#as a non-american it also really confused me at first

[repmet]

@rwrbsource & @rwrbmovie’s rwrb appreciation month bingo: alex

[insp] [Henry]

[raybeam-littlebean]

I got into a debate with my friend about the location of Gotham, as most sources would say New Jersey. So, this provoked thought.

I think we should give Bruce a Jersey accent, and have only a select few genuinely understand him.

Like, I feel he'd hide it for the most part, but it's when he's extremely tired or angry or just high emotions when it comes out the worst. Or when he's in his Brucie Wayne persona because it makes him sound even ditzier(?), more ditzy, than without it. Also, he was basically raised by Alfred, you can't tell me he hasn't adopted an English word or phrase, or two.

Alfred had to learn to understand American life in general, and Martha and Thomas, so I don't think he really counts. Besides, he raised Bruce, he knows him. And he's English, he has weird saying and accented words too.

Dick had to learn how to understand this man by trial of fire. A European coming to the USA, presumably for the first time, and in Jersey of all places. He had to learn how to integrate, learn how to understand Bruce's non words expressions, and now how to understand Bruce's thick accent when he inevitably got pissed. Boy is fucking stressed(tm) and he wrote the dictionary on how to read that man.

Jason, born and raised in NJ, has even more of an atrocious accent than Bruce. Probably the thick stereotype one, can't understand a quarter of whatever come out of his mouth that isn't some kind of street slang or curse word. Bruce has to do extensive speech training to get him to speak "properly" enough to fit in at galas and the like.

Tim, again, born and raised, but I feel like he has less of an accent than even Bruce. Already trained that out of him, or perhaps never really picked it up to begin with. Alternatively, I think he has accents from other cities, or countries. Given that his parents travel so often, staying there for a while, and probably even visiting the same country a few times. Hard not to pick up an accent or two, perhaps a unique phrase only found in that country, or just a different way of saying a certain word. Perhaps even spelling said word differently, I feel like he might doing the English spelling of some words rather than the Americanized version. (Colour instead of color).

Damian doesn't know what the fuck is going on and is so confused on what his own father is saying when the man is so angry and scolding him. He speaks many languages, but whatever his coming out of this man's mouth is.. is not any one of them. Probably why he clings to Dick, the only normal one here, the only one that can understand his struggles. Will even share forementioned Bruce Dictionary that he wrote some odd years ago.

[lime1991]

Sims 2 lore that nobody really thinks about that I find interesting: Olive’s maiden name is Muenda, which translates from Swahili means to “go to” or “you go to” (and I’m getting this from google translate forgive me) her father’s name is Peponi Muenda, which according to google translates to “go to heaven/paradise”

Olive’s mother, Lerato Muenda, has a first name that according to google translate is a word in the Southern Sotho language for “love”, accompanied with her last name meaning “go to”, we can assume her name would translate to “go towards love” or something similar to that, but her first and last name are two different African languages.

What I find interesting about this isn’t even necessarily the names themselves, but the fact that the sims 2 team decided to make Olive Specter non-debatably African, with a Swahili maiden name and everything.

And all of this is really to bring up Nervous Subject.

The Grim Reaper is his father, however Grim isn’t human and therefore has no genes to pass down (ignoring game logic where he needs to have genes) which should essentially make Nervous a clone of Olive, which ig would also make him trans so do with that what you will.

But anyway, I never see anybody talk about the fact that Nervous and Olive are canonically African. The sims fandom feels very White and even if not white, erases the canon cultures of the characters without thinking (i.e “it’s my dollhouse game they can be whatever I want them to be!!!”) and even though I’m not African (I’m a black American) this feels like really interesting character lore that people ignore.

I saw someone on twitter imply that Olive Specter wasn’t black, because I guess her maiden name made them assume she was latina? (Which you can be both lol) but upon looking into it myself I noticed not only is she black, she’s AFRICAN. People see the maiden name Muenda and go “oh that looks like Spanish, she’s latino!” When in reality it’s Swahili! In the lore of Olive’s family, her parents are both African though likely from different areas seeing as her mom’s name implies she’s from South Africa.

