It was a WTNV RP blog, now it’s a fervent declaration that cringe culture is dead, or at the very least my sense of shame is gone. She/Her pronouns. Will tag tw on request
...do we even know Joyboy is his actual name and not some pirate nickname/title? Food for thought.
Anyway, Imu would be less prone to using nicknames for Joyboy mostly because this is pre-Void Century times when mu is not a disconnected immortal and besides, Joyboy is mu's person as well. And people to mu get names, even the immortal one agrees on that.
But a pet name that Imu uses every once in a while...
au where celebrimbor lives, kept prisoner in mordor like a pet boyfriend who is never allowed to leave, and sauron occasionally takes him on walkies around morder
sauron: and this is the cirith ungol, my stepdaughter's room
clebrimbor, carefully saying nothing but very confused for so many reasons: O-O
sauron, sighing in irritation before reluctantly explaining: i ended up adopting her after my husband cheated on me with a spider, something that no one else has ever been unlucky enough to have to say
celebrimbor, panicking: i would never cheat on you with a spider
what she means: It’s incredibly unfair how, thanks to Shadow of Mordor, Celebrimbor is being viewed by newer fans as just as corrupt as his father and grandfather when Tolkien is incredibly clear that he didn’t fall to darkness and he made an honest mistake, and on top of that he was captured in SA 1695 but probably died in SA 1697 which means he might have been tortured for two years and still didn’t give up the locations of the Three which means he was dedicated to outlasting his tormentor, and I don’t know to discount all the good things he did in favor of a weird video game backstory seems cheap and cruel to his character.
One of my biggest literary pet peeves is when historical or history-inspired fiction pretends that "courting" is a synonym for "dating". Usually it's just a one-to-one word swap--in a modern context, these characters would be dating, but this is olden times, so they call it courting instead. Sometimes they'll pretend there's a shade of difference, and that courting is a more serious exploration of marriage or something. But I read a lot of fiction that was actually written during these historical eras, and the word "courting" is never used like that.
Two people do not decide that they are "courting". One person decides to "court" someone else. It's an action, not a stage in the relationship. A man decides to court a woman because he wants to encourage her to have romantic interest in him. He's trying to win her favor. It's not an exclusive relationship--a woman could be courted by multiple men at once. She'll spend time getting to know the guy who's interested in her, but they won't officially define their relationship as one where they only show romantic interest in each other. If they reach a point where they want it to be exclusive, that's when you propose.
There's no middle ground--either you're getting to know each other, or you're committed to marrying each other. This idea of a period where you kind of commit to each other until you decide you definitely want to get married is a modern one, and it occurs in eras where they use the word "dating" to describe it. The closest equivalent I can think of are times and places where they'd talk about a couple "stepping out together", but they're still not calling it "courting". Words have meaning, and the word "courting" has never meant that, so stop using it that way!
the other mild historical disjoint i run into is when people talk about dating in the fifties like it automatically meant exclusivity. the whole reason we have the expression "going steady" is because the default was to or "go around with" or "go out with" multiple people. not in the sense of being in a stable polyamorous vee, but in the sense that archie is actively "seeing" both betty and veronica during the entire time the two girls are competing for his attention and they're both seeing other guys to make him jealous, and nobody involved considers this "cheating."
bizarrely, America has in many ways gotten more conservative about dating since World War II.
I ran into a truly wild cultural misunderstanding with my father some years ago, when I had to explain to him what “hookup culture” actually was, and that the thing he assumed it was was actually what we call “cruising culture”. His response was “how is that different from dating?” and when I explained how it was different, he said, and please note that this a direct quote: “That’s ridiculous! You can’t expect a woman to stop fooling around with other guys for anything less than a marriage proposal. I mean, she’s not a prostitute, you can’t buy her.” Now obviously there’s like… a lot to unpack there, but I think it’s pretty darn illustrative of a substantive cultural shift around the assumption of monogamy!
Also, following this, I asked my mom what her thoughts were on the matter, and she said that while she “wouldn’t put it in those terms” she broadly agreed, and thought that anyone expecting any sort of exclusivity when a marriage proposal wasn’t at least on the very immanent horizon was “nuts, honestly.” I hesitantly asked if she was including relationships with premarital sexual activity in that, and her response was “Of course. I mean, gosh, you know your Aunt Terri used to have a guy for every day of the week before she finally settled down.”
And this was when I learned, to my shock, that the oft-repeated story of how “Aunt Terri used to have a guy for every day of the week” didn’t just mean “Aunt Terri had a full dance card” but rather meant that Aunt Terri had a period of her life where she literally dated exactly seven guys at once, all of whom she was sleeping with (or, my mom was quick to disclaim, “well, fooling around with, I don’t know how far she actually went with any of them, but they were definitely all fooling around behind closed doors”), on a literal weekly rotation. Like, they had a schedule. A schedule that all seven of the guys knew.
America has gotten a lot more conservative about dating, actually.
see this person is the love of my life I would follow them anywhere every day is brighter for having them in it. and THIS bastard shares a soul with me we'll find each other in every universe and understand each other in ways no other living being could. neither of us are particularly thrilled about this
she's platonic about it but in my opinion, stratt 100% treats grace as her dead wife. she keeps a tacky fox trinket in her coat pocket. there's a framed photo of him in her study . he's grinning goofily in it (bc he's a dork). new guy like: is that her husband? / no, dumbass, it's dr. ryland grace, 1/3 of the hail mary mission. / oh, fuck. were they... ? / yeah, it's unclear. black-and-white montages of grace messing around in high-level meetings play every time stratt contemplates committing more environmental crimes. she looks up at the night sky and vaguely wonders if he's enjoying his space ramen. that's her dead wife. she killed him.
you never know what someone is going through. for instance i didnt know i was going through anything until about 2 years later. i thought i was just chilling
Hi! I really love a lot of your Fucked Up One Piece stuff! Romance that is Actually Horror is so fun! I was wondering if you had any snippets of Loving Parenting that is Actually Horror- specifically anything with Luffy in the undead/shadow Lili AU or the Ginny lives AU (with Bonney maybe(?!)) Ideally for me it’s if the characters are old enough/aware enough to realise how Weird Imu is, but Dragon’s POV of the same would also be so fun! Or Imu’s PoV! Or Ginnys in the Ginny lives AU! Or… okay I don’t think PoV is going to stop me finding it great no matter what 😂
Sometimes, Luffy has weird dreams.
