I really truly hate that I have to make this post but I feel I have no other choice at this point.
Back in June of 2017, my favorite author @bilboo (perkynurples on AO3) opened for fic commissions. I was so excited that I could pay her to write for me that I jumped on the opportunity. We hashed the story out a bit, I paid her, and went on my merry way to wait. And wait and wait and wait. It wasn’t until five months later that I decided to ask for an update. I waited this long because I know writing can get difficult sometimes and that she had a couple commissioners ahead of me.
Unfortunately her reply to me was that she had completely forgotten my commission. Disappointing but I believed her when she said she’d work on it straight away and told her it was okay, sometimes these things happen.
A month later, with no update, I messaged her to see how it was going. She replied that she would be devoting her time to working on it. Okay, cool.
Another month, no update. I messaged her again and she showed me that the fic was currently at 6k and said it would likely expand into more than one chapter. Exciting!
Another month, no update. I messaged her again, got no reply, messaged another time, finally got an apology and promise to work on it.
Another month, no update. I messaged her and got no reply, messaged again a few days later, got no reply, messaged again a while later (this time mentioning a refund) and still got no reply. A week later she did message me apologizing profusely and promising the fic would be done within a week.
Two weeks later, no update, so I messaged her again looking for one. This time I got no reply at all and I gave up on trying to get one. It was extremely disappointing but if she was going to ignore me, there was nothing I could really do about it. Obviously she wasn’t even willing to refund my money.
This started in June of 2017 and my last message to her was April 8th, 2018. I haven’t heard anything since but I have seen various posts by her on tumblr saying she has time to write, that she will be working on her WIPs, and now, as of yesterday, has opened for more writing commissions.
Obviously I was very angry to see this and I messaged her again asking if the fic would be finished or if she would refund me my money now that she’s opening new commissions. No reply, so I decided to make this post.
I have also come to learn there is a second commissioner to whom she didn’t deliver a completed fic that had been paid for. I have talked to that commissioner, who has also expressed their disappointment, but fears confrontation. So I’m posting this in hopes that we both get our refunds and to give a warning to any potential commissioners. There is a chance, that by commissioning her, you will not see the end product or receive your money back, so do take due caution.
I’m bummed out that I’m writing this as @bilboo truly is my favorite author and I still rec her fics to people when I can. I can’t say the experience of reading them hasn’t turned somewhat sour now. I hope we can resolve this.
I think people really underestimate how fucking evil a large chunk of American Christianity is, when they try to say to antichoicers “well if you’re against abortion, at least you should support things like WIC and SNAP, so that women facing an unplanned pregnancy can still feed their future kid”
I’ll be blunt, to American Christians like this, “but single mothers and their kids will starve!” is the entire fucking point. Being ostracized by your family and community and left for you and your bastard child to starve alone in abject misery and deprivation is what they believe the Godly punishment should be for being “unchaste,” and that things like food benefits and contraception are destroying moral society because they let women have unapproved sex without being as controlled by the fear of being cast out to starve with an unwanted kid (this also heavily ties into misogynist racism against woc, especially black women, who are accused of being “welfare queens,” draining good, properly chaste white Christians with kids born from their supposedly mindlessly lustful and irresponsible behavior, that can only be kept in check with threats of starvation or violence).
“Women (especially woc) cannot overcome their base urges and live virtuous lives without being heavily trained and coerced by threats of deprivation, isolation, and violence” is one of the most important unspoken ground rules of reactionary movements, both religious and secular
Evangelicals have no long-standing theological problem with abortion. My parents have been married for longer than evangelicals have been against abortion. Evangelicals in the 1970s didn’t care about abortion. Being against abortion was a Catholic thing. Evangelicals thought abortion is unfortunate, but not evil.
What changed?
Bob Jones v. US (1983).
Bob Jones University, an evangelical school, had a segregationist dating policy. It means what you think it does – they wouldn’t allow white students to date black students. They also wouldn’t admit black students who supported interracial marriage. This was in the mid-70s. Loving v Virginia was nearly a decade in the rearview mirror. The government threatened to revoke their tax-exempt status as a university unless this Jim Crow shit stopped. The school sued, and this eventually went to the Supreme Court. The Court, unsurprisingly, agreed with the government.
What was clear to evangelical leaders, then, in 1983, was that out-and-out racism was no longer going to be tolerated. What could they focus on that would have the same effect? What could rally the base without openly espousing racist views?
Reagan, with his “welfare queens” dog-whistle politicking gave them a like-minded politician glad of their support. And Surgeon General C. Everett Koop was only to happy to tell people what he thought of abortion.
So here we are, thirty-five years later, with every evangelical doing their damnedest to pretend that evangelicals have always been against abortion. They’ve lied themselves into believing it, and now they claim they’re against birth control too. That’s even more spurious – If they actually thought life begins at conception, then birth control would be a necessity, because fertilized eggs being rejected is the norm. Most of what they want to call human life never even gets implanted in the womb, or lasts very long if it does. And if they cared about life, welfare programs ought to be the most important, to ensure everyone has a good standard of living worthy of human beings.
