#and getting pissed off that we don't agree with you

[nerves-nebula]

this gonna be a bitchy post lacking in nuance but who cares. im annoyed.

child predators and abusers will use literally whatever is most effective to groom someone, that's kind of the whole fuckin point. pointing out that they can use certain media to groom kids is like pointing out that you can drink liquids. like yea you sure can. you can groom a kid through their interest in sesame street. you can groom a kid with adventure time. you can twist even the most harmless story book with a Nice Upstanding Moral at the end into whatever you want.

when i was in high school I basically fell in love with any teacher that gave me food cuz i was fucking starving and that's a way more effective way to gain my trust than like, idk, sketchy fandom porn. (which i also loved as a kid/teen but I never really talked to people online or in person about it cuz i didnt wanna get adults in trouble!) and if someone online was weird to me back then i just ghosted them cuz i didn't have to exist in meat space with them if they made me uncomfortable.

anyway back to my point: should we ban granola bars cuz they were a way to fast-track the trust of food insecure kids? the way some of y'all talk about abuse, and grooming in specific is so frustrating, like, what are you fuckin talking about. grooming is a series of actions a person chooses to take to get what they want, it's manipulation, what they use to groom people with is entirely situational and moreover irrelevant.

should we all just sit in 5 x 5 cubes and paint neutral faces on a canvas till we die or should we try to have systems in place to prevent adults from gaining so much control over kids just by being kind of nice to them. and that's not even getting into how censorship literally never works the way you might want it to. it's impossible to create censorship that isn't inherently bigoted and useless because the only people with the power to properly censor are the people with the most power in general. and they do not like the rest of us. and they are also often on the side of abusers, if not abusers themselves!

yall will gives thousands of notes to posts that basically say they want the haze code back cuz you're too dumb and reactionary to think about fucking anything other than "child abuse bad so i guess i agree." then go patting yourselves on the back without having helped a single child.

yall love to feel vindicated more than you care about victims. don't act like anything you do is for the survivors if your focus is always on retribution or censorship against the abusers. you don't care about us. you don't remember we even exist half the time. none of you have looked into what actually helps us, none of you internalize our complicated feelings, none of you are willing to ease up on your christian ideas of sex and sexuality unless we explain our entire traumatic backstories to you. and then you say we're broken and need help, as if what we don't really need is for you to back us up or leave us the fuck alone.

none of you care. you just wanna find acceptable targets for your anger so you can feel good about destroying the Bad Person. dont piss me off

[ladykailitha]

The Hellfire Exotic Club Part 6

Hey guys! I'm going to try something a little different with this one to see if it will help get more people looking it at. And that's only have the 18+ label on chapters that actually show nudity and stripping and not on the chapters that don't. See if that's why this one hasn't been getting the same love as the others.

In this chapter we have the ultimate bitch off, Eddie calling in the cavalry, and Chrissy gets targeted.

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5

~

Leviathan and Dagon gave Steve a wide berth after that. Which honestly was for the best. Most of the dancers he got along with or at least tolerated enough to get the job done. He wasn’t there to make friends. He didn’t want enemies per se, but he sure as hell wasn’t going to go home and dry in his pillow over a couple of backup dancers with delusions of grandeur.

If anything he was pissed at their blatant lack of respect for Eddie. Like, hate on him, he didn’t care, but he thought everyone liked Eddie.

He walked into the dressing room to get ready for his pas de trois with Eddie and Chrissy when he found Chrissy crying.

“Hey what happened?” he asked, running over to her. She held up her white leotard she had been using for the dance until Ellie got their color change ones made. It was slashed.

“Try it on and see if it’s still wearable,” Steve muttered, “I’m going to see if something happened to mine, too.”

She nodded, wiping at her face even though the tears were still flowing. He pulled out his white leotard and sighed in relief. His was fine. But whether by design or by fluke that they got Chrissy’s costume, he knew this was a warning for him.

He quickly got dressed and then turned around to see Chrissy barely holding the pieces together.

“Let me see,” he asked tenderly. She sniffled and let her hands drop. The damage wasn’t too bad, just three lines across the middle. Like an animal had sliced her. He ran his tongue slowly over his lips as an idea formed in his head.

Steve grabbed Chrissy’s hand and dragged her over to the long mirror. “It looks badass, Chris. And I’ve got a way to make it even more so.”

Chrissy eyed him warily in the mirror. “I don’t know, Steve. Maybe I shouldn’t go out there.”

Steve gave her the biggest hug from behind. “I won’t make you do anything you don’t want to do, sweetie. But will you listen to my idea?”

Chrissy nodded and Steve told her all about it. She tapped her finger on her lips thoughtfully. “Lilith is the mother of monsters...”

“Hell yeah, she is,” Steve grinned at her through the mirror. “It’ll be super sexy, too.”

She turned around and smiled back at him. “All right, let’s do this.”

Steve jumped up and down gleefully. “You won’t regret this, I promise.”

So they started the dance with Chrissy wearing a length of green fabric over her leotard like a toga. Then when she fell to become Lilith Eddie ripped away the cloth revealing the scratch-like cuts across her chest, showing hints of her breasts and belly. She landed on her hands and growled at the audience. And the money flew like leaves in autumn.

She did the splits and rose to her feet, as smooth as silk. She continued the dance like that growling and making herself as loud and as monstrous as possible. Look, even Steve couldn’t deny it was sexy as fuck and the crowd agreed with him.

Once everything had been cleaned up and everyone given their cut of the night’s take, Eddie sat down with Chrissy and Steve.

