briar fairchild

they/them/any neopronouns. old, tired, strange, and chronically ill

[annabelle--cane]

I love how elias's fatal flaw that he repeats over and over again is that he has the ability to know basically everything about everyone around him, but he's just. not that curious about it. he assumes he already knows everything by surface-level personality judgements alone and doesn't care to Actually Check. he doesn't care enough to look into tim's past, he doesn't care enough to check if he's underestimating martin, and he doesn't care enough to consider whether jon might actually be willing to kill him. pitch perfect representation of an academic with almost unimaginable access to information who simply does not give a shit about his professed area of expertise. even jon at his absolute rock bottom worst is still interested in learning new things.

[annabelle--cane]

he really though he could wear the watcher's crown when his allegiance to the eye was utilitarian at best. cringe fail watcher who probably doesn't even like stalking that much.

[polyamorousmood]

It really says something that a lot of monogamous people consider polyamorous and aromantic to be "opposites" but every polyam person I know took one look at aromantics and said "they're just like me for real"

[silosworld]

Poly folks x aro folks in the sense that "alloromantic heterosexual monogamous people view love and sex as an entirely different entity than me, and that makes life kinda strange"

[rincent-van-uggh]

[aromanticofficial]

official aro-polyam solidarity post

[briarfairchild]

oh my god i am so tired of emailing my care agency every fucking monday to ask for a copy of my rota for the week. is it really so much to ask that i know who will be coming into my home and at what time they will be coming into my home before they come into my home? is it??

i mean even with the rota there's usually at least a couple of changes about which they have never once bothered to notify me and that's on a good week but even so

the only reason i'm still with this agency is because the actual carers are almost universally wonderful and the last agency i was with was the other way around, great admin, not very helpful carers, and that was worse

imagine a world where both could exist hahahahahahahahahahahahaha

[briarfairchild]

for the last few years I've been keeping a spreadsheet of all the audio dramas I've listened to and why I liked them because my brain is a colander and I forget everything. this is how I know that I've now listened to the whole of (or up to the current point of) 205 podcasts. I'm housebound with a severe energy limiting chronic illness and have to rest in bed for 6-8 hours per day just to keep on an even keel so it is in no way an exaggeration to say that audio dramas are a large contributer to the fact that I haven't quite gone insane from sheer boredom (one of the things people don't tell you about chronic illness: oh my god it's so fucking boring)

one page in my spreadsheet is just a list of all the audio drama podcasts I have yet to listen to and think I might enjoy. there are currently 265 of them and I'm constantly adding new ones (it's been somewhere between 250 and 300 for about two years now)

whenever I finish a pod and need a new one to replace it with, I ask my friends to choose a number between 1 and 265 and whichever friend gets there first, I start listening to the podcast that has that number in my trusty spreadsheet. for some reason my friends are always delighted to get to choose my next podcast (which is great because I'm actually terrible at making any kind of decision)

also there's a lot of relistening (see above re forgetting everything)

anyway huge thanks to all the amazing audio drama creators out there! you keep me sane, which is no mean feat!

[vosling]

I relate! I'm housebound disabled these days but there was a year of being mostly bedbound. audio fiction saved me. One time while bedbound I was listening to a more intricate plot and kept forgetting/losing the plot threads. So I built a "red string corkboard" on the wall out of pink yarn and painter's tape :>

What a cool idea to have your friends pick, awesome way to stay connected with them!! This year I'm kind of navigating listens through playing audio fiction bingo and chatting with people/finding new recs through community. Or (similar spirit) I'll pick things friends are listening to so we can chat about it

[briarfairchild]

for the last few years I've been keeping a spreadsheet of all the audio dramas I've listened to and why I liked them because my brain is a colander and I forget everything. this is how I know that I've now listened to the whole of (or up to the current point of) 205 podcasts. I'm housebound with a severe energy limiting chronic illness and have to rest in bed for 6-8 hours per day just to keep on an even keel so it is in no way an exaggeration to say that audio dramas are a large contributer to the fact that I haven't quite gone insane from sheer boredom (one of the things people don't tell you about chronic illness: oh my god it's so fucking boring)

one page in my spreadsheet is just a list of all the audio drama podcasts I have yet to listen to and think I might enjoy. there are currently 265 of them and I'm constantly adding new ones (it's been somewhere between 250 and 300 for about two years now)

whenever I finish a pod and need a new one to replace it with, I ask my friends to choose a number between 1 and 265 and whichever friend gets there first, I start listening to the podcast that has that number in my trusty spreadsheet. for some reason my friends are always delighted to get to choose my next podcast (which is great because I'm actually terrible at making any kind of decision)

also there's a lot of relistening (see above re forgetting everything)

anyway huge thanks to all the amazing audio drama creators out there! you keep me sane, which is no mean feat!

