#also I know that OP's question is probably rhetorical but the question was asked. so.

[amplexadversary]

Oh I love black kitty cats. I'd have that box in the backseat of my car so fast.

Three is about the upper limit on the quantity of cats I feel like one person can effectively care for on their own. I would keep three. Make sure the rest found their way to a vet. Probably insist on visiting the home of anyone who wants one of the other 10.

And I would utterly disappoint everyone I know with my choice of names; "autistic fictional characters" is a naming schema that is neither popular in general nor with the people close to me.

Box of Space✨

What would you do if you found them?

My huskies would try to eat them but they'd only get a mouthful of stardust ✨✨✨

bonus: my idiot children

[remusawoooo]

anon here, excited to read the essay! i asked you because i really like your takes and i see people in the more canon-adjacent parts of the marauders fanbase to complain about the extremes of the fanon one, though personally ive never really seen anything Too extreme, tho thats probably just tantamount to how well i curate my spaces i suppose (ive seen people say that fanon makes remus really “alpha” or makes sirius “bimbofied” and while ive seen hints of those extremes here and there, mostly it looks like it varies from person to person. ive just seen remus be more assertive than he probably is in canon, or sirius being more dramatic and “fem” than he probably is in canon). from what i know people like exaggerating events (the prank, etc.) or shifting some personality traits, but i dont really think thats a bad thing - i personally enjoy it. as long as they dont completely turn characters into stereotypes (though its a pitfall of every fandom, i fear), then whatever its just camp.

people are allowed to criticize stuff like that though, not taking that away from anyone, i personally just dont really care enough to be totally accurate esp since this hyperfix is kind of the bottom of the barrel for me LMAO. but i ask mostly bc im just curious to see what other peoples opinions are, and bc i think - especially in a fanbase like this - that its incredibly important to be at least a little critical with your media experience and reflect on it. saying “oh fuck canon we’re just having fun” is fine and all, i dont think anyone is stopping you, i think the personalities people have made up for characters that have zero screen time are super fun and the little ships are not everyones tea but like its fine. but even still, people should be way more aware of what characters theyre dealing with and from what franchise, and like reflect on any biases you may have. if youre making shit up for a random DE character, or retconning some sutff, okay, whatever, but be sure to not defend or like suddenly turn to really weird rhetoric. idk i think its the bare minimum in a fanbase like this

i definitely rambled way too much here, super sorry op! i hope this doesnt bother you, feel free to reply or feel free to not. i just really like hearing peoples thoughts on things, and i like your takes and your blog so i hope i didnt catch you by surprise. i really am just an outsider trying to look in LOL

hello anon, I'm sorry I lost your ask. I was writing on my laptop and saved the draft (but apparently had to press on alt, and didn't do it) so I basically lost your question and half of my initial response. Ty for sending in another ask!! Not a bother at all, i find this very lovely :D 

I was mortified to find that someone who isn't really a part of the fandom was perceiving me while I was complaining about fictional characters ahahaha. still, thank you for validating me and asking my thoughts on the mischaracterization of marauders!! I do talk about it daily, unfortunately, and without any prompt too. I'll try to gather all my thoughts here. I don't necessarily come across fanon as much as I did when I reentered the fandom and honestly, I can not be more with you about curating your space !! at the end of the day, I am just here to have fun, and really, pointing out these issues is not a good time at all! But I do post a lot about these, I can't be bothered to bottle up any thoughts lol.

I think the major issue I have with current interpretations is the underlying bigotry that comes along with it. There is a lot of unchecked problematic content that doesn't sit right with me.

Flanderizing characters in fandom interpretations is not limited to marauders fandom obviously. any popular media will face this because so many of us want to interact with one character so their traits are simplified for easier consumption and to find a common ground. this is also not limited to new marauders fandom. even in the older era, leather jacket-wearing, motorbike-driving quintessential bad boy siruis was a thing. so I won't nitpick on silly simplifications.

I just want to say that this isn't about me wanting everyone to have the same interpretations as I do about the canon. I follow so many lovely people and I don't agree with all of their posts. But, we all just simply share the love for these characters in the text and form an imaginary community. So, if we were to remove all the issues I will mention, it is still very well possible to have different personal takes.

Here are some of my issues:

Queerness, Gender roles, and misogyny:

My biggest problem is the representations of queer relationships. the fandom packages these couples in a strange and obvious heteronormative mold where the individuals fit into male and female gender roles. mlm and wlw are now an “f/m”* stereotype and characterization gets affected by the ships. Heterosexual relationships shouldn't have these limitations either, anyway. There is no one way to be a woman or a man. With queer relationships in particular, we have reclaimed the word queer now but it was used to describe the unconventional weirdness in the relationship. We didn't fit into the normal portrayal of a loving relationship. So, it really bothers me, even in fiction, that queer ships are popularly consumed in a way that represents a traditional template. (*this is not about gender itself but the gender roles! f/m can very well be queer!). 

Let's take the biggest victim in this fandom: sirius.

Sirius’ portrayal concerning his gender and sexuality has heavily changed his characterization in the fanon. We have a character who is popularly headcanonned as trans and is it a coincidence that all their traits have changed from the og material? Sirius is suddenly vain, whiny, and dumb. Canon doesn't suggest this interpretation, it has to have stemmed from somewhere. It's the implicit bias. Sirius becomes a caricature of what a woman “should be”. When we focus on sexuality, there is the suddenly short twink sirius who has the same new traits- proving the point of fulfilling gender roles. These characteristics are a stand-in for the “female” role of the traditional relationship and it becomes more clear in the example of new age wolfstar. Remus is now the big alpha stoic manly man- the obvious stand-in for the “male” role. I could go on, it is apparent in the way you can see remus becomes a caretaker and sirius is taken care of.

The point I am trying to make is not to discourage gender/sexuality hc. I love them, keep them coming. But, why is female sirius not tall suddenly? It is not inherently bad at all to have a feminine and masculine pairing! But why do we need to change the constitutions of these characters to consume their relationship?

I'll keep dropping disclaimers because I hate being misinterpreted: I don't obviously mean every single person is doing this or that doing one of the things means doing the other too. 

Race:

It is related to the point above. I was personally so excited to see the popular desi james hc. Even in fanon, I have never seen such a prevalent and encouraged brown rep, it was quite sweet to come back to that. But the problem is the change of characteristics that comes with race hc. Desi james is also a manly dude who is big and buff as opposed to the white petite and delicate regulus within jegulus ship. The melanin is directly proportional to the manliness here. 

This is a propagation of race stereotypes. Maybe jegulus was a bad example because usually there are seen as blank templates. I will raise the argument that this can't be all we can come up with for blank canvases then. Either way, my point about race still stands when you repeatedly design interracial queer relationships so they fall into heteronormative roles. Anyway, same issue with wolfstar when there is a brown remus.

Canon, JKR, and hypocrisy:

Refusing to engage with source material is funny when we are picking characters out of it. the interpretations of the characters will be from their book. otherwise, they are just original characters with the same name. you can add onto the traits and a lot of the time fandom comes to a consensus regarding a few things! This is common in every fandom but I don't think I have seen such reluctance to not only critically engage with media but also shame others who do. We are surely in special circumstances with this fandom but I really do think jkr and how we navigate the fanon should be two different things.

Most of us don't condone jkr or even remotely agree with any nonsense she spews on the daily. Most of us can see the problematic nature of even consuming this media and staying in this fandom. It is one of the reasons I even left the fandom. Most of us are simply doing our best to engage carefully while distancing ourselves from her. So, it is quite laughable when some love to take the moral high ground for rejecting canon while still engaging with the same characters. (the rejection of canon in question being sirius’ height, lol)

(Sirius' height is quite a polarising fact apparently. Unfortunately, the point about height is also discussed so disingenuously. When I talk about sirius’ height, it is not really about him being 6 or 7 feet. It will not really impact my life. It is about what it represents. He is bimbofied as he becomes short. It's an issue of "WHY" again.)

Of course, this isn't an accusation of intentional bigotry from everyone here. The problem with this fandom is that the people in it tell themselves that it is progressive and to run away from the problematic creator as much as possible. We are not progressive if all we do is co-opt queer and racially diverse identities on such a superficial level. The bias manifests in subtle forms. I just wish we check ourselves from time to time, that's all. 

There is a lot of hostility when we try to discuss issues in the fanon. Things are interpreted in the most misguided way to just win the argument. Like I said in the beginning, we all just want to have a good time. That also means creating a welcoming space for vulnerable groups (especially when the same identities are used to pat yourselves on the backs for inclusivity points). I didn't even cover everything btw, I just wrote about the issues that concern me. queer and poc also partake in biased representations, I also probably have some biases that I didn't identify yet. I just think it would be super neat if everyone tried to make an effort to unlearn and engage with media without hurting anyone. 

I have other issues but they are all just super subjective opinions and smth I can ignore when others do. ex: I really don't like giving tragic backstories to bigots in the story. Not every supremacist loser has a trauma that forced them into oppressing people! There is also "tropeyfication" of all major ships. Just an overall issue in the reading world I think, though.

Anon, I didn't mean to make it preachy in any way btw. You probably asked for a silly little rant and I went full lecture mode, so I apologize for the tone shift!! I mentioned these because every other issue can be brought down to these imo. Like you said, I also don't have any fixation on everything being canon-compliant. I only complain by asking about the thought process behind certain kinds of changes, if that makes sense! I hope this wasn't a drag really and you can see where I am coming from. If I misspoke anywhere, pls lmk. Thanks for sharing your opinions too!!

This is a long long rant, anyone who read everything, you are wonderful and patient. Thank you for taking the time. This huge post and the content can make you think, “who cares this much?” or “it's not that serious” and yaa it really isn't that serious. The characters aren't real but we all are. the identities projected are real. so, it does matter to talk about this.

Everything said this is a fun place to be once you find your own corner in the playground.

[monkeydlesbian]

shopping spree

nami x fem!reader (word ‘girlfriend’ is used for reader, but otherwise can be read as gender neutral)

wc: 951

warnings: none really, fluff, somewhat suggestive bc nami is a little brat (affectionate) and also a tease

a/n: probably my last fic before classes start back up bc i’m moving back in tomorrow :( hopefully i’ll find the time on the weekends to crank some stuff out and continue to watch op if i’m not too busy LOL 😭 anyways enjoy!!

“How about this one?”

You tilt your head curiously, looking at Nami in one of the dresses she’s picked out and is currently trying on for you.

This one is hot pink with spaghetti straps and two bows that tie around the back, showing a little bit of her skin. It’s quite short, too. Your gaze travels down her body, noting how nicely it accentuates her chest and curves, but more importantly how short it is, and how much of her long legs it shows. You smile at her, sitting up straighter on the bench in the dressing room.

“You do look quite good in pink.”

She giggles at you, giving you a slow little twirl, “you think so?”

You laugh and nod in response, rubbing the fabric of the dress between your thumb and forefinger when she steps closer to you, standing in between your spread legs.

“It’s also short…”

“Is that a problem?” She’s quick to ask the question, a little defensively, and it makes you grin before you look up at her.

Nami has always worn revealing clothes. Clothes that show off her legs, her breasts, her ass; pretty much everything she has to offer. It never stopped once you earned the title of girlfriend, either. Not that you wanted it to, especially since she just looks so good.

“Did I say it was a problem?” You ask rhetorically, dropping your hand from the fabric of the dress down to one of her thighs. She shakes her head, and you grip onto her thigh with your whole hand, smiling at the way the doughy flesh spills in between your fingers. Dragging her closer to you, your other hand slips around to the back of her other thigh to help.

“I can fight.”

She laughs, and you can’t help but laugh yourself when she rolls her eyes at you. Her hands move to rest on your shoulders, fingers sneaking to play with the collar of your t-shirt.

“Do you like this one?” She asks after a pregnant pause, looking down at you expectantly. She asks the question like the dress is for you, like it’s going straight into your closet after she purchases it. You smile at her again (because that’s all you seem to do around your beautiful girlfriend) before glancing down at the dress. One of your hands leaves her thighs to feel the pink fabric again, humming in thought for a second before nodding.

“It’s really pretty. You look good in it. Shows off your legs real nice.” You grin up at her playfully.

She laughs again, shoving at your forehead with two fingers playfully before walking back to the mirror and checking herself out. Her hands run over her body to smooth out the fabric, over her breasts and down her stomach. She turns to the side with her back towards you to examine it further, smoothing the dress over her ass slowly. You fight the urge to laugh, knowing she’s being a tease completely on purpose. If anything, Nami keeps you on your toes.

“Okay!” She announces suddenly, ripping you out of your debauched daydream. She turns to you with a wide smile, her eyes squinted happily and crinkling at the sides. “I’m getting this one!”

“You’re not gonna get the green one?” You ask curiously, pointing to the dainty green sundress that hangs up on the wall rack. Her eyes lit up when she tried it on, and she looked really happy when she set it back on the rack in the ‘keep’ pile. It was kinda cute, honestly. “You really liked that one.”

“I know, but you like this one more.”

You give her a look. “But you liked the green one more. So get that one.”

She pouts, and opens her mouth to retaliate but you cut her off.

“Get both. How much are they?” You ask, standing up from the bench and walking over to green dress to check its price tag. 50 Berries isn’t bad at all. You reach for the price tag on the pink dress she’s wearing; 50 Berries as well.

“Honey, you don’t have to—“

“Stop it. If you want both, I’ll buy both,” you say firmly, taking the green dress and folding it over your arm. She blushes, looking off to the side with a shy smile.

You can’t help but laugh, stepping closer to her and taking a strand of her long orange hair to twirl it around your fingers.

“For someone who likes being gifted money and material things, you sure are shy when being gifted money and material things,” you tease her, brushing the strand of hair behind her ear tenderly. She looks back to you and glares, and you can tell she doesn’t really mean it.

“…Fine. Only because you insisted,” she says with a huff and still pink cheeks, slipping the straps of the dress off of her shoulders and shimmying it down her body. She stares you down the whole time, making sure you’re watching every fold and crease and jiggle of her skin and plump areas. You are, of course, with raised eyebrows and a growing smile. You watch as she picks up her skirt and top from the bench and puts them on, still staring at you. She slips her sandals on and grabs her purse, and you finally allow yourself to laugh.

“You done being a brat?” You ask teasingly, grabbing her other shopping bags and the two dresses. She snorts and wraps her arm around one of yours, leading you out of the dressing room to the checkout line. She presses a kiss to your cheek, smiling when your eyes widen slightly.

“Just for now.”

[limeade-l3sbian]

I think the biggest thing that pushed me out of radfem identity (which looking back is a good thing, 5 years on T and 2.5 years post top op, planning for bottom op soon) is the fact that they don’t seem to care I was SAed by a woman. No radfem has ever been sympathetic to my story of being saed to be “turned back into a lesbian” by someone who was drunk on radfem rhetoric and wanted to “save me from becoming a man” when I was questioning my gender. Radfem a don’t want to allow or acknowledge my AMAB friends who have both been SAed, one also by a cis woman who bragged about it because the definition of rape was forced penile in vaginal penetration. No radfem has ever given us sympathy, no radfem has treated us with compassion or given us resources, so why the fuck should we listen to you? Why the fuck should you believe that you’re against SA when I’ve had radfems tell me I am lying about my experiences and refused to acknowledge them? Why should we believe you’re really fighting for all people you see as woman (afab people) when you don’t talk about the disproportionately higher rates of sexual assault against trans men than cis women? Radfem rhetoric believes men and trans people are evil and women are good, there’s no nuance, and it is counter active to your claims of caring because the world isn’t as simple as that.