He didn't know the dreams were weird, until he and Ace and Sabo were talking about dreams and he brought up his and Ace went "What the fuck" and Sabo went "Why are your dreams like that?!" Because they've never ever had any dreams like Luffy's.
The dreams are full of dark, night dark. Sometimes there's almost words, sometimes there isn't. Sometimes there's snake hissing, sometimes there's bird chirping instead.
What's always the same is the pressure. Like when he's punching his way out of an alligator that's swallowed him, or that one time when some trash fell on top of him at Gray Terminal. Pushing down on his chest, making it hard to breath.
Until he wakes up, swallowing up gulps of air until he burps loud and hard from it.
He's had the dreams forever and they're probably gonna stay forever. That's just how it is. Ace and Sabo had asked him before, what caused them, hands on their pipes, eyes all serious. All he could do was shrug and say "I don't know." Because he doesn't.
But he has the dreams and they don't go away and he wakes up sucking in air. Ace and Sabo are there, so he doesn't wake up alone anymore and that's good.
Until the day Sabo is gone.
Then Luffy wakes up with the same gasping, but instead there are dreams are full of fire and smoke and gunfire and it's all the same feeling except when it isn't.
And Luffy thinks, oh.
Those are nightmares.
But there's nothing he can do, nothing he knows. Until another terrible day, where everything goes wrong wrong wrong.
-
"Love, welcome mu's dear son," the shadow person says.
Luffy's heart feels all funny, wobbly inside, as another shadow thing peels itself out the darkness and stares at him with red spots for eyes.
"Child, this is Lili, your aunt. Greet her politely."
The shadow moves closer and it's like a snake except when it's not, all crawly like a centipede with too many legs that he can't see but know are there!
Behind, he can hear Ace inhaling. "What the hell is that?"
And a tail reaches out from behind the shadow person, the shadow person that say they're Luffy's parent, and it lashes out. Knocking Ace over on the ground.
"What a ill-mannered pet you are."
Luffy puffs up the best he can, with the wibbly wobbly cuffs on him. "Leave him alone!"
"He doesn't know better, my heart." The shadow thing talks and it's hissing and chirping in his brain and almost familiar. It twists and shapes a little head-knob that it nods at Luffy with.
"Hello nephew of mine."
His heart jerks again in his chest. Ouchie. Feels bad.
"Hello ghost lady."
A rattling laugh. "Yes, that's me, ghost lady. Welcome to the Heart of the World. I hope you enjoy your stay."
Luffy glares. "I won't." Because this isn't home, not Dawn Island, and his hat is gone and Ace is on the floor, hurt.
"Fair."
The shadow person sighs. "Lili."
Ghost lady jerks, a flinch. "Very well." Then she crawls back, a centipede again, to the shadow of the shadow person. Making it darker.
Shadow person's clawed hands fold together. "Now. Where were we?"
-
That night, under the bed with Ace, Luffy feels cold. He opens his eyes and there's red eyes and darkness and something moving closer.
He kicks at it. It doesn't go away. Only snarls and draw closer.
Ace stirs. "Wait, is that a snake-"
Like a snake, Ghost Lady strikes! Sinks dark fang things into Luffy's arm and Luffy yells and punches back but his punches are not as strong as pistols with the weird cuffs on.
And no, there's the bed being turned over, with the shadow person looming over them all, with Ghost Lady screaming and struggling in their hands. Ghost Lady who looks more like a lady now than a snake, a lady with dark blue hair and skin who's still cursing.
JRR Tolkien has become a sort of mountain, appearing in all subsequent fantasy in the way Mt Fuji appears so often in Japanese prints. Soemtimes it's big and up close. Sometimes it's a shape on the horizon. Sometimes it's not there at all, which means that the artist either has made the deliberate decision against the mountain, or is in fact standing on Mt Fuji.
—Terry Pratchett
I can buy the concept of romance existing but the social song and dance of Dating specifically is so, like. Ok. So we're all just expected to walk around performing desirability & having coffee with people you find mildly interesting & Hopefully you will Feel Something for one of them. & if you keep it up long enough you can get legally bound and financially dependent on each other and have kids or something, not because you want them but because you're so fucking normal. This is supposed to be your #1 priority in life btw. Are you insane?
And people will be like "you'll never be happy if you don't successfully have coffee with someone you think is mildly interesting, it's so sad that you're not having coffee with someone you think is mildly interesting" & I'm sitting here like I don't think that's true actually I think I'm doing pretty good. I have other things fulfilling my admittedly lower than average need for human connection, like friends
I’ve been at this since like September. Originally the plan was to do five panels but by the time I reached three I realized it was absolutely going to be too heavy. If the back bothers me then I’ll just buy some black fabric and sew it on.
I pinned it excessively since I have been warned the feathers won’t flatten unless blocked aggressively. They still don’t behave themselves 100% but again, if it bothers me I’m willing to steam block it in the future. Super fun before and after pics.
Pattern is of course the feathered wings shawl by my favorite pattern designer craftyintentions.
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