Gold, or pyrite?

Multifandom blog, but mostly Duskwood :) | May or may not post theories, fanfics, awareness posts, activism posts, positivity, possibly interesting personal stories, and bad jokes. | Ace, Omni, Arospec

[yuvon-augold79]

Masterlist

(...not that there’s too much XD)

List of/short description of all characters

Duskwood Swapped Masterlist

Mini-Theories

Richy and the “trap” in ep9

Two weeks

The book of legends

Lore Entries (Creative writing projects)

(Based off the lore entries in TSW/SWL.)

The MWAF

The Entity (letter blog)

Yuvon (letter blog)

Jake

Fanfics

Have you ever felt like you were being watched before? (Discontinued)

Denial (warning for implied mental illness and implied panic attack)

“We already have him in custody.”

Autobiographical Stories

(Writing projects, not just random stories.)

This is what dermatillomania feels like for me. (TW for self harm, skin picking, self deprecation, self hate, compulsive behavior, and blood)

[yuvon-augold79]

Hey everyone.

I know, it's been ages since I posted here. I've missed a lot, I'm sure. I'm just popping in here to say, take care of yourself. I know things are pretty grim right now in the US, so if you're stressed out over everything, take a few minutes to do something nice for yourself. Make yourself some tea, or hot chocolate. Light that scented candle you've been saving. Grab some comfort snacks. Check in with your friends and chat with them.

It won't be easy, but we'll survive.

[yuvon-augold79]

Oi Yuvon! Anythin' new?

Hiya! It's been quite a while, hasn't it? XD

Not too much that's new right now. I'm just in the process of trying to get through finals season and catch up on old work that I haven't turned in yet. Stressful time, especially given all the stuff that happened last time I tried this whole college thing, but I'll manage. Thanks for asking!

Have a good day/night/etc! <3

[yuvon-augold79]

Hello Yuvon!💛 How are you?🥰

Hi there! :D

I'm doing alright. Finally back in college, and I'm liking my classes so far. It's stressful, but not as much as I thought it would be, and this time I've been able to keep up with the workload. I'm pretty optimistic about my chances of getting to graduation this time :)

Have a wonderful day/night! <3

[yuvon-augold79]

Hello, happy pride month!

I'm not sure if you remember me but I am the anon who came to you for advice last year because I thought I might be ace.

After much research and speaking with people who experienced things the same way I do I've determined I'm not asexual I'm actually demisexual. I am also now out in the open about it. I want to thank you for being so kind in answering my questions last year and helping me on my journey to figure out my sexuality.

Hiya!

Yeah, I definitely remember you. I'm so glad you found out who you are and were able to come out! :D

You're welcome, I'm glad I could be of help to you :)

Have a wonderful day/night and a great pride month! :D

[4damien]

Anyone can help!

(Real pen the last picture)

It is important for EVERYONE to know how to help ANYONE. Not everyone can give them selves their medicine under every circumstance. Be educated, help out.

In the last year, i have gotten about five new violent allergies from foods i used to be able to eat. Next time i eat a fruit, my throat could close. I may not be able to inject myself. My boyfriend and i played with my trainer pen for like 30 minutes. He knows how to inject it. I know how. This is important.

[how-about-a-nice-game-of-chess]

And NEVER hold your thumb over the end when injecting. Always wrap your thumb around the side. It is SO, SO easy to hold the injector backwards, when using it in a panic. If you hold your thumb over the end when doing this, you will inject your thumb, which is really not great. (I’m told that the stories of maybe losing the thumb are exaggerated. I don’t want to test it.)

EDIT: I see some people in the notes asking whether it will hurt the person being injected.

One answer I could give: It’s a fairly small needle, and it will probably hurt about the same as getting a vaccine. I think that’s not a big deal for most people. (I certainly don’t find it that painful.)

A more realistic answer, though: if someone is in the middle of a serious anaphylactic allergic reaction, they’re probably not even gonna notice the needle. They have way worse things happening.

[yuvon-augold79]

No such thing as using the ice cream machine too much

Thank you XD I feel vindicated.

Have a good day/night :D

[yuvon-augold79]

Yuuuuvon! Hey Ho. How are you? I hope you are doing good and everything is fine. Take care of yourself and stay healthy! :D <3

Hiya! :D

I'm doing pretty decently :) Everything's fine on my end, not too much is happening. Other than the fact that there is now an ice cream making machine in the house, which I've been using maybe very slightly too much XD I hope you're doing well too!

