideas. I made this post specifically to talk a bit about this because I have no idea when I'll draft it but it's certainly not soon. This is not me trying to doubt my own skill but I feel like I am not in the place I'd like to be as a writer to tackle this project with the zest it needs, however I am v excited by the prospect of it! Don't know how I feel about the working title bc I'm like "that doesn't sound right but I don't know enough about this wip to dispute it" but the only purpose my working titles serve is to sound pretty lol! But here's the tea:

1991, UK.

2nd person present + past. Very flexible form. I can't decipher how yet but I'm feeling interviews, newspaper articles, receipts, grocery store lists weaved with actual narrative, that kinda vibe.

Best summary is we follow our nameless narrator, a stealth trans man, as he becomes unhealthily obsessed with a man who "hires" him to photograph the buildings he burns

Very,,, isolated? Minimal settings, minimal characters, minimal prose etc. Almost claustrophobic

There's basically only two characters and they are probably the most morally deplorable, indefensible characters I've created which just means most of you are gonna LOVE this /lh I do too I do too

Only comp title I can give is it has the vibes/tone of Boy Parts by Eliza Clark (just with none of the nsfw content lol if you've read the book you know what I'm talking about) (also that book is great for morally deplorable women protagonists but omg look up the content warnings because it caught me off guard! enjoyed it tho gave it 4 stars)

The pinterest board is the best visualisation of the Vibes also follow me on pinterest lol

And that's all I've got today! A bigger Life Cycle of Massive Stars update coming in the next few weeks. Might do a proper intro post for Eulogy For Our Burnings but idk!!! It's a surprise :) Thank you for reading this far!

#also i have LOTS to catch up on so if u tagged me in anything im gonna do a big queue of rb's soon!#promise im not ignoring anybody!#just barely functioning <3 #atlastracking #writing update #revelations revelations #life cycle of massive stars #nocturne for the holy #eulogy for our burnings

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thereadingchallengechallenge · 3 years

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Read in June 2021 🏳️‍🌈

A quieter Pride month than I’d anticipated but The Degenerates was just so good, I couldn’t face reading something that might usurp it from my favourite of the month :p I’m kidding, it just gave me a massive book hangover, but I did get the author’s next book in the mail today so maybe that’ll solve the problem

I set out to read only LGBT+ books by authors of colour and/or that included disabled or mentally ill queer characters which I achieved! but I still have a pretty long TBR I wish I could’ve gotten through... either way, I enjoyed the books I did read and I’ve included my DNFs for your perusal - I didn’t like them but you might :)

Australian Authors:

The Boy From the Mish by Gary Lonesborough - 5/5

Backlog Books:

This Is Kind of an Epic Love Story by Kacen Callender - 2/5

Tell Me Again How A Crush Should Feel by Sara Farizan - 5/5

The Devouring Gray by Christine Lynn Herman - 3/5

The Deck of Omens by Christine Lynn Herman - 3/5

The Degenerates by J Albert Mann - 5/5

Seven Ways We Lie by Riley Redgate - 3/5

Other Reads:

How It All Blew Up by Arvin Ahmadi - 5/5

Cinderella is Dead by Kalynn Bayron - 4/5

You Should See Me In A Crown by Leah Johnson - 5/5

Heartstopper Volume 4 by Alice Oseman - 4/5

DNFs:

The Art of Saving the World by Corinne Duyvis

How It Feels to Float by Helena Fox

Growing Up Queer in Australia (ed.) by Benjamin Law

Eight Pieces of Silva by Patrice Lawrence

Noteworthy by Riley Redgate

Final Draft by Riley Redgate

The Gravity of Us by Phil Stamper

As Far As You’ll Take Me by Phil Stamper

Tarnished Are the Stars by Rosiee Thor

#read last month #june wrap up #pride month #lgbt books #booklr #bookblr #ya booklr #disabled characters #trcc original #2021 #set your raygun to queue

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ariaadagio · 3 years

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In 2021 we stan people being proud of their accomplishments! post your five (or more) favorite fics that you've ever written and anonymously pass this on to as many of your fav writers as you want. let's begin this new year by showering ourselves and each other with love and pride and good thoughts, we all deserve it!

Hello! I’m sorry I took so long to reply to this. It’s been sitting for a while because I was thinking about how I’d answer.

