love everything at once

24 | she/her bi, part of too many fandoms

[mooncaps]

The Bowling for Soup single “1985” was released on July 27th, 2004, which is 19 years ago today, and if you can do some quick math, you’ve already worked out that the year 1985 was 19 years before 2004.

In other words, we’ve officially hit the point where the song “1985” is now as dated as the things it was referencing.

[bakwaaas]

sometimes I see older people and I’m like... how do you do it? how do you cope with the loss of people and places and things as life progresses

[haveyouheardthisband]

Have you heard Brokencyde?

Yes

No but I've heard of them

Haven't even heard of them

Voting ended onDec 11, 2023

[wynsvre]

i <3 menial tasks. for srs.

[disast3rtransp0rt]

As someone who took etiquette lessons, politeness is an incredibly effective tool for disarming bigots. You can either force them to reconsider their words/actions by directly and calmly confronting their behavior (by using the rules of society in your favor), or you can dip entirely while they appear to be in the wrong.

Both options are great.

Because the thing is, when bigots pick fights, they are 100% counting on you to get louder than them. Or meaner. They want you to react emotionally and provide fodder for their ‘You’re Too Emotionally Immature To Understand’ cannon.

What they aren’t expecting you to do is say one of the following phrases in a polite, concerned tone:

Are you okay?

That’s not the kind of language I was raised to use with others.

Do you need a moment to think on why that wasn’t acceptable?

This is no way to engage in intelligent conversation. Please try that again in a kinder tone if you’d like this to continue. (I really like this one because it lets you turn their public-shame rhetoric around)

For those of you who’d are spiteful and/or dealing with Fundamentalists/Evangelicals/generally shitty Christians:

What’s happening in your life to cause you this much anger? I can’t imagine hurting so badly that I need to hurt other people.

Who taught you it was acceptable to treat other people this way? Certainly not the Jesus I remember.

Whatever happened to ‘judge not lest ye be judged’?

If I talked like that in front of my parents or grandparents I would be ashamed.

I think there’s something you need to pray on before we try and have this conversation.

And my all time favorite:

“It sounds to me like there are some seriously dark and angry forces at work in your heart.”

(Nothing stops a Christian bigot in their tracks faster than implying the Devil is causing their bigotry. But you MUST be calm, polite, and gentle with your tone and wording. It is absolutely fair to twist the rules and play them at their own game, but you gotta play hard.)

TLDR: It’s much faster to use etiquette, politeness, and rhetoric reversal when eviscerating idiots online and in person, because they aren’t expecting you to weaponize their behaviors back in their direction. Don’t get angry, get spitefully polite! :)

[themythicalcodfish]

I once witnessed a very soft-spoken young Southern man take a hateful older woman’s hands gently in his and say “Sister, I am so sorry that the Devil has carved a home for hatred in your heart. I’ll pray for you.”

It was glorious.

[1863-project]

This works with all sorts of inappropriate behavior. I work as the archivist in a public library, so I end up on the reference desk a lot, and sometimes patrons will say or do things that aren’t exactly appropriate. When patrons try to hit on me, I put on a teacher voice and calmly ask, “Is that an appropriate question to ask someone at work?” and it shuts them down immediately.

This sort of thing always does the trick.

[jackironsides]

Use this 3-word response when someone is rude to you, says Harvard-trained etiquette expert

When a friend makes a joke at your expense or lobs a "playful" insult your way, it can be hard to know how to proceed.

A link to the article for any fellow curious folk x

[deboracabral]

they say the demon crowley invented them

[passionpeachy-deactivated202312]

ghost wizard 🔮

[castiellesbian]

[jasontoddiefor]

Yeah sure we’ve all binged a long fic, but have you ever read a WIP and followed someone’s life?

Tidbits of information - (“I graduated today!”) - and small joys (“It’s my birthday!”) and you get to be there to say “This chapter made me cry, happy birthday, thank you for gifting us this”.