I'm not really sure what you're looking for here from me. You clearly have your mind made up and despite numerous false things you've said (trans people are evil? women are "good"? radfems don't support trans men?) you want me to...what? Hurriedly say, "No, no you've got in all wrong! Don't get those surgeries!"

I know when words are being said to me with the intention to rile or instigate some negative reaction from me. And while I'm sorry that that happened to you, "turn back into a lesbian" rape is not some secret guideline of radical feminism. If you'll notice my bio, I don't even necessarily call myself a radical feminist because the things I post about are not radical by any means.

I didn't make this blog to talk about men's issues so you're not going to guilt me into altering my female-centric platform. I have to wonder if you have a similar energy for MRAs or if I am inherently the target of your misplaced anger simply because I'm a woman unwilling to make concessions with the mission of this blog. I imagine something here must have riled you enough to slam down on that ask button and let me have it. That is if you're not a troll, but either way🤷🏾‍♀️

If a trans woman raped a woman, does that mean all trans women are inherently "drunk on rhetoric" or was that some shit stain trying to justify their own seedy actions?

Is it those radfems' responsibility to offer you resources without explicit request? Why do they have to burden your expectations and confirmation bias? To be honest, I don't think you even know why you sent this. Probably just a moment of anger. You'll need to have a basic understanding of radical feminism before you can approach me so brazenly, because we can't even build off your points when they crumble from the jump.

SA is bad, regardless of who it's happening to. I would think that was just common sense. And I never asked you to listen to me lol. My blog is for people who want to hear it. I have no interest in branching out and debating TRAs about why my thinking is superior or whatever tf. I post cats, women, and talk about arizonas.

I don't know that you tell you. 🤷🏾‍♀️

[fighting-these-demons]

Episode 9

Trying to get the last of these in before my sub craps out

Well dang IvySoulCalibur didn't expect that I guess.

He said dude you suck get over it lmao.

Darkness of immeasurable depths. Yeah he's been going through it. 😭💔💖

BODY TAKEN OVER?!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!

YOU MEAN TO TWLL ME BIG RED HAS BEEN TRYING TO LITERALLY BODY SNATCH THIS ENTIRE TIME?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

WHAT THE FUCK???????????

Please say psych

Or at least have a very good way to spin this

I really do love the OP. It's Fantastic and I appreciate it more as I go on.

How is she getting these pictures? He has to be consenting to some of them they way they're framed.

😬🥺

He hasn't been to school in days.

Damn they really did abandon him and bead him for real I thought it was a plot since they played dirty before.

Well I'm glad Matakara came home. I feel awful for Blondie and Teal Terror but Teal Terror has the sense to just be thankful he's back and to ask/demand/plead for him to come back to school while putting a hand on Blondie's shoulder to comfort him.

Girl iis now REALLY the time for a Cat Cafe scene?????? Ain't you just gonna give us nothing? The timing here is Way Off.

Dang. As soon as I typed that it got good. I know it's bullshit that won't go anywhere but DAMN DO I WANT THEM TO DATE SO BAD

Augh!!!! 😭💔 Cat Guy you're dating the Cute Teacher IN MY HEART OK??? 💖

Arajin you're so full of shit. 😂

That or his mom did it on purpose.

Arajin is like "Well Damn. He's usually excited to talk to to and when I might be hanging around..." but like THE ONLY THING Matakara could have wanted to hear was an apology or plea for forgiveness probably. (Since the darkness is eating at him and also because most normal people would want that too)

WHOEVER WAS IN CHARGE OF ANIMATING BLONDIE FOR THIS SCENE NEEDS A RAISE AND A PROMOTION

AND ANOTHER RAISE

Ah nvm. Got too goofy with it rip.

AUGH TEAL TERROR 💔💔💔😭😭😭😭😭

Lmao Blondie! 😂💖

Aw they're bonding. He's probably miserable though. Can't believe she cornered him with tea.

BITCH WHAT?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!? 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

OH MAN

BITCH YOU DIDNT COVER THE EVIDENCE????? HAVE YOU BEEN CAUGHT WITH IT BEFORE????????????

WAIT IS THAT HIS ROOM????????????

HE HAS A DOLL OF HIMSELF?????????

Wait did Matakara's brother actually die?!?!?!?!

And blondie said Cheer Up earlier?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

Blondie why?????????

BITCH FOR REAL??? YOU TOOK THE TIME TO HIDE

How did he not find her?

Did she hide in the alligator and Slick just decided to cover for her to focus on his point in the conversation????

I can't tell if that his ass of his knee. That frame could be very suggestive depending.

She crawled out and he covered for her apparently.

HE WAS SLEEPING IN THE TEMPLE IN THE OP I KNEW IT I FUCKING KNEW IT

Aaaaaaaawwwww!!!! Him and Teal Terror and Blondie becoming friends! 💖 Would have loved that flashback earlier but I'll hake it now.

I cannot fucking believe he's dead like. The way they chose to do it is insane.

You tell him girl!

Ishiya is really drilling into him. I guess he's gonna break because of story trajectory.

👁👁

Well. THAT is certainly the way to prey upon him!

He's weak to that!

I can't tell if he's always been perceptive or if they can naturally read minds/hearts and only ask questions as rhetoricals to help their companions figure out their feelings?

FINALLY THE BACKSTORY IVE WAITED THE ENTIRE SEASON FOR

Love that they're opposite aesthetics but mirror fighting styles.

Ishiya has more of that cool boy look as a kid and grows up to have more cold/coy and feminine features - like Arajin.

While Senya had precious baby features and grew into a masculine brick shithouse with a kind face - like Matakara.

It also lends to how Ishiya can convince Matakara so quickly/easily and how Senya is the only one that can seem to guilt and convince Arajin after extended debate.

Their dynamic as kids was the same too that's so cute!!!

They're also so Jin and Touya coded as kids it's so silly.

Love their outfit changes as time goes on.

They looked like they were so in live as Teens.

HE GAVE SENYA HIS NAME?!?!?!?!?!

Also did I hear the word for In Love With? I swear I did.

I feel like if they were going to replace it with "He meant absolutely everything to me."

Knowing they have a 2 line limit they could have also had "He was the love of my life."

Also watching Ishiyas outfit show more skin and more tit as time went on is hilarious he's BEGGING Senya to touch him. And I thought the necklace halter was A Lot I forgot How Much his current gravity defying bustier is lmao.

Senya was clearly obsessed with him could he not have just asked?!?!?!?!?! 😂

Not that I mind at all when the End Result is his current outfit in all of its perfection! 💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖

BUT THEN WHAT?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

I know it'll be revealed but I'm still mad. :P

Augh at least he's honest.

He loves how much of Ishiya he sees in Arajin. How precious! 💖

Senya is so fucking cute Jesus I love him.

(Everyone in this show sucks to some extent but like. I love Senya and Matakara so much.)

YES BABE SHOW US THAT NEW MISPLACED DEVOTION AND BEAT HIS ASS!!!!!!!! HE DESERVES AT LEAST 1/4 OF IT LETS GO!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh shit dude. Lol literally.

I winder if that was feelings nerves because of the "Don't run away." Or fear nerves at Absolute Brick Shithouse Matakara walking at him with Ill intent.

Poor Matakara is so fucking broken up about being forced to do this augh!!! 😭😭😭😭💔💔💔💔

What a great guy! 🥺😭 God he's so upset!

Well. A half warning is better than no warning I guess.

And at least Arajinw ill learn about the body snatching from someone even if it isn't Senya.

God fuck Ishiya.

Wait is MATAKARA'S mark on the side of his ass cheek like a My Little Pony Cutie Mark?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

Absolutely insane

Dang. I'll always prefer his sweet look but his broken anger look is 😘👌

Her ending clips with Matakara and Senya are the best ones hands down in the OP.

[lateiii]

I feel like there's haters for every group of people, no matter what they do or who they are. (And not only people, I mean, the amount of hate with which people rant about cats. Like take a chillpill, you don’t have to be around them, if you don’t like them. But don’t try to convince people that cats deserve to die just because one scratched you when you pet it wrong.) And the polarization of different topics on the internet are making people even more rude to other people.

Maybe so many topics have also become about how people identify?

I myself have always thought that if a hobby, religion, or whatever isn’t hurting anyone, then there's no issue. As long as these things aren't used to e.g. bully or hurt other people, why would I care? As long as religion isn’t used as a justification of hatred, why would someone's faith matter to me?

I would never go rant about not believing in astrology or any god in someone's comment section that does. It's a shame that apparentaly, many do not share this thought.

(Reminder: just analyzing and wondering.)

But I think - if op even really was asking a question, and not being rhetorical, I'm not good at recognising that - some of the possible reasons why people are so agains astrology might be:

- They have themselves been categorised by people that believe in astrology, in a way that is untruthful / hurtful / etc. I myself have heard (simply because of my sign) that I am deceitful and twofaced. Some people even explained my autistic qualities or habits (before knowing I was autistic) with my sign.

- As misinformation, post-truth, and crisis of specialization (idk. "Asiantuntijuuden kriisi" suomeksi) gain more foothold, and more and more people are saying that they don’t believe in science, or scientific research, or evolution, some people who identify as "scientific thinkers", have gotten angry. I feel like professional people have ways to handle this differently and more constructively, but the hobbyists etc. at this point just lash out on other individuals. And that's just sad and stupid.

- Honestly, autism. It comes in many shapes and sizes, and our "black and white thinking" or strong sense of justice isn’t always a good thing. My moral code is based on politeness, fairness, and protecting nature, animals and people. Even this isn’t always socially a good thing. I have gotten into many verbal fights because in my mind tobacco is something really, very, superbad, and I just cannot get around it. And even though I don’t tell people who smoke that they're bad or anything, I might try to ask if they know of all the bad things tobacco industry causes.

Some other autistic people (like my uncle) might have grown to use Bible as their moral code. Someone might be very scientific, and might feel the need to "defend" science againts all that is "unlogical". (Some autistic people also are bad at recognising context. If a video for example - even if it would be meant for a small hobbyist audience - is worded in a way, that sounds like something supernatural is a proven fact, they might feel compelled to comment.)

- As mentioned before, I think this has also become a question of identity, and those who are okay with different kinds of identities, leave others be, but those who aren't, start yelling at each other.

That being said, the reasons aren't good reasons. Being rude is being rude. Live and let live.

I support everyones hobbies that make them happy, even though I will probably leave the moment someone tries to put me in a box based on my birthday. Or makes me feel bad for not believing in anything supernatural (usually, it's either ghosts or gods). But I still support your right to believe, and practise stuff.

Peace. ✌️

i know astrology is fake but i'm not too keen on how a lot of people on this website seem to be clowning on it as a hobby a bit too hard. i swear the woman who thinks it's neat how she and her friends with the same sun sign are all similar isn't trying to say that you are who you are born as and there is nothing you can do to change it. it's a hobby. an interest. what happened to finding meaning and joy in the small things. does it affect you if someone enjoys tarot reading or crystals. does it make you upset someone has interests that they enjoy.

[jising-jisang-jisung]

