#I am certain this kind of thing is the basis of the idea people have when they think ''If I was more mentally ill someone would care''.

[blackwaxidol]

I'm in that "boiler about to explode and take the house with it" prodrome.

[sodomit]

TRANSUNITY

Transunity is a political theory that was actively talked about on Tumblr a couple of years ago, but has since fallen out of the public spotlight. And this is unfortunate, because it could have really improved a lot of the discourse around gender.

There exists a blog under that name ( @transunity ), but it has been inactive for a year. I am not affiliated with that blog anyhow, I never had any personal contacts with its mods, but I want to get their general ideas to circulate again, so I'm trying to bring this back up in a semi organized fashion. My take on transunity is just my take, if you're one of the original coiners, and you disagree, I encourage you to talk about it, because we still have much more in common with each other than different.

GENERAL VIEWS

I believe that one of the fundamental ideas more trans people need to understand is that we're all more or less in the same place in the eyes of the society (when other factors, such as ethnicity or disability, are considered). To be trans is to fail the gender role system, from the point of view of cis people we can no longer be proper men or women. All kinds of trans people regardless of identity are affected by misogyny and misandry (not a type of marginalization by itself, but turns into a vector of oppression when overlapping with a different marginalization), which forms the foundation of transmisogyny, transandrophobia, and exorsexism*. These types of bigotry are not exclusive and unique to specific gender identities either and may be applied to any trans person for as long as it's convenient to the oppressor.

Trans people do not have gendered power over each other, and intra community bigotry is better conceptualized as a form of lateral aggression.

Gender assignment and sex are never strictly binary (especially with inclusion of intersex people, who belong in gender conversations even if they don't identify as trans) and need to be understood as much more fluid and not strictly correlating with one's actual position in life.

WHAT WE NEED TO REDUCE

The following things should be discussed more critically:

- "Powerjacketing" - implying someone has gendered privilege as a means of delegitimizing their words, while in reality they do not have this privilege;

- Malgendering - forcing trans people to choose between being gendered correctly and speaking up about their mistreatment (e.g. questioning trans women's womanhood on the basis of them aggressively defending themselves or trans men's manhood on the basis of them asking for help) or implying there's something wrong with them in a way that reinforces gender stereotypes;

- Assuming that some trans people are exempt from some forms of oppression on the basis of gender assignment/sex (e.g. by calling all trans people who were assigned female "tme"** or claiming trans people who were assigned male are inherently incapable of understanding fear of sexual assault);

- Assuming that oppression of trans people is rooted in gender assignment/sex (such as, calling reproductive oppression "sex based oppression"***);

- Gatekeeping certain identities, such as "transmasc", "transbian", "femboy" as exclusive to any gender assignment/sex;

- Creating a duality out of "transsexual" and "cissexual", where not medically transitioning trans people are assumed to have some kind of a gendered privilege, or to not be trans in any meaningful material way. Various transmed ideas about dysphoria and transition go there too;

- Accusing trans people who take inspiration from each other of appropriation (trans headcanons, kinks, drag culture, etc).

SYMBOL

The following image is the official transunity symbol developed by the original transunity bloggers. Sorry about the glitch effect, I wasn't able to find one without it.

* Transmisogyny, transandrophobia, and exorsexism are not exclusive to specific identities, although they do primarily target traits associated with these identities. They can be conceptualized as bigotry and oppression towards people who are recognized as incorrectly entering respectively womanhood, manhood, and a status beyond gender binary (for the latter no normative form exists****). However, it's not wrong to use them to mean "oppression of trans women" and so forth, for as long as you're not claiming it's exclusive.

** Labels like "tma" and "tme" still may be used, but solely in a self assigned manner. I believe that an individual trans person is capable of evaluating whether they're affected by transmisogyny and in what way, and they should be trusted on this. However, no gender assignment and no current gender identity makes anyone inherently tme.

*** "Sex based oppression" instead of "reproductive oppression" reinforces the idea that people who share a specific body part (e.g. an uterus in context of conversations about abortion) are inherently of the same sex. This type of essentialism is desperately needed by terfs in this discussion, as they're trying to sell the ideas of "sex based oppression" and "sex based privilege" to people they want to recruit in their ideology. Invoking the idea of "sex" as something trans men and some nonbinary people are oppressed through is not the correct way to respond to people who say we don't experience any gendered violence besides "just transphobia", it has shitty implications and helps shitty people.

**** Lack of existence of normative nonbinary gender does not mean that these genders are not recognized by the society as a deviant, marginalized identity, and that binary people cannot be pushed into this zone.

[lokilaufeysonslove]

𝐌𝐚𝐲𝐛𝐞 𝐍𝐨𝐭 𝐄𝐧𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐞𝐬

𝐃𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐨 𝐌𝐚𝐥𝐟𝐨𝐲 𝐱 𝐟𝐞𝐦𝐚𝐥𝐞!𝐩����𝐫𝐞𝐛𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐝!𝐚𝐛𝐮𝐬𝐞𝐝!𝐠𝐫𝐲𝐟𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐨𝐫!𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫

// Summary // your parents were never kind and sweet type of people, but in your sixth year things got out of hand. To put a cherry on top, a certain platinum blond haired Slytherin Prince decided to be Sherlock Holmes and found out your secrets, ones nobody is supposed to know.

// Warnings // mentions of violence, both physical and verbal violence, abusive parents, bullying, hate towards reader, ignorance, name calling (princess in a mocking way, shame, disgrace, disappointment, waste of time), reader has a backstory, suicidal thoughts, reader has an attempt of suicide, crying, talk about past.

// Author’s Note // please pay attention to warnings! I don’t write about Draco usually, but I couldn’t get idea out of my mind, so I just went with it. This is enemies to lovers. Also, I have mentioned once that reader is 16, but for the sake of this plot, since every sixth year is 16. This is a part two, please read part one first! / divider by the amazing @saradika-graphics / gif by @talesfromthecrypts

Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 / Part 4 in progress

Few months had passed since the first day of Hogwarts. Things with your family were getting worse each day. You received letters from them on a daily basis, all of them saying how much of a disappointment and waste of time you were. You felt as if you were a piece of trash. Your mother made sure of it.

You became lonely, quite literally. You were studying during the day, and sleeping or just thinking at nights. Sometimes you would even sneak out in the Astronomy Tower late at nights, just to be alone.

Hermione, Harry and Ron became concerned, but you were shrugging them off and keeping your distance. Harry, being the Sherlock Holmes he was, became suspicious and tried everything to get you to say something, but you were mastered in hiding and keeping secrets.

Little did you know that a certain platinum blond haired boy was growing suspicious as well.

One day, you were sitting in the library, pretending to read, but all you could think of, was a letter your mother has sent you earlier that day, which was laying innocently on the table in front of you. Shame, disgrace, disappointment, waste of time. You were sick and tired of those words, you just wanted to get rid of them, but they kept wandering inside your head, never leaving.

You heard footsteps approaching you, pulling you out of your train of thoughts. You looked up to be met with Malfoy, Goyle and Zabini. Again, something was wrong with the Slytherin Prince. He was quiet, it seemed like he wasn’t the one who was leading the latter two.

Goyle walked forward and leaned on the table with his elbows. He looked at the letter and took it in his hands. He opened his mouth to say something, but you interrupted by standing up and snatching the letter out of his hands harshly.

“If you’re going to tell me how much of a shame and disgrace I am, don’t waste your time. Believe me, you don’t have to. I have already been told that more than enough times.” You said without thinking and immediately regretted it. Your voice was quiet, but firm. You turned around and walked out of the library.

The three boys looked at each other with the same expression that said ‘what the hell did just happen’. Neither understood what happened. This only caused one of them to grow even more suspicious.

Christmas was approaching. Everyone was happy, happy to spend time with their families, happy to spend time with their loved ones. Everyone except you. You didn’t want to go home, no, not home, your parents’ manor. You wanted to stay at Hogwarts, but you would get into a huge trouble, and getting in trouble with your parents wasn’t very… pleasant.

You were sitting in the Great Hall, at the Gryffindor house table, when Harry approached you, a little hesitantly.

“Hey,” he started softly, “Are you sure you’re fine?”

You were fighting the urge to roll your eyes, “Yes Harry, I am fine, really. Don’t worry.” You gave him the fakest smile ever, and he bought it.

But Malfoy didn’t… he was watching from afar.

The letters your parents sent you every day and night were very shitty. That’s how you ended up in Moaning Myrtle’s lavatory, sobbing your eyeballs out. You were leaning against the sink, looking in the mirror and sobbing uncontrollably while Myrtle told you that everything would be fine.

“No Myrtle, nothing will be fine. Ever.” You said in the middle of sobs.

“Talk to your parents then.” Myrtle said in her dreamy, high-pitched voice.

You laughed bitterly at her statement, your voice coming out loud and harsh, a maniacal sound that would make a person wince. “Talk to my parents? Oh, but they are the very reason why I am sobbing the shit out of myself right now Myrtle. Do you know how they treat me? Can you even imagine the pain they put me through? Let me guess. No! You don’t! You can’t! Has your father ever beat you until you were bleeding?! Has your mother ever used Cruciatus curse on you?! And that’s because of this whole pureblood supremacy shit! Because of the house you are put in! I am tired Myrtle, tired of standing strong for 16 goddamn years! I deserve some break.” You said, rising your voice every time you would swear.

