MissMists

[gardenvarietyhuman]

💥🙌👏

[ineffablebookgirl]

Well shit, Henry Jenkins, out here in 1997 dropping truth bombs

[addressmysol]

Oh hey I need this for a research paper I'm writing, thank you!

[angstbotfic]

i mean he had been out here since 1988 dropping such bombs:

"'fandom' is a vehicle of marginalized subcultural groups (women, the young, gays, etc.) to pry open space for their cultural concerns within dominant representations; it is a way of appropriating media texts and rereading them in a way that serves different interests, a way of transforming mass culture into a popular culture"

Jenkins, Henry. “Star Trek Rerun, Reread, Rewritten: Fan Writing as Textual Poaching.” Critical Studies in Mass Communication 5, no. 2 (1988): 85–107. https://doi.org/10.1080/15295038809366691.  

there are even some earlier works in fan studies but that’s what i have ready to hand. 

[squeakitties]

following weird horny furries who are into shit like pooltoys and transformation and stuff is enrichment. the vitamins and minerals of posting

[squeakitties]

[twinkenjoyer-deactivated2023083]

once you get over your ass and realise you will never get some people and that’s ok you are basically immune to right wing fearmongering. otherkin? none of my fucking business

[stevishabitat]

[mandate-transgenderism]

I must not fall victim to disgust. Disgust is the heart-killer. Disgust is the little-death that brings total apathy. I will face my disgust. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the disgust has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.

[absolutely-not-a-cryptid]

My favourite catchphrase from any fictional character ever is from Gregor Vorbarra (and his badass foster mum): "Let's see what happens."

which is a pretty mundane sentence. but it's a lot less mundane when it's coming from the emperor of three planets who once drunkenly "fell" out a window and ran away to accidentally work in construction, and is one of two people who can consistently outscheme Miles Vorkosigan. He has the kind of pent up rage that can only be amassed by a lifetime of sitting through meetings with the dullest people alive. He is a quiet, mild mannered man who itches to watch the world burn.

"Let's see what happens" is a signal that Emperor Gregor has switched into chaos gremlin mode. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

[animentality]

[lizardlicks]

Here's the thing actually: I fully believe the people who are using AI to create poems, love letters, eulegies etc fully just. Would not have before AI made it push-a-button easy. Creating that kind of art, pieces of writing that attempt to capture the experience of emotions, connections, translate those feelings into words and then offer those words for other people to look at, and have revealed to them an intimate part of you requires first sitting with yourself, identifying the emotions, their source, getting to know your inner voice and grappling with it.

This type of introspection and vulnerability is one that the kind of people who use AI to do the work for them are allergic to. They're "creating" now because they can skip all that uncomfortableness. This is the end result of being so irony poisoned as a culture as to be allergic to the very idea of sincerity. So no, I don't think people using AI to create ever were, at least on an emotional level, capable of doing it themselves. I think they would have laughed and called you a slur at the very suggestion they try.

[the-prince-of-the-ravens]

guys i'm over 70% of the way through Night Watch right now and.....god I don't even know what to say. i still have 1/4 of the book left but i think my life has been changed.........they're waving the flags of Ankh-Morpork and singing the national anthem at the barricades because they are fighting for the city. they aren't rebelling against the city, they're fighting to fix it.....they're fighting for truth, justice, freedom, reasonably priced love, and a hard boiled egg..........the government is trying to name them enemies of the state but....that's just not what they are. they are The People of Ankh-Morpork, and they're rebelling against the injustice that's become ingrained in society, not against society itself...........

[the-prince-of-the-ravens]

“You know what day it is, Ping?” said Colon.

“Er…25th of May, Sarge.”

“And you know what that means, Ping?”

“Er…”

“It means,” said Nobby, “that anyone important enough to ask where we’re going—”

“—knows where we’ve gone,” said Fred Colon.

The door slammed behind them.

— Sir Terry Pratchett, Night Watch

[the-prince-of-the-ravens]

mirror dance might be the greatest book ever written

[currentlycryingaboutlancelot]

I know richard iii is a tragedy or whatever but that scene where the two mercenaries start debating the moral and theological implications of murdering Clarence IN FRONT OF CLARENCE and then Clarence weighing in on his murderers’ debate for ten minutes before they kill him is literally peak comedy

[currentlycryingaboutlancelot]

@fweet-prince you get it

[chimaerakitten]

I’ve been kicking around a thought lately that when it comes to SFF we could probably bypass some of the perennial political vs. apolitical vs. everything-is-political-apolitical-storytelling-doesn’t-exist by instead formulating a spectrum from politically coherent to politically incoherent

Essentially, politically coherent works are works where the political message of the story is supported by all (or at least most) of the major story elements, and a politically incoherent work is a story where the political messages of different elements are seemingly all shooting off on different vectors.