1. For Each Ecstatic Instant. I was so reluctant to start writing this it took me 3-ish months from concept to full commitment, which for anyone who knows me and my ADHD mind, knows that’s eons. For a while, I’d almost convinced myself to post it under another pen name. There was a several week period toward the end I was convinced it was irredeemable crap. I sobbed over it for days, thinking I should just delete the whole fucking thing despite having worked on it for nearly a year. But thanks to some espresso shots of sage advice from @tarysande, some back-and-forths of in-depth critical analysis with @hiromystory, and all my wonderful beta-reader cheerleaders pushing me to keep at it, I was able figure out how to take the ROUGH rough draft, and make it into what I feel is a beautiful engaging story I’m proud of, and not afraid to put my name to, even though the tropes are niche, the plots are many (and nutbar), the narrative structure isn’t quite standard, and the subject matter is dark. Really, I cannot express what a journey writing this thing was. When I finally post the ending, I’m probably going to cheer so hard for myself, you’ll hear me on Pluto :P

2. Castaway. This fic was basically a giant ode to Aria working on her issues with death. Very triggering for me (and I do not use the word trigger lightly or in jest), but I chose to tackle it anyway. Toward the end of writing this, I was a sobbing wreck, but I kept on keeping on, and managed to get to the ending safe and sound. To boot, I feel like I told a damned good story!

3. Some Say In Ice. After a traumatic fandom experience that nearly got me to quit writing (and by extension quit fandom) altogether, this was the story that reminded me how much I enjoy crafting epic narratives and entertaining people. Nearly twenty years after Buffy first aired, I found writing this to be extremely low pressure. No big active fandom to play nice with, no expectations from scores of readers. I just wrote what I wanted to read, and it felt great. I’ve since taken this as my fannish credo: no matter what happens in fandom or what kind of feedback I get, I will always write first for my number one fan: me. Anybody else I please in the process? Icing on an already tasty cake.

4. Reclaim. I’m really proud of this fic for the subject matter it tackles: healing after a traumatic brain injury. Not just for the injured, but for the loved ones involved. Years later, I still remember one comment I received from a reader who said, as a disabled parent, she really appreciated the sensitivity with which I approached the subject of disabled parents. And another comment from a reader who had a brain damaged husband, thanking me profusely for giving her hope. And still many others from readers who appreciated the catharsis this fic offered after an upsetting event in canon. It always means a lot to me when I touch people on a personal level with my words, and to this day I think this fic is probably the most impactful thing I’ve written.

5. The Return of Lex (again). This fic is objectively terrible. But it’s the first fanfic I ever wrote, way back when I was about 14. I was so new it didn’t even occur to me to be nervous about posting it. I’m proud of it because without it, I wouldn’t be where I am today, writing crazy sweeping niche-tastic plot-splosions like For Each Ecstatic instant.

#ask aria #on fanfiction #feei #stuckfic #aria writes

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aroworlds · 5 years

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I’ve been having a lot of health problems these past three months. Every time I think I can get back to posting online, something happens immediately afterward. (This last week is insomnia. I wish not sleeping meant I could just hop online at 3 AM and schedule posts instead, but the increased pain from lack of sleep makes me less able to type and think.) It’s frustrating because it makes it so difficult to express myself and interact with other people. I’ve also had my skin condition flare up in ways that make moving and flexing my hand difficult, and a lot of times where I can use a mouse but can’t type or can type but can’t use a mouse!

The other reason for my absence is that I will not survive if I don’t get some sort of financial support for my creations. I live in a capitalist world, a world that is incredibly unforgiving for most creatives and is all but impossible for marginalised ones. Unfortunately, disability means I need more money than most, not less, to survive. The medication that makes me most functional isn’t covered by the PBS because of my age: I need to find $35 AUD a month in addition to my other many medications because the government thinks I’m too young to need it. I’m aware that my life would have been even worse without this medication, which ... well, it’s hard to type that without crying. This disaster is the best I seem to be allowed to get at the moment, and that’s heartbreaking. It’s just heartbreaking.

I can’t even halfway function anymore without that medication, and I can’t afford to take it on a regular basis. But because of my disabilities, I find working regular jobs difficult. I need work that lets me work for an hour and then stop for three when my hands are bad; I need work that lets me not work for a week when I can’t. I need a flexibility that isn’t dependent on someone else’s schedule, and the only way I know to do that is through my own work.

