#anyway no more posts about this i am banning the word from my and everyone else's vocabulary

[foxstens]

i swear this is my last post on this but even if i agreed with the idea that kevin is a coward - obviously i don't - but even if i did, i'd still be annoyed at how it reduces and ignores everything else we know about him.

he is a nervous wreck and an insufferable bitch and a scathing diva and has a drinking problem

he is also beautiful and brilliant and talented and unparalleled and determined and loyal and he has unwavering faith in the people who are worth his attention

those are just a few notable traits. kevin day is a nuanced character so it's time we start treating him accordingly

[satoru786]

⚠ CAUTION ⚠-DON'T USE MINA SUBLIMINAL‼️+ EXPOSING MINA AND OLIVIA

Its my first and last post...i made it cause i just want to warn u all

Ignore errors cause english is not my first language

Stop following anyone blindly

I am not that anon but i think she got some mind bjt she wasted in proving this much

I m not going to type so much cause i m super lazzzzy i am just going to attach some pics if u have mind u will get it i am not going explain everything cause i am not your slave...anyways lets start

I am not going to use word Proof cuz Olivia had already used it so much 🤣🤣.... lets go with confirmations .....

Conformations

1. The profile pic of Olivia account that she claims is of mina *they are same person*

ORIGINAL PIC... DON'T ASK ME HOW I GET IT I M JUST LUCKY 🍀

Its from a girl name @melikesaygin11 on insta

Some of the post of her focus on the face and tatoo in pic 1

I will show u magic... Ready... hope u r not blind

2. As long as i remember Olivia said that she have some million followers on insta i found her account on friday 16 she have less then 50 followers but she deleted her account now but luckily i have taken screen shot of her all post (she claims that she posted her pic) and in the proof provided by her she have posted 88 topics letsssss seeeee......... Wait and watch

The 1st pic in the set is presented by her as proof but she hides her face

These are the major proofs but if u want more i am guiding u..

He mercedes google lens the all the pic u will find that the car is own by girl name laporscha... maybe some spelling is wrong

All her post she claims with mina just focus on the locket and go to the saygin account u will find it

Her nickname is jodie she attached her fb account there

Her subliminals are not safe i am not forcing u can use at ur own risk ur life ur rules

All her proof pic u can find it on tik tok of the saygin i dont find it because it is banned in my country.. Just go for old posts

Maybe i even got the real account(confirm from my side) of Olivia aka mina aka jodie not going to mention it cuz dont want increase the drama... but it have around 4k followers.. Where the hell are other 49996000 followers are..

Some of u be like- Now Olivia is exposed wht about mina?

Hmmm ..good question..

Girl in profile pic and posts are same wht about claims of Olivia

.. And mina agreed with every post of Olivia even reblogged it.. so.. Hope u get it. ITS ALL FAKE..

The question arises why i m doing this...

I am sanatani and its my dharma to guide everyone but to be honest i am least interested to warn u all as the someone has said that“Never wrestle with a pig because you'll both get dirty and the pig likes it."  Positive energy is much more powerful than negative energy. If you stay positive, the negativity can't touch you...

SOME PEOPLE BE LIKE - WHT TO DO NOW?

Just little bit motivation for u all listen VOID is real and i m guarantee this because my religion is oldest and in vedas and upanishads they claims that one who attain shunyata or zero state aka void can manipulate the reality....***Even one of the holy book which is known as SHRIMAD BHAGAVAD-GITA it have divine knowledge given by lord KRISHNA who is the supreme power or almighty himself. If you will read it with perspective of void you will get the hidden message in few lines (***this is not proved cuz its my ideology).

U just have to let go everything

U dont have to listen subliminal or anything else just let go

Just in case If you are reading this i will think my energy is invested in a good place and my hour is not wasted..

Peace out..🕉️

@unicornjoking1111 @luckykiwiii101 dont be sad focus on ur self..

[sirenc0re]

hello, sirenc0re! i come here to ask if you have any RTC character headcanons that you wouldn't mind divulging?

ohhh i have a few! these are somewhat disorganized, i dont think ive really shared these outside of a single reddit comment. anyways:

penny loves boybands ofc (backstreet boys, nsync, obviously 'seven up' before it split) but further than that i think she likes 60s-70s pop too- fleetwood mac, kate bush, the beatles, etc

ezra is the one that's genuinely really into gangsta rap. NWA, tupac, snoop, dr dre... and of course eminem (though he isnt really a gangsta rapper. it's adjacent) i think rap in general is something he likes. though he's like, a smartass. so i think that at least early on he would "like" it the same way he likes penny's boybands (something to mock as the pinnacle of empty and vapid commercialism) before he actually starts appreciating it as art (JK-47 notwithstanding) and not something he has to prove against. so im saying he would genuinely like tribe called quest. it's in my mind. i am manifesting it. as a side note, i jokingly wanted to be like AND HE LISTENS TO MACKLEMOREEEE but im a hard ass and in the timeline that exists in my head it's 2009. and in 2009 mackle had the penis song as the first track of his debut album. make of that what you will

ocean's whole straight-lace schtick is her twisted version of a teenage rebellion against her hippy parents. she also makes herself seem better off than she actually is. im of the firm belief that pretty much everyone in uranium (except perhaps constance's parents and misha's adoptives) is broke. and i think that with her parents lifestyle, ocean would be on the lower end of that spectrum and it's a big insecurity of hers that she tries very hard to project against to varying degrees of success

noel says he was saving up to go to france, but if you looked at his bank account there would be maybe 200~ saved there. most of his wages went to supporting himself and his single mother

post-cyclone au, i think ocean would shift away from politics and become a personal injury attorney

post-cyclone au, ricky becomes a sci-fi erotica author… i like to think he's extremely successful in that particular niche

post-cyclone au, ocean and noel's relationship becomes wayyy less hostile. they still 'fight' but all the venom has been sucked out of their words. one time he tripped her in the hallway inbetween class periods, which prompted her to halfheartedly kick his ankles, which leads to a 'fight' that gets her in trouble in school for the first time in an actual decade (she's pissed)

post-cyclone au, constance's epiphany about life being beautiful makes her a lot more bold. which is to say she now has the confidence to go on a million little sidequests for no other reason than to experience the bounties of existence. penny wants to go to a concert 3 hours away but she's still banned from the bus? constance knows how to drive and the unlimited trust of her parents, hop in

very much inspired by ray winter's take on misha when he was answering asks about it so i've absorbed it because it makes sense: misha was a class clown back home and pretty well-liked. he's such a solid and passionate dude, and way more kind than he's allowed to be because everything in canada seems to hate him. i believe that his 'attitude' problem mostly stems from loneliness, (which is kinda exerted on him but also enforced by him after a certain point since i think he retracts himself into his phone with talia rather than be in the real world where he is miserable) and that he would have done so much better if he had one genuine friend he could talk to. in a post-cyclone au, he gets a bunch of those, and no longer feels like all of those emotions are being stiffled or bottled up

those are all the HCs that are relevant i think ^_^

[schrijverr]

The Hearts of Gotham 5

Chapter 5 out of 7

Bruce makes the Justice League believe he has two hearts and is a manifestation of Gotham’s night to throw them off his secret identity, not trusting them. When the sound system breaks, he doesn’t come clean, but lies instead that he split into two to make Robin. From there it spirals as all the Robins make the lies grow and twist it in their own ways, until the truth comes out.

This fic is based on this post and inspired by Bouncing Baby Bat, or so the Justice League is led to believe... by EmpressGeek.

On AO3.

