courtkossai

[courtkossai]

today on huh , what ?

get through all of caius quests , and sleep in lucky lockup - not so peacefully after all ! could hear this horrible groan and grumble , but none of patrons have anything wrong ... even todwendy was clear .

then look back into room , and see this : ash zombie stuck behind curtain . nothing could dislodge .

great job buddy ... great job ... dagoth ur would be so proud of valiant fight against curtain .

[courtkossai]

Following the author of The Last Unicorn on Facebook is the only thing that makes being on that site worthwhile.

(source)

[courtkossai]

How to begin a sustainable way of life

This is a draft of something I've been writing for a couple months. It is mainly focused on the culture of the USA. Feel free to repost or otherwise share, with or without credit.

Do not tell people what to do—help them do it! 

Give the gift of relief from being forced to engage in society’s unsustainable ways of life. 

“People need to eat more plant-based foods.” ->Talk about your favorite recipes, give others recipes, cook for them, and grow vegetables and plants in your garden and give them away as gifts. 

“People need to repair their clothes.” ->��Offer to repair others’ clothes, and teach people how to repair their clothes. 

“People need to buy less clothes.” -> Give them old clothes that you don’t want, help them repair their clothes

“People need to buy less plastic stuff.” -> Learn to make things that can serve the same purpose, such as baskets, and give them as gifts. Let people borrow things you own so they don’t have to buy their own. 

“People need to stop using leafblowers and other gas-guzzling machinery.” -> Offer to rake the leaves. You can use them as compost in your own garden. 

“People need to be more educated about nature.”-> Learn about nature yourself. Tell people about nature. Be open about your love of creatures such as snakes, spiders, and frogs. Do not show awareness that this could be strange. You are not obligated to quiet down your enthusiasm for creepy crawlies to demonstrate awareness that it is weird. Point out at every opportunity how these animals are beneficial. 

“People need to use cars less.” -> Offer rides to others whenever you must go somewhere. Whenever you are about to go to the store, ask your neighbor or your friend who lives along the way, “Is there anything you need from the store?” 

You cannot control others’ behaviors, but you can free them from being controlled. 

If you think to yourself, “But this would be so difficult to do!” ask yourself WHY? Why does your society coerce you into less sustainable ways of living, forcing you to consume excessively? After thinking about this, consider that it is less simple and easy than you thought to make more sustainable choices, so why would you judge others for not doing it? 

Do not act alone—act with others! 

Environmentally friendly behaviors that can be done alone, without collaborating with or consulting another person, are the least powerful of all. Whenever an “environmentally friendly” behavior is suggested, figure out “How can I give this as a gift?” or “How can I make this possible on the level of a whole community?” 

“Personal choices” do not work because every single person has to make them individually. If you are focused on making your own personal choice, you are not focused on others. If you are not focused on others, you are not helping them. If nobody is helping each other, most people won’t be able to make the “personal choice.”

You inherently share an ecosystem with your neighbors  

            Start with your neighbors, the people physically close to you. You live on the same patch of land, containing roots from the same plants and trees. You can speak to them face to face without traveling, which means you can easily bring them physical things without using resources to travel. 

            Always talk to your neighbors and be friendly with them. Offer them favors unprompted and tell them about how your garden is doing. Do not be afraid to be annoying—a slightly annoying neighbor who is helpful, kind, and can be relied upon for a variety of favors or in times of need is a necessary and inevitable part of a good community. If you make the effort to be present in somebody’s life, they will have to put up with you on some occasions, but that is just life. We cannot rely on each other if we do not put up with each other. 

Simply spending time with someone influences them for good 

Every hour you spend outside with your neighbor is an hour your neighbor doesn’t spend watching Fox News. Every hour you spend talking with someone and interacting with them in the real world, eating real food and enjoying your real surroundings, is an hour you don’t spend only hearing a curated picture of what reality is like from social media. 

            Isolation makes it easy for people to become indoctrinated into extremist beliefs. When someone spends more time alone, watching TV, Youtube, or scrolling social media, than they do with others, their concept of what other people are like and what the world is like comes more from social media than real life. TV and online media are meant to influence you in a specific way. Simply restricting the access these influences have to yourself and others is helpful. 