“Do you think this is a one time frustration at not getting the role of Envy,” Eddie asked, “or the start of a vicious series of attacks that are only going to ramp up?”

“What I want to know,” Chrissy said, “was if it’s about Steve, why go after me? Wouldn’t they be going after Steve if they were jealous of him and not me?”

Steve shook his head. “I don’t think so. I think they’re being clever. If they attack my dance partner or do things that make me look bad, but not directed at me then they have plausible deniability. ‘Oh it couldn’t have been me’,” he mimicked, mock clutching at invisible pearls, “‘I only hate Steve I love Chrissy, I would never do anything to her.’”

Chrissy laughed. “Yeah, okay. I get it. So whoever did was being sneaky. But we still don’t know if they’re going to continue or make it a thing.”

“We’ll keep the clothes from Elle in my closet,” Eddie said, nodding. “That way they don’t get ruined.” He stood up and walked over the door to said closet. “Speaking of which,” he continued talking, over his shoulder, “Elle dropped off Steve’s Envy costume so that it fits. It will probably be a couple more weeks until the final costumes are done.”

He tossed it at Steve, who caught it deftly. “Try it on. Make sure it fits. It should, Elle is very good at what she does.”

Steve stripped down quickly and pulled the costume on. It fit like a glove. He did a slow turn around to show it off. Both Eddie and Chrissy wolf whistled their approval.

“Bend, twist,” Eddie said, “make sure you can move around and dance in it. It looking pretty is only a part of the equation.”

So Steve did some of the more complicated parts of his tease. Like the splits and spins. Then he removed each piece as he continued his dance; each piece coming off with ease. Once he was naked again, he got dressed in his street clothes.

“I’d say it’s a hit,” Chrissy said, smirking at Eddie’s slack jawed awe. Eddie’s mouth closed with a snap and he gulped.

“Yeah.”

Steve smirked and flopped back down on the chair. “So we’ll keep all of both Chrissy and my costumes here and hope that will keep the fly monkey at bay.”

“My bet is on it being Danny,” she said, sitting on the chair in front of Eddie’s desk. “She’s just the sort. I don’t think for all of Levi’s bluster that he would go that far.”

Eddie wasn’t so sure. This seemed like something else. Something bigger than some petty feud between dancers. This sounded more like someone with something to prove. He had two suspects, but he was going to keep that himself. For now.

He listened as Steve and Chrissy went back and forth about who they thought it could and if it wasn’t about Steve, then why they might target Chrissy.

“Babe,” Eddie implored, “you should just come out. To the troupe at least. I think that would help cut down on the jealousy if they knew you weren’t sleeping with the owner.”

Chrissy huffed out an annoyed sigh. “I know. But the thing is that if you were gay and not bisexual, they wouldn’t be making the same allegations against Jeff or Gareth, or hell, even Steve. But because I’m a woman the only reason I’m head choreographer is because I slept my way into the job.”

“Would it help if I came out too?” Steve asked, oblivious to the bomb that just went off in that office. “If we both come out as gay, maybe they’d leave you alone.”

Eddie’s friends might tease him about hitting it with Steve to least get out the pent up tension, but that’s all it was; teasing. But now with Steve basically removing the last real block to fucking him, now it was about to get serious and persistent.

Chrissy thought about it for a moment or two and then nodded. “It could even be informal like, a play argument and we call each other out?”

“We could do that, sure,” Steve said with a smile. “Whatever makes you comfortable. Hell, if ti’s okay with her, maybe Robin could join in. I know people have been asking around if we’re dating. Which if they really wanted know they could just ask. But dancers are the worst gossip hounds.”

Eddie snorted. That was certainly true. “The fruity four,” he said with a smile. Steve tilted his head to the side curiously. “I’m bi, sweetheart. Remember, Chrissy said earlier.”

Steve blinked at him for a moment and then smacked his head. “Oh my god! Yeah of course. I was just so focused on making sure she was okay that it must have slipped right past me!”

He lifted his hand like he was holding up a glass, “To the fruity four!”

Eddie and Chrissy laughed. They both raised mock glasses too. They talked for a little while longer before Chrissy and Steve left.

Eddie put his head in his hands. He had to admit how attractive Steve was. Those long dancer legs, the thick thighs, the hair on the man’s chest. The moles. The honey colored hair and hazel eyes. His Envy was his walking wet dream. He didn’t know how he was going to survive having this angel tempting him away from hell.

He licked his lips. Maybe he needed that vacation after all.

~

“Of course I want to see you, Ed,” Wayne said, “I just worry about what brought this on? You having trouble? Because if you’re having trouble, I’ll come to you. You know I will.”

“I’m just feeling a bit thin on the ground right now,” Eddie admitted shyly. “There’s trouble with the dancers, I haven’t had a break in five years, and I’m missing home.”

“Dancers are always gonna be trouble,” Wayne huffed. “It’s in their DNA. If they ain’t gossiping, they’re stirring up drama. I’ll tell you what, why I don’t come down there and stay a couple weeks, see if I can calm things a bit.”

Eddie let out a shuddering breath. “Yes, please. I know that it could possibly make things worse with them not trusting my authority, but god, I don’t know how you did this on your own for so long.”

Wayne snorted. “I did it because I was debt, son. Once you took over, and it started making money, good money even, I knew it was time throw in the towel. You had a better head for business then I ever did.”

“You’re just saying that to make me feel better.”

