This is just my rule for love interests. The more dangerous, cunning, powerful, and distant they are, the more it hits when they are unexpectedly pathetic, weak, petty, and needy.
Likewise with weak, soft, gentle, easygoing characters, the more it hits when they hold onto something with both hands even if it breaks them
IT’S ABOUT THE MOE GAP!
do not apologize for putting your blorbos in this post, this is a blorbo-specific post
Thomas McBee, a trans man, sets out to uncover what makes a man–and what being a “good” man even means–through his experience training for and fighting in a charity boxing match at Madison Square Garden. A self-described “amateur” at masculinity, McBee embarks on a wide-ranging exploration of gender in society, examining sexism, toxic masculinity, and privilege. As he questions the limitations of gender roles and the roots of masculine aggression, he finds intimacy, hope, and even love in the experience of boxing and in his role as a man in the world. Despite personal history and cultural expectations, “Amateur is a reminder that the individual can still come forward and fight” (The A.V. Club). “Sharp and precise, open and honest,” (Women’s Review of Books), McBee’s writing asks questions “relevant to all people, trans or not” (New York Newsday). Through interviews with experts in neuroscience, sociology, and critical race theory, he constructs a deft and thoughtful examination of the role of men in contemporary society. Amateur is a graceful and uncompromising look at gender by a fearless, fiercely honest writer.
Hey all. I wanted to share the GoFundMe for my friend who was in a severe car accident earlier this week. She’s still hospitalized and facing a number of surgeries and a very long recovery, and I am so heartbroken and worried for her.
Katherine is one of the most incredible people I know. I met her on this website almost a decade ago and we’ve been friends ever since. Some of you may remember me talking about my cool friend who works with the Mars rovers, or my friend who founded an affinity group for queer cosplayers within the Star Wars costuming clubs and who recently helped found and run a whole Star Wars Legends convention – that’s all her. She’s a brilliant, amazing person, a dedicated volunteer and activist, and most importantly, a wonderful, supportive friend who has been there for me during some of the hardest periods of my life.
If any of you can support her during this time, I and the hundreds of other people whose lives she’s touched would be immensely grateful. There is no one more deserving, I promise.
Katherine is such a wonderful person, and this accident has permanently impacted her life. Please help if you can.
Thinking about Edward Elric as the Amestrian Military’s specialest little unfireable boy
State alchemists can be fired for underperforming. We know this up front from the likes of Shou Tucker. And this makes a ton of sense from the homunculi’s standpoint since the state alchemists are sacrifice candidates, and the homunculi would want to cull the weakest candidates and focus only on cultivating the strongest ones who stand the best chance of opening the portal.
……..Then there’s Edward. Who’s already opened the portal.
There’s no need to cultivate him. No gamble taken on whether he’s good enough to open the portal. He passed the final test already. Graduated 4 semesters early.
And as such, has a free pass to do Absolute Fuck All.
And I’m imagining how funny this is from like an outside perspective.
Some newish state alchemist who’d only ever read up on the stories of Edward Elric, ready and excited to start their career of being paid handsomely with endless freedom to research and travel and do anything they want in the pursuit of science… surprised and confused to find themselves put on probation their first month for things like “ignoring orders.” Which is, as best they had thought, a famous Edward Elric pastime.
Roy showing a slight bit of stress about his yearly state alchemist report, and Ed just snorting and rolling his eyes at Roy because every year HE just hastily does his on the train ride over (canon in the manga, a travesty it was left out of the anime) and it gets rubber stamped. Ed not realizing that other alchemists’ reports get genuinely scrutinized and torn apart while Ed is free to turn in whatever absolute bullshit he thinks of 36 hours ahead of time. One year his report was about whether alchemy could be done via dance (conclusion: no it can’t) and no one cared. Roy WANTS to tell Ed there’s some kind of unknown favoritism around Ed making him literally bullet-proof but Roy has no way to phrase this that doesn’t sound like he’s just in denial and mad at how good Ed’s train-reports are.
Guy from the Internal Amestrian Affairs sector who’s responsible for auditing other internal military personel for any suspicious activity hitting about 1 million red flags for Edward Elric, issuing a STRONG and URGENT recommendation to suspend the alchemist pending further investigation into things like “literal bunk-buddies with two members of the Xingese royalty (enemy nation)” and “spent $10,000,000 of his stipend on a librarian to make her re-copy (what he seemed to interpret as?) military records in some extremely transparent effort to unearth state secrets (it was a recipe book but he was literally asking her about state secrets)” and “literally has never once obeyed an order, ever, not even once in his career, and is on public record having said ‘I do not care about the goals and protections of the Amestrian Military. I am in fact only pursuing my own interests several of which are diametrically opposed to the safety and well-being of the governing body of Amestris’”
The issued recommendation is intercepted before it even reaches its intended desk. President Bradley himself has taken issue with it and denies it before a single set of eyes has seen it. The President’s veto stamp is a terrifying hammer, used rarely, and it is now sitting on the auditor’s desk.
The auditor sleeps with one eye open from then on out.
i suspect accepting a formal commission and doing military-specific work really lowers the bar on the level of research documentation you’re required to produce to retain your licensure. possibly to nothing.
both because the military manifestly does not give Roy the kind of time to advance the bounds of science that research-focused national alchemists like Tucker get, and penalizing him for that would be stupid in an uncharacteristic fashion. and because if you’ve got combat-applicable alchemy, especially the mass-murdering kind like Roy, you don’t need to produce anything further to stay officially useful, and be kept on the payroll.
Roy is on the human weapon track, it’s different from the research track.
(given the drama over Riza’s tattoo I’m quite sure he has not submitted reports on the theory behind his alchemy. which is actually fascinating, that they allow that? service of mind or service of body, but apparently you get to pick.
oh, maybe it’s set up like that to cater to families like the Armstrongs! cuz they’ll send all their kids into the service to bleed and kill, but like hell will they render up their family traditions to be intellectual property of the government.)
Anyway Ed probably would have a lower bar to clear than Tucker even without the secret murdertopia scheming because 1) he does spend a lot of time kicking ass on behalf of the government, making him useful on a practical level and 2) there are obvious reasons to want to keep your grasp on a young hotshot like that regardless of his current research output.
Since I reblogged this earlier, though, I kept thinking about how Bradley personally quashing all Ed-firing documentation is super funny because it’s like some kind of mirror inverse nepotism.
'You can’t fire my uncle ever no matter how much he fails to do his job, but this is not because he’s my uncle (I don’t know that and neither does he) and it’s not to help him out, it’s to keep tabs on him so we can kill him at the appointed time.’
…yeah. You can serve with your mind or with your body.
Which means Shou Tucker is a conscientious objector trying to do less damage to humanity.
ALT
ALT
ALT
ALT
ALT
ALT
ALT
ALT
