Muses Speak

January 2025:

Donald Trump pardoned 1500 people who participated in the insurrection of January 6th, including those who violently assaulted and nearly killed police officers.

Donald Trump has declared that trans and non-binary people don’t exist.

Donald Trump is working towards firing everyone in the government who isn’t loyal to him.

Donald Trump has effectively fired everyone who he claims is an “illegal DEI hire” …whatever that means

Donald Trump pulled out of the Paris Climate Agreement and the World Health Organization

Congress are trying to pass the Laken Riley Act to, effectively, round up every immigrant in the country, including LEGAL immigrants

Donald Trump removed caps on prescription drug prices.

Donald Trump wants to withhold federal aid to help combat the LA wildfires and help the thousands of people who have been displaced and lost their homes.

The Department of Justice has put a hold on all civil rights cases.

Donald Trump has cut off aid to Ukraine.

Laken Riley Act has been passed by Congress and is awaiting being signed into law by the President. Here’s the breakdown of the votes: House Senate

Donald Trump purged a dozen inspectors general from the federal government and intends to replace them all with people loyal to him.

Pete Hegseth has been confirmed as Secretary of Defense. Here’s the breakdown of how the Senate voted. Note, it was a 50-50 tie that JD Vance had to break.

Donald Trump imposed a 25% tariff on Colombia after the Colombian government turned away two airplanes carrying migrants. Columbia has retaliated by imposing a 25% tariff of its own on US goods.

Donald Trump has also issued a travel ban for Colombian citizens and revoked visas from Colombian migrants coming to the US.

Donald Trump has now backed off the tariffs and other threats against Colombia. Note for future reference: this comes just hours after Trump made the threat in the first place and he and the Colombian president got into a big fight on social media.

Nearly 1,000 migrants were arrested mostly in Chicago on January 26th by ICE and ICE has been told to meet a quota of 75 migrant arrests every day.

Donald Trump rescinded an anti-discrimination executive order from Lyndon B. Johnson

Donald Trump signed an executive order banning trans people from serving in the military and also ordered that people who were discharged for refusing to get mandatory vaccines be reinstated.

Donald Trump has frozen all federal grants to institutions.

After pressure from state governments, activist groups, and the general public, the White House has rolled back some of the freezes on federal funding.

This.

Donald Trump is trying to fire all federal employees who don’t want to return to the office (work-from-home saves the federal government millions of taxpayer dollars in overhead). He also sent an email to federal employees saying that if they’re not loyal to him, they’ll be investigated.

Donald Trump has signed the Laken Riley Act into law.

Donald Trump has said he doesn’t think Palestinians should be allowed to return to Gaza but instead should be sent to Egypt and Jordan.

Also this.

Donald Trump has ordered undocumented immigrants to be sent to Guantanamo Bay

Donald Trump signed an executive order to expand federal funding for school choice programs. [x]

Donald Trump signed an executive order saying that he will deport visa-holding students who protest against Israel. [x]

Donald Trump has blamed DEI for the plane crash that killed 67 people in Washington D. C. [x]

Donald Trump signed an executive order that schools should no longer teach about racism and discrimination. And that schools should only teach history that is “patriotic” [x]

Florida Representative Anna Paulina Luna wants to add Donald Trump’s face to Mount Rushmore. [x]

Trump’s Department of Education has called book bans a hoax. [x]

If you’re looking for aria-lerendeair.tumblr.com, it’s currently deactivated.  I’ve sent an email to support, as there’s no reason for it to be gone.  

Hopefully it’ll be restored and…and I’ll get things back.  

I’d like everyone to see this

At some point, I am going to try to come up with a pseudo-scholarly explanation of those conventions and presuppositions.  I’d say that probably the defining feature of fanfic is that the reader is expected to come in with prior knowledge of characters and (if not marked AU) the quirks and conventions of the source medium, so that some things can be taken as read before the story even begins.

Like any genre, this means that fanfic can do things that no other genre can do.  Me, my particular crack is to really lean into the dramatic irony.  There’s also a heavy overlap with romance, in which the conclusion of a particular story is already known and in fact inherent in the label (Kirk/Spock slow-burn, for instance) but the adventure is in the getting there.

However, like any genre, people who are not familiar with the conventions (or uninterested in what it has to offer) are likely to be thrown off, and from there often conclude that what they’re reading is no good, rather than realizing that they’re using the wrong toolset.

