Fandoms and Other Great Things

It's a mess here. Welcome. I also write fanfics! (icon by @worryfornaught)

[headspace-hotel]

I don't even bother hardly to orrect my typos anymore. It is just affirmation that these words were typed by the hands of human being and not extruded by a fucnking AI

[headspace-hotel]

one of my professors was like (paraphrasing) "AI makes you sound the same as everybody else. The idea of a single "correct" English is racist and flattens the diversity of people. I don't care about grammar outside of the writing being understandable. I want to hear YOUR voice, Your dialect the unique way you communicate."

I have been more appreciative of the rough edges of human communication since chatGPT came to be. The misspellings and turns of phrase that real people produce.

The inherently flawed nature of an alive thing vs. the empty perfection of something that never had life in it at all

[spacevamp]

shoutout to aros and aces and aro aces this june btw

[cordership]

[cactusringed]

I think fanfiction as a medium is different enough from mainstream literature in the tools it offers writers that it's a shame that it's not talked about more often. And it's not me saying "fanfic is better than books xD" because that sort of mindset is a symptom of people who aren't particularly well read in either medium. I'm just speaking of like... The little things you get to do with a fanfic that you genuinely can't really do in an original story.

I had a big fanfic in a previous fandom where one of the big reveals was the involvement of a kind of infamous villain, whose presence was built up to and foreshadowed through the whole fic until his reveal without ever mentioning his name, so that the name drop would be a gut punch. It worked especially well because of who the villain was and his presence in that fandom space specifically (it's very complicated) and if it was an original story this reveal wouldn't work at all the way it was written in the fic. Because if you don't have a predisposition to think about that character and his relationship to the hero in a very specific way, then just seeing their name won't do much to you; the reveal and the recontextualisation it pushes upon you hinges on your previous knowledge of the source material.

I think it's an interesting tool fanfic authors are given. One of my favorite fanfic of all time is partially a re-imagining of its source material's canon, and something it does is introduce antagonists much earlier in the story or deepen npcs' stories. It then works to evoke a tragic irony that again wouldn't work if you didn't know the source material, and it's something the author obviously has a lot of fun with.

You could call it cheap or a crutch and I mean, yeah, sure, it is a little bit: the fanfic relies on previously established emotional bonds and stakes to achieve its goal, and in some cases it saves the author from having to 'properly' build up its stakes. But I think it's INTERESTING that it has that tool at its disposal. I think it's a fun thing to play with and I think these built in expectations and emotional bonds are especially why I find story driven aus in particular to be fascinating in the amount of ways you can play with them. You know??

[luna-azzurra]

Lies Your Character Tells Themselves!!

✶ "I don't need anyone." (Reality caves when they're sick, alone, and no one checks on them because they trained everyone not to.)

✶ "I'm over it." (Caves when they see their ex happy with someone else and realize they've been paused for three years.)

✶ "It wasn't that bad." (Caves when they see someone else experience the same thing and feel protective rage they never felt for themselves.)

✶ "I work better under pressure." (Caves at 4am when their hands won't stop shaking and they can't remember the last time they ate.)

✶ "They'll come back." (Caves when someone new sits in their usual spot and the world didn't actually stop turning.)

✶ "I'm not like my parents." (Caves mid-argument when they hear their mother's exact words coming out of their mouth.)

✶ "I just need to be thinner/richer/smarter/better." (Caves when they achieve the goal and the emptiness is still there, unchanged, patient.)

✶ "I can quit whenever I want." (Caves when they try to stop for one day and their body betrays them with withdrawal, need, panic.)

✶ "Time heals everything." (Caves on the ten-year anniversary when it hurts exactly the same.)

✶ "I'm protecting them by staying away." (Caves when they find out the person spent years thinking they weren't wanted, weren't loved.)

✶ "It's not abuse if I provoked it." (Caves when they see a child get yelled at for nothing and want to shield them from everything.)

✶ "I don't deserve better." (Caves when someone treats them with basic kindness and they break down crying in a Starbucks bathroom.)

✶ "Asking for help is weakness." (Caves when they physically can't do it alone anymore and pride becomes a luxury they can't afford.)

✶ "People leave, that's just how it is." (Caves when someone stays through the ugly and they realize they've been the one pushing everyone away.)

✶ "I'm too damaged for love." (Caves when someone looks at their scars and doesn't flinch.)

✶ "Success will make me happy." (Caves at the top of the ladder when the view is just lonelier, higher up.)

✶ "They didn't mean it like that." (Caves when the same pattern repeats and excuses run out and they're tired, so tired of translating cruelty into kindness.)

✶ "I'm fine being alone." (Caves during a random Tuesday evening when the silence becomes a physical weight crushing their chest.)

✶ "Emotions are weakness." (Caves when they feel nothing at their own parent's funeral and realize they've amputated part of their humanity.)

✶ "I'll deal with it later." (Caves when 'later' becomes 'never' and the rot they've been ignoring finally consumes the foundation.)

[thewritingrealm]

If you're reading this...

go write three sentences on your current writing project.