But all of this makes it even more confusing why the sims team chose to keep Nervous white for like 20 years? You know he’s not white, even if the Grim Reaper had genes to pass down, Nervous would still be half black. So why did it take until Sims 4 Life & Death for them to actually make him black, when from the start they knew his mother was African? It’s honestly weird and annoying and do NOT let EA brainwash you into thinking it didn’t happen, they absolutely love whitewashing.

[bun-z-bakery]

(Repost from my abandoned account) these are just my personal head canons for dogday. this is a survivor au

(All characters are over 18 btw)

-dogday sometimes has dog like tendencies, like growling, barking etc.

-he doesn't remember a lot about his life as a worker but will share stories he remembers of his human life once you two become close.

-man is like a love sick puppy. First you save him? Give him legs? AND a home?! And his friends are here too?! You really are his angel.

-he's very protective of his angel. He can't have anyone take them away or even hurt them. Plus all those years locked away, he can't loose you, you're his hope.

-this man will most certainly plan his confession, script and all. Maybe you're away at work and this is something he's been working on for a while. He's always bringing you little gifts on his hunting trips (depending on if you like to collect rocks and such) but this dude went out of his way to find the best of the best. Even somehow found flowers beautiful enough to almost rival your beauty, keyword: almost.

-he enjoys spending time with you, poppy and kissy, he enjoys playing outside with you three, even if you guys have been out of the factory for years already. They still enjoy the outside world.

-I know bro is huge, like dude is taller than an American door way (according to some measurements fans have made, hes 9'5) if you're a shorty (like me 5 feet even😭) he will most definitely pick you up and carry you like a dogtoy. He likes the feeling of carrying his angel, it gives him a sense of pride doing so. Even if you accidentally hit the ceiling or he needs to really get down so you don't hit the top of the doorframe, he will always apologize or joke about it.

-he's a cuddler, he LOVES cuddling! He has his own giant dog bed in your shared room, but he prefers to sleep on your shared bed. If you're away from work and he's eepy, he'll pass out on your bed because it smells like you. Your scent keeps him at bay until you come home. Poor guy will shoot up and push anyone out of his way to be the first to get to you! He sits there on the floor waiting for his mandatory headpats and kisses as soon as he hears your keys.

-it takes his brain a few minutes to properly turn on. After all those years he finally gets proper sleep, I can imagine you waking up first and getting ready for the day to prepare breakfast for the group and you poke him, trying to wake him. He'll mumble some random stuff about not letting rats do taxes then fall back asleep only to be woken again by your pokes still talking nonsense. I can also see him sometimes waking up confused, you know like when you wake up your parents and they're mad for no reason asking what's wrong while gasping for air? (Just me?) I can see him being THAT dead asleep bhahsha

-my take on the survivor au is more of a modern take (as in yes the factory closed years also but reader is possibly in early to late 20s sometime in 20xx / non specified year) so they weren't an employee but probably knew someone like a family member who worked there or was dared to enter the factory (we'll see if I ever post my fanfic haha as these hcs kinda tie into that story) so dogday being alive in the 80s or 90s he probably has like the old school idea of love and attempts to swoon you as such. The flowers, cheesy pick up lines.

-I can imagine because he's not up to date with the newer terms and he might be confused while trying to seem cool haha. "Angel what does rizzler mean?" (Poor peepaw)

- Personally I love the theory that DogDay is an ex worker aka Rich. Which is probably why he was the leader of the smiling critters. Because he was mature enough to make sure everyone was in line/well behaved, I also think some other workers were turned into the mascots too (obviously) but maybe they trusted Rich more so they just threw him into the dance circle and hope that he'd be a good leader.

- this one ties into the first one btw! I like the think that maybe he was one of the mascots when he worked there. Like a guy in the costume who worked with the kids (hence the zipper, how else would the workers get into the bigger body suits?)

- I like to think DogDay likes when Angel calls him by his old human name. Maybe once he opens up more about his human life (or at least bringing up some of the memories he still has) he just randomly brings up his name when talking about a memory and hearing Angel repeat his name back, he'd probably like hearing it. It might make him feel like less of a monster in a sense. Granted I think he wouldn't care about what Angel calls him but he would most definitely prefer for them to alternate. Like you know when someone makes you mad and you use their real name instead of their nickname? He'd hate for his Angel to get mad, especially at him. But when living with 3 other people it can get a bit hectic.

