#< at least according to the discord peeps

[myriadebleue]

Near the start of october, something possessed me to draw hualian as disney lions.

[nattikay]

I went to see the Avatar theatrical re-release today!! I’d never actually seen it in theaters before; I was only 13 when it originally came out and my siblings all younger, so while my dad did see it with his buddies at the time the rest of us didn’t watch it until later on our home tv. So it was very cool to see it on the big screen with the 3D glasses and all--which are a little awkward for me cuz I wear regular glasses too but everyone always talks up the 3D effects in this movie so I figured I should take the opportunity haha. The effect definitely added a lot of depth! 

It felt a little awkward to go by myself--I had to repeatedly remind myself that, yes, actually, I am an adult and therefore I am allowed to just go do these things of my own accord whenever I want--but it still felt a little weird. ^^; But I invited my brother to go, he wasn’t interested, and the rest of the fam is currently out of town, and I really wanted to go, so I bit the bullet and shoved the awkward down and went anyways! Decided to bring Toothless along to be my buddy. After all, we can agree that a thanator is baaaascially just a big flightless alien Night Fury, right?? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯  

This was also the first time I’ve actually sat down and watched the whole movie since I started learning Na’vi. My vocabulary is still too small to have understood everything (and it doesn’t help that some of the actors definitely mispronounce some of the words oof lol), but I was still able to catch bits and pieces, including some of the non-subtitled lines, so that felt really cool!! :D 

There’s a pizza place just across the way from the theater too (they’re both at the local outdoor mall), so I went there for dinner. It was delicious! Overall just a pretty good day for me ^^

They also showed a preview scene for Way of Water during the credits. The rest of this post is brief but a bit spoilery so I’m putting it under a cut:

From what I’ve gathered in the Kelutral discord server, there are apparently at least two different preview scenes, and which one you get depends on the theater. 

I got the one with Lo’ak and the tulkun. It was very exciting to see! The 3D with the water looked absolutely insane someone get the thalassophobia guy from YouTube in on this stat lol

Apparently the other preview scene had a lot more characters in it so I’m mildly disappointed I didn’t get to see that one, cuz I’d really like to see more of the new peeps! Nevertheless, based on this clip Lo’ak seems like an absolute sweetheart and my feels are gonna explode come December (which can’t come soon enough!!) ;w;

[mostlysignssomeportents]

How police backdoors for online services let sextortionists target children

An “Emergency Data Request” (EDR) is a warrantless demand by a police officer to a tech company, designed for white-hot emergencies when a cop needs an online service to cough up some of its user data to save a life or prevent a tragedy.

Criminals love EDRs. Once a crook breaks into a police email server (something so easy that the children running the LAPSUS$ crime-gang did it several times), they can send their own EDRs to online services, who will dutifully dox their own users. After all, if someone’s in mortal danger, there’s no time to stop and verify the cop’s identity:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/03/30/lawful-interception/#edrs

Children don’t just abuse EDRs, they’re also abused with EDRs. Facebook, Apple, Google, Snap, Twitter and Discord have all been tricked with fake EDRs into giving up sensitive information about underage children, according to a Bloomberg report by William Turton.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-04-26/tech-giants-duped-by-forged-requests-in-sexual-extortion-scheme?sref=ylv224K8

These EDRs were wielded by “sextoritionists” — sexual criminals who blackmail their victims into performing sex acts on camera; videos of these sex acts are used as leverage for increasingly extreme extortion demands.

There was a sextortion wave in the 2010s. It turned out that one extremely prolific sextortionist was a US Embassy staffer stationed in London, who ran a sextortion campaign that targeted at least 75 young women over two years:

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2016/03/former-us-embassy-staffer-sentenced-to-nearly-five-years-for-sextortion/

A 19 year old targeted hundreds of girls and women, and was only caught when he tried to extort a former Miss Teen USA, who had connections that put her in touch with the FBI:

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/09/miss-teen-usas-webcam-spy-called-himself-cutefuzzypuppy/

The men who attacked women in this first wave relied on a piece of malware called a “Remote Access Trojan” (RAT). A 2014 sweep of RAT criminals busted 100 men who had victimized 70,000 women and girls

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/05/more-than-100-arrested-in-global-crackdown-on-peeping-tom-malware/

But today’s sextortionist doesn’t need to break into his target’s computer. He can just send an email from a hacked police account to an online service and they’ll hand him all the information he needs to gain access to his target’s most sensitive data.

(Readers interested in learning more about how sextortion works in the real world are encouraged to read Lauren McLaughlin’s superb 2020 novel, “Send Pics”):

https://memex.craphound.com/2020/04/21/send-pics-ripping-brutal-amazing-novel-about-teens-sextortion-revenge-and-justice/

There are 18,000 police agencies in the US, making it impossible to determine whether an EDR comes from a real cop or not (and, of course, between the 18,000 agencies, it’s inevitable that some of those cops will make fraudulent EDRs for money or as a favor to a buddy).

What’s more, the online services have little or no clue about how their users’ data is being accessed and shared. Amazon had to fire a string of Chief Security Officers until it found a person so underqualified that he wouldn’t complain about the company’s incredibly reckless data handling. The result was a string of breaches that the company can’t even fully quantify.

https://www.wired.com/story/amazon-failed-to-protect-your-data-investigation/

Amazon isn’t uniquely cavalier about your data. A newly published leaked Facebook memo reveals that the company’s privacy engineers have warned their bosses that the company has no way to know how it’s used your data:

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/21716382-facebook-data-lineage-internal-document

To quote those engineers: “We do not have an adequate level of control and explainability over how our systems use data, and thus we can’t confidently make controlled policy changes or external commitments such as ‘we will not use X data for Y purpose.’ And yet, this is exactly what regulators expect us to do, increasing our risk of mistakes and misrepresentation.”

Reporting for Motherboard, Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai quotes an internal Facebook source who calls the company’s data handling “broadly speaking, a complete shitshow.”

https://www.vice.com/en/article/akvmke/facebook-doesnt-know-what-it-does-with-your-data-or-where-it-goes

Let’s recap: the companies collect as much of your data as they can. They store it forever. They give it to anyone who has a police department email address, without question. And they don’t keep track of who they give your data to.

Image: Paulo Valdivieso https://www.flickr.com/photos/p_valdivieso/42906748201

CC BY-SA 2.0, modified https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/

[Image ID: A padlocked barn door. The rusty padlock is emblazoned with a toy 'Junior Police' badge. Its hasp has been severed and a light-flare is shining through the severed portion. The barn door has been superimposed with a Matrix 'waterfall' effect.]

[dagiftexchange]

The Rules of Dragon Age 2021 Holiday Exchange

(Hosted by Whuffie)

Give a gift, get a gift! Gifts must be Dragon Age related.

20+ people or more must sign up. There’s not enough people to match, otherwise.

Important note: I’m not going judge ships. However, I think everyone is aware something like Sera/Dorian would be very offensive to other fans. Be respectful! This is meant to be fun. Don’t hurt or offend anyone. Please keep the really controversial ships to yourself for this event. (Don’t yell at me. I don’t ship Sera/Dorian, either. It was the most extreme example I could think of.)

