Dreamer and Writer

"Difficult and meaningful will always bring more satisfaction than easy and meaningless"

[bluebxlle-writer]

Writing female villains

@bluebxlle_writer on Instagram

MASTERLIST ❦︎

POV : you’re a female villain in fiction. You’re badass and can beat up a dozen men at once, but you have no other personality besides either being cold or always using your feminine charms to seduce men. You’re also fully devoted to the main male villain. I'm tired of seeing the lack of well-written female villains, so let’s change that, shall we? Here are some tips for writing a good and well-developed female villain!

1. Their personality

I always get excited whenever there's a badass female villain, but then, boom. They're simply two-dimensional women who has no other personality besides being hot, badass and beating up men. Yes, we all love a badass hot lady, but not when she's boring.

Give us someone with an interesting personality, a well-rounded backstory, complex morals, and literally anything else that you would give your male villains. Instead of simply either emotionless or overly cheerful, give us ambitious, creative, and resourceful female villains. Give us a witty woman who cracks jokes in the middle of battle. Give us normal women.

2. Motivations

I've noticed that most of the time, the motivation of female villains is either driven by love or their desire to seek approval from a more powerful man, while male villains have all types of motivations, like ruling the world, gaining immortality, or rebuilding civilization.

See the difference? Why not give your female villains a motivation centered around them, instead of another man? I'm not saying that romance is a bad motivation - but it's just a widely applied stereotype that would be nice to change for once.

3. Make them likable

I can make a list of male antagonists who people love, but would hate their female counterparts. It’s pretty annoying, so give your female villain likeable traits. If she’s ruthless, you can make her a good leader who cares about her people. If she’s cold, you can make her a determined person who’d stop at nothing to reach her goals. You don’t have to make her likable as a person - she’s a villain after all - but please try to make her likable as a villain.

4. Complex morality

Give your female villains a complex morality - terrible things that she doesn’t mind doing and some lines that she will never cross. Maybe she’s fine with killing others, but she would never let one of her people die. Maybe she’s doing evil things, but for a greater good. Or alternatively, you can even make her completely ruthless!

5. Purpose

Please, please give your female villain a purpose in the story besides just looking hot and badass. Think about what will happen to the storyline if she wasn't in it. If the plot will fall apart, then you're good to go. Also, another thing, don't kill her off so quickly if she's the only female villain in the story. It gives the impression that they're easier to defeat than male ones.

6. Examples

The ATLA/TLOK universe has the best female villains I've ever seen, periodt.

Take Azula, for example. Yes, she works for a bigger male villain, but she doesn't need him. In fact, she accomplished everything without the help of that useless excuse of a Fire Lord. She could literally get rid of him and take the throne for herself if she wanted to. She also has a complex backstory which makes people understand her, a rich personality, and is completely ruthless. True, she's a horrible person, but I love her as a villain.

Then, there's Kuvira from TLOK. Unlike Azula, she's doing evil things for a cause that she believes is good. Eventually, she realizes that her actions are wrong, and turns herself in, which was the beginning of her redemption arc. She has a good backstory, complicated morality, and she doesn't answer to any man. She even has a love interest who has nothing to do with her villain arc, which I love.

Writers, give us more female villains whose arc doesn't revolve around men.

[valtsv]

the 17th century was called ‘the golden age of piracy’ and now that i’m reading about it it’s really not surprising that piracy appealed to so many people

[valtsv]

like, you get to be gay, do crimes, and you have health insurance? well then, just call me jolly roger and pass the rum lads

[valtsv]

[cheeseanonioncrisps]

This worked in part because conditions on Navy ships at that time were so terrible that a genuine hiring tactic was just straight up kidnapping people and relying on the fact that they couldn’t easily escape once you were far enough out at sea.

[deactivated-this-account-deacti]

I ended up having a really interesting conversation with some people at the bus stop today. They were getting out of some sort of ‘clean and sober’ meeting and had starting saying how they were so bored because they didn’t have anything to do, and had to stay at home because all their old friends would pull them back. So I said something like, ‘So this is the time to do all the stuff your parents told you they didn’t have money/time for!’ “Whatcha mean?” “You know, like when you were five and you REALLY wanted to have that toy or do that thing and you were like, ‘Please mom please I gotta have this I gotta go do this’ and they went ‘Hell no you think I’m paying for that do you want to goddamn EAT?’ “ And this light went on in their eyes. The lady is going to go check thrift stores for an Easybake Oven and I told her about Wilton cake decorating classes. The dude is going to Griffith Park and ride horses, because, ‘I always wanted to be a cowboy, and you can’t drink when you’re on a horse ‘cause you’ll fucking die!’ Fuck it. This is what being an adult is. Sure it’s bills and work and relationships, but damn it, it’s also time to do the things you LIKE. I signed up for a free class/lecture on Water Gardens. I’m going. It’s time.

[ruthfully]

Jill. Jill you are wonderful.

[lostwolfling]

no joke, this is such an important aspect of overcoming trauma. I mean the trauma of abusive parents, the trauma of broke ass parents who got toxic because of it, the trauma of capitalism. Like fuck it. Go to Wrestlemania. Build a shit ton of terrariums.

[judgingyourgrammar]

I took a stained glass class during the pandemic and now I have a hummingbird hanging in my kitchen window. And this year I’m finally getting chickens!!

[prismatic-bell]

This is literally why I have my Sailor Moon thermos.

[alarajrogers]

it doesn’t even have to be the trauma of bad parents. It can be the everyday human pain of “I lost my favorite toy when I was 12 and never found it again.” It can be the parents who loved you and fully sympathized with your desire to have the thing, but honey, we just don’t have the money right now. It can be the fact that you no longer live with your brother who’s highly allergic to dogs, so you can finally have the dog you always wanted that you always understood why you couldn’t get, and you accepted it, but it was still painful. It can be the Atari games or Nintendo games or Sega games that don’t exist anymore that you played in your childhood.

As I’ve gotten older I’ve realized – you don’t have to be suffering some great trauma, something unusual and particularly damaging, to feel pain. You don’t have to have lost your entire home in a hurricane to have lost something you truly valued and miss a lot. You don’t have to have had toxic parents to have been denied some things you wanted because they just didn’t have the money, or the resources, or the health.

Time is pain. Loss and disappointment are part of human existence. But you don’t have to try to justify why your specific loss or disappointment is especially bad to admit that it hurts and do something to rectify that hurt in some small way.

[gayavatarstyle]

people with bad taste are always like “yurr hurr The Beach is about zuko and mai and how they’re a great couple” while intellectuals know that Actually The Beach is about mining any and all of the untapped friendship potential of this striking exchange

[gayavatarstyle]

One of the best twist moments in Avatar is when Ty Lee suddenly and dramatically turns against Azula at the Boiling Rock. Azula was completely convinced that Ty Lee would obey her without question forever, but Azula wasn’t the only one fooled. Mai is just as shocked when Ty Lee rebels as Azula is. Ty Lee’s survival instincts were so sharp that she never let anyone know what she was thinking, not Azula, not Mai, and certainly not Zuko.

Zuko really believed that Ty Lee didn’t understand who he was at all. He completely bought into the act that she’s just a puppet for Azula, who lives in her “little Ty Lee world where everything’s great all the time”. But the thing is, Ty Lee is one of the most perceptive characters in the show, and she’s excellent at keeping that on the down low, but she sees a lot more of Zuko than he thinks, and a lot of what she sees is very familiar to her.

Overshadowed by prodigious siblings?

Wanting to be acknowledged for the talents you have rather than the talents you don’t?

Kept in line by fear?

Spending your whole life bending over backwards to fit the persona the royal family has set for you?

So yeah Zuko. She knows you.

[earthshaker1217]

This characterization is definitely emphasized with Ty Lee’s acrobatics, flexibility, and ability to hit pressure points. There’s a level of subtlety and precision that is required for such skills. She had to know her own body to be able to bend it in such ways, and she has to know other people’s bodies to be able to disable them.

[serialreblogger]

And pretty much from the moment you meet her, it’s fairly clear that there’s more to her than her lighthearted, bubbleheaded persona, long before she uses her battle skills. Look at what happens when Azula recruits her. 

Azula used blatant intimidation tactics to get Ty Lee to comply, ordering the net to be set on fire and all the animals released (which, for the record, would not only have endangered Ty Lee but the circus creatures themselves–I bet Ty Lee was attached to them, and that would’ve been a double threat in itself). Ty Lee is visibly terrified, but instead of calling her out or letting Azula see that she was intimidated, she says this:

Instead of endangering herself by pointing out that Azula crossed a line, Ty Lee falls back on her talk of “the universe” and “auras,” talk that canonically gets her indulged or dismissed but never taken seriously. 

She knows that Azula’s dangerous. There’s no way she doesn’t know that Azula is threatening her. But if she can keep Azula from realizing she knows that, she’s a little safer. 

Because she’s one of maybe two people Azula never considered as potential enemies–even (especially, but that’s another thread) Ozai is a threat in her mind, but Mai and Ty Lee are the closest thing Azula has to trusted friends, right up until their betrayal. 

Ty Lee’s spent a lifetime cultivating a personality that not only allows her to stands out among her siblings–it protects her from being treated as a threat. When you’re friends with Azula, that is an essential facade to maintain.  and she does it consistently enough that no one ever sees through it.

