#WHY DOES EVERY WEBSITE DOES THIS FOR FUCK SAKE

[maburito]

????? What the fuck happened to deskpot youtube???

Why did they swap places of the comments and videos????

[genderqueerdykes]

honestly, as a trans woman who's running a fairly 'popular' or whatever queer blog, i've noticed so much shit in the past 2 years and i'm just gonna lay it out for y'all. it's a new year. it's 2025. i do NOT wanna carry any more of this bullshit forward. i'm calling everything for what it is. if this pisses you off, unfollow or block and move on.

as someone else put it in the tags on one of my other posts:

i am sick and tired of not talking about extremely important queer conversation topics for the sake of "keeping the peace".

this is not giving trans women and transfemmes a better quality of life to attack literally every every and all trans men for being trans men. it's making people fucking scared shitless of us. i hope people realize this isn't helping improve the opinion other people have on trans women and transfemmes. it's making people absolutely fucking terrified to even exist around us, because we've gotten to the point where we're attacking literally everyone and anyone who says something we don't like. people are fucking terrified of talking around transfemmes and trans women and it's time we broke the silence on that.

other transfemmes and trans women: do you seriously, really want other trans people to be scared to death of you? do you really want other trans people to be absolutely fucking terrified to speak around you because they're scared of getting fucking yelled at? do you really want other trans people to be utterly terrified to speak up about their own trans issues for fear of being told they hate you? do you really want other people around you to feel utterly terrified to talk about anything queer related at all for fear of being corrected, looked down upon, or verbally harassed?

i am just completely done with this environment we've fostered where basically everyone is on pins and goddamn needles holding themselves back from having real, genuine, impactful, substantial conversations about gender because they're absolutely scared shitless of being called transmisogynistic and publicly cancelled and harassed at all times for saying something as simple as "trans men don't have it easy" or talking about how AFAB people can also be trans. it really does not take much at all to set people off on this website and start accusing people of being transmisogynists left right and center.

i'm not participating in this weird mind game anymore. i do not like how this is being used to control the narrative on transness and trans experiences.

i am done with having to walk on eggshells in every. single. conversation. we have about gender.

i am done with acting like talking about transmasculinity and transmanhood is somehow magically attacking and silencing trans women and transfemmes.

i am done with people having to tack on massive disclaimers saying that they're not attacking trans women and transfemmes just for talking about their experiences on just about every post people write about gender.

i feel like every conversation about gender on here has to be so fucking sterile and calculated and meticulously planned out and stripped of most of its contents in order to not immediately get slammed with a "oh so you hate trans women" or a "oh so you're transmisogynstic." it's fine to point out genuine transmisogyny, i'm not gonna say you have to put up with it when it's real, but can we acknowledge that people are leveraging the fear other people have of being called transmisogynistic to shut people up?

at this point it's being used as a scare tactic and i'm so over it. i loathe how accusing people of being transmisogynistic is a default insult. trans men can't make a post about transmasculinity without someone getting pissed off and calling them transmisogynistic. trans men can't talk about a goddamn thing without being told to shut up, for some reason? why is this happening? like literally why are you doing this? trans men can't talk about ANYTHING at this point. like they needed to be able to coin words for the specific types of oppression they face so they could talk about it, and instead they just get fucking yelled at and told they're being copycats and that the violence they faced wasn't real? what the actual hell is this accomplishing?

why are we acting like we own oppression and no one else can even come close to understanding what its like? come on now, we don't own the goddamn concept of oppression. we also don't own transness. i am sick to death of this idea that transfemininity and trans womanhood are the only "real" ways to be trans. we do not own the concept of transness. it's not just about us. "trans rights" applies to more than just us. it can't be about us all the time. WE are the ones being self centered right now. WE are the ones who are forcing the conversation to be about us in situations where it's completely and totally inappropriate.

we need to say it for what it is: we're fostering an environment where, at this point, only trans women and transfemmes are allowed to talk about anything queer related at this point. like can we call it for what it is? for some reason, trans men and transmascs aren't allowed to talk about trans manhood or transmasculinity at all. ever. they're not allowed to say a fucking peep. they have to shut up and listen to a trans woman explain it to them, because for some reason, the trans woman knows trans manhood better than the trans man. this is out of fucking control, we should not have trans women explaining trans manhood to other people unless they are also a trans man. this is just unacceptable. transfems attack transmascs who speak for transfems, and yet this is seen as good and the norm?

you are not cool if you hate trans men and misgender them on purpose. this isn't feminist. this isn't progressive. you're not getting back at the patriarchy- most trans men do not benefit from patriarchy and never will- you would understand this if you listened to them. instead of talking over and for trans men, and listening to people who talk over and for trans men, if you listened to trans men, the source, you'd understand that no, transmasculine lives are NOT easy and no, trans men do not instantly benefit from patriarchal society if at all, ever. if you listened you'd understand that T doesn't make people aggressive and hostile and evil. if you listened you'd understand that there are a lot of wonderful, loving trans men out there are who are not transmisogynistic just by virtue of existing.

nobody is saying that we want to you prioritize men over trans women when we talk about trans men's rights. we're not saying that we need to talk about men all the time and never talk about women, and that men are the only ones allowed to talk, now. we really have to let multiple people participate in conversations. we can't keep doing this thing where One Gender Has To Be Superior Over another. that's gender essentialism. why must you keep yourself trapped inside the binary like that? why are you so desperate to stay stuck inside of the machine that's trying to destroy you?

challenging someone else's transphobia is not being transphobic. challenging someone else's behavior is not hating them or their gender. criticism is not an attack on trans womanhood and transfemininity. transfemmes are trans women are not immune to criticism and we need to stop acting like we are. we're not. we've created an echo chamber where only trans women and transfemmes are allowed to talk right now and it's not transmisogynistic to point that out, because it's literally happening before our eyes.

if we're demanding that other people treat us better, why are we treating other people like shit in the process to get it?

stop silencing other people talking about other trans experiences. transfemininity and trans womanhood are not the only ways to be trans. stop forcing yourself into conversations you don't belong in. if you don't want trans men do that, don't do it as a trans woman. don't barge into conversations you have literally 0 stock in just to be rude and mean and make the conversation about trans women instead. let other people talk. this has gone on for way too long.

let. other. trans. people. talk. we shouldn't have let it get this bad. but i'm not letting it stay this bad. if you want to accuse people having genuine conversations about transness of being transmisogynistic just because they're not a trans woman, then feel free, i'm not gonna stop you, but i'm not listening to you. i don't care anymore. i'm sick to death of not being able to have REAL conversations on here because some people don't like being reminded that they are not the only people who suffer under cisheteronormative patriarchy. if you can't accept that you are not the only one who suffers under patriarchy and that men need to be liberated from patriarchy as well, then i'm not interested in having a conversation with you to begin with.

seriously, if any of this bothers you, please just block me. i'm not participating in these dumb ass little mind games anymore. i do not give a singular shit about offending people who think this behavior is okay. i spent way too long being afraid to speak up about real world issues because of shitty internet trolls. i don't give a fuck if someone you don't like speaking about their experiences hurts your feelings- you are the problem here.

this is affecting real people in real time and i care about that. i care about people, not stupid ideologies and fighting over who is or isn't "really trans". i care about people, not fighting over labels. open your mind and understand that is is about real ass people, and not just ideologies. trans men and mascs are real ass people. they're not antagonists made specifically to attack and piss off transfemmes and trans women. enough of this.

[rjalker]

>:(

if anyone tell you pap smears don't hurt they're a gods damned liar

next time I'm going to ask them to just give me fucking laughing gas or something.

Edit two days later:

For the fucking record to ward off jackass, this post is being made by a nonbinary trans person. My pronouns are it/its. Any TERFs or other transmisics who touch this post will be fucking vaporized.

