bandit king of lunch and string

yeah, that's really the trouble with using the correct terminology. it doesn't really lead me to the information i need.

there is, though, a technical term for 'trouble eating because of sensory issues', i just can't remember what it is. i happened across it while googling big circles around 'anorexia -nervosa' and there was actually some decent advice there about foods less likely to trigger overload/nausea, and coping techniques and the like. unfortunately i thought i would just remember the term, so i didn't write it down.

 

well, i am not doing so bad today, and have had some fish with lemon.

 

probably cod? fish n chips from local sports bar. not the best in the world, but a satisfying meal.

 

note to self: it is time to pot up the bulbs you set aside for forcing.

 

dat's der bunny! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avoidant/restrictive_food_intake_disorder

although most resources on it read more like rumors than science. i don't think anyone's really studied it properly. they tend to give the impression of being like "well it's really just being SUPER PICKY but i GUESS if you're so picky you might DIE that's a disorder PROBABLY."

and nobody seems to grasp the possibility that putting food in your mouth is A LOT OF SENSORY INPUT and that maybe people with their senses cranked up to 99 might not enjoy it all the time.

 

it's just a singularity. keep your fingers outside the schwarzschild radius please.

 

yee! unfortunately i have kind of a blockage about buying things on the internet so i probably won't do it. :/

 

so i've had this fic open in a tab for like... two weeks... and i'm just finally giving myself permission to stop reading it. there's nothing wrong with it, per se. it's entirely inoffensive. it's also just kind of boring. i mean, i really want to like it. original sci fi political intrigue story with a m/m couple? that is my jam! and yet i just can't get my teeth into it.

i wouldn't feel like i could link to the fic i was complaining about if i did it on tumblr. so that's something nice about 'blogging' on the forum instead. i don't feel so much like i'm using my Big Name Fan(tm) status to slag somebody. i'm just some rando talking about a thing he read.

anyhow, i'm having a hard time articulating why i don't care to read the rest. i just feel this overwhelming apathy toward the characters, the setting, and the plot. it's entirely obvious what the plot is, the characters are sort of carrying the idiot ball about it, and the romance plot is as inevitable (and rather less exciting) than any other thing on rails. that's the problem, i guess; it's all on rails. while i don't enjoy fiction that's so genre-savvy it breaks the fourth wall, it does kind of behoove an author to recognize that they are writing fiction, their reader is reading fiction, and if your characters uncover evidence of a crime and then their plane mysteriously malfunctions and crashes them in the mountains, having them say "oh i'm sure it's just an accident and your previous husband's identical plane crash doesn't look any more like murder in light of this" makes them look as if they sustained major head injuries.

they're so passive, too. even when they try to 'investigate' it's really just like... ask a couple people and then get worried when there's some kind of response. you can't stop there if you want a murder mystery. you have to give your characters some guts, for crying out loud.

haha the whole time i was writing this, meenah kitty was running back and forth across my stomach, facebutting me every time she passed on her way to Urgent Kitty Errands like chewing on the palm tree sticking out of the toad enclosure, quality-checking my can of fizzy water, and sniffing hermes to make sure his windowsill sunbeam nap was meeting his expectations in terms of both safety and comfort. i found myself thinking: "this cat has more agency and plot impetus than any of the characters in that story."

writing advice: sniff more butts, eat more ferns.

 

i was rereading the evil overlord list and

i'm dying laughing, because i already decided casimir has the fantasyverse equivalent of a northern minnesota accent.

some of these are giving me great ideas, tho. like, i'm sure the old palace is absolutely chock full of ghosts, and it'd be just about impossible to exorcise them all. casimir is strong enough to do it, but it'd take up time he needs for ruling, since he's the kind of overlord who actually does the administrative work. so i could have a lot of fun with svetlana thinking she's found a really great source of intel and maybe a tool for vengeance against him... but then it turns out the ghosts were all put there by former rulers, and a lot of them are victims of her father, and they either have the wrong intel or they screw with her on purpose.

poor kid. she should get to completely pwn casimir at least once before the end.

 

here's another one he dodges. he makes really bad pr among the nobles by putting the whole palace on rationing. it's not unreasonable rationing, mind, they're not on half portions or anything, but he's making damn sure that his efforts to stop the economy sliding into the toilet aren't undermined by frivolous spending. the nobles are Very Upset about this. what's the point of being a courtier if you don't get free roasted peacock with the tailfeathers put back on? meanwhile, his actual supporters, the military, are perfectly accustomed to One Meat, Two Veg, Three Bread even at high command levels, and think the courtiers are being a bunch of whiny babies about it, further widening the rift.

is he doing it on purpose? or does he just not care what cake-eaters think? no one knows for sure.

(he's doing it on purpose.)

 

haha i should definitely lampshade the prophesy thing.

oracle: no man can defeat you!

casimir: you're fired.

oracle: ???

casimir: on the list of things i'm concerned about, individual men was already like waaaaay at the bottom. what about shipwrecks? poison? i dunno, armies? seriously, you're pinkslipped, pack up your shit. Trusted Lieutenant, get me an oracle who knows what the hell they're doing.

oracle, sniffling: the OLD overlord would've had me thrown to the crocodiles.

casimir: follow your bliss, pal. but if you're gonna jump in the moat take your shoes off first, it's not good for their teeth.