[ezzydean]

# my favourite part about this post # is that nowhere does it say to reblog this # but we’re all reblogging it # because if we have to suffer # so do other writers

[thefoundationproject]

Boop

[j-train13]

Astronauts are so funny man. Here's just a couple of things I've found hilarious from this past week of space stuff:

It's probably already been spread around here enough already, but in case anyone's missed it; 7 hours after launch, commander Reid Wiseman, dealing with tech issues, uttered the generational quote "I have two Microsoft Outlooks and neither one of those are working."

After fixing the issues that were afflicting the onboard toilet, mission specialist Christina Koch (who has quickly become my favourite of the four) laughingly said “I’m the space plumber, I’m proud to call myself the space plumber.”

On Easter Sunday, the Artemis II crew hosted a makeshift egg hunt, by hiding packets of dehydrated scrambled eggs around their Orion capsule.

The way the crew always makes sure to make it very clear they're in space when doing interviews. From stuff like Wiseman just hanging out floating sideways on screen or Koch letting her hair loose so it can freely span out flowing around her.

While in transit, the crew decided to record a parody of those bad 80s sitcom intros where everyone turns and smiles at the camera.

When the crew reached the furthest point from Earth in the mission, they jokingly clambored over each other in an effort to get to the far side of the capsule, so that they could individually claim to be the furthest person from earth.

At the same time, on the ISS which was at the time on the other side of earth, the 7 astronauts onboard had a light-hearted race to the far side of the station, making jokes about being the furthest humans from Artemis.

On the way back to earth, NASA actually managed to establish an audio call between the crews of the ISS and Artemis II (where they shared the above info), and Koch called one member of the ISS crew, Jessica Meir, her "astro-sister" as the two of them previously spacewalker together in 2019. Meir then responded I'm so happy that we are back in space together, even if we are a few miles apart" (a few here being 230,000).

While Jeremy Hansen was doing an interview, Wiseman and Koch were just in the background swatting the mission mascot (a little moon plush toy named Rise) back and forth between each other.

[afeelgoodblog]

Happy Leland Melvin Day!!!

[shrewreadings]

Happy Leland Melvin Day!

[squidificati0n]

Happy Leland Melvin Day!

[communistkirby]

Happy Leland Melvin Day!!!

[eethok]

It’s Thursday night somewhere

[luna-azzurra]

Body language cues for a few Emotions

REPOST!

── .✦ Happiness

Smiling genuinely, with crinkles around the eyes.

Open body posture, with relaxed arms and shoulders.

Leaning forward slightly towards the person of interest.

Making eye contact with a warm and engaged expression.

── .✦ Anger

Tightened jaw and clenched fists.

Furrowed brows and narrowed eyes.

Standing or sitting with a rigid and tense posture.

Pointing fingers or aggressive gestures.

Raised voice or speaking through gritted teeth.

── .✦ Sadness

Downcast eyes and a drooping posture.

Slumped shoulders and shallow breathing.

Avoiding eye contact and withdrawing from social interaction.

Sighing or a subdued tone of voice.

Tearfulness, with watery or red eyes.

── .✦ Fear

Widened eyes with dilated pupils.

Raised eyebrows and a tense facial expression.

Frozen or rigid body posture.

Backing away or seeking physical distance from the perceived threat.

Trembling or shaking, especially in the hands or legs.

── .✦ Surprise

Raised eyebrows and widened eyes.

Mouth slightly agape or forming an "O" shape.

Leaning forward or recoiling backward in response to the surprise.

Quick inhalation or gasp of breath.

Rapid blinking or blinking more than usual.

── .✦ Disgust

Curling the upper lip or wrinkling the nose.

Narrowing the eyes and raising the upper eyelids.

Turning the head away or physically distancing oneself from the source of disgust.

Covering the mouth or nose with the hand or a tissue.

Expressing verbal disgust through phrases like "ew" or "yuck."

[teaboot]

Not pertinent to anything in particular but I do think it's kinda weird that we keep depicting cavemen in media crawling around on all fours covered in dirt with tangled, matted hair, speaking in broken, cobbled-together toddler language when like.

They were us.

Like literally genetically they were US, just like. A while ago.

Like

Would you trust a TV caveman with a baby? Probably not

A real life caveman though??? I think they'd be at least okay at it

[sheilikhal]

This is actually really important and comes up in Anthropology classes all. The. Time.

As long as homo sapiens have existed, we have had the same emotional and mental capacity as you and I do today. You nailed it. They were US. Even Neaderthals existed alongside and had offspring with Homo Sapiens for many thousands of years.

There's much evidence that cavemen would have had complex spoken language, culture (learned information passed down), symbolic interpretation, and I think they most certainly would have been able to handle holding a baby. In fact I have my suspicisions that an ancient homo sapiens mother may be a more present, attentive, and knowledgable mom than I could be today.

Do not let media trick you into believing we are the pinnacle of humanity. Unilinial evolution theory (google it quick I beg) is BUNK, GARBAGE, and the root of so much evil.

We've been human for a long, long time, and we are not inherently better than all those who came before.

