#I made stickers of this for myself just cause i could

[tsukinoshinjiu]

⚠ Minor EoW Spoilers

Echoes of wisdom!!!!! This is a lil doodle that got out of hand. Best outfit in the game btw. Read more for my post EoW spoiler free review/gush sesh

I've finished and 100% the game yesterday and honestly, it was a blast. This was so much fun and im so happy the queen gets to have her own adventure her own way. A lot of the NPCs, especially the main quest ones, have such adorable and heart warming character arcs. Condé is my son. If anything ever happens to him im going to kill everybody in the room and you know the rest. jk. probably. It was so much better than i could've hoped for, and I'm really happy to see the zelda team try new things, and I can't wait to see what they have in store for us in the future!

[mystic-writings]

selfishly, i love you | eleventh doctor

PAIRING — eleventh doctor x fem!reader

SUMMARY — after two years of being burdened with love for the doctor, you make the choice to leave him behind. 

WARNINGS — angst

WORD COUNT — 1,818

NOTES — matt smith i will always love you

masterlist | navigation

You weren’t sure what hurt more — your utterly unrequited love for the Doctor, or the fact that you were leaving him behind. 

After years of waiting, of being his companion and seeing every corner of time and space with him, you were finally choosing to leave his impossibly addicting lifestyle behind. 

Oddly enough, it was such a trivial thing that brought you to the decision. 

Visiting the future was always a tricky thing; rarely did the Doctor get the timing correct. This was one of the few times that he had, on a trip that was just for you and him. No Rory, River, or Amy. Just the pair of you, exploring New New London in all of its intergalactic, interspecies glory. 

It was a treasure, seeing glimpses of a world that would only come to fruition after you’d be long gone. You think that’s why you loved travelling with the Doctor as much as you did. To know that despite everything, the world wouldn’t end when you eventually died. That no matter how bad the trivial things seemed in the smaller picture of your life, the world would keep on going. 

You’d been wandering a food market together when it happened, taking in the bustle of people as vendors displayed all sorts of things — clothes, food, anything your heart wanted. 

“Doctor, look!” You pointed excitedly at one of the market stalls. “They’ve got those candies! The three berry ones that I’ve been looking for!” 

The Doctor shared a smile with you as you dragged him by the sleeve of his tweed coat over to the market stall. 

Excitedly, you pointed at the bag of candies. “How much?”

“Four credits a bag, or two bags for seven credits,” the older man said, rather gruffly, despite the smile on his face. 

The Doctor transferred enough credits for you to take four bags of candies, and you thanked both him and the vendor profusely as you pocketed your bags. 

“You know,” the vendor grunted, “you two remind me of myself, when I was young. With my wife.”

Before you had a chance to open your mouth, the Doctor scoffed in disbelief. “Wh- us?” He nearly laughed. “We’re not- no, sir! We’re just friends, that’s all. Yes, friends.” 

You could feel your heart cracking in your chest, as it usually did. You were surprised there was anything left of it now, considering how many times the Doctor had unknowingly shot you down. 

“Thank you, sir. Have a nice day.” You muttered, voice cracking as the Doctor moved on promptly. Your chest ached at the pitiful nod the vendor gave you, delivering another blow to your battered heart. 

That was all it was. A comment from an unsuspecting street vendor, and the well-intended, panicked response from the Doctor. 

Upon returning to the TARDIS later that evening, you walked past the control panel and toward your room without a word. 

“Wha- Y/n!” The Doctor called out, likely in the middle of a one-sided conversation with you. “Where are you going?! We still have to decide where to go next!” 

“To my room, Doctor.” You shouted back, climbing the stairs. “I want to go home.” 

You paid the Doctor no mind as he made a noise of protest, but didn’t follow you as you headed into one of the hallways. The TARDIS materialised the door to your room, decorated with stickers and polaroids of yourself, the Doctor, and your other friends, from travels over the past two years. 

With a shaking sigh, you pulled the pictures down and walked into your room with them in hand, tossing them onto the bedside table. 

You dropped onto the side of the bed, shoulders rounded and sagging with the weight of your own mind. Replaying the moment with the vendor caused you nothing but pain, but your mind seemed to make the decision for you, displaying it on a cinema screen for you to pick apart and torture yourself with. 

It felt like hours of you doing only that; letting your mind wander, overthink the scenario and digging up long forgotten ones that all pointed to the same conclusion — you loved the Doctor, more than you could bear handling. And he didn’t love you at all. 

Of course, that wasn’t entirely true. He did love you, he’d said it himself. But he always followed up the word ‘love’ with ‘family’ or ‘friend’. He loved you the same way he loved Rory and Amy, as a member of his makeshift little family. 

Even though the Doctor had given you his love, it wasn’t enough. It wasn’t the right kind of love. 

Selfishly, you wanted more. You wanted him, in a way many companions had before, and in a way none of them had ever achieved. At some point, even Amy had wanted him that way. How could she not? The Doctor was entirely irresistible. 

But you knew you could never have him. If today was any marker of how he felt, then your paths ahead were simple: either stay and live with the pain that slowly chipped away at your heart, or leave the Doctor and his radiance behind in the hopes that one day, you’d be able to move on and live a life that resembled everyone else’s.

Surprisingly, the Doctor had left you alone during your time of contemplation. Typically, if he was alone for too long, he’d grow restless and come knocking on your door (or, more commonly, walking into your room unannounced) to talk to you about anything that was occupying his mind. 

Once you’d decided, it didn’t take you long to pack up your room. 

The polaroids were tucked neatly into an old leather suitcase, one that was probably stolen from the 1950s. Your clothes and trinkets — all of which were souvenirs from past travels — fit neatly into the main compartment, and suddenly, within fifteen minutes, your entire life was packed neatly into a single leather case, ready to be carried away to God knows where.

Your heart ached at the thought. At the reality that, for your own good, this life would be no more. No more hot cocoa and tea with the Doctor, no more karaoke with Rory. No more exploring alien planets with Amy, disregarding the Doctor’s cautious instructions. No more admiring River’s bravery. 

No more adventure. Just the trials of an average life on an average planet as an average human. And while you lived for the days you spent with the Doctor, you weren’t sure you’d be able to go on living with him. 

With the love you carried for him. 

Taking a deep breath, you held the suitcase with one hand, and opened the door of your room with the other. 

It seemed, as you stepped into the corridor, that the TARDIS had put your room further back than it had materialised it in the first place. You were forced to walk the halls, footsteps echoing in your ears as you soaked in your surroundings for a final time. 

When you entered the control room, the Doctor was flipping switches frantically, talking to you without looking. 

“Finally! You’ve come out of your room!” He exclaimed. “Look, I was thinking I’d take you to that planet I was talking to you about, with the cats and talking cars and two-headed people. Sounds like it’d make for an interesting visit, no?”

“Doctor,” you called out from the top of the steps, quietly. 

“Or!” He shouted again, moving about the console. “I could take you to see the Roman Empire! You’ve talked a lot about that one before-” the Doctor looked up from the console to find you with your bag in hand. He pointed to it, eyes gleaming. “What’s that for?”

“I want to go home, Doctor.” You said, chest bubbling with emotion. “Please, just take me home.” 

“Why?” He asked, wringing his hands. 

You exhaled a sigh, dropping your head. There was no way for you to be able to explain it. “Because, Doctor. I’m tired.” 

“But there’s a bed in your room, you can sleep in there, can’t you?” The Doctor asked. 

Descending the steps, you shook your head. “It’s not that kind of tired. I can’t just sleep it off. It’s been wearing me down inside for a long time, and it won’t go away if I stay.” 

“What d’you mean?” Worry pooled in the Doctor’s eyes. “Are you okay?”

“I’ll be fine, Doctor.” You gave him a tight-lipped smile, one you knew he would see right through. But you didn’t have the energy to try convincing him any further. “I just need to go home.” 

The Doctor nodded, solemnly, before pressing a few buttons on the console beside you, eyes barely leaving yours. The TARDIS whirred, bringing you back to your home. 

Within minutes, you were there. In your small backyard, leading up to the back porch door of your small townhouse. Where you’d be alone. 

You opened the door, and stepped outside. The Doctor followed you, catching your wrist and turning you to face him. 

“Doctor, please,” you pleaded. “I can’t do this.”

“Do what, Y/n?” He asked. “I’m going to come back ‘round later, okay? Maybe when you’re feeling better we can go see that planet I was talking about.”

Tears swelled in your eyes, blurring your view of the Doctor. Misty rain coated your hair and clothes, because of course it had to be raining. You shook your head solemnly, a shaking breath wracking your body. 

“I’m not coming back, Doctor. I can’t.” You told him, voice cracking and wavering. “It’ll hurt too much.” 

“What are you talking about, Y/n?” The Doctor’s voice cracked with worry. “What’s going on?”

You gingerly put your suitcase down, stepping closer to the Doctor and cupping his jaw with your hands as the rain began to set in. “You are the most brilliant person I’ve ever known, Doctor. You’ve shown me so much, more than I ever thought I’d see in my lifetime. But I can’t continue being with you. Because I love you, more than life itself. Wholly and selfishly, I love you, Doctor. And I know you don’t love me, so I have to leave. If I don’t leave, It’ll destroy me.” 

“But I-I do, Y/n,” the Doctor shook his head. “I do love you.”

“As a friend, Doctor.” You reminded him. “And I’m sorry, truly, but it’s just not enough.” 

Your tears fell freely as you let go of the Doctor’s face, stepping back and picking your suitcase back up. Solemnly, you smiled and said, “See you later, Doctor. Don’t do anything stupid.” 

The Doctor only nodded, watching you disappear back into your home. 

If only he could bring himself to chase after you and find some sort of way to get you back. But even he knew it wouldn’t work. It had been your choice, after all. And who was he to ignore that?

permanent taglist: @mazerunnerrose @theboldandthebootyful @miraclesoflove @heliads

eleventh doctor taglist: open!

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[mostlysignssomeportents]

Inkjump Linkdump

For the rest of May, my bestselling solarpunk utopian novel THE LOST CAUSE (2023) is available as a $2.99, DRM-free ebook!

