"there will come a poet, whose weapon is his word"

hi, im Barclay, I use they/them pronouns. This is my sideblog for my writing because I’m not comfortable with my irl friends seeing most of my stuff right now. Maybe one day.

[futueteipsi]

oh to be an 18th century pirate sailing the high seas and wrecking havoc, practicing swordplay with your first mate while spouting flirty comments, then pinning them under your blade in a suggestive yet threatening manner

[v171]

Here’s your reminder that relationships are extremely difficult. the delusion that you are going to find that person who you move into a small apartment with and read books all day and cook naked and cuddle with and play footsie under the table with is a gross romanticization of reality.

You’re going to have great times in a relationship. You’re going to go on fun dates and have great sex and hot make out sessions. But you’re also going to fight. You’re going to be in that weird stage where you like them more than they like you or vice versa and that’s going to hurt. You’re going to have to deal with jealousy and insecurity. You will have to deal with boredom in the relationship. You’re going to be too busy for them or accidentally hurt them. And you are going to have to deal with a few break ups before you find that right one.

A relationship is not going to solve all of your problems. It’s not going to suddenly make you happy. It isn’t easy. They are much harder than being single. Relationships are an unbelievable amount of work and effort and compromise and it’s not always going to be perfect. But the effort you put into it is what make it worth it. Because you fought and worked hard for this person and hopefully they did the same for you. So remember that.

[transpigeon]

STOP! before you decide you are irretrievably doomed, try one of the following options:

transition

bdsm

iron supplements

[ruffboi-mags]

shower

[spirulin4]

what ppl defending kids on ipads don’t seem to understand is that there are other ways to keep kids occupied. my mom had a whole bag full of little toys and games for me to play with while waiting in lines at disney world. once your kid is like 7 or 8 they can read a book. they can color. or they can literally just sit there and imagine things. i did that a lot as a kid.

[spirulin4]

thanks for putting your wrong and bad commentary in the tags where i still have to read all of it. most of what you said is untrue.

[imyselfamstrange]

OP: giving children too young to process things so much access to ipads isn’t good for them maybe.

People in the notes: So you hate moms??? You’re ableist?? You think we should go back to the Dark Ages?? (My personal favorite because it makes no sense) you’re poor shaming??

Why is it so difficult to explain that children not developing fine motor skills and losing their attention spans is bad actually??

[purplesweetpotatoes]

also children can end up being entertained by just about anything. I remember building "bird nests" with sticks in the backyard when I was like 7 years old. That was it. It took up my whole afternoon and I was entertained the entire time.

[atomicjellycat]

I worked at a kindergarten for a year, and Jesus Christ these kids are falling behind on so many milestones

Everyone knows who the iPad kids are

I've seen it all from kids who don't know how to use scissors, and can't perform the motions right compared to other kids in that age group, to kids who can't write the alphabet or spell their names (the older ones)

And one of the most startling thing I encountered was every now and then we have a country day, where we choose a country, color in the country's flag in the colors and watch a little film about said country.

And I was overseeing the coloring, and one boy just refusing to color

It happens, stubbornness, bad days, 'just don't wanna' s happen, but I sit with him and continue to try and encourage him and figure out why he doesn't want to

And he keeps saying he doesn't know how to color

And I'm like ??? Just pick up the pencil and put it on the paper buddy, cmon

So I'm showing him how, and he refuses to try over and over

So then I try like, coloring while guiding his hand, and again this is a flag were coloring it's a giant rectangle, not much precision is needed

And I realize while I'm helping him, literally moving his hand to color for him, he's CLEARLY never colored before. He's 4, there is no excuse for this when kids start coloring at like, 2 maybe younger.

