dark-raven-feathers

[dark-raven-feathers]

Ship/Let ship: The tagging discourse of Ao3

I've been seeing a lot of "Ship/let ship" discourse lately (plus these people have been migrating mainly from TikTok to Tumblr, which is... not a good idea on their part), so here's some fandom etiquette in dealing with the internet's largest archive of transformative works.

First thing to know about Ao3! Archiveofourown is a volunteer-run website. It was created by a couple of nerds who learned to code specifically so they could make the ultimate non-censorship website. This was back when LJ and Fanfiction.net started cracking down on their own censorship with queer and kink-related topics. Ao3's primary purpose is to house all the fics that literally got yeeted off of other platforms. Purity culture has no place on Ao3. Now that we've established that, here's the main course: THE TAGS ARE THERE FOR YOU TO FILTER STUFF. USE THEM. TO. FILTER. STUFF. (and also stop treating Ao3 like it's Wattpad).

Yes, there is pedophilia and rape fics. I know that. Guess what? If you don't want to see it, there's a giant-ass EXCLUDE feature to the side. It's right there. Right. There. And this is not exclusive to Ao3. Wattpad still has rape fics disguised at mafia aus. The only difference is that you can't sort that out when you don't want to see it. It's not even a tag, if it's in the fic it just hits you in the face like a semi truck. Be glad for a minute that Ao3 is designed to not do that.

But I'm not here to address the moralities of fics with non-con, or racism, or rape, or pedophilia (I have finals and I don't have enough brainpower to compute an argument for or against it). I'm here to address the consequences of censorship on a website made to be the ultimate anti-censorship result. Because censoring even one thing, one tag, opens up the floodgates to censor even more. Ao3 starts censoring non-con and suddenly we see people popping up all over the place demanding that kinks like 'watersports' and 'ageplay' (not to be confused with age regression) be censored as well, under the lieu of "It's just as disgusting and wrong as non-con!" And once that happens, there will be people going "Oh wait actually being gay is disgusting as well and it's just as wrong as ageplay. We should censor all the queer tags," You see what I'm getting at? Purity culture has no place on Ao3.

And if you're returning argument is "That won't happen, we'll only ban pedophilia/rape/noncon/etc!" This has happened before. This has literally happened before. The happening before resulting in Ao3 you degenerate carrotcake. Because it somehow always circles back to "Being queer is the same as pedophilia! Therefore queer people should die!" (<- Actual statement that was once widespread across North America and is still prevalent today). And don't mistake this for me endorsing pedophilia/rape/SA/etc etc. Because I don't. Yes, it's morally wrong, yada yada yada. But you need to recognize that censoring one thing will lead to censoring another thing. It happened to Fanfiction.net, to Livejournal, and it happens in real life. Ao3 was made for the freaks. All the freaks, not just the queer freaks or the weirdo freaks. All the freaks.

So stop all the hate and all the death threats, and read your fics in peace with whatever you need to not see under the excluded feature. Because without Ao3, there is no place for gay fanfictions, for t4t relationships in fanon, for kinks and queer topics. Without Ao3, you'll have to go back to Wattpad's incomprehensible tagging system, to Fanfiction.net's limited crossover function. Ao3 is the backbone of queer fanfiction as it is today. Don't take it away from everyone else.

(BUT ALSO: TAG YOUR FICS PROPERLY)

[dark-raven-feathers]

👀 👀 👀

[dark-raven-feathers]

A reminder for anyone near the LA fires: If there's smoke in the air and you aren't in danger of being evacuated, wear a mask outside. Smoke inhalation, even if you're in the next state over, is not good for you. Tiny particles of ash get in your lungs, you start hacking and coughing, etc etc. Wearing a mask will reduce this and also makes the air smell mildly better. Take this advice from someone who grew up with annual BC wildfires

[dark-raven-feathers]

Isn’t that the same striped suit Danny Elfman owns

still so fucking weird to go from real life, where a cis man being flamboyant/effeminate/camp is judged like 70+% by how he speaks and carries himself, to online queer communities, which often seem to have no concept of male gender non-conformity that doesn’t involve wearing a skirt

[dark-raven-feathers]

It’s winter now so if you have snow then here’s risk play, Canada Edition:

Build a ramp at the bottom of a hill. A ramp of any side. Then sled down said hill, aiming for the ramp, and if you’re lucky you’ll go flying. Don’t build the ramp too high because you will get broken bones even if there’s snow at the bottom.

Go rolling down a snowy hill without a sled. Literally just tumble and slide down. Best to do it on a hill without without sharp branches or big clusters of trees. I promise you this is fun.

Go to like an outdoor rink or something to that effect and just. Walk across. No skates, just your boots. Walk/slide across. Indoor rinks will not let you do this.