Ships: none

Warnings: none

~~~~

Chapter 5: How Stephanie Used it to Fuck with Bruce

Steph wasn’t Robin for long enough to ever be introduced to the Justice League, something she takes great offense to. Tim had told her about it and she looked forward to it quite a bit, so she was disappointed when it never happened.

However, Steph has never been beneath causing problems for no reason to get what she wants. So, she is more than happy to temporarily take back her mantle so she can get to meet the Justice League anyway. Especially to prove her honor as a Robin.

Damian is already pretty far along in adjusting to his role as Robin and, while B might have banned him now, she knows that will change at some point. So she has to move before that happens if she wants to fuck with everyone.

B can’t complain though, she thinks, as a Robin she has a right to do this. Besides, it’s not like she’s going to blow their cover, in fact, she might strengthen in. B should be thanking her.

Thus, there is a pep in her step as she runs down the halls of the Watchtower for the first time, Tim in her ear telling her the route and her story planned out in her mind.

She enters a big room with a table, around which all the Justice League members are sitting. They all look up startled when she throws open the door, then turn to look at B, who is definitely sighing and fighting the urge to pinch the bridge of his nose.

“Father,” she shrieks shrilly. She has never claimed B as anything close to a father figure, however, for the sake of fucking with him, she is more than happy to. And by the way multiple people whip their heads in his direction, it works. “Something is wrong.”

“What is it?” B asks, he doesn’t sound too concerned, likely already knowing she’s here to mess with him. Though due to his gruffness and distance, it doesn’t appear the others notice.

“I don’t know, but Gotham called me to go to you. I think the darkness is growing,” Steph exclaims dramatically.

“Wait, wait, wait, hold up. Father? Like father-father? What happened to B?” Green Lantern interrupts and over her com Tim tells her that that his name is Hal Jordan.

“Didn’t father tell you, Hal?” she asks innocently, making her eyes go wide.

“How- how do you know my name?” Hal asks, scooting away from her slightly.

“I know a lot of things father knows, silly. I came from him,” Steph laughs. “He’s father, because I physically clawed my way out of his body to shape my own. What did you think splitting into two meant?”

And now she truly knows she’s been hanging out with Tim too much, because she’s referencing conversations she’s never been a part of. However, it is worth it to see both Hal and a few other nearby heroes pale at her words.

“Stop being rude,” Wonder Woman tells them and Steph has to stop herself before she pinches her leg, because holy shit Wonder Woman is standing up for her. Wonder Woman is coming her way. She is talking to Wonder Woman! She loves women superheroes.

Wonder Woman smiles at her and extends her hand for Steph to shake: “It is nice to meet you, Robin. I am Diana.”

“Robin, nice to meet you,” Steph shakes her hand.

“If I may be so bold, you are not like the other Robins I met,” Wonder Woman says and Steph knows that she is going to lord that over the others for the rest of her life. Jason will cry when she tells him.

However, she has a bit she’s committed to (and B will probably leave her to the mercy of Alfred if she fucks this up for him), so she simply curtsies and says: “I came to be under a super moon, when Gotham’s night was bright, not just lively.”

“That is a special thing,” Wonder Woman tells her kindly. “It’s good to have a fellow sword sister in you, Robin.”

“Thank you,” Steph smiles brightly, wanting to bond with Wonder Woman more, but she is here with a purpose. So, she frowns: “Though I fear I might not be for long.” She taps a few time, hoping Tim has caught his cue as she suddenly clutches her stomach and cries out.

“Are you alright?” Wonder Woman asks in concern, catching her as she stumbles and tries to stay in character and not focus on the strong arms.

“Father,” she whimpers, holding a shaking arm out to B.

Tim luckily did catch his cue, because Superman lets out an alarmed sound and says: “Your second hearts are going crazy.”

In the time it took Superman to say that, B has jumped over the table to get to her, likely not wanting to risk her being serious. It is also clear that he’s decided to yes-and it, because he gently tells her: “Robin, I’m here,” as he cradles her in her arms, taking her from Wonder Woman (a fact Steph doesn’t mourn in the slightest, what are you talking about?).

With a weak voice, she says: “I- I think- I think Gotham is-” a cough “-sending me home. We- we’re going to turn into one again, father.”

To others there, it might look like B is worried, but Steph recognizes his annoyed face anywhere. She regularly gets him to make it after all.

She writhes in pain again and pitifully whimpers: “Take me home, father? I- I don’t want anyone to see that. Oh, it hurts. It hurts!”

“Batman, is she okay?” Superman worries, hovering over B’s shoulder.

Steph almost risks sending B a shit eating grin at that, but decides against it. Instead, she coughs again, using some slight of hand to smear liquid latex on her cheek that she rests against B’s chest when she’s done.

B is just assuring Superman that she will be fine, when she lets out a shriek: “It’s already starting! Father, please.”

And indeed, when she pulls her cheek, it is now attached to B, slivers of skin apparently attached to him. Superman startles back and Steph lets out a pained moan.

At that point, B decides that removing her from the situation is the best course of action to prevent her doing more damage. So, he swiftly picks her up bridal style and says: “I must go. A new Robin is coming.”

Without waiting for a reaction, he stalks out of the room and to the Zeta-Beam. Steph continues to let out pained noises all the way, until they’re stepping into the Cave.

Once there, she rips her face from B’s chest and hops out of his arms. Grinning: “That was fun, we should do it again sometimes.”

“Was that really necessary?” B sighs, finally able to let that out and pinch the bridge of his nose.

“No, but it was fun,” Tim says, twirling away from the Batcomputer to grin at them, the cameras in the Watchtower still on the screen. “I mean look at this.”

He pushes a few buttons and one of the videos rewinds, showing B sweeping out of the room, followed by a moment of silence. Then Flash says: “Did- Did Batman just take off, because he’s going into labor? Is he entitled to maternal leave?”

“Don’t be stupid, Barry,” Hal says. “She called him father, it would be paternal leave.”

“Same difference,” Flash pouts, before Tim pauses the video again.

Steph snorts out a loud laugh. She couldn’t have imagined this going that well. She just hoped to cause enough chaos and a weird enough situation that B would have to uncomfortably explain himself next time, but this is gold.

“Why would you do this to me?” B asks her in a suffering voice.

She doesn’t care, she just replies: “You’re lucky I went with father for the creepy factor, I definitely contemplated using daddy, old man.”

Despite it all, B takes a few seconds to count his blessings, deciding to give up. “Thanks,” he settles on, before leaving the Cave.

Once he’s gone, Steph says: “You can get a feed up next B goes up there, right?”

“Oh, yeah, totally,” Tim grins back.

Indeed, next time B goes up to the Watchtower a few days later, her and Tim are crowded around the screen again, watching it unfold. Snickering when everyone seems to be sending B ‘subtle’ glances and being generally unsure of what to say to him.

Superman is the first one to dare, tentatively asking: “Are- are you okay, Batman?”

“I am,” B grunts, obviously wanting to avoid further conversation.

Naturally, Superman doesn’t pick up on that and carefully adds: “And… is Robin?”

“He’s fine,” B says curtly.

“He?” Wonder Woman asks, joining her two friends. “What happened to the Robin we met last time?”

B now realizes the position Steph has forced him in and actually uses more words to answer: “She is no longer Robin. She became one with me, left Robin behind and broke free again as Spoiler.”

“Spoiler?”

“Yes, Spoiler,” B says and Steph get the feeling she made a mistake. “She is all the toxic parts, the pollution in the night skies of Gotham, coming together into one part. We have a lot of companies dumping stuff, it was bound to happen,” B explains, sending a covert look to the nearest camera, knowing that they’re watching him.

“Oh that fucker!” Steph pouts as Tim laughs at her, the traitor.

Superman and Wonder Woman both send him a look, but the three are interrupted by Flash, who comes speeding up to them, asking: “That looked painful? Is it like giving birth or something?”

“Flash!” Superman catechizes.

Meanwhile, B flushes bright red (can’t be seen with the cowl, but Steph knows, she has been embarrassing him for a long time now). With a pinched expression, he grits out: “It’s a complex and very private affair.”

Flash’s apology is drowned out by Steph’s cheer as she triumphantly exclaims: “Ha! Who’s vengeance now, B!”

~~

A/N:

I realize that I may be projecting my crush on Wonder Woman, however, I will not apologize for it, bc I have great taste <3

[elizmanderson]

queerness in The Remarkable Retirement of Edna Fisher

book description

when you’re an old woman armed with nothing but gumption and knitting needles, stopping a sorcerer from wiping out an entire dragon-fighting organization is a tall order. no one understands why 83-year-old Edna Fisher is the Chosen One, destined to save the Knights from a dragon-riding sorcerer bent on their destruction. after all, Edna has never handled a magical weapon, faced down a dragon, or cast a spell. and everyone knows the Council of Wizards always chooses a teenager—like the vengeful girl ready to snatch Edna’s destiny from under her nose.

still, Edna leaps at the chance to leave the nursing home. with a son long dead in the Knights’ service, she’s determined to save dragon-fighters like him & ensure other mothers don’t suffer the same loss she did. but as Edna learns about the abuse in the ranks & the sorcerer’s history, she questions if it’s really the sorcerer that needs stopping—or the Knights she’s trying to save.

find it here

okay let's talk about queerness in this book

did a thread on twitter in which I said "cishet" five hundred thousand times so will probably get banned lmao but anyway I wanted to share it here too

especially since it's late in Pride Month and I have yet to post anything anywhere about it BEING Pride Month and me being queer and my books being queer, bc I've been burnt out af. so what energy I've had has gone toward planning and writing

anyway

I say "queerness in" rather than "queer characters in" because I want to talk about queerness in the book more broadly, not least bc I'm a queer creator & this is a queer book, but I've had a lot of impostor syndrome about both those things.

I figured out I was queer later in life & am a woman-presenting person w/a male-presenting partner. I've questioned my gender & sexuality repeatedly & ID'd differently over time, which is why I like "queer." I don't have to re-explain myself a dozen times. I'm queer. that's that.

but having figured out my queerness later, and having a relationship that presents as cishet, it took a long time for me to overcome feelings of ~not being queer enough~ (and sometimes I still struggle with them).

similarly, my MC is an apparently* cishet woman, unlike the MCs of many books that appear on queer book lists at this time of year. just like I took a long time to start really engaging with my community bc I worried I wasn't ~queer enough,~ for a long time, I didn't call this a queer book bc I worried it wasn't ~queer enough~. if people asked if the book was queer, I'd reply with a laundry list of explicitly queer characters rather than saying yes

fuck that though lmao. this is a queer book. let me count the ways

1. found family

as found family is so important to many queer people - by connecting us to our community, by welcoming us when bio family casts us off - found family is central to REMARKABLE RETIREMENT. while there are queer romantic arcs, the found family is the most important relationship in the book.

2. queer labels

some characters get explicit labels. Benjamin is gay. Clem is ace. queer labels are important bc they give us the ability to describe our identities and experiences! however...

3. undefined queerness

while labels are important, queerness isn't about fitting into new boxes. it's about smashing the boxes apart.