This year I’m running the event until the end of January to give everyone extra time. The Holiday season can be very busy and this gives everyone almost 2 months to create or find their perfect gift.

How will this work?

- Fill out this form.

- I’ll match people the best I can according to your favorites. Please keep in mind I can’t 100% guarantee you’ll be matched with someone who loves and hates everything you do. You may love Solas and hate Cullen. Your match could also love Solas but love Cullen as well. I’ll put everyone together with at least something you have in common. Keep in mind if you ship only rare pairs, this is more difficult.

- Give your gift to the recipient by posting it here or shipping it by land mail.

- When you receive a physical gift, post it to the Dragon Age Gift Exchange blog to share it with everyone!

- Remember to use the tag #lemons if it’s not for the eyes of young people or those who don’t want to see / read adult material.

There will be check ins. You’ll be warned here on Tumblr, Discord, and in email. Failure to check in will get you dropped from the program. Will check ins take long? Not at all. They’ll be simple 2 or 3 questions to make sure you’re still doing the event.

What if my recipient gets dropped? You don’t have to send a gift if you don’t want to.

Can I pinch hit? Yes please! I’ll be including a check box on the fill out form for those who are willing to help for creators who vanish. (Don’t feel pressured if you can’t or don’t have time.) What kind of physical gifts are okay? Paintings (the Bob Ross way with physical paint), markers, any other kind of physical art. Pottery, jewelry, knitting, candles, dolls, sculpture and anything else you can dream up!

Can I buy a gift and send it? Yes you can!

What information is shared? If you want a physical gift, you must share your address with the person creating your gift. I’ll also see it on the form, but I’ll forget it in 2 seconds. You don’t have to worry about me turning into a dragon and peeping in your windows.

I’ll also share your favorite characters/ships.

What about NOTPs and characters I hate? Creators are going to look at what you love. If there’s a pairing which really bothers you, feel free to share it in “Other” and I’ll pass it along to your Santa.

Santas/Creators – please don’t take ships for granted. Your recipient may love the characters but not necessarily ship them. This includes canon ships.

[saltminerising]

The LFD Starboard situation

Yes it's been a couple weeks since this happened, but I was backreading and saw post 669212989694558208 and got mad about the situation all over again, so :)

The starboard situation! A bunch of us in LFD wanted starboard around so we could document some fun moments in time (for those who don’t know: Starboard is a discord bot that, when added to a server, creates a sort of “hall of fame” with messages that have gotten a star emoji react. Mods decide how many star emojis it takes for the message to be in the hall of fame).

Don’t remember exactly who screenshotted (bless you for having the foresight to though), but I’ll be including a couple censored screenshots.

This was the message that got starred.

(If the image breaks, the message is from a TC from Light, and reads: “i was right to kill that baby”)

If you click “Jump!” it takes you to the exact message, where it’s very clear in-context that they were talking about exalting a hatchling. If you’ve ever been in LFD, you’ll know that similar jokes aren’t too uncommon! “Stupid baby, grow up so I can stone you” from a few months ago comes to mind as an immediate example.

According to the timestamps, the message was there for an hour and a half before it got enough stars (12 or 15 I think?) to get pinned. Going off the screenshots I have, the timeline is:

Message sent at 3:38. Message pinned at 5:27. Starboard removed at 6:07.

On post 669212989694558208:

Post claimed that “Still kinda pissed that a group of 7 or so got the feature removed”. At the time of removal the message had 18 stars if I remember right. That’s definitely not 7 people. 18 people of their own free will reacted to the message with a star because they found it funny.

Post also says “bunch of the edgy kids started going "well we WANTED Starboard removed anyways, so we still get the last laugh" so basically publicly mocking the mods for their decision.” Also very untrue! Nobody said they wanted it removed, lots of people were upset about it! I’m assuming this person took the joking “Well, at least it went out with a bang” messages way too seriously.

On top of this, mods gave an official warning to all 18 people that reacted to the starred message. No warning or even individual messages, just “All of you have been given an official warning” (enough warnings get you banned). 

(If the image breaks, the message is from a GP from Light, and reads:

“we are not sending out individual messages but everyone involved in getting the star board removed has an official warning logged under their name this was not funny and you all have removed something others were excited to try out starboard is now permanently off the table for an option to be added back to lfd”

Also peep the “you all have removed something others were excited to try out” when there was no warning given, the mods could have easily removed that one message and allowed the bot to stay, but instead decided to nuke it altogether and blame a big chunk of people. If they had communicated at all that the message wasn’t good and it needed to stop, or even really said anything about the message in the hour and a half it took for it to get starred, I can pretty much guarantee it would’ve stopped. Instead they ~had~ to get rid of the whole ass bot and issue warnings on a bunch of people for “getting it removed”. Mods were the only people in charge of removing it.

Honestly I’ve lost a lot of my respect for the mod team and especially this specific mod (GP from Light). How hard would it have been for one of the many mods to have said something before the situation got out of hand?

In conclusion: Message was on the edgy side, and I do agree it should’ve been removed from being the first pinned message to avoid giving people the wrong impression of the server. However the mods handled it poorly and instead of actually warning people, opted to add strikes to our names and remove starboard permanently.

LFD is not an edgy server, we’re not edgelords (or kids, as the post seemed to think? I know of one active member that’s under 18, most of us are adults with jobs.), none of us intended any harm with pinning a funny message.

Also, just to clear their name, the person that sent the OG message (along with many of the people that starred the message) apologized after. 

[ofcmckenna]

new york’s very own mckenna asher was spotted on broadway street in jimmy choo romy pumps . your resemblance to taylor hill is unreal . according to tmz , you just had your twenty-first birthday bash . while living in nyc ,  you’ve been labeled as being materialistic , but also devoted . i guess being a taurus explains that . 3 things that would paint a better picture of you would be wrists covered in makeup swatches , a perfectly blended halo eye ,  and never being seen without perfectly manicured nails . ( i once made a fake account to expose information about myself just to get more followers ) & ( cis-female & she / her  )  +  ( lia , 19 , she / her , cst . )

hello , loves ! it’s me , lia ( i also play margo ) back again with another trash child that i’m hoping you’ll all love as much as i do <33 i first came up w kenna many years ago and haven’t had the opportunity to write for her in a long long time , so i’m really excited to bring her here ! as always , if you wanna plot go ahead and LIKE THIS and i’ll happily come love you down . if discord is more your jam , hmu there too @ 𝐛𝐛𝐧𝐨$𝐚𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐥#1904 . love y’all !!! 💕💓💕

S T A T S ↴

-- * FULL NAME : mckenna sophia asher -- * NICKNAME(S) : kenna ( preferred name ), kenny , ken , mick -- * AGE : twenty-one -- * D.O.B : may 10th -- * ZODIAC : taurus -- * GENDER : cis-female -- * ORIENTATION : bisexual biromantic -- * HEIGHT : 5″7 -- * NATIONALITY : american ( has dual citizenship in america and wales ) -- * BIRTHPLACE : colwyn bay , wales -- * OCCUPATION : youtuber / makeup artist -- * TRAITS : devoted , ambitious , hard-working , materialistic , stubborn , patient , sensual , reliable , organized , possessive , imbalanced , attention-seeking