All of the Fire Nation kids are so messed up. Zuko’s just the one who gets in the most trouble, because he’s the only one who doesn’t have a mask.

[crockpotcauldron]

Boring old werewolf instincts:

Sexual jealousy

Constant aggression

Rigid hierarchy

Must win sports

Homophobia And Sexism Is Normal™

Eat people

Cool new werewolf instincts:

There is no five second rule

Corvids are friends

Hang out as a pack

Karaoke

Gotta pee

[mckeelix]

Also consider:

Separation anxiety

Unconditional love and loyalty

Being able to sleep in almost any situation or position

Irresistible urge to chase squirrels and rabbits

Hating the vacuum cleaner

Wanting to do everything with friends

Loudly and repeatedly announcing to housemates that someone is at the door

Long, shouted conversations to other werewolves across the neighborhood (bonus points at 2am)

Taking advantage of any and all free food

Werewolf-vampire solidarity

Fighting any animal that trespasses into the backyard

Boundless energy

Too much energy

Eating out of the trash if it smells tasty

Being bad at sports because you don’t want to let anyone else take the ball from you. Then destroying the ball in front of everyone because you want to make a point

Trying to fight things 10x your size like a fucking idiot

Being unable to hold a grudge for more than a few hours

Trying to make people feel bad for you over mundane things that aren’t actually that bad. And somehow succeeding.

Snoring

Needing to try a bit of your friends’ food, even if you’ve tried it 5645674 times before and have never once liked it

Getting way too friendly with random strangers

Being in a love-hate relationship with water

Digging. For no reason.

Thinking you’re a badass despite being a hyperactive ball of emotions and hedonism

Loud sobbing while pressing yourself up against the sliding glass door at your friends who locked you out because they were tired of your bullshit and wanted some goddamn peace and quiet

[morathor]

Okay this one is a gem:

“ Loudly and repeatedly announcing to housemates that someone is at the door “

[gehayi]

No alpha/beta/omega werewolves because science figured out LONG ago that that concept is, for wolves, incorrect.

[cayliana]

@margoteve @followmetoyourdoom

[harpsicalbiobug]

So most of these are very dog oriented, which makes sense to me, since dogs are just wolves that have co-evolved with us for thousands and thousands of years BUT I wanted to add a few that are wild wolf based:

Multigenerational households!

Kids get really excited when someone comes home with groceries

“I can HELP put away the food!” “Oh, and have you whisk away the ice cream like last week? I’m fine, dear.”

Love to travel and follow food trends

Mostly very social and must have roommates/family/significant other/kids/friends around

However, not uncommon to travel alone for periods of time, especially after leaving home

Big friendly communal meals with lots of ritual around who gets served in what order

“Let grandma take her pick of the turkey first. It’s respectful, and she won’t take kindly to you cutting the line.”

Full pantries, stocking up on basics, the kind of people who always have extra oatmeal, or batteries, or a jump cable

Can hold conversations using body language and eye contact without saying a word

Cuddlers, especially with the social group

Yelling to get everyone to gather, and phone chains for anyone who lives further away

Lots of singing, the pack has a bunch of favorite songs that everyone knows by heart, and some may be song writers

“Can you smell this? Does this smell weird? Does this smell good?”

Lots of candles and incense with unusual scents

Passing houses and farms and land down through generations

Love home renovation

Communal child care and sometimes communal nursing

Kids are all really into wrestling and being outside

When someone is ready to leave the household, the younger they leave the further they tend to travel. Someone who leaves at 18 might go to another country, but someone who leaves at 26 might just move a town away.

Whether someone moves far or close to home, it’s not unusual to move back in at home a few times before settling down

“You know the futon is always open for you. Your cousins are in your old bedroom, but you’re always welcome!”

Kinda grumpy about neighbors pushing property boundaries

“Why do they have to let the damn mulberry tree hang over OUR driveway?”

Good endurance runners

Late walks at night, naps in the middle of the day

Really playful, especially with kids

Lots of rough housing and board game nights!

[monstersandmaw]

I’ve been looking for the one with the wolf-aspects added for a while and I found it again! Reblogging for A+ extra wolfy content!

[catto-kun]

@theosartisticthematics

[thecreativegraveyard]

I love love love everything about this

[pocketyhat]

@dserpentes

[sindri42]

https://tapas.io/episode/1559785

[abyssal-glory]

@leaking-fountain-pen

[leaking-fountain-pen]

FINALLY GOOD WEREWOLF CONTENT

[windymischeif]

@jellymadebutler This is 1000% the Wolf Pack

[notajellymadebutler]

Omg 1000%!!! I love all of these!

[breelandwalker]

I….I suddenly want to write werewolf fiction that is domestic and ridiculously wholesome.

[passionoia]

@oattdustt

[biggest-gaudiest-poltergeist]

I know I’ve said this before but vampires

don’t show up on camera

can fly/scale walls

immune to bullets

can break into any safe by turning into fog or some bullshit

could probably hypnotize security guards as needed

therefore I am in dire need of a heist film where a group of vampires band together to steal back their old stuff from museums

[theonewiththesoks]

Oceans 1100 AD

[bleachedshadow]

Very interested in the hardest part of this beign the vampires trying to trick someone into granting them permission to enter the premises earlier in the day

[biggest-gaudiest-poltergeist]

I feel like this has several simple solutions!

they enter the museum while it’s open to the public (and the Welcome sign is on display). they turn into bats and hide in the rafters until the museum closes. the only hiccup is when the overhead announcement comes on and politely requests all visitors leave for closing. the vampire are forced to flee, but come back the next day with tiny bat-sized earplugs.

downside: this requires going out in daylight, leading most of the team members to show up in long black victorian formalwear, complete with lacy parasols, which they insist on carrying with them throughout the entire heist (much to the frustration of the team leader, who just wore sunscreen and a raincoat).

depending on how invitations work, it is possible any random human can invite them in. one of the vampires gets their Ultimate Frisbee buddy Oakley to tag along and invite them in after closing.

downside: the gang spends the rest of the heist gently mocking the idea of a vampire playing association ultimate frisbee (“so what, you turn into a bat and catch it with your fangs? do they make you crawl up the wall when it gets stuck on a roof? if you turn into a cat to get it down from a tree, do you end up stuck in the tree?”) this ends in a Climactic Twist Ending when Oakley reveals they don’t play ultimate frisbee, just dog park frisbee. In the sense that they met when the vampire transformed into a wolf to gatecrashed a game at the local dog park.

(Bonus points if Oakley is a werewolf. extra bonus points if this is revealed in a post-credits epilogue where, on the next full moon, the entire gang transforms into creatures of the night and joins Oakley at the park for a frisbee game of Bats vs Wolves)

Final option: to gain legitimate entry, an invitation is needed from a museum employee. this presents two possibilities:

the vampires pretend to be incredibly rich eccentric patrons who want a private nighttime tour of the museum. (this is convincing due to the fact they are rich and incredibly eccentric.) the vampires get inside, planning to hypnotize the Curator supervising their tour.

downside: they immediately discover the Curator has been left immune to hypnosis by years of post-grad exposure to droning history lecturers. the vampires leave their least competent member to distract her while they carry out the heist–in the ensuing 90 minutes, the vampire and the curator accidentally Fall In Love after bonding over their shared fury about british archeological theft.

(In the sequel they get married and spend their honeymoon robbing the British Museum in order to return sacred objects to the cultures from which they were stolen. this is made more complicated comical by the fact vampires are unable to interact with holy objects. also, they are lesbians.)

alternatively: the gang simply bribes a security guard into letting them in after closing. the security guard then tags along, offering helpful advice for disabling alarms and transporting antiques. it turns out Security Officer Greer only applied for the job bc they too were planning an Elaborate Acrobatic Burglary, but then their partners quit to join Cirque du Soleil and “I can’t exactly perform a Double Cartwheel Birdie Flying Trapeze Boomerang Special without a partner.”

downside: the gang becomes too attached to ask Greer to leave. They carry out the heist as intended, but this time pretending to be circus performers to explain their vampire powers. Turning into a cloud of smoke to bypass locks? Magicians never explain a trick. Spider walking across ceilings to bypass alarms? Contortionist. When it comes time to fly from roof to roof, they decide turning into bats would give away their secret, so instead they help Greer, in a sparkling moment of triumph, execute the perfect Double Cartwheel Birdie Flying Trapeze Boomerang Special!

Greer and the gang escape (by tightrope walking) into the night with all the plunder they can carry. Tearfully, the gang begins to say goodbye (bc they can’t keep up the pretense of being circus performers forever) when Greer casually asks how a bunch of vampire ended up working in a circus.

(Greer assumed from the beginning they were vampires, because of “how you dress, how you talk, and mostly because none of you showed up on camera back in the CCTV control room. Why did you think it took me so long to let yall in?”)

I cannot for the lives of me decide which synopsis I like best

(all ideas shared on this blog are public domain, feel free to go nuts. you can find more story ideas like this on my ko-fi)

[biggest-gaudiest-poltergeist]

[tea-withnofixinsplease]

It never fails to tickle me how Studios could have billions of dollars to work with, yet a random tumblr user still comes up with a story that’s still infinitely more interesting than any story that’s come out in the past 8 years.