For an example in another genre, say that I’m accustomed to contemporary stories and I read a science fiction story that opens by saying, “Rashid was missing his sceptrim.  He rolled his eyes and looked under his bunk.  The starship was small.  It couldn’t have gone far.”  Someone who only reads conventional fiction would be all like, “What the hell is a sceptrim?  It’s not in the dictionary.  How do you expect us to know what’s going on if you make stuff up and then don’t explain it?”  An experienced reader of science fiction, meanwhile, is thinking, “A sceptrim.  This will be explained as we go.  Right now, we know (a) it could fit under a bunk, and (b) either it is not important enough to immediately panic about, or Rashid is not prone to panic.”  Thus, the experienced reader has absorbed information that completely missed the inexperienced reader, and you could say with some accuracy that the inexperienced reader is not, in fact, absorbing the actual story.  Because they don’t know the conventions.  Because they may be an expert at reading romance or contemporary, but here, they don’t know how to read.

Fanfiction is like that.  By drawing on the source material, I can make sure that the reader has information that I never state.  I am writing a Doctor Who fic featuring an original character who works in a shop; she thinks, “Huh, new mannequins.  I must have missed the staff meeting where they said we were getting new mannequins.”  Using info from the original show, I have put up a giant sign saying DANGER IS PRESENT AND PEOPLE ARE LIKELY TO FREAKING DIE.  But you have to be somewhat familiar with Doctor Who to get what I’m doing.  Similarly, say I’m writing a Kirk/Spock college AU, and Kirk (my viewpoint character) goes off on a mental rant about how Spock is an uptight prick and what’s with being known only by your last name anyway?  My reader knows (a) these characters have an epic bond that has been inspiring people since the sixties, and (b) I marked the story Kirk/Spock rivals-to-lovers slow-burn, so the question is not whether Kirk has correctly analyzed this character, but how he learns he is wrong and exactly how they get together in the end.  People who don’t read fanfiction or romance may be annoyed to find out that everything I establish about Spock in my first chapter turns out to be completely wrong; people who are here for a rivals-to-lovers slow-burn were relishing the dramatic irony from the beginning.

But id say it’s not a different genre its a different medium

Poetry and prose are different but blank verse is poetry that follows the rules of prose and even in prose there are different variations

And fanfic is one of those. Fanfic presupposes knowledge of the original media but it also doesn’t, it is transformative. It is like your favourite book being made to a movie, its something you love through the eyes if someone else who also loves it and it’s that shared passion that alters and creates. It has it’s own rules and traditions, we follow patterns and mix media all the time, we quote the original, we add song lyrics and poetry and art.

It’s a great collage of things written down with the clumsy tools of syntax, lexis and juxtaposition. 

Our Blessed Rebel Queen by lindsayvanek

For she is now one with the Force and the Force is with her,

Fox News has no idea how to handle it because he’s Captain America and he’s literally from the 40’s like how do that handle that

He refuses to go on half of the news shows because they lie

Mostly ends up on the Daily Show, the Colbert Report, and the Young Turks

Starts charities that focus on kids and the poor

Donations to veterans charities go through the roof

Treatment for PTSD in veterans suddenly gets addressed after he admits to being diagnosised with it

Steve Rogers starting a twitter specifically for linking people to horrible news stories and calling news stations out on their lies and scare tactics

Using his twitter to complain about the state of public news and how it should be a space of change and value and honesty for the American public, and how he’s so ashamed of it all

He accidentally becomes like public face for the new generation of politically savvy people

They make of shirts like WWCD “what would Cap do?”

Tony is thrilled and proud and hires of team of lawyers exclusively to handle the news stations screaming about Steve

Fox news gets slapped with so many libel fines and law suits

Going on a show and regretting it the moment an offensive question or comment comes up and decides he’s completely done and just tears the interviewer a new one.  It goes viral.  

The public face thing is just the start.  It starts this whole new wave of people that shut down offensive shit during interviews and holding their own.

There is a short time period once he turns 35 where there is a rally cry of “Captain America for President” that he gracefully turns down.

But politicians starting courting him, trying to get him to publicly state that they support him because his influence is just so massive, and they keep getting shut down hard

Talks about growing up in the depression when people bring up financial issues - says things like “With all due respect, ma’am, what others may remember as being over 80 years ago was less then 5 ago to me. Things were supposed to get better. Those issues we thought we fixed were supposed to go away - we were supposed to work to a future where it was gone - and instead it seems to be worse then ever.”

And of course he’s a raging feminist and is absolutely appalled when Natasha tells him about rape statistics

Bruce takes a lot of time to fully educate him about the social and medical side of abortions, teaches him about the various birth defects and medical issues the mothers can face, shows him the demographic information of access and need, and Steve is horrified by that too

Then Bucky walks him through gay rights and other LGBT issues, all of them helping him understand how sexuality can manifest differently and the difference between sex and gender identity

Steve just REAL FUCKIN DONE with everything.

Angrily stands in protest rallies and dares people to start something with peaceful protesters.  Just DARES them.

Rolls his eyes at baby boomer articles about the newer generations.  He’s heard that mess before.  He’s done with it.

Understanding people have problems with medical bills, having been there himself.

