Hopeless With Technology (Yet Here I Am For Some Reason)

I was driving through Vermont with a friend, and we pulled over at a tiny shop offering Maple Items. We were on the state highway, not the interstate, so "pulling over" meant "squeezing my tiny car into a parking bay the size of a broad highway shoulder."

As we got out of the car, an older woman emerged from behind the building where she had been pruning her roses. She introduced herself as Tammy.

Her shop offered the promised variety of Maple, but also a number of small antiques and a plethora of dog figurines, plaques, and clearly-hand-stitched garden flags.

A huge purple ribbon hung on the wall behind the register, along with many pictures of small dogs. This was no county fair ribbon. It was the size of my torso. The material had the soft sheen of actual silk.

As I placed my purchases on the counter, I asked, "Do you... Breed dogs?"

Yes. She does. She has bred Yorkies for the last 40 years. Her mother bred Yorkies before her. The purple ribbon was from her national championship winning Yorkie.

You may be expecting that the infodump was going to be about Yorkies.

It was not.

It was about 40 years of drama in the Yorkie breeding community. Where – you must understand – the judging at shows is often about who you're in with, not about the dogs. This is especially true when Tammy's opponents win anything.

And Tammy's mother! Well. Phyllis has been on the Yorkie scene since Yorkies were invented. Because of this, many women of equally venerable age hold deep grudges against Phyllis. The sort of grudges that result in episodes of Midsommar Murders.

This led to deep injustices against Phyllis on the part of judges and prevented her dogs from winning so often she retired from the scene. Judging is all about who you're friends with, after all.

After 20 years in hiding, Phyllis – the One True Queen of Yorkie Breeding – hatched a plot. She may have been out of the show circuit, but she was still breeding dogs. She entered an absolutely perfect bitch in the national competition, but sent her with a handler rather than go in person.

None of the usurpers knew who this dog belonged to, and in dog-breeding circles this Does Not Happen. This could have resulted in further injustices, but Phyllis was crafty. She knew this tournament was being judged by a man from the UK, who knew naught of the drama in the US Yorkie Empire.

With these advantages – and being the best dog there – Phyllis's bitch won the highest honor at the show.

Incensed by this insult to their ill-gotten supremacy, the other owners descended on the handler after the show, demanding to know for whom he was working.

"Phyllis," said he.

The name of the overthrown queen evoked horror in the usurpers.

"PHYLLIS!? She's still ALIVE!???"

Yes, Phyllis yet lived, and this bitch – the dog, not the woman – went on to mother Tammy's current dogs. One of whom, Lucy-Fur, is the reincarnation of Tammy's sister (also Lucy). This is certain for two reasons.

Firstly, Sister Lucy absolutely went straight to Hell upon her death, and Lucy-Fur the dog is positively as evil as Sister Lucy was.

And a vent.

And also something funny(?) that happened while I watched the movie

I'm deeply sad you had to go through this, but I'm also very amused at your brother dealing with Jax being a girl

in real life, as a nonbinary person, i am perceived as either a man or a woman by a majority of people. no matter how visibly "queer" (piercings, dyed hair, colorful funky jewelry, etc) there will still be people misgendering me at a first glance. I've come to accept this.

in terms of fictional instances, the big one i think about is the perception of Frisk/Kris from Undertale/Deltarune. they're both exclusively referred to with gender neutral terminology and pronouns. yet there will always be someone out there who will say that, because of the gender neutral terms, "their gender is up to interpretation". its almost as if people do that to nonbinary people every day, ignoring their nonbinary identity.

SPOILERS FOR TADC FINALE UNDER THE CUT

if characters show a whiff of transmasculinity people begin accepting the fact they're men with little resistance

transfeminine characters are forced to live in nb limbo until they openly declare they're women

i feel like this is in no small part influenced by transmascs who relate to closeted transfem characters before it's revealed in what way they're trans. they spend a great deal of energy relating and projecting and theorizing, but when the character isn't the "right" kind of trans...

“Who cares?”

“Divine intervention.”

“I wanna be praised from a

New. Perspective.”

“I think you look good!”

I feel like I need to check this...

Y'know I think it's kind of funny how many people were dissatisfied with the ending of TADC because there wasn't full closure or a proper enough exploration of all the characters. On one hand, that's a pretty valid criticism, it's not like I tell people to not be disappointed for wanting to see more of the characters.

On the other hand, with all the scenes showing that people can come back from abstractions, all the worlds staying open for everyone, the members of the circus being given more power and agency over their lives, and GANGLE AND ZOOBLE HAVING SEX, the entirety of the finale felt like it a giant, flashing neon sign saying "IF YOU WANT TO SEE MORE OF THESE CHARACTERS, MAKE CONTENT OF THEM YOURSELVES."

I just feel like us fanartists have been given the biggest gift and I see virtually no one excited about it. A literal playground of possibilities, all feasible within the actual canon of the story.

Bro.