By 4-5 kids can generally color inside the lines well enough and draw recognizable figures like people and landscapes and pets

Eventually he got into it, understood how to do it and requested to continue on by himself, which was great! I told him I was proud of him and we continued on with our day but it absolutely shocked me that these iPad kids are so beyond stunted like jesus

He didn't know how to grip a pencil, he didn't know the wrist movements and motions, he didn't understand the pressure control, he had no control over where or how he was coloring like, these kids NEED TO learn these things it's STARTLING how many kids don't have these milestones and are just not developing these fine motor skills

Ask any kindergarten attendant and they'll tell you the same thing-

The best thing you can do for a kid is buy them a shitton of construction paper, decorative child-safe scissors, and coloring books

Please please please kids need to cut paper up and color. It helps them develop so many fine motor skils

Now don't be mistaken, the percentage of these kids are low, for now. It's definitely not every kid, and thankfully not the majority but it is still a problem

[depsidase]

[bowditch]

one way to combat this is to be confidently proactive and no-shame reactive. they're still little enough that they think the world of you as a parent or an adult. the key is being casual instead of shocked and upset.

"oh, i don't think that's just for girls. it's pink, but anybody can like pink."

"oh yeah, purple is a great color! colors are for everybody."

"you're right-- i am a girl. that means i have a strong body just like a boy, and i can [climb/use a drill/take out the trash] with my arms."

"hm i don't think we're letting private parts make a decision about this toy."

"if other kids give you a hard time, you can just say you like this toy (or this color) and that's why. if anyone is rude to you, it might hurt, but they're the ones being wrong."

"i think it's cool that we both have eyes that can cry if we're feeling overwhelmed or sad. it helps us communicate how we feel."

"some kids might tell you this is for girls, but it's really just for people. we can have fun and play with anything safe that's interesting. it's sad that some kids don't have adults that teach them that."

"it's important to play and learn all kinds of skills. what if you find out you like to cook? what if someday you have a friend who needs help?"

"you know who buys the MOST glitter? people who make paint for boats. guys who go fishing spend more time with glitter than anyone else."

"it's divided into girls and boys because some grownups maybe care more than they should about colors. but that's not a real rule."

like. you gotta prepare them to stand up for themselves and you gotta normalize *recognizing* and dismissing those comments, or they WILL start to win out. walk your toddler sons or nephews down all the toy aisles. let them hold a baby doll. take your girls through the hot wheels and nerf sections.

and don't make the mistake of swinging to the other extreme. trying to talk a four year old boy into the pink version, or trying to talk a four year old girl out of wanting a frilly dress are JUST as gendering. you're sending signals that they should ignore their own preferences to appease an adult's preferred worldview, and they're going to equally cave when it's in support of an ideology you don't like. let them gravitate toward what they like and give them the language to recognize it as personal preference-- to identify and disregard comments, or defend others-- even if their preference is 100% mainstream.

the goal isn't to make sure little boys have pink toys and play house, or that little girls get construction tools and wear blue.

the secondary goal is to strip away the gender-signaling in toys and prepare kids to stand up for OTHER HUMANS.

the primary goal is to equip kids to play and wear what they like without shame or fear.

and it's so fucking sad it starts so early, but it can work both ways-- you can have kids going home from the same daycare suddenly equipped by peers to say, NO I DO WANT THE TOOLBOX FOR MY BIRTHDAY, NOAH SAYS HIS MOM FIXES EVERYTHING IN HER HOUSE and I LIKE THE ONE WITH FLOWERS, SOPHIE SAYS HER DAD LOVES FLOWERS.

maybe this means liam in kindergarten spends most of his playtime with baby dolls and glitter stickers. or maybe it means liam plays with monster trucks and wears red shirts with basketballs, but will tell a peer, "oh it's cool that you like pink. is that your favorite color? i like red but pink icing is my favorite on cake." and it's because a beloved uncle or big brother or parent said, "oh strawberry icing is MY favorite, too! i always want pink icing on my cake. the cake doesn't care if i'm a boy or a girl."

or maybe liam had an experience like my five year old, where he was going across a construction store parking lot in his bright pink crocs and a man tumbled out of his SUV fifty feet away to stick a leg in the air and yell, "HEY, WE BOTH HAVE PINK CROCS!" just to be nice. because pink is for humans.

tl;dr -- i get the grief here. i've felt it, too. but the way we change this isn't with shock or dread. it's with intention and grace and being involved. in modeling conversation and comments without spite or criticism.

