fond of ambiguity

Para on AO3 I usually go by Para. Ace, aro, trying to write about eight different things at once. Genuinely confused about what followers are looking for, I have neither consistency nor tags. Feel free to message me; if I am not feeling up to chatting I won't answer, if I am I will be happy to talk about almost anything that shows up here.

[only-cat-memes]

[firecoloredwater]

My high school had I guess grown over the years, leading to the district building a second building and the school being split in half at the top and bottom respectively of a big enough hill that you were expected to take about fifteen minutes getting from one building to the other. Which the administration obviously preferred to avoid, since we only had 5 minutes between classes.

So functionally we had a school for 9th-10th grade, and a nearby school for 11th-12th grade. Which allowed the 10th graders to be the oldest grade in the building, and maybe contributed to the creation of an entirely unorganized phenomenon in which, during the first week of the school year, the 10th graders would, like, pick a 9th grader to claim as their personal 9th grader. Literally they would just say "that's my freshman" and "I haven't picked my freshman yet." And then they'd show their 9th grader around and give advice about how to deal with different teachers and whatever else, but like, while being weirdly possessive about it. Some of them Did Not Like It if any other 10th grader talked to their 9th grader.

There were also Rules, not all of which I picked up on due to them all being unspoken, but mostly you were supposed to pick a 9th grader you already knew, like a neighbor or a cousin or they went to your church or whatever. You didn't just pick a random 9th grader unless you actually didn't have any connection to any 9th graders at all.

I had made a bunch of friends during middle school cross country, none of which were in the same grade as me, so I had one friend who was a year ahead of me. Obvious choice! She picks me, we already hung out anyway, everything's good.

Except she did have a bunch of friends in her own grade, none of which knew anyone in mine. So for the first few weeks of 9th grade I had like five older girls arguing about who got to claim me and which of them I belonged to.

And then they never agreed so I just never got claimed picked by anyone and like, looked at a map to figure out where things were in the weird circleish building. Which was probably for the best, none of them could navigate to save their life.

Then the next year all the rest of my cross country friends arrived, and I had a pack of like six 9th graders following me around and absorbing all my advice, including my friend's younger sister.

Anyway that was almost 20 years ago but I just remembered it and.

1: hey wait my high school was fucking bizarre actually, what the fuck was that, how did hundreds of students collectively start staking claims on each other with absolutely no awareness on the teachers' part?

2: talk about a fanfic premise. Why didn't I post about this when high school AUs were at their height. But I should definitely put this on a sticky note somewhere in case I ever build some sort of fantasy magic dragonrider academy setting.

[tiny-wins-and-gold-stars]

⭐To all the fanfic writers out there, a little gold star!⭐

[status-quo-hater]

I think one of the funniest abortion stances I've heard was from my parents neighbor. He's a like, hard-core libertarian viking larper guy who is very tall and very fat and very bald.

He believes a fetus is human with a soul, but also its "basically attacking the woman's body" so if she wants to get rid of it, that's "basically self-defense". He compared it to shooting a home invader. So he supports abortion not as healthcare, but as killing a baby in self-defense

[status-quo-hater]

Y'know I'm so glad someone reminded me of this. Because this was also discussed.

My stepmother did NOT like the way her Libertarian Viking Neighbor framed pregnancy as the fetus "attacking the woman". She incredulously told him this was extremely disrespectful to expectant mothers to portray pregnancy as so violent and negative.

Libertarian Viking Neighbor's response was that people consensually hurt each other all the time, and "there's like a whole community about that, with the acronym the one that starts with a B" And his reasoning was that if the mother was consenting to bring attacked by the baby, it in fact wasn't violent and negative because there was consent.

He brought up people consensually hurting each other, didn't go for one of the obvious answers like boxing or body mods or something, no he went STRAIGHT TO BDSM and he DIDN'T EVEN REMEMBER THE ACRONYM

[hellenhighwater]

The tent is up!

[gallusrostromegalus]

Hellen, the intensity and success with which you commit to The Aesthetic (TM) is honestly such an inspiration for me. I'm both in awe and inspired.

[beloved-child-of-the-house]

aftercare for posting on ao3

[beloved-child-of-the-house]

your fic was good you did grammar good you’re the kind of freak people like everything’s cool dude :^)

[bluering8]

listen to me, this is so so important: you've gotta get used to really giving it your 60% as a default. like don't half-ass it necessarily but try not to go over 70% or so of an ass. you'll feel better and live a happier more fulfilled life, and on the rare occasions where you do need to lock the fuck in you'll be able to pull off bullshit that the sad miserable wretches giving it their 100% can never dream off, because they're busy draining themselves dry and you have energy reserves to spare.

[alltherestofus]

Seeing the diminishment and erasure of the legacy of Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern series occur in my actual lifetime is mind-boggling.