A garden is the source of many gifts 

If you grow a garden, you can give your neighbors and friends the gift of food, plants, and crafted objects. This is one of the foundational ways to form community. When you give food, you provide support to others. When you give plants, you are encouraging and teaching about gardening. It is even better when you give recipes cooked from things you grew, or items crafted from things you grew. You can also give the gift of knowledge of how to grow these plants, cook these recipes, or craft these objects. 

More on gift-giving

            Some people are uncomfortable with receiving items or services as gifts. They want to feel like they are giving something back, instead of having obligation to return the favor hanging over them. 

            It can help to ask a simple favor that can be easily fulfilled. People generally like the feeling of helping someone else. 

When you give someone a gift, it can help to say something like “Oh, I have too many of this thing to take care of/store/eat myself! Do you think you could take some?” This makes your neighbor feel like they are helping you. 

When allowing others to borrow items, you might not get them back. Don’t worry about that. It just means the item found a place where it was needed the most. You can ask about the item if you think it might have been forgotten, and this can create an opportunity for a second meeting. But don’t press. 

If the person you give to insists upon some form of payment, this is a good opportunity to negotiate a trade. 

Ask to be given compostable or recyclable things 

Ask your neighbor to save compostable scraps, biodegradable cardboard and paper products, and any other items that might be put to use. Use them in your own compost pile. Or, start a compost pile at the edge of the yard where you both can add to it. Remember that “wet” compost like vegetable and fruit bits needs to be mixed with twice as much of “dry” and “woody” compost like cardboard, leaves, small twigs, paper and wood bits. 

Use the front yard for gardening

Overcome the cultural norm that the front yard is only decorative. Use the front yard for gardening so you can be seen by others enjoying your garden, and others can witness the demonstration of the possibilities of land. In the front yard, anything you do intentionally with your land can be witnessed. It also makes you a visible presence in your community. 

Grow staple foods 

Don’t just grow vegetables that cannot be the core component of a meal themselves. Grow potatoes, dry beans, black eyed peas and other nourishing, calorie-dense foods. Grow the ingredients of meals. You could even build a garden around a recipe.

Invite neighbors and friends over to eat food made from things you grew 

Be sure to send them home with leftovers.  

Grow plants for baskets 

Containers are one of the fundamental human needs. If we had more containers, we wouldn’t need plastic so much. You can learn to make baskets, and to grow plants that provide the raw materials for baskets. 

If someone rakes their leaves, ask to have the leaves  

If you see someone putting leaves in bags, don’t be afraid to ask if you can have the leaves. More likely than not they will be happy to agree. 

Collaborate with neighbors to plant things in the no-man’s-land of the property line 

In the border land between your neighbor’s yard and your yard, it is almost always just mowed grass because no one can plant anything without it affecting their neighbor. But these border lands add up to a lot of space. It would be much better if you talked to your neighbor about what would be nice to plant there, and together created a plan for that space. 

Give others the freedom to wander 

Make it clear that you will not get mad if the neighbor’s kids play in your yard or run across it. Invite the neighbors onto your land as much as possible. Tell them they are allowed to spend time in a favored spot whenever they would like.  

The power of the hand-made sign 

If there is a yard sale, you always know about it because of the hand-drawn signs placed around. Therefore, a cookout or unwanted item exchange can be announced the same way. In rural areas I have seen hand-made signs that say: FIREWOOD or WE BUY GOATS or EGGS. This is one of the few technologies of community that remain in the USA. If someone who looks to buy and sell can put up a hand-made sign, why shouldn’t you?  

Religious people or people with strong political opinions like to put signs everywhere. If they have the confidence and courage to do so, why shouldn’t you? 

So if there is a message you would like everyone to see, use the simple power of the hand-made sign. Proclaim “BEE FRIENDLY ZONE!” above your pollinator garden with all the confidence of a religious fundamentalist billboard. Announce to the world, “VEGETABLES FREE TO ALL—JUST ASK!” “WE TAKE LEAVES—NO PESTICIDES.” Instead of YARD SALE, or perhaps in conjunction with YARD SALE, you can write, PLANT EXCHANGE or SEED SWAP or CLOTHING SWAP. Who can stop you? 

Someone has to do it for society to change  

Some of these ideas might be eccentric, strange, or even socially unacceptable, but there is no way to change what is normal except to move against it. Someone has to be weird. It might as well be you. 