"DogDay! Did you bring mud into the house?!"

"N-No!... "

*silence*

"RICH, WHERE ARE YOU?!"

*footsteps are heard and DogDay bolts out the door*

- Now this head canon I have can go either one of two ways, right? Hear me out. Listen up, listen carefully, and listen closely. (Lmk if you got that reference) ok so back to the zipper! I think the zipper just opens to his organs tbh like the zipper was just left functional in case he needed to be "repaired internally". BUT another thought, I also can see there being some sort of barrier! You know those stuff animals who have their stuffing blocked by a barrier so it doesn't fall out but the zipper opens to a compartment where you can store items? I kinda think that's whats there tbh, I mean it makes sense. What if one of the kids opened the zipper by mistake? Surely there would be a barrier just in case.

- as I mentioned in the last hc post, I can see him trying to swoon Angel in the old romantic type of way. I can see him pinning after Angel hard, at first they wouldn't get the hint, they'd probably think he's thinks he's indebted to them for rescuing them and giving the 3 of them a better and new life. But quickly they realize bro is in love. Of course poppy teases him about it too at some point lol. He doesn't really try to hide it either. I can see poppy and kissy thinking it's sweet and first then they get annoyed once you're the only thing he talk about lol.

- You're married. That's all! No but I can see in his mind you two are basically married. He'd probably want to have new custom star collars made for both of you or maybe even a ring for you and a matching collar or something for him to wear and propose. Of course it will bother him a bit because he can't go out with you, take you on dates or show you off but he trusts you (even though he gets jealous when you smell like someone else) he basically tries his best with what you guys have (If only there was a holiday that came once a year where you guys could go out dressed in customs without looking like freaks).

- He looks like the type of guy who would love pasta. I'm not sure why or how this even came into mind but I just feel like that's what he often wants for dinner. Poppy would probably eat fruit for dinner, kissy isn't really picky, but Dogday would probably be asking for either pasta or meat. Also I think Angel would be hesitant to feed certain foods to Dogday because you know, he's a dog (not really but hear me out) but because he acts like one at times I could see Angel being like haha nope you can't eat this!

*Angel eating chocolate cookies*

"May I have some?" *cutely pouts*

"I don't want you dying, love."

"You know I'm not actually a dog...right?"

ok ok you got me there" (they just really didn't wanna share lol)

- tbh this is more of a general head canon for the toys but I seeing as they had to resort to c*nnibalism. They clearly need food and water to survive. I think catcap was probably keep Dogday alive as a "lol now look at you now, look at me" (yes that's a BP reference) moment but only feeds him when he felt like it, since food is basically scarce in that place. I think that their human organs were transferred over but little things like veins, teeth, tongue, blood vessels basically anything that's not a major organ was made artificially and connected in a sense to those major organs making them function as such.

Yeah that's kinda it lol, there might be some more parts to this if I can think of anything else! But yeahhh that's kinda my hc and rambles lol (I tend to ramble a lot especially when I have to give context, I apologize!)

[parasolladyansy]

hello! i've liked ansy's adventure for a while, and i noticed how you play on japanese names for the pokemon, especially for mizumi's and sasmu's. what do you think of the languages in the pokemon world? i can guess hisuian equals japanese, but does sinnohan/kantonese also translate into japanese? or the four japanese-based regions are adapted into english ( or unovan?) i don't know if i'm explaining myself, but how do you view the pkmn languages and their equivalents in our world?

こんばんは! Good evening! Thank you for following along ^o^/

Class is in session lol! Professor Laventon seems to be most comfortable writing in his native Galarian, though he also has various notes in traditional “Japanese”, written vertically & read right to left.

