#isdat

I like learning more about my internet pals, so why not right?! I hope they’ll participate with this one too, but I definitely respect if they don’t want to. I can be personal myself so there might be more ‘under the cuts’ from anyone with these than usual and maybe more left unanswered, but still! I hope there is a lot of potential for fun here! 

-Outfit Prompt me with an occasion, and using only clothing I own, I have to come up with an outfit that could be worn to it. Note that I say ‘could be’ and not ‘would.’ You’re sitting at home anyway, it’s time to pull out some things you almost never touch! 

-Books Prompt me with a mood or trope or genre or a period of time in life (young and angry, older and philosophical, etc), and I’ll select a book that fits with it. Maybe we can find some stuff we liked together or you can find some new stuff appropriate for you! 

-Personal Story Ask about a personal story. A time when your teacher did something good for you? First person you thought you loved? A time you didn’t know if you could be more angry. etc... 

-Best Friend/Spouse/Sibling Ask for a story about one of these people, either specific (how did you meet?) or more general (tell me something about your dad). 

-Old Project Ask about an old project. What’s something you worked on in high school? What’s a project your proud of because you tried something new/it turned out especially well/it was difficult to complete, etc.. 

-Pictures Try not to get too personal here unless you know the person you’re asking is quite open, but perhaps something like: what’s a picture you took of a place you enjoyed visiting, is there a pic of your wildest haircut/color, can I see a fluffy pet? etc. 

-Random! Send an ask of a mood or something evocative of a mood, and I have to take a picture of something where I’ve sequestered myself that I think fits that mood/theme/whatever 

-Gifts Ask about a gift I’ve received. What’s something I got for Christmas? Something I gifted myself or something my mother gave me, etc. Bonus, the responder posts a pic if they can/not too private. 

Four ways I’ve come to see Pharah, again, unsurprisingly, heavily influenced by you but also I had a little more space for her to begin to develop perhaps more alongside/outside of your fic as well. 

>Pharah is a very dedicated, determined, and ambitious character who always pushes herself to be the best she can, and this has gotten her far in life. I put all three of those in one because I think they’re the threads of the braid that make up who she that got her to Helix/Overwatch. 

>Despite her accomplishments and dedication and even pride, I don’t think she’s of the ‘I am always right’ category. She’s not trying to impose her will for the sake of power or ambition, etc. It’s not that she finds herself unfailing that she can believe in herself to the point of taking command or pushing herself far, but simply that she is grounded in who she is. Can that come off at times as though she knows what’s best for others? Sure. But it’s not out of a place of presumption but rather a ‘this has worked in the past and until you have a better idea why the hell not do it my way?’ 

>My take on the Pharah/Ana thing actually has always been that she received the letter from Ana very early on and didn’t actually think Ana dead for all that long, and that changes some dynamics I think from your Pharah. I also think that in Pharah’s personal life, she generally holds herself to a standard of truthfulness and honesty when she can, but she is well practiced in keeping secrets and sitting on sensitive information. Ana pretending to be dead straddled that line in a way that I think she struggled with in complicated ways that I think she harbors anger and resentment about, especially as I think Pharah would see Ana taking this route out as cowardly. And I think it’s all exacerbated by the fact that I don’t know if my Pharah is ready to let her personal feelings on all this trump the good she believes her mother did for the world. Was a little neglect as a kid/now undo any of the work her mother put in for the world? When does a person cross the line from living their own life and sacrificing for more than their own family and letting their child down? I don’t know if I see a total coming down on one side for her on that for a very long time. (But Mercy sure has feelings about it all!) 

>Pharah marries Mercy and they are in a relationship, and while my take is that it’s perhaps more fraught than your version because I do like to imagine some extra tension between their beliefs about Overwatch/military-type stuff and whatnot in general, they are canon! Insert here my beleaguered harping on Blizzard being cowards for trying to nope out of it with the whole Mercy/machine man thing here. 

Okay, let's do this and see how hard it is.