It's the start of a long weekend and I've found myself with a backlog of links, so it's time for another linkdump – the eighteenth in the (occasional) series. Here's the previous installments:

https://pluralistic.net/tag/linkdump/

Kicking off this week's backlog is a piece of epic lawyer-snark, which is something I always love, but what makes this snark total catnip for me is that it's snark about copyfraud: false copyright claims made to censor online speech. Yes please and a second portion, thank you very much!

This starts with the Cola Corporation, a radical LA-based design store that makes lefty t-shirts, stickers and the like. Cola made a t-shirt that remixed the LA Lakers logo to read "Fuck the LAPD." In response, the LAPD's private foundation sent a nonsense copyright takedown letter. Cola's lawyer, Mike Dunford, sent them a chef's-kiss-perfect reply, just two words long: "LOL, no":

https://www.techdirt.com/2024/04/19/apparel-company-gives-perfect-response-to-lapds-nonsense-ip-threat-letter-over-fuck-the-lapd-shirt/

But that's not the lawyer snark I'm writing about today. Dunford also sent a letter to IMG Worldwide, whose lawyers sent the initial threat, demanding an explanation for this outrageous threat, which was – as the physicists say – "not even wrong":

https://www.loweringthebar.net/2024/05/lol-no-explained.html

Every part of the legal threat is dissected here, with lavish, caustic footnotes, mercilessly picking apart the legal defects, including legally actionable copyfraud under DMCA 512(f), which provides for penalties for wrongful copyright threats. To my delight, Dunford cited Lenz here, which is the infamous "Dancing Baby" case that EFF successfully litigated on behalf of Stephanie Lenz, whose video of her adorable (then-)toddler dancing to a few seconds of Prince's "Let's Go Crazy" was censored by Universal Music Group:

https://www.eff.org/cases/lenz-v-universal

Dunford's towering rage is leavened with incredulous demands for explanations: how on Earth could a lawyer knowingly send such a defective, illegal threat? Why shouldn't Dunford seek recovery of his costs from IMG and its client, the LA Police Foundation, for such lawless bullying? It is a sparkling – incandescent, even! – piece of lawyerly writing. If only all legal correspondence was this entertaining! Every 1L should study this.

Meanwhile, Cola has sold out of everything, thanks to that viral "LOL, no." initial response letter. They're taking orders for their next resupply, shipping on June 1. Gotta love that Streisand Effect!

https://www.thecolacorporation.com/

I'm generally skeptical of political activism that takes the form of buying things or refusing to do so. "Voting with your wallet" is a pretty difficult trick to pull off. After all, the people with the thickest wallets get the most votes, and generally, the monopoly party wins. But as the Cola Company's example shows, there's times when shopping can be a political act.

But that's because it's a collective act. Lots of us went and bought stuff from Cola, to send a message to the LAPD about legal bullying. That kind of collective action is hard to pull off, especially when it comes to purchase-decisions. Often, this kind of thing descends into a kind of parody of political action, where you substitute shopping for ideology. This is where Matt Bors's Mr Gotcha comes in: "ooh, you want to make things better, but you bought a product from a tainted company, I guess you're not really sincere, gotcha!"

https://thenib.com/mister-gotcha/

There's a great example of this in Zephyr Teachout's brilliant 2020 book Break 'Em Up: if you miss the pro-union demonstration at the Amazon warehouse because you spent two hours driving around looking for an indie stationer to buy the cardboard to make your protest sign rather than buying it from Amazon, Amazon wins:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/07/29/break-em-up/#break-em-up

So yeah, I'm pretty skeptical of consumerism as a framework for political activism. It's very hard to pull off an effective boycott, especially of a monopolist. But if you can pull it off, well…

Canada is one of the most monopoly-friendly countries in the world. Hell, the Competition Act doesn't even have an "abuse of dominance" standard! That's like a criminal code that doesn't have a section prohibiting "murder." (The Trudeau government has promised to fix this.)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/editorials/article-an-overhauled-competition-act-will-light-a-fire-in-the-stolid-world-of/

There's stiff competition for Most Guillotineable Canadian Billionaire. There's the entire Irving family, who basically own the province of New Bruinswick:

https://www.canadaland.com/podcast/dynasties-2-the-irvings/

There's Ted Rogers, the trumpy billionaire telecoms monopolist, whose serial acquire-and-loot approach to media has devastated Canadian TV and publishing:

https://www.canadaland.com/podcast/canadaland-725-the-rogers-family-compact/

But then there's Galen Fucking Weston, the nepobaby who inherited the family grocery business (including Loblaw), bought out all his competitors (including Shopper's Drug Mart), and then engaged in a criminal price-fixing conspiracy to rig the price of bread, the most Les-Miz-ass crime imaginable:

https://www.blogto.com/eat_drink/2023/06/what-should-happened-galen-weston-price-fixing/

Weston has made himself the face of the family business, appearing in TV ads in a cardigan to deliver dead-eyed avuncular paeans to his sprawling empire, even as he colludes with competitors to rig the price of his workers' wages:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-06-12/a-supermarket-billionaire-steps-into-trouble-over-pandemic-wages

For Canadians, Weston is the face of greedflation, the man whose nickle-and-diming knows no shame. This is the man who decided that the discount on nearly-spoiled produce would be slashed from 50% to 30%, who racked up record profits even as his prices skyrocketed.

It's impossible to overstate how loathed Galen Weston is at this moment. There's a very good episode of the excellent new podcast Lately, hosted by Canadian competition expert Vass Bednar and Katrina Onstad that gives you a sense of the national outrage:

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/podcasts/lately/article-boycotting-the-loblawpoly/

All of this has led to a national boycott of Loblaw, kicked off by members of the r/loblawsisoutofcontrol, and it's working. Writing for Jacobin, Jeremy Appel gives us a snapshot of a nation in revolt:

https://jacobin.com/2024/05/loblaw-grocery-price-gouge-boycott/

Appel points out the boycott's problems – there's lots of places, particularly in the north, where Loblaw's is the only game in town, or where the sole competitor is the equally odious Walmart. But he also talks about the beneficial effect the boycott is having for independent grocers and co-ops who deal more fairly with their suppliers and their customers.

He also platforms the boycott's call for a national system of price controls on certain staples. This is something that neoliberal economists despise, and it's always fun to watch them lose their minds when the subject is raised. Meanwhile, economists like Isabella M Weber continue to publish careful research explaining how and why price controls can work, and represent our best weapon against "seller's inflation":

https://scholarworks.umass.edu/econ_workingpaper/343/

Antimonopoly sentiment is having a minute, obviously, and the news comes at you fast. This week, the DoJ filed a lawsuit to break up Ticketmaster/Live Nation, one of the country's most notorious monopolists, who have aroused the ire of every kind of fan, but especially the Swifties (don't fuck with Swifties). In announcing the suit, DoJ Antitrust Division boss Jonathan Kanter coined the term "Ticketmaster tax" to describe the junk fees that Ticketmaster uses to pick all our pockets.

In response, Ticketmaster has mobilized its own Loblaw-like shill army, who insist that all the anti-monopoly activism is misguided populism, and "anti-business." In his BIG newsletter, Matt Stoller tears these claims apart, and provides one of the clearest explanations of how Ticketmaster rips us all off that I've ever seen, leaning heavily on Ticketmaster's own statements to their investors and the business-press:

https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/antitrust-enforcers-to-break-up-ticketmaster

Ticketmaster has a complicated "flywheel" that it uses to corner the market on live events, mixing low-margin businesses that are deliberately kept unprofitable (to prevent competitors from gaining a foothold) in order to capture the high-margin businesses that are its real prize. All this complexity can make your eyes glaze over, and that's to Ticketmaster's benefit, keeping normies from looking too closely at how this bizarre self-licking ice-cream cone really works.

But for industry insiders, those workings are all too clear. When Rebecca Giblin and I were working on our book Chokepoint Capitalism, we talked to insiders from every corner of the entertainment-industrial complex, and there was always at least one expert who'd go on record about the scams inside everything from news monopolies to streaming video to publishing and the record industry:

https://chokepointcapitalism.com/

The sole exception was Ticketmaster/Live Nation. When we talked to club owners, promoters and other victims of TM's scam, they universally refused to go on the record. They were palpably terrified of retaliation from Ticketmaster's enforcers. They acted like mafia informants seeking witness protection. Not without reason, mind you: back when the TM monopoly was just getting started, Pearl Jam – then one of the most powerful acts in American music – took a stand against them. Ticketmaster destroyed them. That was when TM was a mere hatchling, with a bare fraction of the terrifying power it wields today.

TM is a great example of the problem with boycotts. If a club or an act refuses to work with TM/LN, they're destroyed. If a fan refuses to buy tickets from TM or see a Live Nation show, they basically can't go to any shows. The TM monopoly isn't a problem of bad individual choices – it's a systemic problem that needs a systemic response.

That's what makes antitrust responses so timely. Federal enforcers have wide-ranging powers, and can seek remedies that consumerism can never attain – there's no way a boycott could result in a breakup of Ticketmaster/Live Nation, but a DoJ lawsuit can absolutely get there.

Every federal agency has wide-ranging antimonopoly powers at its disposal. These are laid out very well in Tim Wu's 2020 White House Executive Order on competition, which identifies 72 ways the agencies can act against monopoly without having to wait for Congress:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/08/13/post-bork-era/#manne-down

But of course, the majority of antimonopoly power is vested in the FTC, the agency created to police corporate power. Section 5 of the FTC Act grants the agency the power to act to prevent "unfair and deceptive methods of competition":

https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/10/the-courage-to-govern/#whos-in-charge

This clause has lain largely dormant since the Reagan era, but FTC chair Lina Khan has revived it, using it to create muscular privacy rights for Americans, and to ban noncompete agreements that bind American workers to dead-end jobs:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/25/capri-v-tapestry/#aiming-at-dollars-not-men

The FTC's power to ban activity because it's "unfair and deceptive" is exciting, because it promises American internet users a way to solve their problems beyond copyright law. Copyright law is basically the only law that survived the digital transition, even as privacy, labor and consumer protection rights went into hibernation. The last time Congress gave us a federal consumer privacy law was 1988, and it's a law that bans video store clerks from telling the newspapers which VHS cassettes you rented:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_Privacy_Protection_Act

That's left internet users desperately trying to contort copyright to solve every problem they have – like someone trying to build a house using nothing but chainsaw. For example, I once found someone impersonating me on a dating site, luring strangers into private spaces. Alarmed, I contacted the dating site, who told me that their only fix for this was for me to file a copyright claim against the impersonator to make them remove the profile photo. Now, that photo was Creative Commons licensed, so any takedown notice would have been a "LOL, no." grade act of copyfraud:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/21/the-internets-original-sin/

The unsuitability of copyright for solving complex labor and privacy problems hasn't stopped people who experience these problems from trying to use copyright to solve them. They've got nothing else, after all.