The nice thing about this is it can bypass authorial intent (and the discussion of whether intent matters). This is about the text.

Like, politically incoherent works that had no authorial thought behind them are a dime a dozen of course, and politically coherent works that clearly had a lot of authorial thought are if not equally common than at least easy to spot. But there are also plenty of works that are politically coherent without the author intending them that way—like, whatever faults there are with Project Hail Mary, the overall opinion the book has about the nature of humanity & of science is consistent throughout. Likewise there are stories where the authors clearly meant a coherent political point and totally wiffed it. (The works @specialagentartemis has collectively termed “cozy colonialism” come to mind)

So there’s a utility in replacing the question “is this story political?” (Yes, always, but if the answer is always yes the question becomes kinda useless) with “Is this story politically coherent?” Because a yes or no there will tell a prospective reader something about what to expect.

[penandinkprincess]

it's actually so important to me that even before they had REAL space for it in the cottage, ilya and shane have always been able to understand when the other is going "play??"

everyone always seems so surprised when shane is funny or makes a joke, and i don't think it's meant to be mean, but like? yeah shane is funny. he's always been funny. he's picky about his audience (because he has his image to think about and also because he's just naturally reserved), but he is snarky and quick with it. you know who has ALWAYS found him funny, though?

and on ilya's part, he chirps partially (i think) strategically to have the other team playing annoyed because that's not going to have them on their a-game, but also?? it's for fun. he is puppy nipping and going "play??? play back??? play??" and with almost everyone (because of the reputation he's been branded under), the response he gets is fuck off and a refusal to engage, like we saw with scott hunter. you know who's always understood that this is supposed to be for fun, though?

like these two have SO many communication issues between them, but it's so special to me that from the START they've been able to go, "play????" "yeah, i'll play"

[castielchitaqua]

the type of comradery you can only get when you're interacting with someone that's on the same level as you!!! no one else would play with them bc no one else is good enough for it

[noel-fielding]

[teflonly]

[creamsiclemelt]

a little quick and dirty and unedited drabble for stupidest little crackfic idea thats haunted me for a while lmao:

crack fic of homophobic metros GM finding out about them pre-outing and conspiring to make the metros a friendly team to gay people bc he did the calculation of “money + championships > homophobia”

Gerald finds out about Hollander and Rozanov by accident. It’s pure coincidence.

He’d just been about ready to leave the hotel room that he’d taken a cute little blonde cart girl back to, the door cracked open just a little when he’d heard them.

“Hollander,” the voice had said, accented and low, “don’t be…”

He hadn’t been able to hear the entire sentence, but the name had drawn his attention anyway, ready to greet Shane Hollander in the hallway, maybe ask what he was up to and look away if it was trouble.

But the sight that greeted him, when he barely glanced out through the crack, was one that he couldn’t look away from even if he wanted to. Hollander and—fucking Rozanov of all people.

And not only is Hollander fumbling to open the door to the hotel room, but Rozanov’s right behind him, hands on his hips and pulling him back against his—

“Ilya,” Hollander hisses, “Come on.”

“Fine, fine,” Rozanov says, as the door whirs open. “My boyfriend does not want me anymore.”

Boyfriend?

“Shut up,” Hollander says with a little laugh, and then the door closes behind them with a gentle click.

As far as Gerald is concerned, it might as well have been a bang, the way his heart is pounding in his chest.

--

It takes Gerald some time to decide if what he saw was real.

Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov…are gay. And together.

They—well. In a strange way, he supposes it makes sense. The best in the world and pitted against each other from the start. They spent a lot of time together when they were young men, probably pent up.  

Maybe the urge of a teenage boy to get his dick wet made them confused

And now here they are. Together. And fucking. Fucking each other. Or, well, Hollander fucking Rozanov. Right? Well it’s not really—who’s the girl?  

--

It clicks in the middle of the night.

His eyes fly open and he sits up. The girl sleeping next to him—anothercart girl, a redhead this time—grumbles, turns onto her side and away.

Gerald can’t make himself care, because he’s busy getting out of bed and pacing.

Rozanov is in Ottawa. Rozanov left Boston for Ottawa.

It had been a shock when it had happened, and no one had been able to figure out why. Gerald had nearly laughed himself sick when he’d heard about it, James Jackson over in Boston losing his star and captain and biggest moneymaker to Ottawa of all places.  

But if he moved for his…lover, then maybe…

Hollander’s contract is coming up in the summer at the end of this season, Gerald realizes with a start.

“Fuck,” he hisses.

He can’t lose Hollander. The city would burn to the ground. His family’s legacy would be tainted—letting the Shane Hollander go to Ottawa. And worst of all, he’d probably lose season ticket holders.

He calls his assistant without a second thought.  

“Aaron, what do gay guys like?”