But they don’t care about those things, so the only conclusion is that they are not pro-life. They just don’t want to see family planning and health care go to women, people of color, LGBTQ folks, etc.
It was never about being pro-life.
(and incidentally – Bob Jones v US was an 8-1 decision. Who was the dissenting voice? None other than William Rehnquist. Who was elevated to Chief Justice by Reagan when Warren Burger retired a few years later. None of what has happened has happened by accident)
And it’s worth noting that Bob Jones University defended their policy exclusively on religious freedom grounds, but Rehnquist’s dissent was based entirely on procedural grounds. Even the one justice who was “on their side” didn’t buy their argument and had to justify it on other grounds. It’s been a long road from BJU v. US to the Hobby Lobby case.
American Evangelicalism is rotten to its evil fucking heart.
She could have fought harder for Rhaenys to be queen. She could have given her Dark Sister if she loved female warriors so much (thanks, @aegor-bamfsteel). She could have instituted laws that allowed women at the Wall and punished any rapist by death (the Targs had GODDAMN DRAGONS, don’t tell me “they wouldn’t have accepted it”). She could have fought for Rhaena, Rhaella, and Aerea to have actual places at court or to marry her kids. But what did she do instead?
Took the Starks’ land and didn’t do jack with it, and didn’t even compensate them for what they’d lost. Let her whiny kid convince her to let her disgustingly misogynistic husband off the couch (GO TO ESSOS ON YOUR GODDAMN FIRE-BREATHING DRAGON, LADY). Went on her merry way as queen while ignoring her sister and nieces, the former of whom had been raped and abused at Maegor’s hands. Didn’t. Do. Shit. Especially not for women.
Fuck Alysanne. And fuck Jaehaerys, too, and the so-called good Targaryens.
Aerea was the true heir of Maegor the Blessed and she was eldest child of Prince Aegon aka heir of Aenys I. Jaehaerys is an usurper in my eyes.
Well, I mean, Maegor was cruel, mad, and a rapist. Nothing “blessed” about him. Aerea should have been queen and Jaehaerys did usurp her, but Maegor still sucks.
The holiday season is coming up and if you’re being rude to a retail worker while they’re pulling off a 12+ hour shift cause it’s a holiday, you’re going directly to hell and i’m sending you there myself.
You ever be so comfortable in bed, you start rubbing your legs together like a cricket?
tumblr dot com posts are getting so relatable im convinced the government has 24/7 surveillance on me and is feeding it to me through this website to see if i notice
push yourself to get up before the rest of the world – start with 7am, then 6am, then 5:30am. go to the nearest hill with a big coat and a scarf and watch the sun rise.
push yourself to fall asleep earlier – start with 11pm, then 10pm, then 9pm. wake up in the morning feeling re-energized and comfortable.
get into the habit of cooking yourself a beautiful breakfast. fry tomatoes and mushrooms in real butter and garlic, fry an egg, slice up a fresh avocado and squirt way too much lemon on it. sit and eat it and do nothing else.
stretch. start by reaching for the sky as hard as you can, then trying to touch your toes. roll your head. stretch your fingers. stretch everything.
buy a 1L water bottle. start with pushing yourself to drink the whole thing in a day, then try drinking it twice.
buy a beautiful diary and a beautiful black pen. write down everything you do, including dinner dates, appointments, assignments, coffees, what you need to do that day. no detail is too small.
strip your bed of your sheets and empty your underwear draw into the washing machine. put a massive scoop of scented fabric softener in there and wash. make your bed in full.
organise your room. fold all your clothes (and bag what you don’t want), clean your mirror, your laptop, vacuum the floor. light a beautiful candle.
have a luxurious shower with your favourite music playing. wash your hair, scrub your body, brush your teeth. lather your whole body in moisturiser, get familiar with the part between your toes, your inner thighs, the back of your neck.
push yourself to go for a walk. take your headphones, go to the beach and walk. smile at strangers walking the other way and be surprised how many smile back. bring your dog and observe the dog’s behaviour. realise you can learn from your dog.
message old friends with personal jokes. reminisce. suggest a catch up soon, even if you don’t follow through. push yourself to follow through.
think long and hard about what interests you. crime? sex? boarding school? long-forgotten romance etiquette? find a book about it and read it. there is a book about literally everything.
become the person you would ideally fall in love with. let cars merge into your lane when driving. pay double for parking tickets and leave a second one in the machine. stick your tongue out at babies. compliment people on their cute clothes. challenge yourself to not ridicule anyone for a whole day. then two. then a week. walk with a straight posture. look people in the eye. ask people about their story. talk to acquaintances so they become friends.
lie in the sunshine. daydream about the life you would lead if failure wasn’t a thing. open your eyes. take small steps to make it happen for you.
Death By Catchphrase 