That's why everyone who's worried about the absolutely legitimate and urgent concerns over AI and labor and privacy has latched onto copyright as the best tool for resolving these questions, despite copyright's total unsuitability for this purpose, and the strong likelihood that this will make these problems worse:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/13/spooky-action-at-a-close-up/#invisible-hand

Enter FTC Chair Lina Khan, who has just announced that her agency will be reviewing AI model training as an "unfair and deceptive method of competition":

https://thehill.com/policy/technology/4682461-ftc-chair-ai-models-could-violate-antitrust-laws/

If the agency can establish this fact, they will have sweeping powers to craft rules prohibiting the destructive and unfair uses of AI, without endangering beneficial activities like scraping, mathematical analysis, and the creation of automated systems that help with everything from adding archival metadata to exonerating wrongly convicted people rotting in prison:

https://hrdag.org/tech-notes/large-language-models-IPNO.html

I love this so much. Khan's announcement accomplishes the seemingly impossible: affirming that there are real problems and insisting that we employ tactics that can actually fix those problems, rather than just doing something because inaction is so frustrating.

That's something we could use a lot more of, especially in platform regulation. The other big tech news about Big Tech last week was the progress of a bill that would repeal Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act at the end of 2025, without any plans to replace it with something else.

Section 230 is the most maligned, least understood internet law, and that's saying something:

https://www.techdirt.com/2020/06/23/hello-youve-been-referred-here-because-youre-wrong-about-section-230-communications-decency-act/

Its critics wrongly accuse the law – which makes internet users liable for bad speech acts, not the platforms that carry that speech – of being a gift to Big Tech. That's totally wrong. Without Section 230, platforms could be named to lawsuits arising from their users' actions. We know how that would play out.

Back in 2018, Congress took a big chunk out of 230 when they passed SESTA/FOSTA, a law that makes platforms liable for any sex trafficking that is facilitated by their platforms. Now, this may sound like a narrowly targeted, beneficial law that aims at a deplorable, unconscionable crime. But here's how it played out: the platforms decided that it was too much trouble to distinguish sex trafficking from any sex-work, including consensual sex work and adjacent activities. The result? Consensual sex-work became infinitely more dangerous and precarious, while trafficking was largely unaffected:

https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-21-385.pdf

Eliminating 230 would be incredibly reckless under any circumstances, but after the SESTA/FOSTA experience, it's unforgivable. The Big Tech platforms will greet this development by indiscriminately wiping out any kind of controversial speech from marginalized groups (think #MeToo or Black Lives Matter). Meanwhile, the rich and powerful will get a new tool – far more powerful than copyfraud – to make inconvenient speech disappear. The war-criminals, rapists, murderers and rip-off artists who currently make do with bogus copyright claims to "manage their reputations" will be able to use pretextual legal threats to make their critics just disappear:

https://www.qurium.org/forensics/dark-ops-undercovered-episode-i-eliminalia/

In a post-230 world, Cola Corporation's lawyers wouldn't get a chance to reply to the LAPD's bullying lawyers – those lawyers would send their letter to Cola's hosting provider, who would weigh the possibility of being named in a lawsuit against the small-dollar monthly payment they get from Cola, and poof, no more Cola. The legal bullies could do the same for Cola's email provider, their payment processor, their anti-DoS provider.

This week on EFF's Deeplinks blog, I published a piece making the connection between abolishing Section 230 and reinforcing Big Tech monopolies:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/05/wanna-make-big-tech-monopolies-even-worse-kill-section-230

The Big Tech platforms really do suck, and the solution to their systemic, persistent moderation failures won't come from making them liable for users' speech. The platforms have correctly assessed that they alone have the legal and moderation staff to do the kinds of mass-deletions of controversial speech that could survive a post-230 world. That's why tech billionaires like Mark Zuckerberg love the idea of getting rid of 230:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/03/facebooks-pitch-congress-section-230-me-not-thee

But for small tech providers – individuals, co-ops, nonprofits and startups that host fediverse servers, standalone group chats and BBSes – a post-230 world is a mass-extinction event. Ever had a friend demand that you take sides in an interpersonal dispute ("if you invite her to the party, I'm not coming!").

Imagine if your refusal to take sides in a dispute among your friends – and their friends, and their friends – could result in you being named to a suit that could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to settle:

https://www.engine.is/news/primer/section230costs

It's one thing to hope for a more humane internet run by people who want to make hospitable forums for online communities to form. It's another to ask them to take on an uninsurable risk that could result in the loss of their home, their retirement account, and their life's savings.

A post-230 world is one in which Big Tech must delete first and ask questions later. Yes, Big Tech platforms have many sins to answer for, but making them jointly liable for their users' speech will flush out treasure-hunters seeking a quick settlement and a quick buck.

Again, this isn't speculative – it's inevitable. Consider FTX: yes, the disgraced cryptocurrency exchange was a festering hive of fraud – but there's no way that fraud added up to the 23.6 quintillion dollars in claims that have been laid against it:

https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/US-v-SBF-Alameda-Research-Victim-Impact-Statement-3-20-2024.pdf

Without 230, Big Tech will shut down anything controversial – and small tech will disappear. It's the worst of all possible worlds, a gift to tech monopolists and the bullies and crooks who have turned our online communities into shooting galleries.

One of the reasons I love working for EFF is our ability to propose technologically informed, sound policy solutions to the very real problems that tech creates, such as our work on interoperability as a way to make it easier for users to escape Big Tech:

https://www.eff.org/interoperablefacebook

Every year, EFF recognizes the best, bravest and brightest contributors to a better internet and a better technological future, with our annual EFF Awards. Nominations just opened for this year's awards – if you know someone who fits the bill, here's the form:

https://www.eff.org/nominations-open-2024-eff-awards

It's nearly time for me to sign off on this weekend's linkdump. For one thing, I have to vacate my backyard hammock, because we've got contractors who need to access the side of the house to install our brand new heat-pump (one of two things I'm purchasing with my last lump-sum book advance – the other is corrective cataract surgery that will give me lifelong, perfect vision).

I've been lusting after a heat-pump for years, and they just keep getting better – though you might not know it, thanks to the fossil-fuel industry disinfo campaign that insists that these unbelievably cool gadgets don't work. This week in Wired, Matt Simon offers a comprehensive debunking of this nonsense, and on the way, explains the nearly magical technology that allows a heat pump to heat a midwestern home in the dead of winter:

https://www.wired.com/story/myth-heat-pumps-cold-weather-freezing-subzero/

As heat pumps become more common, their applications will continue to proliferate. On Bloomberg, Feargus O'Sullivan describes one such application: the Japanese yokushitsu kansouki – a sealed bathroom with its own heat-pump that can perfectly dry all your clothes while you're out at work:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-05-22/laundry-lessons-from-japanese-bathroom-technology

This is amazing stuff – it uses less energy than a clothes-dryer, leaves your clothes wrinkle-free, prevents the rapid deterioration caused by high heat and mechanical agitation, and prevents the microfiber pollution that lowers our air-quality.

This is the most solarpunk thing I've read all week, and it makes me insanely jealous of Japanese people. The second-most solarpunk thing I've read this week came from The New Republic, where Aaron Regunberg and Donald Braman discuss the possibility of using civil asset forfeiture laws – lately expanded to farcical levels by the Supreme Court in Culley – to force the fossil fuel industry to pay for the energy transition:

https://newrepublic.com/article/181721/fossil-fuels-civil-forefeiture-pipeline-climate

They point out that the fossil fuel industry has committed a string of undisputed crimes, including fraud, and that the Supremes' new standard for asset forfeiture could comfortably accommodate state AGs and other enforcers who seek billions from Big Oil on this basis. Of course, Big Oil has more resources to fight civil asset forfeiture than the median disputant in these cases ("a low- or moderate-income person of color [with] a suspected connection to drugs"). But it's an exciting idea!

All right, the heat-pump guys really need me to vacate the hammock, so here's one last quickie for you: Barath Raghavan and Bruce Schneier's new paper, "Seeing Like a Data Structure":

https://www.belfercenter.org/publication/seeing-data-structure

This is a masterful riff on James C Scott's classic Seeing Like a State, and it describes how digitalization forces us into computable categories, and counts the real costs of doing so. It's a gnarly and thoughtful piece, and it's been on my mind continuously since Schneier sent it to me yesterday. Something suitably chewy for you to masticate over the long weekend!

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/25/anthology/#lol-no

[crowley-winter-boots]

Instead of humouring the messages in the screenshot, I would like to make a post regarding people who think this way. DO NOT LOOK FOR THIS INDIVIDUAL OR HARASS THEM. I know people like to jump the gun and do that online, so please don't bother with it. I am making this post to address, that you can in fact, still protest without attending mass protests and that not everyone is able to attend those mass protests.

(*Notice how I didn't "name call", I said "I won't reply anymore as I'm PRETTY SURE you're trolling." I was making an observation based on past experiences, and I'm still convinced they were only saying this to cause problems.)

You CAN still protest without going to larger protests. Its OKAY if you can't attend those large protests.

Here are some ways you can help out if you're unable to go to a protest!

Spread the word

One of the best ways to get people to attend is to tell other people about it! The more people that know, the more that can know when and where to show up.