[fresne999]

One the most profound experiences of my life was visiting Font de Gaume, which has 12 thousand year old paintings. They use a technique where the horses appeared to run across the wall when seen in flickering firelight. There was a bison the wall staring at us with such attitude, I could practically hear him. I had the most profound feeling of those ancient artists reaching forward to lay their hands on my shoulders. To say, "This was my world." It was a profoundly moving experience.

Some years later, I went to the Orkney islands where we visited a tiny family run museum of artifacts from the chambered tomb at the other end of the farm. They handed me a pestle once held by some neolithci human.They'd worn groves where the thumb and forefinger would be for better grip.

[cymbie8]

One time, in a French history class, my teacher randomly at the end of the class had all of us draw a sketch of a horse. And we were all like ??? Okay???

At the beginning of the next class, my teacher showed us a cave painting of a horse. And then he showed all of our horses, which he had scanned and put into the presentation.

He then pointed out all the ways that our horses looked similar to the prehistoric horse. Same features, drawn from the same angle, etc.

And then he asked us, "Isn't it cool that you draw horses the same way as someone who lived 20,000 years ago?"

Yeah. That stuck with me for a while.

[catgirlthecrazy]

In Spain, there's a cave full of ancient, ice age era drawings of bison and reindeer and other animals of that period... And one small section of chaotic scribbles just a little away from everything else. These scribblesv were so incomprehensible, they were originally just called the 'Panel of Enigmatic Signs'... Until it occurred to someone that drawings only three feet off the ground probably weren't made by adults.

Scientists are now pretty sure the scribbles were made by kids ages 3-6, more or less on their own. The adult cave artists were probably doing what any modern parent might do when they want to keep small children out of their hair for awhile: they gave the kids some drawing tools of their own and a small section of wall to work on, out of the way but still close enough to keep an eye on them, and let them have at it.

What's most charming about the whole thing is the way the cave scribbles look exactly like what you'd find on the wall of a preschool today. Artistic styles vary widely across different times and cultures, but child development is as near to a universal human experience as it gets.

[mikkeneko]

Wisher made detailed 3D scans of the drawings, which helped her understand the uneven pressure applied to the charcoal and the direction the lines were drawn. The team then compared the panel’s composition with age-appropriate artistic efforts by modern children. Kids across cultures go through the same developmental stages, which influence their physical ability to draw, until about the age of 6, Amir notes.

The team compared the ancient art with the developmental stages exhibited by modern children: the furiously scribbled circles and push-pull lines typical of 3-year-olds just learning to control their bodies, for example, or the wobbly, right-angled figures of slightly older kids beginning to master fine motor skills.

Both are apparent in the cave, superimposed on each other as though two or more kids were drawing at once. That’s a clue the Las Monedas marks were likely made by “siblings or a mixed-age play group within the sphere of safety around adults, but also within their own space,” says co-author Felix Riede, an Aarhus archaeologist.

...

Adults at Las Monedas would have been aware of what the kids were doing and presumably had lit fires or torches; without ample firelight the cave is pitch black.

[gayerfurtherfaster]

Ashley the Johnson + Hand Gestures at the Table

[teapotgamer]

EP18: Part 6

Thoughts and confusion

[demisexualbolairelathalia]

Idk what Taliesin Jaffe puts in his character creation process but I fuck with it every time

like Percy, Molly, Caduceus, Ashton and Bolaire are all so different from each other but every single campaign without fail I’m like “yep I absolutely fuck with this, this one is mine to latch on to, have a great day”

[shecollapsedthenight]

Ashton and Laudna are so dear to me and their convos mean so much because it's Ashton being honest and soft and fully expectant of Laudna to use it against him (and sort of being okay with it) and Laudna never does.

The way hes just angsty and jealous and envious of her and she doesn't hold it against him so he loves her even more for it.

The how did it feel to come back and have everyone still be there convo fucking killed me, because sure he's being a bit sarcastic but also he so badly wants to know it's killing him.

I'll never get over people hating on Ashton because his charachter is a "selfish cunt who only cares about himself" HE IS. He is selfish, and he cares about himself, but he's also always the first one to check in on Laudna (mentally and physically), he jumps up to protect her first, he cares about his new nobodies and yes, the fact that he hoped he'd get everyone so indebted to him so he could get his answers is so normal for someone that went through what he did.

He isn't an edgy punk because it's cool (maybe a little) he's an edgy punk because he learned the world, and gods, and people don't owe him a thing. He thought he could depend on his party, and they abandoned him, so he decided he'd make sure they couldn't before he needed them. It isn't the typical mindset of a 25+ year old, but growing up the way he did, while he is smart, he is very much a teenager in his approach to dealing with trauma and emotions.

I just. I love him a lot.

[alwaystiredshark]

For more of my art @alwaystiredshark

[slavicafire]

in this new year I want you to be alright. I hope you move out. I hope you have enough money to feel safe. I hope you abandon shame and forgive yourself. I hope you get enough sleep and some good news. I hope you laugh a lot and the heaviness of the world eases a bit. I wish you to be alright.