B I O G R A P H Y ↴

honestly i am........ too lazy to make this a nice bio so plz forgive me for settling on bullet points ,, but at least that’s less reading for you !!!!

mckenna’s father is from wales and works as a plastic surgeon for the rich and fabulous and her mother is from new york and works a beautician and stylist for celebrities . together they had 5 children in total , the kid in the very middle being kenna . the family spent most of her childhood living in wales before moving to new york just before mckenna started high school

all of her siblings are really talented . it must be in their genes or something to have an affinity for the arts . her older brother is in a popular band . her older sister is a principal dancer . her younger sister is an incredible painter . and her younger brother is like six so he’s still coming into his own but there’s no doubt that he’ll be a prodigy at something

and what about mckenna ??? well she tried following in her brother’s footsteps by learning a bunch of instruments but none of them clicked . after that she tried to take dance classes with her sister but it was clear to see that she had two-left feet . she could barely draw a perfect circle , so painting like her younger sister was out of the question too . eventually she tried to pursue an acting career , auditioning for tv shows and movies but never booking anything more than a handful of commercials

so she spent a majority of her life feeling pretty inadequate compared to her siblings . she just wanted to be good at something , anything really . and she wanted to be praised for it . luckily , she eventually found her thing . though it was sorta unconventional : kenna figured out that she’s good at makeup . it’s basically an art form in itself and since she had the time on her hands to practice , she got pretty good at it

she started posting her looks on social media , gaining a little bit of attention on her instagram and later even starting a youtube channel ( at the time it was called pinkglitter2234 bc she was like 13 and cringey ). doing makeup and making youtube videos was her new favorite pass time and pretty much all she did throughout high school . kids in her school started recognizing her as “the the girl who talks funny and makes youtube videos” ,, so that’s pretty cool ig

it really wasn’t until her senior year that her channel gained a serious following . by the time she graduated she worked her way up to 1m subscribers and just a few hundred thousand away from having 1m on instagram too . CRAZY . and since youtube had become a serious job to her that she wanted to continue doing , she figured that she’d take a gap year off just to focus on that and building her personal brand . so she moved out and got an apartment in the city , paid for all by herself ( though mommy and daddy’s money certainly helped furnish it with all her lavish stuff ) and got to WORK

that ONE gap year turned into a gap... three years ??? she never applied to university and honestly she doesn’t plan to anytime soon ! her social media career has never been more poppin’ tbh . she has like over 8m subscribers on her main channel ( now called makeupmckenna ) and just a little bit under that on her vlog channel . she’s had various partnerships with different makeup brands , colourpopcosmetics , morphe , and lancôme just to name a few . on her channel she also does fashion / styling videos , which has gained her attention from several brands that have sent her pieces to promote and invited her to see their shows at fashion week and whatnot . big money moves basically !!

okay now for her secret : basically ,, kenna is hard-working don’t get me wrong , but she’s also obsessed with increasing her following and is willing to do anything if it means signal boosting herself and becoming more successful . so basically , at one point she made a fake account that posed as one of her “haters” “exposing” her-- and since no publicity is bad publicity , it got more people talking about her and following her . she even made a sob story youtube video in response to the “hate” she was getting and the rumours that were sparking because of it . the account has since been deleted but that doesn’t mean that the screenshots of the rumours aren’t still circulating the internet . it’s been a few years since the “scandal” but that doesn’t mean that it still doesn’t get talked about from time to time

P E R S O N A L I T Y  &  F U N  F A C T S ↴

personality-wise : kenna is a sweetheart ! at least on the outside ! like she lowkey has selfish motives sometimes when it comes to gaining online popularity , but outside of social media she is genuine and goofy and a good friend i swear . would give you the designer clothes off her back if you’re close to her . also affectionate because she’s from a big family that actually has a healthy relationship with each other ( minus kenna’s minor jealousy she used to harbor as a kid... she’s kinda grown out of it now as a young-adult who’s successful in her own right ) so she loves to love . super materialistic though . loves shiny things and owning the newest trendy stuff . definitely thinks that money can buy happiness and she’s super stubborn so you cannot convince her otherwise . loves attention , will do just about anything to get it but if it doesn’t fit her “pristine girl next door” image then she’ll have to do it in secret . and since she has made a name for herself as being “innocent” , she doesn’t party too much . just not a big fan of that lifestyle

just bc she never went to college DOES NOT MEAN that my girl is dumb  .. she actually likes to keep learning new things by constantly reading and trying out new skills . she’s v much a jack of all trades but a master at none . minus her ability to beat her face and talk to a camera lol

she’s fluent in both english and welsh , and used to have an accent when she was younger but has since taught herself to sound super american . she thinks it makes her more appealing idk

very family orientated and keeps in close contact with her siblings and parents despite the fact that they live all around the world doing their own things

has collabed with loads of famous peeps not just for youtube videos but getting to do their makeup for gigs . she’s gotten to a point in her career where she’s able to bridge the gap between influencer and professional artist y’know what i mean ??

loves dogs . has a dog named tate who frequently makes appearances in her posts :)))

consumes an unhealthy amount of caffeine daily

doesn’t know how to drive . doesn’t even have a license or anything and who knows if she’ll ever learn tbh

she’s bisexual but has only come out to her close friends and family . hasn’t outwardly said anything to her following but they can probably make assumptions considering who she’s been seen getting close to . like it’s not a big deal to her , she likes who she likes , but also doesn’t think it’s anyone else’s business besides whoever she’s dating / sleeping with at the time

W A N T E D  C O N N E C T I O N S ↴

EDIT : i have in fact made a wc page so peep that here if ya want ! xox

[sagemoderocklee]

Oh what's this about "the only valid fic that’s ever going to be written for gaalee"? You don't have to tell the name of the fic I'm just curious about what happened? Like what's the deal with this fic?

oof… well, this is a conversation I’ve had many a time, but be forewarned, I have a lot of feelings on this matter and this will… not be short.

I’ll just use [redacted] but in all honesty whether I give you the name or not, I promise, it wouldn’t be difficult to know what fic I’m talking about (not least of which because I’m one of the few people who has been vocal about that fic and when asked I make it known I have No Interest in it). But literally everyone in the GaaLee fandom knows about this fic that was written–after careful research–just over 13 years ago. THIRTEEN! That’s quite a long time for a fic to maintain such acclaim, but the GaaLee fandom is small and a bit of a fic desert when it comes to content, and in a way, I think that’s to blame…. 

From my perspective, this fic–which published it’s first chapter in September of 2005 on Livejournal, then posted in April 2006 to a lesser known fic hosting website–has remained a staple in this fandom for so long because it was, by and large, one of the only decent novel length fics in the fandom at the time. And that time was a long time. If you look at the GaaLee tag on any fanfiction hosting website, you won’t have an easy time finding novel length stories with quality writing, characterization, plot, etc. 

[Redacted] was, ostensibly, the first GaaLee fic with any real substance: it had good pros, and, seemingly, it had a plot (though if you ask me the plot was “get gaara and lee together, and forget about any and all conflict outside of them once they bone down”, but I digress). 