F it I'll Do it Myself

Word count: <1k

Genre: fluff, friends to lovers

A/n: hey guys looks like I'm briefly back to posting unrequested content :)

~~~~~~

"I can't believe I've never been kissed," you huffed, lying on your back with your legs dangling over the arm of Sunwoo's couch.

Sunwoo sighs, signaling his indifference to your seemingly insurmountable feat. "Why?" You ask him.

"Why what?"

"Why have I not been kissed?" You tilt your head up to look at the boy only to see that he's paying you no attention. 

"Well, y/n, let's see. Have you ever had a boyfriend?" He asks in a monotone voice.

"No."

"Have you ever been on a date?"

"No."

"Has anyone ever confe-" he stops mid sentence, losing his cool tone.

"Has anyone ever what?" You ask, oblivious to his kindness in forgoing the question.

"It's nothing," he decides to avoid it. It's probably best to not make you feel any more insecure than you already are.

"I don't think anyone's ever had a crush on me," you exhale. He flinches, expecting you to be more sad than disappointed. "What do you think, Sunwoo?"

"I know that one kid, Felix, liked you back in middle school," he chirps.

"That doesn't count," you wave him off. "I mean, a real crush. Someone actually likes me. Like that."

"I can think of one person," he mumbles more to himself than to you, not even really meaning for you to hear it.

"Who?" You question, obviously hearing his remark as you and him were the only people in the silent room.

"Nevermind," he huffs, walking away from you, to the kitchen.

You shake your legs in a jokingly tantrum like manner before following him. "I'm serious, Sunwoo," you pout. "Why haven't I been kissed yet? It's not very cash money."

He eyes you for a few seconds, and you can tell the wheels are turning in his head as if he is torn about some decision. "Fuck it I'll do it myself."

Before you can even voice your confusion about his words, his lips are on yours. As soon as it started, it had also ended. But as you bring your fingers to your lips, you can still remember the brief feeling of the kiss.

By the time you snap back to reality (ope there goes gravity) he has already sauntered away into the kitchen. You get up and head after him, seeing as he is shoulder deep in your refrigerator. 

“What was that for?” You ask, still in shock from his sudden actions.

“You said you wanted to be kissed, so…” he doesn’t finish his sentence, but it was rhetoric anyway.

“So that’s the only reason you kissed me?” you hate the way your voice sounds meek and pathetic. It was almost dripping with 

“Uh,” he falters, but you fail to see it due to him being nose deep in sodas. “Yeah.”

“That doesn’t quite make complete sense,” you think out loud.

“What do you mean?” He pulls his face out to look at you, completely diminishing any sort of boldness you had acquired.

“Well, if you know someone who likes me, why would you kiss me? Why wouldn’t you just tell me who it is, unless you have some sort of sworn secrecy? Which would lead me to believe that it’s one of your friends. But if that were true, you wouldn’t kiss your friend’s crush,” you explain.

“There you go overanalyzing again, y/n.” He shakes his head, a smile on his face. “If you’re that curious, it’s not one of my friends,” Sunwoo pets your head before grabbing a coke and running back to the couch.

“Then,” you debate whether or not to even give your idea a chance, because it could cause a lot of awkwardness and change between the two of you. “Do you, by any chance, like me?”

You almost regret asking when your friend nearly chokes on his drink. “See, this is why I don’t like it when you psychoanalyze everything I say. I can’t keep anything from you.”

“So, that’s a yes?”

“Yes, y/n. There I said it!” His super cool guy demeanor is in shambles as his cheeks are now a surprising shade of pink. You didn’t think he got embarrassed easily, but here you are.

“Then, by any chance, can I kiss you again?” You were almost certain that your face was now as red as his, but it was about to get a whole lot redder after Sunwoo’s shy nod.

[bytheangell]

Take Me With You

(For my @shadowhunterbingo square: Traveling | Jimon, Rated Teen, referenced alcohol but no archive warnings/other warnings) (Read on AO3) “I don’t need a bodyguard,” Simon insists. “It was one stupid letter.”

“The letter wasn’t stupid,” Jace says, already regretting his appointment to this job. “It was a death threat, by someone who’s sent multiple things to your unlisted apartment.”

“Well, no one knows where I live on the road, which is where I’ll be for the next three months,” Simon points out.

“Oh, yes, the total inability to track you from a list of cities you’re going to and the dates and times you’ll be there. You’re right, no one will ever find you that way,” Jace says, his tone dripping with sarcasm and more than a little condescending. Simon isn’t a no-name, but he isn’t famous-famous either, and Jace hoped that’d make him a little less awful to put up with than Jace’s usual high-profile assignments. So far it’s the opposite - Simon isn’t taking this seriously at all, which is somehow more frustrating than too much importance being put on minor perceived threats.

Simon sighs. “Fine.” It certainly doesn’t sound like he’s fine with it, but Jace isn’t here to argue. He’s here to do a job.

“Great,” Jace says. “You won’t even know I’m here.”

---

That ends up being a complete lie. Of course, when Jace first imagined blending into the background of Simon’s tour life he hadn’t taken into consideration the fact that Simon drove his own van, which would just be the two of them for extended periods of time.

Jace can tell that he’s putting a damper in the way Simon normally functions during his tours, mostly because he’s quiet while they drive. Then he’ll say something, start to ramble, catch himself rambling, and fall abruptly silent again in a repeating pattern.

“Sorry if I’m cramping your style,” Jace says after one of these repetitions, speaking loud enough to be heard over the music playing in the background.

“You’re not,” Simon insists.

Jace is dubious. “What would you be doing if you were alone?” Jace asks.

Simon doesn’t even hesitate before answering, “Scream-singing at the top of my lungs with the windows down. It’s like, my tried-and-true road trip routine.”

“...so do it. Don’t let me stop you,” Jace says.

“My manager hates it because he’s convinced one of these days I’ll end up losing my voice before a show. It’s probably for the best I’m not,” Simon says before falling silent again.

Jace doesn’t push it, nor does he comment when Simon starts to sing to a song that comes on about half an hour later, his voice growing louder and louder until all the windows are down and he’s shouting lyrics into the cool night air.

Jace has to fight the urge to join him. Normally he doesn’t have an issue staying focused on a job but Simon has this disarming way of making Jace want to relax around him. Somehow what he thought would be his easiest job to date continues to throw surprising complications his way.

Still, he keeps his mouth shut and enjoys Simon’s singing as they continue driving into the night.

---

Watching Simon with his fans is nerve-wracking. There’s no telling who might be a threat, not when everyone seems so down-to-earth, much like Simon himself. There aren’t any obviously obsessive fangirls and normal tells like knowing too many personal details is just the norm, with multiple people casually asking Simon about how his Bubbie Helen is doing or about the cat he left at home with Clary during his tour, or the most recent book he’s been reading and chatting about online. It’s difficult to pick out a potential stalker when everyone knows what Jace would typically consider more personal details than usual about Simon.

Jace watches these pre- and post-show encounters with a feeling more like he’s observing conversations between old friends rather than a musician and his fans, signatures and photo ops aside. Simon knows some of them by name, remembers birthdays mentioned over social media or live chats, and even recalls previous conversations. It’s impressive.

Dressed in plain clothes so he blends in with the crowd, Jace grows increasingly impressed with Simon the more time he spends with him. Plenty of people claim to be humble, but few often are in practice. Not Simon. Simon is everything he told Jace when they first met. He’s the same way with his fans that he is in private with Jace, which is the same way he is with his family and friends - Simon’s just, well, Simon, honestly and earnestly and unapologetically.

It’s refreshing. It’s also just another thing for Jace to push to the back of his mind, because he doesn’t need to like the guy - he just needs to protect him. Simon looks up from the table he’s signing CDs at and shoots Jace a beaming smile, and Jace has to actively force himself not to smile back and simply nod his head in acknowledgment instead.

“It’s an assignment, Herondale. Get your shit together,” Jace mutters to himself from the corner of the room. It’s a reminder he repeats more often over the upcoming weeks than he’s comfortable admitting.

---

“Please,” Jace begs after the first two weeks of shows. “I will pay for a better hotel. Let me pay for a better hotel.”

Simon is shaking his head in response before Jace finishes the request.

“Why?!” Jace glances critically around the room. “Do you want to get murdered in a shady motel? Just because I can keep you alive doesn’t mean we have to actively test it every night when we could have a door that doesn’t look like my 11-year-old brother could kick it in.”

“You have a brother?” Simon asks, ignoring everything else Jace said as he tosses his duffel bag (because Simon doesn’t even have a proper suitcase) onto a bed Jace feels the instinctive need to run a blacklight over.

Jace hesitates to answer because this is a job and he isn’t meant to share personal information about himself with his assignment. It’s strange because normally the people he’s tasked to protect are such self-absorbed assholes they barely spare Jace a second glance, let alone casual conversation.

He’s aware that the pause he takes after what should be a simple question is way too long when Simon frowns, brows pinching together.

“Two brothers, actually. One older, one younger, and a sister,” Jace finally decides to share. It’s all he intends on saying, not wanting to be rude and not answer at all, but when Simon brings up his own sister and keeps talking, keeps asking curious, harmless questions, Jace finds himself answering without thinking.

Simon is easy to talk to - maybe a little too easy to talk to, because the next thing they know it’s 1am and they need to be up and back on the road at 6.

“Get some sleep, Lewis,” Jace says finally, taking a few extra minutes to secure the door before doing one last perimeter sweep. When he gets back he pretends he doesn’t notice Simon, still awake, hastily close his eyes and pretend to sleep the second Jace gets back in the room.

---

After the third week, Jace insists that staying at nicer hotels is a matter of security and finally convinces Simon to pull into the parking lot of a proper hotel. One with room service instead of vending machines, plus a gym and a pool. Jace tells himself it’s a matter of security as well, and not a reaction to Simon complaining about having several nights of terrible sleep and some back and neck pain from the old, cheap mattresses.

Jace certainly doesn’t correct Simon’s assumption that this is covered in the contract when in reality Jace is fronting the extra cost himself. After all, this is as much for his own benefit as it is for Simon’s, right?

That’s what he tells himself as he opens up more around Simon as well, sharing a drink or two when Simon insists (never anything enough to impair his judgment, and only ever when they’re back in a room for the remainder of the night), telling a few more personal stories, and… flirting?

Jace isn’t sure, but occasionally when Simon impulsively runs into an ice cream shop in a new city and gets a cone for each of them, or points out a storefront display with a leather jacket he thinks Jace might like, or leans his shoulder into Jace while laughing at something sarcastic Jace says… yeah, sometimes Jace gets the feeling that Simon might actually like him.

Then Jace just as quickly tells himself that it’s just Simon being nice, because Simon is nice, and because of course Simon’s going to be on good terms with the guy he’s stuck with 24/7 for two months. Jace is working for Simon, and their relationship is strictly professional, however pleasant it may also be.

It’s that hard line Jace knows they won’t cross that allows him to continue to open up more, because Simon’s safe. He’ll never see the guy again when all of this is over.

“You’re a good person, Jace,” Simon says one night after a lengthy conversation.

“...what?” Jace isn’t expecting that.

“You know that, right?” Simon’s tone is just shy of insistent, and certainly not rhetorical.

“Why do you say that?” Jace asks instead of agreeing, because… well, because he doesn’t know that. He tries, but he’s made some shitty decisions in his past, and hurt a lot of people, intentionally or not. And Simon doesn’t even know him, so Jace really doesn’t know where this is coming from.

“Just… the way you talk about yourself sometimes. Like you always have something to prove, or make up for... or like you have to justify everything you say. Sometimes I get the feeling you don’t think very highly of yourself even when you’re acting like God’s gift to mankind,” Simon adds with more accurate insight than Jace is comfortable with.

And now Jace really doesn’t know what to do with that.

“What are you, a philosopher now?” Jace mutters, still avoiding any sort of direct commentary on Simon’s way-too-close-to-home observation. “Go to sleep, Simon. I don’t need you too tired to focus on the road tomorrow.”

Simon looks like he’s going to argue but doesn’t in the end, leaving Jace alone with his thoughts in the newly settling silence of the hotel room.

It feels surprisingly pleasant to hear those affirmations from Simon, and Jace considers for the briefest moment what it’d be like to just be friends with Simon outside of their circumstances, to have these discussions and delve deeper into both of their pasts, humoring more of Simon’s personal questions and--

--and everything he can’t let this turn into over the next few weeks. Fuck.

Maybe there’s some harm in opening up after all.

---

They’re a little over halfway through the three-month tour when Jace realizes that perhaps his harmless crush on Simon is stronger than he realized. Jace watches from his usual spot in the corner as Simon signs CDs and sells band t-shirts and poses for photos, which is what he always does. But with every flirtatious laugh and every arm Simon drapes over someone’s shoulder or wraps around someone’s waist, Jace feels the desire to pull Simon away... and it isn’t because he’s in danger. It’s because Jace is jealous.

Jace grows sullen at the realization, arms crossed in front of him as he forces himself to watch Simon with his fans, because this is his job. The more he watches the more he doesn’t even think Simon realizes he’s doing it. Jace knows what active, intentional flirting looks like, but this is just Simon being his natural charming self, and Jace isn’t sure if that makes the whole thing better or worse.

Because it starts to dawn on him with a bit more meaning now that the way Simon’s been with him is the way Simon is with everyone. Jace just gets to experience it more often than everyone else right now. That doesn’t make their conversations special. It doesn’t make Jace anything special to Simon. And hell, maybe it’s just been a while since Jace spent this much time with someone else, too. Maybe he should work on writing off his own motivations as easily as he’s writing off Simon’s because his feelings are far from professional right now.

When the crowd disperses and Jace goes to help Simon wrap up his gear and load it back into the van (something that’s become routine for them, though not strictly in Jace’s list of expected duties) Jace is quieter than usual.

“Everything alright?” Simon asks, catching the shift in mood.

“Yeah. Fine,” Jace says curtly.

Simon doesn’t look like he believes him but doesn’t press the topic as they toss the last of the equipment into the van and head out.

---

The nicer Simon is toward him, the more closed-off Jace gets. He’s quiet during dinners Simon insists on paying for, stops sharing so much about himself when they do talk, and when Simon gives Jace a guitar pick he fashioned into a necklace for him Jace pockets it with a muttered ‘thanks’ without putting it on. He doesn’t have the heart to totally push Simon away, but he can’t keep growing closer to him knowing it’s all going to end in three weeks.

Jace wears the necklace every day but he keeps it tucked underneath his shirts where Simon can’t see.

Simon eventually stops trying to talk to him entirely, and they spend more and more time in uncomfortable silences. Sometimes Simon insists he needs privacy to work on his music and Jace sits at the end of the hallway of their hotel room listening to the faded sounds of Simon’s strumming.

There are three weeks left in Jace’s assignment when he gets the call that the police managed to track the letters to a girl back in New York: she’s in custody and getting a restraining order put against her, and Jace can come back as soon as he arranges transportation.

Jace hangs up the phone feeling surprisingly upset. This is great news for Simon, and he should be happy for him if nothing else, but that means this is the last night he’ll have to spend with Simon.

The last night he’ll get to spend with Simon.

“Hey Simon, good news. I just got a call from Luke and they tracked down your mystery stalker. You’ll get all the details once you’re back home but they’re already putting the restraining order into place, so you’re good to go.”

“What? That’s amazing!” Simon grins automatically, but it falls back into a frown just as quickly. “Does that mean you…?” his words trail off in question.

“I’ll be able to leave in the morning,” Jace confirms.

“Guess you’ll be happy to get out of here,” Simon says, his smile entirely gone.

“I do miss New York,” Jace carefully avoids the answer he knows Simon’s fishing for. The lie he should give, but can’t bring himself to.

Simon looks Jace up and down, his gaze finally resting on Jace’s face for a long couple of seconds, searching for something there before turning away without another word.

---

Jace knows he shouldn’t go to the show, but he does. He hangs in the back, a real drink in hand now that he’s no longer on duty, and listens to Simon sing the songs Jace knows by heart now. Jace knows from experience standing by the side of the stage that there’s no way Simon can make out any faces where Jace currently sits back by the bar. He plans on leaving before the end, before the lights come on and Simon knows he was there.

He’s a few drinks in when he hears Simon break his usual format.

“How does everyone feel about me trying out a new song I’ve been working on?” Simon asks. The crowd claps and cheers, and Jace shifts in his seat to fully face the stage. “This is a song about feeling a connection with someone, and not knowing when things went wrong, only that they did. And wondering if maybe it was all in your head the whole time...”

Jace feels his throat tighten at those words. He doesn’t have to be a genius to piece together the lyrics Simon starts to sing, fitting them to their lives the past few months, the hope of getting to know someone you’re starting to like, the confusion of being shut out, the uncertainty of wondering if they ever felt the same way you did or if they were just humoring you.

Jace knows Simon well enough to know that this isn’t a coincidence. It can’t be.