“Maybe,” Wayne said with a smile, “doesn’t change the fact that it’s still true. I’ll pack my things tonight and call Doris to water my plants, I’ll be down first thing in the morning.”

“Thanks, Uncle,” he murmured and they rang off. He put the phone back down in its cradle with a sigh.

Eddie stretched out his limbs until he could feel his spine pop.

Fuck.

Peaking at thirty is such bullshit. He wanted to speak to the manager, he wanted a full refund and a new body, please and thank you.

He got up to go see how his drama queens were doing. He didn’t like leaving them alone for too long because the shit they were capable of stirring up in the shortest amount of time was unfathomable.

When he got there he realized what he just stumbled into when he saw two of his favorite people standing in the center of the stage squaring off against each other.

“God,” Chrissy huffed, “are all ballerinas such queens?”

The rest of the troupe gasped, but before anyone could say anything, Steve put one hand on his hip and popped it.

“Better a queen then beanflicker, darling.”

“Fairy!” Chrissy shot back.

“Beaver eater!” was Steve’s returning salvo. Eddie snickered at that one.

“Shirt lifter!” Chrissy huffed, putting both hands on her hips.

“Boondagger!” Steve bit back, mirroring her pose. The whole troupe was silent. The wait staff had gathered to see what the ever loving fuck was going on.

Eddie sidled up to Jeff as Chrissy shot out “Pillow biter!”

“So what started this?” he whispered, leaning over so they didn’t disturb the hilarious scene in front of them.

“Vagetarian!” Steve spat.

“Steve told Chrissy her turn wasn’t tight enough,” Jeff whispered back, “and that if she tried that with other dancers on the stage she was going to hit one.”

Eddie nodded sagely; a nitpicky thing that would be great starter to their faux argument. He settled down to watch the show, making sure not to look at Robin was nearly doubled over in laughter, turning almost purple from lack of breath.

Chrissy’s shocked face at the most recent insult was hilarious. “Sausage jockey!”

Steve raised a singular bitchy eyebrow. And Eddie knew that this was the finisher. The one Steve had been holding onto the whole fight.

“Dick dodger.”

Chrissy blinked at him for a moment and then burst out laughing. “Okay, God. You win. You’re such a Mary.”

“Back at ‘atcha, lezzie,” he said with a smile. “Plus, I already have an annoying lesbian to deal with, I don’t need two.”

Robin finally took a breath as she gasped in rage. “Hey!”

Steve burst out laughing, hopping off the stage to kiss her cheek. “You love my gay ass, and you know it.”

Jeff waved his fingers between the three of them. “Wait, wait, wait...” he said with a grin. “Are all three of you gay? Like I knew about Chrissy, but damn, Ed.” He turned to Eddie and shook his head. “Really dialing it in on the diversity hires there.”

Eddie burst out laughing while the other three just grinned back.

“Yeah,” Steve said, “Robin and I are ‘Platonic Soulmates’ with a capital P. Just a couple of queers trying to make it through.”

Chrissy bumped her shoulder into Steve’s. “Same with me and Eddie. It was a little harder for me to come out because my family is ultra conservative and my ex is one of those annoying street preachers you see on YouTube harassing poor unsuspecting people on the street.”

“And I will kick his ass the next time I see him, too,” Eddie said with a fond smile.

“Wait,” Levi said, “you’re telling me that not only are Steve and Robin not a couple, neither is Eddie and Chrissy?”

“Nope!” Robin said with a shit eating grin. “Not even a little.”

The unasked question of then why was Chrissy made head choreographer then, hung in the air.

Gareth chuckled darkly. “Hey, Chris. How long were you in cheer and gymnastics?”

“I’m older than I look,” she replied with a wink. “Let’s just say I started gymnastics at ten and cheer at fifteen. Then I took jazz dance in college for a bit of kick as an elective. All those things are choreographed. Then right after college, I got hired here by Wayne to be lead choreographer. I applied just like everyone else. Did Eddie suggest I apply? Sure, but I got this job because I’m good. The only leg spreading I do is on stage.”

Steve and Robin clapped.

Chrissy took a bow.

Eddie smirked as there were some muttering from the dancers. “All right, we’ve had the preview, now it’s time practice the main attraction!”

Everyone got into position. Eddie caught Steve’s eye and mouthed, ‘Thank you.’

Steve just winked and go into the groove, let the music wash over him as Eddie watched. His heart beating faster over this ridiculous man and his fucking heart of gold.

He was in so much trouble.

~

Tag List: CLOSED!

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2- @gregre369 ​@a-little-unsteddie @chaosgremlinmunson @messrs-weasley @cryptid-system

3- @maya-custodios-dionach @goodolefashionedloverboi @val-from-lawrence @carlyv @wonderland-girl143-blog

4- @justforthedead89 @irregular-child @bookbinderbitch @bookworm0690 @forgottenkanji

5- @anne-bennett-cosplayer @yikes-a-bee @awkwardgravity1 @littlewildflowerkitten @genderless-spoon

6- @dragonmama76 @ellietheasexylibrarian @thedragonsaunt @useless-nb-bisexual @disrespectedgoatman

7- @counting-dollars-counting-stars @tinyplanet95 @ravenfrog @swimmingbirdrunningrock @lingeringmirth

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9- @dreamercec @sadisticaltarts @too-much-tma-stuff @dolphincliffs @chameleonhair

10- @themoonagainstmers @gloomysoup @novelnovella @micheledawn1975 @garden-of-gay

[hellaarknight]

Spacing out

⚜️⚜️⚜️⚜️⚜️⚜️⚜️⚜️⚜️⚜️⚜️⚜️⚜️⚜️⚜️⚜️⚜️⚜️⚜️⚜️⚜️⚜️⚜️⚜️⚜️⚜️⚜️

Genre : fluff. Warnings: swearing

⚜️⚜️⚜️⚜️⚜️⚜️⚜️⚜️⚜️⚜️⚜️⚜️⚜️⚜️⚜️⚜️⚜️⚜️⚜️⚜️⚜️⚜️⚜️⚜️⚜️⚜️⚜️

"What about this one?"