Have a wonderful day/night! <3

[unbotheredmuse]

[commandtower-solring-go]

So I started doing this with some candles my sister gave me, and y'know what happened?

Because I used the candle, realised how much I liked my house smelling nice. So, i did more to fill my house with nice smelling stuff. I bought reed defusers, I bought flowers (which I stopped doing cause they smell quickly), I cared more about making sure my bins were empty and my sink was clear. I also developed more of a sense for what smells I did like. Like, I prefer woody smells. Incense and sandlewood.

And I realised how nice my house looked when it was clean. So I made more of an effort to clean my house. And cleaning never felt like a chore because I only cleaned when I wanted to.

And because I was cleaning my house more, I made decisions that helped to keep the house clean more often. I found homes for the loose things that never had a home before. I started remembering where things were because they were usually in their homes. I found or bought things to put things in.

It was hard because I'm not good at it, but slowly I developed those skills and got better at it. I realised how little pride I had had in my own home, and sought out new reasons to be proud. I bought things to put on my walls. I just bought myself a rug this week. I might even invite people over.

Anyway, just saying that maybe enjoying the small, fleeting things, is more important than we expect.

[rederiswrites]

lovely story from a friend today.

[dicaeopolis]

[rederiswrites]

Look, this post has been wildly more popular than I thought it deserved, apparently at least in part because "don't burden others; be independent" is far more ingrained in people than I realized. So here's the thing: society works when people help each other. Helping others gives people a chance to know each other, and gives them an investment in the people they help. Helping creates bonds. People enjoy helping, and you are doing a good by letting them help you if they so wish.

Offer help; accept help. You will be a part of creating a helping culture. Which, incidentally, weakens capitalism and the fractionation between people that benefits those who would use us.

[yuvon-augold79]

How are you?

Hiya! :D

I'm doing okay. Kinda tired, but it is how it is. Hope you're doing well :)

Thanks for the ask, and have a wonderful day/night! <3

[lifemadesimple]

Travel: Walking on Ice

Avoid slipping by walking like a penguin.

Fact: About 60 people die each year in the US as a result of slipping on ice. This is about as many that will die from a tornado.

See most of our posts for: Winter tips and tricks

[steakandcheeeese]

Lmao you’re an adult, you shouldn’t be using the word squick. Use trigger. Use your grown up adult words to explain how you feel instead of leaning on a cutesy uwu term that no one outside of tumblr uses. It’s embarrassing.

Idek if this is serious or ironic honestly

[steakandcheeeese]

#like…why use this baby word when you can just say how you feel about it

Found this in the original post tags and I just… SIGH

Here’s the thing, anon. Squick isn’t just ‘I don’t like this’, it’s ‘I think this is gross and it makes me deeply uncomfortable but I pass no judgement on those who enjoy it, because I acknowledge that everyone is different and those same people may have the same visceral reaction some of the things I enjoy’ and was originally made popular in the kink community.

So yeah, if you want to say that every time you come across a trope or whatever you find icky then go ahead, say that every time.

Also, this term dates back to Usenet in the early nineties, so sure, go off.

[sugarfey]

This frustrates me so much because squicks and triggers are fundamentally different things and as someone with PTSD, the distinction is super useful!

Squicks are things I find personally gross but may not be gross to someone else. They don’t upset me or provoke my PTSD, they simply do not pop my corn. Example: Omegaverse. I don’t like it, it makes me uncomfortable and I’m not going to read it, but if you like it, you do you.

Triggers are things which directly provoke my PTSD. This means that my triggers may seem completely normal and innocuous to someone else, because my triggers are so personal and intrinsically linked to a specific event in my life. My reactions to these triggers can include panic attacks and flashbacks to this traumatic event. Sometimes being triggered can affect me for several hours or even days.

Describing something as either a squick or a trigger allows me easily establish the difference in my potential reaction to something without having to go into painful detail about why bodily fluids might make me back button quickly but poker games might leave me a crying wreck. 

[oopsabird]

Making this distinction, and having a specific word for something that is not your slice of pie, but also not an actual psychological trigger, is also REALLY important for making sure that the word “trigger” can retain its original, specific, purposeful, and collectively understood clinical meaning (both inside and outside online fannish communities).

If we encourage everyone to lump things that just make them slightly uncomfortable or simply aren’t to their taste in under the word “trigger”, it actually dilutes the meaning of the word. It makes it harder for us all to, for the most part, collectively agree on and understand what exactly is being described when the word gets used.