It was crystal clear that Myrtle was shocked, “Talk to your friends, or your headmaster then. That is abuse, it needs to stop.”

“I can’t! If I say a word about this, they will most definitely kill me. I don’t give two shits if I die, no. I just don’t want to be killed by them! And about friends, I do not have any. And do you know why? Because I can’t have any! I don’t want to put any of my friends in danger or be put in danger because of them!” You looked in the mirror, then lowered your head once again and started crying.

After few minutes of brutal silence and your quiet sobs, you looked up and wiped away your tears with the palms of your hands.

“You know what,” you started, looking at Myrtle, “do you know how high the Astronomy Tower is?”

Myrtle looked really confused now, “Why?”

“Oh, just wanted to go up there, gaze at the sky, but I have a terrible fear of highs, you see…”

It was a lie, of course, but Myrtle bought it. After all, parents like yours were good at rising flawless liars.

“It’s high, indeed, but I don’t think you will be scared. Platform is huge.”

You faked a sad smile and thanked her, “Thank you, I’ll see you soon.” You walked out of the bathroom. “Or not.” You mumbled to yourself, thinking nobody heard you. But someone did. This someone being very annoying Draco Lucius Malfoy.

He spied on you the whole time and to make matters even worse, he heard every single word you said. So, obviously, he followed you.

When you reached the Astronomy Tower, you headed straight towards the edge and looked out.

“Oh my god, what am I doing?!” You asked yourself out loud.

You slightly leaned forward, when two strong arms cuffed your wrists and turned you around. A soft gasp escaped from your mouth at this sudden action. However, you were shocked when you saw who did this.

Draco Fucking Malfoy

“What the hell?! Were you actually planning to jump out of there?!” He asked. But what confused you more was the anger latched on his face.

“Why do you care?” You asked in a quiet tone.

“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe because you were going to commit suicide!” his voice was firm and stern, but dripping with sarcasm at the same time.

“Yeah, but why do you care?! Not that we’re friends or anything. You have been making my life miserable since the day I stepped my foot in the Great Hall for the first time, and now you care all of a sudden?!” You hissed through gritted teeth, your voice coming out venomous, a bit louder this time. You didn’t know why, but him being angry at you for attempting to end your life, for attempting to end all this pain and leave this hell forever, made you angry too. He was one of the people who made you hate your life, made you hate yourself, and now he was suddenly scolding you for trying to end it all. You didn’t know why, but it made you boil with anger.

What made you even angrier was that he didn’t say anything, he just stood there, looking down at the cold floor of the tower, completely silent. Why do you care?! Your voice echoed in his head, sounding louder and louder every second. Why did he care? You were right. He had been making your life a living hell since the day one, he had been the one to approach you for no reason and call you the most insulting, disgusting, and horrible names ever. He had been the one to make fun of you in front of everyone and make you feel insanely insecure. After all the things he did, why did he care? Maybe it was guilt eating him out, maybe he didn’t ever realize how much you were hurting, how much you were going through, until very now. But for some reason, he felt bad, he felt defeated, and he hated every second of it.

You were tired, exhausted by stress, crying and all the emotions. You were feeling nauseous. You wanted to drop down and pass out for hours, days, weeks, months, years, decades, centuries. You didn’t care, you just wanted to disappear, vanish. You were weak, too weak, but you still stood there, watching at young man in front of you, who was staring down at his shoes like a child who broke a vase, waiting for him to look up. Under any other circumstances it would be almost cute, but not now. Not when you were about to end your life, not when the boy in front of you was someone who played a big part in your decision.

Silence was brutal. None of you saying a word, waiting for the other to speak up. Waiting for the other to say something, anything. You stood there, glaring at him like a mother glares at her son when she grounds him.

You couldn’t take it anymore, so you broke the silence by chuckling. But it was not the funny type of chuckle. No, it was bitter, venomous, painful chuckle. Anyone could hear the pain in your voice, anyone could see the pain in your eyes, pain was the only thing that radiated from you. It always had been.

“That’s what I thought.” You said and sighed deeply, “Listen Malfoy, forget about everything, and I mean everything you heard and witnessed today. And don’t you dare say a word about this to anyone.” You said and walked past him and down the stairs, your shoulder brushing against his in a cold manner.

He still didn’t move. He didn’t know what to do. He knew he couldn’t tell anyone, anyway. This was the pureblood family you were talking about. Rules are different there. Finally, he shook himself out of his trance and walked down the steps, trying to be as quiet as possible, since it was already past curfew and the last thing he wanted was Filch catching him.

Slytherin common room was expectedly empty. He was positive he would fall into a deep sleep the moment his head would hit the pillow, but he couldn’t go to his dorm just yet. He was still thinking about what happened just few minutes ago. As much as he wanted to forget it, he couldn’t. Can you even imagine the pain they put me through? He could never have imagined that you were going through this much. Let me guess. No! You don’t! You can’t! Yes, he couldn’t. Has your father ever beat you until you were bleeding?! And here he thought his father was the most horrible person. Has your mother ever used Cruciatus curse on you?! He could never even think of his mother being that brutal. And that’s because of this whole pureblood supremacy shit! Because of the house you are put in! I am tired, tired of standing strong for 16 goddamn years! I deserve some break. You were right, you really did deserve some break.

He felt horrible, he felt disgusted by your parents, he felt bad for you. Oh, come on Draco! Why do you feel bad?! She probably deserves that.

His brain said all of that rubbish, but his heart seemed to disagree. It screamed loudly, louder than his brain, You pathetic little idiot! How can you say that?! No live being deserves that, not even a cockroach!

Lost in his thoughts, he didn’t realize how he ended up on the emerald green couch in front of a lit fireplace. He dropped his head in his hands, elbows resting on his knees. Taking deep breaths, he began to relax a little. He looked up and stared down at fire, warm and welcoming, yet roaring and dangerous. He didn’t know how long he had been sitting there. Maybe for few minutes, maybe even hours. But he didn’t care. All he could think of right now was you.

He didn’t know why he had a sudden urge to help you, he didn’t know why he had the sudden urge to just hold you until your sobs would calm down. He had never felt this way. It confused him. He never cared about you, but for some reason, hearing your cries made his heart shatter into many pieces. Had it been any other person, he would feel sorry for them, he would pity them, but this was definitely not pity. This was… he didn’t know either. But it felt strange.

Standing up, he took one last deep breath and headed towards his dorm room, where he could finally get his long awaited sleep.

[biracy]

more that bidoofs law was like a predictor of no priorities or poor judgement calls/discretion, and easily verifies them a dismissible chump on that basis. if someone is going to rb porn, idc, my friends do this and I am also a stupid horny person.

but personally if someone's entire blog is like, hentai of bug eyed anime children or entirely consisting of porn gifs and they see fit to contribute to a political post by saying all kinds of things on there - their blog looking like that - i don't respect it at all and find it only testifies to conservative panic over some grooming conspiracy as being a self report, so thats who I believe they're speaking about. but I see it's very fucking obnoxious when people beat the dead horse of the joke into the ground or misuse it in the way you described

A blog is ultimately only one facet of somebody's life. There is an assumption that because someone has a certain type of blog, particularly a "hentai blog" or a "fandom blog," then their life must be consumed entirely by the subject matter of said blog and they are incapable of contributing to "serious" discussions, and this assumption is bad and wrong. Even a person whose blog "consists entirely of porn gifs" is a person who exists in "the real world" and is capable of understanding "real-world problems." The idea of the "porn-addicted shut-in" has become increasingly weaponized against gay and trans leftists, but even if it wasn't, you should still be able to debate conservatives without falling back on "well YOU like hentai like some kind of degenerate. Curious". In exactly the same way as I talk about "fandom blogs", you need to understand that everyone online is a person with just as rich of an inner life as you have, and if you're going to raise political, ideological, or even ethical complaints against a person, you better have something to back it up besides "lol you like hentai" or "lol you like The Magnus Archives" or whatever the hell else. "I automatically disregard the opinion of someone with a porn blog because I consider their viewpoint unworthy of further analysis" actually displays the hollowness of YOUR opinions. I'm not saying you have to #debate conservatives all day, but you should at least be able to understand intellectually why you think someone else's opinion is wrong in a way that does not involve this level of surface-level, reactionary judgement

[stickthisbig]

Look I'm real annoyed at people getting high and mighty about whether duolingo works, and here are some hard fucking truths I have to tell you:

If you are a new adult learner of another language, you will never be fluent in that language. Fucking just forget about it. We have this bias towards learning language like it's a party trick, like it is a game that we can win. Not only is that not the point of learning a language, it's also the fuck impossible. You are not going to become fluent using Duolingo because you were never going to be fluent at all.

