Blood Family

this is going to be difficult -> i am capable of doing difficult things -> i have done everything prior to this moment -> this difficulty will soon be proof of capability

on friends, who maybe want to be a little more than that

@fuckitloveu @mothicalspoken

What I can't cope with, OK, is L.M. Montgomery's use of bedrooms as a site of both autonomy and belonging. When Emily arrives at New Moon, she has to share the bed with Aunt Elizabeth and feels she is in bed with a griffon but when she moves into Juliet's old bedroom in the "lookout" she is overcome with the sense of nearness to her mother as well as having true space and freedom for the first time at New Moon. Later, she loses a lot of this sense of place and independence moving into Aunt Ruth's spare room where she doesn't have to share a bed, but can't even choose the pictures hanging on the walls - at the same time she loses her freedom to write fiction. Jane hates her bedroom at 60 Gay Street, finding it "hostile and vindictive" - in many ways just like Grandmother Kennedy, but at Lantern Hill, her father lets her choose everything that goes into her bedroom and she is allowed self expression. Her friends give her gifts to furnish it, as emblems of their love for her. Like Jane, Valancy has no control over the furnishings in her room, from the painted floor to the tacky artwork to the dingy and unwelcoming furniture, but she's so constrained that her only rebellion is to throw the jar of potpourri out the window because she's "sick of the fragrance of dead things". To have a sense of self, she imagines a magnificent castle as an escape and is delighted to find Barney's house is just as good a place to be who she wants to be - free from her family, making her own choices. Anne, upon marking the first anniversary of coming to Green Gables, reflects on the garrett room and finds it "as if all the dreams, sleeping and waking, of its vivid occupant had taken a visible although unmaterial form and had tapestried the bare room with splendid filmy tissues of rainbow and moonshine." Before Green Gables her life was probably a mix of dormitories and makeshift beds in attics that she couldn't change, in versions of her life with no freedom or affection. THEIR BEDROOMS ARE SYMBOLS FOR THEIR LIVES OK. When their rooms are controlled by others, their inner/emotional/creative lives are constrained. When they have their own rooms, they have autonomoy, they choose furniture, they have freedom, they have themselves, they have love, they have me gnawing armchairs about it.

Also funny that both Valancy and Emily are tormented at various times by inescapable portraits of queens - I do wonder if LM had one in her home that no one would let her take down.

part of what makes tragedies tragic is the story being preventable from the outside but unpreventable from the inside

"Perhaps one did not want to be loved so much as to be understood ".

George Orwell, 1984

But honey, I was born with the world crumbling around my mother's hospital bed

I grew up stepping around the shards with childish innocence

If you didn't want me to take up weapons,

you shouldn't have shattered the world with yours.

TROPED Chapters

Welcome to TROPED Chapters, a brand new TROPED Multifandom Challenge!!! Everyone loves a good chapter fic, but have you ever tried writing one where you don’t know where the story is going? Can you write a fic that has tropes chosen for you without backing yourself into a corner? See if you’re up to the challenge and join us for Chapters!

HOW IT WORKS:

Multi-Fandom Event & No Sign-Ups Required! If you would like to participate, we’d love to have you! Just take a look at our prompt, pick your tropes, and get to writing!

Chapters Prompt! We’ve selected an overall Story Arc for you to follow which will span the three chapters of your fic! From there, in each round you must include three (3) tropes, one (1) we chose for you, and two (2) you select from our Trope Bouquet, which includes 16 Tropes! The theme is completely free choice, just make sure it’s from our list!

Write your fic in 15,000 words or less! You will upload your fic anonymously to the AO3 Collection linked at the bottom of this post. Make sure you put what your theme is and what tropes you used in your fic summary, or in the notes at the TOP of your fic, so we can keep our eyes peeled for them as we read the fic! (If you are worried the tropes/themes will spoil your fic, you may put them in the notes at the bottom, but please let us know at the top if you choose to do so, and be sure that all of your tropes and themes are in the same place!)

Read and Review! Once you’ve submitted your own fic, take a look at the others in the competition! Please try to read as many as you can! Take some notes, leave some kudos/comments for the authors, and help us vote on the winners! This is not a requirement for participation, but it is highly encouraged and helps make TROPED build a strong community!