even if characters don't have specific labels applied on-page, they're queer. they don't need to claim a specific label for that to be true.*

*caveat that some media avoids using labels to pander to queer audiences w/implied queerness without ~alienating~ cishets by stating "this character is Not Cishet"**

that's not what I mean

I mean e.g. in OFMD queerness is inherent even if WORDS like queer/ace/etc aren't used. OMitB is another example (specifically Mabel) and Good Omens is yet another.

**caveat to my caveat that some media is queer-coded & avoids queer labels rather than being explicitly queer because network execs or whoever won't allow explicit queerness.

this is not the fault of the creators. sometimes it can be hard to tell the difference.

but anyway.

in REMARKABLE RETIREMENT, several queer characters are queer without using specific labels.

in some cases this is bc it doesn't come up or isn't important to them to express in the moment. like Clem is bi, but she's not worried about being bi. she's worried about being ace, because she's still kind of questioning that about herself, and she's worried it might cause problems down the road if her crush is >:[ about her not wanting to have sex. so she uses the word "ace" to describe herself in this scene but not "bi," even though she's both.

in other cases it's bc they don't have the language. Kiernan's sense of attraction and desire is described in a way that seems graysexual or demisexual (or both), and Red's sense of desire is described in a way that seems ace-spec, but neither of them use those terms, because neither of them know those terms. despite the lack of terminology, many ace readers have identified multiple ace characters based on description or experience. the lack of a specific label doesn't make those characters less queer.

similarly, some characters have not yet had this realization about themselves. which leads us to...

4. questioning

okay, back to my first asterisk of the post.

Edna is by all appearances an old cishet woman.

for most of the story, that's how she seems. that's what SHE thinks, even. she's a cishet old grandma adopting every queer young person she can find.

BUT THEN

Clem explains aceness to her

and Edna has a brief crisis bc wait a minute this sounds like her??

ultimately, Edna has too much to worry about right now to spend time questioning whether, at the age of 83, she might be somewhere on the ace spectrum

so it doesn't come up again

but that moment of crisis is THERE, & that too is queer

5. queernormativity*

I write queernorm worlds, largely bc I viscerally hate coming out lmao

it doesn't mean everyone's a queer scholar

like Clem has to explain "ace" to Edna, bc Edna thinks blankly of a deck of cards & doesn't understand what that has to do with sex

but it DOES mean queer folks get to just be and do

*caveat that this is not remotely to imply that a story is less queer if its world ISN'T queernorm

it's just a way in which MY story is queer

6. all the queer characters

not gonna do a list (even though my original idea for Pride Month when I was young and optimistic and thought I'd have energy to do it way back when was a list of queer characters), but virtually every character in this book is queer in one way or another

on twitter this is where I ended because 6 seemed like a good number for Pride since June is the sixth month, but tumblr gets a bonus

7. the author is queer

happy pride, buy my queer book

[wirewitchviolet]

A Teachable Moment

So I hopped into some freshly minted Discord server, maybe a month ago, and the norms of it still haven't settled into place. It's open to the public and focused on a game, so there's a bit of a mixed crowd, let's say, and prior to the incident I'm setting up the backstory for, there hasn't really been a test of their ability to moderate their damn public spaces.

Also when I say there's a mixed crowd I mean there's both a good number of trans women (because if you are making a deep game for a niche audience, we're gonna make up a shockingly high percentage of that audience every time), and a few right-wing extremists doing their best to "hide their power levels" (because if you create and promote literally any sort of social space, they WILL show up to test for whether local conditions are suitable enough to build a nest). In the early days of things they mostly kept their masks on aside from using the nazi frog as a reaction image to things (which IS something everyone should have a zero tolerance policy towards, but I feel like I need to know someone fairly well before I can explain that one), and their eyes lighting up when they see the server rules include "no politics" (a perfectly fine policy to have but you need to understand that if you post it you WILL have to constantly ban nazis who think you're using "politics" like they do- a euphemism for all the people they want dead).

Anyway, there's a few people on my radar here, but everyone's been civil enough, and it's a pretty relaxed vibe. Pretty quiet. Mostly just icebreaker talk. The most prolific poster is this one guy who saw there was a pet photo channel and just kinda sat down and made a point of posting several images a day to it, of a particularly uncommon sort of cute pet. Naturally this lead some people to ask some follow-up questions about whether these are his and how long he's had them, and this yielded the pretty damn weird in retrospect response that no, he has no pets at all, but would like one of these some day.

Now, this isn't at all the main thrust of this, and I wouldn't like, start keeping vigil for this as a sign of troublemakers, but a thing that undercover bigots do all the time as can be seen here is set up in a community and just kinda spam harmless generic platitudes and such to try and establish themselves as a known chill person. This goes double for anywhere that has a general public/trusted community members split. Never just go by "well he seems pretty chill" for giving people access to more private spaces, they can wait as long as they need, generally, as long as they don't have to improvise a normal person response to a situation where bigotry is in play.

Anyway, getting to the main event, a few days ago in this server, someone posted some cute little comic which... you know let me just find it.

Clever little subversion there. Got a polite chuckle out of the bulk of those paying attention, but seeing a nice wholesome bit of trans positivity incensed pet-poster guy, who immediately shouts "I've seen another version of that comic!" and posts a variation I am absolutely not going to share where the girl in the last panel is dead.

That is as clear cut of a do not pass go, do not collect $200, ban that piece of garbage permanently without a word and delete the post as soon as you can before anyone has to see that sort of hate directed at them offense in absolutely any community. Even moreso in this case as in the time it took a moderator to notice, this creep was going full mask off and responding to everyone's horrified reactions with grotesque anti-trans propaganda of a particularly hardcore "my other hangouts have openly posted swastikas" variety.

Here, people did delete the profoundly offensive comic, but then, to be blunt, otherwise handled this like a kindergarten teacher seeing a kid grab the blocks another kid was playing with and just nonchalantly explaining some basic manners. First off, nobody goes that hard on hate speech accidentally, and more importantly, showing a lack of willingness to dole out any real consequences for such an open act of hate has an emboldening effect. Sure enough the other sleeper agents present jumped up to try and push things farther, encouraging them to also remove the comic above, ban any mention of trans people, and jump the gun with prepared responses that don't work in context (you call everyone you don't like a nazi! Both sides are wrong! etc.).

I came pretty close to just quitting the server on response to that, but stuck it out a bit to double check if this wasn't just one particularly green mod trying to put the fire out before double checking if that's ban worthy when someone else was awake, or if I needed to explain the code-talk in the following conversation, or hell, if they just need more mods. I'm decidedly overqualified for that sort of thing.

Anyway, moderation policy handled that poorly... and to be clear, I'm not pinning that on any one person, basically everyone who ends up in a position of authority has a gut instinct to moderate as laxly as possible and needs some real training, reading, or tragic experience to learn how vital a firm swift hand is if you don't want people like this to show up and drive everyone else away. Especially not going to put this on the one green volunteer awake at 4 AM or whatever.

Still, the ball was dropped here, and I was pleasantly surprised to see how the rest of the community stepped up to hold their ground. Over the next couple of days, people just started casually dropping every cute trans positive thing they had handy in there, agreeing with each other that it was all nice and sweet. This both reestablished that chat as a relatively safe place to exist with a kind general vibe, and really got under the skin of these mask off nazis who started throwing tantrums. Apparently they just started privately messaging the mods to flag every single wholesome little image or comic as offensive to the point where people higher up the food chain came in, did some more serious reprimanding, and added an explicit policy against transphobia to their TOS... and threatened to ban these people if they pull this crap again.

Now, that increased firmness plus the community in general making it pretty damn clear they don't tolerate hate does seem to have scared the bigots into hiding (the one guy made this pathetic desperate effort to retake power by threatening to stop posting the animal pictures... that he's just pulling out of an image search, it was pretty funny), but... they're still there. The people they were threatening both broadly and as specific individuals still have to be careful not to share anything these scumbags can screencap and weaponize against them, and I'm sure at some time in the future when it's clear there's no mods awake they're going to pipe back up to do as much damage as they can in a blaze of glory if spying on all the queer people doesn't pay out for them, so while it is nice to see how just actively rejecting this sort of ideology can at least temporarily shut this crap down even without people in authority taking real action, I want to reiterate what responsibilities those in authority are neglecting here.

As a moderator of literally any sort of space, your basic duties are to keep things safe and to keep things civil. Those are two separate duties. Don't ever try and merge them together, and don't ever forget that safety must always take priority over civility.

If you see a situation where people are just getting randomly heated and angry over something inconsequential (happens a lot), yes, by all means, try to just deescalate things by stepping through just taking a stern tone, formal warnings, timeouts, 3 strike rules, temporary bans, etc. These are situations where we can hope that people who otherwise get along just let their emotions get out of hand and will hopefully shake hands and make up after having some time to cool off.

If on the other hand you see a situation where someone is threatening/antagonizing/intimidating someone else, especially in a case like this where the reason is transparently that the offender is a bigot who genuinely wishes harm or death on the target, there are no steps to escalate through. You remove the dangerous person from the community immediately, no exceptions, no warnings, no escalating response scale. That nazi posting crap about trans women in nooses, Jews in ovens, black people holding spears, women being raped etc. is not a friend having a rough day. There can be no reconcilliation no matter how much time you give. You just have a predator here to whittle your community down, and a vulnerable person who needs you to reassure them that they are safe in your community. The only option that should be on the table is the permanent zero appeals ban, and you should have no hesitation in deploying it.

Oh and here's the part where I remember that I am going to lose my home by the end of the year if I don't ask people to throw more money at me (this is a link). I hate doing this, but my other options for income went up in flames so completely I don't even know how to start to rebuild.

[streetkid-named-desire]

Rat, it’s a blessing that you were removed from the server because you’re STILL stirring drama proving exactly why you got booted. We made the right decision, you are a black hole void of drama and it never stops with you.

