Seriously, Why Were All The Good Names Taken?

Ya'll couldn't even handle HER.

For personal context, before I went to the '98 Burning Man festival, one of the things I'd read from a couple different journalists was that "everybody" runs around naked. Which, fine by me, I'd already spent a lot of time in clothing-optional spaces, I'm not fanatic about it but it's nice.

So I got there early and set up a public shade structure on one of Black Rock City's main roads and spent most of each afternoon just watching the crowds go by. I don't remember seeing more than one actually naked person the whole week. I think a topless woman passed by my intersection maybe every half an hour, sometimes once an hour. So why in the hell were people, normally pretty smart and observant writers, coming away with the impression that everybody was naked?

Then I remembered an unrelated passage from Joel Garreau's great book about the history of the outer-ring suburbs, Edge City. Mall developers told him flat-out that they tried to keep the crowds in their malls less than 5% black. Not because they themselves were racist, but because they had determined, experimentally, that if more than 5% of the people in the mall are black, the median white shopper will wrongly describe the mall as at least half black, as mostly black. And not a few of them would describe it, at 6% black, as a mall where "only black people go." Why?

Because, emotionally, they were still upset over the last one when the next one came into view.

Ghost Dad: WE LITERALLY CHANGED OUR VOWS BECAUSE WE DIDN'T LIKE "TILL DEATH DO US PART"

it will always choose you. you cannot die. you'll always come back because it loves you so much. you are its right and left hand, its eternal weapon. it will drown you in its light. light as horror. darkness as horror. what if it thinks you are its best friend.

[image ID: a screenshot of the notes on this post, featuring several people indicating they want to know more. End ID.]

OKAY SO. You know how we talk about how one way fast fashion has made itself “necessary” is that the clothing looks like shit and feels horrible after just a few washes?

Let. Me. Tell. You. Something.

Laundry stripping is a process where you load your laundry into a tub or bin (I’ve been using my bathtub) with warm water, half a cup of borax, half a cup of washing soda, and half a cup of laundry soap (not detergent, SOAP, there’s a chemical difference). Leave it there for at least eight hours. I’ve been going for 12-24.

What you will come back to is a tub full of nearly-opaque black-gray-brown water that absolutely REEKS. This is normal. You are looking at (and smelling) hard water buildup, body sweat and oils that were embedded in the fabric, dead skin, and just regular grime.

Wring out your clothes. Throw them in the washer. (I like to do a spin-only cycle before going any further, because I have one of those washers that determines by weight how much water any given load needs.) Wash as usual.

You will notice I didn’t suggest any further pretreatment, and that’s because 1) you don’t want to layer too many chemicals on top of each other but also 2) you may not even need it.

When your clothes come out, check each one as it goes into the dryer, and if anything else s still stained, set it aside to run again with a regular pretreatment. One of the sweaters I did this with apparently did need a second treatment…to deal with what appears to have possibly been a hot chocolate stain that was previously invisible due to “well, it’s old” dinginess. I was planning to throw this sweater out. It looks almost new now. I need to wash it one more time for the probably-a-hot-chocolate stain, and then it needs to have the hem weighted to block it and bring it back to evenness, but dude. I wear my clothes to rags and I thought this thing was unfixable. “I need to reshape it” is nothing.

Remove clothes from dryer when done. Fucking MARVEL at the colors and how good the fabric feels. Give them a smell. Get righteously and royally angry that you can rejuvenate this stuff so easily, with a process that does take awhile but is 90% hands-off, but we’ve been trained to believe it’s all got to be binned once a year because discoloration and gross fabric is “normal wear and tear” and can’t be fixed.

It’s utterly unreal! I just pulled a seven-year-old work undershirt out of the dryer and this thing looks NEW!! It FEELS almost new!!! One of the shirts I hung up from the last load is older than some of the people on this site and it went from “I keep this to wear on laundry day, for sentimental reasons” to “I could actually wear this out of the house, it looks old but respectable”! The pajama bottoms I’m wearing were from Goodwill and they have BRIGHT YELLOW in them! I thought it was goldenrod!!