[agwitow]

This would be very funny, but it’s also a very specific niche type of vampire derived from pulpy pop culture riffs on the Dracula novel (which isn’t to say that’s a bad thing).

But like, if we go more traditional/ European folkloric vampires, we would get a very different movie…

Since museums are public places, and not the home of anyone, they wouldn’t need an invitation to enter, unless… that mummy in the egyptology display is a “mummy” in the classic monster movie sense.

The vampires can’t figure out why they’re unable to enter the museum until they send in a (hypnotized?) human for some after hours reconnaissance. The mummy was a servant or something that was placed in the tomb to serve their king/queen/lord in the afterlife, but was misidentified as the king/queen/lord and is loving having a bunch of the treasure effectively rededicated to them. They are less than thrilled about the idea of the heist going down.

The vamps have to call in favours and hypnotize a bunch of people to get the mummy temporarily removed for “servicing” or something so that the museum reverts back to a public place for a few nights.

The mummy is friends with the night security guard (they play checkers and drink hot chocolate together), and warned the guard about the vamps.

Vamps not showing up in mirrors and early photography was because of the silver involved. Modern stuff doesn’t have that. The vamps don’t realize this. They strip naked so their clothes won’t “give them away” on the cameras.

The guard has to spend awhile trying to cough up all the hot chocolate they inhaled when they saw a cadre of butt-naked vampires sneaking into the museum.

The mummy figured they would do something like this and has set up boobytraps specifically for vampires. Bags of seeds are poured out (making any vamps who see it have to stop to count every piece), motion activated air fresheners loaded with garlic oil, iron nails in places where only a climbing vamp would encounter them, doorways lined with strips of hawthorn.

Basically, it ends up being a bunch of “home alone” type shenanigans inside a museum, with the guard running additional interference.

It ends with the vamps stuck in a small, windowless room as the sun rises, unhappily waiting to be arrested.

Twist: a local werewolf pack took advantage of all the ridiculousness to actually rob the place without anyone noticing. So when the cops arrive, the vamps are expecting trespassing charges, but are blamed for the thefts.

Extra twist: the guard is a werewolf and tipped their pack off. The mummy cheats at checkers and curses them a couple times a week for stupid sh*t. They’ve been trying to think of how to get revenge without incurring an actual deadly curse for years, and the opportunity was just too good to pass up.

Oh, and all those naked vampires? Not the “young and sexy” types. They are old, skeletal, and/or withered. So as far as the cops are aware, a bunch of senior citizens just tried to rob a museum in the nude lol

[shelbys-advice-blog]

I want to live by myself when I move out of my parent's place but I'm really afraid of money problems? I'm afraid that the only place I can afford will be in the ghetto and it'll all be torn apart and I'll only be allowed to eat one granola bar a week. I'm really stressing out about this. I don't know anything about after school life. I don't know anything about paying bills or how to buy an apartment and it's really scaring me. is there anything you know that can help me?

HI darling,

I’ve actually got a super wonderful masterpost for you to check out:

Home

what the hell is a mortgage?

first apartment essentials checklist

how to care for cacti and succulents

the care and keeping of plants

Getting an apartment

Money

earn rewards by taking polls

how to coupon

what to do when you can’t pay your bills

see if you’re paying too much for your cell phone bill

how to save money

How to Balance a Check Book

How to do Your Own Taxes

Health

how to take care of yourself when you’re sick

things to bring to a doctor’s appointment

how to get free therapy

what to expect from your first gynecologist appointment

how to make a doctor’s appointment

how to pick a health insurance plan

how to avoid a hangover

a list of stress relievers

how to remove a splinter

Emergency

what to do if you get pulled over by a cop

a list of hotlines in a crisis

things to keep in your car in case of an emergency

how to do the heimlich maneuver

Job

time management

create a resume

find the right career

how to pick a major

how to avoid a hangover

how to interview for a job

how to stop procrastinating

How to write cover letters

Travel

ULTIMATE PACKING LIST

Traveling for Cheap

Travel Accessories

The Best Way to Pack a Suitcase

How To Read A Map

How to Apply For A Passport

How to Make A Travel Budget

Better You

read the news

leave your childhood traumas behind

how to quit smoking

how to knit

how to stop biting your nails

how to stop procrastinating

how to stop skipping breakfast

how to stop micromanaging

how to stop avoiding asking for help

how to stop swearing constantly

how to stop being a pushover

learn another language

how to improve your self-esteem

how to sew

learn how to embroider

how to love yourself

100 tips for life

Apartments/Houses/Moving

Moving Out and Getting an Apartment, Part 1: Are You Sure? (The Responsible One)

Moving Out and Getting an Apartment, Part 2: Finding the Damn Apartment (The Responsible One)

Moving Out and Getting an Apartment, Part 3: Questions to Ask about the Damn Apartment (The Responsible One)

Moving Out and Getting an Apartment, Part 4: Packing and Moving All of Your Shit (The Responsible One)

How to Protect Your Home Against Break-Ins (The Responsible One)

Education

How to Find a Fucking College (The Sudden Adult)

How to Find Some Fucking Money for College (The Sudden Adult)

What to Do When You Can’t Afford Your #1 Post-Secondary School (The Sudden Adult)

Stop Shitting on Community College Kids (Why Community College is Fucking Awesome) (The Responsible One)

How to Ask for a Recommendation Letter (The Responsible One)

How to Choose a College Major (The Sudden Adult)

Finances

How to Write a Goddamn Check (The Responsible One)

How to Convince Credit Companies You’re Not a Worthless Bag of Shit (The Responsible One)

Debit vs Credit (The Responsible One)

What to Do if Your Wallet is Stolen/Lost (The Sudden Adult)

Budgeting 101 (The Responsible One)

Important Tax Links to Know (The Responsible One)

How to Choose a Bank Without Screwing Yourself (The Responsible One)

Job Hunting

How to Write a Resume Like a Boss (The Responsible One)

How to Write a Cover Letter Someone Will Actually Read (The Responsible One)

How to Handle a Phone Interview without Fucking Up (The Responsible One)

10 Sites to Start Your Job Search (The Responsible One)

Life Skills

Staying in Touch with Friends/Family (The Sudden Adult)

Bar Etiquette (The Sudden Adult)

What to Do After a Car Accident (The Sudden Adult)

Grow Up and Buy Your Own Groceries (The Responsible One)

How to Survive Plane Trips (The Sudden Adult)

How to Make a List of Goals (The Responsible One)

How to Stop Whining and Make a Damn Appointment (The Responsible One)

Miscellaneous

What to Expect from the Hell that is Jury Duty (The Responsible One)

Relationships

Marriage: What the Fuck Does It Mean and How the Hell Do I Know When I’m Ready? (Guest post - The Northwest Adult)

How Fucked Are You for Moving In with Your Significant Other: An Interview with an Actual Real-Life Couple Living Together™ (mintypineapple  and catastrofries)

Travel & Vehicles

How to Winterize Your Piece of Shit Vehicle (The Responsible One)

How to Make Public Transportation Your Bitch (The Responsible One)

Other Blog Features

Apps for Asshats

Harsh Truths & Bitter Reminders

Asks I’ll Probably Need to Refer People to Later

Apartments (or Life Skills) - How Not to Live in Filth (The Sudden Adult)

Finances - Tax Basics (The Responsible One)

Important Documents - How to Get a Copy of Your Birth Certificate (The Responsible One)

Important Documents - How to Get a Replacement ID (The Responsible One)

Health - How to Deal with a Chemical Burn (The Responsible One)

Job Hunting - List of Jobs Based on Social Interaction Levels (The Sudden Adult)

Job Hunting - How to Avoid Falling into a Pit of Despair While Job Hunting (The Responsible One)

Job Hunting - Questions to Ask in an Interview (The Responsible One)

Life Skills - First-Time Flying Tips (The Sudden Adult)

Life Skills - How to Ask a Good Question (The Responsible One)

Life Skills - Reasons to Take a Foreign Language (The Responsible One)

Life Skills - Opening a Bar Tab (The Sudden Adult)

Relationships - Long Distance Relationships: How to Stay in Contact (The Responsible One)

Adult Cheat Sheet:

what to do if your pet gets lost

removing stains from your carpet

how to know if you’re eligible for food stamps

throwing a dinner party

i’m pregnant, now what?

first aid tools to keep in your house

how to keep a clean kitchen

learning how to become independent from your parents

job interview tips

opening your first bank account

what to do if you lose your wallet

tips for cheap furniture

easy ways to cut your spending

selecting the right tires for your car

taking out your first loan

picking out the right credit card

how to get out of parking tickets

how to fix a leaky faucet

get all of your news in one place

getting rid of mice & rats in your house

when to go to the e.r.

buying your first home

how to buy your first stocks

guide to brewing coffee

first apartment essentials checklist

coping with a job you hate

30 books to read before you’re 30

what’s the deal with retirement?

difference between insurances

Once you’ve looked over all those cool links, I have some general advice for you on how you can have some sort of support system going for you:

Reasons to move out of home

You may decide to leave home for many different reasons, including:

wishing to live independently

location difficulties – for example, the need to move closer to university

conflict with your parents

being asked to leave by your parents.