People loved this fic. So much so that there are a number of depictions of scenes from this fic drawn by talented fanartists, there are podfics, there are probably translations, there’s a fucking TV Tropes entry. But the real impact this fic has had on the fandom? The reason I always vaguely complain about it?: “I won’t read anything if it’s not [Redacted].” 

As a writer, myself, I’m sure it’s obvious why I might have grown bitter about this fic over the course of my time in this fandom. Unlike other fandoms I’ve been in, such as the Harry/Draco fandom, which upholds the classics that helped shape the fandom but still allows for new, fresh takes, the GaaLee fandom holds on to this singular fic as the Pinnacle Fic. According to this fandom, you will never come across a greater gaalee story–never mind that this fic is 13 years old, is ableist in its depiction of Gaara, actually does forget the plot partway through, not to mention the gross ‘sand rape’ scene, and of course doesn’t hold up 13 years later with canon specifically because of mischaracterizing at least Gaara (it’s been a while since I read it, so I’m sure I’m missing things). Never mind that we, as individuals and communities, should be able to look at something more critically and say “yes, this was good at the time, but now I see that it is not perfect. Yes, this helped shape a small and lacking fandom, but it does not have to be the be-all end-all.” 

The GaaLee fandom, as indicated by the shit I was fielding thanks to daring to call out homophobia in the fandom, does not like change. It has certainly changed, even grown I’d like to think. But the fandom itself is stagnant in many ways; it does not want to let go of its old ways which is easily seen by some of the GaaLee–oh, excuse me, LeeGaa blogs out there (it’s very important to remember exactly who is putting it up whose butt, because heaven forbid we treat these characters genuinely and not depict mlm couples with gross fetishistic tropes like seme and uke–i hope that the tone of “i’m rolling my eyes” comes through strongly here). 

Now, I haven’t read this fic in about 4 years, roughly. I put off reading it for a very long time while working on Alliance because I, like so many people in the fandom, held it up on a pedestal. I worried over comparing myself to the author, I worried over the potential to be influenced in a way, that Alliance would seem too much like [Redacted]. Then, in the midst of depression and wanting desperately to read a GaaLee fic, I re-read it. I hadn’t touched it in four years–at that time–and thought “what the hell”. So I read it. 

And I didn’t like it. The pros are good, I’ll give you that. But other than the pros, I wasn’t moved. In fact, I felt only relief. “My fic is nothing like this. I don’t agree with this author’s interpretation here and here–oh my god that’s rape what the fuck” and so on. Now, it has been a long time since my last read through, so I may be missing things about the fic, but ultimately it’s not really about whether or not I like the fic, it’s not about whether or not the fic is good. It’s old. It shouldn’t really matter anymore because we should all have matured enough to say “This fic was good, it did a lot of good for the fandom, but looking back I realise it’s not what I thought it was and has some gross elements which we will not allow to continue to propagate in our fandom.” 

But unfortunately, this fic is still relevant; unfortunately this fic still matters and still shapes this fandom in far too many ways. If the common theme of this fandom wasn’t “oh my god, have you read [Redacted]” “[Redacted] is the best fic and the only one I’ll read” then maybe I’d never say a peep about this fic. It would fall to the back of my mind, a fic I read and enjoyed once upon a time, when I was young and less rounded as a person. But unfortunately, the fandom does not take the stance that other fandoms take–it is not ‘a classic we appreciate for what it did for this fandom’, it is now a weapon used against new authors. I don’t think it’s necessarily intended to be, but it is. Who wants to write a fic for this pairing when all they hear is “I’ll never read anything but [Redacted]”? Who wants to write anything when they know people won’t give them a chance? Hell, who will read things when they’re told that the only thing worth reading is [Redacted]? When they’re told that everything else in this fandom is trash? And listen, I know there’s a lot of trash in this fandom–and I don’t mean writing skill, I mean actual trash. Writers who manipulate minors into a cult following while their writing features a relationship between a 16 and 25 year old; writers who write A/B/O; writers who write ‘soft stalking’; writers who turn Shukaku into “a voice in Gaara’s head”… The list is long and ugly. But that doesn’t mean write off every writer, that doesn’t mean refuse to move past a fic that’s 13 years old.

How are we supposed to overpower the gross, ugly content if we as a fandom community refuse to give new writers a chance? How can fandom grow and change and get better, if we hold on to something from 13 years ago? (Trust me, it shows that this fic was written thirteen years ago. It is Very Obvious.) 

Yet here we are, holding on to a 13 year old story. Who else do we know in this fandom who writes? Who else has that much acclaim? Who else writes good, quality stories and gets art and a goddamn TV Tropes entry and countless people raving about their work? Do you know what happens when I say I want to read a gaalee fic? I get a number of people asking if I’ve read [Redacted] as if I haven’t been here for 11 years. It was literally the first GaaLee fic my friends told me to read so that I’d understand why GaaLee was a good ship. I read it when I was all of 18 and so new to the fandom. I read it again when I was 21. And again when I was 24. I guess the third time was the charm. 

There is a post that floats around sometimes visible in the gaalee or leegaa tag that says “guess it’s time to go reread [Redacted]” or something to that effect with something like 350 notes. 350 notes. This tired comment from years ago that suggests there’s nothing worth reading in this fandom, that’s been put out there for writers and readers of fic to see. Listen, I won’t lie, it IS hard to find good fic content! It is, but it’s even harder when you don’t give people a fucking chance. 

Do you know what conversations I’ve had with people about fanfiction in this fandom? I literally had someone, point blank, say to me and the other writers on the GaaLee discord “I don’t read anything but […] [Redacted].” 

How disheartening. How unsupportive. How insulting. Saying that to people who you know are writers, who work hard and want support. That’s ugly. That’s not cute. That’s not community. 

There are fresh new takes on Gaara and Lee, and I know that for a fact because I have worked tirelessly to help create some of these fresh takes. I know my fucking worth as a writer, I know I’m good at what I do. I’ll always be learning and refining my writing, but I am a good fucking writer and it is a slap in the face to me and every other writer out there, who dedicates any amount of time to trying to produce good written content for this pairing. We don’t need the fic tags for this pairing to be filled with the trash mentioned above (pedophilia, rape, ableism, etc). We don’t need to be a fic desert. But if people only ever read one 13 year old fic, then that’s what we’re gonna keep having. 

I’m obviously not going anywhere. I’ve got plenty of GaaLee fics to write (something like 20+), regardless of the “I’ll only read [Redacted]” people in this fandom. But who’s to say if it’ll matter in this fandom? Who’s to say it’ll change how people feel about [Redacted]? Who’s to say if I can help make a trend of supporting fic authors other than [Redacted’s Author]? I mean, the person who made that post with 350 notes, far as I know, has never read my fic content. If someone is so desperate for content that they’ll re-read something from 13 years ago, then why aren’t they also checking the GaaLee tag on tumblr or Ao3 for new fics? Like people actively complain about the lack of fic in this fandom and then… do nothing about it. And I don’t mean they should write fics necessarily. Like yes, if you’re a writer and you want to see fic content in this fandom, I absolutely urge you to write! But first, we need more people who are willing to read fics. Who will go out of their comfort zone and just give us a chance. We need these people who are always complaining about the lack of fic content to do something about it, make other authors feel better about themselves, lift up other authors, share their works, comment like your life depends on it. That’s what we need. Because there are a handful of people out there who want to write and want to keep writing for this pairing. But without support…??? They disappear. They give up. They lose interest. 