But, because I am disabled, I can’t create my usual content and make content for a subscription service like Patreon at the same time. I’ve had to take time off one to prepare content for the other. I do not know how well I’ll be able to interact with my community and make subscriber-only extra content at the same time when the first one alone was already difficult, and because I’ve been so struggling with sleeplessness and porokeratosis and migraines and pain, I didn’t get enough content prepared ahead of launch.

I’m going to have to think about this blog, what I can do, what I should do, what kinds of interactions I can keep up with, what I can’t. For one thing, I have 700 posts in the draft folder waiting for tags so I can queue them, and I’ve moved to posting four times a day because this is getting ridiculous. But I’m also considering moving to a no-tag format to cut down on my workload, as much as tagging is important for access, filtering and organisation. The (very full) inbox is another dilemma. Maybe if I do two asks a week instead of trying to keep up with everything as it comes in, which I very much can’t? I don’t know. I really don’t.

The reality is that this blog gets more replies, asks, messages and content-added reblogs than I can ever keep up with. That alone would be a full-time job for a disabled person like me. But if I do all that, I can’t do the work that I’m hoping will someday help me conjure that extra $35 AUD a month. I’m ignoring a lot of you not because I’m ignoring you but because I cannot respond to you if I want to do other things--and sometimes those “other things” aren’t “draft a subscriber-only post” but are simple things like “fold my laundry” or “make lunch”. It’s the hardest thing in the world to not even have the spoons to talk to my friends when they want to talk to me, and the guilt of not being able to communicate with other people when they approach me isn’t that much easier to bear. Do I write a post that expresses myself or do I talk to a friend? What if that post is important for me to express? How do I manage all this when my spoons are so limited?

(The things that may help make blogging and internet interaction easier for me cost money I don’t have. If I could dictate to someone who’d type my stories, for example--because fantasy names, speech to text and my Australian accent and autistic-fast speech are a disaster of incomprehensibility--I’d have more spoons for other online work. But I don’t have that money, so...)

One of the reasons I’ve been putting together the Aro Arrows site--an archive for aromantic-themed stock images--is because it’s something I can do for the community when I can’t type or express myself in words. It makes me feel like I’m doing something worthwhile even when words (typed, dictated) are impossible, and I think having free-use stock image options for professional websites and publications is important for a community looking to grow beyond Tumblr. So another thing I’ll be looking at is finding a balance between stories/posts and non-text-based creativity, because it’s easier for me to do a bit of both instead of mostly one or the other.

I’m in a difficult situation, and I see no good way out of it. Other than the realisation that I need to make my creativity help me pay for my medication, which means--because I am disabled--recognising that if I concentrate my spoons on that, I have to let go of or make compromises on other things. Do I know yet how I’m going to do this? No, I don’t!

In the meantime, if you have a $1 a month to spare and you want to support me, I do now have a Patreon. I’m posting something new every day this first week, which so far includes an exclusive Marchverse story, early access to a new Hallo, Aro story and early access to DNI-style aro arrow pride banners (part one, part two). There’s more banners and another exclusive story to come in the next couple of days as well.

Thanks so much for reading and your understanding. It’s genuinely appreciated.

#personal #patreon #link #not media #not aromantic #mod chatter #aro arrows #hallo aro #disability #text #long post #very long post #extremely long post #random asides #off topic #i'm so tired #and the government's age based discrimination is not helping me sleep

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insomnihan · 5 years

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han’s List of Kpop Songs That Will Make You Go “Harold...”

HAPPY PRIDE this has been sitting in my drafts for months SO these were made for the lesbians and the lesbians only enjoy (in no particular order):

1. Tenny “159 cm”

youtube

this song is very gentle sounding and the storyline is very well done it played with my emotions at the end but its a good ending i promise

2. Sistar “One More Day”

youtube

pretty sure everyones heard of this one too but if you havent ive never been so deep in my emotions yet also wanting to dance at the same time-

3. Suran “Sad Pain”

youtube

the storyline is one girl is going blind and the other girl has ptsd and they work through it (some people in the comments think theyre friends but harold......) i cry every time