Find a way that fits you to do something as an individual

There are a few ways you can go about this, but here is what I've personally been doing:

- I've been wearing a pride flag to school. Specifically, the trans flag. Pride flags banned from hanging up in schools? Nothing in the dress code that denies it. It will make people angry and confused, but it will also make people like you feel seen. I've had a lot of negative reactions from students and teachers alike, but there have been fellow queer kids who walk up to me and talk to me about my flag, often saying they wish they had one of their own. I'm planning on painting "WE THE PEOPLE" on it soon (I was going to this weekend, but there was too much going on and I didn't want to start a project I couldn't finish before school on Monday.)

- Make a battle vest (or any other punk fashion, such as crust pants!) I've been working on mine, and will post the patches and progress soon. I've been meaning to make one for a while for myself, but put it off until recently. I'll also make a post going more into detail on how you can make punk fashion yourself, and the ideology of punks.

**PLEASE NOTE. Both of these can be dangerous. Especially wearing a pride flag, as there is't anything that can make it safer. With the punk fashion, there are ways to make it safer, and I'll go more into detail on that on my other post: but essentially, you don't want any political statements or pride flags on the back. You won't see anyone coming, and they'll be less likely to attack you if they see it from the front.

Talk to local activist groups to set one up in your area

I'm not too sure about how this process works, as I haven't yet contacted any local activist groups to set up a protest. I'm not even sure if that's how you CAN set up a protest, but I asked around and this was the answer I had gotten. I'll make an update once I figure out how to set up a protest and if I personally was able to (and the details of the protest, ofc!)

Make signs or stickers to post in your community

There are a lot of ways you can make signs and/or stickers! I've never made a sign myself, so you'll have to do the research yourself for that, but you could make them as flyers with paper as well. But with stickers, they're relatively easy to make! I sold some for a while, and made about $250 off of it in just a few weeks by selling them on my school campus. You just need a pack of sticker paper (GLOSSY makes it shiny, MATTE makes it flat like printer paper,) a printer, and some kind of art app to import your images on. Fitting stickers is like a jigsaw puzzle- you'll need to rotate them at weird angles and fit any nook into any cranny. Find patterns, repeating patterns will make the process easier. The goal is to have as little white space as possible- but that being said, leave enough room between each sticker to give a solid border. A common mistake I made when I first started making stickers was overlapping the edges.

Join communities online

Discord servers are a good way to find online communities for people who want to oppose the American government! I am in a server that shares resources, information, protest days, and more. I can share the link in DMs, and you can also look online to find more.

Start a social media platform

That's what my blog is for! I'm posting online as a form of protest. There are a number of social media platforms (except Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok....) that you can advocate on. I do believe Tumblr and YouTube are the safest ones, and therefore have the biggest communities on there.

Buy banned books

THESE WON'T BE SOLD ANYMORE, SOON. They are information and knowledge the government is afraid of. The Diary of Anne Frank is on the list, which just goes to show how far they're going in this. They know they're fascists. They know America is going through the same beginning stages of a fascist dictator's overtake of a country. You can find a lot of these secondhand before they're gone. Find PDFs online of the books and download them in a place they can't be deleted. Physical copies are much better to have as they can't be taken away.

Pirate and get physical copies of music

Alphatron, FMovies, those are good sites for live action. WCO.tv is a good site for cartoons (and as far as I know, perfectly legal online archive!)

Learn how to burn CDs. Collect CDs. Collect vinyl records. And please, for the love of the Gods, DON'T USE SPOTIFY. I used Spotify because it was the easiest option for me, but they financially supported Trump's campaign. I switched to YouTube Music. Even the free version of Spotify supports the company- every song you listen to and every advertisement you sit through puts more coins into their bank account. I also have a vinyl collection I've been growing for 3-4 years. I'm thinking about learning how to burn CDs and get a Walkman (I currently don't have money, but I'm looking to get a job soon.) Like with the banned books, physical copies are the best. They'll have to pry it from your cold, dead hands.

That's all I have for now!! Feel free to add onto this with your own ways to protest and/or additional information from what I've already put.

[intimidating-fettuccine]

Silly light headcanons because I really need them

I've been going through a very tough time and today I really need some fluff to distract myself. I hope you enjoy.

BEN teaches the older creeps that are bad with electronics how to play video games. They have creep family game nights, and the older creeps usually don't participate because they aren't as good, so BEN has been taking them aside and teaching them how to play so they can feel more confident in participating too. He never laughs or judges them for their skills, and he reminds them that the others would be happy if they participated too.

There's a game of tag that has been going on in the mansion for several years. They keep switching who the one person that's It is, but to the point that people will forget who is It. Jeff was once It for seven months, to the point nobody could remember, and he tagged Toby in the middle of dinner which caused absolute chaos. They can choose to tag someone immediately, or hold onto it and wait for a moment of surprise, but you can't tag someone who was just It on the same day, and you can't tag people when they're asleep or working. Everyone in the mansion has been It at least probably 10 times, but they keep it going because it's so amusing. Tim is currently It, and he's been It for three months. He wants to get Slender, but Slender knows this and has been careful to avoid physical contact with Tim. Tim is a patient man. He will win this.

When someone can't fall asleep due to nightmares or bad memories haunting them, they're allowed to go to Slender, and he'll play piano for them. He'll sit with them, and play whatever song they'd like so long as he knows it or can see the sheet music for it. Sometimes they'll sit there for hours, the creep leaning sleepily against Slender as he plays for them. He'll even make a delicious warm drink for them first if they request it or he feels they could benefit from it. Slender doesn't mind missing out on his own sleep, as he likes to put the residents first and foremost. When they're calmed down and drowsy enough he'll walk them back to their room, give them a hug and a pat on the head, and send them off to bed. He'll always stay awake a little while longer in case they come back to him.

Sally has started sneaking people candy. Lately, she's been using her allowance money on others, as she feels it's one of the few ways she can help out. If someone has been very down lately, she'll ask someone to run her into town, and she'll go to her favorite candy store and pick out the creep's favorite candy if she knows it, and a few things she thinks they'd like. Once home, she'll grab some stickers from her collection, and put the stickers and the candy in the creeps room for them to find later. She does this purely to try and give them a little something to brighten their days and doesn't need anything in return, although the creeps that receive these little gifts always return the favor and get something for Sally to repay her. Her gifts have often made a few of them quite emotional, and it makes them all feel quite special.

There is a shared mansion Minecraft world. They have a rule that you can't destroy things someone else builds which everyone respects, and it's become common for people to play together. Sometimes it's the whole mansion, sometimes it's just a group of them, but they all have a lot of fun exploring the world together. BEN has built the most and often volunteers to build cool houses for everyone. Jeff helps people with mining the most and if someone asks him to get a certain amount of things for them he's happy to do it. Toby and Sally are making a zoo together, collecting a bunch of animals, and making beautiful and nice places for the animals to live in. Some of the creeps play more than others, but they try at least once a month for everyone to play together, in the same room or on a call, and it always devolves into happy chaos as everyone plays in their own special ways.

[stanofwar2]

Journal Entry 1, 2

Saw that my poll was tied between oc journal entries, and a mix of all three. So here's the start of Leon's Journal entries of his time in Gravity Falls. Hope y'all like it!

Transcript/clear text below

June 12th

I can’t believe I’m writing in this old thing after so long, but what the hell else am I gonna do after all the weird string of events that happened this afternoon.. I’m not even sure how to start all this, I feel like a 10 year old writing in her diary… Oh well, not like I’ve got anything better to do. This old beaten up journal my therapist gave me a while ago to “ Journal and process my feelings ”  is finally serving a purpose while I’m stuck here.

So how did I get here? Simple, I was making my way through the back-roads in Roadkill County Oregon so I could cut down my travel time so I can get to my client Mrs.Vandersheisse quicker (I’m going to need to call her as soon as my phone is done charging)

But as I was cruising, enjoying the scenery of huge redwood’s expanding as far as the eye could see, I looked back to the road and crashed my car after a Gnome rode a deer into the middle of the road and startled me! Which caused me to panic and swerve out of the way and straight into a tree! Luckily my airbag deployed, only leaving me with a couple of bruises at the end. Once my head stopped spinning I dragged myself out to assess the damage only to see that the front of my car was wrapping around the trunk of the tree that didn’t even budge, almost mocking me. I was grumbling to myself as I leaned against a tree, practically fuming with anger when I heard a set of footsteps approaching, a rough, gravely voice following quickly as the stranger approached. He asked me if I was alright, saying he heard the crash from his house.

I told him I was, opening my eyes slowly and I.. I was a bit.. Caught off guard when I opened my eyes to look at the guy. He was, well. Not what I would have expected to see out here. To be honest I was expecting a redneck with the smell of patriotism thickly wrapped around him but Instead I was greeted by a somewhat heavy-set, but muscular, older guy with short gray hair wearing a tight red t-shirt and white pants, a gold chain that peaked out of the collar of his shirt, taunting me.. Drawing me in..

His eyes peered at me behind square glasses that framed his face well. From his accent he’s probably originally from a big city, I’m guessing Jersey.

He. Was. Hot. And I found myself stumbling over my words a bit, worrying if I had hit my head harder than I thought or if I was passed out. He didn’t seem to notice.. I think If he did he didn’t say anything, just continued to ask me if I was okay, how and why I crashed, and where I was heading. I told him a little before I felt dizzy and nearly fell over. I caught myself but this guy gently wrapped his arms around me and told me that it was probably best if I get my head checked out, so he walked me all the way to his place, keeping me steady, and finally telling me his name. Stan Pines. I told him mine and he told me how nice it was to meet me. He smelled like the ocean

I was a bit.. Surprised to see that his house was actually a tourist trap called the Mystery Shack. Which I swear I saw a bumper sticker for, though it didn’t have an address so how I or anyone would find it is a mystery to me (wonder if that’s intentional?) I awed at it, earning a good chuckle from the guy who asked me if I’d ever been, to which I said no. He smiled wide, going into a proposition speech about how it’s one of the best tourist traps in the Pacific Northwest, that he would know since he made the place. I chuckled, finding his spiel somewhat endearing. But eventually he got me inside and called out for someone named Ford and Soos (Or was it Zeus?)