There will probably be some people who feel like personally attacked because they’ve said these things and not supported other authors, but honestly, if you feel that way then please take that and prove me wrong. Be more proactive. Find a new GaaLee writer, find a story you haven’t given a chance. Prove that this fandom can change and grow; prove that fic writers have a place in this fandom. 

Because right now, fic writers don’t have a place.

Anyway, I’ve spent the last like hour going on and on about this, and I have things to do and I’m sure you didn’t want me to write something this long, Anon. Please, just blame my Aries Mercury ass for being a passionate talker lmao 

[jgfurgie]

Picked up doing Thoth for practice, and apparently I’m good at lighting?  Or at least according to all the peeps in discord.

[cecilspeaks]

114 - Council Member Flynn, part 1

At least their heart’s in the right place, I say, softly running my hand across a plastic takeout container. Welcome to Night Vale.

In light of a string of armed robberies across Night Vale, the City Council today called a press conference. They announced in unison that they are greatly disturbed by this crime wave, because it means that they’ve had to put their vacation plans on hold. They really want to find a nice autumn spot to spend a month or two leaf-peeping, maybe kayaking if the sun’s out. But no, now someone’s running around town waving a gun and robbing stores. Plus they have this new City Council member, 16-year-old Tamika Flynn, who they’re trying to train. And now with all the robberies, the transition of their new member is going much more slowly. “Also,” they added, crime waves require so much paperwork and we’re way behind! You people.” And here the Council pointed their many fingers at the gathered citizens and press. “You! People!”

Yesterday’s robbery of the Ralph’s only resulted in the theft of 72 dollars and an endcap of Chex Party Mix. And while nobody was hurt, this was the 12th robbery in the past week. Weekday shift manager at the Ralph’s, Charlie Bear, described the robber as a slight person with a high voice, wearing coveralls and a black leather mask. The robber demanded whatever money Charlie could grab, so he emptied his bank mag of petty cash. But when he went to unlock the register, which had several hundred dollars, the robber had already left.

City Council, waving their many limbs in frustration, asked for calm. “Everything’s fine,” they said unconvincingly. “It’s fine!” they repeated, but the agitated crowd continued to scream and clutch their chests. “Please be chill, it’s going to be fine!” the City Council roared with their many discordant voices from one body. But for some reason, the crowd just wasn’t feeling fine.

And now a look at sports. The Night Vale High School wheelchair basketball team defeated the Sand Planes Snakeguarders 60 to 58 last night in the pre-season state basketball tournament. This weekend they will take on the Pine Cliff Lizard Monitors in the finals. The Lizard Monitors were the division champions last year, going undefeated in the regular season. But the Night Vale Scorpions are being led this year by sophomore point card and my niece, Janice Palmer. Janice led the division last year in assist..s, which is a statistic.. of some kind. I asked my brother in law Steve Carlsberg, who is an offensive coach on his daughter’s team, what an assist was and he explained it, at length. But I forget exactly what he said. It-it-it-it made sense at the time, it’s it’s like a numerical measure of how helpful a person is, and Janice led our division last year in helpfulness. So here’s hoping that continues. Good luck, Scorpions! Go get’em, Janice!

And now a word from our sponsors. Today’s show is brought to you by the new green market co-op, which just opened up on Galloway Road between Patty’s Hardware and Discount Pastries and one of those escape-the-room places, where you wake up in a bath tub chained to a pipe, and there’s  another person across the room also chained to a pipe, and in the middle of the room is a dead body with a gun and a cassette player? Yeah, I hear those are great fun. Green market co-op owner Tristan Cortez said he opened the new store to provide a safe space for all your produce optics and food content transactions. Too often, the people who eat food don’t know where they are, or why they are, and they cry. They just sob in the middle of a store, afraid. Well, the new green market co-op store front on Galloway Road won’t let that happen, Cortez said. He said he will there every day to hold your hand, to nuzzle your neck with his nose, to whisper to you: “Don’t be afraid”, as he hands you an eggplant.

Oh, a quick aside, listeners. Did you know that people in Europe don’t call them “eggplants”? They call them “aubergines”. They also call arugula “rocket”, oranges “dipdops”, Boston lettuce “Dublin weeds”, and plums “swole grapes”. Anyway, Cortez said building the new store was his daughter Camilla’s idea. She’s an undergraduate studying business, and according to Camilla’s intensive research into the matter, she found having a physical location would be a huge boost in sales for a grocery store. So come on down to the brand new green market co-op. You’re not safe anywhere but here.

Only minutes after their initial press conference, the City Council called another press conference. There was no new news on the ongoing burglaries, they just wanted to say that it used to be different, this town, this whole area. “Nah you don’t understand,” they said. “We are centuries old,” the City Council said. “We were born in caves far beyond this desert, and we wandered until we found a place we could call home. We swam rivers, navigated forests, even climbed mountains. Yes Night Vale, there are mountains. For we have not only seen them, but crested them, and we ended up here in Night Vale. We were many-voiced, but also many-bodied then, like all of you. We wore crowns made of soft meat, and taught ourselves magical spells, and used mind control on birds!” the Council continued. “We ran this town, and the people who settled here feared us! They respected us, too. Respected the blank out of us, like respect coming out the blank. Blanking respectful as blank. You know?” The City Council coughed slightly and asked for a can of Pamplemousse la Croix from one of their aides, as they thumbed thru their notes.

“But one day, our magic failed us, and our many bodies became one body,” the Council said, still in unison. “It was Deborah that messed up the spell.” 

“I did not!” came a single voice from the City Council’s body. “Did too!” came a different single voice. “Your handwriting is garbage, Germaine!” said the first voice. “Stop it, both of you!” the Council shouted in unison. 

They continued: “And over the years, our legend, our mystique, has faded in the eyes of Night Vale. We were seen as fallible, as weak, as protectors of an old guard. And now as we witnessed this new face, this young Tamika Flynn, join our ranks we are reminded that the world moves on. The world is always growing older, and younger at the same time.” The City Council sighed. “I guess what we’re trying to say is millennials are ruining everything with their civic involvement and their lack of magic, and their disregard for wearing soft meats on their heads. So entitled, this genere-”

Just then, Tamika Flynn appeared at the site of the podium, and there was a long silnece. “Awkwardd!” The City Council sang. Tamika stepped ofrward to say she completed the paperwork to increase temporary funding for police overtime, in light of the recent wave of robberies. “Rad, thanks!” said the Council. “Do the young people still say ‘rad’?” the Council asked Tamika who replied, “I gotta get back to the Mayor’s office to ask about financial relief for robbery victims,” and left.