Against his better judgment, Jace stays. He stays until the set is over and the lights come on and Simon looks out around the crowd and makes direct eye contact with him.

Because fuck it. He’s leaving in the morning, and if this is all for nothing then he’ll never see Simon again and it won’t matter. But if he’s right…

Jace hangs back, watching Simon smile and laugh and sign CDs and take photos, acutely aware of every time the musician’s eyes wander over to where Jace lingers by the bar. Outside of the fading buzz from the alcohol it almost feels normal: hanging back after the show, watching Simon and waiting for him to make his way over once the crowd disperses. Hell, even the butterflies in Jace’s stomach aren’t new.

“You’re here,” Simon says when he finally makes his way over. “I didn’t think you’d come, since… I mean…”

“I heard your new song,” Jace forces the words out before he can change his mind. “I’d say I liked it, but that seems like the wrong response from the guy who made you think you did something wrong.”

“Not everything is about you,” Simon argues, but the intent falls flat beneath the nervous tremor the words are spoken with.

“No,” Jace agrees easily. “But that song is.”

Simon hesitates, then sighs. “It is.”

“I’m sorry.”

“You don’t have to apologize for not liking me, Jace. You were doing your job, that’s-”

“No. I’m sorry I was going to leave without telling you that I like you. I thought I’d leave and you’d never see me again, that it’d be pointless to get attached. I thought you were just… being nice. Because you’re a good person.” The words spill out of Jace before he can overthink them.

“You like me,” Simon repeats incredulously. “That totally makes sense with, you know, the way you completely stopped talking to me.”

Jace can hear the anger in Simon’s voice and winces slightly. Just because it’s entirely deserved doesn’t make it easier to hear.

“I figured it’d be easier to walk away once this was all over if we weren’t as friendly.” It’s still a shitty thing to have done, and Jace wouldn’t blame Simon for holding it against him. But after hearing that song he couldn’t walk away with Simon thinking it was over anything he did wrong. No matter the cost to Jace’s pride, Simon deserves that much. “And… maybe I was a little afraid that if I got much closer I’d want to cross a line I knew I couldn’t.”

“So you felt it too?” Simon’s words and expression are full of so much hope that Jace almost panics again. What if he isn’t half the person Simon thinks he is after getting to know him in this little bubble of theirs from the past few months? What if he messes this up?

...what if he doesn’t?

“I did,” Jace finally admits. “I still do. And I know I probably ruined any chance I had before, but if I haven’t fucked things up too badly, maybe once you’re back in New York we could meet up for coffee?”

Simon smiles, brighter than the house lights that fill the small venue now.

“Or… or you could stay with me for the last few shows? I wasn’t just being nice for the sake of being nice - I like you, Jace. I changed my hotel routine for you! I wouldn’t do that for just anyone. I don’t know if you have to go back right away for work, or something, but if you don’t I definitely wouldn’t mind the company. Your company.”

Jace considers it for a few long moments, then nods. It’s fitting, he thinks, to drop the formalities and the professional distance in the same setting he started to fall for Simon in. The same setting in which Simon started to fall for him, despite Jace’s best efforts to dissuade him, only this time with no excuses to hold him back. And if Simon’s willing to give him an actual shot after everything, he’d be a fool not to take it.

“Well, I can’t very well leave you to lug all your equipment around by yourself, can I?” Jace says, smiling. “Let me check back in with the office tomorrow morning but I don’t have anything scheduled. It shouldn’t be an issue.”

There’s a pause then, the air between them filled with an almost electric buzz of anticipation. Simon takes the first step closer, bridging the gap between them. There’s no questioning what Simon’s thinking when his eyes dart down to Jace’s lips and back up to meet his gaze again before speaking.

“Can I-”

Before Simon can finish, Jace’s lips are already on his in response. It’s slow and tentative, with each of them feeling the other out, but it’s nice. It’s really nice. When they pull away after a few moments Simon can’t keep the smile off his face. “That was even better than I imagined.”

Jace quirks an eyebrow, smirking fully now. “You imagined us kissing?”

“Shut up and help me load the van.”

The familiar banter and Simon’s easy smile are such an immediate comfort for Jace that he can’t help the light laugh he gives in response. As Simon looks back at Jace it’s with an expression so soft and full of kindness that Jace knows now isn’t the same look he reserves for everyone else.

Jace knows it’s a look reserved only for him this time - and with any luck, for many more times to come.

[genderfluidlucifer]

Response to being asked to give  an opinion on Connie’s calout by residentevil-4

(Tw: CSAM, rape fic, incest fic, predatory behavior, racism, ableism, kink mention, nsfw mentions. Minors should probably dni.)

“Connie and I know each other irl and went to school together for 3 years, although they now live in a different state and have cut contact with me. We went to a private therapy school in Manhattan as we're both disabled and were deemed unable to attend public school. Even though we were pretty close, Connie didn't like having photos taken of them, so I don't have any selfies of the two of us; however, these are from our sophomore and senior yearbooks which at least confirms that we were in the same year at school. People who have seen Connie's selfies should be able to confirm that that is what they look like. First and foremost, Connie is not TMA. They are intersex and the two of us have discussed intersex issues both in person and online, but they are still decidedly CAFAB.” Ok so first off, I want to address this part of the callout. To be honest...was it really necessary to literally doxx Connie ehre? Because this textbook definition of doxxing. Yes Connie’s done some shitty things but I freally don’t think that what they’ve done warrants this level of doxxing. Or...even better, any doxxing. This feels like a really unnecessary breach of privacy, revealing sensitive information on Connie’s childhood that they choose to confide in you with. I really don’t agree with this aspect of the callout as it feels very invasive and bordering on stalkerish.  Btw when I say bordering on stalkerish I’m not directly calling you a stalker Bonnie. Just so we’re clear. I am not defending Connie supposedly faking being TMA. Because faking being TMA is a very serious issue. HOWEVER since I don’t know Connie irl and to be quite frank it’s none of my business what the nature of their agab is. Were not close and I’m certainly not going to like lead Connie onto thinking we’re friends just to confirm this with them because that would be creepy. So to be honest I’m going to take this part of the callout with again of salt for now.

[ID: A cropped screenshot of a numbered list Connie posted to their blog hadrosaurs in response to an ask. 

“3. I’m TMA And that’s completely irrelevant. I’m not accusing them because of their gender I didn’t even know their gender when they said that to me saying that they said that because they fucking said that and the reaction to it was incredibly alarming. Don’t fucking say that stuff to people.]

I mean I”m not a trans woman so take this with a grain of salt if you want but...I don’t see how this is really proof of Connie being deliberately transmisogynistic? Yes Connie gives iffy retellings of mistakes they’ve made in the past. I’ve seen that on their blog before and I won’t pretend it doesn’t happen. BUT here they sound genuine enough and to be honest a growing issue I’ve seen with callouts as of late is. A person confirms they in fact did not do the thing they were called out for. And then the people who make the callout choose to see it as proof of incriminating behavior anyways. To be honest it’s a big problem and it’s also incredibly unfair to the person being called out. If you’re so determined at that point to see the person as bigoted no matter what they say then of course anything they say can be seen as proof. So I’m going to have to pass on this bit of evidence. “Connie responded: “Final note: I have spoken extensively with several trans women about using TMA to describe myself. I will not be getting into discourse about that on this blog again. All that leads to is people demanding my medical records and calling me slurs. If you wanna have a thoughtful conversation about it direct message me cause it’s not happening again here.” Again this really doesn’t seem all that self incriminating. Connie mentions here that they’ve talked to rl trans woman about whether or not they can be considered TMA. Connie really doesn’t have to disclose that personal information to people for any reason. Yes even when people are e including this ask response in a callout. And considering lots of people DO get invasive about Connie’s medical history ans general personal life over matters like this? I feel their reaction is pretty understandable here. “Connie has constantly compared “exclusionists” (or anyone, really) to TERFs, even when the people in question are not transmisogynistic, trans exclusionary radfems, or are even transmisogyny affected themselves.

“ Gonna have to disagree with this part of the callout too. Lots of ace inclus blogs, even some run by trans women , have proven that the ace exclus movement was started by swerfs/terfs. But the blog that has the most evidence for this is courteousmingler on tumblr. I suggest you check out that blog’s archiving of the history of ace exclus rhetoric before rushing to call me a transmisogynist for disagreeing with this part of the callout. I looked through all of the evidence for Connie being racist and tbh as a black ndn it all feels incredibly flimsy. It’d be one thing if Connie was using their experiences to derail and invalidate the discussions about how black people are oppressed But they weren’t doing that there at all. This part of the post feels incredibly biased. And like OP is looking for things to be mad about. Going to have to pass on this list of evidence. Also uh I seem to recall that residentevil04 got called out for some questionable behavior as well. “Both me (insepsy, hi) and ezrat have had really weird spikes in activity on our Statcounters, both on the same day. (Saturday, 4/17/21) For both of us, majority of the pages looked at by these visitors have been related to or about Connie, or have been posts that Connie would find "problematic" such as the f slur untagged or something related to "panphobia"/aphobia. I’m sorry but...none of the proof of cyberstalking holds any water. Visiting someone’s blogs and rbing posts to disagree with them is not cyberstalking. Keeping tabs on urls that an abusive person who has harassed are using so you can block them (in this case with kyoshi) and warn your mutuals is not stalking. As a victim of rl stalking it’s...really weird to call this legit stalking at all. Much less claim that you have damning proof of it being stalking when no such evidence exists in the callout. Besides after Connie and nonbinarydave called out one of kyoshi’s buddies for sending a death threat hate anon to nonbinarydave’s toddler st4lker partly admitted to doing it a few times. Then other mutuals in kyoshi’s toxic social circle clearly began joining in. Making side accounts where they tried to spin a false narrative of nonbinarydave’s daughter being one of their alters (ableist as hell.) And also trying to do it in such a way that they thought would trigger nonibnarydave’s psychosis (also ableist as hell.) If you’re going to drag Connie for their mistakes and never let them move on from those mistakes then it’s only fair to do that to people you agree with who also do toxic/bigoted things. ALso the fact that your wording here suggests that you think panphobia and aphobia aren’t real makes me doubt this claim even more. Exclus and their allies are notorious for mislabeling inclus disagreeing with them as stalking. “connie said that they would release that info at a later time and the minor began to argue with them that they had a responsibility regardless of their complicated relationship with age. in this argument connie for a time kept their age ambiguous and at one point told the minor (who confirmed in a later ask that they were severely traumatized by adults) that they obviously weren’t traumatized. connie quickly deleted this ask and any mentions of it and the next post they reblogged was about how wrong it was to try and quantify or discount others’ trauma. on my old blog i @ed them in the replies and asked if they had just done that. connie admitted to it and said it was fucked up but quickly blocked + deleted my comment. i can’t remember whether or not connie apologized to the minor, they may have? but yeah. i thought that was pretty weird.”] I do agree with some of the concern here that adults shouldn’t over expose minors in discourse. I’ve been contemplating this for awhile myself. And trying to figure out how to take better steps to avoid including minors who are triggered by discourse in discourse, especially. HOWEVER I have one little issue with this addition to the callout. If that is the case then exclus and their allies need to practice this as well. You cannot ignore the fact that the reason a lot of minors are getting involved in exclus discourse is due to adult exclus and their allies forcing minors to pick a side in the discourse. Y’all are not at all exempt from this problem. I still remember an ex mutual of mine trying to convince a minor to agree that aces can’t face corrective rape. And based on how aggressive it got with me when I tried to avoid giving an opinion on the matter, I can’t imagine that it would’ve reacted better to the minor refusing to give an opinion or to the minor outright disagreed. Refusing to put these standards on exclus and their allies is both hypocritical and quite frankly very transparent. The claims about them glorifying dark topics on AO3 through their fics also seems unfortunately legit. I mean those asks of shaming people who ask their viewers to not romanticize or glorify abusive relationships in their works is very damning. I’m very disappointed to see that Connie has taken being an inclus to the point of validating antis anti culture wholeheartedly. I can’t think of much more to add to my opinion on that part of the callout. As for the issue of Connie interacting with pro shippers in the past, I do know that this claim is legit. I’ve seen it before and so has Breeze. This was why for a brief time we decided to stop following their blogs. Because it was triggering to have pro shippers put on our dash. And sometimes we just don’t feel it’s worth it to always let people we’re platforming know they’re rbing triggering stuff. So sometimes we just quietly unfollow and choose to not interact until we’re sure they’re filtering what they do and don’t rb in some way. I definitely don’t agree with that behavior. And if they’re still doing that I”ll deplatform again. “The anon asks: “A weird question but do you know any other stimboard blogs with your follow criteria? (No radfems, racists, fandom antis, etc.) I was hoping to find more through your “similar blogs” but a lot have no anti-antis for their DNI or allow truscum/transmeds and exclus. :(“

The user responds: “I know of @turtle-pond-stims, @outofangband, and @kinaesthetics! 🍂🍄" “[ID: A cropped screenshot of an ask sent by Connie from their now-deactivated blog, butch-with-a-tortoise.

Connie says: “hey anon I have safe stim blogs. dm me if you want them. And radfems/bigots aren’t allowed to interact. For my own safety (because the community is honestly terrifying) I can’t publicly say on my blogs that I’m safe for proshippers/kinky people but I try to spread word how I can.”] [ID: Screenshot of a post by evilwriter37, which reads, “I’ve been seeing posts about fandom police leaving ao3, and it’s like: Good. We don’t want you here anyway. Go find your own fanfiction site.”

The post is tagged “#Fandom #AO3 #Antis #Purity Culture” and has 87 notes. It was posted on December 21st, 2020.

There is a reply from main-to-outofangband-andothers saying: “there are Silm antis on that site who are against Russigon (Maedhros and Fingon) not because they’re cousins but because they’re both male (coded)”] [ID: A screenshot of an anonymous (though signed off as being from outofangband) ask sent to evilwriter37, which says, “Melkor and Viggo solidarity is ‘Look there’s nothing wrong with keeping my enemy chained up in my personal chambers at all times so please just focus on the war efforts and I’ll focus on the boy* in my chambers’ -@outofbangand.

*boy used figuratively @ antis”

The user responds: “Pfft!!! Hahaha! You’re absolutely right! (And Viggo does refer to Hiccup in canon as ‘my boy’).”] I can’t really say anything to refute this. Because these are all posts of Connie outright stating that they disagree with antis. And not only sympathize with anti antis but are fully against antis. Looks like very damning evidence. Although ngl I’m not entirely against kinky blogs as a whole? Just so long as they truly stay in their lane with their kink content. And don’t force it on others in any way. Or shame people who are triggered by their kinks. It is true that being entirely against kinky blogs no matter what is dipping your toes into swerf rhetoric. Tbh I’m not going to look at the rest. This is pretty much all I need to make a decision on whether or not I”ll continue platforming Connie. Though I will try to get some more  perspective from people who I interact with as well. Because I feel better about making a more definitive decision after doing that. Also in general please don’t not try to get an opinion from me on how I feel about syscourse. A lot of the claims about Connie’s age weirdness and them using their alters as a shield feel like syscourse to me. Especially if this callout was written by one or several singlets. Singlets should never be trying to judge how legit someone’s system is ever. Even if their system friends encourage them to. You can call out a horrible person with a system without trying to insinuate that they’re lying about their alters in some way. Doing otherwise is ableist ESPECIALLY if you’re a singlet. Also in general the reason I stay out of discussions of judging how someone is handling their systems is because it’s syscourse and syscourse is triggering for my system and I. If this post was an attempt to get me to give an opinion  on the validity of Connie’s system I don’t appreciate it. And I would appreciate not being dragged into such matters again, thank you.

In general there’s like a few parts of this callout that feel legit. Which is unfortunately cluttered with obvious bias and obsessive hatred of Connie. I’m not here to stan or coddle Connie. I know they are not a perfect person. Especially since no human being in the world is perfect. But I feel the way this callout was created was very sloppy since a lot of the evidence was messy at best. And some points were very hypocritical as well as there being some no true scotsman moments from OP. In acting like exclus never do any of the thing that they tried to call out Connie for. Which is behavior that I am not a fan of. This is why people need to be more careful about callouts and like make roughdrafts and have a more unbiased person helping them if they don’t feel they can do it on their own. I’m even trying to make a resolve to do better at that myself. So it’s not like I’m unwilling to put my money where my mouth is. Anyways those are all my thoughts on this messy callout. And tbh I’m not going to get too much more heavily involved in this. Because I need to focus on more immediately serious rl stuff more often, like doing what I can to get out of the hellish landscape of a house I currently am stuck in.