Now once you're done with that, chew on this part: It's okay to be shitty at things, especially languages, and most people who speak multiple languages are not fluent in all of them. Americans in particular self-report being way worse at languages than they actually are because the only understanding that we have is that perfect fluency is the only way to speak another language. It is okay to only know enough to ask where the bathroom is, because that's how you open a door to learning how to order breakfast, which is how you learn to read the newspaper, which is how you learn to read poetry.

It is okay to just know enough of a language to get by. It is okay to learn just enough of a language to learn how to read a certain kind of document. It is perfectly okay if the minute you open your mouth, someone knows where you're from. Language is a tool and not a trophy, and if you find the teaching strategies of Duolingo useful, you will probably move towards an okay conversational understanding of a language. It doesn't work miracles, but miracles are not the point of learning.

I do have complaints about Duolingo, and I vent them frequently. I think its single biggest problem is that it teaches you to think in sentences and not paragraphs, and as someone who doesn't learn great from immersion, trying to learn without a conjugation chart sucks. I do think that it is better thought about as something that you use to enrich your life on a daily basis, in the way that you enrich yourself by doing the crossword puzzle. But you were never going to sit down and study a language for an hour a day, and trust me on this one, buying a book isn't going to fucking work. I know that Duolingo makes claims that it can't back up, but the idea that it is keeping people from being fluent in a language is also absolutely unsupportable.

And now I am blacklisting Duolingo on Tumblr and moving on with my life, I'm almost up to a 1200 day streak

[max1461]

The meaning of an utterance is dependent on context and shared knowledge. This is true in a weak sense and in a strong sense. The weak sense has traditionally more interested philosophers, while the strong sense has more interested linguists.

The weak sense is this:

You and I both learned the words we know through exposure to them in context. Because our life experiences have been slightly different, the meanings we have picked up for these words will differ slightly. So, for instance, when I hear the word "tree", I picture in my mind a certain thing, and when you hear the word "tree", you picture a slightly different thing. And so when someone says "there's a tree outside", the image you get in your mind will be slightly different than the one I get in mine. This doesn't so much matter with "tree", but with subtler ideas like "responsibility" or "inherent" or "help" or so on, this can be a significant impediment to communication.

The strong sense is this:

Contained within the grammar of every human language are explicit references to context, which directly affect the semantics of sentences. The most obvious examples are deictics: words whose referent is contextually determined. English deictics include words like this, that, here, there, etc. The place to which "here" refers is not an absolute, it varies on a sentence-to-sentence basis in response to context. If I am in Munich and I say "this here is a lovely city", I am making a different claim than if I said the exact same words while standing in Paris. This is not a subtlety in the process of interpretation generally, it is an explicit element of English grammar. Every known language has deictics, and languages have subtler grammatical references to context, too.

Another place where this manifests is in the referent tracking of pronouns. Imagine the following exchange:

Alice: "I met my new neighbor yesterday. Interesting guy. And he a dog named Bertrand, which is kinda funny." Bob: "Yeah that is kinda funny. So what's he do, what's his job?"

In this exchange, "he" in the second sentence refers to the neighbor. Of course you can intentionally interpret it as referring to the dog instead, and this is a common way to make a joke:

Alice: "I met my new neighbor yesterday. Interesting guy. And he a dog named Bertrand, which is kinda funny." Bob: "Yeah that is kinda funny. So what's he do, what's his job?" Alice: "He's the world's first canine philosopher!"

Ba-dum-tss.

But this interpretation is not the default one. However, you can shift the default interpretation by changing the context a little, for instance like this:

Alice: "I love dogs with jobs—you know, guide dogs, sled dogs, that kinda thing. I think that's so cute. So anyway, I met my new neighbor yesterday. Interesting guy. And he a dog named Bertrand, which is kinda funny." Bob: "Yeah that is kinda funny. So what's he do, what's his job?"

These examples pull on shared context in different ways. The first exchange uses general knowledge about the world to disambiguate pronoun referents: people have jobs and dogs don't. In the third example, immediate conversational context overrides this general context: we're talking about dogs with jobs, so "he" probably refers to the dog here.

There are even subtler cases of interpretation determined by context in these examples that you might have missed. For instance:

Alice: "I met my new neighbor yesterday. Interesting guy. And he a dog named Bertrand, which is kinda funny."

What's funny? That your neighbor has a dog? No, that's not it. It's that the dog's name is Bertrand. Why? Because we know Bertrand isn't a common dog name. Someone from a culture where, say, dogs are usually kept in zoos rather than owned as pets, but where Bertrand is a perfectly common name for one, might interpret this sentence in the opposite way.

Language is absolutely rich with this kind of context dependent semantics. And I mean basic, everyday language, too—not just literature or poetry or places where metaphor and linguistic ambiguity are employed intentionally.

There are basically three points I want to make here:

For the linguists: world knowledge is part of linguistic competence, or is at least a load-bearing pillar on which linguistic competence depends. Much of language can be characterized formally, in a way that a computer can understand. Indeed, large fragments of the referent tracking of pronouns can be formally described. But there are places where these formal systems abdicate responsibility; they defer to the speaker's world-model and say "you figure it out". Modeling these situations is very hard.

For the historian or the reader of history: you're screwed. Ok, that's an exaggeration. But when the basic structure of a sentence can often only be disambiguated using contextual information, much less the subtleties of the meaning of words, parsing ancient texts whose contexts you lack can be a very fraught affair. This opens up the door both for misinterpretation and for bad-faith reinterpretation, where someone comes along and supplies spurious or spuriously-relevant "contextualization" that actually does not bring you closer to the intended meaning. Cf. the Sumerian bar joke that no one understands.

For those who treat language as basically transparent (that is to say, those who think they can be confident in what things mean without devoting any meta-thinking to the question): this will probably not be a consistently successful strategy.

[saphronethaleph]

Outpatient Procedure

The door opened, and Janice Olken looked up.

“Chris H?” she asked.

“That’s me,” the man agreed, somewhat nervously. “The receptionist told me to come straight here – is that all right?”

“That’s quite correct,” Janice agreed. “My previous appointment cancelled, and we’ve got a lot to go through… take a seat, please.”

She shuffled away the papers she was working on, official forms, then assessed Chris.

“All right,” she said. “This is the last meeting before you’re committed, but it’s the first meeting with me, so I hope you’ll forgive me that we go through some basics.”

“Not a problem,” Chris replied. “It’s taken so long to get here already, I’m quite patient.”

Janice smiled slightly.

“No doubt,” she said, bringing up the man’s file. “Let’s see… all right, I’ve gone over your chart, but I need to confirm a few things. No heart conditions or history of heart conditions?”

“My paternal grandfather died at fifty-two,” Chris answered. “That was a heart attack. My father’s now sixty-eight. No other history of heart problems in the family.”

Janice nodded, confirming that. Chris himself was thirty-one, which was well before the point that even a hereditary problem of the same scale as his paternal grandfather would manifest.

“That’s what I’ve got here,” she said. “And your referring physician said that that shouldn’t be a significant problem… any known allergies?”

“Hayfever, but I manage it with medication,” Chris replied. “Isn’t this on my chart?”

“Like I say, it’s my first meeting with you,” Janice pointed out, not unkindly. “I need to confirm a few details… any other medication that you take on a regular basis, besides hayfever medication?”

“No,” Chris answered. “And before you ask – I don’t smoke, I drink no more than two units a week, and I get about four hours of exercise per week.”

Janice confirmed those matched what was on the chart, then picked up a clipboard and a sheaf of paper.

“All right, Mr. Hall,” she said. “If you could tell me your reason for seeking treatment? In your own words.”

Chris’s gaze flicked up to the diplomas hanging behind Janice’s desk, then he focused on her again.

“Self-affirmation,” he answered, steadily enough. “That’s why it’s taken so long, right?”

“Affirmative treatment does tend to take longer,” Janice agreed. “It’s an abundance of caution, as I’m sure you’re well aware, but it’s considered to be an elective treatment and – while I have my own thoughts on whether it should be categorized the same way as other elective treatment – it’s probably a good thing that permanent body modification is hedged about with certain safeguards.”

“Do you think they’re all medically necessary?” Chris asked, sounding somewhat bitter. “The amount of time I’ve spent on-”

He shook his head, cutting the statement off.

“Sorry,” he added. “It’s just been… frustrating.”

“I understand your position,” Janice said, evenly. “A lot of the people who I see coming into this office have faced the same thing. Count yourself lucky that you passed the psychiatric evaluation.”

“Yeah, that was…” Chris began, then shook his head. “It was an ordeal.”

Janice nodded, slightly, taking some more notes.

“Now, I’m afraid that because of your reason for treatment I need to go through some legally mandated questions and comments,” she went on. “I appreciate that some of them will sound nonsensical. But they are required and there’s not really any getting around that. Even if you’ve heard – and answered – them before.”

She flicked to the second page on her clipboard. “I am required to ask you if you have undergone a period of non-treatment affirmation.”

“Yes, insofar as that’s possible,” Chris muttered. “I’ve got a suit, if that’s what you mean.”

“That is the usual way,” Janice confirmed, with a slight smile. “I know it’s a shame you probably won’t need it any more, given the investment.”

“No, I intend to keep it,” Chris said. “It’s… helped me, and I kind of like the idea of being able to be in public as myself without people knowing.”

