Wufei: [doing Paperwork]

[on an undercover mission]

Quatre, about OZ soldiers: They’re looking at us, act natural.

Heero, motioning to the folder in Quatre’s hand: Spreadsheet, spreadsheet.

Wufei, nodding: War, war.

Quatre: Mobile suits, mobile suits.

Duo and Trowa: [staring at them]

Duo: …should we-

Trowa, turning away: Just leave them.

Cheat Sheets for Writing Body Language

We are always told to use body language in our writing. Sometimes, it’s easier said than written. I decided to create these cheat sheets to help you show a character’s state of mind. Obviously, a character may exhibit a number of these behaviours. For example, he may be shocked and angry, or shocked and happy. Use these combinations as needed.

by Amanda Patterson

Words Used to Describe Someone's Face or Facial Expressions

Absent

Appealing

Baby-faced

Beatific

Black

Bleak

Brooding

Bug-Eyed

Chiseled

Craggy

Curious

Dark

Darkly

Deadpan

Doleful

Downcast

Dreamy

Etched

Expressionless

Faint

Fine

Fixed

Fresh-Faced

Full-Face

Furrowed

Glazed

Glowering

Good Looking

Grave

Handsome

Hatchet-Faced

Haunted

Hunted

Lived-In

Made-Up

Meaningful

Mild

Mischievous

Mobile

Mona Lisa

Negroid

Pained

Pitying

Pleading

Pleadingly

Quizzical

Radient

Roguish

Sardonic

Sculpted

Seamed

Set

Shame Faced

Slack Jawed

Sly

Smiley

Snub-Nosed

Straight Faced

Sullen

Taut

Thin

Thoughtful

Tight-Lipped

Unblinking

Unlined

Vacant

Wan

Wanly

Weak

Weather-Beaten

Wide-Eyed

Withering

Wolfish

Worried

Relena: What’s going on?

Duo: Heero may have died.

Relena: Heero MAY have died?!

Wufei: We’re still looking into it.

I really really appreciate that this person went off and I TRULY do think this is a conversation that needs to be had more and more.

I am not going to reiterate or repeat anything they said above, but I want to share my personal feeling on a subtler aspect of this issue.

People don’t want to talk about pregnancy as a potentially dangerous and lifethreatening condition because many of them believe it is necessary for a full and meaningful life. Unfortunately, many many of the people who  believe this are not also the people who would be carrying the baby.

Our social narratives are all largely amatonormative, and beneath that, bioessential. That is, they operate on a sort of supremacy of the body, as well as the nuclear family narrative. What this means is that most people are raised and pressured into believing that a) having a baby is a MUST for a meaningful life (hidden agenda: have someone to take care of you when you’re old bc amatonormative society isolates family units and ostracizes seniors) and b) it is the birthing of the child that gives this meaning- no other form of childcare is meaningful.

Now before I go on I am NOT JUDGING anyone’s life, desires or dreams, I am critiquing the social narratives that we are raised with.

Anyway that last bolded point is why there;s all the talk in the world about ‘starting a family’ via childbirth and an entire industry geared towards enhancing fertility when pregnancies are not forthcoming (and many  many people who stress themselves out trying to have a baby, feeling guilty or broken because the social and relationship pressures to fulfill this ideal) meanwhile adoption continues to be seen as a third- not second option. Present, living children are less important than the ideal of childbirth forced on people.

And I say ‘forced’ because it is an expectation. It is an ever-present social narrative. And it goes hand in hand with the fact that it is seen as taboo or shameful to talk about pregnancy as difficult, dangerous, and not necessarily all sunshine and smiles.

Mothers are shamed for feeling less than joyful about this very dangerous experience, and by that others are also shamed for feeling averse or apprehensive about pregnancy. It is an intentionally created false narrative that plays into the hands of patriarchy- because a grand amount of this pressure and related apathy (”oh it’s not a big deal, it’s just pregnancy!” says someone who isn’t carrying the baby..) continues to allow men to pressure women into having children (”THEIR” children– unlike, say, an adopted child) just so they can feel the pride of having sired a child (even though their contribution is oh so genetically and energetically small).