And that destruction of shared precise definitions is a problem! It is really useful to have the communal language to be able to clearly and quickly delineate between “this grosses me out, no thanks” and “this is going to set off a trauma episode, rattle my brain, and probably throw off the rest of my day/week as a result” while also maintaining your privacy, and to know that you will be understood in what you are saying. Not having it is actually detrimental to the effort of making our communities safe and navigable for people living with trauma. Which is a goal that is much more important to me, personally, than the idea of not being “cutesy” (a word which in this case which sounds a lot like it’s being used as a euphemism for “cringe”).

(Also, one has to wonder if people told Shakespeare he was being childish when he made up entirely new words that are still widely used in the English language today…… 🤔)

[mumblingsage]

My understanding is that “squick” was also created to avoid using more judgmental terms like “gross” or “disturbing”–like yeah, I do find X kink gross or disturbing, but that’s my personal feeling, not an objective fact about the world, and if I’m explaining to my friend who is super into X that I’d prefer they leave it out of the story they’re writing me in the fic exchange, I want to use politer language!

“Squick” does sound silly, like onomatopoeia, but I think that’s part of its role–it’s a word that defuses if, again, you’re saying something squicks you in front of an audience that may include its connoisseurs. When I say I’m squicked, I’m clearly not getting onto a high horse of dignity and moral righteousness. At the same time I’m not being so indirect for the sake of politeness–”oh, it’s not my favorite thing, I’m not sure it works for me, I haven’t found a fic about it that clicks for me”–that someone could misunderstand how much I do not want to see it.

[ruffboi-mags]

And, to reiterate, it is a grown up word made by grown up nerds in the 90s so if you think it was somehow born on and limited to Tumblr I’m going to need you to actually do some fandom history research before you ever speak authoritatively again about anything fandom-related or adjacent.

[littlethingwithfeathers]

I love and deeply miss the term “squick” and really want to see it brought back. It allows dislike for its own sake and without judgement. It’s polite, gentle, and has an air of “you do you.” A squick is not a trigger. Triggers are related to trauma. You’re allowed to not like things and not have them related to anything other than just finding them unpleasant. And that aversion can be strong! That’s okay! I really don’t like watersports. Like, gag-reflex levels of aversion, but it’s not triggering. I just really don’t like it.  I feel like we’ve lost the right/ability to just… quietly not like things and move on with our lives. Not everything is for everyone, and you don’t need a reason to not like something. Just politely and quietly excuse yourself. No need to draw attention, and if someone asks you why you just say, “No, it squicks me out.” No judgement. No narrative necessary. 

[lilykep]

There is a sad trend of trying to make everything you personally dislike morally reprehensible in some way to justify your dislike of it. You’re allowed to just not like something for no real reason. You do not have to justify why you dislike something, and the word “squick” is perfect for that. It say “look I really really don’t like this thing, but it’s ok if you do” and that is useful.

[ruffboi-mags]

I think the biggest problem is that a lot of these kids are VERY into the whole fandom purity culture thing, so they actually DO want to make it out to be morally reprehensible, and they DON’T think it’s ok that other ppl might be into it.

[neil-gaiman]

Cheerfully using “squick” since 1992, because it means a specific thing and other words do not mean that thing.

[petermorwood]

As all the preceding comments point out, “squick” - in various forms a noun, an adjective and a verb - is a thoroughly useful word and may even be older than the Anon who dismissed it.

It even has a (very small) TVTrope.

[intersexfairy]

hey you. the scrolling. does it spark joy? is being on social media right now making you happy? if it is, great!but if you're finding it's not making you happy, know it's okay to step back!

there's so much joy out there. please take a moment to allow yourself to experience some. when you come back, try to make your social media experience healthier for you.

unfollow, block, filter terms. take an extended break, or leave apps/communities as a whole. do whatever you need to do. your wellbeing matters.

[moki-dokie]

It's about to hit us here in Oklahoma and the rest of the southern states that are not used to this level of cold.

Please take this seriously if you live somewhere this is going to impact significantly.

I just sincerely hope texas' power grid doesn't fail them again.

but at least a small blessing is that this isn't bringing much precipitation with it and the worst of it will be the wind.

Anyway. Stay inside, wear layers, and bundle up. Get your cold weather shit prepped now if you haven't yet.