For a damn preface, for those unaware, a pap smear is a procedure done on people with vaginas to test for cervical cancer or other health problems. It involves sticking a medical device into the vagina and using it to widen the walls of the vagina so the doctor can stick a tiny brush into the cervix to collect cells for testing.

And if you try to look up whether or not this procedure can hurt, every where you look will tell you it doesn’t.

And I'm still fucking infuriated by this. Because it’s a fucking lie. Everywhere I looked beforehand said it wouldn't hurt, I might just feel some pressure. Every single fucking website and blog post and video said "It won't hurt! It doesn't hurt!"

Even now when I am specifically trying to find other people talking about how it hurts, 99% of the results are saying it doesn't hurt, and if it does, it's just because you're nervous and anxious and causing yourself problems.

Except every where I fucking looked told me it wouldn't hurt. The doctor said it wouldn't hurt. My fucking mom said it wouldn't hurt.

I was not tense. I was not anxious. I was told it wouldn't hurt and I believed all the people who'd said so.

And then it felt like having a knife shoved inside my body.

And I was told to just do some fucking breathing exorcises and relax.

Even though I'd been fucking relaxed until it started hurting, because everyone fucking old me it was painless, just mildly uncomfortable.

And I am not talking about pain like "a little pinch", I mean fucking pain like being stabbed with a needle or having a knife twisted inside you. And it just got worse the longer it went on. They had to fucking stop early and might not have even been able to collect the fucking cells they were supposed to be testing.

And when this was finally over the doctor told me that the only reason it hurt was because my hymen was intact (So what about all the fucking shit going around for years about how that breaks for everyone in fucking gym class???? More fucking lies!!), as though that had anything to do with the pain inside.

And now every fucking thing I try to look up for reasons why it can hurt is literally just fucking repeating the same shit about how it doesn’t hurt, and if it does, it’s only because you were nervous and anxious and embarassed and all the fucking things I WASN’T. BECAUSE I WAS TOLD IT WOULDN’T HURT.

Every where I fucking look, I’m told that these things don’t hurt, and it’s just anxiety, and blah fuckity blah.

For fuck’s sake, this is real fucking medical gaslighting going on on a fucking absurd level.

These fucking websites and videos and blog posts and articles may as well just fucking call my hysterical at this point for all they fucking give a shit about people who are hurt by this procedure.

Everyone’s too fucking busy insisting that it doesn’t hurt and you have to get one and if you avoid getting one then you’re a bad person and you’re going to get cancer and die.

I’ve literally found exactly one (1) article talking about how it does hurt for some people, but that this gets constantly brushed under the rug and shouted down, and how this is a fucking problem. One fucking short article out of almost a hundred that I checked.

If you are so hellbent on getting people to get pap smears that you will literally fucking lie about the fact that not only can it hurt, it can hurt extremely, then you are not fucking helping anyone! If no one’s allowed to fucking talk about how painful this procedure is, no one can actually fucking give informed consent, because all of society is apparently too damn busy lying and saying it doesn’t hurt!!!!!!

This is blatant fucking medical misogyny and medical gaslighting everywhere you look and I’d have to be fucking knocked unconcious or given fucking laughing gas before I ever agree to do that again.

There’s even a fucking tiktok someone put on youtube where the original person was talking about offering anesthesia for pap smears, and then a fucking gynecologist comes in to say that’s stupid and useless and absurd and pretends that the only reason it can hurt is because people aren’t relaxed enough.

This is literal fucking society-wide misogynistic lying and gaslighting and it is pure fucking evil.

So pro fucking tip, for people who need to get pap smears: It can in fact hurt. Do not fucking let anyone tell you that you’re imagining it or you’re immature or you’re causing it yourself by being anxious. Do not fucking let them gaslight you and victim blame.

Pap smears can hurt, a lot, and anyone who tells you they don’t or can’t is just straight up fucking lying to your face.

So does this fucking mean I have endometriosis? Vaginismus? Some other fucking horrible thing I haven't heard of yet??? I don't fucking know! And it's gonna take three weeks to fucking find out the test results, assuming they even got to collect any of the gods damned cells in the first place!

Either fucking way, the fact that no one is allowed to talk about how this procedure can be excruciatingly painful because everyone else is just shouting at the top of their lungs that it doesn't hurt and you need to be a Big Girl™ and stop being embarrassed and go get one is fucking evil and I am fucking enraged.

(Edit again for the anon: Yes, you can reblog this, I am not embarrassed, more people need to talk about this so people can at least have some fucking warning. Feel free to copy and paste to other sites too.)

[romancerepulsed]

disclaimer: i am american and i can only speak for how it is here, but regardless this post is about online spaces

i have to say it. "romance negativity" is not a thing and you all look like clowns for saying it and placing it right next to sex negativity. sex negativity exists within a large system oppression. its a set of beliefs an individual can have, yes, but those beliefs in and of themselves are nothing without their institutional support. sex negativity, though it hurts queer people the most, negatively affects every person who desires to interact with sexuality in any way. sex negativity is major websites and apps banning porn for the sake of profit. sex negativity is restricting abortion access. sex negativity is absitence-only education. sex negativity is the criminalization of sex work. sex negativity is rape culture.

romance negativity does not exist in this way. the most romance negativity could possibly harm you is it hurting your feelings a bit when an aromantic person expresses their frustrations with amatonormativity. our institutions actively push for romance and partnering. our whole society is structured around it. all of our entertainment is infested with it. there is no significant cultural push to devalue romance the same way there is for sex, and thats why the discussion of the evil repulsed aros who hate romance and hate you for experiencing it is so fucking stupid to me. like, every romance repulsed aro i know is so painstakingly polite and supportive to the alloromantics and romance favorable aros around us. we are constantly gritting our teeth and working through it, because thats what we have always had to do.

ive also seen posts complaining that romance repulsed aros make the community feel unsafe for romance favorable aros, which... i have not seen any of the rumored aro elitism this implies at all. im sure there are some guys out there who exclude romance favorable aros, and they absolutely suck ass. but this is not a widespread problem at all. and i need you to put yourselves in the shoes of a romance repulsed aromantic person right now. someone who has just found the language for what theyve been struggling with all their lives, and theyre excited to find a community for people like them, a community thats supposed to be free from the talons of amatonormativity, only to find out most of the people there are still talking about their partners, their crushes, the romantic things they wanna do with their friends, etc. its isolating. this isnt to say aromanticism isnt a spectrum or that people shouldnt talk about their experiences as romance favorable aros, im just trying to get you to understand *why* repulsed aros can seem so irritable or aggressive at times.

so im sorry that romance repulsed aros expressing their frustration with the very fabric of society being against them hurt your feelings. but i think maybe thats just something youre gonna have to deal with. if you need tips on sucking it up then maybe ask a romance repulsed aro, we're used to it 👍

[toyfii]

stupid rant, not really serious its just youtube

i really dont like cursing but um what the fuck happened to yt. like. when you search stuff up, yt spits at you so many irrelevant videos "you also watched this" YEAH BUT I DIDNT SEARCH THAT UP DID I?? its so stupid and this change happened years ago or smth i dont even remember. and this is small but they changed how you switch the video quality too like it used to be so simple click on 144 or 240 or 480 and done. but now theres like "advanced" or some other BS like why is it so complicated to change the video quality... and now i just got on youtuve and why are all the videos so small. and the titles dont even fit. most of the titles have like the ... (the three dots) bc theyre too long. but the titles arent long they're literally like one sentence long. so basically its like half thumbnail half cut-off-title-that-i-wish-i-could-read-for-petes-sake. and the stupid shorts are massive. like what the fuck does yt want why doesit keep trying to brainwash me and rot my brain so damn hard like.. i dont want to fall for the manipulation anymore. like ik how yt and other social media are SUPER invasive and manipulative where they design the apps so you get addicted. with like recommended content, algorithms, autoplay etc etc. and then there were the shorts. and the fucked up searches that give you useless results. and now they make videos look smaller. is it bc of the US tiktok ban?? like yt is gearing up to try and be the next tiktok or smth. its so fucking stupid i dont want my brain to be rotted any more i dont want to have a horrible attention span anf be coerced into doomscrolling and hyperfixating on mindless continuous videos. i just want to search up music and the people i like watching..

and yeag ik this is kinda hypocritical bec i get fixated on tumblr and scroll a lot too. but idk YouTube has changed so much since i was a kid. and it got worse. and this new change, making videos so small and shorts so big. it made me so upset. and actually it's not really bc of the shorts. its bc the video titles keep getting cut off. so basically, now, YouTubers need to have 3 word titles. make clickbajt slop with sexy titles in all caps. no more thinking, just stimulate yourself with endless videos while you watch more ads, make YT more money, and let them collect and sell your data! and also yeah ik basically every website and app collects and sells data.