Janice nodded, making a mental tick mark.

“I am also required to point out that the proposed treatment is permanent,” she said. “And to ask you if you have considered alternatives.”

Chris stared.

“Even at this point you have to ask that stupid question?” he asked. “It’s been years since I started this process!”

Janice let the shout die away, then tilted her head slightly.

“It’s a legal requirement,” she stressed slightly. “I have to ask these questions. It’s out of my… hands.”

Chris looked down, stifling a sigh.

“Right, right,” he said. “I get it, it’s just… I know it’s the law, but these are stupid laws. Right?”

“I couldn’t possibly comment,” Janice said. “Your answer?”

“I’ve considered alternatives, yeah,” Chris replied. “I wouldn’t be here, two and a half years into this process, if any of the alternatives worked for me.”

Janice made a precise tick mark on her sheet, then turned over another page.

“I am required to read you the following,” she said, then cleared her throat slightly. “The process of therianization is a process that is poorly understood. It is a process that cannot be reversed. Patients who have undergone therianization gain a strong allergic reaction to certain metals, including cadmium, silver and palladium. These metals are commonly found in jewellery and catalytic converters.”

She glanced up at Chris, noting his reaction to the disclaimer, and kept going. “The process of therianization is also recorded to have a high regret rate, with twenty-seven percent of those who underwent the process for bodily affirmation reasons registering their regret in questionnaires after one year and forty-five percent after two years.”

It went on, and on, for almost a page, until Janice finally reached the end, ticked another checkbox, and put the clipboard down.

Chris looked like he was about to explode, but contained himself, and Janice held up a hand.

“I know,” she said. “Having reached the end of what I am legally required to read, I can tell you that most of the statistics included are not statistics that I consider to be true. They are, however, part of the Therianization Medical Use Act, so I have no choice but to read them for you and to confirm that I have read them for you.”

“Well, you’ve done that,” Chris admitted, with a sigh. “I just… why is it so hard to do this?”

“You saw the protestors, I take it?” Janice said, glancing towards the door and the front of the building beyond. “That’s just one reason why.”

“Right, right,” Chris groaned. “It just feels… completely backwards. Does everyone who comes to you have this much trouble?”

It was a rhetorical question, because they both knew the answer, but Janice provided it anyway.

“No,” she said, simply. “They do not. In any case where the treatment is associated with directly saving a patient’s life, instead of improving their mental health, the consent required is… significantly less stringent. But I’m sure Phyllis went over it with you – it’s the kind of thing she does.”

“You know her?” Chris asked, curious.

“Of course,” Janice replied. “As odd as it may sound, there’s not actually all that many Registered Theiran Practitioners in the country – there’s a reason you were referred to me from all the way over in Oxford. I make it a point to at least meet all the physicians who’ve referred patients to me in the past.”

She checked over the notes she’d taken again. “All right, Mr. Hall. That all seems in order… now, before we go through the requirements of what you’ll need to do before the actual surgical appointment, we should probably make sure you have a good appointment slot as soon as possible. Can you do an evening appointment next Thursday?”

“...next Thursday?” Chris said, sounding astonished. “That soon?”

“That’s the day of the full moon,” Janice replied. “If we get everything out of the way today, then I don’t actually need to be able to speak during your surgical appointment… just to be able to bite you.”

She smiled, and this time it had a lupine cast to it. “Though I’m sure you’ll want to familiarize yourself with what I look like then anyway…”

[alpaca-clouds]

The Horror Of Vampires?!

A friend and I talked about something recently, and frankly it really made me think about this. Officially vampires are creatures associated with horror literature and horror media. However, most people do not really interact with vampires that way? Like, sure Interview with the Vampire and Castlevania for example do get marketed as horror - but... People usually watch horror to get creeped out or spooked. But people usually watch vampire-adjacent media either because "vampires are hot" or because it makes for good action. I mean, I love my vampires - I spoke about it this week. But I (who was afraid of his own shadow as a kid) never once in my life considered vampires as "spooky" or "scary".

And looking back on the history of vampire media... This is not exactly a new development, right?

Lord Ruthven and Varney

We could start whenever with vampire novels, as the vampire genre goes back until the 18th century. However, I am going to start at the beginning of the 19th century wth The Vampyr by Polidori and the Varney Penny Dreadfuls by Rymer. Because these two already quite well show that vampires were not really creatures of horror back then.

Because neither story really was horror even back in the day. The Vampyr was mostly just Polidori poking fun at Byron. While some of the themes we find in Dracula later are present here, ironically it is quite clear that Polidori did not quite think about it the same way that Stoker did. (Or to put it differently: Polidori hung with a very different crowd than Stoker.)

The Varney stories are mostly just... confusing in this regard. The Varney story is most notable for being published as a penny dreadful first - and it seems the writer or rather writers were not quite certain whether Varney was an actual vampire or just a metaphoricial one. One way or another, Varney definitely was portrayed as more and more sympathetical over the run of the novels, and his death in the finale is actually quite tragic.

Dracula and Carmilla

Dracula and Carmilla were probably the one thing that actually was meant to be read as horror. And while we, who definitely would be considered to be "sick bastards" by Victorian standards, would not necessarily consider it this way, it was definitely meant to be read this way back in the day.

Both novels definitely play of the same ideas for horror. A very Victorian kind of horror. Because the horror in both novels is very much based on the idea of "corruption of the innocents" and the "alien who comes to corrupt".

Nobody is gonna argue that both books are extremly queer, which is exactly part of the horror. This was written by Victorians, who were quite appalled by the idea of queerness. Many paragraphs have been written before about Bram Stoker, who very probably was queer himself, writing Dracula with a mixture of xenophobia, antisemitism, and internalized queerphobia. Dracula is all the things that the Victorian society feared. The "stranger from the East" who comes in and corrupts the young people (Johnathan, and Lucy mostly, while Mina is obviously incorruptable).

The same is somewhat true for Carmilla. Carmilla comes in and corrupts a young girl into queerness. The queerness here is the basis of the horror.

Again, we do not quite read it this way these days. But that was what made those novels horror - and maybe it was what kinda made sure that vampires would not stay horror for long?

The Blood of the Vampire

Another book that came out close to the end of the century and already goes very deep into making the vampire sympathetic is The Blood of the Vampire by Marryat. While this story leaves it open (as do many vampire stories of the day) whether it is truly vampires involved here, there is definitely the suggestion... However, we read the entire story from the point of view of the vampire, and the horror is in fact that this young girl does not understand what is happening to her, and that she through her nature accidentally kills people.

I am Legend

Okay, I will admit one thing: Of all the vampire novels released between 1990 and 1970 I have only ever read I am Legend. Now, I am Legend is pretty much somewhere between vampire novel and a zombie apocalypse. Now, if you only know the Will Smith movie, you do not know anything about this story, mind you. Because the twist is completely different.

Now, for the most part the horror of this novel - and this is definitely horror - comes from the decay of society, and how a human being completely isolated will usually use his mind. Sure, part of this are the vampires, but the protagonist's mind is actually a way bigger part of the horror than the vampires.

Especially as the final reveal of the story is: "Vampires are actually quite alright. And they will be the future of humanity."

Salem's Lot

Salem's Lot is another story that definitely features vampires as horror creatures. And to be fair, I am struggling to say much about it because there is just one simple fact: I find King's writing incredibly boring and even kid!me (who, again, was afraid of everything) never found King's stories very spooky or frightening. For the most part I would argue that Salem's Lot has not much horror that is specifically connected to the vampires being vampires. They are just "monsters" that can turn pretty much everyone against you. That is the horror here. The big difference between vampires and zombies would probably be the very specific weaknesses of vampires - and the fact that they are cunning, which zombies usually are not. But generally speaking, the vampires here could be easily replaced with any other kind of monster tht could easily turn other people into "monsters" themselves.

Still, from all vampire media that I have read, Salem's Lot is probably the one example of a story, where the vampires are horror creatures just on the basis of being vampires - and where the book never really bothers even the slightest of humanizing the vampires in any way.

Interview with the Vampire

Just one year after Salem's Lot, though, the novel would release that would very much change vampire literature forever: Interview with the Vampire. Yes, this was officially a horror novel. However, I never read it as horror - and I doubt most folks who read it did. Instead this book and the ones following it, very much is the exploration of the psychology of vampires. Anne Rice's vampires are very sad, very dysfunctional people, who really just want to find some peace and happiness, but are quite unhappy. If anything the thing that is the horror here is not the vampires, but their existence. Because to them existing as vampires becomes a sort of psychological horror to itself. This is obviously especially clear when it comes to Claudia, who is cursed to forever exist as a child in a world that never will respect her and see her as a full person.

As you can see: I am not even arguing that there is no horror in here to be found - but the horror is not "scary vampire", but "being a vampire is fucking scary". Mind you, it is this aspect of the vampire that I found always quite fascinating, and that admittedly got a bit too lost for me on the long run...

So, this was pretty much the point where vampire media changed forever. At this point vampires were hypercharged and suddenly became very omnipresent in media to never go away over the next 50 years. And yes, from the 80s onwards I have read a whole lot more of the vampire media that has been released. However, I will not go much into many details from here on - rather than going into the three distinct types of vampire media that we have now.