[charleythehouseplant]

So I know OP’s question was probably rhetorical but I got curious, so I looked it up and went through like a dozen internet rabbitholes and the answer is capitalism! Kind of.

(Full disclosure: my sources for this include the foundation Oneindig Noord-Holland, the foundation Ecomare, and the official tourism website for the island of Texel, except for the two images cribbed from Wikipedia, so I am reasonably confident in its accuracy from a historical perspective, but I do not know much about sheep as animals.)

See, Texel is a small island in the northern part of the Netherlands. You can walk across it lengthwise in an hour if you walk slowly. (20km, or 12,5 miles.) Effectively this means there’s just not a lot of grazing area for cattle, and what grazing land there was was just not good enough for cows, and it was not good farmland for crops because the salt from the sea on the wind is going to literally salt the earth and you will know only misery if you try to grow them any substantive scale and how do people exist here—

So what Texel did have was sheep. Lots and lots of them. The original Texel sheep would have looked like extremely average children’s-picture-book sheep. They were generally very small, with tiny little tails, and were famous for having Very Soft Wool, to the point where they would catch a great price in a few hours at cattle markets. (Fun fact: the old Texel sheep was so famous, in fact, that until 1846 it was literally illegal to import off-island sheep to Texel for fear of polluting the gene pool.)

What Texel also had was a very convenient location. Here is a picture of the province of Noord-Holland as it exists today. That island in red is Texel. Near the lower-left of the sea there is the coty of Amsterdam, which was historically the most important port over there.

Ships would sail out north past Texel, stop there to buy supplies and maybe hire a few sailors, and then wander off to steal spices or something, whatever. But if you were an enterprising capitalist circa 1818, wouldn’t you want that passage to the ocean to be a lot faster? So you wouldn’t need to pay sailors for however long it took for the river connecting Amsterdam to the sea to get off its ass and allow passageway?

Enter King Willem the First, who ordered water-constructionist Jan Blanken Janz to work out a Plan. So they dug a channel all the way north from Amsterdam to the sea.

But wait! What happens to Texel now that half of its local economy disappeared, you ask? Well, they still had all these sheep with their amazing fur, so they doubled down. But now that their entire livelihood revolved around sheep, well, that sheep is kind of tiny, isn’t it? Not a lot of wool, and not much eating when its lifespan nears its end.

Enter Hendrik Dijt, of farm De Waddel. (De Waddel was built in 1625 and still exists today! You can buy lamb meat from them! How cool is that??)

Anyway, in 1888, Hendrik told his son Cornelis to go to England, which had way more modern (for the time) breeding methods for its sheep and was doing all kinds of weird experiments with mixing its heritage breeds to make Better Sheep. Cornelis returned with a Border Leicester breeding ram, and went back at least once to also buy Lincoln and Wensleydale rams at some point though I can’t find an exact timeline. Their purpose was to get an all-purpose sheep that could give a good chunk of meat, be milker, and hopefully still kept that lovely wool that made Texel sheep famous.

And they succeeded! To the point where in 1909 the “verbeterde Texelaar” (improved Texel sheep) became the new breed standard for Texel sheep and they got their own separate studbook out of it.

To this very day, sheep are important to the Texel economy and as a cultural touchstone. I went there in 2009-ish and if there is literally any product you can get off a sheep you can obtain it there in goft shops with a little note explaining what it is.

Anyway, fun fact I learned today: Texel sheep also come in “blue”, and the blue variant has its own sub-variant that’s called “badger-head” because the white markings on its head look badger-like!

If you’ve made it this far, thank you for reading!

what the hell is going on with texel sheep

[enthusiasticsobrietyabuse]

Originally Posted OnTheEmmis.com - 2005 Meehan Survivor Website / Discussion Forum. (ICECAP used to be the “board” of enthusiastic sobriety programs - it has since dissolved due to OnTheEmmis)

Put very simply, this is how your child is most likely responding to ICECAP's idea of 'unconditional love':

When I was 17, I had absolutely no desire to quit getting high.

My parents discovered Meehan and his ways, and so I was confronted with the ultimatum that we are all familiar with: Go to ICECAP or hit the road.

Well, I certainly was NOT going to be eating out of trash cans and scrounging up tree branches for warmth. I was a typical ICECAP kid; from a middle class family and hardly beyond experimenting with drugs.

So, as a teenager in full-rebellion mode, I found myself cornered, coerced, actually forced to submit to the ICECAP program, or face the brutal alternative.

Blackmail sucks, and rarely benefits anyone in the end.

So, what I did is I pretended to subscribe to the WHOLE ICECAP thing.

Except it wasn't really working. I still wanted to get high. I fumbled in my attempts to do so, not being able to account for my whereabouts at times, continuing to be a jerk, still wearing all black and listening to very questionable music.

So I got caught with some pot, just as ICECAP counselors had predicted would happen if I didn't get outpatient.

Again, I was given an ultimatum: OP or starvation.

So I went to outpatient, which believe it or not was the ultimate answer to my dilemma.

In outpatient, I was taught a little thing called the 'parent game', which by one name or another is to this day taught in ICECAP treatment. No other lesson or way of thinking is given more time or energy within ICECAP treatment than 'The Parent Game'.

The Parent Game involves teens being taught how to please their parents. They are told that sitting down for dinner, cleaning your room, saying 'I love you', and going to ICECAP religiously are things worth the unlimited freedom your parents would be willing to offer if you just did them.

So I tried out these new lessons. Sure enough, my OP counselor was right! I said 'I love you', smiled a lot, sat down at the table for dinner, gave out hugs and wore 'ICECAP' attire (not so much all the black, but a cheesy 'love round robin '93 t-shirt and blue jeans). As a result I was given unlimited freedom. My parents bought me cigarettes and gave me cash for the functions. They reported to my OP counselor and were very pleased with the fabulous results ICECAP was having with me. I was a new kid. I had been saved!

In more ways then one, actually. You see, no matter what ultimatum my parents could have proposed, I wanted to get loaded. I loved smokin' dope. It was always a very hard thing to do...until I got into OP.

My OP counselor, like just about all ICECAP OP counselors, was a caring, loving guy who was cool and funny and nice and neat and liked cool music and had long hair someone who didn't know the first thing about a kid getting high all the time.

What OP had accomplished for me was the perfect route to get high virtually unhindered, and that's precisely what I did.

My parents, on the direction of ICECAP staff (oh, so competent!) left me almost ENTIRELY alone. They 'trusted', did not 'get into my shit' and 'let me be a dope fiend kid'.

Add to that I no longer had to go to school, get a job, or do anything except go for four hours a day to OP and throw McDonald's french fries at Kata 6.

It was a pot head's dream come true.

I went through OP, the group, and spent just about a year on steering committee...all the time smoking pot whenever the hell I could, which was just about whenever the hell I wanted to.

When the truth came out (I eventually copped), my father simply stated, "If he has been getting high this whole year, if that is true, them I will personally buy him his dope".

Of course he didn't really mean that, though it would have been nice, the point is that while ICECAP did nothing in regards to getting me clean, they did wonders in teaching me how to fool my parents.

Many kids aren't such coniving little full of shit pricks like I was. Many kids, like yours, perhaps, are not going to fake it. It takes a lot of energy, and besides, most teens have a lot more integrity than I did.

Chances are your kid, if they are determined to get high (or: in actual need of a little help, such as I was) if presented with ICECAP's ultimatum are going to tell you to shove your ultimatum up your ass, and split. ICECAP will work tirelessly to convince you to assist voluntarily in the starvation, exposure, and eventual death of your own kid.

"Well, I would never..." You might say now...but ICECAP uses some great, very convincing, though false, rhetoric such as bold, self-riteous sounding phrases like 'unconditional love' and 'love is not accepting wrong behavior'...

Well I have news for you parents...love is ALSO not abandoning every responsibility you owe to your child as a parent, and leaving the job to an insane weirdo like Mike fucking Weiland, who is I GUARANTEE better at explaining to your kid why it is your kids fault Mike was late for their appointment than having a shred of a clue on how to professionally, competently assist your child in dealing with his/her problems, the least of which (most likely) is their drug use.

You think my story is isolated? Ask Jessica Cramsey how long she was on SC before she copped to have been getting loaded the whole time.

Ask the guy who I was on SC with the whole time, and getting high with the whole time, how 'isolated' my story is.

The truth is, in ICECAP, you as a parent HAVE NO IDEA whether or not your kid is sober or blowing old men for crack on weekdays.

The reason you HAVE NO IDEA is because one, your kid is conning you whether he/she is getting high or not, and two, because ICECAP completely hijacks your job as a parent.

AHHH. The cult think is breaking through now...telling you how wrong I am...telling you that I am just a bitter ex-counselor, probably getting high, not MY kid, I would know if MY kid...really? How would you know? Honestly, tell me, how would you know?

I guarantee that you do not. You have freely offered you natural role, that of a PARENT, to an unlicensed amateur. You have surrendered your instincts ('lack of trust') your experience ('your best thinking got you here') and your love for your child ('unconditional love') into the hands of one Robert G. Meehan. A self-proclaimed murderer with a dead son.

[vince-thrilligan]

Rhea Seehorn: Who is Kim Wexler?

“I saw that something was eroding in Kim for multiple seasons.”

Awards Focus: In the season four finale, Kim was stunned when Jimmy revealed his emotional speech to get his law license reinstated was just a performance. She’s left standing in the hall as he races off to change his name to Saul Goodman.

This year, it’s Kim’s turn to leave Jimmy on his heels. Were you shocked when she left her work on Mesa Verde and subsequently started brainstorming about decimating Howard’s career to get Jimmy his Sandpiper case money?

Rhea Seehorn: Well, to be fair, it is a series of decisions. I saw that something was eroding in Kim for multiple seasons. And what I appreciate about our series, like Vince (Gilligan) and Peter (Gould) did with Breaking Bad, it’s about incremental decisions that these people are making. They’re unaware that they’re falling off a complete cliff. I didn’t know what that final scene was going to be. But I took every step that was handed to me with the information she had presently and played that scene.

AF: You’ve said you’ve seen erosion going on in Kim, can you speak more to that?

Seehorn: The beauty of the show is that these characters are so affected by their past, not only by the events we’ve seen on the series but even before that. From the beginning of the series there was something about Kim’s stillness and her need for control and to right every ship. When I looked at that, I asked “What are you trying to get away from?” or “What are you suppressing that’s so chaotic that you need to make sure that everything is steady all the time?” Those questions spoke to me about the changes we’re seeing in the latter half of this season.

AF: So there’s a potential “Slippin’ Kimmy” underneath the Kim we’ve come to know?

Seehorn: About halfway through the season, Peter (Gould) said that he and the writers started thinking about the masks we all wear and what’s behind Kim’s mask. I will be very interested to see if she follows through with the decimation of Howard Hamlin and can she stomach those actions? Is she a person now who doesn’t even have a conscience? When she shoots the finger guns at Jimmy, there’s a menacing undertone that certainly concerns him.

AF:  There’s so many telling moments about Kim’s character. The moment when she and Jimmy are throwing the beer bottles off the roof, but Kim cleans up the glass the next morning. If Kim does goes through with this plan for Howard, do you think she would follow suit in some sort of attempt to clean up that mess as well?

Seehorn: That’s a good question. If Kim goes through with her plan, there may no way for Howard to recover. Michael Morris directed those beer bottle scenes, I love how they tie the episodes together. The first one where Kim had some animosity about her saying the name Saul Goodman and then when they’re tossing the bottles together it’s a bonding moment.

AF:  Bob (Odenkirk) has spoken about living with Patrick (Fabian) and yourself in Albuquerque. Can you give our audience a look into the behind the scenes life during production?

Seehorn: The three of us have been living together for the last two years and prior to that Bob and Patrick lived together for a season without me. Frankly, I wish we’d been doing it the whole time. It’s so helpful because the scripts are so dense and complex and you’re always wishing you had more time to play with them and find new things.

AF: As you’ve pointed out, the scripts are often dense. When you have a dialogue heavy episode, how much of that preparation is just getting a grasp on the material?

Seehorn: A lot of it. Jonathan Banks and I laugh because we have the same philosophy. If you think you’re off book, then you need to ask yourself, “Are you off book riding a bike? Are you off book standing on your head? Are you off book swimming in the ocean?”

You think you know your lines and then as soon as you’re asked to do something, or you try blocking, or your scene partner decides to do whatever they’re going to do, the words start to slip away from you. There’s just no time for that with our shooting schedule, not if you want to bring your A-game.

AF: Is there a general time set aside for working through the scripts at the house?

Seehorn: If you’re having a cup of coffee in the main kitchen, you’re gonna get asked to read lines. You basically need to hide in your room if you don’t want to run lines, because if you are seen or visible anywhere in the house, you’re going to get asked. And we run lines that are not our scenes too. Like if Howard has a scene with someone else, then I’ll be whoever he’s talking to and it’s great.

AF:  The scenes between Lalo (Tony Dalton) and Kim are incredible this season.  Before we dive into specifics, talk about working with Tony and his presence as Lalo.

Seehorn: I mean, how great is Tony? What a find that Sherry Thomas and Sharon Bialy brought to Vince and Peter. He’s so talented, but he’s also a very generous actor. It doesn’t matter if he’s not talking for the majority of the episode nine confrontation, he’s giving me so much in that scene once I’m toe-to-toe with him.

AF:  We saw a different Kim when she meets Lalo in jail. Can you talk about crafting that confrontation?

Seehorn: I spoke with Gordon Smith, who wrote episode eight, about the idea of when is Kim off her game? Because previously, we’d seen that she can fall apart in a stairwell or at home, but once she walks into a courtroom or a meeting, she suppresses all of that, and can be totally professional.

So, I went in there questioning “Do we think she can actually hold herself together right now?”  We decided that she probably hasn’t slept at all and she knows this is a very scary situation. She’s pretty sure that Jimmy is dead or dying in the desert right now and she can’t call the police and tell them what happened. So, she’s trying to get information from Lalo and she’s unsuccessful in that scene whereas in episode nine she is successful.

I like that Kim got two attempts to go at Lalo using intelligence and rhetoric. The second one in episode nine, written and directed by Tom Schnauz, was a monster of a scene and we knew it.

AF: What were some of the logistical considerations for the episode nine faceoff?

Seehorn: Tom came to Bob and Tony and I, and asked if we could rehearse it on set. It’s technically a difficult scene, I have the big monologue at the end, but Tony has to play a lot of different things as he’s reacting to what he’s hearing from Bob and then Kim.

For Bob, he has to repeat the same story but slightly differently, I think four times, which for an actor is very hard material to memorize because you lose track of where you are in the loop. Tom had written in purposeful nuances as Jimmy sort of devolves in his storytelling.

So we rehearsed it, and thankfully we made a lot of decisions with Marshall Adams (the director of photography) and our camera ops and lighting people. That allowed us to get ahead of the curve and give ourselves the hours that we had to shoot it instead of losing time on the technical aspects.

AF: At the beginning of that scene, you have to be very present for Bob and Tony, conveying that sense of dread and uncertainty that Kim feels. What’s going through her head there?

Seehorn: Kim is in survival mode for the first half of the scene. She’s very still, but she’s practical. I think she’s immediately thinking, “Could we jump from this balcony? Where are the knives in the house? Could Jimmy and I take him if we had to?” Eventually, she’s run out of options and is left with observing Jimmy and what unfolds in front of her.

AF: Kim knows that Jimmy is lying to Lalo and that Lalo either suspects it or knows it.

Seehorn: She knows there’s a secret involving the bullet hole in the mug, and that the secret is so great that Jimmy is literally crumbling in front of her and it needs to be protected at all cost for some reason.

AF: And then Kim steps up to the plate, which was the most harrowing moment of the season. Were you always meant to get so close to Tony, having Kim invade Lalo’s space like that?

Seehorn: Yeah, that was in the script. I spoke to Jennifer Bryan, who’s brilliant with our costumes, and I said, “Kim’s coming from work so she has her heels on… do you think we can get the shoes off in the scene?” I talked to Tom Schnauz about having Kim’s shoes off because I wanted to be even physically smaller than Lalo.

Kim switches to pragmatism in that moment, that’s her fight or flight. She wants to go toe-to-toe like she’s proving a case, finding the holes in Lalo’s story and sewing enough doubt that he backs down.

AF: Do you think Kim prepared her argument while she was sitting there, listening to Jimmy?

Seehorn: I talked to Tom about that, I don’t think she memorized this monologue while she was sitting there on the couch worried. I think she starts it and has to find it. So, we made sure we did a couple of runs at that, just letting me find it and letting me constantly control that lump in my throat because Kim can’t become hysterical.