[msnihilist]

hii, we've never really interacted with each other and I hope this doesn't come across as weird or pushy, but I finally read one (1) too many asks from an anonymous anti and just couldn't keep my mouth shut anymore. WHY do they come to your ask box and act as if you are responsible for the education of every single person out there?? especially the last ask, where the anon just cannot wrap their head around the fact that you don't write about incest in an "educational way" that teaches people how it's "wrong and immoral". THAT'S NOT YOUR JOB??? they act like children who expect you to play the job of a parent, to take them by the hand and be like, "this is very, very bad and you should NEVER do this in real life." like, i'm sorry, but if "bad" topics can only ever be explored for the sake of teaching others that such things should never be acted upon in real life, then people like those anons should not be engaging with anything but media for very young children. how can one trust such people to consume anything that has a character doing something remotely bad without the character, in the end, turning to the camera and saying, "and remember kids, what i just did is very, very bad and should never be acted upon in real life" like some one-dimensional character fable written for people whose minds cannot yet distinguish between fiction and real life???

and to then come to YOU, who always offers content warnings and who certainly forces NO ONE to consume your content, who writes primarily for their own sake & pleasure, and who is not damaging a single fucking person over it, and complain about how you "never explore other relationships" and how you "never only write to teach your readers it's wrong and bad", i'm about to rip my hair out!!!

does hannibal ever turn to the camera and remind his audience that cannibalism is actually bad???? does any slasher ever turn to the camera and remind people they shouldn't kill???? do, idk, villains ever turn to the camera and remind others they shouldn't hurt anyone???? no??????? are topics of violence and death explored in media without serving the message of morality on a silver platter for its audience??? and do people complain to those content creators and accuse them of romanticizing killing & torturing, etc??? NO!! and yet 😫 and yet, the moment something sexual is involved, everyone and their mother clutches their pearls because to them, it's unfathomably disgusting and the idea to see it as fiction just as with other topics becomes impossible to actually understand, much less accept.

i wish i could reach through your screen, have access to those anons' computers, and install a program to only allows them access to websites that are friendly for children under 10 years old, because APPARENTLY, that's the only type of media they are mature enough to consume.

anyways. i respect and admire you for always staying so calm. i personally start having a high blood pressure for you whenever i read some of your anons, and i know in the end there's no point in engaging them bc i might as well try to have a complex, multi-layered discussion with my cold, unresponsive wall, and it would be less of a waste of time than arguing with antis. so, yeah. i hope you never let them take away your spark and ruin your fun. we live in sad times and writers who have not yet lost the courage to engage with creativity as it's SUPPOSED to (in an explorative way) are becoming much too seldom. have a lovely day!! 💕

(and P.S. sorry if i made you uncomfortable, that was not my intention)

You know, what's funny about that question aimed towards my own writing is that I actually do have fics where it's serious and awful.

Whisper Your Love is a Black Butler fic I wrote where Ciel (stubborn and prideful) attempts to force himself to overcome his sexual trauma (he was kidnapped and raped repeatedly and often) by forcing himself to have sex, and it doesn't work because trauma doesn't work that way. It's rated E, and I didn't write it to be erotic.

Playing Hard to Get is a Homestuck fic in which Dave is raped by his guardian, and it's blatant and victim-blame-y as hell. If you come away from this thinking that the rape was somehow a good thing for him, then that just shows you're going for the Olympic gold at stretching and reaching.

Mama's Boy is a Miraculous Ladybug fic where Adrien is clearly being groomed by his mother. It's so obvious that what she's doing is cruel.

Fly in a Web is an Astro Boy fic in which Tenma grooms and molests his son as a method of controlling him. Hell, even the title of this fic alludes to how "not okay" everything that happens here is.

That's just four of my older fics that I quickly combed through and picked. I have 15 pages of fics, and I only went through the last 5 to find those. (The reason it took five pages to find four fics? Because the vast majority of my fics are gen.)

62% of my fics are gen. 21% are teen. 9% are mature, and only 6% are explicit.

6%

It is honestly incredibly rude, entitled, and parasocial of antis to complain about what I spend my time writing, let alone 6% of my time.

Of course I have fetish fics. Taboo is hot! But the point of something being taboo is that it is wrong.

When I asked my ex to roleplay a rape scene with me, it wasn't a polite thing we had in mind. It was restraints and being held at knife-point and it was violent and rough because it's bad. Shocker!

But to circle back to your ask — if these antis actually do want something blatantly bad to read, I have plenty to choose from! But that's not what they actually want, because they see "rape" and "E" tagged and automatically assume that I wrote something to get off to, not that something sexually explicit might also have a greater story/point to it. (Although, don't get me wrong — writing something just to get off is super based, and I do that, as well.)

But they don't actually read my writing, and they won't, either. These complaints actually remind me of that PTA mom in Texas a few years back, who successfully complained and got books featuring sex pulled from the shelves — even though many of the books she complained about featured sexual assault/harassment.

The context doesn't matter, Christofascists— Sorry, I mean, fandom antis will always consider the content to be morally reprehensible. Sex is uniquely bad and not at all comparable to violence because the Church says so— Sorry, I mean... Because the Church says so, lol.

I appreciate you getting frustrated on my behalf! And don't worry, lol, this ask wasn't weird, haha. I actually think it's very kind of you. Yeah, that "unresponsive wall" bit is why I won't have a good faith conversation with random anon messages, anymore. If someone wants to talk to me like a normal person, my DMs are open!

Don't worry, I've been writing what I want for far too long to let randos online get me down. I get told to kill myself at least once a week, lol. They'll have to do better than that.

[melonteee]

sometimes in your vid essays when you briefly diverge into the topic of powerscaling and such I find it hilarious in regards to One Piece specifically because that series is so allergic to that kind of discussion. like as someone who's well-versed in regards to How Powerscaling Works, OP straight up does not give numbers the way other series do and if you go to any powerscaling type wiki/website their OP pages are in fact just born from a million assumptions. One Piece will have a dude say "Im Big Dick McGee" and do one insanely cool thing that has everyone freaking out and powerscalers will be pulling their hair out because *they can't quantify that shit* and have to make a million assumptions as to how strong OP characters really are.

And i feel like Oda has the same mindset because he introduced the doriki system as an actual Power Scale System in water seven and then threw it the hell away mid arc with no reference to it ever again and YET because it's the single point of actual in-series power measuring youll find forums today still using it to make 15 more follow-up assumptions for characters in the current canon. no one can handle the silly goofines of this whole thing and thats not even counting how OP powerlevel discussions become lore discussions too bc how are they going to account for everyone being superhuman due to their planet being far more massive and thus having stronger gravity.

its so hilarious no other shonen could ever resist not introducing a consistent powerscaling system for 2+ decades

EXACTLY DFGHJKDF this is why I've been SAYING you can call One Piece a battle shonen all you want, because there ARE battles in it, but Oda so CLEARLY puts narrative over ANY sort of power system. Every time someone asks Oda any battle relevant question, he always answers with some bullshit JHKFGD like "how far can Luffy stretch?? oh about 20 gum gums" LIKE HHHH he so clearly DOESN'T care to stick to any strict power system. I mean the most recent huge fight was a TOM AND JERRY inspired fight for god's sake, Gear 5 throws any and all power scaling conversations out the window for all we know Gear 5 can do fucking ANYTHING.