[sztefa001]

0.0?!

[asingularcanadian]

This is "if you go outside you will have frostbite in minutes" type cold, this is "your car may not start up" type cold, this is "your schoolboard should be advising you not to send your kids to school by foot" type cold, i live in Ontario and I've only ever seen it get to -44C here.

If you are in this swath of area and have never experienced this type of cold before please take whatever precautions you can. in extreme circumstances like this the best way to do that is to isolate activity to one or 2 rooms of the house that have as few outward facing windows as possible, make sure you wear lots of layers and even insulate those layers by putting wadded up paper between them, keep your extremities covered, keep your face covered, if you have blankets or pillows to spare and non-carpet flooring lay those out to help insulate the room, you can hang bath towels in front of any windows to help absorb the cold. Please limit going out to as little as possible, and if you have to make sure anything that can be covered is indeed covered, if you have to wear denim please layer something underneath it, wear ur heaviest fabrics, double up on socks and gloves if you need to, if you can get thermal underwear you can always layer those. When in highschool and had to wait at the buss I would often microwave some potatoes or perogis and keep them in my pockets to warm my hands as I waited for the bus. Keep extra blankets and candles and clothes in ur car. For whatever reason if you get wet and you're outside, please find somewhere to get inside while you dry. If you live in an area that's getting this and you don't have winter clothes like scarves or mitts take whatever thick insulating cloth you can find and use that instead. it might not be comfortable but it will be better than frostbite, I promise.

This is the type of cold that also comes in insanely dry so if you are prone to nosebleeds this will be a problem. Make sure you have moisturizer for ur hands and lip balm so you don't end up cracked and bleeding on top of freezing, its a shit combo.

[dduane]

Please take this seriously.

[whatwwwwwww]

you should be wearing a cloth face mask when you're outdoors during this type of cold

[nonegenderleftpain]

If you know anyone who is unhoused, offer them a spot in your living room. I am deadly serious. If you know there's someone who you see regularly in your town that does not have a place to get inside, bring them in. I don't care if you've never spoken before. I have been the person on the roadside, and if this had hit while I was, I would be dead. You have the ability to save people's lives. If you do not feel comfortable with strangers in your home, offer to drive them somewhere they can get indoors. Winters are hard enough when you are an unhoused person, but this isn't just winter, this is frozen death. When the polar freeze hit several years ago, twenty-three people were found frozen to death because they did not have a home to go to, and it was ten degrees warmer than this will be.

People will die. Help if you're able.

[writingmaz]

Writing Tips

Punctuating Dialogue

✧

➸ “This is a sentence.”

➸ “This is a sentence with a dialogue tag at the end,” she said.

➸ “This,” he said, “is a sentence split by a dialogue tag.”

➸ “This is a sentence,” she said. “This is a new sentence. New sentences are capitalized.”

➸ “This is a sentence followed by an action.” He stood. “They are separate sentences because he did not speak by standing.”

➸ She said, “Use a comma to introduce dialogue. The quote is capitalized when the dialogue tag is at the beginning.”

➸ “Use a comma when a dialogue tag follows a quote,” he said.

“Unless there is a question mark?” she asked.

“Or an exclamation point!” he answered. “The dialogue tag still remains uncapitalized because it’s not truly the end of the sentence.”

➸ “Periods and commas should be inside closing quotations.”

➸ “Hey!” she shouted, “Sometimes exclamation points are inside quotations.”

However, if it’s not dialogue exclamation points can ask be “outside”!

➸ “Does this apply to question marks too?” he asked.

If it’s not dialogue, can question marks be “outside”? (Yes, they can.)

➸ “This applies to dashes too. Inside quotations, dashes typically express—“

“Interruption” — but there are situations dashes may be outside.

➸ “You’ll notice that exclamation marks, question marks, and dashes do not have a comma after them. Ellipses don’t have a comma after them either…” she said.

➸ “My teacher said, ‘Use single quotation marks when quoting within dialogue.’”

➸ “Use paragraph breaks to indicate a new speaker,” he said.

“The readers will know it’s someone else speaking.”

[prokopetz]

Having OCs is actually the worst because those little fuckers will talk about you behind your back.

[prokopetz]

(Y’all, I’m not talking about metatextual fuckery – whether your OCs are in the room with you is your business. I’m talking about when somebody reads a piece of your character writing and thereby figures something out about your mental health situation that you did not give those little bastards permission to publicly disclose.)