Soos, the now apparently current owner of the Mystery Shack came out asking, “What is it dudes?” Stan filled him in about my car and told him to go into town and get a tow truck. Soos saluted and ran out, giving me his quick condolences for my car. Then, there was Ford. I shook my head when I saw him come in, asking Stan why he called him. I thought I was seeing double! Making me worry that maybe I’d hit my head harder than I thought. Turns out that he’s Stan twin and a big shot with 12 Phd’s so Stan wanted him to give me a check up. Stan caught him up, to which Ford gave me a concerning and serious look and quickly got to work, grabbing some stuff to give me a full check up. It was awkward as he prodded and asked me questions like my name, my birthday, who the current president was, and eventually asking what had happened, giving me a good look at him as well and noticing that he has six fingers, which caught my attention, but I didn’t comment on it, didn’t want him to feel like I was judging him, making me quite the hypocrite. I told him 90% of the truth, keeping out the Gnome part of it. He hummed, his mind whirling away, asking me about my last name and swearing that he’d heard it before somewhere in his research. I wonder if he knows my family?

I just chuckled and then finally met the other family members of the household. Mabel and Dipper Pines, 13 year old twins spending the summer at their “Grunkles” place. They were very sweet and friendly, practically interviewing me about who, why, and how I was here, to which I gave them all I was comfortable telling, leaving the more.. Weird parts out. Stan let us know that it would be a little bit before Soos told him how bad the damage on the car is. I was nervous as I sat there, people-watching the Pines family, their antics and general weirdness growing on me, easing my nerves. At least until Stan got the call from Soos.

So, Good news, I only had a minor concussion and would be fine shortly. Bad news, my car is pretty much completely fucked and it’s estimated it will take a whole month to get it running. A MONTH!! I was.. Well I was devastated. I am devastated still, wondering what gods damned me to be stuck here in the middle of nowhere!! And in a house so damn noisy and filled to the brim with spirits!! Ghostly lumberjacks meandering about, trying to get mine and others attention. Luckily, they all are pretty weak so as long as I ignore/tune them out, I’ll be fine. But it’s.. Not just them there’s a generally strange aura surrounding this place. I felt it in the woods, which is completely normal but for it to be this strong and consistent here? That’s the odd part, then again in general this whole area has felt.. Off. Not bad, just, off, different.

Anyway, I groaned, wondering what the hell I’m going to do now! Where I was gonna stay for a whole month! I heard some small whispering before Stan sat down next to me, cleared his throat and put his warm hand on my back, telling me he was “sorry that life had given such a nasty hand.” But he said that it wasn’t all bad news, that he and his brother had been talking and while they couldn’t help with the whole car issue, they could clear out a room in the Shack, giving me a place to stay until I can leave. I couldn’t believe it, why were they being so nice to me? I was.. Skeptical and Stan found that entertaining, letting me know that it was because there weren’t any good Motels in town and they could use an extra pair of hands to help around the house and to watch the kids. So basically they were giving me a place to stay in exchange for a free babysitter. Which, as annoying as that is, isn’t the worst offer I’ve had. So I agreed.

Mabel was all the happier to have another person to talk to. She gave me the ~Grand Tour~of the shack, eventually leading me to what would be my room, which was clearly a storage room that she and her brother had cleared out and tried to make look homey. Which was very sweet.

Eventually Soos returned, giving me my travel bags. Stan dragged a mattress into my “room”, gave me some sheets that he swore he “cleaned recently”  before giving me another apology about my car. But it was different than before, it was.. Softer, genuine. But I didn’t pry, just thanked him, to which he gave me another confident, exaggerated smile and told me “Anytime buddy, welcome to Gravity Falls” (Guess that’s the town’s name) before walking off to do Gods knows what. 

I’ve set up my bed, cleansed my room with some sage, and placed some warding crystals in the corners of the room, hiding them so the kids or anyone don’t mess with and or steal them. So now, here I am, sitting in my new room recounting the odd string of events that have led me here in a busted up journal that I don’t even remember packing.

I should stop here for now, Mabel peeked in to let me know that dinner is ready so I guess I’m off. Until next time.

Leon

[sweetheartsaku]

—love and deepspace rafayel ; like a song ive never listened to but i know every lyric

a/n ; [fem!reader] @oracleofstars DAY 3 PROMPT AND FIRST LND POST WOOHOO doing this one bc im in band huhuhuhu :3c

larkspur !

concerts have always felt like a fever dream.

and the absolute tingle down your spine when you managed to swiftly choose and buy front-row tickets to THE 3VOLS concert?? your heart was basically beating out of your chest. to make your heart even tighter, a little pop-up had appeared on your laptop screen basically screaming at you: "DON'T LEAVE AFTER THE CONCERT ♡" in rafayel's iconic handwriting, with its own messy yet neat flare to it. one of your favourite members.

you wonder what a singer like him could possibly be doing after a concert as big as this. especially for a smaller artist like him, maybe he wanted to get to know what his fans are like? a social experime-

the cold breeze of your open window kisses your cheek causing you to snap out of your daze. your cream curtain had been blowing fresh air, it made you feel more alive, especially having it slightly open in the early mornings. the sunlight would bleed into the curtains onto your sheets and the early bustling of the beautiful city would awaken.

a small blue jay chirps outside, and your phone chimes reminding you to bring your purse.

you slot your gentle lip tint and wallet, your phone's little dangling charms clinking with all the other knick-knacks in your purse. and for the final touch, the little rafayel chibi keychain attached with a beaded charm you had bought by impulse (listener like artist?).

you connect your white headphones sprinkled in stickers, playing his latest track. one of your favourites from their most recent single, Tip Toe.

"even better to be experienced live" you smiled, as you tap on your bus card. you take a seat nearest in-between the back and the middle, claiming your seat closest to the window.

you had always been drawn to the more charismatic, charming and... magnetic members. that one, being rafayel.

before you even knew it, you had already arrived at the bar it was set, a very cozy and warm atmosphere fills the air. there were people on the stage, setting up xavier's iconic deep red bass and zayne's pearly keytar. the stage was littered in little bits of glitter, and warm fairy lights.

a shiver of your heart knew this was going to be a magical experience.

placing your headphones around the strap of our bag, you stand in awe at the centre of the audience area, eyes shimmering. bejewelled.

suddenly a dark, veronica lilac shade came into sight.

rafayel.

"RAFAYEL?????" your mind was running laps, taken aback by the sudden sight of the man of your dreams in front of you, setting up his own mic still looking back backstage presumably talking to staff.

he was dressed in an unbuttoned white polo with a loose black tie on top, paired with worn out denim jorts and a pair of thick socks with leathery brown dress shoes.

ohmygoodness.

they weren't wrong when they said he was prettier in real life. to make it even worse, you were one of the only people in that standing area.

"oh? you must be early. we still have an hour or so till' the show starts." he tilts his head towards you, looking back down at his mic

"e-eh?! you're talking to... me?!" you lock your eyes with his lilac ones, and gain composure.

"i mean... well yeah. i prefer to get to events early!!" you smile.

he looks back up, impressed by her gentle demeanour finding her cute being so shocked he was talking to her.

"well, that's good. and don't worry. i'm not some big celeb, just a guy who loves his band and has the eye for the arts, if i do say so myself. no need to be shy.", he chuckles.

oh wow. he's so much more charismatic in real life too. your ears become warm, thinking this is all a daze.

"well, i hope to see you in the crowd, hm?"

"yep! i'll be in the front row... chookas?"

"thank you. hope to see ya' after the show."

something about her... was different.

she was alluring. her soul... it was... beyond description. would he really believe in love at first sight after every other soul he's fallen for?

stealing glances at you throughout the concert, he notices your passionate aura and your shouts of the lyrics from the latest single, Tip Toe.

xavier finds himself noticing rafayel's eyes on you, he felt captivated, enchanted if you will, as he saw you sing to his music. xavier smiles to himself as he gets fired up for his solo part in the following 3 bars.

he had 3 songs left till he could finally interact with you again.

after the concert, 3VOLS bow and grin, feeling accomplished playing their latest single flawlessly. now, he just had to see if people payed attention to the pop up on the ticket site.

the small maintenance crew had efficiently set up the little tables filled with boxes, revealing little pouches containing little trinkets and freebies organised by the boys to express their gratitude for supporting and attending their concert and simply just enjoying their music. each little bag was organised by member, letting the people who had noticed the little pop up choose their favourite member's freebies.

you managed to get a early spot in the small crowd of people. peering over a shoulder, it seemed like they were having a small meet and greet.

ohmygoodness.

WERE TALKING TO THEM PERSONALLY AGAIN??? this cannot be real. PLEASE LET ME GET A TURN WITH RAFAYEL!!

the little crowd was progressively moving, now the time awaits on you to be able to have the opportunity to greet the first debuted member, xavier. he held hands with you, smiling as he directed his eyes towards rafayel.

DOES HE KNOW MY FAVOURITE IS RAFAYEL??

"oh, i noticed your little raf' keychain. its cute." he gleams. in reality, he knows rafayel has had an eye on you. little did you know, his eyes were still on you as you held hands with xavier.

you giggle, thanking him and interacting with zayne. you reach rafayel at the end of the table, and he automatically hands you the pouch of trinkets filled with little freebies chosen by rafayel himself.

"honestly, my eye for the arts makes my pouch one of the best decorated here." he playfully chuckles.

"hm... maybe. we'll see when i open it!"

"can't wait. did you enjoy the show?"

"oh my gosh of course!! my favourite had to be Tip toe. or Saturn, or WDYS... i can't choose!! oh and Over 85 was also re- oops. i just enjoyed the entire show! you did so well!!"