I've literally seen One Piece guys and Dragonball guys fighting about whether Gear 5 could beat Goku, and it's like, mother fucker for all we know Gear 5 could just bugs bunny a kamehameha back at him JDFHGKD like we literally do not know the scale of Gear 5. Hell we don't know the scale of MOST characters in One Piece. I was SO confused as to why the term 'admiral level' was a thing cause we've barely seen the admirals...do anything?? Like yeah Akainu can turn into magma and whatever, but what else??? Why is this term even a thing if we haven't even seen the scale of what any of these guys can do JKFGDFGD I will admit I have a much more plot/narrative driven head but I truly cannot understand how One Piece power scalers get any of their arguments or data hhhhhh

[disjournaled-scrolls]

People calling elon's double-sieg-heil-combo move a result of his autism is so fucking annoying. If it was a mistake, he would've addressed it immediately. But we all know it was not a mistake because oh my fucking god he did it twice. He perfectly executed the salute twice.

By the way, people saying it's "just a Roman salute" can bite my ass. We have no evidence whatsoever that Romans performed that salute at any point. You know who did believe that? You know who believed that and really really liked doing it? Fucking Nazis. That's why it's called the Roman/Fascist/Nazi salute. It's interchangeable. It all means the same fucking thing, Nazis!

Every time an autistic person does something slightly awkward or "weird" or "gross" these fuckfaces pile on and harass them for a millennia. When a nazi says the quiet part out loud, all of a sudden they care about ableism?

Everything about that prick points to him being a fascist nazi asshole. He is from South Africa, for fuck's sake. He runs the fucking nazi website!!

[hindulivesmatter]

Hey anon, you threw a tantrum in my inbox at midnight. But you know what, I'll address your ask bit by bit, because I'm nice.

It's every news organization that is blatantly Hinduphobic and either refuses to cover actual cases or alters its headlines to be misleading. The Citizenship Amendment Bill you're speaking about is not taking away citizenship rights, oh my god. Do your goddamn research. Here is what it actually entails.

Next. I reblogged a-s fischer's reply because that was the one I was focusing on. Not to mention all the news articles in the other reblogs were all thinly veiled propaganda. My "sources" were all actual fucking cases, buddy. When did I pretend that's all there is. a-s fischer blocked me like a coward after replying to me.

Huh. I'd love to know what your definition of Islamophobia is, because it seems like NOBODY ON THIS DAMN WEBSITE CAN SEEM TO AGREE ON A DEFINITION. I've defended every single thing Modi does? Absolutely not. BJP is a political party in the end, and they have members who are absolute pieces of shit. For example, Brij Bhushan Singh. I hate who he is as a human being, and he deserves absolutely no power. He deserves NOTHING. Understand this. Just because I talk about the positive side of BJP does not mean I won't condemn them when it is required. I will bash them when it's necessary, you condescending ass.

Yeah, we are educating people about our cultures, because currently, all I've seen over Tumblr is hatred for our own religion, Hinduphobia and antisemitism running WILD.

Also, I am Indian? I'm literally Marathi. I wasn't even replying to tikkunolamorgtfo, i was replying to a-s fischer. The OP wasn't even who I was talking about. Why can't a Jewish person be Indian? When did I ever assume that? a-s fischer was literally calling Hindutva "Hinduva" for god's sake.

Bro, you think we have an agenda, I promise you we don't. I'm an 18-year-old girl in college who's trying to spread awareness about Hinduphobia. That's literally it. Go piss your pants and cry about it somewhere else.

Liar liar pants on fire. Let's not pretend that the media in India isn't heavily skewed. The prejudice is real, and the media is perfectly happy to twist headlines to frame us as villains. I'd tell you to use your critical thinking skills, but from this long-ass rant you sent me, I can tell you don't have any.

[thoroughlyskeptic]

I am getting tired of the same damned arguments from the nannies every damn time we mention things might not be copacetic in the fucking house of cards that is the Cumberbatches.

First, the harping on Occam's Razor. For fuck's sake. It doesn't mean what you think it does.

When you hear hoofbeats, think horses. We have all seen or heard this phrase. The conclusion you can draw by Occam's razor does not exclude the idea of zebra. The simplest explanation is that there was a sound. Regardless of what made the noise. To make any other statement is to assume facts not in evidence.

So what is the fucking point of all of this? Why the hell does it matter?

You harp on the facts as you see them. House said it best. People lie. It's the human condition. Trust none of what you hear and half of what you see.

The facts are thus.

A religious wedding ceremony(not a secular marriage) was celebrated. The reading made a reference to a date that was 9 months before the reported date of a child that is reported to be Benedict and Sophie's.

There was a christening for one bundle of white fabric.

There have been names reported for 3 children.

Benedict has repeatedly said 2 boys.

Sophie has made comments about not being motherly.

Benedict has appeared less in public then previously as judged by random tweets, selfies and social media posts.

There have been very limited sighting of Benedict with varying numbers of children, and sometimes with Sophie.

The children are reported to be school aged.

The links below are reddit threads and a website that may prove educational. One of the prevailing arguments used by the fucking nannies is that no person in today's society would ever fake a fucking marriage.

Well, I beg to differ.

Also an argument, some skeptics believe that Benedict might be gay. They argued that he married for his career and for children. The nannies countered that no one in this day and age does that.

I beg to differ.

Another argument is that Benedict wanted children and this was a means to an end or Sophie might have baby-trapped him. The nannies countered that no one gets married because they get knocked up.

I beg to fucking differ.

The nannies have stated that Benedict has stayed with Sophie so they must love each other. They believe that people don't stay married if they hate each other.

I fucking beg to fucking differ.

These aren't isolated posts either. There are specific examples when search parameters were entered. There is also a whole damn website set up to facilitate marriages of convenience.

So next time you're spouting off that drivel about true love forever and how long they've been married think about some of these stories and maybe have a point of view that is not the same as everyone else.

https://www.reddit.com/r/confession/s/3OWyxVepa0

https://www.reddit.com/r/offmychest/s/V0AdZ70e1p

https://www.reddit.com/r/Marriage/s/KGFqfOunVF

https://www.reddit.com/r/TrueOffMyChest/s/J7A0qomZZf

https://www.reddit.com/r/regretfulparents/s/lOEYNcRrLH

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/s/1GgP7gNhWE

https://www.reddit.com/r/Arrangedmarriage/s/LkG9qtNuHH

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/s/XbzsTKi5ME

https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/s/0RrqNtX21U

https://www.reddit.com/r/lgbt/s/xig3vA5FxP

https://www.reddit.com/r/LesbianActually/s/VDX9057rTC

https://www.reddit.com/r/LesbianActually/s/PAF1A01UCM

https://www.reddit.com/r/weddingshaming/s/QL9Csezfa4

https://www.reddit.com/r/childfree/s/d3ghHhRrUc

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/crime-and-law/courts/supreme-court/marriage-of-convenience-finding-does-not-make-marriage-a-legal-nullity-court-rules-1.4314801

https://lgbtmoc.com/

[the-owl-tree]

thoughts on yellowfangs secret

bad super edition! boring clan politics! yellowfang babygirl i'm so sorry you have been done dirty since the prophecies begin ended. The only real praise i can give the super edition is that it isn't entirely just a more detailed exploration of a backstory the character gave, at least in this case we learn that raggedstar was kind of a piece of shit rather than just a generic love interest to yellowfang (and even then the way that's written is weak).

side note, i wish the books weren't afraid to like...make contradictory plots compared to what a character tells us prior. like a book that isn't just "here's exactly what the character said in book form".

yellowfang's secret is bad! it doesn't give us anything that interesting and just adds more shit that doesn't work. Why would you give yellowfang powers?? Why are you unable to create a character that genuinely would want to partake in healing???? being a medic is a big rank, it comes with a ton of respect, why do the books keep forcing characters into the role instead of having it be coveted???? Just have her not like senseless violence, have her enjoy helping others! The powers are useless and are ditched chapters later!!