[19thcenturyfuck]

not to post even more Villains Discourse on main but it really bugs me how people read giving villains tragic backstories as inherently excusing their actions and/or demonizing trauma survivors.

the actual message of Tragic Villains is (almost) always “people who are never taught or given any healthy, constructive outlets for their emotions will often find unhealthy, destructive outlets.” it’s that people who are traumatized and never learn how to cope with that trauma can become a danger to themselves and others. the message isn’t “trauma makes you evil!!!!” or “genocide is okay if you’ve been sad before!!!!” it’s “people need compassion and help to recover from trauma instead of becoming increasingly angry and harming themselves and others in the process.”

this site takes an alarmingly behaviorist and punitive approach to everything and it’s literally the most annoying thing. y’all have this concept that “if we just punish people hard enough, if we just scare them enough, if we just make them feel guilty enough.” that people just Do Bad Things Because They Do Bad Things, I Guess, and Because We Didn’t Threaten Them And Shame Them Enough. but humans are an innately social species. at our very core, we need compassion and kindness. we need healthy relationships with other humans.

you can keep looking at traumatized villains and being like “haha this dumb pathetic sadboi thinks murder is okay because his parents died” but as a survivor myself, unaddressed/untreated trauma absolutely can make you ragey and destructive. i was lucky enough to have support and eventually get the treatment i needed. but it’s not hard at all for me to imagine how, if that hadn’t been the case, that could’ve been me. obviously not on a movie-villain scale like murder or war crimes, but it’s so irritating as someone whose trauma has always manifested as anger to watch people on this site be like “this is just bad writing!!! real survivors/good survivors don’t end up like that the writers just hate survivors and want the audience to condone murder!”

[sheathandshear]

[cannibal-stag]

“i don’t get hannibal lecter” it’s about being the worst person in the world and yet someone still loves you despite it and it’s about convincing yourself you’re fine living your life alone and never truly connecting with anyone until someone comes along and you realize you could never live without them now and it’s about caring about someone so deeply that all you want now is for them to truly see you and it’s about how your devotion is so crushing and deep that you’d go to lengths of even self-destruction just to keep them around so you can keep loving them. “but he’s a cannibal” lol yeah

[asadstatue]

Once again: you'll never understand Hannibal without understanding his pain, loneliness, agony, longing and love.

[sabertoothwalrus]

who’s more peggable

howl

fujimoto

Voting ended onMay 24, 2025

not who YOUD peg ☝️ but who seems more likely to be getting the strap

[sabertoothwalrus]

propaganda. it is important that my research is fair and unbiased

Howl

against: sophie doesn’t really seem like she’d top him

for: BOOK sophie would though ☝️also howl probably really really wants it

Fujimoto

against: being shorter than your partner doesn’t automatically make you a bottom

for: just look at him

[sabertoothwalrus]

the poll isn't over but the results haven't budged since I posted it, so the winner is clear. congrats fujimoto everyone in the comments says you're getting the strap that gets you seahorse pregnant

[razorgirlpenis]

just saw a horny post with vaguely historical terms in it and the weird misuse of those terms is frustrating me beyond belief. your historical sexual fantasies should be well cited from primary and secondary sources you can’t just make this stuff up.

[idksomethingclever99]

Story idea: A normal, office sitcom that takes place in a superhero society. Like, no connection to actual heroes, they just exist and occasionally fuck up businesses for the day. Like, "Sorry boss, I'm gonna be a bit late, Ultra Might chucked a train at a t-rex, so traffic is a little blocked right now." or "Hey, where's Bill? Did he get abducted by aliens again? Didn't we just get through the last invasion last week?!" and just, pure civilian shenanigans.

[itzprismosblog]

(My favorite ANGSTY cliche lines. NO THEY ARE NOT IN ORDER)

1. “It’s been fun”

2. “Who did this to you?”

3. “I needed you”

4. “Please don’t go..”