"i'm happy to hear that. the experience was magical for me too." he says as they exchange closed eye smiles.

you extend your hand and he laces his hands with yours, slightly cold fingertips sending a pang through your heart. you bid your goodbyes and thank you's, heart warm and mind at ease.

you exit the bar, taking in the deep night city air.

oh gosh. well that just happened.

you untie the little purple ribbon that embraced the little pouch. what came to your surprise, a little piece of paper had fallen out.

hm? what's thi-

you're cute. heres my number, ⌝

XXXX-XXX-XXX

i think i wanna get to know ya'.

⌞ xoxo, rafayel. ᡣ𐭩

larkspur, representing first love and sweet disposition.

your voice , ⌝

like a song i've never listened to

⌞ but i know every lyric.

[captainmalewriter]

I was walking down the street near my apartment in Brooklyn when I spotted the pink capsule laying in the street.

Normally, I wouldn’t care about something like that, but for some reason I found myself drawn to it… 

Congratulations, you found my missing pink capsule! Here's what happened when you found it...

It was an ordinary day like any other. You woke up, you had breakfast, and you took care of any chores/errands you needed to do. By the time the clock struck 12 in the afternoon, you found yourself bored with nothing else to do. That was when you decided to go out for a little walk around your neighborhood. 

As you walked down the street, you noticed an unusually large, pink toy capsule just sitting on the pavement. You paused momentarily as you walked by it. It was unopened, although you could tell it was probably worth no more than a dollar. Normally, you would’ve just ignored it and kept going about your day. However, considering how bored you were, you decided to just take the oversized capsule for yourself. After all, what was the harm in having a little childish fun? 

You finished your afternoon walk and went back inside your apartment with the pink capsule in hand. Once inside the safety of your home, you made yourself comfortable and hopped onto your bed. You looked over the capsule one more time before opening it. Given how cheap the plastic looked, you hoped that the toy inside was at least cool enough to keep as a desk decoration. With that hope in mind, you ripped off the plastic safety seal and popped open the capsule. You were expecting some type of miniature toy like a race car or even maybe some stickers. Which was why you were extra surprised when you found a jockstrap sitting inside!

It took a moment for the initial shock to wear off. Out of all the things that could’ve been inside this pink toy capsule, a black and white jockstrap was probably the last thing you expected to find! You noticed the jockstrap had a thin line of plastic wrapped around it, indicating that it was brand new. But despite knowing it wasn’t a used jockstrap, you still hesitated in taking it out of its capsule. You took the jockstrap out carefully and took off the safety plastic. You then laid it out in front of you on your bed. It seemed to be of a pretty good quality, though you weren’t a jockstrap expert so you weren’t too sure. Regardless, you had no intention of wearing a jockstrap anytime soon. You couldn’t even if you wanted to, it was one size too small for you. You decided it’d be best to just throw it away.

You rolled off your bed. The moment your feet hit the ground, you felt something hitting you on the back. You quickly turned around but saw nothing out of the ordinary. The only noteworthy thing you saw was that the jockstrap was on the ground. You had no idea how it got there. Perhaps a strong breeze? You weren’t sure, but you knew you had to get rid of it quickly. You bent over to pick it up. But just as you were about to grab it, the jockstrap perched up and snarled at you like a mad dog! 

The jockstrap suddenly coming to life caught you off guard. Its barking caused you to fall onto your ass. The jockstrap was crawling towards you. In a state of panic, you tried to scoot away from it while using your legs to try to kick it away. But it was no use. The jockstrap was quickly closing the distance between you two. Your back hit a nearby wall. You were cornered. 

You braced yourself for whatever the jockstrap was plotting as it got closer and closer. Then, the jockstrap jumped up and opened itself up nice and wide. First it swerved down as it put itself on around your ankles. It then swerved back up as it flew up your legs. As expected, it was too small for you. You winced as the tight front pocket positioned itself right on top of your junk while the ass straps snapped in place on your rear. All the while your body began transforming to what the jockstrap wanted your body to be. A curly handlebar mustache sprouted out of your once smooth face. You rapidly lost weight and body mass until you had the physique of a twink. It became clear that even if you didn’t want to wear the jockstrap, the jockstrap wanted to wear you.

Once the jockstrap forced itself on you, it forced your body to stand up. Then, using your arms, it tore off all of your clothes until you had nothing except the jockstrap and socks on. 

“Ahhh… Much better!” you said out loud. You then got on your bed again, just as the jockstrap commanded you to.

You had lost control over your own body. Whatever the jockstrap wanted, you had no choice but to obey its commands. But as you rested on your bed, you noticed you weren’t being forced to move around anymore. An idea hit you then. While the jockstrap wasn’t moving around with your body, you figured you might be able to overpower it just long enough to take it off. You weren’t sure if it was going to work, but you had to give it a chance. 

You waited a couple of moments before executing your plan. If it was going to work, you needed to be quick— even quicker than the jockstrap! 

You mentally counted down from three, then went straight for the waistband! But unfortunately, the moment you laid your hands on the elastic waistband, the jockstrap took full control over your body again. Following the jockstrap’s command, you laid down on your bed. Then, one of your hands went up to your nipple and began rubbing it, occasionally pinching the tip until it got hard. Your other hand went further down your waist and cupped your dick. You then began massaging your dick through the fabric of the front pocket, causing it to slowly but surely reach full mast. Despite your efforts to try to suppress how much pleasure you were feeling, a couple of moans escaped your lips anyway as you fondled yourself. 

You then flipped over on your stomach. You raised your hands then swung them back down onto your ass, causing a loud smack and an even louder moan to reverberate throughout your apartment. Each hand grabbed an ass cheek and thoroughly massaged it like a baker kneading bread. You threw your face down onto your pillow as the jockstrap had its way with your ass. You had to admit it, the jockstrap knew its way to pleasure a body! Suddenly you found yourself begging for more from the jockstrap you were wearing.

As your hands fondled your ass, you felt a strange feeling start spreading around your derriere. It was warm, and it made you arch your back and start shaking your ass. The more you shook your ass, the heavier it felt. It was as if your ass was taking on extra mass! You knew this was true since you kept shaking your ass, but now your cheeks clapped together every time you swung your hips. Your ass kept growing and growing in size until you had a proper bubble butt to fill out the jockstrap. Your new fat ass was big and plump, enough so you could grab a handful of ass and still not be able to hold it all! 

Once the jockstrap was finally done transforming you, you laid back down onto your stomach. All that body transformation and stimulation really caused you to work up a sweat! But besides that, it also gave you an incredible craving to get dicked down. After all, what good was a twink with a fat ass like yours if you didn’t put it to work? And with the new jockstrap you recently got from a prize capsule, you were surely ready to strut your trunk and put it to good use.

Hope you enjoy the new body prize you won from finding my lost capsule!

[miranalvjy]

Babes- i might actually have feelings for someone who is 10000000% straight...

Long story short, we're friends, she's one of my classmates and in class we have this joke that's been on for ages that we're wife and wife, so we always give eachother gifts on holidays right?

Yeah, so as a good wife would do i made her a small gift and gave her a dried rose (which if you know what it means good for you, for those who dont know it means eternal love) and a bracelet that was her favourite color

BUT

She as another good wife would, got me SUCH A FUCKING CUTE GIFT AHHHHHH

Firts of all- look at the packaging

IT HAD THE BISEX COLORS ON IT CAUSE SHE KNOWS IM BISEX AHHHHHHH

AND THEN THE GIFTS?!?!?!??!

I was bawling my eyes out- i knew it that she always listened to my bullshit and yapping but, the fact she gave me so considerate gifts made me cry out of happiness

My fav MCR album is Three Cheers and she knows it (even tho she does not listen to MCR) so she DREW ME! DREW ME? THE DEMOLITION LOVERS, LIKE AHHHHHHHH

And it looks amazing- i was shaking with happiness fr

THEN, SHE DIDNT STOP THERE, NOPE

Last class in computation class (or how tf yall say in english) i was yapping about TX2 and how much i adore Evan- AND SHE DID WHAT?!

SHE GAVE ME A VALENTINES DAY CARD (THAT SHE DID-) WITH TX2 ON IT AHHHHHHHHH

And there is no stopping here nahhh-

She knew i was moving homes too, and in my previous home we didnt had keys, we only had a pincode, and this house has a key and i was ranting about how i dont have a keychain once i get the keys- WHAT DID SHE GET ME YOU MIGHT ASK?

A KEYCHAIN, BUT LOOK HOW FUCKING CUTE THIS LITTLE BITCH IS-

😭😭😭

I am so doomed, and i got some sweets with it too- and some stickers...

SHE IS LITERALLY THE BEST FRIEND I COULD EVER ASK FOR (beside my besties ofc)

So- i kind of got attached to her since then, tbh it might be since a little while now.

As you probably dont know, my love language is pretty much touching and physical, and i find myself always caressing her, huging her, even kissing the top of her head- LIKE BRO, I SWEAR I DIDNT FALL FOR HER- and i might be really delusional and way too gay but she doesnt stop me from doing so

There are also other really cute shit we do- for instance, we have a rock pet (dont even ask) and that rock pet is our son Piedriño, and Piedriño just got his first girlfriend too- (a marshmallow-) but thats just additional info

Idk man- im confused- idk if i love her as a friend or if im actually falling softly

What do yall think?

[mywordstovictor]

So today I did a T shot exactly right for the first time in the 8 months I’ve been injecting weekly. I either waste a needle because I forgot to disinfect my vial before I uncapped it or I pick a mediocre spot so it actually kinda hurts or any other of the other (hmmm if I inject every 4 weeks and there are 4 weeks in a month and I’ve been injections for 8 months then 4x8 is… okay 2x8 is 16 and 16x2 is… okay 10x2 is 20 and 6x2 is 12 and 20+12 is 20+10+2 so 30+2 ha! 32!) 32 minor errors I’ve made. Nothing serious. I get everything sterilized that needs to be sterilized. No mistakes that could cause me any harm aside from frustration. Still. Always something. But this one? Perfect. Didn’t have to go back and repeat a single step. Injection so smooth I couldn’t remember where exactly I injected it by the time I had my supplies put away. Speaking of putting my stuff away, I remembered to put everything away. Not just the important bits: the glass vial, the syringes, my sharps disposal box. Everything. Alcohol swabs, wipe I used on the counter, tissue box I brought over in case of bleeding (which I didn’t even need, because this injection was perfect and even factors that aren’t directly related to my shot execution were just exactly right). Freshly transtaped and feeling good doing it shirtless. Packer in sweatpants. I did my shot before noon. Not ten minutes before bed. Not before noon a day late. It was done on shot day before 12pm Atlantic Standard time. Too early to tell if this is a fluke or a sign I’ve finally mastered this five minute max process but either way, this is a victory. I have won this round of transgender. I’ve been riding this win for hours now. I should get a prize. I might just go grab myself a pride sticker from the drawer and put it somewhere. Where? Doesn’t matter. I’ve earned the right to put a trans sticker wherever the fuck I want. Life is good today. Today is a good day to trans.