[courtkossai]

junk journal ? also very faerie hobby .

[courtkossai]

ID credit: 6220062056 on 小红书

(please like, reblog and give proper credit if you use any of my gifs!)

[courtkossai]

[courtkossai]

You know what? It’s fucking hard trying to get better. It’s exhausting managing doctors appointments, doing daily PT exercises, eating better, trying to exercise, trying to meditate, and doing ADL’s. I have had a bad crash per week trying to juggle and do all of the above.

It’s easier and less acutely painful to just coast and not actively work on ‘getting better’. Is the work worth it? I don’t know yet.

But to people who’ve tried and given up, to those who don’t even bother - you still deserve care and compassion.

[courtkossai]

Advertisement Adversaries #1: "Narcissist Shield Spell"

Hello, and welcome to Advertisement Adversaries! I'm Aese, a witch of many years with a background in marketing/advertising and business writing/editing. This series aims to dissect unethical, unfair, deceptive, and just plain Not Good marketing strategies found in the witchcraft community. We also cover legitimate sellers to highlight good marketing, listings, and business practices! The goal is to improve the legit witches' businesses and educate folks on scams, grifts, and marketing manipulations.

You can read more about this project here (Tumblr) or here (my website).

Each entry covers one listing from a seller's catalogue. I score the listing on a scale of one to five in six categories: Clarity, Transparency, Presence, Genuineness, Verifiability, and Morality. Legitimate sellers get an extra category of Attractiveness/Advice for Improvement.

Now, let's have a look at today's entry into this series:

Advertisement Details

Who is the advertiser -- or who do they claim to be? Who is their apparent primary audience? What are they selling? What's their tone? What's the vibe? What are the first impressions?

This post covers a seller who will remain anonymous. They claim to be a hereditary magical practitioner of some renown, descending from (or, at least, related to) Famous Witch Trial Witches. The hereditary part may be true; they talk elsewhere about their family's practices, but it's all in very general terms, so it's tough to tell. The Famous Witch Trial Witches thing is nonsense, if only because the witch trials weren't actually about trying Real Witches. I suggest @/breelandwalker's podcast Hex Positive for a good, basic rundown of this.

They sell a variety of spell services via the Ko-Fi shop function. I settled on this particular listing at random. In general, the vibe is… not good. The first impression is positively rancid. Check out just the shop image:

All of the pictures for these spell service listings are AI generated. Check out the smudged, nonsensical details in the crown above the shield. Note, also, how it's uneven; an actual artist would've used their software to copy parts of this shield to make it symmetrical.

Now, this would be a big red flag on its own, but the seller claims to do magic primarily (or, at least, most powerfully) by doing art. Sit with that for a moment and really consider the implications here.

The overall tone of the shop is one of authority and superiority. Not so bad on its own, but again, the listing claims that the caster is of dubious hereditary lineage. A reddish flag, personally. But most listings you'll find claim authority and superiority, because confidence sells. That part is very normal.

The primary audience for this particular spell is obvious: vulnerable people who are in abusive situations and who either don't know or don't care about using ableist language.

Narcissistic Personality Disorder and various conditions categorized as "sociopathy" are mental health conditions, not insults. People with these conditions are not naturally villains, and people without these conditions can be fucking horrible. Using the popularized demonization of these conditions to sell hundred-dollar "spell services" to people dealing with abuse is, and I cannot emphasize this enough, shitty fucking behavior.

Any seller who tries to take advantage of abuse victims, people who are ill mentally or physically, young people, or assortedly vulnerable and/or desperate people is automatically suspect. Even if their services are legitimate, their marketing strategy hinges on preying on the unwary. And that makes them an actual piece of shit, in my humble opinion.

Clarity

How clear is the language? Does it use a bunch of obscure terms or talk in circles? Is it obvious what the buyer will receive based on this listing alone?

The language itself is pretty much fine. This description is pretty straightforward. It's expressive and doesn't use a ton of jargon or obscure terms to describe what it's selling. Overall, not bad with regards to clarity of language.

The only head-scratcher for me is this mention of the "three bodies," which are apparently physical, astral, and dream:

It isn't clear from the listing alone what this actually means. It scans as someone either trying to sound mystical or someone who is using technical terms that they use all the time and don't realize aren't in common use elsewhere. Six of one, half a dozen of the other.