Issues to consider when moving out of home

It’s common to be a little unsure when you make a decision like leaving home. You may choose to move, but find that you face problems you didn’t anticipate, such as:

Unreadiness – you may find you are not quite ready to handle all the responsibilities.

Money worries – bills including rent, utilities like gas and electricity and the cost of groceries may catch you by surprise, especially if you are used to your parents providing for everything. Debt may become an issue.

Flatmate problems – issues such as paying bills on time, sharing housework equally, friends who never pay board, but stay anyway, and lifestyle incompatibilities (such as a non-drug-user flatting with a drug user) may result in hostilities and arguments.

Your parents may be worried

Think about how your parents may be feeling and talk with them if they are worried about you. Most parents want their children to be happy and independent, but they might be concerned about a lot of different things. For example:

They may worry that you are not ready.

They may be sad because they will miss you.

They may think you shouldn’t leave home until you are married or have bought a house.

They may be concerned about the people you have chosen to live with.

Reassure your parents that you will keep in touch and visit regularly. Try to leave on a positive note. Hopefully, they are happy about your plans and support your decision.

Tips for a successful move

Tips include:

Don’t make a rash decision – consider the situation carefully. Are you ready to live independently? Do you make enough money to support yourself? Are you moving out for the right reasons?

Draw up a realistic budget – don’t forget to include ‘hidden’ expenses such as the property’s security deposit or bond (usually four weeks’ rent), connection fees for utilities, and home and contents insurance.

Communicate – avoid misunderstandings, hostilities and arguments by talking openly and respectfully about your concerns with flatmates and parents. Make sure you’re open to their point of view too – getting along is a two-way street.

Keep in touch – talk to your parents about regular home visits: for example, having Sunday night dinner together every week.

Work out acceptable behaviour – if your parents don’t like your flatmate(s), find out why. It is usually the behaviour rather than the person that causes offence (for example, swearing or smoking). Out of respect for your parents, ask your flatmate(s) to be on their best behaviour when your parents visit and do the same for them.

Ask for help – if things are becoming difficult, don’t be too proud to ask your parents for help. They have a lot of life experience.

If your family home does not provide support

Not everyone who leaves home can return home or ask their parents for help in times of trouble. If you have been thrown out of home or left home to escape abuse or conflict, you may be too young or unprepared to cope.

If you are a fostered child, you will have to leave the state-care system when you turn 18, but you may not be ready to make the sudden transition to independence.

If you need support, help is available from a range of community and government organisations. Assistance includes emergency accommodation and food vouchers. If you can’t call your parents or foster parents, call one of the associations below for information, advice and assistance.

Where to get help

Your doctor

Kids Helpline Tel. [phone]

Lifeline Tel. 13 11 44

Home Ground Services Tel. [phone]

Relationships Australia Tel. [phone]

Centrelink Crisis or Special Help Tel. 13 28 50

Tenants Union of Victoria Tel. [phone]

Things to remember

Try to solve any problems before you leave home. Don’t leave because of a fight or other family difficulty if you can possibly avoid it.

Draw up a realistic budget that includes ‘hidden’ expenses, such as bond, connection fees for utilities, and home and contents insurance.

Remember that you can get help from a range of community and government organizations. 

(source)

Keep me updated? xx

[brihann-deactivated20220622]

Reblogging for myself

[bridgyrose]

reblogging for those that follow me that may be starting to move out

[maa-iingan]

Update:

They think I have late stage Addison’s disease.

I have more testing I have to do.

I’m without words. This is terrifying.

I can’t even let myself grieve or relax because I don’t even have enough money to be diagnosed properly OR treated.

So please, please. If you have anything to spare.. I need it now more than ever ..

I appreciate any and ALL HELP!!!

If you’d like to immediately help me my PayPal is

https://www.paypal.me/YvesOrage

I don’t want to die because I can’t afford to get treatment. I’ve come this far.. I’m desperate. I need my community now more than ever. Please don’t let me be forgotten

BOOST THIS

[maa-iingan]

https://www.gofundme.com/f/1s9mcl6neo?utm_medium=copy_link&utm_source=customer&utm_campaign=p_na+share-sheet&rcid=40da252734534337a34905a6ced9b9f5

Click here to support Medical emergency, in desperate need of treatment! organized by Kailey Babcock

Kailey Babcock Medical emergency, in desperate need of treatment! Hello, my name is Yves, I’m a young, trans individual who recently moved t

Here’s my GoFundMe to help with everything, I can’t reach the funds fully til I reach my goal or I end it. I’m only at 10% of what I need. SO PLEASE SHARE IT EVERYWHERE!! COPY THE LINK AND SHARE IT TO YOUR FB, TWITTER, IG, everywhere!! It’ll help me tremendously, and it’s the perfect way to help me if you cannot donate anything. It’d be helping survive, thank you

[maa-iingan]

IM RUNNING OUT OF TIME!! , please help in any way that you can. If you’re unable/ not in a place to be able to donate then PLEASE boost, or repost my story!! That helps me just as much !!! and I don’t have much time left to wait and hope for help.

if you’d like to immediately help me with medical funds/survival funds you can donate here:

https://www.paypal.me/YvesOrage

https://www.paypal.me/YvesOrage

[starstruck-dandelion]

I'm dying too but hey help this person. Good luck whoever you are. Sorry I have a small blog so I'm not helping much.

[maa-iingan]

I love you, I’m sending you all the positive energy, thank you for your time. I appreciate you ♥️

[maa-iingan]

This is what it’s doing to my body as we speak..

This is what i get all over my body when I get flare ups from stress. It’s extremely painful and leaves open sores, which is dangerous because I have a compromised immune system

My body is shutting down, and I’m fighting my hardest to get a diagnosis to TREAT whatever this is AS SOON AS POSSIBLE because the symptoms are getting more severe by every flare up I have..

I’ve had to have 3 emergency catheters so far because my bladder keeps completely shutting down..

I’ve been rapidly losing weight and having muscle loss. I’m not able to break down protein properly for some reason.

I went from 117 to 97

These are only SOME OF THE SYMPTOMS DEALING WITH, But here it is! As humiliating as it is..here’s what it’s doing to me in full view..

I need help while it’s still possible.

[maa-iingan]

My procedure is in a couple of days!!! This is important!! Please help me! I NEED TREATMENT

[the-autumn-apple-artworks-deact]

JESUS CHRIST THIS IS IMPORTANT!!!!!!

DUDE I HOPE YOU ALL THE LUCK OF THE WORLD IDK WHO YOU ARE BUT ILU AND YOU DESERVE TO RESTORE YOURSELF

[youtube-animeace-deactivated202]

Get this person all the help you can everyone

[maa-iingan]

I’m exhausted. I just want this to end. I want to live a normal life...

I can’t mentally, emotionally, and financially afford this shit. I need help. I’m working so hard on my own to get everything I can done and it’s like it never ends.. I just want a break to breathe

[currentswim]

GET HIM THE HELP HE NEEDS

[inactive-go-away-deactivated202]

I put this on my Facebook of the post to share it around. I really hope you get the treatment you need. Prayers for you @maa-iingan​. Don’t give up!

[maa-iingan]

I STILL NEED HELP!

[canine---cadaver-deactivated202]

EVERYONE WHO SEES THIS PLEASE DONATE OR AT LEAST REBLOG IT IS INCREDIBLY IMPORTANT

[dontmakemerattlemybones-deactiv]

PLEASE DONATE AND SPREAD THE WORD FOR HIM ITS DANGEROUSLY IMPORTANT THAT WE DO WHAT WE CAN TO HELP PLEASE REBLOG OR DONATE FOR HIM

[maa-iingan]

https://www.paypal.me/YvesOrage

Pay Kailey Babcock using PayPal.Me

Go to paypal.me/YvesOrage and type in the amount. Since it’s PayPal, it's easy and secure. Don’t have a PayPal account? No worries.

[maa-iingan]

I HAVE TO GO TO THE HOSPITAL TODAY FOR A MAJOR FLARE UP &. FOR EMERGENCY HELP

THE BEST WAY TO HELP ME IS TO DIRECTLY DONATE!!

I have two procedures I have to do this month, an appointment today and needed transportation, rent, bills, ect.

I HAVE PAYPAL, CASHAPP, & AMAZON $ CARDS HELP AS WELL

I appreciate anything

https://www.paypal.me/YvesOrage

https://www.paypal.me/YvesOrage

[spacemiddenzz]

signal boost! please, pitch in and get this guy the help he needs!

[maa-iingan]

PLEASE HELP ME‼️I now have severe inflammation and MORE tests, going to ANOTHER specialist this month and having another appointment in a week, besides my two procedures & now maybe three..

I’m just trying to stay alive day to day. My body is literally shutting down idk wtf to even do anymore. It’s extremely painful, and terrifying. I’m 23!!!and NO ONE could afford a MONTH of this, even with “help”. I appreciate ANYTHING‼️

[worm-with-a-top-hat]

Signal boost!! Please help, every little bit counts, and if you're unable to help, please share this!!