If we talked more honestly about pregnancy and childbirth, we might have to validate the concerns and lifestyles of uterus-bearing people who were expected to want to become pregnant. Men might have to just back down and shut up about wanting to create ‘kids of their own’ through someone else’s body. We as a people might have to think twice about acting as if pregnancy is inherently positive when this society is not actually capable of offering healthy supportive pregnancies to most pregnant people because a society that treats poor and black people this badly as well as one that isolates families into these tiny units isn’t capable of giving pregnant people the considerable care and support they need at such a precarious time.

Pregnancy is pregnancy– that’s it. Things do not inherently mean anything aside from the meaning we assign to them–therefore pregnancy and childbirth are not inherently positive nor is it necessary for a meaningful life.

When we do not speak openly and honestly about pregnancy, we are not letting people make informed choices about their bodies; this is not informed consent.

Bonus:

Links:

https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/4H671VB55LY5?ref_=wl_share

https://ko-fi.com/ellegato

[on the Lunar Base]

Duo, to Heero and Wufei: How did you two get in here?

Heero: A continuing series of bad decisions.

What Your Fave GW Ship Says About You

1xR (Heero x Relena): You’re always a slut for reformed bad boys.

1x2 (Heero x Duo): Looking back on your childhood, you can pinpoint Heero x Duo as the beginning of your crippling yaoi addiction.

3x4 (Trowa x Quatre): You just wanted good things for Trowa, and really, who wouldn’t?

1x3 (Heero x Trowa): Your ideal relationship dynamic is TWO BROS, CHILLIN IN A HOT TUB–

5xM (Wufei x Meilan): Your ideal relationship dynamic is a bickering married couple.

4xR (Quatre x Relena): You think the concept of opposites attract is HIGHLY overrated.

2x5 (Duo x Wufei): You think the concept of opposites attract cannot be highly rated enough.

1x4 (Heero x Quatre): Your interest in canon divergence is outweighed by your interest in edgy boys.

RxD (Relena x Dorothy): I’m not sure how you, a yuri fan, ended up in this fandom, but like, good on you for making the most of it.

1x5 (Heero x Wufei): You don’t so much want a bickering married couple as like a really WASPy couple where both partners kind of resent each other and no one talks about their feelings.

1x6 (Heero x Zechs): You are a firm believer in the inherent eroticism of wanting to kill each other.

2x3 (Duo x Trowa): You are a firm believer in the inherent eroticism of shared trauma.

2xH (Duo x Hilde): You are a firm believer in ignoring the main cast in favor of the funny side characters.

2x4 (Duo x Quatre): You just wanted good things for Quatre, and really, who wouldn’t?

2xR (Duo x Relena): You think the best way to resolve a love triangle is by ignoring the axis.

4xD (Quatre x Dorothy): Your ideal relationship dynamic is femdom.

5x6 (Wufei x Zechs): Your ideal relationship dynamic is that meme that’s like “hoe don’t do it… oh my god” but somehow both partners are the hoe.

5x13 (Wufei X Treize): I could give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that you think that Treize is hot, which, fair. But realistically I should just hit you with the “FBI OPEN UP!”

5xS (Wufei x Sally): You had a crush on Sally Po. Also, obligatory FBI OPEN UP!

6x9 (Zechs x Noin): You’re just here for some MEN 👏 GETTING 👏 PEGGED 👏

6x13 (Zechs x Treize): You want to fuck father figures, but you also have a deep appreciation for high camp.

13xUne (Treize x Une): Your ideal relationship dynamic is that thing you and your friends did in middle school where you ship the hot male teacher with the hot female teacher.

9xS (Noin x Sally): Your ideal relationship dynamic is just girls being friends. Gals being pals.

1x2x3x4x5 (Heero x Duo x Trowa x Quatre x Wufei): Your interest in making difficult choices is outweighed by your overwhelming horniness.

Keep reading

[at Preventers HQ]

Une: You scored a 25/27 on your mental health questionnaire.

Heero: That means I’m good at mental health, right?

[Crisis counselor enters the room]

Heero: Dammit.

With credit to @afro-elf

[sharing a safehouse]

Duo at 3am: If there’s a “heavens no” and a “hell yes”, why isn’t there a “purgatory maybe”?

Heero:

Trowa:

Quatre: …PURGHAPS

Duo: OH MY GOD

Wufei: [screams into his pillow]