The book is so insistent on punishing Yellowfang, kicking her around and not even lightening the mood by having her snark or temper that made her so enjoyable in the first place. Her entire relationship with Rowanclaw is an exercise in misery and despite the website's half-assed attempt to call it intentional, I never feel like I'm reading that. Him being shitty doesn't nearly factor in as much as Yellowfang's absence and Lizardstripe do. The wiki actually states that Lizardstripe is the reason why Brokenstar became an evil baby killing monster.

which, sidenote, i can't even hate lizardstripe. she's just a comically idea of the erin's idea of a bad mother, i think this little interaction combined with how she's an abusive mom makes me allergic to disliking her:

why is lizardstripe the bad one in this conversation. why is a woman not wanting children and questioning how toms never actually have to be active in their children's lives being said by the abusive mom other than for the erins to continue being incredibly weird about mothers. why does the fandom have any faith in this series that it actually ISN'T weird about them.

why do fathers like crowfeather and sandgorse get a pass while rainflower and lizardstripe are painted without remorse to be evil doers. I'm not saying they're good people for fucks sake how can people not recognize there's a double standard going on.

Even if Brokenstar was confirmed to be a curse, the blame still lies with Yellowfang for jUST GIVING BIRTH! (not mention of raggedstar btw he's blameless).

The book is a mess of shitty decisions and bad writing. There's so much it could've been but goddamn it's so hard to really try and rewrite this book when every aspect about it makes me angry.

[motorclit]

Got some advice for a lot of Gen Z and Gen Alpha: learn your technology.

No. I mean actually LEARN it, not just how to navigate it. Learn how it works, why it works the way it does, learn to code, learn even the laws, what it's like to run a website, servers, etc.

Cuz if you want online alternatives to the same 5 websites or some shit, you're gonna have to be the ones who come together and do it. If you got time to scroll endless hours on Twitter and tiktok, you got time to ban together with like-minded people and learn how to take back the internet. (Fellow Millennials who remember MySpace, take note as well!)

I advise you learn the history of what the internet has been like. Don't just read blog posts, articles, and watch YouTube videos. Talk to us Millennials about it! Many of us learned very basic coding from just wanting a better-looking MySpace profile! YOU CAN STILL CODE YOUR TUMBLR BLOG TO LOOK COOL FOR WEB BROWSERS.

Learn to understand that the internet is more than touchscreens and apps! The internet was NEVER supposed to be what it is today! Several people sounded the alarm about big companies creeping into the internet! What we are living through is why! Because guess what: THE INTERNET USED TO BE FUN!

Please please PLEASE try this for a while! I'm even trying to learn more basic coding myself! This book from 2006 helps break down the basics into something that's understandable:

If the pic doesn't load, the book is called "Head First: HTML with CSS and XHTML", a learner's guide to creating standards-based web pages. The authors listed on the cover are Elisabeth Freeman and Eric Freeman.

Yes, this teaches you how to make a very simple web pages from the mid-00s and it only works on a web browser, but my gods, the sense of satisfaction you get from making this shit work...

YOU ALSO DONT NEED FANCY FUCKING SOFTWARE. EVERY COMPUTER COMES WITH THE PROGRAM TO MAKE WEBPAGES.

AND THAT PROGRAM IS CALLED NOTEPAD.

I AM NOT KIDDING. NOTEPAD IS SPECIFICALLY FOR CODING. YOU DO NOT NEED TO BE CONNECTED TO THE INTERNET TO DO THIS EITHER. YOU CAN MAKE IT AND TWEAK IT TO YOUR HEART'S CONTENT UNTIL IT'S READY TO GO ONTO THE INTERNET!

Be aware: the server thing you can upload your practice website to listed in this book is defunct. The images for examples in this book might be, too. With this in mind, I chose a subject I knew something about for practice, and that was simply the topic of sunflowers. (I didn't upload it to the internet. I liked practicing with it as I learned in this book... and I gotta revise while I get back into it.)

Pick a topic for the sake of practice because you'll wanna learn how to link your custom pages together in order to navigate your own site and such.

I PROMISE YOU that this will feel very satisfactory if you give this a shot!

LET THIS BE YOUR GATEWAY INTO TRULY LEARNING HOW THE TECH YOU GREW UP WITH WORKS SO THAT YOU CAN POTENTIALLY HELP THE INTERNET AS A WHOLE! BECAUSE TECH KNOWLEDGE IS MORE THAN JUST NAVIGATING AN APP!

Please consider this. Help make the internet a less shitty place. Get together with friends (in person or online) and learn together!

We are the internet!

[ollieofthebeholder]

to find promise of peace (and the solace of rest): a TMA fanfic

<< Beginning < Prev || AO3 || My Website

Chapter 71: March 1998

Gerard likes to think of himself as reasonably fluent in Latin. At the very least, he can translate a good number of the texts his mother puts in front of him these days, and he’s written out his fair share, too, and they’re more or less understandable by anyone with a working grasp of the language. His pronunciation is decent and, when his mother reads aloud to him, he can usually comprehend it well enough.

He has, however, no clue what the old man in the frock coat is saying.

Well, that’s not…entirely true. He’s following along, for the most part. But it’s just off enough that it’s like the guy is speaking a different language. At the very least it’s a dialect he’s not familiar with, and does Latin even have dialects? He supposes it must have, at one point, just like every other language does—the Roman Empire was big enough, and lasted long enough, that there must be variants all over the place—but he’s never learned anything but the scholarly, textbook variety, and he’s not sure what’s going on.

He realizes he’s focusing on something supremely unimportant in the grand scheme of things. If he worries about how the man is saying what he’s saying, he doesn’t have to think about what he’s saying, or why he’s saying it. He can pretend everything is normal.

To his left, Melanie stands unusually still for once. Her black crepe dress with the white lace collar fits her way too well to have been recently purchased—Roger almost always buys things Melanie is going to grow into—but her patent leather Mary Janes must be new, since he’s never seen them before and they’re far too shiny to have been worn much; they haven’t even picked up much of the dirt. She’s taken her hair back with a faux pearl clip, silver stars wink in her recently pierced ears, and at her throat is a cameo necklace on a black velvet ribbon. Her face is drawn and pale, and she’s clutching an honest-to-God handkerchief trimmed in lace, which might have been white once but is currently the same ivory color as the cameo. She stares straight ahead, not moving, except for the fingers that keep twisting and twisting the handkerchief.

Gerard’s eyes rove over the crowd. It’s mostly older people, a few people he recognizes vaguely from seeing around the neighborhood and one or two who’ve come to Pinhole Books on occasion, but for the most part they’re all completely unknown to him. (He’s learned by now not to use stranger in a benign context.) Roger, standing on Melanie’s other side, seems to be polishing his square spectacles rather a lot, and Gerard’s not about to look at his mother, because he doesn’t want to know what she’s looking at and doesn’t want to get in trouble if what she’s looking at is him.

Unfortunately, that only leaves him two places to look.

