Sometimes you need to read something twice to get it. You might need to watch a movie three times to understand it. You might have to have that album on repeat for a week until the lyrics make any sense. You're allowed to engage with it and can keep engaging with it until it means something to you. People will see a painting at a museum and laugh about not getting what the big deal is but like you can come back, you can see it at another time, and maybe that next time it'll be different for you. I'm of the belief the "media literacy crisis" would solve itself if more people just sat down and did it again. Watched, read, played, listened, etc like I don't think people are getting more ignorant necessarily I just think we're not glorifying personally replaying things nearly as much as we should be.
Skipping a day of writing.
Not having a perfect first draft.
Partaking in sinister, arcane rituals for inspiration.
Working at their own pace.
Enlisting demons and/or helpful spirits to aid them with editing.
Just a heads up, there are bots going around on AO3 accusing people of using AI. Considering the timing, this is likely AI bros' retaliation for AO3 users calling them out for scraping their work. Examples of what you might be sent:
Screenshots from here.
If you get a comment like this, just report for spam and delete.
Edit: apparently they're also using people's usernames to try to make the spam seem more authentic, so if you get a guest comment from someone you recognise, it's likely not them.
i love how buck is just the communist bugs bunny meme in relation to eddie over and over again.
eddie in 2x02: this is my son.
buck:
maddie in 3x11: you need to bring food when you're a guest in someone's house.
buck:
eddie in 5x13: this is what my breakdown looks like
buck:
the best thing? the best thing is that eddie loves it because he is just as bad lmao
buck is like "our son" and eddie is like "yeah, duh, you're in my will." buck is like "eddie's house is my house" and eddie's like "your name has been on the lease for years." buck is like "our breakdown" and eddie nods and agrees "yeah let me cry by your bedside while you're in a coma wishing WE were sharing a coma."
One of the funny things about LotR is that almost every people in it professes to disbelieve in the supernatural, but because they live in a fantasy world their baseline for "natural" is so jacked up. The Rohirrim are like, yeah, there's a wizard in this tower and ancient tradition that we have no reason to doubt says this mountain is full of ghosts, but walking trees? Short people? I don't think so. Galadriel is like, "Listen I heard you describe what I do as magic and look I just gotta clear some things up, okay." Gondorians are like, yeah, of course the Enemy has spectres of men who lived long ago and never died and can now fly above us and incapacitate us with just their voices. This is just a fact of life, okay? But shut up about this magic weed that makes comatose people better. That's an old wives' tale. Royalty? Press X to doubt.
The people group in Tolkien's work who seem most receptive to magic and least restricted by their own notions of what it can do actually seem to be the hobbits. And they use it to avoid meeting people they don't want to talk to
Y'all can go ahead and celebrate the Ides of March and the assassination of Julius Caesar or whatever-- I will be celebrating the day that Merry & Eowyn Stabbed and Killed the Witch-King of Angmar like a normal person, thank you.
Gotta say, when i first started dbd i was totally convinced Charles was just waiting for Edwin to figure it out, there was absolutely no b present in their bromance in the first episode. I had snogged my homies for less than the love sick stare Charles sent Edwin from the other side of their window just saying
one of my very favorite obscure story tropes is when there’s an episode/plotline/tabletop campaign session where the conceit is ‘each member of the gang gets trapped in a specially tailored dream/nightmare/illusory mindscape and has to break out’
sometimes someone will casually mention using chatgpt or some other generative ai thing and I can actually feel the little
above my head
In ~these times~ it is important for queer people to be reminded of what "coming out" originally meant. "Coming out" did not mean telling all of your co-workers something super stigmatized and vulnerable about you, wearing your queer status on your sleeve in public, informing the police or government institutions about your sexuality, or even telling your parents. "Coming out" meant venturing out into the queer community; being among other queers as a queer yourself.
Coming out isn't about telling the entire world when doing so is not safe for you, it's not about arming your enemies with information they could use against you. No, coming out is about making a fulfilling queer life possible for yourself through participation in the queer community. It is about escaping the restrictions and dangers of the cisgender heterosexual world by rooting oneself more deeply into the queer one.
And you can always do that. No matter how oppressed we are. No matter how much the culture shifts and policies are enacted to terrorize us. We are always able to be ourselves when we are amongst each other. And living our queerness has always been a collective social project, not just a matter of personal exposure.