[hayatheauthor]

How To Write A Disabled Character: The Dos And Don’ts 

As an author, it’s important to ensure the content you create doesn’t accidentally offend or misrepresent a community, especially one you don’t belong to. This is why I made my previous post talking about how to write POC characters without seeming racist, and why I decided to write this blog post on how to write a disabled character. 

Before I jump into my writing tips, I would like to put out a disclaimer. Unlike my previous post, where I could speak from personal experience, I am not disabled and thus am not attempting to be a spokesperson for the community. However, I have previously written several disabled characters and decided to make a guide of sorts for authors like me. 

I would also like to mention that I did some research into acceptable terminology before writing this, using this website and others, however, I am always open to learning and correcting myself if and when I do make a mistake. 

Don’t Make Their Disability Their Personality 

This is possibly one of the most important things to keep in mind when writing with a disabled character. This is an issue when writing about any minority, really, but it is especially true for this community. A person’s disability doesn’t define them or their personality, and the whole introverted disabled person trope gets a little tiring. 

It’s sort of like how every gay man isn’t overly feminine. Yes, there are disabled people who can be sad and quiet and introverted, just like there are others who are loud and obnoxious and extroverted. 

When writing a disabled character, you need to incorporate their disability into their personality rather than making it their personality. A fun-loving protagonist with a hearing aid might slap fun stickers onto it, showcasing their personality. Maybe a person in a wheelchair loves to paint it a new colour every other month. 

These are just examples of ways you could introduce your character with their personality rather than their disability. She saw a peak of pink behind the protagonist’s ears, he watched as a neon green wheelchair sped towards him with a whooping boy seated on it. 

When creating your OC forms, take the time to actually consider how their personality impacts their relationships with their disability and how that impacts their relations with others. 

Know What You’re Writing About 

Do your research! I sincerely cannot stress how important it is for a writer, or any sort of creator, to take the time to research the medical conditions their characters are going through. The same writers who pour over several articles to figure out how much blood would their character realistically lose by a stab wound are often the ones who choose to overlook the complexities and finer details when it comes to a disabled character. 

The issue with this is the spread of misinformation it can cause amongst your readers. This especially applies to factors such as sign language, brail, etc. Think of it this way, if you are bothered enough to use Google translate for dialogues written in a language you don’t speak, then why can’t you do the same for unspoken languages? 

Whether your character has an intellectual, physical, sensory, or other disability, it’s important to take the time to thoroughly research the issues you are portraying. 

Here are some things to consider when writing a disabled character: 

Are there any side effects caused by this disability? If yes, how does this impact them on a daily basis? 

Is the disability curable or reversible? Do other people have access to solutions your character cannot afford? 

Does their disability, develop, change, etc. over time? 

Show Don’t Tell 

Rather than simply telling us about their disabilities, it’s important for you to them show your readers. I previously mentioned how you can do this by incorporating their personalities into your writing, but that is only one aspect writers should consider. 

It’s also important to treat your character as you would treat any other character. Many authors often write long winding descriptions of the things their character can see, hear, or feel. It’s important to do the same when writing with a disabled character as well. Especially if they have a sensory disability! 

Maybe your character can’t see but their lips curl up into a smile when they hear a soft swish of fabric by their side, because they know it means their sister bought that dress she was talking about. 

Recognising a character’s limitations also gives you an idea of how your character would experience the world and allows you to accurately translate that to your readers. 

Flesh Out Their Relationships 

Finally, it’s very important for writers to break away from the cliches when writing about disabled characters. It gets tiring reading about a disabled character who is pitied by everyone around them until someone special comes along and sees them for themselves. It is also important to recognise that a disabled character doesn’t necessarily have to only befriend other disabled characters. 

Your disabled characters can have friends, rivals, love interests, mentors, etc. without these relationships tying into their disability. Don’t restrict your character’s experiences simply because of their disability! A great example of a well-written disabled character would be Isaac played by George Robinson. 

Final Words

Writing about a community you don’t come from can be scary because you need to consider whether or not you’re accidentally offending or misrepresenting someone. This is why writers often stick to the communities they come from, which directly impacts the amount of representation for marginalised communities. 

However, I feel that the right amount of research and a willingness to learn is all you really need to be able to write about a community you don’t come from.

I hope this blog on how to write a disabled character: the dos and don’ts will help you in your writing journey. Be sure to comment any tips of your own to help your fellow authors prosper, and follow my blog for new blog updates every Monday and Thursday.  

Looking For More Writing Tips And Tricks? 

Are you an author looking for writing tips and tricks to better your manuscript? Or do you want to learn about how to get a literary agent, get published and properly market your book? Consider checking out the rest of Haya’s book blog where I post writing and marketing tools for authors every Monday and Thursday. 

Want to learn more about me and my writing journey? Visit my social media pages under the handle @hayatheauthor where I post content about my WIP The Traitor’s Throne and life as a teenage author. 

[splendidsneb]

EDIT: Fan of the icons? Wanna to say 'Hey, good job!' And support me? Consider buying a sticker!

Greetings lovelies, I've been busy with another project and it's finally time to share.

As you can see, I've taken it upon myself to redraw my entire DbD Icon Pack.

This was no small task, I had a total of 73 characters to redraw, colour and format to work in game. (and not a whole lot of free time to do so)

I've been working on this icon pack since 2016, and as time has passed, both my skill as an artist, as well as the way I render certain things have changed, so I decided to go ahead and redo the entire project in a more cohesive style, as well as more closely reference official models when making the initial sketches, as quite a few of the old pieces were just me eye balling things and saying "close enough", so while you'll see some characters that look the same over all with minor tweaks to fix mistakes like Meg or Trapper, you'll also see some art that was completely redone for characters that I just wasn't happy with the quality, like Jeff of Doctor.

I even made a point of eye dropping all colours used directly from the previous version of the icons, along with reusing the same textures.

I wanted the icons to feel as close to the originals as I could make them, while still taking into account that the new UI features the icons on a dark background, which caused some visibility issues with the previous version, which were made with (at the time) lighter colour background in mind.

The new versions now have a white outline which keeps the icons from blurring into the background and getting lost.

I'm really happy with how this has turn out, and I hope you like it too!

That being said, while I will only be updating this version going forwards, I'm not going to delete the older version, so if you're a super fan of the previous version and would prefer to keep using them, you absolutely can!

The 'New and Improved' version can be found on NightLight app under "Sketched In Profile.", as well as here as a [Mega] if you'd prefer that.

If you wish to use the previous version of the icons, you can click the Mega and find them located in the folder entitled "!Legacy Icons." They'll be at the front of the list for easy access.

Feel free to take a peak at what they look like in game below!

As always, if you have any questions or concerns about using these, feel free to reach out!

[gyuspeach]

Just watched dispatch's live stream for Riizes arrival from Madrid. And they all wore masks, although we couldn't see their faces, everything felt so...heavy. They seemed hurt, broken even. Is this what you wanted? Waiting for them for almost an hour and watching the live chat was insane to witness. I was trying to report these ot6ers, these fakers, but I could only do so much. With comments of 6 everywhere to people calling for the whole group to disband. Ofcourse people were blaming Seunghan in there, what made me so upset was these delusional fans reassuring Riize that ot6 was for the greater good, as if they were not the sole reason why Seunghan ultimately left.

This whole day seemed so heavy, I can't even imagine how any of them feel. Like I don't know what to do, and I imagine a lot of other Briizes feel the same. I'll be so fr, Riize was the first group that got me actually excited to follow in a while. I was solely a Moa for about 2 years and casually listening to other groups. Distancing myself cause kpop fan culture is so exhausting. After listening and being in the kpop space for almost 9 years, I have seen other groups go through this countless times. This was the first time this has happened to a group that I really invested myself in. So I don't know what to do. I, like many other Briize, consume Riize content for comfort. Now, it's so emotionally conflicting to even see their photos on my wall, to see the Riize stickers on my laptop, to see my Anton PC on the back of my phone, all of it.

I wish for Riize to be happy, all 7 of them. It's so disheartening that they wish for Briize to be happy too, but that truly can't happen anymore. The Fandom is in a civil war. It's becoming increasingly weird and toxic that it makes me feel almost ashamed to be affiliated with those same people. Idk what this post is for. Just to rant but I hope I can soothe some other Briizes. I'm confused, you're confused it's not an easy time for any of us.

If you somehow read this, thank you. It's not easy to rest, atleast for me it wasn't, but if you can, pls do so. You are allowed to be upset, and SM needs to do better.

[silversword7000]

anon opinion ask!!

i legitimately don’t think i’ve met a sweeter, more devoted to making people happy person on this website. you seem so adorably enthusiastic about the world and i’d love to see things through your eyes. i can instantly recognise your posts by the emojis you use, and i think that’s so cool!! anytime i want lots of positivity and a generally good time i go scroll through your blog and smile. you are so so kind!!!

I’M ACTUALLY GOING TO EXPLODE OMGGG💖💖❣️💖❣️💖❣️💖❣️❣️❣️❣️ Honestly because of my experiences I just choose to be defiantly kind and to never hold back on a compliment cause you never know when somebody could need something like that!! I wish that I could give you Sophia-vision glasses (that are also incredibly stylish of course✨ it is actually so tragic you guys can’t see my outfits on the regular but I am still nervous about posting myself online) so you could see the world like me!! The next best thing is to always do things that make you happy even if it might seem idiotic to other people! That’s what I always do! Making other people happy is my favorite thing to make myself happy!!