Fucking standing up for single mothers because LIKE WHOA THAT’S HIS MOTHER YOU JUST DISSED.

Steve Rogers hating bullies.  Hates that kids are actually KILLING THEMSELVES because of bullying and people are just “oh boys will be boys” about it and he’s just LIVID.

Peaceful protests staying peaceful because when the cops try to start something it doesn’t matter how many of them there are, Steve’s there and he will shut them down, but more than that: Steve gets pepper sprayed. Steve gets chemical burns. Steve on shaky iphone video blind and disoriented and still using his body to protect others as the cops close in. And suddenly the heroes who stay back because they don’t want to get involved - because they shouldn’t use their powers ‘like that’ start showing up in droves.

Peter gumming up the smoke and pepper bombs before they go off. Thor becoming a one man blockade. Natasha working with organizers to help plan for escapes if things do go badly. Tony’s not only keeping Cap up to date - he’s putting considerable money behind the political candidates who will actually work to improve things, because we all know you need money to represent at the polls. They’re not there attacking the police - even if the officers are being assholes, they understand they have a job to do and often bad orders - but they will protect the protesters who have done nothing but show up. And the more they do, the more heroes join in. Because it’s not just about using your powers against the mighty evil empire or taking down some guy calling himself the Boomerang. It’s about making sure you want to keep living in the world you keep saving.

1. We would miss you. 2. It’s not worth the regret. Either by yourself if you failed or just simply left scars, or the regret everyone else feels by not doing enough to help you. 3. It does get better. Believe it or not it will eventually get better. Sometimes you have to go through the storm to get to the rainbow. 4. There’s so much you would miss out on doing. 5. There is always a reason to live. It might not be clear right now, but it is always there. 6. So many people care, and it would hurt them if you hurt yourself. 7. You ARE worth it. Don’t let anyone, especially yourself, tell you otherwise. 8. You are amazing. 9. A time will come, once you’ve battled the toughest times of your life and are in ease once again, where you will be so glad that you decided to keep on living. You will emerge stronger from this all, and won’t regret your choice to carry on with life. Because things always get better. 10. What about all the things you’ve always wanted to do? What about the things you’ve planned, but never got around to doing? You can’t do them when you’re dead. 11. I love you. Even if only one person loves you, that’s still a reason to stay alive. 12. You won’t be able to listen to music if you die. 13. Killing yourself is never worth it. You’ll hurt both yourself and all the people you care about. 14. There are so many people that would miss you, including me. 15. You’re preventing a future generation, YOUR KIDS, from even being born. 16. How do you think your family would feel? Would it improve their lives if you died? 17. You’re gorgeous, amazing, and to someone you are perfect. 18. Think about your favourite music artist, you’ll never hear their voice again… 19. You’ll never have the feeling of walking into a warm building on a cold day 20. Listening to incredibly loud music 21. Being alive is just really good. 22. Not being alive is really bad. 23. Finding your soulmate. 24. Red pandas 25. Going to diners at three in the morning. 26. Really soft pillows. 27. Eating pizza in New York City. 28. Proving people wrong with your success. 29. Watching the jerks that doubted you fail at life. 30. Seeing someone trip over a garbage can. 31. Being able to help other people. 32. Bonfires. 33. Sitting on rooftops. 34. Seeing every single country in the world. 35. Going on roadtrips. 36. You might win the lottery someday. 37. Listening to music on a record player. 38. Going to the top of the Eiffel Tower. 39. Taking really cool pictures. 40. Literally meeting thousands of new people. 41. Hearing crazy stories. 42. Telling crazy stories. 43. Eating ice cream on a hot day. 44. More Harry Potter books could come out, you never know. 45. Travelling to another planet someday. 46. Having an underwater house. 47. Randomly running into your hero on the street. 48. Having your own room at a fancy hotel. 49. Trampolines. 50. Think about your favourite movie, you’ll never watch it again. 51. Think about the feeling of laughing out loud in a public place because your best friend has just sent you an inside joke, 52. Your survival will make the world better, even if it’s for just one person or 20 or 100 or more. 53. People do care. 54. Treehouses 55. Hanging out with your soul mate in a treehouse 55. Snorting when you laugh and not caring who sees 56. I don’t even know you and I love you. 57. I don’t even know you and I care about you. 58. Because nobody is going to be like you ever, so embrace your uniqueness! 59. You won’t be here to experience the first cat world emperor. 60. WHAT ABOUT FOOD?! YOU’LL MISS CHOCOLATE AND ALL THE OTHER NOM THINGS! 61. Starbucks. 62. Hugs. 63. Stargazing. 64. You have a purpose, and it’s up to you to find out what it is. 65. You’ve changed somebody’s life. 66. Now you could change the world. 67. You will meet the person that’s perfect for you. 68. No matter how much or how little, you have your life ahead of you. 69. You have the chance to save somebody’s life. 70. If you end your life, you’re stopping yourself from achieving great things. 71. Making snow angels. 72. Making snowmen. 73. Snowball fights. 74. Life is what you make of it. 75. Everybody has a talent. 76. Laughing until you cry. 77. Having the ability to be sad means you have the ability to be happy. 78. The world would not be the same if you didn’t exist. 79. Its possible to turn frowns, upside down 80. Be yourself, don’t take anyone’s shit, and never let them take you alive. 81. Heroes are ordinary people who make themselves extraordinary. Be your own hero. 82. Being happy doesn’t mean that everything is perfect. It means that you’ve decided to look beyond the imperfections. 83. One day your smile will be real. 84. Having a really hot, relaxing bath after a stressful day. 85. Lying on grass and laughing at the clouds. 86. Getting completely smashed with your best friends. 87. Eating crazy food. 88. Staying up all night watching your favourite films with a loved one. 89. Sleeping in all day. 90. Creating something you’re proud of. 91. You can look back on yourself 70 years later and being proud you didn’t commit 92. Being able to meet your Internet friends. 93. Tea / Coffee / Hot Chocolate 94. Sherlock season three. 95. Cuddling under the stars. 96. Being stupid in public because you just can. 97. If you are reading this then you are alive! Is there any more reason to smile? 98. being able to hug that one person you havent seen in years 99. People care enough about you and your future to come up with 100 reasons for you not to do this. 100. But, the final and most important one is, just, being able to experience life. Because even if your life doesn’t seem so great right now, literally anything could happen

