icannotreadcursive

[icannotreadcursive]

Black Dog

Day 21 of Prompts That Go Bump In The Night from @thepromptfoundry

I just really love church grims

[icannotreadcursive]

You Don't Like Me Right

https://archiveofourown.org/works/68701101

A Hazbin Hotel fanfiction, part of the Hellish Encounters series.

Rated: M Length: ~ 1k Summary:

After Val follows through with his promise to punish Angel for daring to stand up for himself and his life outside of the studio, Angel puts himself back together as he has so many times before then makes a move to win himself more time away from the studio.

[icannotreadcursive]

Literally every conversation with a colleague/peer in the academic field I'm in (anthropology, with a focus on human prehistory and human evolution) upon them learning I'm an observant religious Jew goes like this:

Person: "Sorry if this is a personal question, but how do you.... y'know......deal with it?"

Me: "Deal with what?"

Person: "Y'know...... y'know......your religion......"

Me: "Meaning?"

Person: "Well, um, how old do you believe the earth is?"

Me: "I follow the geological consensus, which is approximately 4.5 Billion years"

Person: "But......but.....your Bible says that it's 6,000 years old....."

Me: "Technically 5,783 years, so you're wrong there, haha"

Person: "Okay but how do you....how do you reconcile that with science?"

Me: "I don't need to reconcile it. They're not in opposition."

Person: "??"

Me: "The plain text in the Tanakh states that it has been 5,783 years since the creation of Adam, and consequently the world. Judaism has never been about taking the text in the Tanakh plainly, there's always deeper meanings. Who's to say that the 5,783 years aren't just the years since a couple named Adam and Eve met and copulated, triggering the begining of the lineage of Abraham, Moses, and the entire Jewish lineage, and that the six days of creation aren't six phases which are actually pretty in-line with our understanding of evolution?"

Person: "But.....some people believe that it's literally been 5,783 years since the earth was literally created!"

Me: "Okay..... that's what they believe. I don't see how it should bother me, especially considering we're in the field of anthropology where we try to study other patterns of belief, not cast judgement upon them."

Person: "But other Jews believe that!!!"

Me: "Again.....why should that affect my religious and academic senses of self? Judaism has never been a monolith of belief, anyway."

Person: "But-"

[icannotreadcursive]

[icannotreadcursive]

Title: Paint the Town Red Rated: M Length: 4.6k for chapter 1 Summary: Alastor takes Angel out dancing! How will their relationship change after this first—hopefully of many—date?

Excerpt:

“So," Angel asked, "where’re we goin’?” “A dance hall I’ve been rather fond of since I got here,” Alastor said easily. “It’s one of the few establishments left in this city with any class, which happily means it also has no associations with and is quite unlikely to be visited by certain persons neither of us would much like to run into.” “Thanks,” Angel said softly.  Alastor patted his hand where their arms were linked together. “But of course, cher.” Angel took a breath against the warm sort of tightness in his chest and covered it with a little laugh.  “Y’know, it’s been fuckin’ decades since I’ve gone out dancing like this.  I kinda shifted over to the night club scene ‘bout as soon as it really started to pop up.” They turned the corner at the next block and several people quickly crossed the street or ducked into buildings to clear the sidewalk. “Are you calling me old-fashioned?” Alastor teased. “If I am it’s cuz it’s true,” Angel snorted, and Alastor chuckled.

[icannotreadcursive]

What really ticks me off when talking about ai is when people are like "it's unavoidable" or "you'll have to learn to use it someday" or "its going to be part of the future" like no it's plenty avoidable actually if you have a spine stronger than a dandelion. You simply say "no" and continue to use your own goddamn brain.

[icannotreadcursive]

My goal and dream and deepest desire is for every black child and every black adult to know the safety and security and hope and love we all should have been offered from birth. And even if it came late to you, I hope you know that you are still worthy of it.