You sure are tough when you’re saying horrible things about everyone else and talking shit then you run and cry to tumblr with your “waa waa why everyone so mean to me =(“ at any minor criticism or when someone tells you to stop making them uncomfortable. Get a mirror and look at it real good because you are awful.

how am i the one still stirring up drama when i stopped posting about it on like tuesday outside of some personal reflections about social skills and being autistic lol

yesterday someone replied to a post, two days after i stopped talking about it, that i deleted and blocked the individual. today, three days later after my last post, i get this anon.

all i did was defend myself from a public accusation that i was purposefully spreading misinformation. then i get banned and blocked for something i had no idea i was doing outside of the p**ky shit because no one told me it was upsetting. and so because i couldnt defend directly and talk through whatever the fuck was going on and settle shit amicably and like mature adults i posted my reply

the only drama i take responsibility for actually starting is the shit with the flat chest lol anything else has just been me using my personal blog as a personal blog where i talk about my thoughts and feelings around the game and writing and modding and people more popular than me in modding

i really do not understand this obsession with me. is it because i refuse to back down? refuse to conform? refuse to make myself palatable? like sorry im abrasive? sorry im uncompromising? sorry i stand up to bullies and am open about my distaste in the social fabric of the modding community?

i dont think you people understand how tumblr works and how personal blogs work and what it means to vent on tumblr? maybe you should get your own outlet to also scream into the void like me so you can be normal and courteous and nice in your direct one on one interactions. you know, compartmentalize your shit and just treat each other like coworkers you dont like.

anyway, stop looking at my blog and finding things to pick at lol it doesn't matter. none of this fucking matters y'know? it's a fun hobby. just let it be a fun hobby.

something that is very painful but very good to cultivate is resisting the urge to have the last word, like you're trying to do now. it's especially hard if you're prone to rejection sensitive dysphoria but here are some cognitive behavioral skills that can help too (CBT gets a bad rap for like trauma therapy especially but it is useful when your thoughts actually aren't helpful and are irrational)

Perspective: Remind yourself it really, truly doesn't matter and is an actual waste of your time and energy. You deserve to feel good and arguing and cyberbullying and shit just makes you feel bad. I should know, I was a cyberbully in my early 20s exactly because I was so so deeply depressed. But, whatever conflict you got going on is just a blip on the radar as my mom would say.

Do you have all the facts? If you're sitting there and stressing and making assumptions about how someone feels or what they think, remind yourself that you can't read minds. There's no point in stressing if you don't have all the facts.

It's okay for people to be wrong about you: Not everyone has to like you or approve of you. It's normal to want that from your peers, but you have to learn to be comfortable with that not being the case. Again, perspective. Unless it's someone you genuinely care about and want to maintain a relationship with, it doesn't matter!

Let the emotions wash over you like a wave: This one is the absolute hardest, especially if you're autistic, because it's such a physically rotten feeling. But it will help. Put the phone away, lay down, and just cry. Don't be afraid of your feelings. Imagine you're in the sand at a beach, close to the tide, and just let the feelings wash over you and your body like a warm, soothing wave. They'll go away, you just gotta feel through them first.

idk it just sucks to see this because i've been where you are and it truly does just make you and your life so much worse. it will make you happier to just let shit go. to just move on. to accept that people are allowed to and may not like you and that's fine. they don't matter. i don't matter to you. i'm not doing anything but sitting here writing my little stories, taking my little pics, making my little mods, and just having fun. and occasionally venting!

move on with your life. i mean nothing to you anymore. i have no nefarious plans or deeds against you. that's why i blocked you on everything. because i don't care anymore.

and yet here we are with an anon message three days after i posted my last reflection about being autistic in fandom.

[bookshop]

A correct amount of words about wang yibo

I keep trying to indoctrinate the good people of Post.news who have the misfortune to follow me into joining the Wang Yibo fandom. And that's hard to do given that this is a whole-ass sea of like white Gen X MSNBC liberals who probably only think about China as politics, but I am doing my LEVEL BEST, and the result is this absolutely enormous post about Yibo that most people reading this on Tumblr don't need to know, but which I am going to put here anyway, because I need to feel Seen.

I wish to talk about Yibo's beautiful New Year's Eve performance, but first some context.

actually no, first, a picture because isn't he lovely

Over the last four years, this has become a holiday tradition: Eagerly awaiting Wang Yibo's release of a huge song on December 30 — his only single of the year — that he then performs live on an annual New Year's Eve concert the next night. Every year, when he does this, it's a huge deal and the songs always become the bestselling single of the year on the last day of the year, which is the kind of massive flex that compels me to yell about it a lot.

So in 2019 he released "Wugan" (which he wrote) on 12/30, and it became the bestselling single of 2019. At the end of 2020 he released "Rules of My World," which he also wrote. That then became the second-bestselling single of 2020. (More on the single that beat him in a minute.)

The next year, he released his 2021 end-of-year single "Nian" completely for free, probably in response to the Qinglang restrictions I wrote about here, in which, among other things, China banned multiple mass sales.

Yibo is known primarily as an (extremely good) hip-hop dancer, so since "Nian" was more of a power anthem everyone was anticipating something more upbeat for his end-of-year song this year. Instead, Yibo surprised us all with a gorgeous love song, "Like the Sunshine" (像阳光那样)", which immediately became not only the bestselling single of 2022, but the first single to top 2 million sales in China since the CCP banned mass sales 18 months ago.

And then he paired it with this incredible modern dance performance at Dragon TV's new year's eve event.

Please watch it; he cut his hand and his feet while dancing barefoot on stage but kept performing, and this gives you such a good glimpse of what a heartfelt and mesmerizing performer he is.

What you wouldn't know just from watching this is that Yibo has rarely if ever danced modern dance before onstage, only hip-hop and other dances blending modern dance elements, but never anything like this. And yet he looks completely at home and in his element. The climax and fully the last 60 seconds show so much control and power, combined with his ability to be completely immersed in the flow and feel and emotional dynamics of of a song — which you get both from his movements and his vocal expression. He's just. So good. All the time.

It will be three years at the end of this month since I first discovered Wang Yibo, and I still feel every day like I just discovered him for the first time, because I'm continually blown away, not only by how tremendously talented and gifted he is at whatever he picks up, but by how unapologetically passionate and pure-hearted he is about loving dance and loving acting and music and racing and competition and all his geeky quirky little hobbies, about loving people and loving life.

Everyone who works with Yibo just winds up raving about about how talented he is, whether it's his acting or dedication or dancing or singing or that time he just fucking did this what the fuck, and you can see so clearly from all of this, and especially this new NYE performance, that it's not just that he's incredibly talented and skilled enough to master a totally new skill in weeks, but that he goes full-throttle in every performance, makes himself completely raw and vulnerable. Yibo eschews method acting, is arguably not neurologically suited for method acting, but instead has this wonderful ability to slip in and out of character, become whoever he's asked to become in any given moment. And when he's dancing as himself on stage, he consistently shows us his heart and his pure emotion, whatever it is.

He is just, above all things, a consummate entertainer: He prioritizes the mood and the moment of the art he's creating, and he delivers that consistently, each and every time. Case in point: let's enjoy him performing "Pick Me" for Produce 101 in 2019, when he served as dance mentor to women competing for a spot in a girl group. Every time Yibo gets asked to dance "cute" dances — and probably the reason he keeps getting asked — is that he commits to the cuteness without any posturing or machismo and just, again, lets his performance serve the dance/song without letting his ego get in the way.

Or! Or! This next song! I love this performance because it's completely inexplicable at a glance but SO fun and just, happy. What's happening here is: He's a special guest on a variety show where the object is (wait for it) to SING SONGS WHILE SPINNING ON A LITTLE SPINNY THING.

And one of the judges of this show is Da Zhangwei, who's both a well-known like, comedy/variety songwriter and Yibo's good friend (they hosted a variety show together for years). So Yibo makes a surprise appearance to perform one of Da Zhangwei's own songs, "Pop Rocks Candy," while spinning around on a little spinny thing!!!! (China!!!!)

And this should be absolutely absurd, like, cringey beyond belief, over-the-top excess, right. But because Yibo is so committed to this performance, without a hint of embarrassment, it somehow just becomes this joyous, endlessly delightful gift of Wang Yibo performing one of his friend's songs and turning it into a celebration of fun and whimsy.

OR! here he is being dragged into a silly dance battle in 2018 while filming the rom-dram Gank Your Heart. Nothing at all going on, he's just hanging with the other cast and dancing for fun, except Yibo is just so excellent that the camera eventually gives up following the other cast members and just zooms in on him. Everyone always winds up zooming in on Wang Yibo.

To return to 2020: Yibo was second in song sales that year only because the top spot went to his best friend Xiao Zhan's song "Spotlight," which was/is the biggest selling single of all time, as in, in world history, as in this song outsold both the Beatles and "White Christmas". You will assume I must be exaggerating until you click that link and learn that this is actually a well-verified fact.

The reason you have never heard "Spotlight" is because the combined impact of the CCP's isolationist tendencies and the tendency of other countries to treat China like a sealed vacuum means it's easy to ignore/write off whatever's happening in China, even while entertainers like Yibo and Xiao Zhan are making major inroads and breaking through international culture divides.

But I think that might be changing sooner rather than later, and Yibo is a big part of the reason. In Q3 of 2022 his studio, Yuehua, was preparing to go public (they eventually withdrew) basically fully on the strength of Yibo's popularity: They released an investor report claiming he was responsible for 80% of their overall revenue in 2022. (I saw a later claim that in Q4 that # jumped up to 90% overall but I couldn't find a source. I believe it, though, because YIBOOOOO.)

Yibo has three films coming out in 2022. One of them I've already discussed in this Post post (lol), without mentioning the fact that in the scenario where Born to Fly is China's version of Top Gun, Wang Yibo is Tom Cruise as Maverick. (At age 24, by the way — just a year older than Cruise when he first played the role.)