IF that isn’t enough:

1Life: 91-78930-78930 (24X7) [email protected]

Aasra: 91-22-27546669 (24X7) [email protected]

Vandrevala Foundation: 1860-266-2345 / 1800-233-3330 (24X7) [email protected]

SUMAITRI: 91-11-23389090 (Mon-Fri 2pm to 10pm and Sat-Sun 10 am to 10pm) [email protected]

Sneha India: 91-44-2464 0050 / 91-44-2464 0060 (24X7) [email protected]

Anyone with a name that starts with a “Z”, ends with an “i”, and isn’t some kind of Italian pasta, IS SERIOUS

•Tony Stark would want you to become your own legacy.

•Peter Parker would want you to be better. There’s a hero in all of us that keeps us honest, gives us strength, and makes us noble.

•Steve Rogers would want you to stand up for what you believe in. Your opinions matter. Don’t let anyone tell you other wise. 

•Logan would want you to write your own story. You don’t have to be what they made you. You have the power to make your own choices.

•Wade Wilson would want you to be happy. It is okay to laugh. It is okay to smile. Don’t let the world take away your happiness. 

•Bucky Barnes would want you to move forward. Your past does not define you. Your decisions do not determine who you are; your actions do.

•Matt Murdock would want you to know that the important things in life cannot be seen. What is essential is invisible to the eye.

•Jessica Jones would want you to be strong. Never doubt your strength or power.

•Frank Castle would want you to seek out the truth. The truth cannot be long hidden; you must reach out for it.

•Clint Barton would want you to protect the ones you love. The people you care about make life worth living.

•Bruce Banner would want you to learn from your mistakes. It is our mistakes that shape who we are.

•Bruce Wayne would want you to fight for justice. You have the power to make an impact.

•Barry Allen would want you to face your problems; not run away from them.

•Diana Prince would want you to be resilient and empowering. You are the love that will change the world.

Hi guys, looking for Sterek fanfic from AO3 where Derek rebuilds the Hale house while Stiles is in college (Stiles and Derek are in contact the whole time & Stiles helps him design the house) and when he comes back and see the house he gets sad because Derek build his bathroom with 2 shower heads for him and his partner/mate and in that moment Stiles realize that Derek is planning future with someone and not him so the runs into the kitchen and from now on he starts to pulling away from the pack and never stays there overnight until Derek finally tells him, that he build the house for him.

Anyone know what fanfic it that?

I am lost and can’t remember more.

Hi guys, looking for Sterek fanfic from AO3 where Derek rebuilds the Hale house while Stiles is in college (Stiles and Derek are in contact the whole time & Stiles helps him design the house) and when he comes back and see the house he gets sad because Derek build his bathroom with 2 shower heads for him and his partner/mate and in that moment Stiles realize that Derek is planning future with someone and not him so the runs into the kitchen and from now on he starts to pulling away from the pack and never stays there overnight until Derek finally tells him, that he build the house for him.

Anyone know what fanfic it that?

I am lost and can’t remember more.

That feeling when you not only get a great fic idea, but then you proceed to write it for three separate pairings.

Because “I’ll wingman myself into your bed” is a fucking iconic line and I must use it for all things.