The listing is clear in that the seller is going to cast a spell on your behalf to create a shield which is tethered to you and which will protect you from various abusive people and energies. However, it isn't clear how this actually works, how you're going to know that the spell is done, or what method is being used to cast this spell.

Under the "how it works" heading, we get one sentence: "Upon purchase, you will receive your Digital Spell Instruction Guide within minutes."

Hang on. Why do I need instructions? What do the instructions tell me? What steps am I going to have to take? Do I need to have some kind of expertise in energy work, or even just a rudimentary understanding of it?

I don't know, because that's all it says. This is my primary issue with this listing, I think, aside from the obvious ableist bullshit. I know nothing about this service except that the seller promises to do it. I don't know how proof is provided or if it's provided at all.

As far as the quality of Clarity goes, I'm giving this listing 2/5, docking one point for not explaining the weird three-body thing and two for the obscurity around how this spell actually works and what that "instruction guide" is.

Transparency

Is the seller honest about their refund/returns policy? Is it obvious where materials are being sourced? Is the seller being honest and clear about their credentials and/or qualifications?

The refunds policy is clearly stated near the end of the listing. Some sellers (like myself) put it in the terms and conditions section under Ko-Fi listings. Either way is fine by me, as long as it's somewhere.

I do have one problem here… The listing says "following Ko-Fi's guidelines," yes? Well, take a peep at this official link from Ko-Fi's refunds policy page). Note how it doesn't say anything about forbidding refunds on shop purchases. On the contrary, that link tells you exactly how to give a refund on a shop purchase and what'll happen if you issue one (the buyer won't be able to re-download any digital content, and they'll get their money back via whatever method they used to make the purchase).

Having a no-refunds policy is honestly whatever. That's a personal choice; there are processing fees all over the place, and it's draining to have to cover those. And there are issues with people buying from shops, downloading their goodies, and then demanding unfair refunds, essentially stealing from the seller. Again, whatever. But hiding behind a non-existent policy? Not exactly transparent, is it?

Now, again, as stated before, we can't know based on this listing alone how the spell is being cast, what materials are being used or where they're sourced, or really anything else about the actual process of the spell. We know what it's supposed to do once it's been cast, but nothing else. That's major points docked.

And again, I'm not buying the whole generational wizard thing. I did some digging, which I won't detail here as it would be really uncool (erring on a call-out, which this is not). But just know this: The dubious nature of the Hereditary Magic is… certainly dubious. A family of practitioners, sure; the rest? Uncertain.

In total, I'm giving this listing a generous 2/5 for Transparency.

Presence

Is the seller present anywhere other than their shop? Do they share anything about their process, method, or practice anywhere? Are they actually part of a community, or are they just selling something?

So, this seller has a Tumblr blog. It's how I found them, actually. This seller is, I shit you not, the reason this project kicked off.

So, yes. I dove into this person's online presence, and I didn't really like what I saw. What I generally look for is original content that isn't paywalled, talks about the individual's practice, is informative in some way, and/or is having an active conversation with someone else.

What I found was inane commentary on other peoples' posts, wordless reblogs of beginner witch content, reblogs from one of their other blogs (an art blog, if you're curious), and posts advertising their shop. I found some older posts that were, like, reblog games and very surface-level boasting about how Cool And Powerful They Are.

The only original post I unearthed in my two hours of scrolling was also on their Ko-Fi page, actually. It detailed research they'd done into… um. "Mana." Their sources were… about as dubious as their claims to Witch Trial Ancestry. Pop culture witchcraft is extremely cool, and I respect practitioners a whole lot. You go, PCM/PCP community.

I really can't stand people who declare that their way is the Only Way, and that people who believe differently from them are Fundamentally Wrong. As if there aren't many ways of doing magic.

I'm being pretty ungenerous here, but that's mostly because this same article's "research" cites a "scientific article" which directs to a website selling you Law of Attraction manifestation journals. I shit you not. It's barely-researched, unverified personal gnosis stemming from anime, one book, and an article I'm 95% certain they didn't read past the title.

Anyways, this person gets a 1/5 for Presence in my book. If you're not actively and genuinely engaging with the community you're trying to sell to, you're not worth my time.