If Lalo sees that she’s emotionally terrified or starts screaming or anything like, she loses all she has, which is trying to present a logical, forceful argument that he really has to consider. You see Lalo shush Kim earlier on the scene, so I think she’s pretty clear what the cartel would think of women screaming or crying.

AF: Prior to Lalo,  Kim’s biggest confrontation was with Mesa Verde client Kevin Wachtell (Rex Linn). The property tycoon was locking horns with Mr. Acker (Barry Corbin), an elderly home owner who refused to vacate his property.

Kim, feeling sympathetic to the man’s circumstances, recruits Jimmy to represent him — a move that nearly causes their relationship to implode. I don’t think anyone saw the idea for marriage coming, much less from Kim. What was your reaction to that?

Seehorn: That was something Bob and I worked extensively on, getting that moment to feel authentic. It’s also Kim accepting Jimmy for who he is, rough edges and all. In episode nine, Jimmy can’t accept Kim’s decision to quit Mesa Verde and she calls him out on it.  

AF:  Knowing what we know from Breaking Bad and now El Camino, there are very few living characters in the Gene timeline that could give fans a meaningful, full-circle conversation as the series closes. Would you agree with the argument that Kim is the obvious choice for the final conversation with the Gene?

Seehorn: Honestly, I didn’t know I’d be alive this long. If I attempt to take myself out of the equation, which is super hard as an actor, I think the writers are always going to reach for the smartest ending.

Is it the most satisfying storytelling with Kim there at the end? Or is it not? I do agree with you that as a fan I want some resolution regarding Gene. Will we only get one more scene at the beginning of season six, or will it be expanded throughout that season? There’s another question for you.

Part of AwardsFocus.com’s BCS interviews [x]

[insanechinaman]

To hell with Amber Alerts (because no one wants to fix it)

There are a lot of things in this hyper-modern world and day and age that gets shoved in your face and down your throat. Cell phone notifications. Personalized advertising. Donald Takeadump's tweets. And Amber Alerts.

It used to be that Amber Alerts are something you only hear about when you tune in the news, or maybe even on a highway digital sign (as if we need more driving distractions). Now with advancing mobile technology you can not just have a TV or radio broadcast interrupted with an obnoxious buzzing noise to alert the whole world of a missing child along with a horrible electronic voice reading the alert message, you get them shoved straight through your smartphone. Not everyone likes the latter idea when they see how terribly it is executed.

Whatever happened to missing child posters on milk cartons? (To be honest, I have never in my life encountered a missing child poster on a milk carton, this is something I only seen on TV.)

I don't know if Amber Alerts are something other countries besides Canada and the US have. And as a matter of fact, the "Amber" in Amber Alert is an acronym for "America's Missing: Emergency Response Transmission," although it is also named after a kid from Texas whose abduction and murder somehow inspired this idea of issuing emergency alerts in the event of a child abduction. Which makes me wonder why it's called Amber Alert in Canada, other than because we like to borrow and adopt so much from the Americans to match what they are doing—at least we do not capitalize all the letters ("AMBER Alert") like they do in the States.

I sure do not want to have something like this named after me.

But going back to the main point of this: having Amber Alerts pushed onto everyone's mobile devices not only means everyone is force-fed the messages with no opt-out as per government order, which comes with a very obnoxious buzzing noise, they get pushed at all sorts of times. Even in the middle of the night when many people are in a deep sleep and have their phones still on. Which meant a lot of people got pissed they were rudely awoken to the news of a missing child. Some of those folks called 911 to complain about it. The authorities then have to go on the news to defend the practice of push-notification Amber Alerts.

Ever since sometime in 2018 when Canada implemented the practice of mobile Amber Alerts, we've had at least 5 of these push-notification incidents in Ontario alone. One of these cases tragically the girl was found dead and her non-custodial father was charged with her murder. The rest I believe the child was found safe, including one where the father picked his daughter from school as usual and ends up being treated as a child abductor but released without charges, and most recently with two boys and their grandfather, as if the granddad is the abductor (turns out he was quite confused). Like, wonderful, right? Let's all pat ourselves in the back and masturbate to each successful Amber Alert, whoopie-fucking-do.

The implementation of these mass force-fed alerts in its current form begs a lot of questions to be asked about its nature. One of these Alerts concerned a missing child from Thunder Bay, where people as far away as Toronto got phone alerts for. Why are people in Toronto being force-fed an Amber Alert regarding a kid thousands of kilometres away? What do you expect the average person to do, head over to the airport with pitchforks waiting for a flight from Thunder Bay to land so we can save a child, capture the abductor and be the fucking hero? That is, even assuming they would be flying to Toronto, as if that's what an abductor would be doing.

Hell no. Let's be realistic here. If I was consciously abducting a kid, and wanting to fly far out of town, I'd get the hell out of the country quickly even if it meant leaving everything behind! I know what I am doing is wrong and I do not want to be caught by national authorities, am I right?

There are other questions that need to be asked about the mass force-fed approach to Ambert Alerts and the concept itself. Like, why in fuck's name are people receiving alerts in the early morning hours? Who is the fucking retard who think it is appropriate and effective to issue an push-notification Amber Alert at 3 in the morning? (Oh don't tell me an algorithm is behind that!) If these alerts are intended for a general public audience, why would anyone think 3AM is an okay time to send an alert out? Who is responsible for getting these alerts out and how it is done? Why are Amber Alerts (at least in Canada) being treated with the same level of "presidental level" alertness on your smartphone as something that is a big major apocalyptic national threat, like a nuclear bomb heading our way?

These incidents of direct-to-phone Amber Alert messages have quickly established a pattern of where news stories about people calling 911 to complain about being disturbed by the alerts quickly accompany the incident itself. It's to the point of a predictable cyclical script, just like how mass shooting incidents in the States have become a script. And it goes like this: an Amber Alert is issued, child is found (or not), endless news reports of people complaining to 911 makes the rounds as authorities justify the system and remind people not to clog 911 with complaints, wash rinse and repeat.

We can all agree we should not call 911 to bitch about an Amber Alert. Absolutely not in the middle of an active Ambert Alert when authorities want the 911 lines free to be able to collect tips on the fact. You want to fine people who take up valuable 911 time with their anger? Go ahead. But then where should we voice our frustrations? Facebook and Twitter? They're great for bitching about anything, terrible at being heard with the goal of getting something accomplished. Heck, if you read these articles about the complaints, you'll notice no one ever says anything about where more appropriate to leave a complaint. It's like they do not want to hear them, and that is probably the case, that the authorities behind the Amber Alert schema are content with the way they have it set up.

But the complainers do perhaps have a valid point. Why on fucking earth are people being awoken by an ill-timed Amber Alert on their phones? What do you expect people to be doing once awake, run out in their pyjamas and roam the neighbourhood looking for a missing child in a half-asleep stupor, going only on a vague text description of the child? "Amber, Amber, where are you?" Or why are we getting alerts about a kid who is so far away as to be of little concern?

I get that each missing child case needs to be evaluated by police before they resort to publicizing a missing child, or even issuing an Amber Alert. After someone first reports them missing, cops have to make sure the kid is truly unaccounted for, that they are not somewhere lost in school or at a friends or relative's place. They have to quickly investigate reports that someone else may be behind their disappearance. By that time, it's possible that several hours has passed, it's possible the child in question is far away from town. By the time an Amber Alert goes out, it is possible indeed, as with the case of Riya Rajkumar, the subject child is dead. Yet we still credit the Amber Alert a success because it brought in attention and tips that helped locate the deceased child. The system works again.

Gotta admire the blind optimism of the pro-Amber Alert folks.

Or why is EVERYONE being forced to receive these alerts? This is something I surely did not agree to nor signed up for. Why is this responsibility—a civic duty, perhaps?—being shoved and downloaded to us all? What do they expect us the general public to do in these cases? Seriously though, no one has ever explained to us what to do or equipped us with necessary skills in the event of an Amber Alert. What do you want me to do, seriously? You may think it's "obvious," that is to keep an eye out for the kid and report to police, but it's not that simple (will get to that later on).

It is pathetic on the part of S-ociety as a whole that no criticism of the current system will be entertained. In fact, critics and whiners are quickly villified by defenders of the Amber Alert as heartless horrible selfish narrow-minded assholes. They think it's sad and unfortunate many others feel differently about mass Amber Alerts than they do. News agencies entertain themselves much with such punditry and op-ed pieces in response to the 911 complaining phenomenon in support of our holy Amber Alert system. "Shame on you," writes one person in a half-assed column (as if anything in the world has ever gotten accomplished by screaming the statement, "shame on you"—the truth is: no). And apparently we need to "be more educated" about these force-fed alerts. One guy on the website of a New Jersey radio station even writes, "Suck it up."

Suck it up? FUCK YOU! How would you like it if you were rudely waken up in the middle of the night by an Amber Alert? Maybe I should have you locked up in a room and be tortured with that distinctive Ambert Alert buzzing noise (they really could not have chosen a less obnoxious tone?) over and over, see how you like it.

And that is the thing with authorities and supporters including the mass media (who always love a good missing child story to sensationalize): they are clearly incredulous and in denial of any problems with the way Amber Alerts are currently deployed. They beat the drums of the party line with their rhetoric, always congratulating themselves and proclaiming the Amber Alert a success because it works once again as expected, always pulling the "what if it was your child" card. They are so full of themselves, they do not see anything wrong with mass force-fed Amber Alerts in the middle of the night, refusing to see the absurdity and ineffectiveness of such a scenario from the perspective of the opposition. They are content with the status quo, everyone else be damned. Nobody wants to acknowledge a problem exists.

"Wake Me Up Everytime!," proclaims the title of one news opinion piece in support of late-night Amber Alerts. Such joy!! It really is as if the defenders and supporters have never ever been in the experience of being awoken by a 3am Amber Alert. It seriously makes me wonder what those people who don't see an issue with 3am Amber Alerts would really do when they themselves are rudely awoken by a 3am Amber Alert. Look at their phones and then fall back asleep? That would be ironic and just as useless as those who make angry 911 calls about this when a child is supposedly out there in danger. Of course there are people out there already awake at 0300h for whatever reason (graveyard shift jobs, travelling around, just left the bar after last call, etc.), but most people are like deep asleep, and expecting the sleeping majority to be able to act upon a late night Amber Alert is seriously retardedly delusional, let's be real here.

A conclusion can be made of all this: criticizing and suggesting improvements to the Amber Alert system is a new social taboo. Even in this so-called democracy of ours with freedom of speech and all that jazz, we are only allowed only one approved opinion of many issues, even something as petty as the way the Amber Alerts currently work. So much for freedom. And that is troubling. And unacceptable. And backwards. Taboos and stigmas are retarded social concepts/mechanisms anyhow and has no place in a modern sophisticated society that likes to regard itself as advanced and progressive.

I have no tolerance for mass stupidity. I have even less than zero tolerance for willful ignorance. It is sad that a topic like Amber Alerts manages to combine the two: the stupids who complain via 911, and the willfully arrogantly ignorant defenders of the system who themselves get angry over the idea that others don't want to be subjected to Amber Alerts. That combined with the emotionally driven irrational logics that informs the subject and how it is being shoved in our faces without consent, really makes it hard to accept being on-board the scheme.

It really should not be taboo to suggest that Canada's current mobile phone Amber Alert schema needs adjustment, nor should people feel ashamed to suggest they have the right to opt out of receiving direct Amber Alerts. The latter idea sadly is surely to invite much the same opinionated disgust from Amber Alert supporters who believe alerts MUST be pushed onto every single person on earth and that it will not be effective without that stipulation. Just another way S-ociety shoves itself into us all.

Let's face it: 99.99% of the world population, or even 99.99% of a city, are in NO position to be able to do anything about an Amber Alert. They are too far from anywhere, too busy to be allowed a chance to act, asleep(!), etc. Just receiving a message about a missing child and thus knowing there's a missing child out there somewhere is good to know, but it accomplishes nothing. There are those who do care enough to take the trouble to keep an eye out and report when they think they see something matching the alert description. Good for them. The rest of us however, we should be able to not be subjected to such alerts if we do not want them. Since when the fuck did Amber Alerts become a social obligation?

What evidence exists to suggest mass alerts are effective anyways? Besides, force-feeding Amber Alerts onto everyone's faces and ears is asking too much of us all, especially considering that much of S-ociety is full of stupid people. Much of us are too lazy to properly toss an empty soda can into the recycling bin instead of the trash pile, and yet we're expected to help find a missing child at a moment's call? (These are the same dumbasses who call 911 to bitch and whine about Amber Alerts, after all.) I know all this sounds heartless, especially to the pro-Amber Alert crowd, but that is the reality that perhaps they do not want to accept. Lest to join the Donald Takeadump parade and make up your own "alternative facts" on the matter, I guess.

People behind force-fed Amber Alerts are concerned that the public's annoyance to these alerts will nurture a dismissive "boy who cry wolf" situation where we all learn to ignore them. You damn bet that concern is real. It's like car alarms: they are most often false alarms triggered by mundane events like someone bumping onto a car and suddenly the whole neighbourhood is disturbed by an obnoxious blaring noise that won't shut up, such that we have learned to ignore them and do nothing because we all have figured no one is really trying to steal a vehicle (and car alarm makers have done nothing about improving their products). When you shove Amber Alerts onto the phones of literally everybody, with a disturbing loud blaring noise, and these alerts are of no concern to most of us, you damn shall bet we will learn to do nothing except be annoyed by yet another new modern society nuisance. Besides once again, what the hell can we do?

I can appreciate why the Amber Alert scheme exist, no really I do. If I had a child and my kid went missing one day, of course I would want all the resources available to have my child return home safely. But personally I would not want to subject literally everyone to the search effort. That honestly seems selfish to me. Pro-Amber Alert peoples like to argue that those bitching about unwanted Amber Alerts are selfish, but I like to spin that around. Frankly, why is one kid in one moment considered that much more valuable than everyone else? Why does that not sound selfish?

Which leads me to want to take this opportunity to discuss another thing about Amber Alerts and child abductions cases in general at a more deeper sociological kind of level, generating even more questions and thoughts no one else has the balls to openly present and discuss. Likewise, seems like nobody else in the world thinks and see the way I do on this topic in my typically socially cynical nature; I really do feel lonely about it.

S-ociety's preoccupation with missing children is a uniquely capital-W Western obsession. I don't think there are other societies in this planet that cares so much about missing children as does Western nations. I have a friend from another country who is perplexed with all these Amber Alerts, commenting that where he is from, missing children is a common occurance, that they wouldn't be able to have an Amber Alert system. Indeed, there are plenty of countries out there where kids go missing all the time, where child abductions happens more often than not, and the authorities do not have the resources to go after every case, or even care at all. So yes indeed Western society should really count its blessings and consider itself lucky in this regards that it has the resources to even obsess over missing children and come up with something like Amber Alerts. You may even want to think of this as a "first world problem."

And why obsess over missing children anyways? To me, Amber Alerts is a product of western society's child innocencism, which is what I refer to this idea or myth that children are inheriently innocent and thus must be protected at all costs from all harms of the world, real and perceived and ficticious. Innocentizing children contributes to their objectification in S-ociety. Children lack agency, for the inexplicable reason why they are referred to as minors and are treated as objects—chattel, essentially—in child custody cases, where usually the children have no say whatsoever on the matter, that someone else—the courts, lawyers—is making critical decisions on what's best for them on behalf of the children. We speak of children in objectifying terms, treat them as if they belong to someone like any other property. When missing children cases make the news, it's easy to feel like they are not persons, but rather characters in an ongoing story.