"What about him?"

"Oh, c'mon Ichigo, I need your honest opinion"

Ichigo rolled his eyes. This all help Y/N choose a guy to date was pissing him off. Orihime had the brilliant idea to help each other date because with all the problems caused by the Soul Society, none of them had a proper dating life. It wasn't a really horrible idea in the end if not for the fact that they started with you. All grouped in Ichigo's room and looking at different photos of guys from highschool, or friends of a friend. Why did he agree to this? He couldn't remember.

"Orihime, that guy is not Y/N's style." Rukia chimed in with a smug smile on her face.

"Oh yeah, and what's her style? Right, Y/N what boys do you like? More handsome or less handsome? Tall or short or...?" Orihime started her list while you were deep in thought.

Ichigo wanted so badly to have a piece of your mind. He noticed you spaced out about ten minutes ago, 'bout the time Orihime scattered the guys photos on the floor.

"I think she likes strong guys, maybe a bit old like Urahara or Ukitake" Yoruichi just wanted to mess with Ichigo, she's seen the way he looked at her, the way she always was his priority in all events and circumstances.

Ichigo choked on his water. "I don't remember inviting you over, Yoruichi". His tone was almost menacing, so she was definitely rilling him up. "I don't need to be invited, as it is about Y/N, our beloved, very, much adored by both Kisuke and Ukitake who entrusted me to protect her. Am I wrong or you also asked me to keep an eye on her?"

"That's just because..." Ichigo mumbled some words, awkwardly scratching his cheek. "Listen, I don't need to explain my reasons to you!"

"Rukia, if I remember correctly, didn't your brother also tell you to take care of her?" Chad asked.

"Now that you mentioned it, him and Renji, both told me to keep an eye on her."

Ichigo put his hands into his hair, pulling at it. Urahara, Ukitake, Renji and now even Byakuya?? How was he supposed to compete with them? Then what about the guy you'll choose to go on a date with? He spared you a glance and somehow you were still blissfully unaware of the commotion going on around yourself. His lips curled into a smile. You didn't seem very interested in all this dating thing and for some reason he felt relieved. He liked you and wanted just the best for you. He... He liked you. It downed on him as he saw you smiling to yourself while looking at the framed picture of your group that he had on his nightstand. He wanted to keep that smile on your lips forever. Ichigo realized that all this was bothering him because of his own feelings. His ears started to become red as he was getting flustered by all the feelings that were pouring out of his heart towards his mind.

"Guys, why don't we ask Y/N about who she would like to go on a date with, hm?" As usual, Ishida was the most rational person in that room. They all turned around to face you, but you were too deep in thought to realize, until Rukya's voice reached you.

"Hmm?" You turn your head towards her.

"I asked you who you'd like to go on a date with?"

"Ichigo, obviously, what a dumb question Rukya."

You answered nonchalantly like it was the most normal thing in the world. Until you came to your senses and started to perceive all eyes in the room fixated on you. Then you remembered where you were and what was the purpose of your reunion. Your eyes met Ichigo's wide eyes and red face while you gasped audibly.

"Fuck, I forgot we're all here!"

[bambisspeckles]

Scary Movies ✿ Flufftober Day Three -- Johnny

Summary: Johnny tricks you into a scary movie marathon! WC: 611 <3 Song of the day: Schizophrenic Playboy ❁ The Cranberries

"Awe c'mon hen, dinnae be mad at me!" Johnny chuckles meanly at you and you scowl in response.

Your boyfriend, though adorning him the title of ex boyfriend is tempting, has tricked you with an elaborate and cruel plan. A few days ago, in the early morning of the day, so early in fact the sun hadn't even risen, you had received a text from your boyfriend while he was out in the middle of god only knows where.

It read: "Deployment is finishin' up, be back in a few days. Hope to see you at mine when I'm back ;))"

The winky faces at the end of his message led you to believe you were in for a long night of being wined and dined, that however, was not the case. The night he messaged you that he was back at home, you dolled yourself up real nicely for him. Hair and makeup did, a nice little dress he bought for you, and undergarments that are much to cheap for the price you paid. All that for him to open up the door dressed in plaid pajama pants and a "Friday the 13th" t-shirt.

You think you have every right to be mad.

"Well don' ye look bonnie? Didnae have tae dress up for me, jus' doin' a movie marathon tonight." A smirk grows on his face as his eyes scan up and down your body.

Movie marathon? Movie marathon? Well now you're just completely and utterly pissed.

"Johnny you asshole! You fucking tricked me." You stomp your foot petulantly, brows furrowing as you stare daggers into him.

"Wha' do ya mean hen? Didnae trick you." He feigns innocence, but he barely even tries to hide it as he fails to suppress a sly smirk that grows on his face.

"You know exactly what you did! With your suggestive ass message and-" You squeal as Johnny grabs you by the waist and pulls you into his apartment.

"Relax love, nae reason to get yourself worked up?" He chuckles at his wording and that only makes you more upset.