[icannotreadcursive]

Correction: this design is available on my Zazzle!

Trying my hand had some fannish text art! I really like how it turned out, too. It's.....jaunty.

(Available as a design on my RedBubble)

[icannotreadcursive]

R.I.P. Malik Ali, the falafel vendor 💔

[icannotreadcursive]

Today I had privilege over a white woman.

Just- not for the reasons you may think.

There was a service dog team boarding the plane ahead of us. Normally I just give the usual ~6-10ft of space so we aren't crowding two dogs right next to each other when they need to work- but I noticed something. Her dog was fairly young, and while he was behaving he kept stopping to look behind so he could see us. She, however, didn't look around at all, just asked him what the problem was and to move forward. To which he complied, but then would stop and look at us again after a couple steps.

I called out that I was behind her with a service dog of my own, and that her dog was behaving but definitely distracted by mine, so if she would like I could give them more space. Initially she tried to say no, that wasn't necessary- but then her dog stopped to turn around again. She said that he was new, and that she hadn't expected him to be so unnerved by another dog.

We were the first two to board with a long line of people behind us. I told her no worries, take the time she needs, the plane won't leave without us and we're boarding with plenty of time to spare. That I noticed she didn't look around when her dog turned and recognized the style of harness and assumed she had a vision related disability and wanted to let her know what he was struggling with so she could adjust. That I would keep my distance so he could properly guide her onto the plane. I asked the people behind me to give us a moment so she could board safely. Everyone agreed to it- surprising at 5am and especially because the family immediately behind me had young children I could hear them teaching about what service dogs are- and equally called encouragements for her to go at her own pace.

She said as she walked with more confidence now that her dog was focused again, that she actually had no vision whatsoever and had just been placed with this dog to assist her via an organization.

She was able to board without further interruptions and then I let her know when I walked by her so she could make sure she understood her dog's reaction to mine. She thanked me for that, and for the assistance with boarding.

I waited until she was off the plane to gather my dog and my things.

But I wanted to talk about privilege- you see, while we both have a disability, mine affects me overall far less. It's a 100% fact that with testosterone, I barely have need for a service dog at all, and only bring one as a "just in case", similar to the cane I keep in my car that I haven't touched in a year. This woman is completely blind- her disability affects her in a much more immediate and drastic way.

As a more seasoned handler and team, I have more confidence to demand accessibility considerations. As a man, I'm more readily listened to. As someone with a large, dark colored dog- I even have the mythical "scary dog privilege" where her cute and friendly waggy lab might not. So when I say, give this lady space for her dog to do his job, as someone with a clearly marked, well behaved dog who can see what the problem is, those behind me stopped dead in their tracks and listened.

This is a social privilege in action. As a confident, cis-male-presenting, sighted person with a well behaved dog, this nervous blind woman struggling with her dog needed someone in her corner to advocate for her while she figured out what she needed to do to get her dog back on track.

My privilege over her in this moment is not an example of oppression. It could have been- had I not realized the issue and taken action to help, had I pushed past her, had I started heckling her about her dog's behavior or her own handling. But it is something that I don't need to consider in my everyday life- after all, I'm not the one totally reliant on a dog to tell me if my surroundings are safe, and my need for a dog is very small these days besides.

And- it's changeable.

During my bus trip with Creed back when I was more reliant on him, and he was still alive, I had several bus passengers pitch a fit about having to tolerate a dog on the bus. Despite his good behavior and his clearly marked vest, it was decided by several seats around me that his presence was a problem. Until an old white man in a wheelchair was put on the same bus, and yelled at them for being so intolerant.

I once caught an old white man as he stepped into the mall I was also entering to shop, and fell back against me while having a seizure. I stayed with him until paramedics arrived. I have no idea who he was. An older white woman interrupted AKC staff at a show they were harassing me about my service dog gear- she was a friend of a friend, though a stranger to me at that time. She died a few months later from complications of a lifelong addiction.