(I’m breaking this in two to make it more readable hopefully, I have the tendency to need a lot of words to express myself!😝😝) I just ADORE that you know my usual set of emojis❣️❣️❣️💖💖💖🌟🌟🌟✨✨✨ Like I said in a previous anon opinion, a lot of the way that I talk and express myself in person gets lost online so this is my way of making up for it. PLUS TO ME IT’S LIKE GIVING YOU ALL ONLINE STICKERS💖💖💖💫💫💫 Sometimes I worry that I come across as disingenuous because I reuse statements sometimes and I’m just excitable and talk in a way most people don’t online so I’m really glad that you enjoy it🥰🥰💕💕💕 IT MAKES ME SO HAPPY THAT MY BLOG MAKES YOU HAPPY YOU DON’T EVEN KNOW THE ENERGY I DERIVE FROM RUNNING THIS BLOG IT’S LITERALLY BEEN ONE OF THE BEST DECISIONS IN MY LIFE🥹🥹🥹💖💖💖💖💖💖💖 I wish this wasn’t anonymous so I could come to your blog and IMMEDIATELY give you just as much love as you just gave me!! You just made my night friend, I couldn’t thank you enough, seriously!!🌟🌟🌟❣️❣️❣️

[earth-64]

My Journey in Understanding Comics - Part 2

--

Part 1 is not required reading. In fact, I will refrain from even linking it here. Every blog post is someone’s first.

--

It shouldn’t be embarrassing to admit that I needed to have “comic books” explained to me. Yet I feel ashamed that I allowed the entire medium to exist within a hair’s breadth of my cultural understanding for so long. I’ve already gone over my select few childhood run-ins with comics, as well as the false-start that nearly was my first paper-comic obsession* (*See “My Journey in Understanding Comics” #1! - Ed.), so my story this time will start in November of 2023. 

I was working a mundane job at a manufacturing facility. Full-time hours of applying stickers to pieces of foam, or punching out holes in paper, or assembling little devices of god-knows-what, praying that for every life-saving defibrillator adhesive pad I quality-checked that the insulation padding I was shape-forming wasn’t destined for a war machine. It was a place of room-sized printing presses, massive machines that shaped and cut materials with the power of water-jets, and dark laboratory backrooms with more nausea-inducing chemicals filling the air than oxygen. While I didn’t end up falling into vats of any of the horrifically powerful bleaches we used to clean the printing screens (although I did retire home early on a number of occasions from dizziness caused by breathing in acetone), it was here that I had way too much time on my hands and binged podcasts. 

I was devouring 10 hours of audio content a day, from audio dramas to history lessons to comedy sketches. The hardest part of the job became satiating my hunger for endless content. After exhausting “Midnight Burger” and Penumbra’s “Juno Steel”, I listened through all of Tim Roger’s “Action Button” reviews in audio-form. On recommendation from my girlfriend, that made a natural transition into gulping down hundreds of episodes of “Insert Credit”. Among other branching paths (I recommend “They Create Worlds” and “Video Game History Hour”), I was led through Alex Jaffe to “52 Pick Up”.

“52 Pick Up”, hosted by Alex Jaffe and Gita Jackson, discusses DC’s 2006-2007 weekly comic book “52” issue by issue. I dipped my toe into it with hardly any context: it had been many years since I read comics, very little of that had been DC. Certainly none from around the time “52” was published, and certainly not any that would provide any helpful context to “52”. I cannonballed into the the deep end, albeit without risk of drowning: if the podcast hosts helped me stick the landing then I would be opened to a whole new world of possibilities, if I was just utterly lost by the interwoven plot threads and greater context of the comic then I would just shrug it off and go back to the comforting familiarity of learning about unreleased Nintendo knitting machines* (* “VGHH” #117! - Frank ( - not Frank)). This isn’t the iTunes review section so I’ll spare you from me simply pasting in the glowing review I left for them, but rest assured that “52 Pick Up” does its job of introducing someone to the context of comic books tremendously well. I was hooked, and have not missed a bi-weekly wednesday since. 

However, it wasn’t enough to break the floodwall I had erected after the comic-related disaster I had beared the full brunt of so many years ago. I followed “52” and kept saying to myself “I think I’ll subscribe to that DC mobile app, and read some of the surrounding context”, but I never pulled the trigger on that purchase. My interest was piqued, I was given the on-ramps, taught all the techniques from a master of comics knowledge, and yet I could not begin the simple act of reading. 

I hold the act of consumption on a higher pedestal than it deserves. I regularly find myself hesitating to consume. Is this the right time? How will this work affect me? “Are you ready?” I ask myself, fighting back my natural instinct to presume anything unknown to me is not “for me”. 

In February of 2024 I finally made a concession: I would start with something I felt I was closer to. Something that wouldn’t be “out of character” for me to consume. I had already been into “Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure” for some years, so I turned to manga, and read “Dragon Ball”. This isn’t the place for me to put all my thoughts on “Dragon Ball”. Know simply that it was a prime example of works of fiction finding me at exactly the right moment in my life, affecting me tremendously, with Toriyama’s passing happening right in the nearly exact middle of my readthrough. My dad had treated “Dragon Ball” with the same disdain as Wrestling or Football as I was growing up, something that wasn’t “for me”, something dumber, barbaric. 

Comic books were his thing, and manga was not my thing. Before I moved out I had to find ways to justify things as being “my thing”. Webcomics were a natural extension of an interest in video games, manga was an eventual gap bridged by years of anime expos and the absurdity of “Jojo’s”, but “Dragon Ball”, among many other things, remained unreachable. 

Now that I live on my own there are no gaps between works of fiction that need filling. My brain still often tricks me into thinking I cannot leap over the vast chasms that separate genres and mediums, but it is only the residual fear of being perceived as not being myself. There is no longer anyone in my daily life that has known me for a great amount of time, no one to police me to stay true to my platonic self. I have to remind myself that I can choose to wake up and be a whole new person if I so wish. Any day could be the day I decide to start being a person who reads comic books.

In late July 2024 I found the catalyst: a copy of Scott McCloud’s “Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art”.  It was a book always on my radar as being something that I would get a kick out of, but I never wanted to just read a scan of it. I knew it deserved to be read physically, but I never had the drive to order a copy. In the end it needed to appear before me, on the shelf of the thrift store I regular, as a spur of the moment purchase. I’ll again spare you from a full overzealous review, but it was exactly what I needed. “This is what a comic book is. This is why it’s important. This is why it’s for everyone.” That’s what I needed to hear. I needed someone to lay it all out, label all the pieces, explain the history, and tell me that comics can be for me. 

In August my friends decided to marathon some of the X-Men movies. All the stars aligned: I had the knowledge, the motivation, the relief from social permission. No, not a relief. A triumph. I had triumphed over a lifetime of social pressure, of expectations and preconceived notions. I didn’t need to hide my mood-swing dips into unfamiliar media. I didn’t need to be ashamed of stepping outside my comfort zone. The version of myself in others’ heads are their own flawed snapshots of pieces of my true self, not a script they write for me to follow and fear. I could be anything I wanted.

I could be someone subscribed to Marvel Unlimited. 

The conclusion to our thrilling three-part epic is up next in our amazing tale of self-reflection and ceaseless inner-discovery awaits! You don’t wanna miss it true believers!

[rmd-writes]

Good Vibes Tuesday

Thank you @smblmn and @chelle-68 for tagging me 💖

Like so many of you, I was struck by reading everyone’s Mournful Monday posts - not just by the way so many of us are struggling in so many different ways, but by the kindness and grace that accompanied the reflection and responses to everyone else; the notes to encourage us to keep going, to remind us why we write, that what we say and do matters to others, that we matter.

So this good vibes Tuesday (it is Wednesday for me, as always, I live in the future), the thing that makes me happy about fandom today is this fandom - Schitt’s Creek fandom specifically, aka you.

I know that there have been issues within the fandom from time to time: across platforms, in the form of anons trying to cause Drama™, due personal conflicts etc. No fandom is ever completely drama free. But for the most part? This fandom is a safe space. It’s a fandom where I’ve made life long friends, a place that helped me to rediscover a creative side to myself that had been lost for 20-odd years (yes, I am that old), a place that led me to find other fandoms and friends whom I adore and could not be without. 

The thing about this fandom though, the thing that is noticeable to those outside it, the thing that is commented on, is that it really is a community based in kindness.

Our beautiful show ended years ago and yet we are still here with fandom surveys, incredibly well organised writing events, weekly drabbles to keep us inspired, photos of the day and polls and ask games. There are events to encourage people to read older, or lesser known fics and to leave comments for authors. We are gifted with amazing infographics, fun stickers and fan art and gif sets. And, occasionally, we follow each other into new fandoms too.

There is SO MUCH incredible writing produced in this fandom and the way that writers are embraced and encouraged because fandom is a community and not a competition is truly heartwarming.

Maybe this shouldn’t be a surprise, not when we’re here for the love of a show that is rooted in showing the importance of love and kindness, not when Dan Levy’s message is to love unconditionally and out loud, that kindness always wins. 

So thank you, all of you, for making this fandom what it is 💖

I’m so reluctant to tag people on this because I don’t want to leave people out, but here goes: @hippolotamus @stereopticons @this-is-bwr @petalwritesx @maxbegone @mostlyinthemorning @celeritas2997 @treluna4 @cheesecurdsgravyandfries @reasonandfaithinharmony @ramonaflow @mammameesh @rosedavid @jesuisici33 @steviestoospooky @obsessedwithdavrick @wordthieve @noahreids @lilythesilly @danieljradcliffe @lightningboltreader @actual-sleeping-beauty @bestwisheswarmregards @doublel27 @blueink3 @trickiwooao3 @distractivate @likerealpeopledo-on-ao3 @swearphil @saraminia @sarahlevys @lizzie-bennetdarcy @jettestar @dinnfameron @neelyo67 @missgeevious okay my memory is failing me now, but there are so many more of you who should be here too, I’m sorry x