Snowball fight. And by snowball fight I mean take a packed bunch of snow and throw it like a dodgeball. Don’t throw it lightly. Straight up try to bean the other person.

Jump into a pile of snow (but check to see if there’s anything underneath first). It’s like jumping into leaves but you’ll be cold for about an hour afterwards.

On my hands and knees begging adults to allow children to engage in risk play.

And by risk play I don't mean handing them a gun and playing Russian Roulette.

I mean like climbing trees, getting so sick spinning on the swing they throw up, balancing on the curb, sitting in the mud, walking on slippery surfaces, building half ass ramps to ride their bike over, standing on rocks, or anything that involves a smidgen of confidence and out of the box thinking that could result in injury.

Obviously like watch your kids and such, but when we talk about the fun of being an 80s or 90s kid, it's not just talking about CDs and Walkmans or not having iPads. It's about how kids today were robbed of critical learning and experience skills we were allowed to have.

Playgrounds disappearing, helicopter parents, and sue culture really destroyed a child's development in the United States, and I think it's about time we as adults recognize that, because the kids sure have.

[dark-raven-feathers]

happy last same year as it was yesterday 2024 tuesday

todays the only/last day you can reblog this lol

[dark-raven-feathers]

Oh yeahs gods forbid we be happy

I am actually begging some people to just let some spaces exist untouched by real-world issues and horrors.

Like I've lost count of the amount of times peaceful game or fandom servers have been ruined by people stampeding in with political rants, bitching about world issues, demanding internal activism, demanding vent channels so they can whine about their shitty parents, ect.

Like. Respectfully. Not every single space has to be inclusive of and welcoming of outside topics. The real world sucks. We don't needed to be reminded of that absolutely everywhere.

[dark-raven-feathers]

It's almost as if there are actual well-known artists out there who are physically/mentally disabled who don't use AI art. Like, enough to make an entire fucking foundation out of it. (here)

Like Riva Lehrer, who was born with spina bifada. It's a condition where the spine and spinal cord don't form properly. She has her own Instagram with over two thousand followers. Or how about Lorenza Böttner? A transgender double amputee who lost both her arms? Guess what? She created art without AI too! You can see some of her works at the Leslie-Lohman museum of Art.

Chuck Close was and probably still is the biggest name in disabled art. He had face blindness, dylexia, muscle weakness, and was partially paralyzed. Did he use AI to make his art after his paralyzation? Nope! He worked through his paralyzation to paint despite not having full use of his arms and wrist. Here's his website.

Anne Abbott is one of the faces of artists with cerebral palsy. She has her own studio, and there's not a trace of AI anywhere in it- she doesn't need it. And that's from someone who doesn't have full control of her body movements.

So fuck you and your insistence that AI is a tool for disabled artists. It undermines their abilities and implies they can't work without AI, which is ableist as fuck. Fucking fight me in the notes and I'll walk away from your charred corpse.

"ai is making it so everyone can make art" Everyone can make art dipshit it came free with your fucking humanity

[dark-raven-feathers]

actual unhinged behavior. Here in Canada the average school-aged child passes a bobcat, coyote, lynx, fox, bear, or peregrine falcon on their way to school at least once in their lifetime.

Actually your society is the freaks for shooting everything that moves and burning half your "nature reserves" every year so that upperclass dandies can eat leaded pheasant. North Americans are the well adjusted ones here, your country has become a desolate suburban lawn in island form

[dark-raven-feathers]

Some random fantasy disability aids ideas: - Wheelchair that can be folded up to about the size of a book - A walker that folds vertically into a cane - Cane that just floats in place when you let go of it - A brace that can be folded/resized depending on where you need to put it - Wheelchair that hovers slightly over the ground instead of being directly on it for multi terrain access - A hellhound service dog - A little pocket space full of meds and water - Those flare up cart things that can fold itself into a single flat sheet of metal, and unfolds with everything still perfectly on it - Stimming toys that come with mutes so only you hear them - A wheelchair that comes with pocket dimensions to store everything from a cane to a 5 star meal, perfectly intact - forearm crutches that fold themselves into the wristbands - Sound spells that can be manipulated to block out certain sounds - A spell that turns any text into raised braille for the caster - Wheelchair, but no wheels. Instead: mechanical arms so you can climb (the arms will turn into wheels when needed) - A spell that briefly flattens raised terrain/turns it into a ramp (lasts for 1h) - communication cards that float in front of you when you use them - Cane/crutches with a sort of 'find me' spell that allows you to summon them if they're too far away (and also prevents people from stealing them) - A spell that acts as a sort of buffer- there is a physical, but invisible shield between you and the other person (can also be applied to wheelchairs, walkers, etc) - Immovable mobility aids that will literally only move when the user touches them - Unbreaking charms a la Minecraft enchantments on wheelchairs - Medical corsets/braces with softening charms on the edges - A weighted blanket with a camouflage spell on it

[dark-raven-feathers]

I literally observe and mentally save conversations to use as references

"How do you write such realistic dialogue-" I TALK TO MYSELF. I TALK TO MYSELF AND I PRETEND I AM THE ONE SAYING THE LINE. LIKE SANITY IS SLOWLY SLIPPING FROM BETWEEN MY FINGERS WITH EVERY MEASLY WORD THEY TYPE OUT. THAT IS HOW.