Let’s have a quick look at traffic. Last week’s storms flooded the old cemetery down in the lowlands in Old Town Night Vale, and several human remains were washed out of their burials into Route 32. It wasn’t, like, skeletons or anything. I mean, there were a few skeletons and three or four really well preserved bodies, like skin and clothing and everything, but for the most part, it was just kind of a pulpy mud that blocked the road. Transportation department crews are still working on clearing the roadways, but it’s super gross, so the workers are vomiting a lot. Which is causing motorists on Route 32 to vomit as well, which is really slowing things down. So avoid Route 32 and take 9A instead. This has been traffic.

Listeners, only minutes after their last press conference, which was minutes after the first press conference, the City Council called another press conference. This time with Tamika Flynn. They said, “We’re still trying to teach this young one about how to council a city, so we brought her up here to shadow us. She’s a single-voiced, separately-bodied entity. Yet, she still has not joined our form! She walks and talks separate from us, and that is not how a city council should operate!” they said in unison, attempting to stare down the teenage council member. “It goes against Robert’s rules of order, Miss Flynn,” the City Council hissed condescendingly. “Anyway,” they said, “we’re having a third press conference, because there was another armed robbery just now, at the Spiky Hammer coffee shop, over near the Science District. The perpetrator stole the tip jar, which contained well over 17 dollars. They also stole a French press, but like, a really nice stainless steel insulated one, not that tempered glass garbage.” The crowd murmured their panic, and the City Council shouted, “It’s fine, try calming down for once, geez!” which had the opposite effect of calming.

Tamika then leaned over and said quietly to the Council, “They were calm. Listen, we can fix this, this is not a problem.” The City Council said, “You’re a problem!” “Am not,” Tamika quipped. “Yuh huh!” As of this report, the “am not” versus “yuh huh” debate is continuing on the press podium at City Hall. The gathered crowd of alarmed citizens has begun clawing at each other’s faces and screaming things like, “17 dollars!” and “It could have been us!” and “A glass French press? What are we, monsters?” More on this story as we get updates.

But next, let’s have a look at today’s weather.

[”Song For Myself" by Bears with Eagle Arms]

Well. The City Council press conference is still going on. But it looks like the argument has resolved, and only Tamika Flynn remains at the podium. She has stepped to the mic, paused dramatically and stoically, and then begun speaking. Here is her speech.

“People of Night Vale. Have I not fought librarians? Have I not flown helicopters and battled corporate overlords? Have I not read all 9 volumes of William Faulkner’s epic anthology, “Alexander and the Terrible, No-Good, Very Bad Day”? 

People of Night Vale, have I not always been there for you, to serve you, to protect you? Have I not proven that I can defeat a small-time armed robber?

 You have nothing to fear. Not just because I’m here, but because the City Council is here. We are a complementary balance of incredible talents. My talent is weapon skills, intolerance for wickedness, and a love of books. The other council members’ talent is enjoying long vacations during difficult times. The rest of the City Council and I have come to an agreement. To make this town safe, I will work closely with Sheriff Sam and the Secret Police and the Mayor to make Night Vale more secure. The other members of the council will take a month-long trip to Traverse City, Minchigane. They told me they only recently learned that Milshtafudd was a real US state, and they can just travel there, and they really wanted to go apple-picking and eat cider donuts. Autumn is the most beautiful time of year on the lake, they said. we’ll make you all proud with our vacation to Middasham, Night Vale. And I agreed and sent them on their way. We are a good and effective city council, Night Vale. You are a good and cooperative citizenry. Everything’s fine. It’s fine.”

Tamika repeated those last two words, each iteration softer and slower. And the crowd’s murmuring and fidgeting grew softer and slower, until there was silence and peace. Then Sheriff Sam jumped up on the rostrum, leaned in to Tamika, forgetting that the microphone was still on, and said, “Councilwoman Flynn, a robber held up the new green market co-op and nicked all their cash.” The  crowd gasped. Sam continued: “But it’s much worse than that. Whoever did this, also burned the building down.” The crowd gulped. Sam then said: “Miss Flynn, we found the bodies of Tristan Cortez and his daughter Camilla inside.” The crowd wailed. Sam added: “I-I-I’m sorry Miss Flynn, it’s a bit loud here. I’m having a rough go at hearing you what with all the screaming. Can you speak up?” But Tamika stood still, silent, as the crowd ran in circles, pulling at each other’s hair. Tamika gathered herself and then stepped back to the microphone. She cleared her throat and said, “I know everything is no longer fine, but it will be. I got you, Night Vale. I got you.” 

The crowd stopped running and shrieking, although they continued tugging at each other’s hair. Tamika said, “Our small-time criminal is now a real threat, a force of violence among us. But I can stop them. Do you want safety?” and the crowd chanted: “Yes.” “Do you want security?” and the crowd chanted: “Absolutely.” “Do you trust me?” and the crowd chanted: “We certainly do, because we are scared!”

Tamika then turned to the Sheriff and said: “Sam, do you agree?” “Yes, anything, whatever you want,” Sam said. 

“Give me your badge.” Sam paused. “Give me.. your badge.” Sam slowly reached   across their lapel, unhooked their badge and handed it to Tamika, who then pinned it to her shirt. “And your hat and jacket,” Tamika said. And Sam gave her their hat and jacket, and Tamika put them on.

Tamika said, “OK. Curfew is now 8 PM. No one is out after 8 PM. And no one is out alone at any hour. Sam? You’re my Deputy Sheriff now. No one goes in or out of town. Arrest anyone who does.” Tamika then ordered all city buildings to be painted red, to let this criminal now we will cover the whole town in their blood. She said once more: “Everything’s fine, it’s fine. It’s 6 PM already, so go get your dinner and go home before curfew. And do not be out alone. The Secret Police will stop anyone walking alone.”

She concluded the press conference by saying: “Good night, Night Vale, good night.”

Today’s proverb: The seven habits of highly effective people are: 1. levitation. 2. translucense. 3. omnipresence. 4. country music. 5. lime zest. 6. suns for eyes. 7. hiccups.

[omgkatsudonplease]

princess diaries 2 au where yurio is mia, otabek is devereaux, victor is clarisse, and yuuri is joe. mila is bff lily and phichit is unproblematic photographer prince

my jus d’orange asks, and i must deliver. s/o to @forovnix and discord peeps bc i lov u all. note: yurio is like, probably nearing 21 in this ficlet because who the hell is going to let a 16 year old onto the throne

“I can’t believe PM Feltsman thinks I have to get married in order to assume the throne,” Yuri groans as he lounges on the bed. Over on the settee, the King’s chief of security, Yuuri Katsuki, looks up from the paper.

“PM Feltsman may have ulterior motives,” he remarks.

“And who’s Lord Altin, anyway?” demands Yuri, rolling up the parliamentary meeting agenda and chucking it at the ceiling. It barely glances off the fresco ceiling and lands on his face. “Sounds like a bore. Why does he suddenly care about me becoming King?”

“Well, there’s the stuff about the succession,” says Katsuki. “You’re the ward of King Viktor, whereas Lord Altin is connected to the House of Nikiforov via marriage –”

“But Viktor named me his heir,” Yuri points out. “I shouldn’t have to jump through additional hoops just because I’m adopted into the Royal Family. Besides, I went to Georgetown. I’m probably more qualified to be king than Lord Altin.”

