Every Single Time I See A Take That Amounts To "if You Write About X Happening, Or Like Fiction Where

Every single time I see a take that amounts to "if you write about X happening, or like fiction where X happens, you like X" I'm reminded of this one time I was at a casual friends house as a young kid. We were in her room, pretending to "be orphans" escaping from an evil orphanage and having to take care of each other and fend for ourselves. It was all very Little Orphan Annie/All Dogs Go to Heaven and based on the 80s pop media.

And this girl's mom comes in, hears what we're playing and gets all MAD and UPSET. She says that if we play act something, it's because we want it to happen. So her daughter must WANT HER TO DIE.

First off lady, we were 6 year year olds, so take it down several notches. We barely had a concept of mortality for fucks sake. She made us feel so guilty and ashamed, because she was taking our game personally.

Now I have a 5 year old. And sometimes she looks at me and says "pretend you're dead, and I have to -" Whatever it is. Some adult task she's assigned herself.

And it's just so transparently obvious that she's practicing the idea of having to do things on her own. Which is exactly what 5 year olds are supposed to do. I actually find it very flattering that the only way she can envision me not being available to help her is to be literally deceased. Otherwise, obviously, she wouldn't have to do scary hard things alone.

It's a natural coping mechanism. She's self-soothing about what would happen if I wasn't there by play-acting independence in a perfectly safe environment. She's also practicing skills she needs, and making up excuses for practicing them on her own, without taking on the responsibility of being able to do them by herself all the time yet.

Humans mentally rehearse bad this in their brains all the time. We can do that by ruminating- going over worries over and over again, which tends to lead to anxiety and helplessness and depression. Or we can do it with a sense of play- by recognizing that the fiction is fiction and we can dip our toe into these experiences and expose ourselves to bad things without actually being injured.

My daughter does not want me dead. And I don't want bad things to happen in real life. But fiction and pretend help me face the horrors of the world and think about them without collapsing or messing myself up mentally.

Top-Tier Villain Motivations

They will be safe. It doesn't matter who else or what else burns as long as They will be safe.

I will be safe. The hunger and the cold will never touch me again.

Fuck any bitch who's prettier(/cooler/better-liked/better at making dumplings) than me.

Yes, Master

Love me. Love me. Love me. Love me. LOVE ME!

I know the terrible things these so-called "heroes" will do if I don't stop them (<- is absolutely wrong)

I don't want a better future, I want a better past!

No other way to get performance art funded these days

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flyinghighfallingfast

9 months ago

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flyinghighfallingfast

1 year ago

It’s Been A Few Months Since Empires S2 Came To An End And I Wanted To Make A Piece Reflecting On The

It’s been a few months since Empires s2 came to an end and I wanted to make a piece reflecting on the time we spent with these characters 🥰✨ When season 1 ended I did a series of paintings set to the End Poem, and so I decided to revisit the concept once again, making sure to switch up which line corresponded to which person. This series means a lot to me—in fact, this is one of two big Empires s2 projects I’ve been working on! There’s another one still in the works :D

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flyinghighfallingfast

9 months ago

I think it’s really important to talk about how different people have different power fantasies.

For example:

For some people, the idea of someone redeeming a villain is a power fantasy.

For other people, the idea of a villain being defeated is a power fantasy.

And for other people, the idea of a character owning their villainy is a power fantasy.

I would argue a lot of fandom conflicts re: villains come from people being unable to see that their fantasies, which put them in control of a narrative (and all three of these are designed to give the author or reader control of the narrative in different ways) are someone else’s horror stories.

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flyinghighfallingfast

8 months ago

Twitter/X thread from Victoria Duncan on X:
"At some point, very early on, undiagnosed neurodivergent children are faced with a terrible dilemma.

They will tell someone they're in pain, someone they trust, and that person will say no they're not. That didn't hurt. It can't have. They're being selfish/dramatic/lying.

The child has to get their head around it. They feel pain, but a trusted caregiver says they don't and they're being bad for saying so. How can it be true?

There are only two, bad, options.

The child may choose to believe the caregiver and decide that they are wrong about their pain. They will make this choice again and again over the years and slowly learn to ignore their body until they are barely connected to it at all. They learn not to trust themselves.

Or, the child might not be able to ignore the reality of their pain. In which case, they have to give up on pleasing their caregiver by keeping quiet as demanded. They learn that adults won't believe or take care of them. They learn not to trust other people.

I think whichever choice you make, you carry the rest of your life, disconnected either from your own body and experiences, or from other people and meaningful relationships. Maybe both.

Anyway, diagnosis is the only way out of the dilemma. It's the only way your reality can be different from other people's without someone being at fault - is if you have a word like "sensory overwhelm" to explain the difference.

That's why diagnosis changes lives & why people want it so much.

This is about saying you're in pain because of sensory overwhelm, but it can also be about saying you're tired from sitting still or socializing or reading and someone says you can't be. Saying you "don't like" an activity you find hard, and having people assume the worst of you.

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flyinghighfallingfast

9 months ago

Jackie the pirate mushroom by Khuc Cay

Free crochet pattern here

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flyinghighfallingfast

6 months ago

Bracket

Part 1

A Turtle Like Me vs. 2012 Sep AU

Shadow of a Turtle vs. Give Peace a Chance

Mystic Prodigy Series vs. Dance of the Super Turtles

Magic and Masks vs. Stardust AU

Warriors Heart vs. Mama's Boys

Our Other Halves vs. What Was Lost

Joint Custody vs. Sundered by Time

Aay'han vs. Shades of Purple

Part 2

Prodigy AU vs. The Little Prince

Snapdragon AU vs. True Colors AU

Never Better vs. Same as It Never Will Be

Through Your Hollow Bones vs. Even More of a Disaster

Little Subjects vs. Little Brother AU

Leon Me Alone! vs. Ninja Club AU

Mikey Sep AU vs. Chosen Amoung Four

Code Name: Violet Skies vs. Scrap Metal

When Will You Return? vs. Lost and Found

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flyinghighfallingfast

1 week ago

Ayoo just to preempt the inevitable dumb takes we’re about to start seeing;

I am PRO-WOOL

I am PRO-LEATHER

I am PRO-BEES

Fuck the idea of replacing durable, sustainable animal products with cheap, flimsy plastic that doesn’t bio-degrade. Agave nectar and other artificial sweeteners are expensive, labor-intensive, and destroy the environment to be farmed.

Do not buy into pernicious marketing campaigns pushed by dickhead organizations trying to stay relevant, like PETA.

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flyinghighfallingfast

9 months ago