[sweetberry-roebuck]

SIGNAL BOOOOSSTTTT

[maa-iingan]

I’ve been bedridden all day, I’m in extreme pain. They think I have psoriatic arthritis as well.. my whole body is swollen but especially my joints. To the point of my skin splitting. I feel like I have severe whip lash and am probably going to have to go to the E.R because I can barely walk. I have an appointment this week but I don’t even know if I can wait. I NEED HELP. I CAN’T afford my medical treatments alone, I need YOUR help. Boost, reblog, or donate, it all matters to me. Please help me get through this and survive..

[undrinkablesmoothie]

I really hope you get the help you need and pull through this.

[maa-iingan]

Thank you,

I HAVE to. Or I’ll die.

I have so many appointments, and rent is due and I’m late, due to an emergency visit....So PLEASE keep posting, reblogging, donate whatever you comfortablly can, all helps!! Please PLEASE help me survive.. and if not, share my story/ GoFundMe to all platforms. donating directly to me through PayPal is the best way to help me right now !!

[1-walked-witha-zombie]

Y'all please help this person, this is really fucking important.

[maa-iingan]

‼️Had an appointment today, did some tests, and needed x rays of my hands. I’ll be on more meds, and have to see ANOTHER specialist. I can’t use my hands much because of my joints and inflammation. I also have to be careful because I’m at high risk of infection, due to the open wounds on my hands from them splitting open from swelling so much.. it’s extremely painful. & I can’t hustle without hands... SO PLEASE, help me if you can. Anything and everything counts! Directly donating helps the most w bills‼️‼️‼️

[strugglingqueer]

Guys, please! Help this person! I am so sorry, I can't donate, and all I can do is reblog, but I truly, truly hope that it will help you!

[maa-iingan]

I now have an unexpected MRI on top of getting a catheter today, and two upcoming intense procedures where I will need after care... I literally don’t even know at this point. I’m so scared and lost. I feel so alone. No one NO ONE could afford this shit, live this shit, and have to do all of it at once. My mental health is taking a huge hit because of the stress of literally TRYING TO STAY ALIVE because of bills!!!!!!

[maa-iingan]

I had to have an emergency catheter put in last night and I am in so much fucking pain. I can’t keep up with any of this.. any of it. I don’t have the money, time or ENERGY! One thing after another :( please keep this going for me so I can at least be a little less stressed.. I need help rn.

I have 300$ in my account rn I and I have to use it for meds tomorrow, as well as transportation :( I can show proof. I have an MRI coming up and two other appointments this week. PLEASE , PLEASE if you’re able and ok donate what you can, share, boost, reblog, repost, share my story!! I need to SURVIVE! I just want to be able to heal like I said

[becausewedefinetheworld]

IMPORTANT IMPORTANT IMPORTANT IMPORTANT IMPORTANT IMPORTANT IMPORTANT IMPORTANT IMPORTANT IMPORTANT IMPORTANT IMPORTANT IMPORTANT IMPORTANT IMPORTANT IMPORTANT 

[isopodbug]

PLEASE DONATE

[iamverytallthankyouverymuch-dea]

PLEASE DONATE IF YOU CAN

Anything helps, donations, rebloging. Sending love ❤️💙❤️

[maa-iingan]

Medical bills, moving closer to my hospital for treatment, answers, testing, specialists, more testing, procedures, more specialists... planned surgeries, and now everything is postponed and that drags this out longer with no answers ....(which leaves me fucked !!and my health is getting worse so idk what to even do!! I’m not getting any financial assistance because im a S.W.) because of this virus, which if I catch I will die.... I’m broke!! I’m broke broke. All my GoFundMe money has gone into rent and all of the above plus transportation, reg’ living and storage unit costs. I need YOUR HELP right now more than EVER!! As a trans, chronically ill, disabled, S.W.

[yeehaw-clown-deactivated2023082]

BOOST & SUPPORT ‼️‼️‼️‼️

[captainawesomeperson]

C'mon let's support y'all's, cough up some coins for those who have some and the rest reblog and boost this post support

[euclase]

Do you ever think you'll stop drawing fanart? No offense it just seems like the kind of thing you're supposed to grow out of. I'm just curious what your plans/goals are since it isn't exactly an art form that people take seriously.

Ah, fanart. Also known as the art that girls make.

Sad, immature girls no one takes seriously. Girls who are taught that it’s shameful to be excited or passionate about anything, that it’s pathetic to gush about what attracts them, that it’s wrong to be a geek, that they should feel embarrassed about having a crush, that they’re not allowed to gaze or stare or wish or desire. Girls who need to grow out of it.

That’s the art you mean, right?

Because in my experience, when grown men make it, nobody calls it fanart. They just call it art. And everyone takes it very seriously.

It’s interesting though — the culture of shame surrounding adult women and fandom. Even within fandom it’s heavily internalized: unsurprisingly, mind, given that fandom is largely comprised by young girls and, unfortunately, our culture runs on ensuring young girls internalize *all* messages no matter how toxic. But here’s another way of thinking about it.

Sports is a fandom. It requires zealous attention to “seasons,” knowledge of details considered obscure to those not involved in that fandom, unbelievable amounts of merchandise, and even “fanfic” in the form of fantasy teams. But this is a masculine-coded fandom. And as such, it’s encouraged - built into our economy! Have you *seen* Dish network’s “ultimate fan” advertisements, which literally base selling of a product around the normalization of all consuming (male) obsession? Or the very existence of sports bars, built around the link between fans and community enjoyment and analysis. Sport fandom is so ingrained in our culture that major events are treated like holidays (my gym closes for the Super Bowl) — and can you imagine being laughed at for admitting you didn’t know the difference between Supernatural and The X Files the way you might if you admit you don’t know the rules of football vs baseball, or basketball?

“Fandom” is not childish but we live in a culture that commodified women’s time in such away that their hobbies have to be “frivolous,” because “mature” women’s interests are supposed to be marriage, family, and overall care taking: things that allow others to continue their own special interests, while leaving women without a space of their own.

So think about what you’re actually saying when you call someone “too old” for fandom. Because you’re suggesting they are “too old” for a consuming hobby, and I challenge you to answer — what do you think they should be doing instead?

[talesfromthemek]

#I love the fact I’m ‘weird’ for writing fic but some guy painting a team logo on his beer belly is normal

[destielhiseyesopened]

[x] [x]

[takaraphoenix]

This whole modern approach is also seriously undermining just how important fanfiction is - from a historical standpoint.

The concept of fanfiction formed and forged the earliest stages of literature in Europe. Because the majority of authors in France, Germany and Great Britain looked at that funky little Celtic dude Arthur and thought “hey, he’s neat. I wanna write about him”.

The entire concept of a book outside of religious purposes was born out of fanfiction in my country.

There is no “first canon” for Arthur where he came as the prince of Camelot, with his sidekicks Lancelot and Merlin and his endgame love interest Gwen.

Arthur was some random hunter when he started out.

Someone’s fanfiction made him a prince.

Someone else’s fanfiction gave him a round table.

Someone else’s fanfiction gave him Merlin at his side.

Someone else’s fanfiction gave him Morgana, gave him Gwen, gave him his swords.

And, to this day, we still write Arthurian fanfiction. Literally last year there was a movie adaptation that is, by all intends and purposes, fanfiction, because it wasn’t even close to a literal adaptation of the source material (The Kid Who Would Be King). Heck, BBC’s Merlin, itself an Arthurian fanfiction, remains one of the biggest fandoms that people today write for on AO3.

You were a joke in the middle ages if you tried to write your own stuff. Who’s interested in your stuff? You were only a respected author if you wrote fanfiction. The most famous medieval German authors are famous because they wrote fanfiction about some knightly OCs they created who served on Arthur’s court. That is the literary legacy of the middle ages. Arthurian fanfiction.

Yet somewhere along the way, this concept of “I find x story/element cool and want to elaborate on it more, shift the focus onto an aspect of this original source material” has gotten this “eh, it’s fanfiction” connotation and lost respect.

Even though this very concept is still being used - even outside of the actual medium of fanfiction - and it is still being used for the very same purpose it was used for in medieval times. Original movies often don’t get as much recognition as adaptations of existing source material that the audience is familiar with. People see a movie about a character they’re familiar with and seem more inclined to buy a ticket to see the 10th new interpretation of Batman or Superman or Snow White. How are these new interpretations of familiar source material that usually add to the lore, reinterpret characterizations and dynamics, any different from fanfiction?

But heaven forbid we call The Dark Knight Nolan’s Batman fanfiction. No, fanfiction is that silly thing that we can’t take seriously, but that new Joker movie, that however is high-end art.

[stufflizleelikes]

SO IMPORTANT

[kyraneko]

This. Fanfiction is variations on an existing theme, simultaneously making use of and satisfying people’s existing love for a story that they’re happy to consume more of, and cultivating the synergy between an existing story/mythos and a new author who, in interacting with characters they’d never have created themselves, creates something that neither they nor any of the story’s previous tellers could have made all by themselves.

Fanfiction is the new whole being greater than the sum of its parts, and fanfiction is the story being made limitless, retelling by retelling, and it is wonderful.

[amuseoffyre]

It’s also worth noting that Batman himself only came into being because of The Scarlet Pimpernel, a series of books about an extravagantly rich foppish playboy by day, daring hero in disguise by night (I mean, loosely. He also fopped by night and heroed by day, but you get my drift). Written by a woman no less.