“I’m not questioning your qualifications, Your Highness,” Katsuki replies drily, though there’s a hint of a flustered blush in his cheeks. “I’m just restating what Parliament thinks about the situation. Petersburg law clearly states that adoptive heirs of the House of Nikiforov must marry prior to assuming the throne.”

“It’s a stupid law,” mutters Yuri. He tosses the agenda up again, and catches it this time. Katsuki turns the page in his paper, humming in agreement.

The door to the bedroom swings open, and His Majesty King Viktor Nikiforov of Petersburg strides in, his loyal poodle Makkachin hot at his heels. Yuri groans at the way his guardian’s eyes light up at the sight of his chief of security – honestly, he’s still here in this room; couldn’t they wait until he was out of it before they start sending goo-goo longing eyes at each other?

“Yurio!” exclaims Viktor. Yuri rolls his eyes.

“That’s not my name,” he grumbles.

Viktor ignores him, like he did the first several thousand times Yuri told him that. “They’ve finished remodelling your rooms. You can move in now!”

“Good,” says Yuri, injecting a little extra sullenness into his tone. “Finally I won’t have to listen to you sighing through the walls about Agent Porker here.” And he swiftly rises out of the bed, ignoring Viktor’s gasp of mild offense on his way out the door.

Whatever disappointment Yuri might have felt at seeing how stuffy his bedroom still looks after the remodelling – it’s like they only reupholstered the furniture to be leopard print and just didn’t bother touching anything else – is more than mitigated by just how cool his new closet is. 

Each of the drawers and doors are remote-controlled, sliding out and back at the click of certain buttons. He’s got a lot of suits and tuxes and military-style outfits for official appearances and balls, but he also has lots of cooler clothing, too – leather jackets, jeans, vintage-looking punk band t-shirts – 

“Surprise!” Mila shouts. 

Yuri most definitely does not scream like a little girl in response to that. He claps a hand to his mouth and jumps back, glowering at his friend as she emerges from behind a rack of blazers.

“Don’t do that, Baba!” he hisses. “What if Agent Porker finds out?”

“Agent….” Mila cocks her head at him. 

“Head of security.”

“Oh, Yuuri! He’s cool. He let me in.” A pause. “After an extensive background check and a heavy pat-down from a cute security guard named Yuuko, at least.”

“Of course you’d be hiding in my closet, with comments like that,” grumbles Yuri, but he steps forward and briefly clasps her in a one-armed hug. “What are you doing here?”

“I came to visit you! What’s going on?”

Yuri groans. “I’m supposed to get married.”

“You’d think it’d be a little counterintuitive to force someone adopted into the Royal Family to marry before they can be counted in the succession,” remarks Mila. “Was it usually to encourage them to marry someone in the family?”

They’re currently sitting in the palace’s private theatre. Katsuki is leaning over Viktor’s chair, talking quietly with the king. Yuri feels like gagging at the way Viktor keeps looking at his bodyguard like he hung the stars and moon. 

He forces himself to concentrate on the various faces and names on the screen of potential candidates instead. “According to the law, it has to be someone of noble or royal birth,” he grumbles. “Especially if the adoptee was a commoner.” And he can’t help the cold shiver of resentment at that comment. He’d thought it’d be enough when King Viktor chose him as his ward and heir. But according to some antiquated law, apparently not. Apparently in the eyes of Petersburg’s Parliament, he had to ‘ensure the nobility of his line’ through marriage before becoming King.

If he ever finds out who created such a patently idiotic idea, he’ll hunt them down and kill them. It doesn’t matter if they’re already dead; he’ll resurrect them, and kill them again.

“What do you think of Duke Jean-Jacques Leroy?” wonders Mila. 

Yuri looks up at the picture of a young man with a dark undercut and the most obnoxious grin on his face. “No,” he says. 

“He does sound a little full of himself, even in a profile like this,” Mila agrees, changing the slide. “What about Duke Seung-gil Lee?”

Yuri squints. “He doesn’t seem friendly.”

“You’re hardly Miss Congeniality yourself,” Viktor remarks from behind them. 

“Viktor,” chides Katsuki. Yuri rolls his eyes. The slide changes.

“How about Prince Christophe Giacometti?” wonders Mila.

Yuri’s eyes go wide. “Fuck, no,” he hisses. “He has habits.”

“And thank god he’s got a boyfriend willing to indulge him in said habits,” agrees Katsuki from the back row. Yuri grumbles and changes the slide.

“Too young,” says Viktor. Another change. “Too old.”

Another. “Arrested too many times,” says Katsuki.

Finally, they arrive at a picture of a young man with dark hair and skin, and the brightest smile as he holds a camera in his hands. “Phichit Chulanont, Prince of Thailand,” remarks Mila. “I hear he loves photography; he runs a very popular Instagram account.”

Yuri looks at the other parts of the dossier. Prince Chulanont sounds like he’s dependable and friendly, and might be fine with their very political alliance.

“Yeah,” he says, shrugging. “I guess he could work.”

Yuri gapes. Lord Altin – no, wait, ‘Just Otabek’ – waves at him from where he’s standing with Prime Minister Feltsman in the foyer. 

And then everything happens all at once. Yuri would claim for years after that it had all been heat of the moment, accidental. PM Feltsman would claim that it had been a deliberate provoking.

But Yuri simply glides up to Lord Altin, fire in each step, each move of his body. “Lord Altin, hm,” he says, careful to keep his voice even. “I’ve heard a lot about you lately.”

“You have?” wonders Lord Altin. He flushes just a little. Yuri nods.

And then he stomps on the man’s feet and sweeps from the room in high dudgeon. 

[type2diabetestreatments-blog]

What Twins Can Tell Us About the Causes of Diabetes

New Post has been published on http://type2diabetestreatment.net/diabetes-mellitus/what-twins-can-tell-us-about-the-causes-of-diabetes/

What Twins Can Tell Us About the Causes of Diabetes

Stacey Divone sees double every time she looks in the mirror. She’s the slightly older of a pair of identical twins born on Christmas Eve 1976, and when she was just 5 years old, Stacey -- just like her father -- was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes.

The Divone twins

Thirty-five years later, her genetic double is still diabetes-free.

“It fascinates me that we share 100% of the same genes, developed in the exact same womb and grew up in the exact same environment, eating the exact same things, having the same father who had type 1 -- yet one of us has (T1D) and the other doesn’t," Stacey says. "The human body is a mysterious thing sometimes.”

So how common is it for one identical twin to have diabetes, and the other not to? The first line of the first study I dug into to answer that question read, “Monozygotic twins are usually discordant for type 1 diabetes.”

Let me translate that into English for you: When it comes to identical twins, usually only one gets diabetes.

How many sets of twins both have diabetes? About a third, according to the literature.

If your identical twin (should you have one) has type 1 diabetes, your risk for developing type 1 yourself is “only” 35%. That's still a pretty high risk -- and there plenty of stories about twins sharing diabetes, like Amylia Grace Yeaman and her sister in Iowa, Ashley and Emily in Pennsylvania, and the Tale of Two Twins in Massachusetts -- but it’s by no means a slam-dunk, and two-thirds of sets of identical twins have a D-sibling and a sugar-normal sibling.