"You're so mean." You pout, crossing your arms over your chest as Johnny rubs his hands along your hips and waist.

Finally he relents, pressing a few soft 'apology' kisses to your lips before pulling away.

"Alright, alright. M' sorry I tricked ye hen, but you wouldn' have come if I told ye I wanted tae watch a bunch of scary movies with ye!" When you don't respond, he resolves to press a few lingering kisses to your neck which causes you to grumble.

"Johnny stop…" You whine at him softly. "I hate scary movies you know that!"

"Exactly why I had to trick ye! Promise tha' if you watch a few movies with me I'll take care of ye real nice later, yeah?" You murmur noncommittally in response and it's Johnny's turn to grumble at you.

"Pretty please lass? Ye can go get changed into some of my clothes, we'll watch a few movies and then we can do whatever ye want…" Your body relaxes and you sigh, finally acquiescing.

"Fine." His face positively lights up when you agree.

"Such a sweet thing to me hen." He places eager kisses all over your face and you melt a bit, the frustration he initially caused rolling off of you.

He eventually pulls away with one final kiss before sending you off to his bedroom to change. When you finally reappear, you see him sitting all cozied on the couch, snacks littering his coffee table, and a large stack of classic Halloween movies on VHS.

Seems you're in for a long night.

[my-pjo-stuff]

This is mainly a Luke Castellan blog, but also a TA blog… so I’m just going to share my thoughts about how underutilised Chris is because despite Luke being my favourite I find the character Chris could be is fun to think about.

Chris was only claimed after the war, and I don't know if its ever mentioned beforehand that he knew he was Hermes' son since some unclaimed (mainly of minor gods) do seem to know who their parent is without being claimed. But running off the assumption he didn't? He was inside Hermes' cabin the entire time, you'd think the guy would atleast have the decency to claim his kids so they're treated better in his own cabin, like surely his children being treated as guests would atleast be some sort of insult towards him but I guess I expected too much for a guy like him even if the bar was already in hell. He doesn’t even get to move cabins like he’d maybe imagined after being claimed because he’s always been inside his cabin, he just never realised it. Luke, the guy who most likely recruited him to the TA, has been his brother this entire time and he just didn’t know. I wouldn’t blame him if after the war he left camp as fast as possible, if it just wasn’t about leaving camp but leaving behind that cabin that seems to just remind and taunt him of the fact that his father didn’t want to claim him until he was forced to, of the siblings and life he could’ve had.

Also the entire execution of demigods in the titans army, if he knew about it? (Because I think it seems like the gods are keeping it hush-hush? And the other demigods just think they’ve gone into hiding after losing? Looks like it from what I’ve seen anyway but I’m not caught up on the newest books…) Imagine watching people you fought alongside with, most likely were atleast friends with some of them just be slaughtered and know the only reason you’re not right there dying with them is just because you got lucky and decided to switch sides. Because who’d save Chris if he was standing infront of the Olympians as their enemy? Certainly not the guy who forgot or didn’t care enough to claim him. Do you think he ever sometimes wishes that he hadn’t betrayed the TA? Sure, he wouldn’t have changed who won the war, but would it have been better to die for the cause, knowing he atleast pissed off the gods than to have to watch while they don’t even try to change?

Point being I think Chris is a character who has a lot of potential but nothing is done with him and I also think that after the war he (along with all of Hermes’ children tbh) should’ve been allowed to punch his pathetic excuse of a father in the face. (Luke was Hermes’ favourite, his so called pride and joy, and if Hermes treated his favourite child so badly… what does that say about how he treats the rest?)

Not going to lie, considering he was BARELY there for Luke he props was a complete no-show for his kids. As for Chris, I honestly agree. We have nothing on him and his only function really is just "Clarisse loveintrest". Which, ngl- came outta nowhere if we are all honest. Personally, I would like to know why he switched sides in the first place. I mean you can assume it had something to do with going mad and being cured- but it's still relatively little. Chris was with Luke and the TA from the beginning, you'd expect him to hold some sort of grudge. Alas, Rick doesn't like fleshing him out ig T-T

[traumacodedtransbitch]

people were so obsessed about feeling like they were supporting abuse victims/survivors from last year but I have yet to see further support for us that resulted from that abomination and doing the same dogpiling for actual abusers like Kevin Spacey and Woody Allen

[swinging-stars-from-satellites]

with a few minutes' reflection and a second conversation with my parents I have realized that I may have overblown things and overreacted a bit and also in some ways they're correct even if I think they're also harsh about it

[scribblingface]

I went into bg3 fully ready to have a good time and have done so despite many ways in which the game is not good and have not worried too much over various dramas about patch changes but my chill streak has finally ended and I am wailing gnashing my teeth etc. about patch 7 (the supposedly final one with story/content changes) not adding companion reactivity for any of the durge content in act 2

[watermelinoe]

Thank you for standing up for bi women. I was getting very frustrated seeing all those horrible misogynistic (and yes, biphobic!) posts and then seeing radfems who I follow and thought were normal being totally ok with it?? Like there’s one blog (theodysseyalice, cause I don’t care about naming names) who’s entire blog is pretty much dedicated to hating bi women. Laughing at the idea of bi women getting raped, calling all bi women rapists etc. It’s unhinged. And there are other “reasonable” radfems reblogging from her and making excuses for her and saying “oh well her opinions must come from trauma, some evil bi woman must have hurt her for her to act this way so I don’t mind”. Or when I ask for clarification on their stance it’s a lukewarm “I don’t approve of her language but I have sympathy for where she’s coming from” or some absolute shit. Imagine if some bi woman had an entire blog dedicated to hating on lesbians!! Oh my god!! There would be a nuclear meltdown and if you, as another bi woman, didn’t prostrate yourself before the lesbians in apology for the actions of another you would be just as bad. THEN it’s “why are bi women in general like this”.