[thethirdromana]

Putting the term "Catholic guilt" on a high shelf where fandom can't reach it until everyone learns how to identify characters who are very very clearly coded as Protestant.

[vampfuneralpyre]

[towns-end-bindery]

Dungeons and Dragons Journals

Original 5e character sheet design by me.

[missmists]

@mistermetalmaker ???? Could we do this for one of your campaigns?

[pluvialcity]

messy svetlana is my favorite fucking thing, so I hc svetlana as like, the cryptid of boston's sapphic scene.

she's the hottest woman in any bar she walks into. she started off at the edges of the most toxic polycule in the brunch circle and she demolishes the entire group dynamic in two weeks flat by fucking everyone until they realize that they all hate each other. she'll snort coke off your tits, fingerbang you until you cry in the club bathroom, and then completely disappear from the scene for three months.

when she showed up at Dyke Night at Machine in Fenway it was like a shark showing up at a beach full of swimmers. She'll hold your hair in the bathroom when you're sick, give you a breath mint, and then buy you another shot so you can get back in the game. she hooks up with couples who are looking for bi unicorns on the dating apps with the express goal of breaking them up bc that woman deserves better than a man who talks about being an early crypto adopter.

I love her. she's the worst. she and ilya deserve each other [affectionate, derogatory]

[pluvialcity]

I put this in the tags, but then I decided I wanted it to be part of the actual post:

#crucially Ilya is also doing all of these things and they call each other on the phone and twirl their hair and giggle about it #you simply cannot convince me that the woman who brought her bestie a consolatory twink and coke to lift his spirits after his olympic failure #is dispensing wise relationship advice and telling him to talk about his feelings

[specialagentartemis]

something I explained to my brother yesterday that rocked his world: it’s not that scientists can’t decide whether a tomato is a fruit or a vegetable, nor is it that it’s “really” one or the other. It’s both, because we’re talking about two different categorization schemes.

Botanically, a tomato is a fruit. A fruit is scientifically defined as the part of a plant that develops from the ovary after flowering and surrounds the seeds. It’s defined by its structure and function. In botanical categorization, apples, peaches, grapes, tomatoes, bananas, avocados, pumpkins, peppers, and corn kernels are fruits.

Culinarily, a tomato is a vegetable, because it’s a plant food that is neither starchy nor sweet and you usually don’t just eat it raw. Vegetables are culinarily defined by their flavor and how you cook them. In culinary categorization, any part of a plant can be a vegetable: roots (carrots, parsnips), leaves (lettuce, kale), stems (celery), seeds (peas, lima beans), and yes fruits (tomatoes, peppers, pumpkins). In culinary categorization, “fruits” are usually botanical fruits, though occasionally they are other parts of the plant instead, as long as they’re juicy and sweet (strawberries are actually the stems of a plant; the ovaries surrounding the seeds are the little seeds on the outside! Pineapples and figs are a weird flower-ovary fusion called multiple inflorescence!)

These are simply two different categorizational schemes that through the weirdness of historical linguistics use the same word “fruit” to mean different segments of the totality of plants. Neither is incorrect, because they are two different ways of categorizing plants for two different purposes.

Categories aren’t “real.” Categories don’t exist in nature. Things exist in nature, plants exist in nature, rocks and animals and genes and hormones and human experiences exist in nature. And humans look at the totality of everything and we come up with names and categories to sort and understand them. A category is not real; it is only useful or not useful. Botanical categories are useful for different reasons than culinary categories are, but they’re both useful ways to break up and understand the world. And they are useful in their own contexts, and may not be useful in other contexts. Botany has no use for defining what is and isn’t a “vegetable” so that’s just not a category in scientific botany. It’s a useful category for low-sweetness low-starch plant parts you cook in order to eat, though.

And we put everything into categories, and we have reasons for categorizing things the way we do—but we choose what traits are important to group by, and what traits aren’t. Vegetables, nuts, fruits, and grains are culinary plant food categories. And some categories are silly, like “is a taco a sandwich?” That’s a categorization game: what traits do we decide make an individual item part of the category or not?

But we categorize other things too. Sex, gender, race, ethnicity, class, sexual orientation, DSM diagnosis. Age categories such as senior/adult/teenager/child/toddler/infant, or age categories like adult/minor. These are all categorization schemes where humans decided what the categories are and what traits make an individual count as one thing or another. And then we decided how to treat people based on the category we assigned them to. The traits (such as hormones, genital shape, number of years having lived, brain neurochemistry, place where you were born, desire for a romantic relationship with people of a certain gender, desire for a sexual relationship with people of a certain gender…) are real. The categories are how we prioritize, classify, and understand them. Are the categories useful? Or are they not useful? In what contexts are they useful and in what contexts are they not? And what are the effects of playing “is a taco a sandwich? Is a tomato a fruit?” type categorization games with people?