Vampire Romance

I am blindly gonna argue that probably the biggest subgenre of vampire literature is vampire romance. Based on the fact that romance is the biggest genre of literature in general, you know? A lot of Urban Fantasy falls into this, too.

Now, generally speaking almost all vampire romances are the same: We have a human main character, most of the times female, who falls in love with a vampire, most of the time male. There are queer variants of this, but very little where a male human falls in love with a female vampire (or the other way around). Sure, I can think of a few novels like that (mostly stuff about non-white vampires, ironically), but generally speaking: Most of this is a tiny female woman or girl, falling in love with daddy dom vampire.

While sometimes the romantic vampires can be dangerous, I can hardly call them horror. Sure, there might be a scene or two - depending on the author - where the vampire goes into a blood frenzy and might be dangerous to their human lover, but in general vampires in this subgenre are depicted as something great, amazing, hot, and desireable. In quite a lot of books the main character ends up becoming a vampire, or at least yearns for it.

So, no. The vampire romance definitely falls out of the horror aspect.

Vampire Hunters

Probably the most varied type of vampire media we have around today is media about vampire hunters. While vampire hunter media was around forever (technically speaking the oldest I have read were from the 1910s and 1920s and published in pulp magazines, featuring usually vampire or general monster hunters - it even seems that this is where the entire "werewolf vs vampire" thing comes from), it really took off in the 90s with Buffy.

Vampire Hunter alligned media usually is more targeted at a male audience, though there are some stories that are more targeted at women. Either way: While the main plot here usually goes about hunting down either one specific vampire or just your average monster/vampire of the week, there is quite a lot of those that have a lot of sideplot focused on romance/sex and a wide cast of side characters. Generally speaking a lot of those stories however will be best described as "action", which is probably why we see this type of vampire story most commonly also in visual media - be it games, shows. comics, or movies.

However, one way or another: Very few of these actually go heavily into horror. While at least some of the games can have some creepy and anxious moments, and a lot of media here goes into splatter and gore... There is rarely a whole lot of actual horror in it. After all, in the end this genre is very much about a power fantasy - which is simply the opposite of horror.

Vampire Horror (?)

Between all the other vampire stories there are some vampire stories, that aim at least to be horror. Del Toro's The Strain definitely falls into this. And in general I have read a total of four books, that actually fall into the genre - while also being completely unable to recall the other three titles, as they do not seem to be in the Wikipedia list.

And this was actually what got me thinking about this the most. Because... out of all those books, only one actually worked for me. And that was a book written from an indigenous perspective doing the same thing that Castlevania Nocturne does: Equating colonialists with vampires.

However, I am not quite sure whether this was because I identified with this perspective, or whether it was because of these books it was the only one not taking place in a semi-modern world.

See, here is the thing: In a modern setting vampire are just not very scary, no matter what you do. And that... Well, it leads me to a theory.

What makes a vampire scary?

So, let me talk for a moment about this. What actually is the horror of the vampire?

From all the novels I have read, I would argue that the general ideas of horror within vampires come from one or more of the following ideas:

Vampires can corrupt anyone into their ways. One horror aspect of this is, that they can turn anyone against you. Even your lover, your family, your friends can fight you on the next day.

Vampires can corrupt you. They can "infect you" and make you live out your darkest desires - be those of sexual or a violent nature.

Vampires can hide in plain sight. They can appear as human for the most part and can hence sneak up on you rather easily.

Vampires usually are incredibly hard to kill (unless you have sunlight).

The last part is the biggest issue.

I will now say it again: Originally vampires could go out into the sunlight. The entire thing with "vampires die in the sunlight" actually goes back to the Nosferatu movie running out of budget for an epic final battle and people ran with it. But it is exactly this that makes vampires so often not work as horror. Because it is a very easy, obvious solution to killing them.

A few days ago I saw a post on my timeline on how monsters that are visible are actually a lot more scary - and I kinda agree. But generally I think that a main issue with vampire horror is, that the "weaknesses" are just too silly and too obvious.

In general I think vampires would work better in a sort of psychological horror, that goes more into the first two aspects of it. Because the vampire as a monster... I am afraid it just does not work anymore these days - if it has ever worked.

And a part of me really would love to write some proper horror with vampires at some point. But I don't know if it can even work. What do you think?

[betterbemeta]

I think something interesting about the star trek world is its combination of both replicator and holodeck technology. I understand these are literal 'plot devices' to explain the availability of food, materials, and the ability to visit locations for sci-fi premises that can't be found on an alien planet. However, they are worth thinking about in terms of how they change the world.

(Let's assume 'ideal' circumstances where we have a stable renewable non-polluting source of lots and lots of energy and aren't rationing it like on Voyager or something)

Replicators can use energy and raw materials to configure items, and presumably dis-configure items. While the potential for '3D printing' basically anything so long as its materials aren't too rare is really cool, it is also a near-perfect recycling machine. Beyond making sure your replicated dishes and cups don't infinitely pile up, that's SO IMPORTANT. Not only does that mean many items are 'temporary' that otherwise would be 'forever', you can instantly refresh the wear on many items without having to replace them and generate trash.

For example, tennis balls. It's currently really hard to recycle tennis balls, and serious players wear them out extremely quickly. Every serve you make after the first will be with a slightly worn, degraded tennis ball until you replace it, which generates trash. The production facilities to make all those tennis balls have to exist, they have to be shipped, the space to store them exists, the space to store their waste exists, the waste must be transported to a tennis ball recycling facility or a landfill...

but with replicators, you could play tennis without owning/paying a club to access a single tennis ball, without wasting a tennis ball.

And then there's the possibility of holodeck sports where you don't even need to make ANY material items. You could program the tennis ball to never run out. As long as you have the power to run it, maybe the most you'd need to 'own' is a tennis outfit. I am not sure if it's consistent that holodecks can 'dress you' or if you always must bring in costumes from the outside. And the costume itself could be replicated and then recycled!

There's a vast amount of stuff that we retain as personal property that just has to do with accessing activities or amenities. It's not really property that has emotional significance to us, but we still have attachments to it as its a facilitator of our active identity. Our dishes and cookware. Sports equipment. Certain kinds of clothing items. Some types of personal care items. Non-heirloom/generic holiday decorations. Stuff that is usually sacrificed first when we become homeless, when losing access to what they enable is more devastating than the items themselves.

If we could basically conjure and dismiss these things at-will, or access them on a temporary basis for free, we wouldn't need to own them or keep them around in our homes. No supply chain would be dedicated to them. Their waste would be completely eliminated. Ideas of 'what stuff I need to have as a person, to have a dignified life' would change completely.

It wouldn't surprise me if there were people in the star trek universe running around on earth with basically nothing we consider permanent physical property. Not because they're homeless and have no place to put them, and not because they're rich and their assets are liquid-- because the only reason to 'keep' mundane items, even something as complex as a communication device or computer, might be because they are emotionally important to you. And not everybody has 'stuff' like that at every time in their lives.

[cinnamonspicevanilla]

dark coquette makeup inspos for daily life ❦

❧ i was looking for some dark coquette inspirations for my daily makeup, i really love the dark coquette substyle, i like the striking eyelashes with 60s eyeliner combo and i am working in a place where formality is more required since i work in an office and both bareface and exaggerated makeup are not seen as the ideal.

❧ so after a quite bit of searching i remembered marie france pisier's makeup in trans europ-express and how this look is quite simple but really beautiful, she doesn't really wear nothing or her skin and i think (is hard to figure out since the movie is b&w) she wore a nude lipstick that balance the look since she have a stronger eye makeup.

❧ i've also thought of turkan soray in the late 60s. she have darker eyes and altought turkan's signature makeup seems a little over the top, some of her lighter looks can really be suitable for the workplace. here are some examples:

❧ her eye makeup is of course very striking, but i think it's in a positive way, it's not the kind of makeup that people might find scandolous (that not a bad thing tho), it's attention-grabbing in a good way. the way that makes everyone look into your eyes and see a certain glamour and seduction in a more discrete way, which is a very good thing for anyone who works in more formal environments.

❧ it's also pretty simple makeup, probably the biggest challenge you'll have will be eyeliner, I think falsies aren't exactly necessary and a good mascara will make a great replacement.

❧ and lastly, rachel weisz, i think her makeup is very good for those who don't like to wear eyeliner on a daily basis, she doesn't use it much and usually leaves her eyelids clean or with a darker eyeshadow.

❧ the thing about rachel's makeup is definitely her eyebrows and lips, although she constantly wears rosy lips, the way in which they are contoured or drawn really makes a difference and grabs a lot of attention.

❧ i also think that her makeup can be great for anyone who wants to wear a red or berry-colored lipstick, since she doesn't wear a lot of makeup in the eye area, there isn't much risk of it being overdone or too much.