I’ve tried to speak about my experiences dating as a bi woman before, and how I’ve been treated badly by lesbians specifically because I’m bi. I’ve had the “you’re going to cheat on me with a man or another woman because you must be a greedy whore” shit, the jealously policing my friendships with EITHER sex. I’ve had the dismissal of my sexual trauma. I’ve had past lesbian partners call me a whore and a cocksucker for dating a man AFTER she broke up with me! Like months after! SO many lesbians want to date bi women but want us to functionally be lesbians? And think they have the right to control who we date AFTER them??? I’ve had partners who would get upset when I would mention I was bi in public because they were insecure and wanted people to think we were both lesbian. And then, god forbid, if I were to go along with it I’d be a heinous bitch pretending to be a lesbian and hurting the whole lesbian community or whatever.

And some lesbians, upon hearing these experiences, will say “hur durr just date men then!” Like oh my god! I don’t WANT to date men!! Aren’t you the same people ALWAYS telling bi women they are stupid for dating men?? The whole faux innocent “oh well I’m just warning her about men and how if she decides to date one and gets assaulted it’s her fault. Cause she chose to date him”. Or “just date other bi women then!” Funny thing is, real life isn’t like swiping on a dating app where you can control for all these qualities. It’s SO hard to find women to date as a woman to begin with. I’m not gonna meet a woman in a gay bar and really mesh with her and go “wait wait. Before we go any further… are you a lesbian?? I don’t date those. I’ll only date you if you’re also into cock”. These people are honestly terminally online and probably haven’t had a relationship in real life.

And that’s from WOMEN. This is on top of the shit I get from men! But when I talk about this on radblr all I get are lesbians going “well bi women actually oppress lesbians so.” “Well you’re actually not systematically oppressed for being bi so”. Shut the fuck up basically.

Like yeah? Ok? I’m not systematically oppressed by lesbians or whatever? Like, yeah, I know? Why can’t we have a conversation where I say “there’s a common problem with how some members of this community treat members of another community” without it being dissected on some axis of oppression feminist theory shit? It’s always “well lesbians have it so much worse so you can’t complain about lesbians” despite bi women being the demographic that statistically experiences the highest level of sexual assault and intimate partner violence. SURELY we are allowed to talk about that then?? It drives me insane. Not to mention the fact that obviously we DO experience homophobia as well. I am treated no differently publicly being in a same sex relationship than my lesbian girlfriend would be. To listen to some of these people bi women are the most privileged spoiled demographic ever and society doesn’t hate us in the slightest. Biphobia doesn’t exist at all (ignore the entire Amber Heard trial where half of the lies the media made up about her were about her being some kind of sexual degenerate, about her being a madam at a lesbian sex club, about her “abusing” her ex-girlfriend despite the girlfriend coming out and saying it was a load of shit. Johnny Depp called her slurs and wouldn’t let her have female OR male friends cause he was so jealous and paranoid).

Sorry for the really long ask. I feel like nobody is addressing this stuff cause we don’t really have a sense of community on here. Most other bi women I come across on radblr do the self deprecation thing and constant apologising to lesbians and dragging other bi women down. So we know they’re the “good ones”. We don’t stand up for each other and I don’t know why.

let it out sis!!! this is a safe space for bi women who don't self-flagellate <3 i'm not interested in doing this bisexual penance shit that radblr loves and you shouldn't either. we're accountable for our own shit and only our own shit. don't kowtow for so long that you start letting anyone pile any random shit onto your back and claim that's now your problem, too.

[giftedpoison]

No I ranted about this in the tags of some random post I reblogged a little bit ago but I need to talk about this person and the absolute boldest that I experienced from them in the same hang out (I only hang out with them in group settings)

So first we got this Jennifer's Body bs.

(rant under cut)

I was talking about how I had seen the movie Ginger Snaps recently for the first time and I really enjoyed it and that it is very much similar to Jennifer's Body because of the themes of around girlhood and coming of age to then be objectified and taken advantage of by other boys and wanting that control back.

(Granted all I said was it's similar to Jennifer's Body before they jumped in and went: I don't like Jennifer's Body.)

And like I'm usually pretty open minded and also I was just so stunned I asked why.

And they say to me "Yeah the comphet storyline is just done poorly in my opinion and was really misogynistic"

And then when I tried to disagree with him he cut me off and told me it's fine we can disagree. We all have our opinions. MEN. I swear to God. (I should clarify they are 19 so that means that they are still learning but I just don't like the way he approaches it at all and its like he doesn't care about learning about the stuff he says that may be offensive or wrong) And then LATER

I'm talking about how I'm sad I have to wait for the second book in the series to become available at the library when I'm almost finished with the first book.

he goes "the way you won't just pirate the book" (which is actually incredibly difficult to do but they don't even read, they only read manga, so they wouldn't know that but that's beside the point.) BUT imagine telling someone who you know is a writer and wants to be an author one day that they should just pirate the book and then get confused why there are moral reasons I don't??? Like that's my community.