The other two are equally eye-catching. One is One and Only, a street dance movie created and scripted entirely around and for Yibo, clearly inspired by what an absolute phenomenon he has been as a captain on Street Dance of China. This movie won the Weibo award for most anticipated movie of 2022 (back when we still thought it was coming out in 2022, sob). The director stated on the awards red carpet, "If there's no Yibo, then there's no movie." Brb sobbing into my tea.

The final film drops on 1/22 and it's called Hidden Blade (previously titled Anonymous) and he stars alongside Tony Leung, YES I SAID TONY LEUNG, and it's also one of the most anticipated films of the year. And, listen, I would go a long way just to watch Tony Leung, but the trailer, along with the latest just-released poster, each make it clear that Yibo is every bit the co-star:

Sooooo this movie will probably land on the international radar — hell, it already has — and if I know Yibo, he won't be easy to overlook.

Because that's the thing, always: Eventually, no matter the context, you always wind up zooming in on Wang Yibo.

[tellthemeerkatsitsfine]

Most days, this bit would have made me smile a bit in the moment, but I wouldn't have found it significant enough to actually cut out and post. Because "broadly in favour of gay pride" is hardly a controversial stance for a comedian these days to take, it's not a particularly big deal.

But this happens to be a week when a town in my own country has voted to outlaw public depictions of pride, and I usually try not to use this blog to talk too much about current events (because 1) I don't think social media is the place for actual news, and even if it is, maybe news can be okay if coming from journalists' social media accounts, it shouldn't come from random people like me, and 2) if I comment on one current issue then I get concerned about all the other ones I'm leaving out, so I avoid all of them, everyone could safely and accurately just assume that I am constantly paralyzed with horror at everything going on in the world so I don't need to spell every single one out), but that particular banning of pride stuff has been particularly depressing me lately, in addition to the larger issues across Canada and the United States of a massive backlash against queer people. I think in the area of queer acceptance, the Overton window is start to move to the right for the first time in my lifetime, and that is fucking awful to watch.

So given that, hearing John Robins and Elis James say some fairly basic "gay pride is good" stuff was, actually, pretty fucking uplifting. And I happened to listen to this bit while on a break at work, in a job where I'm an autism therapist and that job has a lot of overlap with the job of being a teacher. And my sexual orientation... okay it sometimes involves theoretical attraction to men, like I can find certain men attractive if they fall into the narrow range called "my type" but in actual practice I know from experience that even being very attracted to a man is not enough for me to actually enjoy sleeping with one, so on a practical level the word "lesbian" probably describes me accurately, even though when describing my own sexual orientation I tend to use the word "gay" because that feels a little bit broader and like lesbians aren't allowed to sometimes be attracted to men, even men with whom they don't wish to actually have physical sex, but "gay women" are allowed that because there's more scope in that term, I think, I'm not really sure... but anyway, my sexual orientation is certainly not far off from lesbian, and my job is not far off from teacher, so hearing those guys say they're in favour of lesbian teachers was a pretty fucking cool thing, while I sat in an empty classroom on a break at work and listened to this podcast. Might have got mildly emotional hearing that, specifically because I've spent most of this week being depressed about some of the local rulings on pride in Canada, and the implications they have for more regional areas that have just been looking for opportunities like this, and of course the significant backlash against queer people that's happening all over North America right now.

I don't know. I realize a British comedian saying queer people are fine is hardly groundbreaking. But if anyone's feeling depressed about The Backlash right now, and how many comedians have turned out to be disappointingly fine with said backlash, here are John Robins and Elis James in 2017 talking about how great pride is. John Robins even suspending his usual policy of getting furious at people who don't follow the rules, because that's just how great pride is.

[rp-rs]

Hi! Blood banker here, saw your reply on a post about blood donation. If you're in the US, we finally got the FDA to update their discriminatory restrictions last summer, so most donation centers, including the ARC, now only ask EVERYONE regardless of sex/gender if they've had anal sex with a NEW partner in the last 3 months (because that's the window where our transmissible disease testing is less reliable).

First of all, it's cool that You are a Blood Banker and i have Respect for People like You(even if this is my first Time encountering the Job Description Blood Banker). Keep up the good Work 👍.

i live in germany. In the past Gay Men and Trans People* were forbidden from Donating Blood for having a higher Chance of an HIV Infection. It didn't matter if they never had Sex or only once 20 Years ago.

*(pretty much everything i read for this equated Trans Women with Gay Men and which sucks)

That only changed in 2017 when the German Government legalized it for them. However Gay Men were only allowed in if they didn't have Sex for ONE YEAR. even if it wasn't with a new Partner. [1]

Then in 2021 the guideline(not the Law) was changed to soften these Restrictions. Now it's only 4 Months. But weirdly enough straight People who had sex with more than two partners in the last 4 Months were equated with Gay men who had one new Partner in the last 4 Months.[2] i don't even get this.

And now finally in 2023 The Guideline got changed one last time to remove all Discriminatory Language from the Questionaire(thank fuck). And it is purely based on the Number of Sexual Partners. [3]

(by the way i only found out about this because i researched it because of your Ask. i had seen some other People on Queer Internet Forums still talk like the Guidelines from 2017 were still in Effect, i think not everyone got the Memo.)

I still think there are some Problems in there. for instance Anal Sex is highlighted as a higher Risk than non Anal, which i think is a way to talk about Gay People without talking about Gay People. And 2 or more Sexual Partners is disclosed as an inherent Risk Factor, which i think discriminates against Poly People. Imagine a Closed Polycule which has been stable for the last 3 Years and nobody slept outside of that. None of them would be allowed to donate Blood.

Now that i talked about the HIV Part, lets look at something specific to Trans People: HRT.

I looked at some Accounts from Trans People on the r/Germantrans subreddit, some of them say they were blocked from donating Blood due to HRT, some say only Androgen Blockers aren't allowed, some say that it didn't matter.

i found an Article from the german Red Cross explaining that they don't like to give out an entire List of Medications that would disqualify someone from donating Blood, since the "Problem isn't the Medication but the underlying Illness." [4] And i couldn't find a list from the german Red Cross.

Anyway, here's a List from the austrian Red Cross [5] i am gonna assume that the german Red Cross shares the List, because there usually aren't that many Differences between germany and austria. But i could be wrong here.

According to that list, Hormones are fine (unless you are taking anabolic T). Anti-Androgens like Cyproteron disqualify someone from donating Blood, this is because it is used to treat Prostate Cancer Patients, and Cancer Patients can't donate Blood. This is stupid. Like this isn't even in the "it depends on the underlying illness" Category, this is a Strict "NO".

For me personally... i found out during Research that i am banned from donating for the next 3 Months because i recently got a Piercing. And if my Weight falls below 50kg again, i won't be able to donate either. So maybe i'll donate Blood when i'm able. but i should probably call them beforehand to clarify the Medication Situation.

I hope You didn't mind me writing a 600 Word Post about the History of Blood donation for Queer People in Germany.

Sadly all of my Sources are in German so they won't be accssible to non-german Speakers.

If anyone has any more Information or Corrections, please provide them, i am eager to learn more or find out what i missed or got wrong.

[theemptyislost]

THINGS THAT I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW ABOUT MY FELLOW WRITERS

tagged by @adevilyoudo thank you!

Full disclosure - I do not have a lot of time to read, and none of this is as eloquent as some of the other information people have posted

Last book I read: I am....currently listening to Talia (because I do not have time to read - but listening to horror books or unhinged stories puts me to sleep faster than the calm app)

Greatest literary inspiration: Edgar Allen Poe and Dante Alighieri (not sure if they would count as its more poetry based, but here we are).

Things in my current fandom I want to read but I don't want to write: I have been somehow drawn down the OG Dragonborne Durge / Gortash / OC fic black hole and there are so few.

In the Haarlep/Raph fandom - pregnancy fics? Not really comfortable writing them, but I love the variety of plot/stories everyone comes up with.

Things in my current fandoms I want to write but I think nobody would be interested in them but me: A prequel to HM for Haarlep and Raphael. But who knows.

I have a 4th chapter WIP for one of my current stories, where Tav/oc gives Haarlep the crown instead of Raphael.

You can recognize my writing by: Too many descriptive words, similes and the excessive abuse of dashes. I lack the ability to be concise.

My most controversial take (current fandom): Haarlep pulls the strings.

Top three favourite tropes: Enemies to Lovers, Deal With the Devil, Unhappy Endings, Love Triangles, Traumatic Past (it's more than three, I am rebelling)

What’s your current writing mood (10 – super motivated and churning out words like crazy, 0 – in a complete rut): Currently at a 2 - only because work/thesis/client project have me stresssssed.

Share a random frustration: My pup's constant need to wake me up in the middle of the night and whine, because she woke up on the floor and not curled up on the bed -_-

She is not banned from the bed in anyway. She is just a drama queen, acting like it is my fault she decided to sleep on the floor.

no pressure tagging @aevallare @atrueneutral @dark-and-kawaii and anyone else who wants to do this

[bestshipsmackdown]

Hey, so what I’m not going to do is be posting messages on here about why XYZ creator is problematic. Especially when I know for a fact that the entire team working on XYZ project have been doxxed and harassed. I absolutely am refusing to add to it.

If you don’t like XYZ or ABC that I post about, you are more than welcome to unfollow. But assume that I do have eyes and ears and am far too aware of exactly what people do behind the scenes. Unless XYZ creators are inciting violence and/or cruelty towards a minority, I cannot in good conscience sic mindless classless cancel culture minions to harass them. Not that that tactic even works. But that’s a whole other topic.

Unfortunately, putting up socially relevant materials about anything these days will incite violence by people who think that they are on a pedestal for being “morally more correct” than the people they are attempting to destroy. And I simply do not want any part of contributing to that mentality. And since the influx of twitter users coming back to tumblr, the toxic fandom mentality has risen back to what it was before those same people left tumblr during the mass adult content ban.

If this was back in 2013 I might have posted the message that caused this PSA, but alas, I’m not a middle schooler anymore. And I’m far too old to placate and/or prove how woke I am to anons.

The anon was polite in wording which is the only reason I thought about responding to it. However, as the rules state: internet etiquette. “curate your own experience.” I curate my internet experience to be mostly Ao3 centered. I do not center my internet experience around lambasting creators for every single one of their flaws. That sounds absolutely exhausting and I have such a low tolerance for seeing just how ugly this world is. There’s some creators you can’t avoid how nasty they are, because they scream it from the rooftops, so the best you can do is report them or block them.

