She/her, aroace. My main realms of geekdom are DuckTales 2017 and Sofia the First. I'm a huge stan of Gyro and Cedric. My AO3 is https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shychick/pseuds/Shychick. P*doshippers, DNI!!!
Honestly, if a vampire is stupid enough to think that he can just live in your basement and bite your wife and use her as a thrall without you finding out about it, I think you should be allowed to lock him up and exploit him for profit without any negative consequences
The StF fandom may be toxic in general, but I've made more friends in it and had more positive experiences (including my analysis and hc posts actually getting interaction) than any other fandom I've been in.
I'm still glad I'm not in the DuckTales fandom anymore. If it weren't for the one good friend I made there, who I met on AO3 and am still friends with, I honestly would regret ever joining altogether. I never felt welcome or like I belonged in that one. Or any other fandom, really. StF is the only fandom I've been in where people aren't all "OMFG, nobody cares, go away!", or where I get totally ignored when I try to make connections or share my thoughts and content, or get blocked for zero reason.
Walking to the corner store for candy with my mom! We did that a lot.
What age in life do you think you'll feel most yourself at?
Hmm, hard to say. I think that'll be when I finally land a career that satisfies me. I often feel like a loser because I have a shitty job that already took me forever to get. The job market sucks.
Tea, coffee, or hot chocolate?
Tea (especially herbal tea, usually ginger) or hot chocolate.
I just straighten it in the morning, and I'm good. I brush it regularly throughout the day. Nothing special. But I have to straighten it first thing in the morning, or it'll be frizzy all day.
What's a piece of advice you find yourself giving a lot?
That which I never take for myself. "Try not to worry. Worrying won't help anything." I'm always saying this to my parents, but never seem to remember it for myself.
I don't think there was a 21st question, lol. If you mean 20 (What do you wish somebody would ask you?), then I can't think of anything atm.
@strixmoonwing EDIT- OH, SORRY, THIS WAS FOR THE *SOFT* ASKS GAME. I got it mixed up with another one going around at the same time. Ok, let's try again.
What's your favorite candle scent?
Cinnamon or anything flower-scented!
Comfort food?
Chocolate!
Tea, coffee, or hot chocolate?
Tea (especially herbal tea, usually ginger) or hot chocolate.
It's an old name leftover from my FF.Net days, which just describes that I'm a shy girl. The 52 is just some random number that means nothing.
If you could give a TED talk on anything, what would you talk about?
How heinous it is that scumbags who commit horrific crimes against children are usually given a slap on the wrist.
@cdmagic1408 EDIT- I don't know if you meant for the "Simple asks" game or the "Soft asks" game that was going around at the same time, so I'll also answer the questions for the Soft Ask game if that's the one you meant:
What song makes you feel better?
'Rock Lobster' or 'Love Shack' by the B-52s. They are such fun, silly songs!
What's something upcoming that you're excited for?
The upcoming Sofia the First- Royal Magic episodes!
I thought 'Shychick' was a simple name, which I kept from my FF.Net days, which basically describes that I'm a shy girl. The 52 is just a random number I thought of that has no meaning whatsoever.
What are you looking forward to right now?
New Sofia the First: Royal Magic episodes out this month!
What's a piece of advice you would give to yourself five years ago?
Don't give up trying to find a job!
@39seasofnevermore EDIT- I'm not sure if this was for the "Simple asks" game or the "Soft asks" that was going around at the same time, so I'll also do the Soft Asks one.
What song makes you feel better?
Anything by the B-52s, especially Rock Lobster or Love Shack! They're such fun, silly songs!
Reading or writing?
BOTH. Although reading takes a lot less mental energy when I'm tired.
What's something you want to create soon?
A fanfic about Cedric telling his parents he's done with his evil dreams after 'Day of the Sorcerers'!
I feel like one of the conversational skill failures itâs really easy to fall into is assigning the other person an opinion, rather than asking what their opinion is. This kind of inherently puts them on the back foot, which is uncomfortable, so people donât like it.
Starting a conversation by informing the other person that you KNOW their feelings, and you are acting based on the feelings you assume they have, without giving them a chance to tell you what feelings they ACTUALLY have⌠No one likes this!
You may have learned it from your parents doing it to you, in which case I can only imagine you didnât like it either, but you still internalized it as an acceptable mode of communication because we are always internalizing stuff from our parents even though we donât like it. Itâs kind of a quintessential passive-aggressive parent move: âwell, you never want to help me, you donât appreciate everything I do for youâ etc. It puts the addressee in the position of defending themselves and their actual feelings instead of inviting them to SHARE those feelings.