And then he didn't get how borrowing from a library is different than pirating. Which fair not a lot of people get but when I said the library forms a contract with the publishing company to have access to the ebook of a book for a set period of time (which they pay for) and if no one checks out the book they will just not renew the contract or a lot of people check out the book they'll renew and potentially buy more copies of the book

they still didn't get it. and just went I don't understand. And then I tried explaining it again and they eventually said ah I just pirate all my manga.

as if theres not an entirely different culture surrounding that type of media and it's also harder to find manga in libraries in america in the first place. (so while I wouldn't promote just reading free copies online of manga if you can help it - i also wouldn't tell you you are absolutely horrid person for it.)

[gingerbreadmonsters]

if my main goal was to get into arguments about people who aren't real, and explain for the millionth time that reading comprehension and critical thinking are actually useful skills that you should know, you do realise that i just wouldn't bother with the whole writing thing, right?

[doodlemancy]

Hey, so, Patreon is lying to you about Apple forcing their hand.

Patreon is getting rid of 1st-of-the-month/per-creation billing, claiming a new decision by Apple has forced their hand. This will hurt a lot of creatives, and their excuse is bullshit. Allow me to explain.

In 2018, Patreon tried to impose a new ill-considered fee structure on everyone that would have cost creators a lot of smaller pledges. They ended up apologizing for this profusely; they have now deleted this apology from their website and unfortunately I was unable to find it on the Internet Archive. This was shameful, but to their credit they backed off quickly when things got ugly.

Back in 2021, Patreon discussed plans to force all creators into a rolling bill structure and get rid of first-of-the-month/pay-up-front billing. The community once again very decisively shouted them down, and they had to walk it back again. This whole fiasco damaged the already shaky trust between Patreon creators and staff.

This week, Patreon announced that, along with extra fees, Apple's policies were supposedly forcing them to move everyone over to the rolling fee structure that they first tried to get us to agree to in 2021. Patreon will tell you they are not happy about this. As a person who spent a long time watching Patreon make terrible decisions, I can tell you-- they are probably very happy about this, because it's exactly the smokescreen they needed to do what they've been trying to do for years, which is pull ALL Patreon creators away from 1st-of-the-month and per-creation billing.

The spin in the news I've seen so far is "Apple bullies Patreon, boo hoo hoo poor Patreon". This is very obviously not what's happening. Mind you: Apple does suck, and they are doing something bad here. Fuck apple. But Patreon and Apple are BOTH the asshole in this situation; Everyone Sucks Here. Patreon has options: they can make the iOS app a reader app and do billing through the browser to avoid the restrictions and the extra fees (Netflix and Amazon, notably, both do this), or they can allow creators to opt-out of iOS billing if they want to use billing models that don't work with it.

It seems most likely to me that the Apple situation is a real fire that Patreon has chosen to use as a convenient smokescreen to do what they've been wanting to do since at least 2021, and maybe since 2018.

What do we do?:

They have a feedback form specifically about this.

They also have a creator discord.

And they have lots of social media pages where they probably really, really hope that this doesn't blow up again, because they never learn. The incidents I've described here aren't the only two other times Patreon has pissed off their creators. They know if they don't contain the noise it'll be harder to get away with it, so make some noise. They've done a lot of work to spin this cleverly so you'll have sympathy for them and they won't get the kind of backlash they know they deserve.

Please don't misuse these links and make threats or spam or something. All you have to do is give well-reasoned feedback. Patreon hates feedback. Make sure they get a nice heaping helping of their least favorite vegetable.

[aizenat]

There is this girl I went to hs with and the nicest way I can say this is this girl was smart but not particularly so, and had a high sense of self despite being remarkably average. Again, that's the nicest way I can say that. She also got very triggered whenever I was better at her than something (in all fairness, she was like that with anyone better than her, but my friend caught her shit talking me once when I was the only person in my English class to get an A on my Catcher in the Rye essay--something I expected simply because I'm a writer, was then, and I never once got anything less than A on an essay my entire hs career--and that pissed me off particularly because my writing is the ONE thing in this world I can truly say I do better than most people).

Anyway, I learned a while ago that she moved to Boston, and she was associated with Harvard in some way. Without getting too into it, she works there in the weirdest and most random department (not as a professor or anything meaningful or prestigious, which will make sense in a second), doing basically admin shit it seems. I was curious because she's still listed on their site and it says she's been there for like eleven years. I was wondering if she ended up going there as a student in something, but without a linkden or something, I couldn't see. But every time I googled her name and the school, the only thing that came up was her staffing position. No information to indicate she was a student.

Which is funny. I looked up to see if you can go to Harvard for free if you work there, and the do have a reimbursement program, but you'd only get like 75% of fees back, so you'd still have to come out of pocket. And this is an IVY, so that's going to be pretty. And considering what she does, I can't imagine it paying that much where she could easily afford it. Maybe she does take classes and is slowly working her way to some kinda degree, but I doubt it. I feel like she'd at least be able to brag by now given how long she's been there (the site fucking says when she started lol).

Either way, the reason this is funny to me is because she was never even close or talented or impressive enough to anyone let alone college admissions to get into a school like Harvard (I know for a fact she didn't get in in hs lol), and transferring into schools is typically easier, she didn't get her degrees from there according to the site. So I just lowkey find it funny because the closest she'd ever get to Harvard is not as a student or even as someone brought in to teach, but by getting some admin job and sticking around long enough to get her picture on the school's site. She looks so proud in her Harvard shirt, thinking she finally "made it" but never in a way that would actually impress everyone.

It just all feels very fitting for her. In the right spaces to be around more impressive people while being overwhelmingly mediocre her own damn self lol.