The mass media LOVES missing children cases, it's no wonder why they latch on quickly with Amber Alerts. Cases involving abductions and even murder at the hands of complete strangers—the Elizabeth Smarts, Tori Straffords, Jonbenet Ramseys, etc etc.—are very sellable and engaging to a very dumbass audience, and the press are happy to sensationalize these stories to death. (You think people who follow these stories closely are going to do anything about helping to solve the cases? Hell no!) It is to the point to dangerous exaggeration, of making people think stranger abductions are a common threat in western society, which in turn reinforces our mass preoccupation with missing children, justifies Amber Alerts and other such measures, and pumps up moral panics and fears that our precious innocent children are always in danger.

Stranger danger is overrated. In fact stranger abductions are very statistically rare. A kid in western society is much more likely to be abducted by someone within their own family, usually a non-custodial parent. It should not be a surprise that most, if not almost all Amber Alerts involve a parent or other relative of the subject child. Which now begs the question of whether a kid at the centre of an Amber Alert is truly literally always in danger. The recent Riya Rajkumar case was an exception (and if convicted, seriously the father should be given the death penalty, but we don't have that in Canada anymore). I mean, why would a parent kidnap their own child and then kill them? It is a very difficult question to answer as the motive is unique to every case. But statistically I would doubt that a kid is in any alarming danger. In most cases I bet the non-custodial parent snatches their own kid simply to have that kid to themselves. They care for the kid just as much but do not trust the other parent, don't care what the custody agreement says because it's not in their favour, let's get out of here. It's still kidnapping, but should we really be exaggerating the danger factor of the situation?

(Heck, it's pretty pathetic how exaggerated any fears concerning children is. We fear the stranger pedophiles and equally sensationalize sellable news stories of arrested pedophiles. However likewise, a child is more likely to be sexually abused by someone within their own family than by anyone else—or by R. Kelly for that matter. Sad but true, but we don't much about that in the news right?)

Child abduction/disappearance cases conditions the populace to fear the worst every time. Another thing I have a problem with regarding Amber Alerts and missing children cases: it lacks perspective. The topic is so irrational and emotionally driven, facts and data have no place when all you care about is the safe return of a child no matter what. Nobody wants to listen to anything else. The lack of perspective easily leads to why there is such a quickly developing institutionalized bias against naysayers of the current Amber Alert implementation—those in support are so full of themselves on the topic, so emotionally driven, that they shut out any facts and arguments, pulling guilt trips and drawing rebuttals that are only about visceral emotions. Amber Alerts have become a polarized topic, institutionally rooted in "think of the children!" mentalities.

I'd like to as well question who gets to be granted the Amber Alert treatment, because it is quite telling about the nature of our obsession with missing children, and also because no one else seems to be asking or seeing it my way. People like to say that missing children are in danger, thus why we need Amber Alerts. Okay then, why is it that only certain cases of people gone missing gets the Amber Alert treatment? If an old lady with advanced dementia wanders out of her house and doesn't find her way back, do I get awoken at night by an Amber Alert? NO. Should we? Is my example lost old lady not just as in danger as an abducted child? Or how about this: a young kid barely wearing much clothing, somehow wanders outside in the cold winter. Does this child get the Amber Alert treatment? NO as well. Even though this kid is just as much in danger—of possibly freezing to death, never mind being snatched by a stranger on the streets heaven forbid—the most we the public will hear about this kid is a breaking concerning local news story of plenty, but not an official Amber Alert. These two examples do not pass the main criteria of an Amber Alert, which is that they are not a child who is possibly abducted.

Or how about this: recently we had the case of Wanzhen Lu, some Chinese guy who was kidnapped by some thugs from the parking garage of his Markham condo, and found days later in the Muskoka region. That incident, perhaps because of the high level of unusualness and shock, generated a lot of media attention throughout Toronto and even the whole of Ontario, along with the usual appeal to the public to keep an eye out for him. But it surely didn't generate an Amber Alert. Why? Because Lu is a grown man, not a child. What if he got hurt and murdered by the disguised thugs? Sure was a real threat, but apparently he is not as worthy as an innocent child for a kind of Amber Alert treatment.

Why is it only certain kinds of missing people—kidnapped children—gets the Amber Alert treatment, even though we may as a society genuinely be concerned for all kinds of missing people? Why is it that we think all missing children are precious and at risk, and only a certain kind of them get the Amber Alert treatment? We may be absolutely concerned for the well-being and safety of a kid who wanders off in the dead of winter, but our phones do not go off making noises and receiving messages about such a kid. It is to me unfair, and honestly borders on hypocrisy, because it is as if we only value certain kinds of missing kids more than others, enough to warrant an Amber Alert. Why is one kid more deserving of our attention than others in this heightened, exaggerated manner? The social values we ascribe to missing children and Amber Alerts needs to be questioned.

Anyways, it frustrates me that S-ociety as a whole is in denial that the Amber Alert system we have now established in Canada is flawed and needs improvements. I can understand why you would want to have an Amber Alert scheme in place, but when you subject these alerts to literally the whole population at the most intimate level—ie. through their personal mobile devices—you better expect some backlash and critiques. If Alerts are getting pumped out in the middle of the night as if there is nothing wrong with that, you better stand back and evaluate the process and effectiveness thereof. It is NOT wrong to suggest we can make this system better.

Equally it should not be a taboo to insist we have the right to opt out of getting force-fed Amber Alerts. What is wrong with that? Did I or you consent to these types of "emergency" push alerts that we are told concerns us all even if it really doesn't? Amber Alert maniac defenders like to make you think you are heartless for wanting to not receive Alerts, that the system only works best if EVERYONE gets them. Bullshit. One theme that keeps coming up when reading these articles and columns on the Alert backlash, is that we should all know that there is a kidnapped child out there in immediate danger, even if we cannot do anything about it and it's 3 in the morning. What do you expect us all to do, fucking thoughts and prayers? What good will that do? Honestly, knowing there is a missing child out there is just as good as doing nothing, which of course both is not helping the situation at all. Knowing there is a kid out there doesn't mean much to many of us, any more than having to hear about traffic reports that do not affect us at all. Again, 99.99% of people are in no position to be able to assist in any way. It is counterproductive to cast a very wide net to catch a needle in a haystack, to evoke two Western cliches in one. I honestly cannot be bothered to keep an eye out for license plates or a kid that matches the vague description of the Alert, this is asking too much of us all. Those who do believe we all ought to make an effort to act on an Amber Alert even when it's late out as if it's an obligatory civic duty, I will place at an incredibly high standard, that is to say I expect those who believe we all ought to make an effort to act on an Amber Alert to themselves better be out there looking for the damned kid. You want to save on receiving angry 911 calls? Make it possible to opt out of Amber Alerts. Those who do care about Amber Alerts are free to preoccupy themselves and act accordingly, just don't force this onto everybody. There's nothing wrong with not having to give a shit about a situation that you cannot do anything about.

If there is one thing society/civilization/humanity likes to do, is impose itself onto everyone else and the world around it in whatever ways. And quite frankly it pisses me off when S-ociety forces everyone to concern themselves with matters that don't concern or affect them or may not be in their own interest (amongst other imposed upon social norms like being told how to eat, what to do, what to think, what goals to have, how to look like, etc., all of which pisses me off—S-ociety itself pisses me off), imposing upon everyone an expectation of being able to relate to the situation, especially in irrational ways where mass emotional tugging and guilt-tripping are exploited, to the point where I honestly don't give a shit about missing children. Besides, Amber Alerts is a mass Western anxiety/panic I can do without. It contributes to the exaggerated nature of how we irrationally interpret cases of missing people, and the disenfranchisement of children and youth in S-ociety due to its preoccupation with child innocence myths.

[snoozingcat]

Viral ‘Momo Challenge’ is a malicious hoax (2/28/2019)

(Please note the above story contains the image linked to the ‘Momo Challenge’ which is genuinely creepy. Also beware: non-graphic discussion of self-harm and suicide lies ahead.)

“It is the most talked about viral scare story of the year so far, blamed for child suicides and violent attacks – but experts and charities have warned that the “Momo challenge” is nothing but a “moral panic” spread by adults. ...

The rumour mill appears to have created a feedback loop, where news coverage of the Momo challenge is prompting schools or the police to warn about the supposed risks posed by the Momo challenge, which has in turn produced more news stories warning about the challenge.”

So you’ve probably seen that recent post going around where the OP talks about the “Momo challenge” telling kids to kill themselves through videos on YouTube Kids. The post has no source whatsoever.

When I went to the user’s page I found someone else had already messaged them asking for a source, to which the user replied with something along the lines of “how dare you ask me to source, this has traumatized my family!”

I don’t know if OP is one of the malicious people spreading this hoax, or one of the people who have fallen prey to a panic created by poor information literacy — but it’s seriously beyond time that we all do better sharing information online.

Here are some markers of a hoax, as demonstrated by this one:

1. Hysteria:

The post about the Momo challenge described the terror of the OP’s family vividly, accompanied with some “how can somebody do this to children” rhetoric. That’s the hook — emotions, namely fear or anger. You know, the two big emotions that are real good at short-circuiting rational thought.

Takeaway: BE WARY of any post that claims to spread information, but deals more with emotional reaction than fact and sourcing.

2. It Doesn’t Make Much Sense:

Most of the “warnings” about the Momo challenge claim that large numbers of children have already been injured, killed, and terrified by it. Without a source, naturally.

I know mental health shit happens even to kids, but come on. The chance that your average child — emotionally alright, not a genius — is going to hear about this and take action on something that every sense they have tells them is SCARY and WRONG instead of telling their parents or teacher? Not high.

Takeaway: if a story says that Person or Group A did Action B, take a look at Action B through the lens of the “rational person” standard — or as I like to call it the “semi-rational person” standard. Assume the people who allegedly took this action have a lick of, like, life experience, common sense, survival instinct — some sort of reasonability, basically. And ask: would someone otherwise capable of rationality take this action? Would you have in that situation, having the information they did? (Would you have killed yourself when you were eight just because a creepy video told you to, or would you have cried to your mom about it?) Look it up and see what you find before you reblog.

3. It Lacks a Source:

NO SOURCE! None! The person who made that post is giving you no external, verified information whatsoever!

I want you to do me a personal favor: every time you read a post on the internet and realize that the author wants you to share it, imagine that the post is being told to you by... I dunno, a shifty-eyed snail wearing a fake snail goatee.

Is that a very interesting snail? Undoubtedly. Sure has a compelling snail story, too. But you don’t know them OR their REASON for telling you what they are telling you.

That snail makes you FEEL THINGS. But that’s when you should feel the most suspicious.

Interesting side note:

As the post I referenced may or may not have intentionally been, particularly neat hoaxes — like all good lies — have a little kernel of truth in them that they use to build trust in them.

In this case, that kernel was the fact that weird shit is creeping into YouTube Kids. Now, some of it is genuinely alarming but most of it just weird algorithm-produced nonsense. You may have already been aware of that. You probably saw the posts going around that DID have sources and verifiable links attached.

I do want to reiterate as well that my point isn’t that no one is scared of the Momo Challenge or that it hasn’t had real negative effects — at the very least it has certainly caused schools to get concerned. My point is that no children have been injured or killed by it, and that the problems created by the Momo Challenge are in fact created by the hysterical reactions to it.

As for my own motives, because I too could be a shifty, shifty snail: I’m a journalism student who cares a lot about information literacy. That said, I have not vetted the information in here up to journalistic standards — which would involve, for instance, contacting the author of the children’s safety blog I linked to in the last paragraph to question her about her recording of the YouTube Kids video. And I don’t have time for that.

So I encourage you to double-check anything I posted here. If I’m wrong, please do come tell me what I messed up and what a shifty-eyed snail I am.

(Sorry I know the snail thing is weird and not really relevant I just like snails and I think their shifty eyes are cute No Offense Intended™)

[kuuxkat]

[EN] Interview with Aki Hata

Original CN TL and Pictures: here CN TL： zegao​​​​​ (nyamazing) EN QC by: @yujachachacha​​

Yuja did lots for this TL. Thank her guys =)

It was mostly delayed due to IRL stuff.

Disclaimer: This is a Chinese to EN TL, there would be things that would be lost in translation between the languages.

I’m not posting the image of the TL, sorry about that. Stealing images aren’t cool.

Please refer to my policies for more details and do not use the translations for commercial use.

The contents are under the cut.

Interview With Aki Hata

The Radiance of Aqours: Searching for the Answer

Aki Hata—the composer and lyricist of all of the songs of “Love Live! Sunshine”.

The “answer” that was obtained from the youthfulness of Aqours as they ran with all their might is...

From the song that gave Aqours their initial fame, “Step! ZERO to ONE”,

To the song that lit up Season 2 Episode 12, “WATER BLUE NEW WORLD”.

In addition to the songs for the subunits as well as the lyrical world of Saint Snow,

In this interview, she discusses the feelings she had placed on the 1st and 2nd seasons of the TV anime.

​

Q: How did you view the story of Season 2 of the TV anime Season 2?

I was reading the script as I wrote the lyrics, and I really cried every time. There are some things in this world that are unattainable no matter how hard one tries. The way they met that challenge really made me feel that it was “indescribably beautiful”. In addition, I feel that the 2nd season was a reflection of reality, it was really compatible. I was still in a state of confusion when I first wrote “Step! ZERO to ONE”, but at this point, in my heart this song has become a key note of the story. And afterwards when the second season kicked off rapidly, in the process the lyrics were gradually woven into the story. From there, I felt that fate had a hand in it. I personally feel that “this song being used here was really fitting, right?”. I don’t know if everyone has the same feeling that I did. From a state of confusion to hearts being one, it was really incredible.

 Q: Did you see the performance at Metlife Dome during the 2L tour?

I did. Although the stage itself was very energetic, in terms of the atmosphere it was quite frigid (laughs). In a half-exposed environment, looking at their posture where they wanted to make the entire venue fall (for them), and to let their intent be transferred to everyone, I feel their determination in accepting this huge vacuum and to go all the way (with it).

 Q: So that means you felt self-awareness and responsibility during the performance?

That’s right, I felt the intent and realization of “I wish to let everyone enjoy more”. As the previous project was hugely popular. “They’ll definitely be compared to that”, “if the effect wasn’t ideal, would it be my fault?” -- For them to be able to take on all of this burden, I feel that they are very strong too.

 Q: I feel that the songs by Aqours during 1st season, the charm point resides in a sense of “stumbling around”. The impression of the many lyrics was that: “Although I don’t know what the end result would be, but in any case let’s try it”. A feeling like that. It’s evidently different in the 2nd season. Or rather, should we say that feeling of stumbling was harmonized?

As by the 2nd season, they would have found their own goal. They weren’t becoming anyone, but rather were radiating their own light. They would have kept that glow firmly etched in their hearts. At that time, I was thinking, life’s own answers would remain in one’s heart’, this fact and the story are seamless aligned. It let me feel that there was a resonance -- the answer was truly in one’s heart huh? For the lyrics side on the 1st season, I wrote them with being very straightforward and plain in mind. For example, in “Kimi no Kokoro wa Kagayaiteru kai?”, I thought: Did they discover “it” at the very end by relentless asking questions like this? As without asking, they wouldn’t have found the answer.

 Q: Let’s turn the focus to the period between Season 1 and Season 2 then. After “HAPPY PARTY TRAIN”, should we say that the model changed? It feels that the stumbling part of the lyrics was set aside for a while too.

 That’s right, amongst them I added an element of more maturity in then. Although it is a new way forward, but it wasn’t 100% a happy feel to it. As I feel that, everyone would want to see an Aqours that grew up and would be able to sing sad songs, right? Thus, although the main focus would be running towards the end goal, and how the destination could barely be seen, secondly it’s the reality of the story itself. Everyone would have realized it, if vaguely, but meeting any obstacle in reality, at times you would feel that: “Although you are seemingly able to ‘see’ the turning point, but in reality you can’t do anything about it.” I feel that for this current generation, there are more harsh situations in reality that the current younger generation has to face. Rather, I should say that this is a generation where dreams are hard to achieve? Even if they wish to stumble and do their best, but problems in reality would be blocking them immediately. The story exists in a setting like this, so I feel that I definitely need to let everyone have that sense of foreboding to it.