Genuineness

Are listing photos genuine? Are any images AI, or is any copy written by an AI? Is this a real person selling something, or is this a bot account?

Holy actual shit, though. An Art Magician using AI-generated images? That's a level of bullshit I didn't think I'd get on the first entry in this series.

This person gets exactly one point for being a real person. They've changed that shop name and their stated expertise/most powerful magic too many times for this to be a bot.

They get another point for writing their own shop listings, as far as I can tell. A lot of it is copy-pasted (badly, sometimes), but I'm only grading this one listing for the purposes of this review. So, they get the point.

There are no other photos in the listing. All you get is that shitty AI-generated shield.

Genuineness gets a very kind 2/5.

Verifiability

Is it obvious how a buyer will know their service is completed? Is it possible for the buyer to know? Are there any reviews verifying the quality/existence of the products or services? Are there negative reviews available?

That's a big, fat fuck no on all counts, folks. As covered above, there's no way for a prospective buyer to know or understand how the service will be completed or how it's even done in the first place based on this listing alone. Even if you wanted to see this person's casting methods, you couldn't! They don't really talk about their methods anywhere except in vague terms. Which, okay, fine, keep your secrets, it's a classic Magic Thing to be secretive. But when you're selling your services, your buyers have to know what they're buying from you! They gotta be able to VERIFY the services!

There are also no reviews, period, that I can find -- positive or negative. Part of that may be that very few of these listings have any sales. I know they don't, because a couple of them do, and they show the number in the shop. Either nobody's buying, or they cycle through listings so the numbers don't show.

This particular listing gets a 0/5 for Verifiability.

Morality

Are they offering services related to health, mental health, legal services, or other dubious subjects? Are they knowingly targeting a vulnerable audience using buzzwords and inflammatory language? Is the listing sharing misinformation or encouraging belief in conspiracy theories? Does the listing contain debunkable information? Does the listing participate in bigotry, cultural appropriation, bioessentialism, or anything of that nature?

This particular listing doesn't discuss anything medical, legal, or otherwise questionable. Nothing about bigotry or anything like that, either. No outright misinformation that I can spot, unless you're considering this whole listing misinformation. No points given or taken away, because the bar is honestly in hell for this category. The absence of shitty behavior is not praise-worthy.

We've talked already about how this listing is specifically targeting people in abusive situations. That alone is really shitty, and I've made my case about it. I've also made my case about the ableism thing, which is straight-up not acceptable. No need to beat either dead horse.

I want to draw attention to the little blurb right at the top of this listing. This one, that talks about buying sooner rather than later due to limited offerings:

Let me state, there's nothing inherently wrong with using "limited" advertising language. I've done it for my own limited time listings. It's pretty standard.

However, remember who this listing is for. If an abuse victim reads that, they're already likelier to be desperate and willing to overlook red flags to jump on a deal before it's gone forever. For reference, all listings do use this language. Therefore, I'm interpreting this as simply thoughtless and in bad taste, rather than actively malicious.

Overall, this listing gets a 1/5 for Morality from me.

Average Score & Summary

The average of all six scores comes out to a rating of 1.3/5. Really, really bad.

Now, I want to be clear, this review isn't an accusation that this listing (or this shop) is a scam. I do think this seller has some grifting tendencies that need serious fixing.

If this is a legitimate seller, they're clearly copying shitty scams they've seen elsewhere -- Etsy, for example. This honestly strikes me as someone who doesn't really know what they're doing with regards to selling their services, so they default to the worst possible practices. Either that, or this is someone who's made up an identity to sell you absolutely nothing at $100 per empty promise. I'd like to give the benefit of the doubt and believe that this seller is just trying to make a living.

To that, I say, go make a living without deliberately taking advantage of people.

This listing, and this seller's entire shop, are emblematic of the biggest sins of magical marketing. It's full of catchy buzzwords and no substance. Promises made without explanation or proof of product. This seller has nothing to offer you but fake pictures and their word. Again, even if these services are genuine, and I very much doubt it based on what I'm seeing up for sale, this listing (and all other listings on this Ko-Fi page) prove that this seller is willing to do whatever it takes to get your money into their pocket.

Personally, I wouldn't buy it.

