Briar Blackwell Writes Stuff @briarblackwellbooks - Tumblr Blog

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i had a dream there was an artfight but for writers this year and one of my tumblr mutuals (you. i think) was hosting it

betcha five bucks i did it on a whim in your dream lol

svartalfhild

Sitting here being ill about Vaeltis because they fit together so well.

Occtis is very used to being ignored, devalued, and looked down upon, but Vaelus is a creature of devotion, and she has repeatedly expressed amazement at his abilities and chosen to stay at his side unflinchingly.

Vaelus has been alive so long and seen so much, but Occtis is something new.

Occtis craves knowledge, and having lived so long, Vaelus could tell him things that books can't.

Vaelus grieves the past; Occtis grieves the future he will never have.

Occtis is not physically very strong, and he finds in Vaelus a protector. In return, he sticks up for her when others treat her as a problem. (That Nat 20 intimidate on the druids was SO GOOD.)

Occtis doesn't have to be alone while the others sleep at night. Vaelus is there with him.

When all of this is over, if they both make it, they could go on together long after everyone else has passed. The world will change and move on, but they could remain each other's constant through it all for many ages to come.

Vaelus has a cause she is willing to die for, but Occtis is someone to live for (and I think this is perhaps what she doesn't understand about why she's drawn to Occtis for more than just what he can do; he makes her want to live).

#occtivael #occtis x vaelus #yessssss

youhaveaguineapigwhere

Everytime this gets a note when its nowhere near christmas I question my sanity just a little bit more

youhaveaguineapigwhere

No, it is July, stop that, stop giving this notes, you guys have lost reblogging privileges

worldheritagepostorganization

World Heritage Post

elliespectacular

⚠️ WARNING ⚠️

The joke is already funny!

Further additions or permutations may weaken its potency!

depsidase

haunted-hideaway

I’m glad that OP:

1) Figured this out.

2) Shared so others can learn from their mistake.

mintbees

steam repeatedly notifying you that a friend is booting up a game thats clearly not cooperating feels like ur sitting inside and someone outside keeps trying to rev up a lawnmower

mintbees

sashimi55

Human bodies are so weird like the upper half consists of every single vital organ and the lower half is legs

dambiex

sophsun1

Happy Pride 🌈 | The Golden Girls (1985-1992)

grigori77

Allies can be from any generation ...

littlebosslady7

Thaisha Lloy Lore drop from @quiddie on her instastory.

#thaisha is so COOL #saving this for my cr4 essay

theloverislost

as we are rapidly approaching pride month, here’s an obligatory reminder!

AROMANTIC PEOPLE

ASEXUAL PEOPLE

AND AROACE PEOPLE

ALL BELONG IN THE LGBTQ+ COMMUNITY

I WILL REMOVE EVERY BONE IN YOUR BODY IF YOU SAY OTHERWISE

renthony

Hot take but rigid divisions between queer identities and heavily-policed labels that are treated like diagnoses are really, really bad.

Trans men have shared histories with lesbians who have shared histories with bisexual women who have shared histories with ace people who have shared histories with aro people have shared histories with gay men who have shared histories with trans women who have shared histories with nonbinary people who have shared histories with etc etc etc etc etc.

Labels are important for people who want them, but we need to stop treating sexuality and gender as rigid boxes and checklists.

idhren

yes. labels aren’t a fort you need to protect; labels are a pin you can add to your backpack to signal being part of something. You can, in fact, have more than one label (as a treat).

pog-mo-bhlog

So many "I was born too late" takes are actually "I was born poor" like I'm sure you WOULD have loved whatever historical quirk you're talking about, but sadly you would not have been allowed to do that. You would have died in a coal mine aged 13.

pog-mo-bhlog

Being afab will not protect you from dying young in a coal mine. They put wee lassies down there all the time and sometimes they died, just as the boys did. Your understanding of historical gender roles is filtered through the gender roles of the mid 20th century. Yes you would also have faced other gender based violence on top of this probably, but that doesn't make you exempt from death via coal mine.

Also thank you to every single person of colour in the notes pointing out how white the take I'm critiquing is. You are 100% right.

striders

the other day i saw a tiktok of a woman talking about how her hyper-militant abusive parents would sometimes punish her by “taking away her name” and referring to her as a prisoner number. genuinely terrible stuff, obviously. but i skimmed the comments and. listen. i truly DO NOT mean to dunk too hard on this person, like they could be a kid or something, but.

just. breathtaking. imagine if your primary reference for the concept of the un-personing of prisoners was (check notes) a book series about owls.

saleensundria9

This is why it's important to Include stuff like this in fiction, especially ya fiction. It can be a lot of sheltered and/or indoctrinated children, in the case of a lot of rural "Christians", first introduction to these types of concepts in a way they can understand.

I don't think there's anything weird or shameful about it. Knowledge is knowledge, regardless of where it came from.

a-polite-melody

derinthescarletpescatarian

I was once listening to one of the ten billion animorphs podcasts out there, with two hosts, one who'd read Animorphs as a kid and one who was reading it for the first time as an adult. For those who don't know, Animorphs is a war story in which a handful of children have to secretly hold off an alien invasion until the "good" aliens arrive to save Earth. It starts off with fairly clear-cut Bad Species of aliens and Good Species of aliens but as the series goes on it becomes clear that there is no such thing as a good, clean or glorious war, that a clean Good Side and a clean Bad Side is usually propoganda, that heroism is a matter of circumstance and that war will chew up and spit out even the victorious; there are no winners in war, just the side that lost less.

It's a lot, for books aimed at eleven year olds who want to read about kids turning into fun animals.

On the podcast, the two (American) hosts happened to get onto the topic of the post-9/11 Iraq War and their reactions to it. They were both children at the time and as such could not be expected to have particularly nuanced views of US military policy. The person who hadn't read Animorphs was unsurprised by the declaration of war; that's what you did. Someone attacks America, America goes to war. That's how a country protects itself, through military revenge. The Animorphs fan, about the same age, had been devastated and against the war from the start. War was a Big Deal and, while sometimes unavoidable, should be a last resort; a lot of people were going to die, and a lot more were going to get hurt, and no matter how the war shook out it was still going to be horrible. They attributed this perspective, of course, to the series that had taught them about the horrors endemic to war in an engaging way at such a young age -- to Animorphs.

That's what kid fiction is for.

briarblackwellbooks

that's why the argument "it's just for kids, it doesn't need to be good" is so bullshit. you're basically saying "it's just for developing human beings, so it's fine if it's meaningless stimulation for the sake of stimulation." frankly, the best kids' media is the kind that is That Deep and That Meaningful, both because it's good for the kids and good for their families. i think a lot of kids miss out on learning media literacy because guardians plop them in front of a medium of their choice, be it tv or movies or books or youtube or video games, and don't engage with it alongside their kids. and when what kids are consuming isn't that deep, kids have nowhere to go with it on their own, no chance to dig.