 Q: So that is to say, rather than searching for the truth between the layers of the story, you would rather focus on what is projected on the observers?

That’s right. I hope to create a situation where everyone would be able to accept it fully. At such times, one should let everyone enjoy a little “sadness”, as sadness is also a form of enjoyment too (laughs).

 Q: (Laughs) Hata-sensei, among the songs in the 2nd season, which songs touched you the most while you were writing them?

I guess it would be “WATER BLUE NEW WORLD”? I like the beginning parts. So it has the lines, “Ashita e no tochuu janaku / ima wa ima da ne” (“It's not halfway to tomorrow, now is now”). Basically it’s all towards the future, but there are no complex rhetorics to it at all.

  Q: The incomparable happy “today” that only exists for that very instant - for one to understand this perspective and to sing this line, is truly saddening.

And, although we are speaking of the future, but I feel that everyone wouldn’t be able to project their mind set for going ahead. I feel that, the girls probably don’t totally know how their future would turn up. Although they noticed lots, but they won’t know everything. The world is filled with unknowns. They might not know, but they also seem to understand lots of things - rather one can say that it is a paradoxical sadness then?

 Q: That is to say they have their own degree of self-awareness then? But for now, “this” is enough.

That’s right, that’s exactly it. As there aren’t many people who would be able to enjoy the present without being bound by the past. I feel that enjoying the present is a very wondrous thing, so I hope that everyone would try to enjoy it. As we all know, even if we truly wish to enjoy the present, we’ll be robbed of our feelings and vision by many various things. To express this point without complex jargon is difficult. Although adding the phrase “instant” would solve problems, I feel that they shouldn’t say that.

​

Q: I feel that, the 2nd season’s OP “Mirai no Bokura wa Shitteru yo”, the most defining line of the lyrics was, “Mirai o doushiyou kana!? (“What shall we do about the future?!”). Although the future can be freely chosen, but the end result isn’t always what one hopes for. But at this stage, everyone still believes everyone’s future is up to their choosing.

That’s right. Singing “What shall we do about the future!” would perhaps have that unbelievable feel of “perhaps we can truly force the change” I guess? “Having the sky and seas as comrades” would also make one think: “Really??” This could also be due to them being exposed to warmth from lots of people, perhaps their inner soul having being touched by a sense of enjoyment to being loved as well? I feel that, acceptance the truth that one is loved is something that is very difficult. If one is loved too strongly, one would always be a little suspicious, right? But I feel that for them, perhaps they won’t ask “why”, but would rather “be able to accept straightforwardly” the truth that one is being loved by everyone. So for “the sky and sea as comrades”, the meaning of that should be their own hometown, the place that they lived on as their comrades? Everyone really loves their hometown, this is what they call jimo ai (lit. “local love”)  (laughs).

 Q: With regards to “Awaken the power”, seeing the animation on Episode 9 of the TV anime I felt that, here comes a very incredible song, huh (laughs).

(Laughs) Ah, I really am very happy (about this). How do I put it, I have my own self-awareness on how narrow my views are, admitting it openly, will let one grow swiftly? However, process of noticing this point, I guess would be very painful? As one must let something that one had firmly believed in be wrecked after all. But that is only because one’s view is too narrow -- briefly looking around the surroundings and one would realize, previously one would feel saddened about wasn’t depressing at all. The moment one’s view is expanded, they’ll really want to try it out. You can also choose to retreat if one is afraid of being injured, so as long as you tightly hug the world you had previously, you’ll be able to be protected. But if one knows all this, but still has the realization to say, “wait a minute...”, I would really want to have a toast to that courage (laughs)!

 Q: (Laughs). The songs by Saint Snow are very low-toned with high BPM, in some sense the entire feel is the direct opposite of Aqours “sparking” feel. Are there any particular points of note while writing their lyrics then?

It’ll be “a battle with one’s heart inside” then, I guess? Their attitude towards dreams, the level of their self-awareness -- through these comparisons, they displayed a sense of gentle innocence that is different from Aqours.

 Q: For “DROPOUT?!”, the parts where Leah sings, the lyrics included, were especially great.

My goal was to show that: “Even if they were going to fall into despair, the soul would remain beautiful”. From the angle of my personal interest, I like this song very much as well. Suffering will let one grow up rapidly, so I also tried imagining in the direction where “Saint Snow” would need to go through many difficulties, this very harsh and serious route.

​

Looking at Aqours, I became aware that being innocent isn’t embarrassing.

Q: For the second wave of the subunit songs, I even felt that Hata-sensei was being too serious about it! (laughs)

Well~~ Looks like the fact that I love the subunits is exposed, huh (laugh). Should I say I like them? I should say that I’m given more freedom to express them?

 Q: CYaRon!’s “Kaigandoori de Matteru yo” is truly a masterpiece.

I especially like that song (laughs).

Q: The tune started off as a gentle stroll, but in the end nothing happened at all. That point itself was startling enough.

I thought about trying various things while writing songs about friendship, so I thought of how there I heard of a song from overseas that’s akin to a story by itself. That song would be like an image of youth. It would actually just be depicting something trivial, but everyone would have a strong and deep resonance of: “I can empathize with this feeling”. Although by itself is purely how one would not get along with friends, and was stubbornly walking down the streets by the seaside (laughs). But it carries a huge weight in one’s heart. It’s simply a small minor thing, but seemingly carries with it 80% of the world’s sadness with it.

 Q: For Guilty Kiss, firstly the title song “Kowareyasuki”—it’s a staple Guilty Kiss song.

A sense of having absolutely no confusion.

 Q: As for the coupling song, “Shadow gate to love”, I would like to ask directly, what exactly is “Shadow gate”? (Laughs)

(Laughs). I guess it’s… the self in one’s heart? … It’s like, “I might not let you turn back, all right? I would exist in one’s heart too.” Like that, although it does seem to be stirring it up a little. I considered two sides of things at this part. Although I do think that high school girls would say the phrase “musk” I guess (laughs), but I do want to let them say that.

 Q: Amongst the lyrics of the second wave of the sub-unit songs, the phrase binetsu (微热, lit. feverish) didn’t appear even once, right?

It’s something that I sealed away intentionally. I’m trying to see how long I can hold it in without using it -- while right now it’s getting hard for me to hold back (laughs).

Q: (Laughs). Speaking of this, I hope Hata-sensei could explain to us the charm of the phrase “微热/binetsu”.

 All right. So we are chatting how Aki Hata likes about the phrase binetsu, right? (laughs). This is something before passion, the state where passion first began to show itself. That very brief, mythical state, that is the passion that I like the most. It still exists at the stage of fantastical love, or it perhaps can be something very brief. And I guess it means a disguised innocent passion? One’s thoughts might be pitiful but beautiful, amongst them it would reveal a tangible strand of mystic to it. One would be slightly dizzy with that knowledge - it would be a feeling like this. In one’s life, perhaps this is the state of mind that I would love the most. A young girl’s love can be called “binetsu”, a girl’s thoughts is surely “binetsu”. Perhaps all girls could emotionally understand this state of “binetsu”? A mystery that only girls know, a secret that belongs to girls -- this would let people feel that it’s cute, right?

 Q: The way that AZALEA let one immerse in them comes out strongly as well.

Of course I do like all the subunits, but AZALEA would probably have the highest synchronization with my personal feelings? I feel that this subunit, is a manifestation of priestesses to something that I would like to express. I guess this change happened during the 1st Live? After seeing their performance, it is my personal opinion that, I can let them carry even more (on their shoulders), I could let them walk on the direction of passion x philosophy (laughs)**. **TL Note: Although uncertain, it could be a pun on “Tokimeki Bunruigaku” instead.

 Q: (Laughs) I feel the same, that is why “GALAXY HidE and SeeK” became a MVP-level title as well.

Thank you very much. I feel that AZALEA expresses the sense of “loneliness” very strongly. Or should I say that that they are able to match the sense of unrealism and loneliness very strongly? I guess it’s probably in the direction of “the me that no one else notices were discovered by you”. A secret held between you and me?

 Q: From now on, for 3rd Live Tour as well as the movie are waiting for Aqours. Do you have anything you wish to say to them?

For them who are on the stage, I guess I would like to say is probably, “Do show us more of what you got”? I purely hope to be able to continue watching on. Everyone have been working very hard, so I hope I can sing and play along with them more.

 Q: At this point to Hata-sensei, what is “Love Live! Sunshine!!” and what is “Aqours”?

I guess it’s something like “an innocence that’s on the verge of being forgotten”? Looking at Aqours, I became aware that being innocent isn’t embarrassing at all. Although right now, as an adult there are things you wish to conceal, but looking at them I do feel that, showing that side wouldn’t be wrong at all.

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Aki Hata’s stories with books

If we’re counting data/information, my monthly intake would be huge. So if I really start sharing, one book wouldn’t be enough. But if it’s a recent one, then Leonardo’s Judas (レオナルドのユダ) by Mayumi Hattori (服部まゆみ) gets my shoujo heart thumping again.

[everythingtimeless]

Historical Hour With Hilary: 1x13

If you’re still catching up from our hiatus, the old installments are here. Meanwhile, Wyatt and Rufus are heading to Hawkins, Indiana Toledo, Ohio in May 1983, era of terrible fashion, big hair, and the Cold War, in an attempt to save Jessica.

The Midwest in 1983 sounds like the opening to your favorite retro-80s-horror show on Netflix, but things were quite a bit stranger than you might think, even without the presence of the Demogorgon (or was it named Ronald Reagan? Stay tuned to find out!) Aside from the seriously questionable fashion, achievements this year included the first cell phone call being placed on October 13, 1983, from Soldier Field in Chicago, with Alexander Graham Bell’s great-grandson picking up in Germany. (AT&T had figured the technology would never get more than a million subscribers, and the researchers spent time wondering if people would actually want to walk down the street on the phone. It was clearly a different time.) A Star Wars movie with the name “Jedi” in the title was doing bank at the box office. Michael Jackson’s legendary Thriller video dropped in December ‘83. When most of us think about the eighties, that’s usually the image that comes to mind: cheesy pop culture, hair metal, spunky kids bicycling around to battle supreme evil, etc. But there was a dark side that should not be overlooked in the wave of childhood nostalgia, has direct relevance to today’s politics, and resulted in a lot more real-world evil than the Upside Down.

1983 was at the height of the Cold War, and it was also the moment that came closest to ending the world than any time since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis -- if not even closer. On September 26, 1983, Stanislav Petrov, a 44-year-old lieutenant colonel in the Red Army, was on observation duty in Moscow, when just after midnight, the warning system lit up with news that nuclear missiles were inbound from the United States. Petrov had less than five minutes to decide if the alert was real and signal the USSR’s missiles to be launched in retaliation. As he later said, “I had a funny feeling in my gut,” and decided -- against Soviet military protocol -- that the warning systems had malfunctioned and to report it as a false alarm, which it was. To say the least, if Petrov had made the opposite decision, most or all of us would not be here today. As noted, this was at the absolute height of U.S.-Soviet tensions, nuclear holocaust was (yet again) barely averted, and yet... here we are today with the American and Russian presidents bragging about their nukes?

Great.

Why were tensions so high, you ask? Well, let’s get to the main body of this entry, otherwise known as “We Burn Down Ronald Reagan and Have a Nice Pee on the Ashes.” Because seriously, you guys. Ronnie Raygun was so terrible. Everything you dislike about the modern American right wing and/or overall political system? All the GOP’s core philosophies and the way in which the 1980s entrenched themselves as the model for the next thirty years? Well, Reagan’s your man. He has been relentlessly mythologized and honored since leaving office -- his status is close to godlike among Republicans, and he’s received plenty of deference and kowtowing from Democrats as well. His 1984 re-election victory was the most overwhelming of all time. In 2005, he beat out Lincoln and MLK Jr. for “Greatest American,” and he’s ranked highly on most lists of presidents. The cultural reverence around him is pervasive and persistent, usually supported by the idea that Reagan "won” the Cold War. (Spoiler alert: He didn’t.) He also had done everything possible to increase it beforehand, not just with his “Evil Empire” rhetoric against the Soviets, but with his constant funding of any group, anywhere in the world, that could call itself anti-communist. Spoiler alert the second: These... were not good people.

The Iran-Contra affair, in which the Reagan administration illegally sold weapons to Iranian terrorists in order to fund right-wing death squads in Central America, is just one thing you should know about the folksy everyman your grandparents (and parents) probably loved, who built his political career on a simple diet of American exceptionalism, inducing people to regard government as the enemy, and the astronomic rise of the religious right as a political force in the early 1980s. This was accurate, insofar as Reagan’s government often was the enemy. “Reagonomics,” or “trickle-down economics” (i.e. give all the money to the rich and it will “trickle down” to the lower classes) wrecked the American middle class and gave big handouts and tax breaks to the rich long before the 2017 GOP and their heinous tax bill came along. Reagan complained about government spending, and then in a few short years, managed to triple the deficit and turn America from the largest international creditor to the largest international debtor:

The fiscal shift in the Reagan years was staggering. In January 1981, when Reagan declared the federal budget to be "out of control," the deficit had reached almost $74 billion, the federal debt $930 billion. Within two years, the deficit was $208 billion. The debt by 1988 totaled $2.6 trillion. In those eight years, the United States moved from being the world's largest international creditor to the largest debtor nation.

Reagan was also responsible for the acceleration of the “War on Drugs,” the policies that massively and disproportionately convicted and incarcerated an entire generation of African-Americans, and aside from his support of constant CIA coups in Central America, promoted the genocide of Mayan Indians. His Executive Order 12333 was what set up the basis for the mass surveillance and information gathering on American citizens (which George W. Bush later amended and re-issued). He was dubbed the “Teflon President,” not as a compliment, because he would basically do whatever illegal shit he wanted and nothing would stick. As this op-ed notes, “Don’t add Reagan’s face to Mount Rushmore.” Because really, he was terrible.

Possibly nowhere is there more blood on Reagan’s hands, however, than in his handling of the AIDS crisis. The disease first appeared around 1980, and for the entirety of his presidency, Reagan never once addressed it publicly. The Center for Disease Control constantly had funding requests turned down, and got more money to fight Legionnaire’s disease (which killed less than 50 people a year) than to fight AIDS, which at its height was infecting 20,000 people a year and was essentially an instant death sentence. As exemplified by the heartbreaking story of Ruth Coker Burks, the “cemetery angel,” it is impossible to overstate the amount of fear and loathing that existed in the American mind around the very idea, and how those diagnosed were often immediately abandoned by their friends and family. Why? Well, the original name for AIDS was GRID (Gay-Related Immune Deficiency) and since it predominantly affected the gay community at first, it was viewed as a disease come to scour those good-for-nothing homosexuals out of existence. And as we have noted, Reagan enjoyed a huge amount of support from white Christian evangelicals, who had mobilized for the first time as a united political force. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 had driven them away from the Democratic Party, but they had not joined the Republicans instead. Not until when, in 1975, the federal government tried to force Bob Jones University, a fundamentalist Christian college in South Carolina, to racially integrate. This moment helped serve as the clarion call for evangelicals to get involved in politics, and vote en masse for Reagan (whose administration argued on Bob Jones’ side at the eventual Supreme Court case in 1983. You can also read more about partisan change and political behavior in evangelicals from 1960-2004. But yep. Racism!)

1983 was the year that HIV, the root cause of AIDS, was identified for the first time, and by the end of Reagan’s presidency, it had killed over 100,000 people. Reagan, however, did and said absolutely nothing about it, in order to keep his religious base of support happy. (This seems like the opportune moment to mention that the human form of the AIDS virus may have been mutated in the late 19th century, in the brutal, filthy colonial regimes in Equatorial Africa, especially those of Worst Person Leopold II of Belgium. Worth restating: Colonialism had a large role in the origin of AIDS as a human disease. It’s all right, you can take all the shots. I’m already doing them.)

So yes. Ronald Reagan was the reason for the creation of the Republican Party’s entire modern platform, and is what made the Orange Führer possible. America is still damaged and disadvantaged to this day by policies that his administration enacted, and his GOP successors reinforced. However, ask just about any politician of either party, and they’ll have nothing but praise for the Gipper.

Say, Wyatt and Rufus, you guys have any more drinks from that bar...?

Next time: Paris in 1927 with Ernest Hemingway, as well as Chicago 1931 with Al Capone, and D.C. 1954 with Joe McCarthy. Cheery!