I Am Stardust

Spoilers under the read more

One of the things that fucks me up in Parade is that Carl only ever says his ‘you will not break me’ mantra once in the whole book. And then after that to Minus?

‘We have been tempered in the fires of hell, and we are now past the point of being broken.’

The medieval peasant I went back in time to give a bag of Doritos to, concerned: what terrible and powerful sorcerers they must have in your age, to be able to veil the vault of heaven itself from view, as you say

Me, sniffling: I didn’t realize, I can’t, it’s so much, I, I… are the chips good, at least?

They'll also be the only two of the guild/main cast to be trans.

With Carl I just think it's interesting. Also, I saw someone give him a dimensional Miku binder once and I just think that's AMAZING.

Katia is just because I think it works with her desire to have a kid. She's AMAB, so (as far as I am aware) she couldn't have the ability to get pregnant.

"But CELESTE how did she get to choose the pregnant option from the orchid?? How was she allowed to worship that 'goddess-whose-name-none-of-us-can-spell??"

Well for one, the dungeon can alter people's bodies into entire different creatures. They can be liquidfied and suddenly be sapient. It can turn a 99 year old woman into an ice fairy and get rid of dementia. It can fuse two people and turn a normal goat into a fucking demon. Is it so hard to believe that it couldn't change something as simple as sex at birth? Also, who says that goddess is transphobic? She might be an ally, you don't know!

I also think it's neat because I imagine Carl finally taking a small moment to complain to Katia that he didn't get his top surgery before the crawl- like yeah he can do that without Katia being trans too but the queer comradery between them would be top tier.

You can't deny me. I will infect you all with my queer Carl propaganda and you will LIKE IT because it's PRIDE MONTH.

But, Carl is so chronically an over-thinker? He had four (or more!) backup plans at the end of the Butchers Masquerade, and was actively mixing and matching elements of them to fit the changing scenario. The only times I can recall him acting without thinking through it is when he's defending, not attacking.

Hell, he even fine tunes each of his bombs to be meticulously right for any given scenario. He thinks through each possible path he can imagine. He optimizes *everything*.

“heh… remember strawbebby…. And ranibow spramkle… always made me laugh”

“Don’t talk like that man. We’re gonna get out of here i prommy.” [mortar fire sails overhead and land nearby] “christ its like a childrens hospital out there”

[through shallow breaths] “I always loved…… the color of the sky…………”

“Freedom”

This is what's so fucked up about "nothing that requires the labor of others is a human right".

The labor is already being done under capitalism. The laborers are already being underpaid under capitalism.

When you propose removing the greedy profiteers and paying the workers a reasonable wage, people call that "slavery" while they have no problem with the current system.