And I think this sort of situation is one that this website does not often consider. Between two under-privileged people, social privilege can change on a whim depending on context and the exact intersections at play for *all* involved.

But instead of doing a thought experiment based on theory, tell me. How do you act when you experience this situation in person? Do you have it in you to step in for someone that needs help, regardless of what demographics you or they represent?

[icannotreadcursive]

Yoooooooo

So the government just defunded PBS and NPR which is fucked. That being said, the public can cover the damage if we orginize and donate.

Only about $1.60 of tax dollars per US citizen per year are spent on the public broadcasting budget. NPR and PBS offer beong able to make small monthly donations, some being 7$ per month or lower if you want.

If you want to donate 1.60$ per month to your local station, you can multiply how much funding they get from you by 12. If you do their monthly donation of $7 per month, your donation can equal the tax dollars of 54 people spent on public broadcasting per year.

If you want to donate to your local station, look them up by your town here to make sure your local stations get helped specifically:

[icannotreadcursive]

Correction: these designs are available on my Zazzle!

Hey! Do you like magical girls?

Does the idea of being the warrior princess of a celestial body speak to you on a deep spiritual level?

Do you like stickers?

Great news!

I now have a RedBubble shop!

There you will find the above designs and more on a wide range of goodies, from stickers to shirts to shower curtains! (The radial art pieces make great all-over patterns on fabric, trust me.)

Why not check it out, see if anything strikes your fancy!

[icannotreadcursive]

A collage board for my Hazbin fic Midnight Swim, board by the ever wonderful @damadipicche. (Yes, I have a backlog of these to post again, oops.)

The weird intimacy of late-night skinny dipping is very much captured by this board and I love it!

[icannotreadcursive]

getting older and looking at ur own ocs like okay i know i said you were like 16-19 when i made you at 13 but no fucking way. youre 25 now

[icannotreadcursive]

thought too hard about MRI machines today and had this come to me in a vision

[icannotreadcursive]

So the new itch.io guidelines are out and they are both predictably bad and also quite unpredictably bad. There's so much to go over here but here are some of the highlights:

First we have the broadly worded content restrictions. So much of this is just strictly bad for several reasons (for example, you cannot have a NSFW game that doesn't even fetishize rape but has rape be an important thematic element under these new rules) but my personal favorite is that these are so broad that huge swaths of content are just banned from itch.io. You like VNs of monster girls having sex? Sorry, but your favorite spider girl VN is animal-related, we cannot prove that you don't want to fuck spiders so its gone.

(a real problem anyone thinks about??????)

Game where you can transformed by magical artifacts and sometimes fucked? Sorry, that's non-consensual content. Banned. You cannot be transformed into a maid against your will. You also cannot have your protagonist call an older woman "mommy" because likeeeee that's incestual right?

"Minor-presenting" what the fuck does this mean. Genuinely. If a grown woman wears a fetish uniform is that minor presenting??? What the fuck are you talking about.

Also by the way if they feel your content is "too bad" for their platform, which includes a list of conditions incredibly broad to contain things like "a woman who likes being gagged during sex", they will just steal your revenue. No no no not just the revenue from the work in question. All of it. This makes any NSFW work a ticking timebomb, especially since itch.io doesn't have the fucking staff to deal with all of this! There's no second chances. You are not protected against fraudulent report or our dumb as fuck employees.

itch.io right now is just not a safe platform for NSFW content, and honestly, it really should be said, a fair swath of SFW content too. Don't use it, find alternative ways to survive in the market right now.

It's not going to be easy, but it's necessary. Here's a link to an article going over some solutions. I cannot personally vouch for any of these in particular but you need to do what you gotta.

Also, harass VISA and Mastercard. Phone calls over emails. Ruin their workflow. Do it for weeks, don't give up.

[icannotreadcursive]

HALT!✋😐

did you remember to express gratitude for not having to subsistence farm today?