He lets himself, reluctantly, look at the folding chair placed just ahead of them. It’s almost entirely empty, except for two figures. Aunt Lily has gained back some weight in the last year—a lot of weight—and now has to use a cane everywhere she goes; her hands, covered in black kid gloves, are folded neatly over the carved wooden handle, except when she raises one to cough discreetly into a handkerchief—like Melanie’s, except hers is trimmed in black. She honestly looks like she’s just stepped out of an Edwardian fashion plate in a magazine instructing people on proper mourning attire. For fuck’s sake, she even has a hat with a veil.

Of course Martin stands next to her, slightly behind her. He looks smaller than usual, like he’s crumpled in on himself. His black suit jacket is just a little too big for him, hanging loosely on his shoulders and covering half of his hands, but he’s finally grown into the Norfolk cap he’s owned as long as Gerard has known him. Because of where he’s standing, Gerard can’t see anything else, but he knows he’s wearing a pair of too-long trousers that cover his smart black school shoes. He can, however, see his face, and it makes his heart hurt. It’s beyond upset, beyond even devastated. Martin looks…lost.

Gerard looks away, and of course in doing so his eyes lock onto the box just behind the priest. For some reason, the box bothers him more than Martin’s face, even though it’s closed. Maybe especially because it’s closed.

He keeps telling himself the old man isn’t really in there. That it’s just a box, containing an empty shell. That they know the old man is dead and beyond the reach of the Fourteen. The body he viewed last night, dressed in a dove grey wool suit and fingers folded over the rosary his parents brought from Poland, isn’t really the man they all knew, it’s just a husk. That man is gone, somewhere they won’t see him for a long time, if ever. Gerard isn’t terribly sure what kind of an afterlife there is, if there even is an afterlife, and he’s not sure he’ll ever earn a place in the same afterlife as Alastair Koskiewicz if there is. But wherever it is, it’s somewhere better than this, it has to be.

It doesn’t help much.

It’s not just the fact of the coffin, the idea of being shut up in a box and dropped in a hole and covered in dirt forever and ever, and how horrifying it would be if he wakes up and can’t get out. Gerard’s read stories about that happening and it’s kept him up at nights sometimes, although not as often as thinking about the casual comment Martin made when they first met (why didn’t he ever tell Alastair about that, why hasn’t he told someone, is Martin still being punished like that, what if Martin wakes up in that coffin someday). It’s the whole fact of him being dead. Death is one of the Fourteen, after all, so even being dead doesn’t mean he’s completely safe. Gerard’s not sure how that works and he’s kind of afraid to ask.

Tiny cold fingers slide into Gerard’s, and he squeezes back on instinct. That’s all Melanie needs, apparently, and she clutches his hand so tight he almost expects his fingers to pop off. For a skinny little twig like she is, she’s got a really strong grip.

The priest recites a phrase, and even if it doesn’t sound exactly like how Gerard learned it, he at least knows what it means: Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. He then nods and gestures at the coffin.

Six men, five strangers and Roger, step forward and each take a handle of the coffin, then carry it over to the hole. A man, probably an employee of the cemetery, directs them, then signals for them to let go. For a moment, the coffin rests on a series of straps before the pallbearers lower it into the ground.

At his side, Melanie gives a low whimper and turns away for a moment, pressing her handkerchief to her lips, before straightening and facing the grave again.

At another signal from the priest, Aunt Lily hefts herself to her feet and limps forward, Martin trailing after her. She takes something from the priest and throws it into the open grave, then steps back. The priest beckons to Martin, who also comes forward and hesitantly lets something fall from his hand into the grave. Unlike his mother, though, he doesn’t stand back, just stays where he is. The priest ignores him in favor of finishing the ceremony.

Once the final amen is said, the crowd drifts away from the graveside and back towards the road, probably intent on heading back to the old man’s house, where a reception has been laid out. Roger moves over to assist Aunt Lily to her feet, and she leans on both him and her cane as she struggles forward. Gerard’s mother focuses on an awkward-looking young blond man standing off to one side, gives a sharp, sweetly poisonous smile, and heads in that direction. Martin remains where he is, staring down into the grave, even as the gravediggers uncover the pile of dirt under the tarp and begin spading it back into the hole. Gerard can hear the rattle as it rains on the lid of the coffin. Melanie flinches at the sound, then suddenly yanks her hand out of Gerard’s and rushes over to Martin’s side, throwing her arms around him and hugging him tightly.

He doesn’t react. Gerard’s heart constricts.

Hesitantly, he crosses over as well and puts one hand on Martin’s shoulder and the other on Melanie’s. He’s taller than both of them, for now anyway, tall enough that he can look over their heads and see into the grave as the smooth, polished wood gradually disappears under the dry, brittle soil.

“C’mon,” he says gently, trying to steer Melanie and Martin away. “Let’s get back to the house.”

Melanie starts to come without too much resistance, but she stops dead in her tracks when Martin doesn’t budge. He keeps watching as the coffin is slowly but steadily obscured.

He’s not crying. Gerard doesn’t like it. He understands Melanie—he’s never seen her cry, no matter how upset she gets—but Martin wears his heart on his sleeve, and the fact that he’s not crying for his grandfather is…worrying. As is the way he’s just…staring at the hole, and the box.

“Martin,” Gerard says, a little more insistently. He holds his shoulder a little tighter, shakes him a bit, trying to get his attention. The fact that Martin still doesn’t react scares him more than he’s willing to admit, and before he can stop himself, he slaps the younger boy across the face. “Martin!”

Martin jerks and stumbles back from the edge of the grave. Gerard takes advantage of him being off-balance to grab his arm and drag him away; Melanie loops her arm through his other one and helps, although she’s not much help. Actually, Gerard has to admit that if Martin wasn’t already off-balance, he wouldn’t be able to move him either. Martin is chubby, to put it politely, and probably weighs as much as both of them put together, and he can be quite difficult to move when he wants to be.

The village cemetery is probably a good mile from the house, but most of the cars have already left by the time they manage to wrestle Martin to the road. Gerard reckons that’s probably not the worst thing in the world—the walk will do them good—but before he can even bring that up, a woman comes over to them. She looks to be about the same age as Gerard’s mother, a sweet-faced woman whose thick braid of hair is more white than black but whose dark blue eyes shine with innocence, and she’s dressed in a black skirt suit that looks more like an everyday work outfit than something bought specially for a funeral.

“It’s Martin, isn’t it?” she says in a soft, gentle voice. Martin recoils, shrinking back, a naked terror suddenly replacing the half-blind look that was in them before, but nods once. The woman doesn’t seem to notice his fear. “I’m so sorry about your grandfather, dear. I used to work with him a long time ago. He was a very, very good man.” Turning to Gerard, she adds, “And of course, you’re Eric’s son, aren’t you? Gerard? We used to be colleagues. I was saddened to hear of his passing.”

Passing. Like it was an easy thing and not the work of his mother and a pair of hedge clippers. Gerard swallows down that response and only says, “Yes, ma’am. Thank you.”

Turning to Melanie, the woman’s smile softens. “And who are you, sweetling?”

Melanie surprises Gerard. She looks up at Martin briefly, then back at the woman, but doesn’t answer. Gerard figures she’s just shy for some reason, or too upset to talk, and steps in. “This is Melanie. She’s our friend. Her dad was one of the pallbearers.”

“Of course, of course. Are you a friend of the family, then?”

Gerard starts to answer, but Melanie shakes her head and pulls on Martin’s arm. “Gerry, you know we’re not supposed to talk to strangers. C’mon, let’s go home.”

“Oh!” The woman gives a silvery laugh, then instantly sobers. “I’m so sorry, I forgot entirely! Of course none of you know me. My name is Emma.” She looks around the parking lot and adds, “It looks like everyone else has left already. Why don��t I give you a ride back to the house?”

“No.” That single word, laden with terror and cracked with tears, explodes out of Martin’s mouth as he takes a step back. It shocks Gerard, who suddenly realizes it’s the first word out of Martin’s mouth since Alastair died, but also because Martin is never rude to grown-ups. Or anybody, really, but especially not grown-ups.