[sophiamcdougall]

I am never going to complain about Greek Duolingo again

I mean, I am. But still.

So, as some of you know, my family has been coming to this tiny Greek seaside village for several years. Just over a week ago I came out here with my mum, under the impression that early September, after the height of the summer heat, would be a good time to have a holiday. ANYWAY Storm Daniel had other ideas about that. Locally things are improving (I'm actually really pissed off about the disaster-porn tone of most English-language media coverage, but that's another post). The power is back on, there's running water most of the time, and though the latter is not drinkable, a truck from the government came and handled out free bottled water yesterday. But we are currently kind of stuck. Can't do tourist things. Can't go home. There aren't any local flights out until Saturday and the road to Thessaloniki is still closed.

So this evening, feeling kind of aimless and depressed, I go down to the nearest beach with a couple of binbags and start cleaning up in an effort to at least do something positive. I always try to do this at least once out here and obviously, after the storm, there's a lot more plastic and rubbish than usual.

At some point I find this large, round bit of metal - some kind of machinery part, I think -- that's too big for the bag, so I take it to the bins on its own, leaving the rubbish bag on the beach. And when I come back for it, something among the stones beside it moves.

Specifically, it pulls its head sharply inside its shell

So, meanwhile I've been trying to learn some Greek with the help of Duolingo.

I currently have a 33-day streak and... I have questions. Shouldn't I be able to use the past or future tenses by now? Shouldn't I be able to say "x is like y"? I can't do those things. But one thing I absolutely can say all day long is έχω μια χελώνα : I have a turtle.

This is far from the limit of Duolingo Greek's turtle-related content. "An obsession with turtles" is my mother's characterisation. I can inform you that the turtle is not a bird, and, improbably, that the turtle is drinking milk. I can introduce you to a turtle in company with a horse and an elephant. As far as Duolingo is concerned, it really is turtles all the way down.

Now this, you may be able to see, is not a turtle. It has claws rather than flippers. It is a tortoise. I know there are wild tortoises in Greece: my aunt once rescued a pair of them shagging in the middle of the road -- but that was up in the mountains. I've even seen one myself, but it was also on a road and very dead.

I am 95% certain they don't belong on beaches. There's nothing for it to eat, except, unfortunately, a lot of plastic. Even if it gets off the beach it will immediately find itself on a road where it could get hit by a car. I'm pretty sure it must have been washed down by the floodwater and has been just sitting there, dazed, ever since.

Now obviously the first thing I want to do on encountering this unusual animal is to go and tell my mummy, so I do. The tortoise immediately brightens her day. She agrees that the tortoise is not happy on the beach and needs to be taken somewhere safe. it gets surprisingly wriggly when picked up so we put it in a carrier bag with some grapes and cucumber and go looking for somewhere to rehome it.

We find a path leading up between the houses towards a likely-looking field, but before we get very far a dog in a yard goes berserk and a man's head pops over a fence and demands to know what we're doing. He does this in English, as evidently we're just that obviously tourists.

"I found a tortoise on the beach!" I explain. "We want to find somewhere to put it."

"A what," he asks.

"It's like a, you know," I begin and then to my astonishment I find myself saying... "μια χελώνα"

"Oh! A turtle!" he says.

"But from the land. δεν είναι χελώνα", [it is not a turtle,] I say, as I am worried he will tell me to put it back near the sea where I found it. As it turns out it actually IS a χελώνα, Greek does not distinguish between turtles and tortoises, but I don't know that; I can't even name the days of the week or identify any colours other than pink yet, give me a break.

The man's entire demeanour changes and thaws. He does not worry about my turtle-that-is-not-a-turtle conundrum. He knows where οι χελώνες come from and where η χελώνα μας belongs. He leads us through a gate into a courtyard area.

"[somethingsomething] μια χελώνα," he explains to the assembled onlookers, of whom there are, suddenly, a surprising number.

"ΜΙΑ ΧΕΛΩΝΑ!!!" crows the throng of delighted small children, who are, suddenly, everywhere.

"μια χελώνα!" I agree, accepting that at least for current purposes, that is what it is.

"Μπορούμε να δούμε τη χελώνα σας; [can we see your turtle?]" asks an adorable little girl, shyly, and I understand??

The children fucking love looking at the χελώνα and showing it to them is kind of magical?

I finally put the tortoise down on the grass of this wild area off to the side of the courtyard, and marvel aloud that it is weird that I barely know any Greek except how to say μια χελώνα.

"I think she will soon run off," a kind lady called Aspasia assures me, seeing I remain slightly anxious about its fate. "I don't know why I'm saying 'she'. I suppose because χελώνα is feminine in Greek."

"Yes! I know that!" I exclaim, thrilled.

"Well done!" she says. And also she asks if we are OK for drinking water after the storm and if we need any help with anything and is just generally incredibly lovely and now we know more of the neighbours!

So "μια χελώνα" has just become, by a long way, my most-used and most understood and all-around most conversationally successful phrase in Greek. So I guess I have to admit I was wrong to doubt Duolingo's wisdom: it is correct to be obsessed with turtles. And I concede that prior to learning how to count to ten or to distinguish right from left, the simple ability to yell the word TURTLE over and over again is, it turns out, a crucial element of the responsible traveller's social skills.

(I am pretty fluent in Italian and turtles haven't come up in conversation even once?)

[ontargetmadders]

Conte... keep my club's name OUT YOUR FUCKING MOUTH!!!

[kon-konk]

What's the point of a job having an availability option if they're just gonna ignore it?