I remember reading this fic of someone at the end of high school, older than me then. They seemed infinitely wise, spoke of their future career and getting into the college they wanted. I remember them posting on days they felt like nothing could bring them down - and on days the whole world did and it’s the aftermath of a hospital visit. Cancer, I think it was, their father. I got to the end of the story, I know their father was fine, but also they got to finish their WIP. I graduated three years later than them, still dutifully wrote thank you notes in every comment. I wonder if they remember me, or just the collective of people reading the story as it updates.

Four years ago I was into my first year of university, my first year of figuring out being out in public spaces. I made excuses as to why my name didn’t match my paperwork and read a fic on the train, the same five chapters over and over again for the next years as I thought the story abandoned. It updated this week after such a long hiatus, I left another thank you comment.

There’s an author I love, they update their stories like a clockwork. When they don’t, I check their blog, just to see if their doing alright, not because I feel like they owe me, just to ensure whether I better get out my laptop to write that really detailed university level essay chapter analysis to get them smiling when their day sucked.

And then, once, when I was 17, I read a fic that hadn’t updated in over a decade. I wasn’t even in primary school when it started posting. On the last chapter, I left a comment that, in retrospect, was horribly rambly and most likely full of grammar mistakes. The author replied and though I couldn’t see their face, I thought of them crying. They were married now, had children, and hadn’t thought about this fic in years. They went through their files again, found another half written chapter and an outline. I got two new chapters to read that year.

And then, recently, someone told me they got back into writing original fiction because of my comments. I get to read nearly weekly chapters.

I love binge reading a finished fic, but nothing is ever going to top the feeling of anticipation of waiting for a chapter, the pure joy when someone tells you I was done with this, but you made me think of it again, so this is for you.

Anyway, I think we should romanticize reading WIPs more, growing up alongside the authors writing the stories we love.

[funnytwittertweets]

[thehmn]

[rat2rrj]

Bruh this blew my other eyes clean open

[jazzfordshire]

you're in my blood, like holy wine

It's fall! The air is crisp!! I'm writing an AU vaguely based on Practical Magic!!!!

"So to keep yourself from falling in love, you're…casting a spell to…find love?" Sam says, her face twisted up in confusion as Lena wanders the garden gathering the herbs she needs. It's dark outside, and they're darting between shadows – the garden is here for the kitchen staff to pick fresh ingredients from, and the last time Lillian found her snipping rosemary she was confined to her room for two months.

"I'm calling for a true love," Lena clarifies. "Amas Veritas. I'm binding myself to a person that doesn't exist."

"How do you know they don't exist?"

"They can't. No person can fit all my criteria. And if they don't exist, I can never fall in love."

Read it here!!

[bakwaaas]

@fairycosmos / Comic by @shhhitsfine / Comic by @incendavery

[bakwaaas]

@ryebreadgf / alison zai / phillip roth / unknown / @archbudzar

[skinks]

I miss 80s/90s film cinematography and set design so deeply… everything looks so rich and textured and orange and sweaty and cluttered… when I see a modern movie shot on digital where everyone’s clothes look steam pressed off a studio rack and the interiors are harshly lit and bare as a showroom I throw up in my mouth. and a little dribbles out

[jolyene]

every time I see One Piece women I think of this

[irresistible-revolution]

idk. i think fandom could use a lot less of “every person’s interpretation of a text is valid and true!” and more of “reading a text means taking all parts of it into account, including the bits you don’t like or the pairings you don’t ship, to consider what the full picture is and what the larger themes are.”

projecting your fantasies onto a text, hyperfocusing on the characters you think are hot/shippable and building entire theories based on micro interactions that don’t take other competing dynamics and plotlines into account isn’t “analysis” it’s projection and fantasy. which is fine, but take responsibility for your desires and your fantasies instead of making fandom inhospitable for everyone. some readings of a text are plain wrong, others miss or willfully erase vital context just to rationalize romantic pairings. these are not accurate readings of the text. doesn’t mean they should be attacked or shamed, but neither can you expect people to validate every single headcanon and shipper fantasy as a legitimate “reading” of the text either.

[danielkahndyke]

ever since i was a little girl i always wanted to be unemployed