Despite the scientific knowledge that type 1 is basically genetic, diabetes researchers have long known that identical twins don’t have the identical risk of developing type 1 diabetes; and this fact has long fueled theories of environmental causes as the root source of type 1 diabetes.

But not so fast. It turns out that identical twins are not so identical after all. We have cancer researchers to thank for this insight, not diabetes researchers.

You Look the Same

Monozygotic twins, commonly called identical twins (like Stacey and her sister) are a pair of babies that came from one egg and one sperm cell. In the womb a pair of such embryos have always been viewed as carbon copies of each other, sharing an identical genetic blueprint. And they do.

At least in the beginning.

But in recent decades, genetic research has shown that the DNA of identical twins diverges over time. These so-called epigenetic changes are powered by environmental factors, and drive the twins farther apart genetically as they explore the world on their separate paths.

But wait, that’s not all.

Once published, each of our individual "books of DNA" mutates all on its own, independently of the epigenetic changes, via so-called somatic mutations, a.k.a. copy errors. Something goes wrong during cell division and the DNA changes.

So the older the twins get, the less identical they become, due to these two types of genetic changes. This is why younger identical twins look more the same than older sets—because the younger pairs actually are more identical.

But it’s more than just looks. Somatic changes have a larger impact on the DNA blueprint than epigenetic changes do, and while most somatic changes seem harmless, it’s now believed that most cancers can be traced to somatic mutations.

Thus the interest in somatic mutations on the part of cancer researchers.

So when do somatic changes start happening? Apparently long before birth. One recent study found that the average pair of identical twins actually has more than 300 genetic differences at birth.

Not so identical after all. Yeah, twins can still pull the wool over elementary school teachers’ eyes with the old switch-a-roo in math class, but apparently diabetes isn’t so easy to fool.

Back to the Drawing Board?

So where does that leave us? Does the fact that identical twins aren’t fully identical make twin research worthless in the diabetes arena? Quite the contrary. Identical twins are still very similar. Consider that a human being has something in the neighborhood of 24,000 genes, and typically around 30% of those differ between any two people. That’s 7,200 differences between you and me, while our “identical” twins might only vary by 300 genes or so, at least at birth. In short: There are a lot fewer differences to sort out between twins. If type 1 diabetes turns out to be purely genetic, looking at the differences between not-quite-identical twins may be the fastest way to find the genes causing type 1 diabetes.

So twin studies continue. In fact, the prestigious Barbara Davis Center for Diabetes at the University of Colorado is currently recruiting D-twins and their “unaffected” co-twins for a study. And beyond trying to sort out the root causes of diabetes itself, researchers at the Barbara Davis Center are also studying other autoimmune diseases that appear in conjunction with diabetes. They are investigating how genes might affect an individual’s response to “preventive agents or treatment aimed at preserving insulin-producing cells.”

Exciting stuff.

Fraternal Twins, Unite!

Just to be clear here, the genetic research to date has not focused on fraternal twins, because they are actually two different individuals who came from two separate eggs, but just happened to be in the womb together. As separate individuals, their risk of sharing diabetes would be the same as any (non-twin) siblings.

The Singer twins

But of course being born and growing up in lockstep, fraternal twins still have a very special bond with each other.

We know many of these pairings in the Diabetes Community, including the famous Singer Twins, Mollie and Jackie, who happen to have a mom and aunt by the same names who are also twins and happen to all be part of a country band, MJ2. Mollie is the T1 peep diagnosed at age 4 and has a blog called Cure Moll, while her sister Jackie is a sugar-normal. For the record, they're fraternal twins.

In response our query about her twin relationship, Mollie shares the following:

"I think this is an important topic to write on. Even though we're fraternal and not identical twins, Jackie has gone through extensive testing over the years to see if she carried the R Protein. She's also always been one of my strongest advocates, which is why we started the Diabetic Angels community together, and have always been a team, even though she doesn't have diabetes. But maybe because we're twins, Jackie is very knowledgeable about diabetes and stays informed regarding new management techniques and research. She always says if she were ever diagnosed, she wouldn't be overly concerned because she knows exactly what to do and how to do it... meaning she would be right on a CGM and pump. The other thing Jackie has said since she was a child is that if she could, she 'would take my diabetes for me.' That really is very much a 'twin thing.'"

Twin Type 2s

Meanwhile, diabetes twin research isn’t limited just to those of us with type 1. Swedish researchers recently published the results of a study that followed over 4,000 pairs of twins over a six-year period starting in 1998. They selected identical twins with different BMIs to try to understand the effect of increased weight on health. At the study’s end they announced that they had confirmed one long-held belief about weight and health, and made one confounding discovery.

Not too surprisingly, they say, the heavier twins had increased risk of type 2 diabetes, but the lighter twin actually had a higher risk of heart attack, overturning the long-held belief that weight is an independent heart attack risk.

But is type 2 really as simple as the right genes plus weight? Maybe not.

A smaller study (also from Sweden) suggests that T2D isn't that simple after all. The study looked at 14 sets of twins, in which one in each pair had type 2 diabetes and the other did not, focused on the genes. It found there were differences in the genes that control fat and glucose metabolism between the twin with type 2 diabetes and the sugar-normal twin.

Not Clones, After All

It may turn out that the subtle differences between “identical” twins will be more valuable to our understanding of both types of diabetes than if identical twins were truly identical. While the early differences between “identical” twins may prove over time to weaken the environmental origins theories behind the cause of diabetes, modern twin studies looking at subtle differences between the genetic blueprints of similar people might allow us to determine the role that genes play in the development of diabetes.

For example, take the diabetes research that the Divone Sisters have been a part of.

In 2012, Stacey and her twin signed up for the groundbreaking diabetes genetic project Trialnet to get a better understanding of their "identical," yet not identical DNA.

The Divone sisters with their dad

“The test results confirmed what we already knew: my sister and I are identical twins," Stacey shares. "We were also tested for a number of auto-antibodies for things like type 1 diabetes, celiac disease and Addison’s disease. My m1AA auto antibody level was way elevated, obviously since I have type 1. Everything else for me was at normal levels, thankfully. My sister showed normal levels for everything, including type 1.”

Like the majority of “identical” twins, Stacey’s sister was just different enough from Stacey, genetically, to duck the diabetes bullet. Even though their dad had lived with type 1, only one of the sisters have followed in those pancreatically-challenged footsteps.

“This was such a relief, I’m sure to both of us, but for me especially,” says Stacey, who blogs over at The Girl With The Portable Pancreas. “Even though I’ve lived with it for 35 years, I never would want to see her have to live with it, too.”

I guess twins don’t really share everything after all. Which is heartening, in some ways...

Disclaimer: Content created by the Diabetes Mine team. For more details click here.

Disclaimer

This content is created for Diabetes Mine, a consumer health blog focused on the diabetes community. The content is not medically reviewed and doesn't adhere to Healthline's editorial guidelines. For more information about Healthline's partnership with Diabetes Mine, please click here.

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