Aug 1, 2023
Glitterary telling it how it is
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Glitterary telling it how it is
The brilliant @jickdraws made this absolutely breathtaking art for chapter 8 of my fic the humble as the proudest sail! (Which should be finished in the next couple of months, if you feel like starting a longfic with an end in sight…)
It’s even more beautiful than I imagined and I’m SO in love with it. It’s like Jick reached into my head, saw exactly what I wanted, and did it even better. It’s perfect 🥰
Let go of the version of yourself you are comparing yourself to
I think most people have at least one sliding doors moment: a poor financial decision, an encounter with the police, a career choice that didn't work out, an academic fuck-up, a relationship you should have left sooner. I certainly do. And you think: if only I'd made a different choice, that one time, my life would be so much better.
It's easy to blame yourself for doing the wrong thing or making the wrong choice, and I think most of us who feel that kind of guilt do eventually find a way of forgiving ourselves. We had good reasons for the choice we made at the time, even if they look foolish in hindsight. We can reason that things might have turned out the same, or worse, if we'd done what we now wish we had.
Even having forgiven myself and my youthful mistakes, though, I've only recently realised this: I have been living in the shadow of an imaginary version of myself for more than half my life. The version of me who didn't fuck up an important exam, who got the grades for her first-choice university, who therefore was able to get a better job and build on it, and is now working for the EU as some kind of fancy human rights lawyer. She's so much better than the real me, an underemployed freelance translator who has bumbled from admin job to admin job and is looking to change careers yet again.
But here's the thing: that perfect version of me is imaginary. I never think about lawyer me sitting in interminable meetings and not getting anything done! I never think of diplomat me losing her job because of Brexit! I never think about how that version of me doesn't have time for hobbies or deep friendships because her job takes up all her time and energy. She's fake! She's scamming me out of appreciating what I do have, and what I do love about my current life, and who I am.
Comparison is the thief of joy, and I have created an imaginary version of myself that I have been torturing my real self with for the past two decades.
So: if you have a sliding doors moment, and you think you've processed it, maybe take a moment to reflect on whether you are still comparing yourself to an impossible version of you or your life. Don't just forgive yourself. Put down that burden. That version of you would never have existed, even if you had done everything "right". Let yourself thrive as the person you are now.
Title: A spectacle of floating delights Fandom: Our Flag Means Death Pairing: Ed/Stede Rating: Explicit Completion status: Complete Tags: Public sex, praise kink, bondage, coconut rope, bottom!Ed, top!Stede, Stede is a rope wanker (affectionate), ain't no party like a sex boat party, other historical pirate characters, minor original characters Fill for a kinkmeme prompt requesting Ed and Stede accidentally attending a sex party, Stede being oblivious, and Ed enjoying being admired.
Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/38871951
“Stede, what kind of party did Lucius say this was?” Ed was starting to get the feeling that it was a rather more specialist gathering than either of them had realised.
Stede hummed. “He said it was a play party, so I assume there’ll be a theatrical performance at some point later on. I wonder where the stage is?”
Aziraphale’s coat
The facts:
Aziraphale doesn't like miracling his coat because he’ll still be aware of the flaws underneath
Aziraphale cannot tell when Crowley has mended his coat with magic
Aziraphale’s coat has been in tip-top condition for over 180 years
There is absolutely no way a coat worn daily since the 1830s has survived to the year of our lord 2k19 without getting frayed, scuffed, ripped, marked or otherwise damaged
Conclusion:
Crowley has been secretly miracling Aziraphale’s coat when he isn’t looking since roughly the 1840s
cool young white male professor: *throwing textbook into trash can* hey what's up students you know what's BROKE? established scholarship and listening to women of colour. but you know what's WOKE? my d
There’s a new bakery/patisserie on my street with lovely Israeli proprietors and I went to order some rugelach for Rosh Hashanah and 1) they were delighted 2) they convinced me to come back in tomorrow to try their honey cake, oh no, what a chore :D :D :D
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Crowley was rather proud of his houseplants, which was of course a sin, and so Aziraphale should probably be thwarting him on purpose. He felt rather guilty about trying so hard to keep them alive. Fortunately—or unfortunately, depending on how you looked at it—Aziraphale seemed to be doing the thwarting despite his best efforts not to.
For @thatworldinverted, who prompted me “Aziraphale having to babysit Crowley’s plants.”