4) Rose Armitage. I had to look her up to see if she was the mom or the daughter. Which I'm actually okay with. I don't think the white people from Get Out are supposed to be multi-faceted three dimensional people, they're supposed to be just caricatures of various types of racism. Rose, I think, is supposed to be the girl who dates a black guy and acts like it's amazing that she's dating a black guy.

3) Melisande. For the life of me, I can't figure out what rubs me wrong about her. I dislike her but not in the fun way or the interesting way a good villian is done but I just dislike her. Which is weird because she's a well-written three dimensional character and has some fascinating character traits. But something about her just bugs me. I'm hoping with my reread I can pin down what's happening there.

2) Marisa Coulter. HIS DARK MATERIALS SPOILER AHEAD (for Jet). So it's been quite a while since my last reread of it so this is going off my rather patchy memory. She's fascinating and very well done. She manages to break out of the traditional feminine roles while still being very feminine. She's ruthless but that moment where she rushes in, absolutely terrified that Lyra has gone through intercision has always stuck with me. It's such a moment of terrified love from a woman who is otherwise incredibly self-contained.

Ooh, good question and thank you for the question! Sorry not to have been engaging more with the thing. :-)

I do have one tutu that I’ve kept, it was a trial run for a set of 10. It’s pretty crappy materials and there’s a lot wrong with it, so it’s not something I’m proud of.

I am planning to make myself a good one, though. I met a fellow tutu maker here in Denver, and she’s awesome. She’s also way more experienced than I am, and has offered to walk me through her tutu making process. I’m planning to make one to fit me, mostly so I can have the experience of wearing a properly fitted one. (They are TIGHT.) That was supposed to be happening now, obviously those plans are on hold for a bit.

I’m planning to do something sort of along these lines:

Only more burgundy, less neckline, and with sleeves. Because aerialist arms look really, really strange in a tutu. XD

My clients are all kids heading for competitions, which means their world (and perforce my tutus) revolve around the solo they’ve chosen to perform. If I were choosing a solo for myself, it would have to be this one from Don Quixote. It’s from a wedding scene, so it’s a little less silly for an adult amateur to perform than the ‘look at me I’m young and naive and pretty’ ones that show up at the beginning of ballets. And I love to move fast, I’m good at echappes (the things she starts doing at 0:43), and the end section is the most joyful bit of dance I’ve ever seen.

Hey all. I’ve been really bad about this stuff lately. Were we still having fun? Do we want to do this? 

If so, I was wondering if we maybe wanted to go a slightly different route. Having lost some steam, I was thinking that it may be easier to just focus on sending asks to one person a day or something. So like, if you’re online with some free time on Monday, send some asks to Moon, Tuesday I can make sure and send some Rhio’s way, etc. Maybe if we go this route, on one’s day, we can reblog an ask or two we’re especially interested in. I think part of my issue lately has been a slight sense of being overwhelmed about where I draw my ask inspiration from and trying not to send basically the same thing over and over again. 

It’s totally cool if we’re just done with this too. I know I still even have a bunch of asks I haven’t even gotten to though I’m excited about doing so when shit slows down/I’m inspired again. 

Just let me know. :) It was great while it was active, so I consider it a success whether or not we feel like keeping it going!

I spoke with a couple internet pals about doing an at-your-own-pace interactive project to keep us all interacting with each other when we otherwise are probably feeling very secluded and alone. 

I am going to link to some ask games here I would enjoy participating in, and I’ll tag this post with some fandoms I’d be open to more. I am going to try to answer most, if not all, of the asks I get, and I am committing sending an ask to the following people each day once they give me stuff to ask them: 

@rhiorhino, @madegeeky, @moonwhing, @inthroughthesunroof, and @once-a-polecat.  Each post will be tagged with ISDAT (interactive social distancing ask time) so I can easily catch up on the answers to the asks, and I plan to comment on as many as I can from those who reply. I can also keep my eye on if these folks post any ask games for me to inspire my asks with.  Others are welcome to play along, and I suggest making your own participation post if you’re like me and might slack if I don’t state my purpose. I suggest talking to a pal to do this with you. I do encourage other if they would like to play along, and therefore I hope to also occasionally be able to send in asks to others outside of the circle I’ve already committed to. Just use the tag!