from the terror asks game/post!!

franklin - who’s an underrated character in your opinion?

hm. i think i'm going to pick Morfin for this (citing your influence, Cig!). i don't see a lot of him come up, and i think there's more to be explored with his connections to other characters - Tozer, Goodsir, even Fitzjames (they both ask to be "put down," yeah?). i also find him being the one to sing "The Silver Swan" to be so endearing! him forgetting the words also lightly ties him to Goodsir, i think (something something, Goodsir forgetting David Young's name...).

btw, also: Silna for this. more love for Silna always. more love for Silna AS AN INDIVIDUAL on top of Silna's connections to other characters. please. i see a lot of love for Silna on my dash/in my corner of fandom so i wasn't sure if underrated was exactly accurate, hence that not being my initial answer? but yeah. Silna... ♡︎

(and i already answered sundogs teehee)

working with Indigenous materials in libraries, archives, museums, etc. very obviously requires special care. it can require restorative justice with actions like repatriation (or rematriation, as this piece from Tomaquag Museum in Exeter, RI and the Rematriation Project of the Inuit people state). most of all, it involves settlers/those with colonial ties handling and stewarding valuable materials for which they have little to no cultural context.

that means people are going to make mistakes. the fact that these (white, imperialist) archives/museums/etc. have these things in the first place is a mistake. (caveat here is that i’m not talking about Indigenous-run community archives and orgs when i say this. that is Very Different.)

it means that there will be potential miscommunication, a lack of common ground, and inherent disconnects. different value sets and priorities, especially if the archivists/information professionals are a part of an extractive institution, which is likely. there isn’t a cure-all for this, and i don’t think there ever will be. to imply that there’s a formula to preservation like this would be condescending to Indigenous people. my point here is that, if this is the territory, then people are definitely going to be afraid to make mistakes.

(for transparency: i am people, in a lot of ways. i’m not going to act like i’m infallible or something, or make it seem like i archive with reckless abandon. this field requires slow, nurturing care!)

based on my experiences (and i genuinely welcome other folks’ input!), i think this fear to be wrong is twofold: a fear to misstep and cause harm to others, but also a fear of the social consequence of that misstepping. when that second fear stops information professionals entirely from being productive allies when called upon and restoring rightful custodianship to Indigenous people, that is a failing, in my opinion.

i think the aversion to or apprehension around writing Silna, and portraying her in fan creations may have a similar source. that’s not me excusing anything, by any means.

tysm for the tag, @nahaerya!!

rules: make a 24hr poll listing the titles to every wip you want to work on (it's fine if you only have one, still make a post for the vote count). whichever wip gets the most votes, write one sentence for every vote received.

(this is SO fun because i have So Many WIPs. teehee.)