Being socially conscious in this world means realizing that not a single person in this world does everything correctly. Not a single person is good. Not a single person is evil. Not a single person is worth supporting or believing in. Not a single person is worth wasting time on. Everyone is bad. And not one person can be redeemed without having everything they’ve ever done wrong being thrown back into their face. Everything is owned by a corporation. Corporations keep people in poverty whether it be their workers, their consumers, or the people they exploit to get materials from.

You will never see me saying that a creator of anything is good or should be supported. Because I cannot. Because I will always be wrong if I do. That’s the bleak reality. And that’s why the toxic nature of the internet and its ideas on morality make being alive in this time such a pain in the ass.

While everyone in this world is flawed and immoral, you have to stop finding the things to hate in everyone. You will always find things that people have done wrong. That they shouldn’t have done. That are not okay. And if all you can see is the worst things people have done, you will never see the good things.

And sure. There are some people who do things that are so far beyond wrong that they cannot be looked at without that standing out as the most important thing about them. Their failures as a human outweigh any good that has or could ever come from them. But often times, the world just isn’t that black and white. If you ignore the shades of grey, you will never see what color you really are. You will become exactly the evil that you believed you were stopping.

Anyways I don’t know if that all makes sense. But I’m just so tired of people. The more energy you spend on things like this, the less you have to fight actual oppressors. The focus should be on taking down the infrastructure. And you need the shades of grey to be on the correct side in order to battle true evil.

Being kind and compassionate and aware of people is important. Reflecting on yourself and trying to be a better person than you were yesterday is important. And everyone should be doing that. But the fact is, not everyone will. And they are far less likely to when they know that the only thing they will ever be seen for is each of their missteps. That if they make any new mistakes, it will all be linked back to their previous ones.

And idk about the rest of you, but I just don’t have the mentality to keep a mental list of just how good or bad each and every person on this planet is. I’m just here to make two or three or four or more characters kiss each other, because I’m a romantic. And sometimes making a few dudes kiss is just enough to pretend the real world doesn’t exist. That everyone, I’m trapped on this earth with, aren’t horrible in one way or another.

[forkaround]

Top 3 Personal Favorite BLs of 2022

I would like to start by thanking everyone who replied to my 'What's the appeal of BL?' post. A friend had asked and I felt I hadn't given a satisfying answer but seeing all the reblogs and comments made my heart grow three sizes. These were things I knew to be true. These were things around me, abstract and translucent. And every answer made me so fucking happy. I could see hope. Thank You.

I got into BL this year and I can say, with ease that I've never been happier.

I am a writer. At 15 I had the idea for an epic fantasy. But things changed once I realized the female lead could end up with no one but this other female character. I steeled myself for a difficult battle because since this was gay this won't be published in India. (Back then there was still a ban on homosexuality. Section 377, if anyone's interested. A remnant of the British Raj. Lifted in 2018.) And I told myself this is going to be hard but it's fine. We can publish in the US. Parts of the story take place in the US anyway, and the rest is in another galaxy, so it's okay. We are fine.

At 20, I had an idea for a story where the female lead become the uncrowned Queen of India (Richest, most influential person in the country). Her motto was - Ambition isn't a bad word. I knew this won't be well received since a woman has ambition but I figured it won't be that bad. But I couldn't conceive of this character as anyone but a lesbian. And I knew this would never be made or rather published if she was the main character.

And in rolled the year 2022. I am 23. It's my 24th birthday and I am more excited for something else that's going to happen in two days than I am about it being my birthday and also the day I go to live, by myself, in Germany, miles from where my parents live. I can barely think about that.

All I am thinking about is -

Kinnporsche

This show is fantastic and no one can deny this but to me it's much more than a show because it made me believe there was a market for my stories. That I could do this and the road ahead wasn't as difficult as I'd thought I'd be. And that was because of how much of a phenomenon Kinnporsche was. Still is, idk. It trended worldwide every week. It trended in India every week since Ep 4. Major Indian magazines wrote about it. And for once I thought, maybe India is ready.

Kinnporsche was also a personal phenomenon. I had Sundays blocked off in my Bullet Journal as Kinnporsche Brainrot days. I bought wine for the first time in my life in anticipation of the Vegaspete episode. This show spawned 7 WIPs and added umph to pre-existing projects like the Ambition one I mentioned before. I had the time of my life reading metas and my critical thinking and media analysis skill improved because of this fandom. The fanworks were the first time in my life I've been as invested in the fandom of the fandom as I've been in the media. It glitters like gold. And in-between the changing genres and political scheming, stage blocking and color theory, and tooth rotting fluff and sadomasochism I found hope.

And what Kinnporsche started multiplied with the things to come.

Old Fashion Cupcake

I've mentioned I'm 24. I feel like I'm 40. I am a woman from a conservative country like India. I am queer but that's not the only thing about me that defies norms. And when you are young defying norms is a metric of success. When you go to college, though, things change and everything that you thought were things people were proud of, are suddenly not. All the talk of feminism and equal rights that had people clapping at 15 are all the same things that people snide at you about. It's the same with your family. And once you've finished college. The second that bachelor's degree hits your hand, the first question asked is - When are you going to start searching for a husband? And you've know for a while this is coming. And 25 feels like the end of the world. You can't imagine being 28, 30, 35, 40... And you've not even lived.

Then some guy, 5 years older than you, starts teaching his boss about some anti-aging thing. The boss is just like you, someone who hasn't lived and regrets it and you realize, a thought so powerful that your cry in the middle of the afternoon. There are as many years between me and Nozue as I've lived. It's not exact math but it shocks you down to your every cell. I feel old. But I'm not. Nozue is twice as old as me and I never thought him to be that old. And yes, life still sucks in many ways and yes, the rules of the universe are different for men and women but it also means my life doesn't end at 30. I won't be a haggard, old woman the moment the second hand moves to the next day on my birthday. Even if the world believes it - I don't have to. And it changes me coz all the things I thought I didn't have time for are suddenly things where I have all the time in the world. I have time for cute food. I have time for a cute cat. I have time to make my name. I have time to live.

And then comes something that makes me even more insane than I already am -

Love in the Air

I know. I know. But this is the first time I've seen someone that makes me as insane as Payu does. And I don't mean the department god status or the cool look. I mean the complete balance and grace this guy has. Before him it was Peggy Carter who I thought was just amazing but it was Payu that solidified the idea of why. He defies every expectation put on him. Good guy? No, he has connections to the mafia and can make you vanish with a phone call. Bad guy then? Nope, he is nice to everyone and is a general pleasure to have around. Any bad guy aesthetics are things he is passionate about in a nerdy way. The Cool Guy? Nope, he looks cool sure but it's not his goal to be a cool guy. He wants to be a nice guy. It's being nice that is cool. Nice Guy (derogatory)? Nope, he tests Rain but is pleasantly surprised every time Rain does pass the test. Narcissistic? Nope, he will put his whole pride aside for the man he loves. He will get humiliated for him any day. He is a well adjusted, respected man who is into kink. No tragic backstory, no dark impulses. Just some guy. Who likes kink.

He became dear to me and looking at him is the reason I realized that in order to make my dreams come true I can't just hope and have talent, I need discipline and balance too. But I also need grace to understand others. Enter Parpai. He spotted something wrong with Sky from the few seconds he seemed lost in thought. His priority in the finale was to take care of Sky and not being his hero or being The Hero. He cared about nothing beyond Sky's wellbeing. This is a type of character I can honestly say I've never seen before. The maturity and emotional intelligence shown by Parpai blows me away each time.

The clock struck twelve and I broke my first bottle of Merlot. Here to to an amazing 2023, an insane 2023, a wonderful 2023 and a kind 2023. I end this with love and gratitude, thing that before this year I considered superfluous, especially gratitude. But I've felt more gratitude this year thanks to BLs/GLs/QLs than I thought I was capable off.

What I wanted to do at 15 hasn't changed but now I have hope it can happen and time to make it happen and the balance and grace I would need to help me achieve my 15 year old self's dreams. Coz after a decade of being told it was stupid or unimportant I get to have confidence that all that I felt, things that others didn't agree with are real. And that makes all the difference.

[inaturalist-propaganda]

A post by Walks-the-Ages, that was just removed by iNaturalist staff from the thread about their failure to moderate bigotry for "being inapporpiate"

The two posts purposefully misgendering me, on the other hand, are still up, and the restrictions the staff have put on the thread to punish the trans and ally users for speaking up is now literally preventing the person who misgendered me from editing her posts to fix them.

Check my pinned post for more information on the situation, and ways you can help out!

= = =

[quote="astra_the_dragon, post:71, topic:42122"]

I agree with yalls core ideals, but as an individual I believe that it is impossible to force someone to change. you can explain, you can beg, you can scream, but you cannot forcibly make anyone have a belief or do something… short of actual force.

[/quote]

***And once again. I have to reinterate what Nonbinary-Naturalist cannot, because it was banned for the mods for refusing to back down when it was the target of transphobia:***

** Literally no one here is expecting you to hold Sedgequeen hostage and force her to use the right pronouns for someone who's already told her its pronouns and why its important to it to not be misgendered.**

This is not about changing someones mind about being transphobic.

this is about Staff's week long, drawn-out refusal to remove 2 single transphobic posts from the LGBTQIA thread , while removing dozens of other posts for far less egregious violations of TOS

At this point, I have allready been directing queer and ally Inaturalist users to these two threads so they can see for themselves Staff's reaction in real time, and they are all equally horrified.

Few people are willing to put themselves at risk by responding, since staff have shown from day one of this staff-made debacle that they are not on the side of marginalized groups.

So yeah. It's June first. It's Pride Month, I am joining if not starting a boycott of Inaturalist for Pride Month, either for the duration, or until Nonbinary-Naturalist is unbanned, a formal apology is made, paid staff undergo actual training for LGBTQIA issuers, and the 2 posts are removed which is what the original request was no matter how much you want to try to twist it into something outrageous and malicious.

I've already been spreading the word to queer and ally users about exactly what's gone down here, and plenty have already seen for themselves .