❧ i may do another post with more looks that i find interesting and that might work for other types of personal coloring, these are just a few that I reviewed and that came to mind as i write this on my break. if yall have any ideas i will analyse all of them. hope you like it and kisses

[catprinx]

I know art is all about practice and trying out new things and not being afraid of using references, but do you have any advice for newer artists about areas to focus time on? Especially for learning digital art/colouring? I've always loved your art style so any advice you have would be valuable.

hi anon!!! Thank you for the kind words :)

There's no one good answer to this because art is about a lot of things. So rather than give you clear-cut actionable items to do, like a checklist, I'll just write down my own philosophies about art exploration. I've also been thinking a lot about this in terms of my own improvement.

(Also for everyone reading this I am by NO MEANS a teacher so take everything I say with a grain of salt. I'm simply someone that just enjoys thinking about art)

I think art is a lot about the combination of technical skill + visual language + concept.

Practicing technical skill, as you said, involves using reference and doing studies. I think an important thing to remember is you need to know what you're trying to learn. Here's a good example the former is a traditional still life of grapes, the artist probably intended to make a piece with a good composition and an impressive rendering technique. While the latter is definitely more of a value/color study. I'm certain this artist could have gone into detail rendering those grapes but being realistic isn't their intention/style. So when you're doing your studies I think simply asking "what do I want to work on?/what am I trying to communicate" can be helpful.

If your goal is working on color specifically I think it would be important to practice values, hues, and temperature control. Those things are the basis of color and after that you can play with more stylistic color. In the end my advice is to do a lot of studies, and look at a lot of art! Doing these studies digitally is just a matter or practicing and familiarizing yourself with the art programs (it takes time). If you have an artist you like you can probably look at their work and breakdown what you like about it. For example the narumitsu art I was working on here is kind of a study of @/rei_17's art (from twitter). I love her use of non-local colors and colors that are very close in value but the depth comes from the hue/temperature shifts in color. It's so masterful to me!!! So, now that I know what I'm looking at it becomes easier to break down and put it into practice for my own art.

Visual language usually refers to "style". To me, it can mean a lot of different things but for the sake of this long ass text post let's say it's just about "art style". My tip is to...copy! Copy what you like and figure out what it is you like about it. I feel like your hand will guide you towards your own art style in the end. I don't view myself as someone with a particularly interesting or unique art style but I can breakdown my influences a little. I'm someone who grew up with anime/shoujo influence but also copied a lot of popular tumblr styles back in the day lmao. I want my anatomy to "feel" correct even though it's rarely realistic and I don't really exaggerate form too much because I don't have a preference for it. I'm someone who values drawing speed and clarity of form over details. And all those things added up are the reasons I draw like I do. You can totally make a style by more intentionally riffing off others, and you can also develop a style just by doing your own thing. Your art will always have an identity of its own even if you don't know it at the time!!!

Concept is just your idea/intentions/narrative etc. I really think concept can be anything you want. Some people can go really in-depth with their concept with studying and research and etc, and other people can make something visually interesting simply by going "I want to draw a cute girl". Everyone is different! I wouldn't take concept advice from me personally because I don't make original illustrations. Fanart is easier to work with because usually you're interpreting someone's existing narrative and you can churn out something cool from that. Maybe my advice is draw more fanart???

[silentgravesdontexist]

Whisper-Whisper Fuit: Wind Model

The basic rundown for it is that it allows the user to hear the whispers of the wind. Imagine the wind as being a collective of voices that tells me everything that happens around me whether I like it or not.

What did the fuit look like?

The shape takes after Rambutan.

The hair like thingies are semi-transparent and they move like they're being blown by the wind even though I'm in a closed area.

When I held it, it feels as if I can touch and feel the wind beneath my fingers.

How does it feel like?

There are two categories of what it feels like: Voices and feeling it.

Voices: These are direct voices of the wind.

"There's a storm approaching in the east."

"The person on the other side of the street farted."

"The waves are rough ahead."

Feeling it: Spiderweb analogy.

I'm the spider and the wind around me is the web. When something moves, I feel it through the vibrations in the air. Mainly occurs for things like a person or objects are being moved around.

What's the range?

On a regular basis, it can reach maybe within an entire ship/building. If I try really hard the range can go up to a kilometer.

It also depends on other variables such as other noises, weather, and my physical and mental state.

Do you ever get overwhelmed?

Yes. Always.

When I ate it as a child, I was crying non-stop like I was going insane with how many voices and noises where all around me.

Had to stay in a soundproof room until Dr. Vegapunk invented a specific kind of earbuds that help me tune out most of the noise.

What are the drawbacks?

Constant overstimulation. It's not just the voices of the wind but the information being crammed into my brain as well.

If the earbuds break unexpectedly, there's a high chance that my ears will start bleeding and even pass out. In the books, it's even said there are those who went insane.

How do the earbuds work?

I can alter the level and range of sensitivity.

It can from the full range of my powers to radio-silence (perfect when someone starts nagging me).

The man's a genius so the buds have a filter between voices and feeling the wind.

It also has a setting that allows me to simply focus on a certain kind of vibration in the wind.

Is it a one-sided communication?

Yes and no. Think of it as intrusive thoughts. They just come and go as they please. I can politely ask for requests and favors, though. Depends on the wind if it will listen or not.

What is it best suited for?

Navigation, information gathering, and stealth missions. Ironic bc without the devil fruit, I am horrible at those.

What are the abilities do you have?

Seeker

Allows me to find anything within a range of an area. May it be people, animals, items, and even conversation.

Fun fact: Luffy was the one who gave that skill a name when we played hide-and-seek as kids.

Russian Roulette (Stealth)

Now, this depends on whether the wind in a specific area favors me or not. Genuinely like playing russian roulette.

If the wind doesn't favor me...

Nothing will happen.

If it does favor me...

It can reduce the noise I make so that people will be less likely to hear/notice me.

Maybe even making them hear things as a distraction.

If the wind really favors me...

It can make the light in the air refract so that my appearance be distorted— if not entirely invisible in other people's eyes.

Russian Roulette (Combat):

Similar to stealth but different applications.

If the wind doesn't favor me...

Nothing happens.

If the wind favors me...

It helps me be more sensitive to have an idea of my opponents moves (think of spiderweb analogy again). Sometimes even helping me dodge surprise attacks.

If the wind really favors me...

It can thin out the air—if not completely remove the air around an opponent for a short while. The effect can range from making them lightheaded and dizzy to even passing out altogether.

Note: I am not actually manipulating or controlling the wind with Russian Roulette: Stealth/Combat. I'm asking the wind for a favor and its the wind that gets to decide the extent of my ability. That's why it's called Russian Roulette.

Zephyr's Compass

Greatest tool for navigating on sea and land.

The wind tells me what the state the sea is in (a cheatsheet in grandline basically). And if there's a way for wind to come in and out, I can have a rough idea with how the layout of a building or nearby area is.

Wind's Judgement

The wind knows a lot— sometimes too much.

Thought it won't tell me everything, it can tell me whether to be cautious or trusting towards a person I encounter. Spidey-senses kind of vibe.

[kagoutiss]

You call ganondorf a girl a lot and now I'm wondering if you actually see him as a girl in some way? I can't see him like that but I am actually really curious how you interpret his gender now

!!! so i’ve written a more in depth summary about how i interpret his gender but the short(er) version is basically like…the gerudo don’t actually have an inherent concept of gender or gender binarism, and ganondorf doesn’t really even think of himself as being a Man. but as a result of him being raised for this role that is, by hyrulean standards, contingent upon Maleness, he’s also learned to despise having to navigate hylian society in this very constrained way that is completely arbitrary in his own culture. all in order to be perceived as a proper king, or be seen by hylians as an authority figure at all, or else be called effeminate or whatever. or be constantly othered from the rest of his people in the eyes of hylians, all on the basis of his biological subtype, which just happens to be extremely rare in gerudo people

and anyway i just feel like if he had to actually tick one of the 2 boxes on some hyrulean administrative form and didn’t have to stoop to anyone’s expectations of him, then he would mark F instead of M, partly because he’s so so sick of Having To Be A Man, and partly because all of his loved ones would be boxed into the F box by default, and i like the idea that the gerudo don’t really perceive themselves as being separate from ganondorf in the same way that hylians perceive Men & Woman to be separate, if that makes sense? and he also thinks that those designations are silly in general, so he’ll kind of just do whatever he wants when he doesn’t have to stoop to those constraints. like he fully enjoys having the title of King, and he uses he/him pronouns in the hylian language and is fine with them, and he’s not particularly dysphoric about anything physically, but in his mind he just isn’t a Man. gender is a silly contrived thing to him, but he’s had to study the nuances of it for his entire life, he could literally teach Hylian Gender Studies courses if he had to. and he’ll adopt certain aspects of gender stuff that he finds funny or interesting, or that feel more fitting to him, or that just confuse/enrage people, because he enjoys doing that too. but anyway to answer your question yes he is genuinely a girl to me sometimes agskfhakfjsksk, i’m not saying it as a joke. like he’s not always a girl but he’s often a girl and he’s almost never actually a man, and every other time, he just isn’t really assigning a gender to himself at all because ultimately it’s all made up anyway

that being said tho i like reading different headcanons for him :-) like the gerudo just ending up with one trans man every century who becomes king. there’s a lot of different ways you can interpret him gender-wise, which is part of what makes him fun lol

[sorcave]

I am actually going to get crucified for this take, but here you go. I woke up and felt violence.

