Tumblr is weird because one slip up can literally take you from beloved saint to being labeled as an irredeemable piece of trash. Like Joss Whedon. I’m not crazy about him, and some things in Age of Ultron did bother me, but damn. Suddenly everything he’s ever said or done is terrible. Like people used to love Buffy, Firefly and the first Avengers movie, and now suddenly everyone’s bending over backwards to find ways of accusing him of being a terrible, racist, sexist person. And it’s happened to a lot of people. You know you don’t have to agree with every damn thing a person says or does to like or respect them. People make mistakes sometimes. And it’s just weird because it’s such a hivemind, like one minute something is beloved by everyone, but then someone decides it’s bad and soon everyone is just condemning it as the worst thing in existence.
The other interesting wrinkle is that in her book, Pandora describes him as returning to Rome from his wanderings with long hair, which was very much not done, it being a barbarian look. I like think that he let his hair grow so he could mingle better and get them to talk to him (in much the same way that people will – often unconsciously – alter their speech patterns to fit in) to get material for whatever he was writing at the time.
Of course, as you say, the situation with the druids was a whole other thing, but the fact he’d kept his hair long against social custom in the past explains why he doesn’t always rush to cut it in later times – apparently in Europe in the 15th century men could get away with whatever length they wanted, though I’m trying to narrow it down to 15th century Italy, or even Venice, because jesus christ I require all the Marius knowledge apparently…
Curious why she wants to know. I mean, I can guess why…but hmm really?
Interesting; I actually have mixed feelings about her asking and about how far she should…
^Interesting little thread re: what People of the Page have responded to AR’s question.
IDK what I would want. Fanworks kinda satisfy me in ways canon hasn’t, especially in getting more of characters I wanted to hear about and exploring existing canon ships. I take every new VC book as AU fanfic and can pick and choose things from it to assimilate into my headcanon.
She literally said something in feline. She had to have
This certainly got my cats’ attention.
it looks so betrayed “i thought we were friends human”
She really must say something crazy, cause my two kitties came running towards my notebook and were searching for the source crazily.
Oh my god, I played this video and my cat looked at me SO FUCKING SHOCKED AND HE IS STILL STARING AT ME LIKE I SAID SOMETHING OFFENSIVE
LISTEN UP YALLS
•If you say “meh” high pitched it would mean “help”. Kittens use it a lot to get their mother’s attention before they open their eyes.
•If you do a tongue roll with a sharp “reah” at the end it would mean “come here”. My sister and I use it to call upon stray cats.
•body language is hard to describe. You usually need a tired and relaxed look to seem calm and purrsuasive (lol).
•tongue rolls with a slightly closed mouth can resemble purring in a way that helps attract cats.
•what the person used, or said, was a “help” and “I love you”. The cats body language dictates that it is surprised that a human could use this ability.
•we can’t fully communicate without tails and whiskers.
There is no such thing as the right person, there is the right person for a certain period of time and people leave, sucking out pieces of your soul and spitting it out, and that’s ok, that’s painful but predictable. Our biggest problem is that we choose to trust sadness more than we trust happiness, and that’s why we always believe more in being broken than in being mended because it’s easier not to try again, it’s easier to hide whatever is left of your heart and soul, it’s easier to pretend that you are eternally broken than to risk being broken again, but you know what, that’s ok, because things get worse and then they get better and then they get unbearable and that’s life, you end up getting unbeatable, you learn to duck when you must and dive when you should, you learn to live expecting death around every corner, and you learn how to come to life every time death slaps you in the face. Just trust in yourself more than you trust in sadness or in happiness all the same, trust that life is worth the risk and the resistance, and you -you- will be ok, even if things fail to be.
A “squick” was a trope or topic that made the reader deeply uncomfortable, even might cause anxiety or intense emotional reactions
Everyone’s squicks were personal and diverse, and it was considered polite to say, “sorry I can’t read this because it squicks me, but you have fun in your corner doing what you doing”
Can we bring that back and reserve “trigger” for MI people who mean “if I see this I will have flashbacks and dissociate for hours”
I wasn’t aware this concept had fallen out of fandom. Seriously, bring it back, it’s useful as hell.
Key to the concept of “squick,” as it was first explained to me lo these many years ago, is that it is not a value judgment. If I say “mpreg is gross,” that’s a negative statement about mpreg (and, by extension, about those who enjoy writing or reading about it). If I say “mpreg squicks me,” that’s a value-neutral statement about me and my emotional reactions and how they affect my enjoyment of fiction.
And, as OP says, it does not carry the implications of intensity or trauma that “trigger” does. (Although I will point out that a trigger doesn’t have to cause flashbacks or dissociation. There are people a lot better qualified than I am to talk about that.)
THIS PLEASE. I still use the word – it’s very useful. Frex: incest squicks me – no value judgement, but it is so very not my thing. Gunplay downright triggers me, and will send me into a full-on panic attack. There’s a difference.
I think we should point out that triggers can be a lot less obvious and insidious than just “causing flashbacks and panic attacks”, but I do agree. Explicit sex tends to squick me (though I don’t mind sex being present, I’ll just skip over it if there are too many details/fluids), but dubcon can trigger me pretty badly sometimes even if there are hardly any details.
Squicks are such a good filtering tool without co-opting MI terminology.
I-want-my-IWTV 