~~~~~~~~~~~~

So anyways, for anyone who's unaware, Nonbinary-Naturalist was officially banned by staff for a full week for refusing to back down on the simple fact that staff need to remove the 2 posts from this thread.  

@Sedgequeen I see that you are typing. Please remove your posts from this thread, for the -- oh and live i see that because of slow mode you can't even do that for the technicalities. Thank you for trying!

If you would to see and practice with neopronouns, as well as understand Nonbinary-Naturalist's

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[quote="astra_the_dragon, post:66, topic:42122"]

fascists won’t differentiate between a transmisc lesbian and an it/its person who insists everyone must be perfect all the time.

[/quote]

Astra, it really is amazing how you are twisting literally every single thing that Nonbinary-Naturalsit has said now that it cant be here to defend itself. This is absolutely foul behavior, and I really hope you think deeply about what exactly you're doing here. No one is expectiong "everyone to be perfect all the time" and the fact you've all removed its posts so you (general you) can twists its words this way is extremely telling.

You (staff) were asked to remove 2 transphobic posts, and for whatever reason, you (astra) have decided that this is a personal attack on yourself as an unpaid trans moderator and I really, really think you need to step back from this because you are being exactly the thing you are apparently fighting against, saying that standing up for yourself is the same as being an aggressive attacker, saying that calling someone a transphobe for being blatantly transphobic in the queer-dedicated thread is "name calling", etc etc.

[quote="astra_the_dragon, post:71, topic:42122"]

the mod team here are not DeSantis’s little cronies come to take you to jail

[/quote]

 And yet, once again alll the posts are being removed except for the 2 requested by multiple queer users,

and **you haven't even made it public that you banned Nonbinary-Naturalist from the forums yet**, and instead you're acting like nothing's been done so people will assume the lack of response from nonbinary-naturalist is that it has given up and this can all be swept under the rug.

I await this post getting removed for "inapproriateness"

Removing Nonbinary-Naturalists' posts so you can lie about what it said and paint it as an unreasonable perfectionist is very telling.

~~

[josiebelladonna]

so.

i’ve been thinking about this for the past week or so, and i don’t really know how to say this without being completely and totally blunt with it as i usually am, anyway.

i’m going on hiatus again. i don’t know how long i’ll be away—it was either that or deleting, and i decided not to do away with deleting because i lose everything otherwise but i need to get away from here.

between the shitbrained updates staff keeps inflicting onto us and i really don’t know if it’s just a me thing and people on here are genuinely repulsed by me, or if there’s something happening collectively that i’m not okay with because it happened while i wasn’t paying attention but… i’m finding myself more and more pissed off by tumblr and this current generation that’s on here at the moment.

i’m so sick of everything being so detached. i’m so sick of everyone being offended rather than curious. i literally hate the word “mutual” now because of this site—it’s especially weird for me because that word didn’t exist in the first year or two i was here. we all knew who our friends were and we all addressed each other by name, we didn’t have these fucking stupid posts that are a dime a dozen watering down the whole neighborhood feel of it all. there was a joke about tumblr, back around 2011-2013, where if you an account on here, you were considered “forever alone” because you were a nerd: you shared things you loved, you were curious about things like sexuality (back when they genuinely allowed nsfw content, no less), you spoke your mind no matter how caustic your opinion, and you were kind of safe here to boot. you were considered “forever alone” because you either got it or you didn’t. 

it came to a head around 2014/2015, and i started seeing a serious pushback in 2016, how closing yourself off to other experiences and new people is toxic, something i absolutely do agree with, but the thing is it immediately started to warp itself and dumb itself down, a long slow process that came to the absolute dumbest conclusion of “mutuals”, whatever the fuck that’s even supposed to signify. it’s such a vague term, like what the hell is it even supposed to mean? what degree of companionship are we talking about here? someone clarify this for me.