4. Chaness “Sesese”

youtube

(trigger warning: theres a big ass spider throughout the mv) the story is hard to explain and to be honest ive been trying to type it for like ten minutes BUT married couple, wife is sick/disabled, helper is there and shes in love with wife, husband is an abusive alcoholic, helper has to protect the wife from him

5. Red Velvet “Wish Tree”

youtube

again i think weve all heard this one before i dont have to explain it do i-

Honorable Mentions (aka i cant put more than five videos so theyre linked): ANDA “Touch”, Baby Soul x Yoo Jia “She’s a Flirt”, LOONA/Chuu “Heart Attack”, Epitone Project “Hate”, Sweet Revenge “Cry to Your Heart’s Content”

Not Into It? Try These Songs: Camila&Girl Crush — Cherry On Top, We Girls&Soyou — Female Soloists Who Should Kill Me — Pixy Stix Aren’t Enough — Makes Me Scream Into the Void (Part 1) (Part 2) — Make Rain Start Pouring— HASHTAG — Ladies Code — Searching KProfiles (A - M) (N - Z) — Female Soloists to Spice Up Your Life

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etherian-affairs · 5 years

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The Lord and Lady of Dryl - Chapter 6.5

So quick note. This was my original writing of chapter 7, first draft of it. I scrapped when I realized this was superfluous and would make things drag a tad too much.

I’m posting here though because... well it does take place between chapter 6 and what became chapter 7, doesn’t contradict much of what was done with chapter 7m and people sounded interested in some of the scrapped stuff I have.

Since it’s the first draft and I have a migraine tonight expect it to be rough around the edges and on the shorter end but hey its some fluff.

Ficlet below the readmore.

"You always impress, My Beloved." It was true. Lady Entrapta never failed to impress Hordak in whatever ventures she pursued. As the Lord of Dryl looks down at his old heavily damaged armor he feels that flame of pride and affection within him yet again.

"Thank you!" She moves quickly around the lab, gathering tools.

It had come to Lady Entrapta as she made her way back to the Alliance war room. She and Hordak had been aware for some time that his old armor remained in Bright Moon, it had been taken off of him shortly after his body had been brought to the castle. For the past few months Bow and the other more technical minded Alliance specialists had poked at it. It was easily the most advanced piece of technology the Horde had possession of in its time. The Alliance had much to learn from it.

So the idea of giving it over to Entrapta, of even letting her have access to it, was controversial to say the least. Yet the current Fright Zone crisis presented the perfect opportunity. Lady Entrapta made her request, her demand really, and backed it up with argument. This crisis was important enough that she may have been able to get the armor with desire alone, but to back it with logic and reasoning would make it assured. Her arguments were quick, almost slapdash, but sound to the untrained ear.

The Armor held access keys for the Fright Zone stored within and only Entrapta had the technology needed to retrieve them. Of course she left out that she already had all of the keys to that castle. She could use material from the armor to make her own shielded suit for the coming mission. Ignoring the fact that she could construct such a thing without Hordak's armor just fine. If the generators are too dangerous she could use it as the basis for a bot specifically for the task of disabling them from within. Of course any of her Horde derived bots could also perform this task with modification and a healthy dose of expendability.

It had worked though. The princesses had yielded and now Hordak looked down at the mangled form of his old armor. The final battle had taken a heavy toll on it, and the prodding of Bright Moons brightest had not helped. It was here though, and they had a plan for it.

First however was the crisis that bought them this item. "I began modification of some of the robots right after our initial discussion ended." Hordak notes, suddenly shifting back to business. Lady Entrapta has just returned from Bright Moon and there is much to do. "Shielding taken from some of the mining equipment does seem sufficient, they will be slowed but for this task it is not an issue."

"Good!" Entrapta is already looking over the deactivated bots in the lab. All standard tripedal spherebots in various stages of up-armoring. "I can finish this up fast. Can you get to work on a suit for me? We can base it off my Horde Uniform! You had that already pretty sealed and armored when you made it for me!"

Hordak blinks. "You still have that?" He had not even thought about Entrapta's old Horde Uniform since Awakening in Dryl. It was not even really a uniform per say, rather it was a completely custom outfit designed only with the Lady of the Horde in mind.

