[video begins with the camera pointing towards the ground showing the narrator’s black socks and white cane. He’s tapping their cane on hardwood flooring as he slowly walks forward.]
“So people ask me all the time ‘what’s the worst part about being visually impaired? Is it not being able to drive? Is it not being able to see the stars at night?’ But no. It’s when you drop a tomato on the ground [they turn a corner] and you can’t see it but you know it’s somewhere [the tomato is revealed] around here and you’re trying to find it. [his right foot touches the tomato] Oh, I just kicked it. Here buddy. Marco! [he turns in a circle as he says] Imma find this bitch. I don’t know where it is but imma find you.”
Here it is—the full lineup of Queen’s Thief protagonists. Working on this piece meant so much to me, even more so because I was getting feedback directly from Megan on what she wanted these characters to look like. That said, plenty of my own style snuck in (see: Kamet’s freckles), and knowing MWT’s record of letting her readers figure things out for themselves, I hope these “official” designs don’t dissuade anyone from bringing their own interpretation to these characters. There are so many stunning artists and creators in this fandom, and it’s the spectrum of styles and designs and depictions that have brought this series so much vibrant life for over two decades.
Gen, after all, would want to keep people guessing.
I’m humbled to have been asked to do this illustration, and I can’t wait to see the outpouring of creativity Return of the Thief brings. Be blessed in your endeavors.
The real reason millenials say “Adulting” is that that if you say something is “for adult reasons” or “grown up reasons” we’ve been trained to associate that with sex and shit when we just wanna say, be vague about our chore habits
…you know I don’t think I’ve ever seen it put into words so concisely but that is exactly why I use “adulting” over any other term.
“doing adult things” = almost always a euphemism for sexy stuff (when other people say it)
“adulting” = all the tedious things like laundry and cooking that you become responsible for as an adult
There’s also just the way we were raised, where adulthood was treated as automatic and innate. The authority of adults was meant to be unquestioned by virtue of their adulthood. When you get older, you too will automatically Be An Adult, and be inheritor to this great authority.
Basically the word “adult” or “grown up” was used to condescend to us and exclude us. And what made a person an adult was treated as inherent.
Then we got older and tripped into what actually doing adulthood meant and came to find that
1. The people who were supposed to explain to us how this worked had completely failed to do so
2. They had done so in such a way that was meant to protect their authority while also (possibly inadvertently) barring us from the experiences and skills that would’ve helped us transition into adulthood better.
3. There is no inherent authority that comes with adulthood. The adults around us were talking out of their ass. Adult is a verb, not a noun. It’s not an inherent source of authority, it’s a thing you work at daily and you have to maintain it.
And what’s more the same people who lorded their age over us, telling us repeatedly we’d suddenly come to agree with them with age, completely failed to cede any of that authority or power even as some millennials are now staring down 40. So clearly “adulthood” is a game you’re trying to play to control us, even now. Fuck that. We’re not playing.
Honestly that some in Gen Z find it irritating is fine by me. If they think it sounds juvenile, that’s because it is. It is specifically useful in that it breaks the illusion of adults being better than kids. When kids are like, “you sound absurd. You’re in your thirties” I’m like, yeah kid. That’s the thing. Being an “adult” never stops being absurd. If it makes me sound like the mundanities of my life are all a performance that has nothing to do with my actual age or ability, good. That’s why I say it. I’m glad you’re growing up knowing that age isn’t an inherent door to authority. I’m glad you’re growing up thinking “fuck, these adults ten years older than me don’t act grown up at all.” That’s what we want. That’s we call it “adulting”, instead of claiming adulthood as part of us.
Maybe if your gen is lucky you will feel more appropriate claiming your adulthood without caveats. Maybe your definitions of adulthood are more versatile, so you won’t feel barred from the signifiers you’d need to feel like an adult. Maybe you’ll have a better launching pad. Maybe you’ll always hate we call it “adulting”. That’s okay. I hope you get better than we did. But I’m still gonna call it adulting.
As to Boomers who don’t like it, you shouldn’t have defunded my practical education and made getting a foot into a normal stable life so damn difficult, you fucks.
Things like this make me wonder how deeply this social distance and cleanliness stuff is going to burrow into our psyche and how long it will stay there. Like. Are we going to have remnants of this stuff in our culture and etiquette for generations to come? How are common gestures like handshakes going to fair? Is it going to be seen as purely rude? Are we going to get a generation divide between the older generations that always shook hands and younger ones that won’t want to do that anymore? Or is everything going to be completely forgotten and erased within the next 5 years?
I hope so. If I never have to shake the overly-tight, sweaty hand of an old white man in a suit in an interview it will be a glorious day.
Not to be dramatic but this is absolutely the right way to deal with creepy old men whose “art” is just pictures of naked women
By the way if you like cubism but really dont want to look at Picasso, check out Francoise Gilot. She tends to do a lot of really stylized paintings of women but… Yanno. Without the abuse.
She’s also one of Picasso’s exes and consequently one of his muses. She’s spoken at length about her experience. And thus far, she’s had some pretty sweet revenge. She’s free, her artwork is simply gorgeous, and she’s still alive today (as of 2020) at the age of 98!
Edit: i would also like to add that Gilot was already an accomplished artist when she became involved with Picasso, and he completely sabotaged her career when she left him. He discouraged museums from showing her work, and he unsuccessfully tried to block the publication of her memoir, Life with Picasso. To my knowledge, she’s the only one of his “muses” who is still alive, so let’s maybe take this time to explore and celebrate the work of a woman who was overshadowed by her abuser.
i love the feeling when someone asks me about one of my hyperfixations and it summons all my thoughts at once like my brain is a discord server that just got hit with an @everyone
