Nusquam est qui ubique est

I know, I know, I've been absent for so long you've probably been wondering if I'm still around. I am, but I'm mostly over at tumblr basking in all the drama. Anyway, I decided to have a look at this year's Snowflake Challenge, and this one sparked joy, so here it is:


Snowflake Challenge #6

Search in your current space, whether brick-and-mortar or digital. Post a picture or description of something that is or represents:

1. A favourite character 
'A beautiful Tiefling man - and when I say beautiful I mean mechanically with 20 Charisma - is leaned back, arms crossed behind his horned head, incredibly black feathery wings stretched out, sitting on the pile of sacks of potatoes. Tieflings have some sort of demonic heritage, and this dude clearly got an extra scoop. It's like, tail, hoofes, horns, glowing red eyes, and full wings, which most Tieflings don't have. Some Tieflings are like: "my ancestor", this guy is like "maybe my dad?". It's way, way closer. Kicking it, he has hooves so he can't wear shoes, but even if he did have feet he wouldn't wear shoes as a point of principle and pride, cause it's not the lifestyle he leads, man, he's trying to be relaxed. And he's kicked back, smiling, and is peeling potatoes with a knive and a potato being levitated by the mage hand cantrip, just butchering ribbons of unusable potatoes going:"I'm doing a pretty good job. This is good potatoes, honestly."'
-- Brennan Lee Mulligan describing his character Nikhil in Battle for Beyond, one of my go-to comfort pieces of media for a long time now

2. Something that makes you laugh
The Dimension 20 cast doing bits. Also, a lot of the other content on Dropout, like Game Changer or Dirty Laundry.

3. A bookshelf
My bookshelf is small, a literal shelf only, because I have given away most of my books the last time I moved. It has an eclectic assortment of my favourites, fiction and non-fiction alike.

4. A game or hobby you enjoy
Table top roleplay. My friends think I'm addictet, but it's only two campaigns as a player and two as a GM, that's a totally reasonable amount, surely? I could quit anytime of course, but why would I want to when I can experience the joy and wonder of communal storytelling, while being badass and fighting monsters, and also hang out with cool people at the same time? I see no downsides here.

5. Something you find comforting 
Being at home. I love improving my home, making it lookfeelsmell nice and cozy for me and the occasional friend I invite over.

6. A TV show or movie you hope more people will watch
The Almighty Johnsons. It's Norse mythology in Australia, and it's hilarious. The gods are continously reborn into mortals, and have to find a way to ascend to become real gods again. The problem? They are never born at the same time or in the same place, and they know nothing about their previous lives. The series features a few of the lesser known gods, and I appreciate that their Loki is actually a real trickster for a change.

7. A piece of clothing you love
My Crimson Weasel onesie from Critical Role. It's warm, it's red, it's cute, and it's also my answer to the current energy crisis.

8. A thing from an old fandom
I crocheted a small, bright blue bag with the words Police Box on it years back, and I love it still.

9. A thing from a new fandom
Wanna play some DnD? --Brennan Lee Mulligan
It's from Dimension 20's Neverafter (episode 4), and I love it so much. Episode three was wild, and intensely stressful, and left us in shock for a whole week. Episode four was very different from everything they had done before, and I love it so much because of it. 

Challenge #5

In your own space, talk about an idea you wish you had the time / talent / energy to do.

- I would love to finish my Hannibal Wiki, but I haven't put any info into it in years.

- A Ragnarok vid from season 1 that highlights the similarities between Laurits and the Jutuls.

- A "Cook like Hannibal" challenge where a bunch of people cook different recipes from Janice Poon's "Feeding Hannibal" cookbook and present their results in a post.

- I'd love to moderate a The Vampire Diaries prompt community, kink or no kink.

- A fannish crafting challenge, any kind of craft, any fandom, but it has to be your own idea/pattern/design/etc.

- A space for fannish pro wrestling activities, and I mean media fannish, not sports fannish.

- Put together a "So you want to go to a pro wrestling show..." survival package.

- A dreamwith community for sorting hat chats, because tumblr is nice and all, but you can't really have a proper discussion over there

For #1 I updated my sticky post, I skipped #2 because I realise I don't like setting goals, it never works for me. Here is #3:

Challenge #3

In your own space, put some favorite characters into an AU, fuse some favorite canons together, talk about your favorite AU/fusion tropes, or tell us why AU/fusions aren’t your cup of tea.

I think what I would love to see is an AU of the origin story of Damon, Stefan and Katherine from The Vampire Diaries around 1864 told in the manner of popular novels from that time. Since I have no idea what was popular at the time, it's more a thought of "Wouldn't that be neat?".

Generally, I like all kinds of AUs or fusion, from modern day to coffe shop to high-school, non-magical, and especially the more creative ones. I love when authors get creative in any way, and there is always a chance of some clever bit of AU/crossover/fusion world or character building in every story. Some I avoid, like A/B/O, because they usually come with tropes that I don't enjoy. I don't mind characters being ooc, as long as I still like the character.

After a year and a half on keto, and all but one month of it in "the covid era", I finally went to do a check-up with my doctor. She was surprisingly open to keto, asked a few questions, and said it sounds OK to her. They took blood and urine samples, and a few days later, I got the results. And 'lo and behold, there is nothing wrong with me! Cholesterol is a little elevated, but the ratios are good, so that's fine.