Community Voting! The voting for this event will be pretty simple! We will keep a list of all fics submitted to the event, and then at the end there will be a voting poll! Voting categories are listed in the Google Doc, but the voting will include all fandoms together and will be based on the fic as a whole, and the USE of the chosen prompt! If you do not want your fic included in the voting, you can let us know, or you can simply upload your fic to our non-anon collection instead! We will still share it along with the other fics and it will be included in all masterlists! We will provide a link when voting begins.

For Round One, please write us a chapter that includes:

Chapters Overall Story Arc: ARRANGED MARRIAGE

Pre-Selected Round 1 Trope: MEET CUTE or MEET UGLY

Trope Bouquet: Select two (2) tropes per round from the list below. You can, of course, choose more than two, but only the first three tropes (1 pre-selected + 2 trope bouquet) you list will be included for voting. You will choose two new tropes from the Trope Bouquet each round so don’t use them all at once!!!

More in depth definitions of the tropes and the overall story arc can be found here! Please take a look at this list, as there will be extra information you NEED to know regarding how to use the tropes, plus all the rules, and if you have questions don’t hesitate to ask!

Timeline:

Writing Period: June 1st — July 11th

Round One

Writing Period: June 1st at 12:00am EST — June 11th at 3:00am PST / 6:00am EST

Voting Period: June 12th at 12:00am — June 14th at 11:59pm

Winners Announced: June 15th

Round Two

Writing Period: June 16th at 12:00am —June 27th at 3:00am PST / 6:00am EST

Voting Period: June 28th at 12:00am — June 30th at 11:59pm

Winners Announced: July 1st

Round Three

Writing Period: July 2nd at 12:00am EST — July 11th at 3:00am PST / 6:00am EST

Voting Period: July 12th at 12:00am — July 14th at 11:59pm

Final Results and Author Reveal: July 15th!

*All times are in Eastern Standard Time (EST) unless otherwise specified! Times are subject to change due to potential writing extensions.

RULES

Don’t forget the rules! Follow the overall story ‘theme’, and include ALL the tropes! You will be disqualified if you don’t! 15k word count max! Also, no rape. no incest. no underage. no negativity!

The General Rules for all TROPED Events can be found here!

LINKS

Google Document: https://docs.google.com/document/d/107nKA7LMJoBdgMqixeI_6s2aBitShVcfsSCMUQwisCY/edit

The AO3 collection can be found here, and the name of the collection that should be entered when submitting your fic is ‘TROPED_Chapters’!

AO3 Link: https://archiveofourown.org/collections/Troped_Chapters

Non-Anonymous TROPED Collection: https://archiveofourown.org/collections/TROPED_Non_Anonymous

Follow along here on Tumblr, the TROPED Twitter, the TROPED Instagram, or our Discord Server for more information on the event! We will release our prompts in these places and then everyone is free to start writing!!! We are super excited to see what you guys create!!

Don’t be shy! If you have any questions about this event, fandoms or pairings, or any other concerns please send them to our Ask Box or DM a Mod (@dylanobrienisbatman or @thelittlefanpire)! Happy TROPED Writing! We are so glad you are joining us for this challenge! xo S&B

advice from dad

So, my Dad is a 73-year-old Mexican man who has lived here since he was 16. He was in Watts during the riots in 1965; in 1992, when I was in LA, as soon as the Rodney King verdict was announced, he called me, told me what was coming, told me how to stay safe. He has survived horrible living conditions, being kidnapped, physical abuse, prejudice, discrimination. He learned English, got his green card, pays his taxes, works hard, and has three daughters. 

I thought he would be devastated today.

But he wasn’t.

He saw that I was sad and angry, and he asked me why, pretending he had no idea. I almost started crying. And then he said, “no se me chicopale.” 

It means, don’t lose heart. Don’t give in to despair.

I asked him why he wasn’t upset.

He said, basically, “The world has always been this way. There are always people who are afraid, who are racist, who are awful. This is not new. And it will never go away. He won. We can’t do anything about that. All we can do is what we can do. Fight for what matters to us. Take care of each other. And don’t lose heart. And here, I got these unsalted cashews for you and a bag of jamaica drink mix and can you show me how to use the new washing machine because it’s not working.”

And, for reasons I can’t articulate, I feel a little better. 

Lucy Maud Montgomery, Anne of Avonlea

its so brave that you have such a 2012-coded url in this 2024 world

would you call a bear brave for standing in a new construction suburb or would you recognize the unfamiliar world they built around him