I do not know how often you’re supposed to do this (doing it every time can strip the dye out of your clothes, not to mention it’s way too much work to do every time), but once or twice per season seems respectable. I don’t wear white, so I can’t test the “it will make whites look almost-new as well” claim, but I’ve seen a lot of people on the cleaning subreddit attest that it works.

Just remember: WASHING soda. Not baking soda. I tried baking soda and a little bit happened, but not a lot.

And sometimes I load the washer, including the detergent, and then open the lid. The laundry automatically stops itself, and I just let it sit overnight. This is great for stains (I have a 5 year old) and for clothes longevity.

It's also fragrance free (so great for many allergies), CHEAP, and Eco-friendly.

direct orders of "you really really need to kill this guy" ignored: 1

Stolas is madly in love with Blitz.

And Blitz is one of the two people Stolas would give his life for.

(He tried to give his life up just for a chance to see his daughter, so don't start 😛).

But from Stolas' perspective Blitz has told him very clearly that:

Blitz doesn't do relationships,

doesn't do romantic feelings,

that all they ever had was purely sexual.

Actually directly Obsessing over your unattainable ex situationship, roommate, and boss; and using that as wank foder would be a bit creepy and dumb for him to do.

So Stolas compartmentalizing off his hopes and wants off to writing them as fanfic.

That's a pretty healthy way of dealing with his love and lust, for a guy he thinks he can't have, but still has to act normal around. (Altext for transcribed dairy)

He's not writing fix-it's of his own life. Where he'd rewrite the past, and they both say and do only the right thing; to be that perfect romcom love story.

Because from Stolas' perspective that would mean rewriting Blitz's personality to love him.

Changing who the man is on a fundamental level.

Rewriting Blitz this way would be much more intrusive.

So instead Stolas casts Blitz into a role that both something both closer, and further away; from the real him.

He's still the man that liberates the prince sexually, who has a love of horses, and a cocky attitude and his the devil may care smile.

Who dips him like Blitz does.

And kisses him like Blitz does.

Who gives the prince of his story the same butterflies Stolas felt about seeing Blitz in When I See Him.

Just like how Stolas' previous story drawing was inspired by Blitz being his hero, being a good caring father to their daughters.

As well as the writing being inspired first time together.

But Baron isn't really just Blitz.

He's a stock bodice ripper love interest, with a stupid name, in a very classiest troopy smuty self insert fic; there's a lot of mental distance from reality.

Giving Stolas the breathing space to work the some of his feelings. Process he's emotions and his love for Blitz; with a little bit of distance to get his head together.

Even some of the social positioning he's lost, and start to vaguely understand his PTSD. (Even if both of those are at the baby steps stage).

I do kinda wonder if Blitz has been reading these stories along with us.

Using them as a way to check in on how Stolas has been doing, and because he wants to be closer to him.

(Blitz tends to boundary stomp with people he cares about without meaning to. And he's never really being malicious).

Blitz seems very personally annoyed that homophobic Karen lies, and claims Stolas stories about them, based on their sex life; didn't get her wet at all.

I guarantee this man has a pavlovian response to any of Stolas' insane horny ramblings. If anyone one is going find Stolas using breath for the 100 time to describe their first kiss hot, it's gonna be Blitz.

Blitz also is extremely quick to hid the diary behind his back as soon as Via comes in. Like sure hidding her dad's smut makes sense, but it feels a bit more than just that.

I also like that we see Blitz turning Stolas into a OC fantasy version of himself too.

Both before and after he was sure of how Stolas feels about him.

Feels like making a horsesona of Stolas probably was a way for Blitz to deal with all the emotions he didn't think he was aloud to have with Stolas, during what assumed could only be a physical affair.