[clownfish-casino]

OKAY I'm curious

where do you write your fics

ellipsus

google docs

directly in the AO3 editor

notes app

physical paper

literally wherever I can (sticky notes, your hand, scrap paper, etc)

something else (tell me in tags or comments !!)

not a fic writer but I wanna press a button too !!!

Voting ended onJul 24

would appreciate reblogs for sample size ::]

[briarfairchild]

episode 5: Thrown Away has me thinking about how Eyeish being a rubbish collector is, you see all the parts of people's lives they chuck out and immediately assume nobody will ever see again

and then it has me thinking about what other jobs are unnervingly Eye aligned

mobile phone insurance call centre clerk, of course. admittedly a full 50% of claims are people whose phones have fallen out of their pockets and into the toilet (just take your phone out of your pocket before going to the loo! you can even keep it in the bathroom with you if you can't be without it for that long! just! not in your pocket! I'm begging you!), and another 25% had been through the washing machine, but you end up getting these weird little snapshots into people's lives, hearing and having to judge their stories

also I worked in a superdrug for a while and that's another weirdly intimate little snapshot you get into someone's life, though admittedly you generally stop caring after about the first six weeks

post office is another fun one, some of the regular customers end up using you as a sort of non-religious confessional which can be a little much but also they sometimes give you nice christmas presents, so what you lose on the swings you gain on the roundabouts. sometimes it's just depressing though. there was one poor woman who was just getting scammed the whole three years I worked there and no matter how much we tried to tell her she wouldn't believe us and we weren't allowed to just refuse to sell her postal orders 😭

there have to be so many others, even beyond the obvious ones like any medical professionals, therapists, vicars, citizen's advice, and so on

pool lifeguard: just sitting there watching everyone 👁️

although I'm also imagining the person who does the scheduling for like a call centre or any workplace where everything's scheduled down to the minute, sitting there and controlling everyone's movements from behind their computer, the secret puppet master nobody ever thinks about

[zlobniysonik]

cyber-holo-girrrl SAM

[hotterdrinks]

[ID: Four drawings of Jon from season 5 and Jon from season 1. In the first image, the two are leaning their faces close and sharing a lighter for their cigarettes, past Jon glances sideways at future Jon with a curious eyebrow raised. In the second image they are leaning in to kiss. In the third image they are kissing, future Jon's hand is in past Jon's hair. In the fourth image, past Jon's head is leaned back in pleasure as future Jon kisses his neck. End ID]

Self care part 1

[whitenessgreynessdarkness]

@tongue-eatiing-louse

[reigen-sweetly]

It’s really important to me as a fat person that martin is never punished for being a fat person, especially one who can be mean and bitchy and rude.

Before i finished tma for the first time i had assumed people made him fat because they just tend to do that with kind characters because the stereotype that fat people are “soft” and “huggable”

I was really really happy when i fount out that he’s actually canonically big, and also he’s allowed to be flawed and angry. He isn’t just tea and soft sweaters instead he’s a very realistic considerate depiction of an abuse victim who happened to also be fat.

It blew my mind even more when i realized he was likely using the perceptions of fat people partially to his advantage and in later seasons had felt more himself and real.

It just means a lot to me he isn’t a one dimensional stereotype and that even though you barely get descriptions of any tma characters, it was still important to give good fat representation.