People generally find it easier and more pleasant to converse with you if you go into it with an attitude of curiosity rather than what is essentially a power-play. Assigning your interlocutor an opinion based on your assumptions about their internal experience expresses an unconscious sense that you believe you are and should remain in control of the conversation. But friendly conversations arenât really supposed to be about control.
something it took me so. fucking. many. years. to learn. is that being terrified of someone else having the upperhand in an interaction was causing me to preemptively "defensively" try to take the upper hand before the other person could. the reasons for this are sympathetic and I think it is a really common thing to do. but omg my interactions with people have gotten so much less unpleasant since I started trying to internalize that no one needs to have the upper hand in an interaction
i was letting my past experiences of being treated poorly in this specific way influence my own behavior such that *I* was the one bringing the idea of "someone having the upper hand" to the interaction to begin with!!! it was miserable.
It is really easy to fall into this trap, especially for young neurodivergent humans, as I was also one, at one point in time. However, this is not limited to neurodivergent folks, and Iâm tired of pretending it is.
Thus, regardless of what spectrum you fall into, it is worth taking time to unpack the desire to and/or beliefs that people are constantly trying to âget the upper hand in an argumentâ over you **for yourself.** Itâs not for the benefit of the person youâre talking to, at least, itâs not necessarily for their benefit.
Truly, itâs for you and your peace of mind.
People, painting with a big brush, come across most clearly, remember their facts most completely, and speak most coherently when they try to approach things from a place of calm. The place of âthe person Iâm communicating with is not trying to dunk on my thoughts, but instead engage with me from a place that is likely as deeply meaningful to them as it is to me,â is much calmer than its opposite.
The place of âthis person may have not considered x,y,z piece of information I have and will point out,â is much calmer than assuming the person across from you does have all that information at their disposal.
Finally, the place of considering that âthis person running on no sleep and an entire pot of coffee made a typo when talking about their special interest and didnât actually mean anything offensive by itâ is both much more likely and much less anxiety inducing than its opposite.
All of these things can be clarified by asking, yes. But, even more so, by learning to assess preconceptions that you might hold coming into a disagreement of any kind. Truly, I mean this from fan theory/head canons, to history, to literature, to pretty much anything under the sun.
To give you a microcosmic view of what I mean by this.
When my kiddo wants to eat all the cupcakes, which when we make them, they often think itâs possible to do and claims they want to, but I canât give in and LET them have them. Right?
Many folks, one of mine included, would rage over how you have to just have one, and only at a certain time, and no you canât lick the bowl because x, y, and z isnât done. So, then you too step up to meet them.
This is not what we do in my house. One, because I breathe, I remember the ghosts of my past arenât mine to recreate. Two, this is my house. No one has a say in what I do in it, or how I help my kid process the world. Three, theyâre (almost) four. Weâre teaching debate not actually in Socratesâ seminars. So, letâs see where weâre at today.
With all of what Iâve held in my past and all of what I want for the future in mind, I can calmly refute each argument, step by step, while not assuming any terrible intentions from a kid who will be four in a little under a month.
In the macrocosm of the internet space, three things might happen in relation to this microcosm.
Sometimes, you ARE going to be right. And, painful as it might be, you may need to cut the loss that someone else wants to be wrong. You can choose to let them or continue your patient convincing. But, if they donât want to budge, walk away. Thatâs my advice. These days, they might not even be real ⌠which is a scary thought.
Sometimes, we are the four year old who wants what we want, who doesnât want our opinion changed, and weâre met with hard fact that needs/ought to change our minds. Itâs human to go through that growth. Even more so, itâs human to realize there is no single blanket solution to every problem.
Sometimes, however, there is no argument to âwinâ at all. Sometimes, you may even want the same thing as the person youâre âarguingâ with, and you canât see past the small minutiae that doesnât actually matter much (especially in relation to fan theory and pettier arguments) to see the you do agree because youâre so bogged down in the phrasing.
This happens, to a lesser degree, in offline conversations regarding things like politics as well. But, itâs not quite as neatly tied up when Iâd try to explain it.
What ends up happening when this does is that bigger problems and bigger threats end up taking you both out while you squabble over something you both technically, mostly agree on, but you disagree on the how to do it.
So, TL;RD try not to get so bogged down in the minutiae of discourse (single words, how thoughts are phrased, citation style, etc) while bigger fish make bigger problems for you elsewhere.
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Posted: 20:45 UTC 31 July, 2026
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LAST WEEK OR SO OF AF <333 THANK YOU ALL FOR A WONDERFUL TIME
Vincent belongs to @annacpadilla
Vampire Blake belongs to QuikSylver on AF
The Gyro and Boyd designs belong to @spacestarcade
The Negaverse Fenton/Gizmo design belongs to @your-salty-dorito
Farce and Failure belong to Shewhohadninelives on AF
Mila Gearloose-Crackshell-Cabrera belongs to @oliverno4
Elizabeth Macawber belongs to _chipsy_kate_ on AF
Dei belongs to @dena-dena-dena
Ziel belongs to @key-rk
Lumi belongs to @its-spelt-hermaeus-mora
Pierre Finch belongs to @citricconnor
And the Fenton design belongs to @michimonie for the @quackpackau!!