Okay, this has been bugging me for a while, and I feel like it’s time to address it: why does the Marauders fandom hate on straight ships so much, and why is there such a push to force ships into being gay for the sake of it? Let me start by saying I fully support LGBTQ+ representation in fandom and love the creativity and inclusivity it brings. But there’s a real issue when canonically straight characters are vilified or erased just because they don’t fit into fanon’s preferred headcanons. It’s honestly exhausting at this point.

The Marauders fandom is notorious for erasing or flat-out hating on canon straight ships. Let’s talk about Jily, for example. They’re literally one of the most significant relationships in the hp universe—their love story is at the heart of so much of what happens in the books. And yet, in so many fan spaces, their relationship is dismissed or treated as unimportant, all so people can focus on Wolfstar or even Jegulus. I mean, I’m all for queer headcanons, but when people start framing Lily as the “bad guy” or making her out to be the third wheel in her own relationship just to boost these ships, it gets a little ridiculous. And don't get me started on the sheer amount of disdain for Tonks and Remus. That pairing gets absolutely destroyed in favor of Wolfstar, and Tonks often gets reduced to an annoying side character or completely written out. It feels so dismissive of the canon relationships that actually matter in the story.

What’s worse is the way certain characters get forced into gay ships without any real basis. Look, I love seeing people explore dynamics between characters in ways the original text didn’t, but there are times when it feels forced, like people are just making characters gay for the sake of ticking a box. Take Pandora and Alice, for example. These two characters have literally never interacted in canon, but suddenly, they’re being shipped together in fanon just because they’re both women. It’s like, are we really doing this? Are we just pairing random women together because the fandom needs more f/f representation and these are the only female characters available? It feels lazy and, honestly, disrespectful to the characters themselves. Why not just develop queer ships that actually make sense or take the time to build a dynamic that works instead of forcing it?

It’s frustrating, too, because this constant push for queer shipping has led to a lot of straight characters being sidelined or vilified. And here’s the thing: canon-compliant straight ships aren’t homophobic. You can still love and create queer headcanons without tearing down the canon relationships that already exist. It’s possible to hold space for both. But right now, it feels like a huge chunk of the fandom is obsessed with making everything gay and aggressively rejecting anyone who dares to enjoy or defend a canon straight ship. And let’s be honest, there’s something to be said about this idea of turning every character queer without any depth—representation shouldn’t just be slapping a “gay” label on a character without any actual nuance or understanding of their personality or narrative role.

This trend of dismissing straight ships or forcing queer ones onto characters who have no canon basis for it is reductive. I’m all for fanon and creative freedom, but there needs to be a balance between that and respecting the canon relationships that have actual weight in the story. Not everything has to be a queer ship just for the sake of diversity, and hating on canon-compliant fans for enjoying straight relationships just feels counterproductive. There’s space for all kinds of ships in fandom—let’s stop acting like queer ships are inherently better or more progressive just because they’re queer.

Representation is about authenticity, not erasure.

[antiendovents]

This is more asking for advice than a vent but it's a bit of a vent too. It's really long and I'm so sorry but there's important context and we are also physically incapable of not being long winded. No TW i can think of beyond vague mentions of trauma

TL;DR: A friend claims to be an endogenic system and came out to our friend group first, leaving me to clean up the misinformation mess while navigating the minefield that is them being the more liked friend, while avoiding sounding like a fake claiming asshole. Help

About a year ago we decided to come out to our close friend circle. When we came out to one of our friends, they came out to us back. As endogenic. We were really excited for those few seconds before they revealed they were endogenic, and we didn't say anything then because we genuinely had no idea what to say. The fawning kicked in and for several months we were really trying to be accepting of them being endogenic, but we really can't. After further conversations "one" on "one" with them we've discovered they have a deep level of misinformation that I am not sure how to deal with. I can't just cut them off because we're in a group chat together with several of our other friends who I am almost certain like them more than us.

I can almost guarantee that they have infested the rest of the group with misinformation about a disorder I spent half a year having regular breakdowns about having and what that means for us and our childhood. Realizing what we went through was traumatic, that our mother was genuinely insidiously abusive instead of just kind of mean and crazy, was genuinely one of, if not the hardest, thing we've been through to date. Realizing the memory issues were more than just ADHD and silly brainTM, that the gender fluid stuff was alters, all of it was excruciating. But we made it through the other side. We cut contact with our abusive mother, we have an extremely loving and patient and kind partner that held us while we cried about syscovery and hold us now when we have breakdowns about various other things. We had already done a lot of research on DID before even considered the possibility we could have it for a project in high school, and later when we started really needing to figure out wtf was wrong it was that basis of research that lead us to do further research on it to discover that yes, we have this, and yes, that means we were deeply betrayed by the people who we're supposed to protect us and keep us safe and loved.

This friend who came out has referred to alters as being "dead" or "killed", and they split pretty much the entire cast of Hazbin Hotel immediately after watching it, as well as a different media that I'm not going to say cause it's mildly niche and while I know they don't follow this blog I don't want to risk it. I don't want to fake claim them over this, as many CDD systems have very low split tolerances, are fictive heavy, etc., but on top of them identifying as endogenic and clearly not having done any research beyond TikTok and Tumblr, I just don't know. They have however, mentioned things like amnesia and trauma holders, which indicates to me they are in fact traumatized, likely even more than we are due to the low split tolerance (if they truly are a system), and a traumagenic system, but the endogenic community sunk their grimy predatory claws in and made it impossible for them to come to terms with it.

We really desperately want to correct the misinformation I know has been spread among the group, but more than that I need the friend to accept that endogenic plurality doesn't exist, and that if they are a system, it's traumagenic. I do however, know how difficult it was for us to come to terms with our own trauma, and do t really want to subject another person to that. If we had discovered endogenic plurality before coming to terms with our disorder we likely would have buried our heads in the sand as well, which would have inevitably made it so much worse when we did inevitably have to face our trauma.

I am not super worried about destabilizing them as they have stated they're in therapy with a therapist that recognizes their plurality (though a therapist that accepts endogenic systems as real is just as bad to me as a therapist who doesnt see DID as real at all imo), though that is still a concern. We aren't super close with this friend ourselves, but several people in the group are. I'm mainly worried about losing them or them thinking I'm "fake claiming" them when I got to correct the misinformation.

Anyway, the point of this ask that has taken away too long to get to, is how does one go about both informing a friend (gently and kindly they are genuinely a nice person) that they have trauma, that their system was formed by trauma, and that you really can't be a system without it? How does one go about informing the rest of their friends about the reality of this disorder when you fumbled the first coming out and didn't really make it explicit enough you have DID and not just blorbos in your head cause it's fun? What the hell do I do how do I fix this? This has genuinely been causing a lot of stress and I can't say anything on our blog because they asked for our Tumblr and we gave it when we shouldn't have and now we can't talk about this on there.

Any help or advice would be amazing, whether that's for informing the friend, or the group as a whole. Thank you so much in advance, and thank you for having this space as well. -🦝🧥

i think maybe you should start a conversation with them, try to explain to them first that DID/OSDD is a trauma disorder (if necessary you could try link a few sources or maybe even recommend they look into the sources themselves about it) and once you explain to them you can hopefully explain to the group together that your friend was misinformed and maybe link them some sources too. if you're struggling to find sources here are a few : 01 , 02 , 03 , 04 . they might not be the best but i hope they help and i hope everything goes well. it's not easy to tell a friend they're wrong about something, but sometimes its important to do so, both for you and for them.

[alatismeni-theitsa]

Genuine question: you often talk about the West as if Greece wasn't Western and that leaves me in doubt… isn't it Western? I always see Greece referred to as such, so I figured it was. Like, I imagine there must be some details that don't completely fit into Western molds, but in general, isn't Greece Western and is it even considered one of the main origins of the West?

Hii! This is a very good question for someone who needs context!

In summary: Greece is not exactly Western. In fact, it has more things in common with countries that are considered Eastern. Greece definitely wasn't that "Western" in ancient times compared to the rest of the countries that are considered definitely Western today. Also, Europe has taken some stuff from Greece but most things it took are not Greek in culture, meaning they don't relate to us and we don't relate to them.

But from someone who's not from our general region and has little idea about our culture, there needs to be a big explanation, so all I have to say is:

Disclaimer 1: Let's appoint the US, the UK, and Germany as some examples of "definitely western" countries, as a guide. They are surely considered Western due to their geography and history.

Disclaimer 2: I'll speak in very broad terms about nationalities. In no way this is an attack on individuals who live in these countries. The statements are meant to be political and capture generic national sentiments. For example, the sentence "historically the Greeks don't like the Turks" doesn't mean that Greeks and Turks haven't lived (and continue) to live in peace under certain circumstances.

Everything exists within proper context and even I am using "Western" in a specific context. What is called "Western" today is a standard created by the European countries of Western Europe. And it doesn't make sense cause there are no clear limits between cultures. It's all a gradient, as I said in the past.