Final Notes

Many sellers in this series anonymous for a reason. Please do not go find these people. Even if I'm exposing a blatant scam to warn people about it, do not harass anyone. Harassment of any kind will not be tolerated. When appropriate, I attempt to contact the seller(s) to discuss their ads and listings or report them where possible. Again, do not attempt to contact or bother the sellers, even if my coverage of them is negative.

If you spot an ad or a product listing in the wild that you want me to see or cover, send me a link, a screenshot, or the name of the shop. You can send it via ask or DM on Tumblr or to thewitchaese@gmail.com. Or, if you're a legitimate seller and want me to take a look at your listings (anonymous or not), shoot me a message or an email to chat about it! Examples of what to do are just as important as examples of what not to do, after all.

And, if you enjoy this series or my other work, please consider dropping a couple dollars in my tip jar! Writing is my full-time gig, and contributions help keep this boat afloat.

Thanks for reading!

[courtkossai]

how to navigate vivec with style and grace ...

[courtkossai]

annie steg gerard

[courtkossai]

actually, expanding on my last post for a second.

if we as a community want to liberate all plurals we have to move past attempting to make frameworks and boxes that encompass every system and/or every system member.

there will never be a system of terms that encompasses every single plural experience. there will never be a framework that describes every single plural. this is not a bad thing!

not every system member can be described as either an introject or a non-introject. not every system member can be described as either a part or a person. not every being can be described as either plural or singlet. it's okay to mix and match terms or to opt out of frameworks that don't apply to you. it's okay to be multiple things at once even if those things seem to be opposing.

it's okay to use as many or as few labels as you like. it's okay to subvert the expectations placed upon you to fit neatly within certain theories and frameworks. plurality is so, so messy, and it's plain impossible to try and put everything into nice, clean boxes.

[courtkossai]

not to mention how many people have cognitive disabilities - whether diagnose or not , and whether visually obvious or not - or in general holes in world view , experiences , and skill set , even on best days .

if something is harmful , by all means have right to speak up and explain , to complain , and to hope for either apology or consequence . but little everyday mistakes and mixups will not mean anything by tomorrow , unless choose to make confrontation or otherwise fan flames . find there is no reason to harp on these , much less to be so negative towards all people for these .

find this attitude also come across when people look at packages - of course hot coffee is hot , of course frozen meal need cook before serve , can not believe people would need those reminders , blah blah .

in some of those cases , there will be at least one person who never experience before - or again , circle back to cognitive disability of some kind - and might need that explanation , obvious as this is to others . in other cases , this is so company can cover ass legally - see cases like stella liebeck and mcdonalds hot coffee , where hot was understatement .

things like this will never actually be so simple .

I say this as someone who is guilty of this mindset sometimes too, but it does grate on me when people lean too heavily into the "people are so stupid, people are idiots, why is everyone so stupid" mentality, because the thing is, a lot of people feel that way, dare I say most people feel that way with varying degrees of frequency.

I mean, especially if you work a public facing customer service job you will probably have these moments of exasperation. But the people I know who all they do is complain about how stupid people are, how the human race is a bunch of idiot morons, etc. the thing is they make "stupid" mistakes, they say and do things that would come across as obviously "stupid" or "moronic" to plenty of other people.

For every person who has complained "wow, people are so dumb" "wow, I'm worried about the human race" they have been "that person" to someone else. They said or did something careless that made another person go "wow, people are so dumb, I can't believe people." I guarantee that you, the person reading this, has been that person to someone else more times than you could possibly imagine.

I'm not here to police your feelings and say you can't be frustrated or exasperated when someone says or does something that you find to be very obviously wrong. But at least try to have some grace in how you treat other people when they make a "stupid" mistake.

I mean, you don't know what kind of day someone is having. Especially when I worked 12+ hours in retail, in one of the busiest souvenir shops in the country (so flooded with constant customers the entire 12+ hours) you bet my brain was fried beyond belief at the end of the shift, especially if it was my third day in a row working a 12+ hour shift. And you better believe I'd make really "stupid" mistakes when, say, trying to pay for my bus ticket or run a quick errand after my third day in a row working 12+ hours. I could barely spell my own name.

Maybe I'm just exasperated right now with the people I know who seem to make "other people are so stupid! I can't believe other people!" one of their defining personality traits. I think it's fine and normal to be frustrated and exasperated with other people. But when you make it your entire personality and make every conversation about how dumb other people are I can't help but see that as someone lacking in grace and compassion, not to mention an overly simplistic and juvenile world view in my humble opinion.