“they’re not my friends! they’re my mutuals!” i consider teababe on here and brambles on instagram as my friends and not once do i have to refer to them as that. bro, i remember following people on here and we became facebook friends: i remember people on here genuinely meeting up with each other and sending each other things—like actually sending things, making gifts and mailing it to them. i never see that anymore: i could not tell you the last time i saw that. nate peck and eric peterson are my mutuals on ig but i don’t feel comfortable calling them that, especially nate, because quite frankly, i value them more than that.

plus, it was coupled with that fucking election cycle: everything became political almost overnight. with the blatant politics everywhere you turned and people complaining about every little thing comes lack of finesse. with lack of finesse or subtlety comes lack of imagination. things started to get dumbed down really quickly and it was getting on my nerves just as quick.

i wasn’t here for all of 2017 and most of 2018, but i could only assume that those old bloggers just moved on or they too went quiet and their posts started going quiet as well, going down into the tags to the point of being buried. you get new blood in there who grew up watching tumblr from the sidelines and they don’t know what to do with it, especially once the nsfw ban came about.

so gone are the days of being calm and collected and civil about things, and now you have so many bloggers who are just not interested in culture, or don’t even seem to understand or care how tumblr is supposed to work. in hindsight, i should have realized that things were quite different on here than they were in 2013 when i saw the green druidess complaining about some bad review with the line “community? what community?” i remember she showed it to me, too: the way it sits in my memory was it almost felt like a parody, like the person was just fooling around (kind of like what i do) and just trying to get a rise. i remember actually saying, “oh my god, i really hope this is just a joke. it looks like a joke.” but i remember telling her that if something does offend you that much, say something (and boy, did that get warped or what). but that’s kind of how it was back then: we knew about shit going on but we knew how to have good fun from time to time even if it was inflammatory because the world does indeed suck. i remember thinking that 2013 was the worst year ever, and then 2015 was, and then 2016, and then 2017 happened and you realize that i quit doing that shit. 

yes, even in 2020, i never said that once, because you learn to laugh at your pain. you learn to laugh at a world that’s been going straight to hell for the last 20 years, because… look at it, it does seem genuinely ridiculous at times.

the first half of the 2010s, when i showed up here as a scrappy troubled 20-year-old bouncing around stem school and into a community college, was quite literally the best time to be on here. when i came back from that 2 year vacation, i had a sense that things were different, especially when i started seeing less art and nsfw content (this was right before the ban, too, like a few months before), and i had to dig around for smutty fanfic. 2019 came along with the green druidess and her “raunchy side” and i feel like that was the “…oh, dear” moment. the moment i realized that tumblr is not what it was 5, 6 years before, and you’re having to make a disclaimer for your own sexuality now—not good for someone like me who constantly grapples with that part of life, and especially over that summer, too. don’t get me wrong: 2019 was a fun year from what i remember, but it gave me a bad feeling.

the pandemic happened… we all know what happened there. three years later, looking at my thirties, and i’m back at square one and wanting a place where i can really be myself. a place that was like tumblr circa 2013 or 2014, even though that time is history now. instagram, for what it’s worth, has done wonders for me, but there’s a reason why those of us who had witnessed it remember it so fondly.

don’t get me wrong: there was a ton of shit back then—and i mean, a lot of shit—but given the choice, i will gladly take that era again over whatever trash this current era of tumblr is. that era was just a lot more entertaining and fun to think about. people didn’t gloss over everything, calling their perfectly natural sexuality their “raunchy/wild side” or be vague about someone or something to the point of sounding so fake and corny: that’s the thing, i could probably forgive her corniness if she wasn’t so damn fake and glossed over shit. if she was actually being real, she’d use words like “anxiety” or go into her past in more elaborate detail, but instead glosses it over with running from a past demon and “being real” whatever the fuck that’s supposed to quantify. 

and it’s a problem i see all too often on here now, people being too afraid to address each other by name—their real name, too, not just their handle—and go absolutely batshit with the block button for anything that they don’t like, sealing themselves off from anything that can challenge them or help them grow. and as a result, people on here almost don’t even seem human anymore, just a bunch of robots spewing out generalities and i get nothing out of it. this shit started going sideways a long time ago and it was only a matter of time before the whole echo chamber phenomenon started catching up with us and cemented by something like tiktok.

thing is, i’m usually in a really good mood during the day—and i’m in an even better mood when alex is involved—but it goes away once i get on tumblr now. it wasn’t always like this, either: i used to look forward to coming onto here. now, i actually worry about posting a smut fic or a drawing on here because it’ll either get bupkiss or someone is going to claim that i’m somehow not real because they failed to get to know me and instead relegated me to the level of ~mutual~

one place i’m thinking of going to is dreamwidth because like ao3, it’s made for creatives by creatives. another is fetlife, given i’m trying to feel better about my kinks without worrying about someone complaining about the mature label on a drawing i made or a chapter i wrote: i’m also not hot enough for onlyfans. yeah, don’t get me started on how my face has been treated on here: i was never tagged to post selfies whereas all of you were with the claim that “we’re all beautiful!”, and when i did post a pic, most of you ran for the hills. thanks for joining me in my feeling good, you ugly boring hypocritical fucks.

my other option is to just stay with instagram and ao3. no need to start something new when i can utilize what i already have. as for now, that’s just what i have: my ig is badmotorartist and my ao3 is josiebelladonna. i’ll hang out on the side blogs, too, my art blog (badgalnirvhannah), the fever in fever out blog, and my healing blog (theghostandthehealer), although… if i’m being honest, healing, a natural process, has almost become the poor man’s blogging, like no one seems to realize that you start a healing journal for a reason—i started that blog because the snow back in february was starting to get to me and i knew there were other people in my position (plus, you have people in new york and the northeast feeling down about the lack of snow they got this winter, the reverse effect)—not because you think it’s cool or aesthetic. 

more testament fans are out there and this is where the “I don’t know if this is just a ‘me’ thing” mindset comes in. for example, type o has gotten hella popular the last few years, and the anthrax tag has grown a lot since the green druidess and i were at it. you would think it’s happening with testament but… not really. i see more metallica fics repeating the same lore over and over again (i was observing this last night, too: not a single “jameson” or st. anger era fic mentions devin townsend, either, and i don’t know if that’s a good thing or utterly pathetic) but love for these five men is minuscule at best.

and *grits teeth* don’t get me started on ai. i feel like i’ve said everything i needed to say about it because i know i’m just going to be repeating myself, and i doubt people will listen, either, because what i have to say is not punchy enough. who cares if it’s for the greater good, it has to look and sound good. what more can i say about this and that’s not going into the pervasive discouragement and feeling of worthlessness that i think i’m always going to feel but… i’m not even touching that.

something told me i was going to have to leave tumblr at some point, but when was another question. and i think i just found my “when”. maybe somewhere down the line, i can figure out how to archive this thing because i’ve been here almost a decade now: i don’t want to lose everything.

again, i don’t know how long i’m going to be away from here, but i can’t be here anymore—by the way, if there’s an uptick in fics on here, i’m not at all going to be surprised, because that literally happened when i went quiet for those two years, and it sort of happened again when i threatened to leave back in 2020. i get it: i just am not likable. why do you think i struggled with self-love for as long as i did.

you know what will surprise me is people missing me on here. like, seriously: i will be surprised if someone straight up tells me they miss seeing me on here, given the damage i’ve done.

a new chapter of as the seasons grey is dropping some time tonight, i’m gonna keep updating my fics, and i quite literally promised alex a handful of trio drawings, too 😅. i’m a culture person: i want to live and learn and explore the world. i’m also a very earthy person, very sensual and very emotional and very sentimental and i hate how we all treat each other.

[chappybird]

Warning: Text wall incoming! Prepare your bottom!

While I do still have notifications turned off, I admit I did look today after not even trying to look in about two or three days, where I saw the first few words of your post. I was a bit apprehensive in clicking on your post, but I took a gamble.

I did mention a message that a Homestuck Facebook group led me to the MXRP Tumblr, and then to that Discord server. So when people were assuming I knew this or that about, or mocking me for not knowing all about it, it was strange.

The mixed race thing is I am Puerto Rican-Black, like Miles Morales. Heh. I could have kept going with that, but I quickly realized it was going nowhere fast.

LGBTQ+ stuff: What's funny with people bringing up my age is they don't realize I was a teen, and then an adult, protesting and marching and raising awareness during the times when those marches didn't often end without a hitch, let alone peacefully. When it was illegal to get married in the US. When it was very legal to outright fire LGBTQ+ people if they were accused or found out about being LGBTQ+. I think maybe a very old message on my blog talked about what sexuality I am, but I rarely bring it up because of old reservations about that and I like seeing what people assume about me. Kind of applies to the race topic as well.

And I am dogshit with text interactions, especially while upset. But if you were there in the VC, I got a little snippy at the race discussion, and then passionate about the LGBTQ+ topic, but everything else seemed calm throughout, with MMOs being the ending topic. I really wasn't expecting both the accusation and the ban. So I got emotional about such a serious accusation. Which I guess is "only my opinion" from the other replies. Then this fornication cluster went on.

I did fuck up on many things. I even brought up in one post that the things I did say could've been looked at as queerphobia. While I would have still been upset about an accusation, thinking it over would have made me slap myself with how bad I phrased it all, and apologized with hopefully clarifying everything I said.

But this is still over and done with on my side. If other people want to keep arguing about it, it's out of my sight and out of my mind.

I don't know how to do TL;DR things. I suck at synopsizing stories. Uh... something TED Talk.

I hope you don't mind me answering this publically, but I will keep it out of the tags. If you want me to delete this let me know.

I think it's unreasonable to ask you to be perfect, tbh. I don't expect it, and I don't think that launching a witch hunt is the appropriate response to something like this anyway. You misspoke on a few things (Not everything tbh as said in the original post I made I don't think all of your points were incorrect and even the ones I disagreed with I could understand the reasoning.) I've misspoken before. Everyone has misspoken before. The problem with "fandom activists" like the sort of people found on this site is that they care less about making the world and their spaces a better place for everyone, and more about feeling right by lauding "justice" at people they think are wrong.

Thanks for sharing some of those things about your experiences and life. I hope that this will blow over soon. Have a good one.