Batman is a transformative work with a modernised crime-fighting SP but also borrowing strongly from earlier comic books, and yet it is seen as definitive.

[zara2148]

Coming back here to say that I think the derision for fanart also has some of its roots in our capitalist hellscape.

It’s the age old “If thing not make you money, why you care about thing?” that’s so prevalent in the system. Of course some people do make money with their fanart, but I think that is still part of the scorn. 

It’s supposed to be something you do not just for fun, but for practice, people like this think. Once you’re good at it, you can drop it and make money by focusing on your OCs and original work!

[yespolkadotkitty]

**smashes reblog**

[tuxedoelf]

Couldn’t agree more. Fan art and fic are absolutely valid. We really need to stop putting an age limit on fun as well!

Funnily enough, my Mum sent me this just today. It was in the front of the Doctor Who book she’d just purchased. (My Mum’s in her 70btw… tell her she’s too old for fandom, I dare you…)

[theheroofheroes]

Fandom, fanart, and fanfiction is for everyone.  No, it isn’t something you “have” to grow out of.  If it brings you joy, then who cares?

[stargirl-judooz]

Always reblog

[rhube]

Suddenly all those Hinterlands quests to go round up a random farmer’s druffalo don’t  seem so silly.

Dragon Age Inquisition - doing something right.

(source)

[reiddukehasfriendsnow]

Sigrid Ellis understands my heart

[sic-sempervirens]

I cannot take your baronial war seriously

[batbetbitbotbut]

@kawuli i don’t know a single work the tweets talk about but this is amazing and my brain is screaming at me to send it to you

[kawuli]

EXCELLENT

I feel like my fandom niche is excessive worldbuilding and periodic yelling about farming and you know what I’m fine with that

[findingfeather]

“We have the tax records!”

[kyraneko]

This will be adjusted based on resources. If you have prey-bearing land to support a hunter-gatherer population AND your weaponry is uncomplicated to make, you can have a third of a small village’s population be hunter-warriors, but this requires a low population density in general. If you have the ruins of an entire civilization for the plundering, you can amass a pretty decent collection of weaponry and, for a time, food and clothing to outfit your raiding parties. If you’ve got engineers, scientists, and farm experts who’ve put together a successful aquaponics array, and windmills or a hydropower source to run the pumps, and a system of insects to feed the chickens and fish, you can probably  run that with fewer full-time people and more success than if you’re growing wheat and vegetables in the hand-cleared field pioneer-style. 

A polished, epic-level super-expert swordsperson took a lot more training resources to create than a casual brawler, or even three or four casual brawlers. If your warriors wear plate armor or fancy tailored clothes, that takes more time, effort, and resources to make than if they wear leather loincloths. 

Nomadic sheepherders will have more materials to make clothing out of than the people with that aquaponics setup from a few lines back, but the latter group, being sedentary, would be better suited for weaving—larger looms with no need to make them portable, more useful time for it since they’re not moving, and the same wind or water that runs their aquaponics pumps can also be made to power looms. The nomads would likely do felting rather than weaving to make cloth from the wool, but if they traded with the river people, the river people could prosper as successful weavers and supply cloth to a number of other colonies.

The trick is figuring out what’s required, what’s available or easiest in a given living pattern, what’s needed for the environment they’re in. People in high latitudes or elevations need more clothing than people in more tropical places; people with an ongoing problem with raiders will need to spend more resources on maintaining and equipping defenders; those defenders can become a source of resources rather than a net drain on them if they double as raiders themselves, or as hunters. Farm tech and practices have a direct effect on how much can be produced per given amount of labor, and high population densities outright require a certain amount of intensification of farming practices, as self-fertile and self-irrigated farmland is generally in comparatively short supply.

Prolific food availability in the absence of effective birth control leads to population growth over a few generations, which leads to eventual shortage as food production capacity at the current tech level maxes out. Warfare and poverty-induced violent unrest may arise as a consequence and drop the population back to levels that can be more easily provided for, or a famine year due to flood, drought, or temperature issues can result in starvation, followed by disease running rampant through a weakened population; again, the result is a drop in population followed by greater ease in providing for everybody.

People’s actions are highly shaped by their environment. By what’s available, and what’s easy. Raiders need something to raid, which means their plunder needs a production line. Farmers need water, labor (human, animal, or machine), fuel for that labor, an environment and location suitable for it, and a degree of safety; the crops they grow will be limited to what is suitable for that place. Crafters need security, and a supply of tools and raw materials, and circumstances conducive to their work. A gun lasts, if treated well, but needs an ongoing supply of ammunition; if somebody is Ramboing through hordes of zombies or getting into gunfights every Tuesday, somebody needs to be casting bullets and making gunpowder and finding access to saltpeter.

Do your research. Decide what your climate and location is and look at the societies and cultures and practices of peoples who have lived in such a place. Decide on your population, level of government, economic practices and read up on similar ones. Did a higher-concentration civilization fall apart in the recent past? How recent? Cultural collapse usually involves a population drop—has yours already happened or is it happening? Was it warfare, famine, epidemic, natural disaster, or infrastructure collapse that caused it? What resources of the previous civilization are available for scavenging? How well did the knowledge of how to use things weather the storm? Was the population drop fast, or did more people have time to scavenge resources over a long period of time? Half the population dying near-instantly from a pandemic has different effects than a slow drop due to intermittent food shortages caused by infrastructure degradation. How quickly people get violent, and against whom, could depend on a lot of factors.

Worldbuilding has almost infinite complexity, and nailing everything down precisely would be absurd. But there’s lots of interesting things to consider in how parts of your world shape other parts, and few things are cooler than when a creator has put some actual thought into how things go, and shown it in the story.

[anothergayshark]

[secretmindreader-deactivated201]

Okay, this is actually what you do if you’re being sexually harassed in any kind of public space. Draw attention to it, preferably pull away and let EVERYONE know that someone is touching you. This will not only get him to get off you but he’ll definitely think about this situation next time he wants to do something like this.

[smindersonfan]

Spreading the word.

[cause-shes-bittersweet]

My mom and I were talking about this today after hearing about a woman who was molested on a plane who said nothing until she was picked up at the airport by her parents. My mom looked at me and asked what I would do in that situation and I looked her dead in the eye and I told her “it would take me .02 seconds to realize what was going on and yell angrily, and then I would be straight on to bitch slapping him so hard he wouldn’t be able to see the punch I’d throw with the opposite hand”.

She nodded and accepted my salty language like a seasoned sailor.

I’ve had experience with this before, in Prague a group of five girls and I were followed by three men at night. After a while they started yelling at us, the most common being “how much?” Meaning how much we “cost” as prostitutes. Seeing as they weren’t going to stop, I turned on my heel, faced them (which surprised them), spat at their feet and responded with “You couldn’t afford me.” This prompted the other girls to start yelling back at them as well, starting with our spitfire Czech friend to start slinging curses in Czech as she and the rest of the girls came up beside me. Needless to say the men backed off and pretty much fled. They weren’t expecting a fight. It empowered me and encouraged the rest of the girls to yell back too.

I’ve heard that a lot of people don’t know what to do in this situation because they’ve been taught all their lives to be polite and non-aggressive. Keep your heads down or whatever.

Keep in mind that studies have shown that rapists look for victims who won’t fight back.

Remember that nobody has the right to touch you without your consent or harass you, and you have all the right to make the biggest fuss about it that you can possibly make.

Get angry. Be in command.

[hoffmango]

FUCKING RELEVANT

[fallenforbands]

If someone is doing something that makes you uncomfortable like this, you do not need to be nice. Swear, kick, scream, make the asshole cry. You don’t have to nice, be as rude as you want

[puttingherinhistory]

It’s really normal and nothing to be ashamed of if you freeze up while being sexually harassed or sexually assaulted. “Fight or flight” isn’t completely accurate and is an outdated model, people in the field of psychology (like my therapists lmao) are saying now “fight, flight, freeze, fawn” is more accurate because a lot of people’s uncontrolled gut reaction to a dangerous or scary situation is to either completely freeze up, or to start fawning to try to appease their attacker. Don’t blame yourself or beat yourself up if your uncontrolled gut reaction to danger was to freeze or fawn, it’s especially really common for survivors of abuse to resort to freeze or fawn especially if they haven’t fully worked through their trauma with a professional.

It’s also more common for women to jump to ‘freeze’ or ‘fawn’ in a dangerous situation just because of the ways society has been encouraging and training women to behave from a young age. Girls are heavily conditioned never to make a scene or inconvenience other people and it can be really hard to overcome that conditioning especially in stressful or scary situations.

For a lot of girls and women it’s also hard to speak up if they’re being harassed or assaulted in public because of shame or embarrassment, they’ve been taught there’s something shameful and embarrassing on their part for being harassed or assaulted in public which can make it difficult to overcome the shame to draw attention to what’s happening. Always remember, if you’re being harassed or assaulted in public you’re not the one who should feel ashamed or embarrassed, you’re not the one doing anything wrong.

A loooot of people always talk big game about how they’d respond if they were being sexually harassed or assaulted, like “well I’d totally punch that guy, I’d totally give him hell!” but the thing is, you actually don’t know which f your brain will jump to in any given situation.