You've got people out here making youtube videos about the legacy of dragons and dragonriding in fantasy fiction without talking about the dragonriding Grand Master of SFF herself Anne McCaffrey.

This isn't some obscure thing where I'm trying to promote someone who is only kind of known because of forgotten representation. Anne McCaffrey was A HOUSEHOLD NAME when I was a kid when it comes to fantasy literature. She's the first woman to win a Hugo and to win a Nebula. In 2002 there was a TV pilot filmed for Dragonriders of Pern.

Eragon, Temeraire, Toothless, and the dragons of Fourth Wing exist because these people grew up on the blueprint set by the Pern novels. Talking about dragons and not mentioning Pern is like talking about Orcs and not mentioning Lord of the Rings.

Y'all need to read your fucking classics before you go talking like an authority on a topic. Jesus Christ.

[shipfishwrites]

that's what i've been saying!! same page here.

[alltherestofus]

Seeing the diminishment and erasure of the legacy of Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern series occur in my actual lifetime is mind-boggling.

You've got people out here making youtube videos about the legacy of dragons and dragonriding in fantasy fiction without talking about the dragonriding Grand Master of SFF herself Anne McCaffrey.

This isn't some obscure thing where I'm trying to promote someone who is only kind of known because of forgotten representation. Anne McCaffrey was A HOUSEHOLD NAME when I was a kid when it comes to fantasy literature. She's the first woman to win a Hugo and to win a Nebula. In 2002 there was a TV pilot filmed for Dragonriders of Pern.

Eragon, Temeraire, Toothless, and the dragons of Fourth Wing exist because these people grew up on the blueprint set by the Pern novels. Talking about dragons and not mentioning Pern is like talking about Orcs and not mentioning Lord of the Rings.

Y'all need to read your fucking classics before you go talking like an authority on a topic. Jesus Christ.

[shipfishwrites]

that's what i've been saying!! same page here.

[dragonmuse]

If you can't withstand it, I get it. If you have to protect your mental health, do what you must.

But as a librarian, a reader, and a writer, please hold off on deleting your work if you can. You can orphan it on AO3 or go anon! There are options.

Please don't let the censors win because that's all they are. Censors in new coats with the same shady underwear. They are bullies and people who cannot conceive of creating things themselves. They have existed in every fandom with varying degrees of success and they will always be there waiting in the next one.

Your writing is worth preservation. It is worth standing there against the test of time long after these jackals have moved on to the next likely looking prey.

And if you love something you're reading, comment when you can. It's hard to admit, but sometimes that one negative comment needs a lot of positive ones to drown it out. Just how the mind works, nothing rational about it.

[spacewonder19]

April Full Moon and Artemis Ⅱ © astronycc

[firecoloredwater]

I wonder what would happen if posts had like... anti-report buttons. We can see a post and click a button to say the post is sexually explicit and should be labeled as such; what if we also had a button to say "this post that is marked as mature isn't that at all, the algorithm got this wrong, fix it"

[ministarfruit]

I love this text post so I drew it

[buginateacup]

Every single fic update there is an author trying frantically to find the right balance between a nonchalant aside of "leave a comment if you enjoyed =)" and clinging desperately to the coat tails of a random stranger, dragging along behind them on the street wailing "Please, please! I have to know what you thought! I'm desperate to talk to people about this! Ask me about the alliterative repetition! Ask me about the symbolism!"

[beardedmrbean]

[shipfishwrites]

finally launched the rp i've been working on for one william years.

y'all get it, dragons, weird stuff is happening, whers are there, there's magic, i'll make a real ad for it later.

go there:

A Dragonriders of Pern roleplay with low fantasy elements and a twist.

[specialagentartemis]

Aro and ace activism is housing reform, is well-funded public housing, is an expansion of affordable housing, is allowing single people to get affordable and public housing, is rent controls to make it possible for single people to be able to afford to live alone on a single salary.

Aro and ace activism is healthcare reform, so that no one needs to rely on a spouse for health insurance, so that healthcare is available to everybody regardless of income, so that no one’s lived experiences or basic dignity are dismissed or overridden by doctors

Aro and ace activism is well-funded and expansive public transit, so that you don’t need to have someone on hand to drive you places if you are incapacitated, so that you don’t have to pay for an ambulance if you need to get to the hospital quickly

Aro and ace activism is disability and elder care services, so that no one needs a spouse to care for them, so that no one needs children to care for them, so that marriage is not a bind for disabled people, so that people on disability who want to and can live alone can

Aro and ace activism is community-building, it’s public events, it’s free social activities, it’s mutual aid, it’s activities that bring community members together without socializing relying on just a romantic partner

Aro and ace activism is developing a culture of believing when people tell you who they are and what they want rather than assuming you know them better than they know themselves

Aro and ace activism means a better world for people without “normative” desires or “normative” social support, which means a better world for everybody