He’s right, though. Gerard was on the verge of accepting the ride, but it dawns on him just how stupid an idea that is. They don’t know this woman, and for all she claims to know both Martin’s grandfather and Gerard’s father, they can’t prove she actually does. Did. She could be trying to kidnap them, or worse.

With that in mind, Gerard tosses a hasty, “Thank you, ma’am, nice to meet you!” over his shoulder as he heads up the block, arm still looped through Martin’s. It’s hard to say who’s dragging whom.

It takes them almost half an hour to get back to the house. The drive and street are clogged with cars, including the one belonging to the woman called Emma—so at least she’s actually here—and a few shadowy figures pass by the windows. Gerard figures they’ll slip inside, grab a plate each, and find a quiet corner to tuck into.

Martin surprises him again. He bypasses the house entirely, sliding his arms from Melanie and Gerard’s without a word, and makes straight for the grove of cherry trees, currently bare and only just beginning to think about budding; they won’t flower for at least another month. He doesn’t stop there, either, just reaches up and seizes a low-hanging branch and hauls himself into one of the older and sturdier trees. Martin might be plump, but he’s strong.

“Martin! Jesus.” Gerard looks at Melanie, who gives him a worried look in reply. Bowing to the inevitable, he goes over to the tree with her and boosts her up. Once she’s managed to pull herself onto a branch, and while she’s trying to figure out how to climb a bit higher to reach Martin, Gerard turns and heads back into the house.

For a wonder, he manages to elude both his mother and Martin’s, retrieve a few snacks he can secrete in his jacket pocket, and slip back out again without anyone being the wiser. Getting himself into the tree is harder, but with the assistance of the split-rail fence and a bit of effort he manages it. Martin has climbed as high as he possibly can before the branches won’t hold him anymore, and Melanie has managed, with some difficulty, to get just a couple branches below him. Gerard makes his way up to join them, then fetches the food out from his pocket and passes some to Melanie and some to Martin. He takes it mechanically, but doesn’t eat.

Finally, Gerard breaks the silence. “I’m sorry for telling that woman your name, Neens.”

“I don’t mind. She knew yours and Martin’s, it’s only fair she knew mine, too. I just wasn’t going to talk to her.” Melanie peers up at Martin. “You didn’t like her, did you?”

Martin shakes his head, but doesn’t say anything. The sausage roll hangs from his hand, and he’s staring vacantly at something far away. He looks a lot older than nine years old and Gerard doesn’t know how to fix it.

Before he can figure out what to say, or even if he’s going to say anything, he hears voices and looks down. The woman from the cemetery is passing under the trees—which she has no reason to do, they’re not between the house and the cars—along with two other people, neither of whom look so old. Gerard can’t tell genders from this angle, only that one has curly blond hair and the other has sandy brown shingled hair. They’ve obviously all been at the funeral, or are trying to blend in with it, and are apparently mid-conversation.

“—know him?” a man’s voice asks. “I guess she must have, if you did. Shame she couldn’t come.”

“She’s very busy.” The older woman’s voice doesn’t quite have the same soft, gentle tones it did when she was speaking to the three of them, but it still sounds very sweet and pleasant. “That’s why she sent us, to pay her regards.”

“I have to say,” says a woman’s voice, “the, er, bereaved didn’t seem particularly upset.” The person with the shingled hair stops and puts hands on hips, so Gerard presumes she’s the one speaking. “Not until you mentioned the Institute, anyway.”

“I probably shouldn’t have done that,” the man says, rubbing the back of his neck with one hand. “I—I didn’t think it would be that big of a deal. I mean, if her father worked there…”

“Worked, past tense,” the unknown woman points out. “Why did he leave, anyway, Emma?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” Emma says, a bit vaguely. “It was so long ago—it wasn’t very long after I started working for Gertrude myself.”

“Was he in the Archives, too? Did he know Eric?” The man’s voice is a bit eager.

“Gracious, no, not the Archives. Alastair was a practical researcher. You’ll find his name on several of the catalog entries for the older artifacts, if you know where to look.” Emma sighs. “But yes, he knew Eric, too. And Fiona—you never met her, of course, she sadly passed away before your time—”

“Didn’t I get hired to replace her?”

“—he was always so patient with her. The rest of us thought she was a bit of a fuddy-duddy, honestly, but I suppose she reminded him of his own mother.”

“You must have known him well,” the unknown woman says shrewdly.

Emma shrugs. “Not very, honestly. As I said, we were in different departments. He usually brought down information for Gertrude from the other departments, and they’d chat a bit, but I was always so busy I never had much time.”

“Ms. Robinson must have been busy, too,” the man says, sounding defensive.

“I’m not saying she wasn’t, Michael dear. Only that I didn’t make the time to make as many connections as she did.” Emma sighs—a bit theatrically, Gerard thinks. “It’s something I regret in my old age.”

“You’re not old.” Michael, or at least Gerard assumes he’s Michael, touches her arm urgently. “You’re still quite young, honest.”

Emma laughs that same silvery laugh. “You’re so sweet.”

Michael sighs. “You know who I feel bad for, though? That little boy. Is that—was that Alastair’s grandson?”

“Yes, that’s Martin. I wanted to speak a bit more with him, but he’s understandably upset. He must have loved his grandfather very much.” Emma clucks her tongue. “The poor little thing.”

“His grandfather loved him, too,” the unknown woman says. “I didn’t see a single picture of his mother anywhere in that house, but that little boy was all over it.” She sighs. “Come on. We’d best be getting back. I’ve still got to follow up with a couple of people.”

They move off, and for a few moments, there is complete silence. Then something wet hits Gerard’s hand. He looks up and sees Martin, still staring fixedly ahead of him, but with big, fat tears dripping down his cheeks.

“Martin.” Abandoning safety, sense, and sausage roll, Melanie pulls herself to a standing position and lunges forward to wrap her arms around Martin’s middle before Gerard can tell her be careful. She buries her face in his side and just holds on for dear life.

“I can’t remember his face,” Martin says, his voice small and fragile and choked with tears. “I, I didn’t—Mum said, she said I wasn’t allowed to look if I couldn’t see on my own and, and I was too short, so I didn’t see him last night, there was just the picture, but he was so young, he wasn’t—he wasn’t finished. It wasn’t his face. But I can’t remember what he looked like. He loved me so much and I can’t remember his face…”

Gerard swallows hard. He can empathize with that, a little, anyway. He barely remembers what his own father looked like, and…well, he assumes his father loved him. He remembers loving his father, anyway. Martin’s had nine years with his grandfather and only just lost him. That has to be disconcerting.

He could describe it to him. Tell Martin what his grandfather looks like. He could also reassure him that even if he had been able to look into the coffin last night, it wouldn’t have looked like his grandfather, not with all the makeup and the weird slackness that death adds to a face.

He doesn’t. Instead, he puts one hand on Martin’s leg and the other on Melanie’s waist and summons up every ounce of authority and assurance he can.

“You don’t have to,” he says.

Martin blinks and looks down at Gerard. “Wh-what?”

“You don’t have to remember his face,” Gerard repeats. “Is that what’s important? Or is it important that he loved you, and you love him? You can remember what he sounded like when he told you stories or taught you poems, right? What it felt like when he hugged you? What the cherry pie he made specially for you smelled like?”

“Yeah…?”

“Then that’s what matters. Faces change. Yours isn’t finished yet either, or mine, or Melanie’s, and if you didn’t see us for years and years and then one day you saw us again, maybe you wouldn’t remember what we looked like, but you’d remember we’re your friends. Love doesn’t have to look. Love just has to be.”

Melanie and Martin both stare at Gerard, who tries not to look embarrassed. He’s almost twelve, and love isn’t a word he throws around a lot, but for these two, he’ll do it. He’s never had a brother or a sister, but he feels like he’s got one now. And Alastair treated him like another grandson. He’s, he was, a good man, and Martin deserves to not feel bad for remembering him in whatever way he does.