That’s why it’s so important that we need to start telling girls from a young age that it’s not just okay but it’s best if they scream, fight, and make a scene if they’re scared or uncomfortable. Tell them if a man touches them or makes them uncomfortable on the subway or the bus that they should yell and make a scene. Tell them if a man is in public making them uncomfortable to yell and make a scene. Tell them they have nothing to be embarrassed about if it happens to them because they’re not the one doing anything wrong.

Predators who touch girls and women in public or in any way harass girls and women and make them uncomfortable are counting on girls and women being quiet because of the heavy social conditioning to not make a scene or inconvenience anyone or their victims feeling too much shame and embarrassment to speak up. It’s really important that we try to actively combat that social conditioning in girls and work to undo that social conditioning in adult women.

As someone pointed out in the notes, one helpful way to combat this conditioning and make it more likely you won’t fawn or freeze is to (if you’re comfortable doing this and it won’t be triggering) practice envisioning yourself in these types of situations and envision yourself reacting the way you want to, envision yourself screaming and fighting and causing a scene. That way you will be more likely to react that way if a situation like this happens. But again, don’t ever blame yourself or beat yourself up or in any way feel like it’s your fault if you resort to freezing or fawning because those are still very normal and common reactions to stressful situations like this.

[randomslasher]

…okay can I please just say thank you for putting that thing in about “freeze” or “fawn”? I have noticed in these kinds of situations I tend to “fawn” and I’ve always hated that about myself. I’ve always thought I was just a coward or a boot licker for wanting to appease someone who was making me feel unsafe. It’s actually REALLY good to know it’s a survival technique right along side of fight or flight (and that it, too, can be managed and overcome, with work!). 

Again, thanks. A weight has actually just been lifted. 

[jeanjauthor]

Also, for those who demand “But what if he tries to hurt or even kill me if I yell at him?”

Bitches, if he tries to do that, HE WAS GOING TO DO IT ANYWAY. 

ALWAYS FIGHT FOR YOUR LIFE.

[depresseddisneyprincess]

reblog this if your blog is a safe space on april fools and won’t have any jumpers, screamers, or anything scary or anxiety inducing

[pots-n-spoons]

What’s the point? Of anything really? I’m so tired all the time that I don’t know if I remember what being healthy even feels like anymore. I want to go back to a time when I actually felt happy and believed things would turn out alright. Now it’s been more than a year since I graduated college and every day all I get are emails saying “we went with another candidate”.

I’ve spent the pandemic in my parents spare room and battling my depression and anxiety every day. How much longer can I keep fighting before all my energy and ability has leaked out of me like water out of a faulty tap.

[awenravena]

What is going on with the world??

[dinodaddy-deactivated20221014]

Jesus…

In a move that has sparked outcry from archaeologists, historians and locals, the Peruvian government has approved a multi-billion international airport near the famed site of Machu Picchu, Peru’s single most important tourist destination. Bulldozers have begun to clear millions of tons of earth for the project, which will be located in Chinchero, a picturesque Inca town.

Building the airport in this location will destroy an ancient landscape, one shaped by the Incan people with terraces and routes.

Critics also suggest that planes flying low over the nearby village of Ollantaytambo and its archaeological park filled with ruins and a massive Inca fortress with large stone terraces, would cause incalculable damage to fragile Inca ruins there and destroy the peace and beauty of the area.

The new airport will make access to the site much easier, and thus encourage greater numbers than ever before to visit.

But Machu Picchu is already overwhelmed by almost double the limit of tourists as recommended by UNESCO. [see also India’s Taj Mahal - an incredible site simply reeling under a relentless, ineffectively managed tourist, both domestic and international, onslaught]

It’s the constant battle between protecting the past and profiteering from it.

https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2019/may/15/archaeologists-outraged-over-plans-for-machu-picchu-airport-chinchero

[whitebear-ofthe-watertribe]

What the actual fuck

[onesinnerzerostandards]

how about NO

[strangelingincarnate]

The Uphill Battle to Stop Peru From Building a New Airport Near Machu Picchu

Opinions are divided in the agrarian town of Chinchero, where the airport is slated to open in 2025

[fericide]

PLEASE REBLOG!

hey! peruvian here

to be completely honest, there is probably nothing anyone can do about this at this point because it has been in the works since the 90’s. as you can most likely tell, our government is a fucking joke. still, this needs international attention. a lot of it. this is my country’s history, culture and one of the most beautiful things we have to offer at risk.

our best bet is at the very least causing somewhat global outrage to spread awareness and perhaps make this into something bigger amongst the middle and upper class people in the central cities as sadly the lower class and indigenous citizens (the majority of the country’s population) go widely ignored by the government and the former (middle and upper class) tend to also ignore shit unless they perceive it as affecting them directly

[marlynnofmany]

This is such a cool idea. What other info could it be? Careers, hobbies, economic status, lifelong ambitions? Orientation, single/taken/etc status? Insect-style role in the hive (worker/drone etc)?

If human languages are based on primitive monkey-brain ideas of whether or not the person we’re talking about is a potential mate, then what different considerations might an alien race make?

Maybe they have two drastically different body types that need to pair off to defend from predators. Maybe their civilization depends on cultivating plants that grow best when sung to, and a range of different vocal tones per household is best. Maybe some are nocturnal and some are diurnal.

What else??

[whydoeseveryonethinkiamaskeleto]

pronouns are based on age and they change throughout an individual’s life

[the-queer-demon]

*translated from alien*

Hello everybody! This is Xarthaborf, he’s-”

“Actually, it’s she now.”

“Oh my god! You finally turned 500! Congrats!”

[marlynnofmany]

XD  Fantastic, I love it! 

[mantha-has-fallen]

I’ve read through the suggestions and I’m a little surprised I’m the only one thinking of this:

Pronouns based on proximity.

What’s better at saying “that one” than saying exactly where they are? Different pronouns for if they’re 5 feet away vs. 20 feet away. Did you turn your back on somebody in the middle of a conversation? They have different pronouns now.

After a while, humans try to maintain the same distance from others when conversing (lol try doing that while walking together) so their translators don’t freak out on them.

I presume there might be a completely different set of nuanced ‘pronouns’ when describing inanimate objects, which makes everything even more confusing to the humans.

How useful.

[marlynnofmany]

#You know how you can describe a chess board with b7 or e5 and everybody knows what that means? I’m imagining something similar Except each position has a different set of pronouns Or at least a different pre- or suffix from each other Maybe children use pronouns without the -fixes until they can understand the nuance Human translator tech is still rough And doesn’t understand the nuance So occasionally it’ll run into a prefix or suffix it doesn’t know And just leave it there Iks-them Or they-rith Because it’s not gendered pronouns

That would be fascinating. I imagine the humans would have quite a time wrapping their brains around it! There’s probably a “position unknown/unspecified” pronoun that the humans want to use all the time (like “they”), but the aliens insist that nope it sounds wrong to use just that one.

“Why did you say ‘iks’ when rith is right in front of you? Do we need to break out the children’s educational materials and start from the beginning?”

[cheeseanonioncrisps]

Okay, but based on relationship proximity.

Different pronouns depending on whether you’re talking about a parent, a sibling, partner, a lover, a friend, an aquaintance, a coworker… imagine the drama potential.

People switching up to friend or lover pronouns too early in a relationship and getting rejected.

Stranger pronouns being literally only okay if you’re using them to describe somebody you just met and will never see again, because any closer degree of relationship than that will have its own pronouns, and not using them is a calculated insult.

Specific pronouns to refer to mortal enemies that pretty much nobody ever uses outside of works of fiction, because using them to describe somebody is like openly admitting that you’re probably planning to kill that person.

This concept possibly getting watered down though as time goes on. Like how swear words like ‘damn’ and ‘hell’ have kind of lost their power over the years, young people start using mortal enemy pronouns to refer to like, people who are mildly annoying, or public figures they don’t like (both of which previously had their own pronouns). Older generations getting really offended by this.

Separate pronouns for fictional characters.

A classic sitcom trope is somebody assuming they’re being referred to with certain pronouns that suggest dramatic changes in their relationship with the person talking about them, only for them to find out at the end of the episode that the person was actually referring to somebody else.

Everybody knowing the moment shit has gone down because “I just saw Skrith and Jarn in the cafeteria this morning. I know you said friend seemed okay last night, but you won’t believe which pronouns friend used to refer to enemy-of-friend!”

Actually, pronouns denoting other people’s relationships to people in relation to you. You might not know X that well, but they’re your friend Y’s close friend, so you can either use aquaintance or friend-of-friend pronouns.

Sibling, parent, child, cousin, etc. pronouns originally only being used for blood family or adopted children, but gradually getting used to refer to any relationship that fills that role in your life. “Oh no, child isn’t actually a relative, but I looked after child while child’s parents were on research trips, and friends were okay with child using parent pronouns for me if child wanted to.”

Human translation devices really not being able to keep up with this, because how the fuck is the software supposed to know how close you are to this person? Humans who actually try and learn the language not faring much better, because not only are there a lot of pronouns to learn, but the nuances of when exactly you’re meant to change are very culturally specific.

Aliens meanwhile being kind of horrified that most humans will use the same two or three pronouns to refer to everyone they encounter. Do they all hate each other? Or, conversely, are they all super close? What is wrong with these people?