[courtkossai]

before one send accusatory message , one should check and see if receiver in question actually do those things .

then , regardless of how true this accusation is , should close ask box and not send anyways , because there is very little point to that - especially if already disrespect boundaries to do so .

[courtkossai]

People say the same shitty things about physical nonhumans that physical nonhumans say about transIDs.

Why does the cycle of harm continue from one ostracized group to the next?

so , here is thing . kossai is actually pretty sympathetic to certain labels and reasons - this is not case of " ooh that is impossible and horribly mentally ill " , nor is this just something which pull out ass . kossai actually look at these folks , as well as perspectives from folks who leave , and really put effort into understand reasons .

problems which have with trans-ID communities is how genuinely encourage needlessly cruel behaviour , and often refuse to listen when folks say why something is hurtful . there is so much ignorance or outright validation of racism , ableism , of cruel abusive behaviours , and so on . 

many of these things social constructs , this is true . but there is still some kind of basis in outward reality for why people " fit " in these categories , and experiences that people without that outward reality will not share . to barrel through this , to use stereotypes as means for " transition " and to try and speak of these internal experiences as outward ones , frankly is harmful to those groups .

there is no theriform cat , wolf , or otherwise who will be hurt by physical nonhuman , unless if that individual disregard safety . but japanese people do get hurt by anime-fication of ethnicity and culture , as well as all these cutesy submissive stereotypes - and people with disabilities of all types do get hurt by people who take up community spaces without those outward experiences , and many of ableist attitudes which perpetuate . 

as for one example here : sure , some people who label as trans-disability actually have that disability , but in position where people do not care or accomodate - what want is to become more severe . so many people have misconception that more severe disability will mean more kindness and sympathy from others , easier accomodation , easier life .

this is blatantly false , and to talk with anyone that outwardly experience such disability will reveal truth . people do not treat kinder - all which change is that for people to hurt and neglect , which people will still do , is even more dangerous . would really prefer for people not to find that out in hardest ways , actually ! 

anyway . will cut this post there - have more posts on these subjects on dreamwidth , if anyone would like to see kossai perspectives on these thought processes . will not answer further messages on this - this is boundary for very good reason .

[courtkossai]

Experiences in the Alterhuman Community (and Beyond) as a Fictive

It's a weird experience being a fictional character, especially dealing with fandom, the fact that your source is fictional, and interactions with people based on that--including some of the dehumanisation that's so common toward fictionfolk. I'm gonna go into that here because I need somwhere to collect my thoughts, so this might get long. I'll be talking about my experiences as a fictive, but this could very well apply to anyone who identifies as a fictional being--fictionkin, fictionlinkers, etc.

So, I see the version of me on the screen as an AU version of me, in short. I mean, I'm me, and I don't think I even looked exactly 1:1 with my canon self--so naturally, even though events line up pretty closely, I see my source as... Almost like a fanfic of my life? Like sure, that's decidedly me, and decidedly a lot of the things that happened to me and my friends, but also not me. I'm not that guy on the screen, he's what represents me.

Even though I fully believe I got here by dying in a literal past life, my source media here is absolutely fictional to me and I just... Don't look at it in really any other way. Which I guess makes sense if you put it into my perspective--what else would it be? It really is like reading a fanfic based on your life though, or reading an article about yourself in the news. A bit of a shock, a bit of "why did they include THAT?" sprinkled in here and there, a bit awkward sometimes, and it does tend to resurface bad feelings. But overall, it's not that personal to me. I'm largely fine with it existing.

On the other hand, what is shocking is that people see me as fictional. I'm a fictional introject, from a fictional source, from the perspectives of a lot of people here. But I look at my source and I go well... Yeah, that's fiction of course, but my life is an actual thing that happened to me. Realistically I know that not everyone has spiritual beliefs and not everyone even accepts fictional identities as something "real", but man is it weird to just... Have it be spun in such a way?

I'm used to being in the media, I'm used to having cameras on me and being in the public eye. I'm used to articles and stories and posts on the internet. I'm used to fans even! But this isn't your regular, run-of-the-mill experience of people wanting to know you because you're a hero. This is people who see your life and experiences as a fun story they saw in a book or on TV, coming up to you with the idea that you're their favourite character, and not... A whole entire person. It's so damn weird.