“Besides,” he adds, to lighten the mood a little bit. “He looks a lot like a cross between your mum and a bulldog with big dangly jowls and a walrus mustache. You don’t want that image in your head all the time.”

It elicits a tiny giggle out of the other two, and Martin starts to wipe his eyes with his sleeve before Melanie hands him her handkerchief. “He’s right,” she tells him. “Not about your granddad, not exactly, but—I don’t remember what Mama looked like either. Not really. The only picture I’ve got of her is from after she got sick, and that didn’t look like her really either.”

Martin dabs at his cheeks. “But…but what if I do forget?”

“Then we’ll remind you,” Gerard says. “That’s what family is for, right?”

At that, Martin finally smiles and nods. “Yeah. That’s what family is for.”

[eruhamster]

Yknow I feel like the people on here that try to argue that the whole "your brain isn't finished developing until your 20s" thing is a myth (it really isn't, it's just not a specific dedicated age, but calling it bullshit is the equivalent of saying it's bullshit that girls hit puberty at about 12), really just... Don't comprehend that not everything needs to be or is actively solved with the law.

The argument I always see is 'if you say this it makes it more likely you get your rights taken away until you're 25' but like. There is no reason to believe that's true. Everyone has always known for long before MRIs were developed that a 20yo is a fucking idiot kid. There is a reason why we say "college kid," not "college adult." There is a reason why we say "frat boy," not "frat man." There is a reason why you can't run for president until 35.

Any rational person knows that kids from 18-25 tend to be idiots who still tend to act on impulse. It's been long recorded that those are some of the prime ages for crime, and people only start to become less impulsive and less likely to commit crime from their 30s onward. And I think if you are 25 or older, it really does become clear to you just how dumb college-age kids are. For me, I could definitely tell a change in my thinking around my mid 20s. I could tell I stopped acting as impulsively as I used to and if I did something stupid like eat dairy (lactose intolerant), I tended to be fully aware of how I'd feel in 30 min, versus before where I'd say... I was aware, but would downplay it in my head as 'it won't be that bad'(it always was.)

We have ALWAYS known that 18yos are not complete adults. It's only these people on the internet who obsess over numbers so much and get this weird hangup about reaching 18, who don't seem to realize the law does not need to be used to police every aspect of your life. Existing age guidelines are cutoffs for when it's your own business. It's not the government's problem if a 21yo gets their heart broken because a 40yo was taking advantage of them with no plans of commitment, for instance. The drinking age sitting at 21 is because when it was lower, college kids were going on drunken joy rides and getting people killed because suddenly being given all the rights of an adult made dumbass college kids go buck wild. But there's no reason anyone would ever argue to increase it higher. The smoking age was only increased for simplicity's sake and to prevent 18yos in high school from acting as a gateway for their underage friends to get access to vapes or cigarettes.

It's not like any rational politician has ever argued that the legal age of majority should be over 18. It just doesn't happen, people on this website just obsess way too much over the law and think that just an acknowledgement that 18 isn't a magic number that makes you perfectly sound and capable and rational versus a 17yo means that the government is gonna take their rights away

[madeimpact]

👽👨‍👨‍👧‍👧🗝🥂

It is Munday, my dudes || @vitrumbra

👽 AUs

Dude are you KIDDING??? I love AUs so much that back before I shortened my alias to not be an embarrassing Google Translate mishap, a running joke with my friends was (in the voice of "randy your sticks") NEGAU YOUR AU!!!!!

I'm a sucker for them. I love them. ESPECIALLY ones that stick guys from one fandom in the universe of another. My Madoka AU for the Evangelion kids is my precious baby brain child that I will cherish for the rest of forever and hopefully one day actually finish a fic or doujin or SOMETHING of. Bonus points if I can take the lore and fucking run with it like we're doing with the FFXV guys in Pokémon :^)

👨‍👨‍👧‍👧 fankids

Again: are you kidding? Not to put an RP partner on blast here, but @novuscaelum is a joy for me to interact with and bounce off of. Fankids are great! Just...with the caveat that it's mostly (not entirely but mostly) on the fankid to make sure that they're not forcing the parent to compromise too much on their portrayal. A little give and take on both ends makes for a happy RPing, but chances are if you're the fankid, you came up with your OC based on some preconceived notions you have about the canon parent(s) which you may not share with the person you're writing with. TL;DR: Communication is key!

🗝 selectiveness in the RPC

I think there's a tendency to equate selectiveness with elitism, which. It's just Not. People have boundaries, and it's important to make your own clear and respect those of others. I've been the person who didn't get followed back or got softblocked before, and it sucks!! I know it does!! But nobody on this website owes you RP interactions, and for every one person that passes on you, there will be five others that are more than willing to write with you.

🥂 my favorite part of the canon

I'll go with KH since that's one of my main things right now and you didn't specify LOL /nm

It's hard to pick one favorite thing no matter how I interpret this question. I could go with meta-wise what's my favorite thing about KH as a series, or in-universe what's my favorite plot beat, lore, etc. I'll go with the latter interpretation for the purposes of this meme, and for KH...one of my favorite things is how very not chosen one Sora is. The story goes out of its way to say that Sora is an ordinary kid who likes taking naps on the beach and is content with his life on the islands, if anything mostly going along with Riku's hunger to see what else is out there. For fuck's sake, the Kingdom Key was meant to be RIKU'S at first, and it chose his heart instead in the wake of what happened to the Islands. "I know that the Keyblade didn't choose me, and I don't care. I'm proud to be a small part of something bigger — the people it did choose."

The fact that he's just a kid who, through sheer force of will and desire to protect what matters to him, strong armed his way into being the hero is way more powerful than the Chosen One trope will ever be, in my humble opinion. It's why I'm so scared of the murmurs of theories that Sora will have some grand ties to some UX / ML era characters or be reincarnated or some shit, that would be such a massive shit on everything that the previous games set up and I hope to GOD it doesn't end up happening.

[transvampireboyfriend]

website rambles

yknow i get that most people were super rude to staff and all and they are just people, that's true.

but i just saw a post aggressively saying we need to be nicer bc we wouldn't survive in other social media websites and like? that's a little ironic that you'd tell the userbase they can't take the heat when staff clearly couldn't take it either.

you think we're rude? what do you think employees at twitter get?? life threats I'm sure.

The whole thing is just another sign that management sucks. because staff was left to navigate the hate on their own and face the angry users in their personal blog because all other methods of contact were met with silence.

For fucks sake, there were many user-created polls that clearly showed the changes were tanking, that's a sign to change course not to dig your heels.

"Tumblr needs to stay relevant, what did you expect would happen?" um, for it to become relevant as it was? you know you can educate people on your product right??? or at least if you wanna treat every user as fucking stupid then I'd expect ui changes sure, but not changes that were CLEARLY biased against trans, queer and poc content.

what did i expect? i expected good management of a website, silly me.

they keep acting like the bare minimum is a tall fucking order and it's not. This is not a big ask to have a website that is not inherently fascist c'mon.

I know the website was already doomed in terms of profits and it would've been a big feat to get it to thrive (not that their attempt was even half-decent) but that does not imply minorities need to be the ones bearing the brunt. shut the fuck up i hate them so much

acting like this is all about how dash looks, like I'm not putting money into here because i didn't have polls before LMAO NO. it's because you're racist and transphobic and queerphobic like what? why would i throw my money at you? rot in hell.

this is NOT HARD. if a team wants to make an algorithm that is not fucking bigoted THEY CAN DO THAT. IT HAS BEEN DONE.

"queerest place on earth" or whatever, if you would've cared about your userbase they would've brought more people in. growing a website is not impossible, you babies.