They end up just straight up creating a new pronoun meaning ‘member of X species’ for all other species to use to refer to them, because the alternative is having fistfights break out on ships because the humans don’t understand why it’s so fucking offensive to refer to a coworker with aquaintance pronouns.

[coto524]

side note: a lot of these points are kind of similar to subtleties you already get in real human languages – for instance, Japanese honorifics and pronouns convey a lot of subtle nuances about relationships between the speaker, the listener/s and a third party, and lots of pronouns are predominantly used in fiction (although mainly because they’re somewhat more archaic/too high a register to use in every day speech)

similarly, proximity pronouns sounds like a logical extension of determiners like “this/that/yon” – in Spanish and a lot of Romance languages, the pronouns (e.g. él/ella) and definite articles (el/la) actually derive originally from [gendered] determiners indicating proximity in Latin (ille/illa)

there are Indigenous languages in Australia (e.g. Guugu Yimithirr) that use cardinal languages instead of relative directions, so that you have to change whether you’re talking about NESW instead of left/right by remembering which direction is which and keeping track of things & people moving and turning

with all that said: respect to everyone above, i frankly would love the idea of more aliens in fiction drawing on and being more relative to non-Western cultures compared to ya default Anglophone/Western European set of linguistic concepts, and i desperately want to see some of these concepts implemented in scifi media. but uh. please be careful about going “wow!!! this linguistic feature would be so alien and inhuman lol how weird” because actually no, often there are people in the world whose languages do have those features

[stoppunchingmyllamaog]

Thank youbso much to the above addition because scifi and fantasy can be so american/euro-centric and while thebabove convo did seem interesting and fun, it felt…very limited and exclusive because I’m kanaka maoli and in ‘ōlelo hawai'i the main pronoun we use is o'ia which is gender neutral and you have to be following the conversation and pick up on context (also other things like any kind of double/triple/quadruple entendres or other uses of wordplay) to understand the convo going on.

Science Fiction ans Fantasy are so interesting because often times it feels like white ppl trying to break out of their cultural boundaries and confines but to do that they create the Other in fiction. The alien, the strange, the weird without realizing that the Other often resembles real ppl.

[swvevo]

[luna-forever-1]

😂

[aenramsden]

You have to admire her audacity, if nothing else.

[boogabeing]

Literally my favourite thing about Rogue One is that it makes the opening of New Hope so funny. Like, Vader has followed Leia from a planet he just blew up seconds ago and pursued her across the galaxy and then she’s just like: ‘I’m on a diplomatic mission to Alderaan’

Vader: You’re a rebel. I just had a fight with your entire rebel fleet and followed you here. Straight from the rebels. Of which you are a part

Leia: *dramatic gasp* rebel? Me???  I was just passing through. Diplomatically. Thought it was a five-space-ship pile-up or something going on there… 

[hashtagloveloses]

death star plans? on my alderaanian diplomatic mission? it’s more likely than you think

[captainlordauditor]

[jackhawksmoor]

ok but this is like legitimate Canon Improvement because I’d always wondered why Vader was so wildly furious at the start of the movie like “rahhhhh bring me the passengers I WANT THEM ALIVE!!!!” and now I’m like

ohh yeah okay they literally JUST blew up Vader’s base, stole his sh!t, and took off while giving him the finger from the window

[deadcatwithaflamethrower]

while giving him the finger from the window

IT GOT BETTER

[kyraneko]

It is the best thing ever because it establishes that he knows she’s a Rebel and she knows he knows she’s a Rebel and he knows she knows he knows she’s a Rebel and—here’s the kicker—every moment she stalls him is another moment Artoo has to get the plans off the ship and head for Kenobi, and so she’s standing there all “Rebellion? What Rebellion? Me? *kicks dead Stormtrooper underneath carpet* I don’t know about any plans, have you checked behind the sofa?” and making Darth Vader’s blood pressure rise, and, oh, the best part of it is that she’s his daughter so guess where she got that sass from, like every fucking dead blue Force Ghost Jedi who got killed at the birth of the Empire is whooping and cheering from the Blue Force Ghost Afterlife seeing Anakin Skywalker get inflicted with everything they had to deal with from him.

[illusiax]

[nyctosaurid]

the thing all sherlock holmes adaptations get wrong is making the guy an irredeemable asshole who treats everyone like shit . not only is it not reflective of the original stories they miss that “nice, smart, well mannered dude who snorts coke when he needs to think” is possibly the funniest character ever devised 

[aerialsquid]

I feel like the modern equivalent is that guy you think is super well put together until you find out exactly how much red bull he ingests on a regular basis.

[domicileensnared]

Modern Sherlock is that very nice English Professor-seeming guy who you bring a problem and while walking from the door of his office to his desk he starts explaining the entire solution you need

And upon reaching his desk he’s like “Excuse me one moment.” and pulls out one of those huge Monster canisters they legally aren’t allowed to make anymore, cracks the whole thing, chugs it, takes a deep breath, and then nods at you and is like “Alright, and then what you need to do is…”

[younggayanddoingokay]

Imagine how much better the dynamic of bbc sherlock could have been if they did this.

[kaylapocalypse-deactivated20201]

why even modernize it to energy drinks??? coke didn’t go anywhere. we still have coke. energy drinks aren’t NEARLY chaotic enough. 

Its is more like you hiring some guy to do private investigation about how your husband maybe cheating on you and Sherlock comes to your house high as fuck. Walks into your living room and without taking a moment to even talk to you or sign any paperwork, he turns around—pupils as big as god—and just says

“Its your best friend Brenda. I’ll email you the invoice.” 

and walks right out of your house. 

[bairnsidhe]

Because when it was written cocaine was legal and even considered healthy and useful by some laypeople, even though doctors knew it wasn’t, and Watson was always trying to stop people from encouraging Sherlock’s addiction because HE KNEW BETTER.

So consider this, Holmes, at 2am, desperately searching the flat for the stashes of NOS cans, only to keep coming up with passive aggressive pamphlets about the dangers of caffeine overdose.

Watson wakes up to a stench like Satan’s ass to find Sherlock sitting by his bed with a re-heated pot of cold brewed Deathwish Coffee that had been hidden in the back of the toilet tank (brewing) for five months.  Sherlock is trying to say he’s proud of John’s cleverness in finding most of the stashes, but he’s passed into the fifth dimension and all John gets is a creepy vibrating grin and a sound like a shaken cat.

TLDR, Sherlock did die when he fell off the Falls, but he was so coked up his body didn’t stop moving until like a decade later.

[shadowmaat]

Sherlock as one of those cryptid types the baristas talk about (there’s a post floating around somewhere) who comes in and orders a venti with as many shots as they are legally allowed to add, plus a few more for good measure (and a hefty tip) and then adds energy drink on top of it before chugging the whole thing, to the absolute horror of the cafe staff.

[junietwohundred]

This is the kind of Sherlock Holmes discourse I demand on my dash. Bring me more!

[itsclydebitches]

Further discourse! Everyone is missing the fact that Sherlock used cocaine to “escape from the commonplaces of existence” when he didn’t have a case. The drugs are a substitute. Which means that when you hire him he’s stone-cold sober and JUST AS WEIRD. 

So it’s more like realizing that your flatmate with the caffeine/sometimes drug death wish will only chill the fuck out when he has some strange mystery to unravel, so you spend your free time scouring reddit posts that might actually feature a real missing person. Or a ghost. You really don’t care which at this point. When you finally find something your flatmate is THRILLED and straight up stops eating because he thinks he can survive on intellectual curiosity alone, and yeah that’s not good, but it’s better than what he was doing to himself before. Your success is comparative, okay? You stick around for the meeting partly because you’re curious, partly because this is your home too remember, and partly because you’ve found that writing up these insane excursions helps pay off your student loans. Your Patreon is thriving. The entire time your flatmate is interviewing this poor SOB he keeps breaking into manic grins and you’re kicking him under the table, trying to help him remember that others aren’t happy about a death in the family. Halfway through he pulls a cigarette from a stash in his smelly bedroom slipper, offering the client one and yeah, that’s very nice, but… no. No thank you. He’s dressed impeccably and has a violin worth millions just lying on the floor, but the flat as a whole looks like a tornado just blew through and there’s something growing on the walls beside the makeshift lab. Is he rich? Dirt poor? Impossible to tell based on the surroundings. The entire time he rattles off observations about the client not at all related to the case and his continuing good mood depends entirely on how impressed the guy is. If he mentions “magic tricks” or “I saw that on Youtube” you’re prepped for damage control. 

By 8:00pm you’ve finally convinced your flatmate to look up from his research and go half on a pizza, but the second it gets there he shrieks in excitement and runs out the door, demanding that you follow with your legally dubious gun. You apologize profusely to the delivery guy and double his tip, begging him not to call the cops. No, not because you’re afraid of arrest, you just know the head of the local precinct and he’s a pain in the ass. 

You run after your flatmate knowing damn well you have to be up early tomorrow because despite maintaining a private practice you still don’t make enough to get your own apartment. 

You are living your best life. 

[janetm74]

That last post…nailed it

[tjwock]

Reminder that most of Sherlock Holmes is now in the public domain.

Like…. just saying.