It had been beautiful in its practical industrial way. A black and red and iron grey number to match Hordak's own clothing. It was based upon what Hordak had come to call Entrapta's 'default outfit' but enhanced, made more useful and defensive. A protective black body glove formed the base, the horde insignia emblazoned on it's back. Everything above that was to Entrapta's own desires. Practical and easy. Insulated work pants, a tight but flexible similarly insulated jacket. Heavy gloves and armored boots. Layered and flexible armored plate and pieces of tech strapped on to her torso, arms, shoulders, all as needed for whatever job she was working on. The Horde Insignia always finding a place to be prominently displayed no matter the configuration.

It was all so familiar, yet so different. as Entrapta informed Hordak, the first time the Princesses saw her in it they were shocked and very nearly appalled. It had been rather amusing for them.

Now Lady Entrapta smiles "Of course! I'd still be wearing it if it didn't make people so uncomfortable! It was very useful!" She sighs a little as her mask comes down and she continues Hordak's own work on the bots. "It's in storage over there! I took everything with me when I left the Horde so we should be able to make a configuration for this!"

Lord Hordak nods. "I will handle it." He says as he moves to the storage lockers in the back corner of their lab.

It is easy to imagine that when the Lord and Lady work they work in focused comfortable silence, you would be wrong. Lady Entrapta has always been a talker, especially while working in fact, and over their time together that habit has in some ways rubbed off on Hordak. Though not to nearly Entrapta's extent. Rather it is just enough to create comfortable discussion. Telling each other about what they are currently doing, talking about theory behind their project. If they are working on the same project a perfect flow of communication to help the work. If they are working separately it is simply loving informative talk on their respective projects.

So this is how the work goes. Together, towards a known practical goal. Eventually exhaustion begins to overtake Entrapta, after far more than twenty-four hours awake. It is now that Hordak finds himself slowing in his modification of Entrapta's suit. Largely because Entrapta has moved to Hordak's side to rest against him. She comments quietly. "You're modifying the insignia?"

Hordak nods as he carefully modifies the insignia on the armored plate he's added to Entrapta's uniform. "The old Horde Crest will cause problems." It's a simple replacement. Hordak's wings for the cog and compass rose of Dryl. "I considered combining Dryl's crest with the Horde's admittedly."

Lady Entrapta smiles, imagining the cog flanked by Hordak's wings. "That would be aesthetically pleasing. Perhaps later we could change Dryl's official crest to that."

"The Alliance would take issue, our cover might even be completely blown." Of course Hordak would actually quite like to see such a crest taken as Dryl's. It would be personal, and meaningful, and in a way boastful.

"Likely." Entrapta admits. "Oh. We can put that on your armor when we repair it." She grins

"That is not a bad idea." Hordak finally shifts and sits back, putting an arm carefully around Entrapta. She does not show any sign of discomfort, so he holds her in that light way. "It should be me going on this mission. My body is hardier than yours."

"We don't have a suit for you. It is not feasible." Entrapta is right, but that does not change Hordak's opinion on the matter. "I also am better at data collection which is something I am quite excited for."

"That is among your specialties." He admits.

Still Hordak cannot help but have that twinge of concern. Yes the plan is to survey with bots first and only send Entrapta in if it is deemed safe enough, but there is a part of Hordak that feels there will be nothing he feels is safe enough. At least from a subjective standpoint.

Eventually the Lord of Dryl feels his Lady's breath equalize and her body go limp with sleep. Good, she needs the rest. The evil overlord shifts once again and gently lifts Entrapta up in a bridal carry. Slowly and evenly he carries her to their chambers. It rouses her just enough for her to help Hordak undress her and lay her in bed. The Lady murmurs something unintelligible as she burritos herself in blankets and hair.

How long has Hordak been awake? He looks over his recent memories. Just about four days. The Somnic Node implanted in his brain is currently asking permission to do another partial sleep. That is acceptable. Hordak can keep going, he does not need all brain functions to continue the work currently underway.

So Lord Hordak returns to the lab, finishing the careful work on Entrapta's armored suit for this task. It must be as close to perfect as he can make it, risk must be minimized. When Entrapta awakens the bots will be sent into the Fright Zone, and more than likely Entrapta will follow them in soon after. He glances at his damaged armor on a workbench nearby. If only that final fight had not gone so brutally, the armor could have been repaired and enhanced for this task.

He will have to take the next dangerous mission instead.

#the lord and lady of dryl #entrapdak #lord hordak #hordak #my writing #the lady of lost chapters

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