the book is lying open, there are tales to be told

just spent twenty minutes scrolling the tag and giggling

it almost feels like people initially accepted the “non-partnering aroace Ryland Grace” headcanon just because they thought he COULDN’T be shipped with anyone else (i.e. the sapient space rock alien who already had a partner, or the woman who sent him to space against his will in the first place)

but then they all saw Bloodymary and went “WAIT what if this OTHER HUMAN from a completely different space movie was ALSO there and they were in LOVE and DATING and MADE OUT with each other” and it’s just. hey so what happened. what about us.

it sucks too because before that, this was the first time i’ve seen such a widely accepted aroace headcanon- and i was OVERJOYED. i felt SO represented and seen. and suddenly it’s all gone. like everyone just moved on when the “better” option presented itself :/

(to clarify: i genuinely have no qualms against partnering aroace folks, Iron Lung itself (i haven’t even seen it lol), or crackshipping across fandoms - i just hate that it became the new norm so fast, and the non-partnering aroace headcanon got practically erased 💔)

It wouldn’t be so unbearable if all the shipping stuff wasn’t also in the aroace grace tags. Sometimes I scroll through aroace grace tags and see “this post has filtered tags: #bloodymary,” “this post has filtered tags: #bloodymary,” “this post has filtered tags: #strattland,” “this post has filtered tags: #bloodymary,” “this post has filtered tags: #grocky,” “this post has filtered tags: #bloodymary,” “this post has filtered tags: #bloodymary,” “this post has filtered tags: #bloodymary,” “this post has filtered tags: #grocky…” with like maybe three other posts in that mix.

And I know some of those are probably QPR, but that’s still a type of partnering, and still feels a bit like it’s overshadowing a huge, important part of the story, and it feels discouraging.

Like I said, the museum was a pretty snotty institution. It’s got a LOT of objects it’s way famous for possessing, but nobody knew about the absolutely massive collection of Moche erotic pottery it had because the curators were totally embarrassed by this stuff.

Some examples:

Pretty hot shit, right? They never, ever put any of this stuff on public view or published it in any catalogues but - we legit had like several hundred pieces of Moche ceramics in the “dirty pots” category. Anyway, I was left alone to just do my job with regard to the database for several years, ok? And I figured, well, these’re accessioned objects in the museum’s collection - better get down to bidness. 

I catalogued every goddamn bestiality, necrophiliac, cocksucking, buttfucking, detached penis, and giant vulva drinking cup in that collection. I’d be like, 

A drinking vessel in form of a standing man wearing a tunic and cap. He holds an oversized erection in his hands and stares into the distance (note I did not say “like he’s hella-constipated”). The vessel has a hole at both the tip of the penis as well as around the rim of the figure’s head, thus forcing the drinker to drink only from the penis or risk spilling wine all over themselves from the top of the vessel. Red and orange slip covers the surface of the piece.

Pretty straightforward, right? Apparently the deep seated fear of these objects that the curators exhibited was meant to spread to me as well, but - no one ever gave me that memo, because I guess Midwesterners reproduce asexually. When the curators understood that I had catalogued all of these objects in addition to the other, non-sexy pieces in the collection, they were apparently livid, but knew they had no legs to stand on in terms of getting pissed at me for it. 

I visited the museum’s online public access database a few years back and - every single description I wrote of these pieces has been totally neutered to say something like Male figural vase. 

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: The Magnus Archives (Podcast) Rating: Not Rated Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Martin Blackwood & Jonathan “Jon” Sims | The Archivist Characters: Jonathan “Jon” Sims | The Archivist, Martin Blackwood Additional Tags: Post-Divorce, Alternate Universe - Post-Canon, Location: Somewhere Else (The Magnus Archives), but the somewhere else is just a no fears world Summary:

all art is subjective, because all art is injested and filtered by the viewers, all of whom are different. something empowering to one might seem fetishistic to another. there is no monolithic experience for anything, and as such there can be no monolithic 'correct' depiction of anything. no matter how santitized you make your work, you will never please everyone. there will always be someone upset with you, someone who thinks you did it wrong, someone who thinks your work sucks and that you should delete it. they will always be there. do not gut and mutilate your own creations to better fit puritanical ideals, because it will never be enough. you will simply keep slicing away until there is nothing left and even then you will get hate and criticism. better to be upfront with everything.

write without shame. draw without shame. paint without shame. edit without shame. shame is a learned behavior, and it can be unlearned. if they will hate you and your work regardless, why not be honest with it?

do not give ground. do not concede that any art is 'objectively wrong' to create. they will take that ground and they will keep pushing, just as they have in the past.

Kind magic

if I have any heavy

influence in this)