There's still that level of disrespect that comes from people who are a little parasocial with you, but it almost hits deeper here because a lot of the time, you know they're not seeing a hero or the things you've literally done in your memories. They're seeing that guy on the screen they think is cool, and while he represents you, he's not you. And they're treating you like a celebrity because of that weird fanfic version of you on the TV or in that book.

There's usually little acknowledgement of your life or experiences as "real". When you're presenting as your fictional identity around others, you tend to get put into one of a few camps:

Cool Character from Media who I love and adore and want to talk to (and will probably get fanperson excited about it). I will probably get dispraportionally upset if Character tells me to back off a bit because I don't want my blorbo to be mad at me.

Character from Media I'm in love with and will immediately start asking invasive questions to or outright flirting with. Could get real gross real quick.

Problematic Character or Guy From Problematic Media that I instantly dislike because that's so Problematic how dare you show your face. I'm reporting you for being Character, you should change your identity if you want to exist so bad.

Character from Media who is disabled/queer/mentally ill/has any soft personality trait ever and I will now be treating you like a sweet little babyboy cinnamon roll who could not hurt a fly.

Person who identifies as Character? How interesting! I'm going to really pry and question everything from your actions in-source (to get unique perspectives from Character) and question literally everything else. Because this is Science and I'll get mad if you don't tell me everything, you need to tell me everything or you're rude.

Of course there's nuance and there's absolutely times where you'll be treated as a normal person, but the above are... So damn common. I've been here for a few months and I've already had some weird stuff happen to me simply because I'm Kirishima and people feel entitled to give me cutesy nicknames or whatever. Even without knowing me or my system at all beforehand. It's just.. So different from anything I've experienced before? Being treated like a celebrity is dehumanising enough, but being treated like a character.ai bot or just generally a form of free entertainment and not a person is so perplexing to me.

There's also that if you're from a popular source, you see stuff about yourself everywhere. Posters, plushies, advertisements, posts on social media--all of it. Some of that I'm used to already, but it's kind of weird when you're mentally aware that this is all for that twisted-mirror version of yourself and not you. And if you get a little uncomfortable at some fanart showing up out of the blue, or someone making a source related joke... You're kind of just expected to brush it off. Which yeah, I get it! It's about the source, not me, but it's still just... A weird feeling. A feeling of not being allowed to be upset because it's about the source and not literal you.

I think there needs to be a line, maybe. Not saying that fictives should be putting a stop to any media or fandom ever, just.. That maybe respect toward us for being uncomfortable with fan content due to being a fictive or fictionkin should be more normalised. It should be more okay to say "hey, I'm Character, please don't joke like that" to a friend, or "don't send me fanart of this thing, I'm Character and that's weird"--which it normally is! But there does tend to be a sort of layer of "Oh, it's because you're Character. You know that's not you, right? You shouldn't be upset, you need to source separate more."--when if most other people were to set a boundary like that, it would usually be respected. Source separation can be great, but if someone hasn't separated or doesn't want to, why is it okay to still send them material they're uncomfortable with--or at least, why do people tend to argue that the fictive should "just separate from source" instead? It... Just boils down to alterhumisia toward fictionfolk, honestly. It sucks.

There's a lot of problems with basic respect toward fictionfolk of all kinds--hell, even in the alterhuman community where it's meant to be safe. I don't know if this rant is entirely coherent or not, I don't know if there's anything noteworthy to take from it--but if you do take something from it, let it be that fictionfolk want to be treated like people. Source separated, not source separated, canon divergent or compliant, hearted, linker, 'kin or 'tive--we're people. Don't let our identities change the way you instinctually treat us. Let us be openly us, and treat us as you would anyone else.

[courtkossai]

swatches for a blanket comission!!!!

[courtkossai]

curious and hopefully fun question time ! intend for other physical nonhumans first , because communities deserve to not be all frustration about cruelty , but OK for anyone to answer :

what is nicest or favourite nonhuman dream ? :)

for kossai - faeriehood is always there in dreams even if not major focus , much like in life , but every so often dream of flight in some way . remember one where wind carry around , could not help but smile when wake up . honestly , even wing dreams without flight just so euphoric .