I'm doing good, I feel good, so I'm sticking with it. It's still weird to never really feel hungry, and I think my two meals a day are getting smaller, too. I'll have an eye on it, but I see no problem there.

I got curious about code-switching, and what it actually means, because as a snake secondary, I am supposed to be good at it. A quick search brought me a lot of linguistic definitions, and a few articles about social code-switching for black and hispanic Americans. That is great, but not really helpful in my situation. So I decided to analyse my own code-switching.

( Linguistic code-switching )

( Social code-switching )

( Personal code-switching )

I have no idea if personal code-switching is still considered code-switching at all, or if it is simply interpersonal skills, or manipulation. I don't think this is an unusual amount of code-switching, I think most people probably do this and more, but I could be wrong. Especially the personal part I mostly do unconsciously, and I am not really bothered by the social part. Not having the right words is just annoying, and being able to switch from German to English as needed is a relief.

A while back, I talked about minimalism and aesthetics, and how we often confuse one with the other. Well, I got a pretty good reminder today that even, and maybe especially, minimalists do this: Goodbye Minimalism by Lana Blakely.

It makes me sad to see a young woman boxing herself into a corner to fit an aesthetic, to the point where it has probably taken some guts to post this video. It's absolutely needless suffering, and I'm very glad she was mature enough to see it.

The Seiers really are poor:
- Magne asks if they have boots in his size, and next scene, he tracks up the mountain in his old sneakers.
- The cool shirt Laurits wears to the springfest is one of Turid's old shirts.
- Magnes glasses are fixed with sellotape after Fjor breaks them.
- They often wear the same clothes.
- There is a lot of cheap foods, like cans, white bread, margarine, minced meat, etc.

Laurits really is of Jötnar blood
- He is just as impulsive and self-destructive as the Jutuls
- He also wears lots of jewellery 
- He likes the same kind of music.
- Ha instantly feels at home in the Jutuls house
- That dance
- He loves underhanded insults as much as the Jutuls do, and he never misses undercurrents in a conversation, just like the Jutuls.

It is never really said that Vidar killed Nisse, but you know if you pay attention:
- Ran told Vidar, that Nisse has become a liability
- Vidar takes off surgical gloves and dumps them in the trash before he observes Magne getting plowed over by a snowxxx
- When Magne leaves the hospital, Nisse's body is brought in.
- Ran says that two "curious humans" have already died, one of them was Isolde.

Saxa and Fjor are not really teenagers:
- Saxa knows exactly how to take over the company, even though she has never done it before
- Fjor talks Vidar out of killing Magne for Trym's death with a very insightful argument
- Fjor tells Gry's dad that he did the right thing when he did not talk to the journalists, because he knows you can't control this kind of story
- At the springfest, Fjor tries to stop Ran with a glance from having sex with the two boys, as an equal would.
- Saxa and Fjor can have whole conversations with just glances, like in the car with Gry and Laurits, or in the diner after the springfest.

Is it really incest if the people involved have no familial connection, and only pose as siblings? And would it still be incest if 50 years ago, they were posing as man and wife instead?

Maybe I should explain. In Ragnarok, the Jutul "family" are actually four random Jötnar (frost giants) who survived the last great battle between gods and giants. They have lived in Edda, Norway for 3000 years now, and the way it works is like this: They have enough magic to alter their appearance and look like they are growing old the same way humans do. When they "die", they come back as kids. So there are always two "adults", posing as man and wife, and two "kids", posing as siblings. It doesn't really work when you think about it a minute, but that is what canon has told us.

The two Jötnar currently posing as siblings were the adults 50 years ago. Is it incest if you ship them now? Will it stop being incest when they become "man and wife" in a few years? What about the current adults, will the ship become incest when they come back as "siblings"? Keep in mind that none of them are blood-related in the first place.

Oh, and for some extra confusion, throw in the fact that the current "father" managed to get a human pregnant 17 years ago, and the boy now has a crush on the current teenage "son" of the Jutul "family". Is that ship incest, too? And will it stop being incest if the father comes back as a kid? I just think in the context of this canon, where everyone has fucked everyone else at some point, it's absolutely pointless to discuss how incest-problematic some ships might be.

Why am I bringing this up? The (very small) Ragnarok fandom on tumblr is starting to post about "keeping tumblr clean", and not posting "incest" where the cast can see. And I am sitting here, begging them not to go there, because I really don't want to block half of the already very small fandom.

Once and for all, fandom: LAURITS IS A SPITEFUL LITTLE SHIT, AND THAT IS WHY WE LOVE HIM.

He is not a helpless victim, he is not a cute little emo kid, and he is most definitely not a woobie. And here is why:

( spoilers )

So yes, a lot of bad shit happens to Laurits, and yes, he does not really fit in anywhere. But he gets even, he provokes, he does things out of spite and because he can, and sometimes just to see sparks flying. He plays the game because he chooses to, because he loves it. He might be a cute emo teen, but he is also a fucking jotun trickster, for fuck's sake!

I have no idea why nobody is talking about the glorious piece of warfare that is the Jötnar family dinner in s2e5. It's pure chaos, and I love it. This is how you do a trickster god, folks!

( spoilers )