[dark-raven-feathers]

This site needs a mandatory reading comprehension test before you join

"Your identity is valid but your past being raised as a man still matters"

trans girl whose memories from before HRT are a sort of unreal haze: uh huh. how interesting. sure. yeah. okay. cool beans.

[dark-raven-feathers]

I really, really need to know why my past self followed a thirst trap Tumblr blog. What possessed me to do this.

[dark-raven-feathers]

also: The director acts like a bird and stands like a ferret

His sits on his stool at the podium like a bird perching on a tree branch. But then also leans against the back of the podium without his stool like his bones just melted in a fraction of a second. If there's something behind him he will lean against it like his body doesn't have any supporting structure to go along with it. I've seen him fully just melt into his chair during dinner time at band camp, talking to leadership. He also whistles like a bird to get our attention and fully looks like an irate cockatoo when he's upset

A list of things about our (concert) band program because I'm tired and running off of three hours of sleep and anxiety so why tf not:

No brass spit stains on the floor. The brass have been using thrice-folded paper towels since the 1980's.

We have 267 people total this year. Last year we had 300. We're the largest program in the city, probably in the entire country.

One part of our logo is shaped like a sixteenth note. The other part is shaped like a bass clef

Our pre-order tickets for the concerts each semester are 25$. They get bumped up to 35$ at the door (which is actually about the same price you would pay for a balcony corner seat at the philharmonic)

We have soundboards decorating the walls depicting various past activities/fundraisers

The aforementioned past activities/fundraisers include: Candy grams, 3 day overnight band camp, the concerts, annual skating events, annual spooky events, annual bake sales, and the multiple fundraisers named after our director

Both our director and leadership stay afterschool in the band room until around 9-10pm. I swear I saw this man give leadership his credit card at one point.

You'd think our director couldn't care less about us, given how he acts during rehearsals, but his laptop background is literally of the graduating class of 2022. Every news article he's been in he speaks of his students like a proud parent.

Every generation of grade ten comes in terrified of him. Every generation of grade eleven returns feeling annoyed with him. Every generation of grade twelve leaves feeling like they've been complemented in a weird, round-about way for three years.

Being in the band program also means that somehow, you start getting into our director's massive network. You meet your clinician one week and the next week you suddenly know every single name of the philharmonic performers.

[dark-raven-feathers]

A list of things about our (concert) band program because I'm tired and running off of three hours of sleep and anxiety so why tf not:

No brass spit stains on the floor. The brass have been using thrice-folded paper towels since the 1980's.

We have 267 people total this year. Last year we had 300. We're the largest program in the city, probably in the entire country.

One part of our logo is shaped like a sixteenth note. The other part is shaped like a bass clef

Our pre-order tickets for the concerts each semester are 25$. They get bumped up to 35$ at the door (which is actually about the same price you would pay for a balcony corner seat at the philharmonic)

We have soundboards decorating the walls depicting various past activities/fundraisers

The aforementioned past activities/fundraisers include: Candy grams, 3 day overnight band camp, the concerts, annual skating events, annual spooky events, annual bake sales, and the multiple fundraisers named after our director

Both our director and leadership stay afterschool in the band room until around 9-10pm. I swear I saw this man give leadership his credit card at one point.

You'd think our director couldn't care less about us, given how he acts during rehearsals, but his laptop background is literally of the graduating class of 2022. Every news article he's been in he speaks of his students like a proud parent.

Every generation of grade ten comes in terrified of him. Every generation of grade eleven returns feeling annoyed with him. Every generation of grade twelve leaves feeling like they've been complemented in a weird, round-about way for three years.

Being in the band program also means that somehow, you start getting into our director's massive network. You meet your clinician one week and the next week you suddenly know every single name of the philharmonic performers.

[dark-raven-feathers]

The Bat may not kill but every single person in the underground knows that the robins might and the butler most certainly will

[dark-raven-feathers]

The Salvation Army can well and go salvage itself some morals and corruption pesticide

DO NOT SUPPORT SALVATION ARMY