I also don't like how by "Western" we imply "progressive and technologically advanced". I haven't seen people fight about whether Albania is Western, although it's more Western than Greece geographically.

In fact, many a time I've seen maps like the one below isolate Greece and put it in the Western category but so many nations right above and west of Greece are not Western?? Notice how they show "West" = "pre-colonial/colonial nations/global empires (what I refer to as "the West" in my posts) + Greece" 😂 (Usually Turkey is also excluded, so I won't comment too much on that right now.) I mean... isn't this whole presentation... weird?? It's not even based on who is a NATO ally and who's not.

Greece is one of the most eastern European countries. Greeks existed in Minor Asia for thousands of years (Asian Greeks baby!) and we literally are right next to where Asia begins. Our capital for almost a thousand years was Constantinople which is in modern Turkiye, and Greeks still make pilgrimage there.

Our differences with the countries posing as the of the West are far greater than they want you to believe. The reason is that the western European powerful nations still want to claim the ancient Greek stuff as the basis of their national identity, and to do so they have to lump us in with their own kind. Only very recently they got "gracious" enough to do that. For most of history they claimed all things ancient Greek for themselves buuut they saw Greeks as "fallen from glory" and "mixed" and "these can't be the descendants of the ancients we admire!" (They had idealised our ancestors a looot in their minds, and by their own NW European standards) That's why maps such as the above exist.

The cultural divide in ancient times was much larger. We were kissing with tongue with Persians, Palestinians, Phoenicians and Lower Egyptians. The battle with Persians wasn't - as today west Europeans and the US want to frame it as a battle between East and West. The Persians were our freaking neighbours! 😂 Our cultures were - and still are - very similar. (Food, music, expression/openness, social politeness, phrasing)

Then came the old Rome, then came the Renaissance, and in these periods Western Europe got a bit more influenced by Greek aesthetics, for sure. But as I said the divide was greater when speaking about ancient times. Okay, our neighbors on the Italian and Iberian peninsula would be more like us, but the Germanic, Anglo-Saxon, Celtic, Norse, and Danish tribes were quite unrelated to the Greeks culturally. Even half of Italy (the Northern part) today don't see us as neighbors, because they are closer to other nations by land. (verified this with some friends abroad)

To go back to why I usually exclude Greece from "Western": "Western" is a standard term that former (and modern) colonial powers have created and choose to identify themselves and others with (if they deem them "worthy enough").

As I said, the term can be synonymous with power and progress, but it ignores powerful countries such as India, China, Japan, Korea, Saudi Arabia, and Iran which have greater industries and more power than Greece. (This is a 2017 map but it still holds, I feel😂) Notice that Greece is not even at the bottom.

Greeks also often feel we don't fit the Western mold. Usually, however, they use the term "European" to substitute the "Western" term but in our minds it's the same thing. Additionally, most Greeks growing up - especially with the rise of communication with other Balkanians through the internet - realise that we have most things in common with our geographical neighbours. The video below is an example of that.

So, why don't we feel that European/Western?

As I mentioned in the beginning, Europe is not Greek in culture. Few of the things West Europe took from us were partly influenced by the cultural climate at the time (like philosophy and the three-act structure of theater). What about the rest? What do trigonometry and astronomy and people voting have to do with one's culture? I mean are people supposed to understand my culture through functions and equations, or the 5th century BCE aesthetics of the human body?

(And to answer your question, no. They have no idea how our names, words, culture food, and music have been. They often confuse clearly Latin words with Greek words, and that's the pinnacle of their interaction with our culture😂)

We have more in common with Turks, Persians and Lebanese than we have with Germans and Swedes. Because Middle Easterners and Northeast Africans have been our neighbors for millennia. To further demonstrate the point, Greeks in Northwestern Europe feel more comfortable with Arabs, Turks, Persians and Indians than with anyone else. And they don't vibe with the Northwestern locals that much because the Greek culture is not close to theirs. (That's a generalization of course but you can't imagine how many Greeks I've heard stating that)

I don't find it unreasonable for someone to lump Greece with the Western countries because that's where our allies are at the moment. As a nation, we look to Western nations for infrastructure (Although it doesn't work too well for us sometimes because the compatibility isn't there. Like the EU gives us money to plant certain trees that are not good for our climate and how often shit catches fire here). And, of course, sometimes Greece happens to be… geographically western than many countries. So in this case "western" also applies.

At the same time, someone should bear in mind that Greece has existed under the pressure-ehhh influence of Western European nations for a long time. After the fifteenth century, they've been stealing our artifacts, fetishizing our struggles, not listening to our people in Greek cultural characteristics (such as the language), noting our "unattractive" looks (and skin sometimes) etc. I mean, they still do all of this stuff sooo… how are we supposed to feel comfortable in the same group as them?

Add the Turkish occupation from 500-600 years so there's additional Islamic and Middle Eastern influence, and cultural exchange from Greeks and towards Greeks in the Ottoman Empire.

There's also the matter of religion and East Europe is religiously and - to a large degree - culturally Orthodox. This plays a larger part in the cultural divide between West and East Europe. In fact, religion played a big part, a thousand years ago, in the schism between west and east Europe.

This difference in cultures, and the dismissive attitude of the West towards Greeks and other East Europeans, shows from Charlemagne's time. A thousand years ago and more, West Europeans were calling Greeks (and generally Eastern Romans/ Byzantines) barbarians and degenerates. Greece has been orientalised a lot in Western art over the past few centuries.

The first colonial "stock company" in History was in the Byzantine/Hellenic island of Chios in the 14th century, established by Genoese occupiers! The island was managed by a monopoly share-charter "Company", Maona. The Company held the monopoly of the world's unique Chiot mastic, as well as control of the import and export trade, while many locals became slave-workers. The "Latins" (Genoese) took hundreds of buildings and homes for themselves. Later the Maona company expanded in Cyprus.

It had come to a point where Greeks and Byzantines in general preferred to be conquered by the Turks rather than the Latins (Francs, Venetians, Genoese). You can find the full history of this conflict in this article.

One should also bear in mind Greeks have been through slavery on a national level (called "chattel" too), and faced oppression, assimilation, and genocide. What I mean is: If someone is representative of the Western Powers…. that's not us 😂 We only play pretend. We are not the ones making the rules or decisions. For example, our PM asked the state of Israel (with which we are supposedly allies under Western contracts) to not harm the Greeks in Gaza, then the Greek Orthodox temple was bombed and our Western allies didn't give a shit.

Greece smiles and nods along so it can sit at the table with the Big Boys. It's not a Big Boy and I doubt it'll ever be for a long time. It can't turn towards the East (because Turkey, the old political and religious enemy) so it turns towards the West. And it has become an obedient puppy of the US and Germany. And if we refuse to play pretend, there's always some type of punishment. I won't absolve our country from all political responsibility. I'm just saying that we usually lack the power for things to go our way.

The reason for our nation's existence is the Western colonial powers (in Greece we call them the Big Powers) wanting to destabilise the Ottoman empire. They didn't give a shit about the Greek state existing. I mean sure they appreciated having one more pawn in the area, but they mainly wanted the Ottoman power to dwindle. The Big Powers gave and took land from us as they saw fit, for their own interests. (They did the same with other nations, too, of course). Our country's debt to the Big Powers started before our nation formed when they sold us half-ruined ships for a very high price.

(Although our debt became significantly worse after 2009, when our people gave money to stabilise their banks.)

So I ask again, how is a Greek - politically and socially - to feel comfortable in the Western group? Especially when we have actual neighbors in the Balkans and the Middle East who are almost like us culture-wise? And, don't East nations have Mathematics and Philosophy and Democracy (most at least) and Theatre and Astrophysics? In the study of things coming from Greece they have nothing to envy from the West. They were studying this stuff waaaay earlier, too!

So the argument of "who has taken the most from Greece" is purely political because if we actually measured, our neighbors are the ones who have the most similarities to us. (Yes, the political and social corruption rates too, as I've been told 😂)

Not to mention there can be found colonial/imperial attitudes from Western European nations which Greece cannot identify with. Except for the obvious neo-colonialism and the pressure to have more military bases on our grounds, there are more.

Some of these attitudes are; refusing to communicate in English, refusing to use subtitles and insisting on watching everything dubbed, straight up altering the names of foreign colleagues to appeal to them more, nitpicking on shades of white and what shade of white is "bad", having the impression that the world is as safe and comfortable as their own country, only getting you out of second class in their minds when you start speaking their language fluently exhibiting one of the highest forms of assimilation, treating East European cultures like an exhibition or a theme park.

Don't be mistaken, the use of language is a power play. Greece also has colorism, but the NW nations take it to another level, trust. It would kill them to admit they might have the same skin tone as someone from China, whereas the Greeks (although not void of racism) wouldn't think to compare the skin tones as different. And they don't categorize slightly darker peoples compared to theirs as another "race" entirely.

I know I rumbled again but there are many things to consider when it comes to Greece's position on the map that's not limited to geography. I also want to put many disclaimers and explanations around because someone away from our area is missing context, and they might misinterpret our notions through their own lens. Hopefully, my answer covered the main points and gave a better picture of our identification.