[briarfairchild]

episode 4: Page Turner is the one where I became fully invested in TMA. obviously the first three were also great or I wouldn't even have got to Page Turner, but Page Turner is one of those episodes that feels like it was made specifically to delight me personally

I've loved books since I was a teeny tiny child and my first ever job was Saturday girl (gender neutral) in my local secondhand bookshop. still the best job I've ever had and when I got back from uni I used to go in and work there a few days a week until I got an actual paying job because it was the only place in my life that felt safe. I still collect books from a very niche, distinctly obscure genre that was incredibly popular between about 1920 and 1950 (so much gay subtext you guys oh my god)

and the Vast has appealed to me since long before I had a name for it. I've always felt like I was too much in all the wrong ways, loud when I'm supposed to be quiet, babbling at people when they aren't interested. anything that can make me feel tiny and insignificant and unnoticeable, like the deep of the sea or the height of a mountain or the inexplicable immensity of the night sky, feels like a safe space

plus of course Gerry Keay, a delight in every possible way

old books + evil books + the vibes of the Vast + Gerry Keay = me falling head over heels in love and never looking back

[briarfairchild]

sometimes I just like to think about Elias sitting in his office and making his little Archivist plans. obviously choosing Jon is a no-brainer because Jon already has a Web mark and that's the hardest one to manipulate into happening

and Jon asks for Tim and Sasha, which okay, fine, Tim's an explosion waiting to happen and Sasha's good cannon fodder if nothing else. but Jon likes and respects them both so they're not really going to create the atmosphere of anxiety and fury that Elias very much wants his new Archivist to be suffering from the get go. so whomst to choose?

Martin has got used to life in the library and just isn't pumping out that good good CV related terror any more because he's pretty confident now that he can actually do the job. but put him down in a whole new position and he's going to be right back where he started! terrified of being caught and going ridiculously above and beyond to try to make a good impression. and that exact anxiety and going above and beyond is going to INFURIATE Jon. plus Jon only has a bachelor's degree and Martin's CV says he has a Master's, and in a field that's actually relevant, which means that Jon's going to feel like he's starting from an incredibly inferior position relative to Martin and is going to be wildly anxious and angry about that. and when Martin reveals himself to be totally incompentent... even worse! (even better from Elias's point of view)

I like to think about Elias having a huge spreadsheet of everyone in the Institute in which he scores them on how badly they'll infuriate and terrify Jon, and Martin comes out the clear winner.

and like at first it really seems to be working! Jon hates Martin! except... after the worms, why does he keep on going out to lunch with Martin despite believing him to be murderously plotting his downfall?? why would finding out that Martin lied on his CV make Jon trust Martin MORE instead of less??? WHY THE HELL IS HE FALLING IN LOVE WITH MARTIN????? this wasn't supposed to happen! Elias made a spreadsheet and everything!!!

also I think Elias totally has the hots for Martin because he reminds him of Peter and this just makes him hate Martin even more, but that's by the by

[briarfairchild]

podcast girls week day 6: taken too soon saturday

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

you never saw her before and you don’t know who she is, but you know what your heart does when you see her. you understand the way you can feel the hot red rushing of the blood in your veins.

[perverted-asexual]

I'm sorry I keep posting my tiktok comments but please. What does this mean. What do people THINK shipping is for anymore???

[scientistservant]

[pro-prin-prinny]

AO3 authors in the lab creating ships purely for research purposes:

[sarapsys]

Creating ships for the tax write-off

[goodfish-bowl]

Creating ships to get that fucking whale.

[preludeinz]

creating ships to wedge into the Suez canal and disrupt global shipping

[briarfairchild]

it felt like the moment to start a magnus archives relisten and like

Joshua "it's amazing how you can get used to living with a coffin that compels you to open it and moans when it rains" Gillespie

what a guy. I aspire to be him.

I fully believe that in s5 he just doesn't even notice anything wrong. maybe looks out of his window a couple of times and thinks huh, sky looks a bit funny, climate change is a real bitch innit

an icon

[briarfairchild]

podcast girls week day 5: Underappreciated Faves Friday! seriously, if you haven't listened to Metropolis you've got to, it's amazing!

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Goldie Grozny isn’t stupid, and she knows there’s something going on. Something more and worse than Nan going to West Guleph.

*

Goldie writes her goodbye letter to Nan.

[briarfairchild]

podcast girls week day 4: transformational Thursday

Pan doesn't exactly set out to change the world in Forest 404, but she changes it anyway!

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Months after Pan and Daria release their recordings and memories of the Slow World, someone descends into the Inner to seek out Pan and the last tree.