5. “I don’t want to hurt you again”

6. “This is the end, isn’t it?”

7. “Quit pretending like everything is okay! It’s not!”

8. “But you promised…”

9. “I should have never trusted you”

10. “No no no- stop talking like that, you’re gonna be fine, I promise.”

[a-dam-duckblin]

Injury Discovery Dialogue Prompts

- "Hey, hold still. Is that blood...?"

- "You didn’t think I’d notice the limp? How long have you been hiding this?"

- "Who did this to you? Just give me a name. One name."

- "Why are there bandages in the trash? You weren’t bleeding yesterday."

- "Wait—what happened to your arm? Is that… stitched?"

- “Take off the hoodie. Now.”

- “You said you were fine. This isn’t fine. You aren’t fine.”

- “Tell me exactly when this happened. And why no one knew.”

- "You’ve been limping all day. Sit down. Let me see."

- "You didn’t do this to yourself, did you?"

- "You said you were fine. This doesn't look fine to me."

- "Hold up, what’s that on your shirt?"

[fraggled]

[travelingmatts-adventurerslog]

Today I discovered the most joyous of Silly Creature celebrations: a celebration of color! I decided that I must join in the festivities. It was a wonderful experience! I’ll have to bring this celebration back with me to Fraggle Rock, I believe Gobo and his friends would enjoy it just as much as I did.

Location: Pride parade

[coffeetank-deactivated20260122]

Ideas to Show Secret Pining

"Why don't you join me?"

"I'll give you a ride, don't worry."

*does something they don't like* "What? I like it."

*immense staring at every chance they get*

*thinking of their crush while listening to songs*

"You said you liked it so I brought it for you."

*finds ways to spend more time with them*

*friendly bullying intensifies*

"I'm looking forward to seeing you there."

"Are you gonna be there?"

"How about we sneak off, just you and me?"

"Why don't I cook for them? What's their favourite dish again?"

*aggressive google searches about how to propose to your crush*

"I'll join those dance lessons, maybe then she'll notice me."

*hopeless around them*

*failed flirting attempts*

*increased compliments*

"My problem is that I like them a little too much for my sanity."

*gets jealous* "So, are you seeing them or something?"

"Are you okay?" // "Completely okay!" (definitely not okay)

*tries to sabotage their crush's date*

*gets into trouble so they can be scolded by their crush*

"I want you to come with me, please?"

-ashlee

[quotefeeling]

“and at some point I thought to myself: ‘no person deserves this,’ and I realized that includes even me.”

— Unknown

[luna-azzurra]

writing morally gray characters

When you're fleshing out a morally gray character, get into their head. Explore what makes them tick—their backstory, beliefs, and what gets them out of bed in the morning. These characters aren't black and white; they're a swirling mix of shades of gray. Show the tug-of-war they feel inside when faced with tough decisions. It's like watching someone juggle their principles and desires right in front of you—it's what makes them feel real.

Throw your character into situations where the right path isn't crystal clear. Life's full of those messy, uncertain moments, and your character should reflect that. It keeps readers guessing and rooting for them to figure it out.

your character grow over time. Maybe their moral compass shifts as they learn from their mistakes or adapt to changing circumstances. People change, and so should your characters—it keeps the story fresh and unpredictable.

Give your character a unique flavor. Avoid the tired old stereotypes personas. Mix it up with quirks, a distinct background, or motivations that aren't what you'd expect.

Even if your character's choices aren't always squeaky clean, make sure readers can see their humanity. Share their doubts, vulnerabilities, and reasons behind their actions. It's about making them relatable, even when they're making questionable calls.

Every action has a reaction, right? Show how your character's decisions ripple out and affect not just them, but everyone around them.

Remember, morally gray doesn't mean they're totally without a conscience. Your character might have their own code or justify their actions based on their unique perspective. It's all about that gray area where things get interesting.

Decide where your character's moral rollercoaster is headed. Will they evolve into a better version of themselves, slide back into old habits, or stay forever stuck in that gray zone?