So, language is a very interesting thing in fiction, & the Pokeverse is no exception! Through the games (& especially the latest ones, Scarlet / Violet) we’ve had a number of characters who spoke in different languages. I remember a couple of NPC’s in BW Unova, there’s Fantina in Sinnoh who peppers her speech with Kalosian (French), & a Hiker on Galar’s Route 6 who spoke what I’m guessing was Paldean (Spanish) rather than Galarian (English). Then in SV, we have Mr. Salvatore who teaches (& uses) many languages (off the top of my head, I remember him teaching how to say “thank you” in Spanish, French, Chinese, & German).

It does get tricky when it comes to the “Japanese” regions of Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh / Hisui, & Kitakami, as those regions otherwise make up one country in our world, but this has yet to have been canonically established (which is why I always put “Japan” / “Japanese” in quotes, as there currently isn’t a name for that one country, same with “America”). I do believe they share the same language - at the very least Hisui & Kitakami have the same written script, & I feel pretty confident that if they were to retcon it, they would have the other “Japanese” regions use it, too (before Legends Arceus, they just used random shapes that didn’t seem to spell anything, which I interpreted to just be placeholder characters).

If there is a common language in their world (& I think is, from characters from different regions being able to talk to each other no problem), I personally would guess it to be “Japanese” - as we look at the other regions, we can see a sort of Japanese flavor that would otherwise not be there (though they clearly did their homework on the various parts of the world these regions reflect!). Of course, Pokémon is from Japan, so it would make sense that they would add some of their own culture to this world they created. For a possible in-universe explanation, the Pokeverse seemed to have started in Japan (specifically in Sinnoh as we learned in Legends Arceus, so I guess their universe actually is geocentric like old astronomers used to think ours was?).

I think that’s about it. In DxP REWRITE, while my own language is American-English (& beginner-level Japanese lol) so I read the characters to be speaking American-English, they are actually speaking “Japanese” while in Sinnoh (which is why I haven’t really been peppering Ansy’s dialogue with Japanese). I have tried to write in the “Japanese” or Galarian scripts for signs & things a couple times:

The sign just says “Gear Station”

Here I (tried to lol) translate Mizumi’s letter to Japanese then wrote it out in in-game characters (in the modern horizontal, as Mizumi is from the modern era writing to someone in the modern era).

Thanks for reading yet another post of me geeking out lol. Feel free to let me know your thoughts in the comments! じゃあ、またね! Until next time! ^o^/

—

PS: For funsies, here’s the (non-canonical, as these were made by fans) references I’ve been using when writing in either Galarian or “Japanese” in DxP REWRITE:

I personally was confused by the “Japanese” script also being alphabetical rather than phonetic like hiragana / katakana (two common scripts in Japan, the first being mostly used to spell Japanese words while katakana is used to spell foreign words - the third script, kanji, is used to write whole words). If that is the case (which is how I wrote it in Mizumi’s letter), “Japanese” is written in what’s called “romanji”, where they write out words in the Latin (aka Roman) alphabet rather than phonetically: “ありがとうございます” becomes “arigatō-gozaimasu” (“thank you very much”).

Whether it is actually written out that way in game though…? At a glance of the signs I saw in Hisui & Kitakami, it does look like it’s more like hiragana & kanji instead, but this chart is all I got for now. Any Japanese folks or fluent Japanese-readers who can tell me if there’s anything out there in the Japanese fandom about this, please lemme know so I can do right by it into future - as of writing this, I haven’t seen much else among the English-speaking fandom 8u8;

As for the Galarian script, it’s clearly based on the Latin alphabet that much of the Western world uses for our various languages - we see it in Paldea as well as Galar, & according to the trailer in Pokemon ZA, they retconned it to be used in Kalos as well. In universe, I wonder if they were at all influenced by the Unown, being based on the Latin alphabet themselves. Again, who knows? (though I question the accuracy of this particular font / chart: if it is, the first thing Laventon’s chalkboard says “REXBOQ” lol XD)

[lotties-ashwagandha]

BEING STUCK IN A SNOWSTORM WITH THE YELLOWJACKETS (headcanons)

bc currently my town is being decimated by a winter storm and it gave me inspiration . also we aren’t talking about how half of yellowjackets is set in the snow it’s when they’re teens smh this is adult timeline

SHAUNA

gets grumpy bc one of you is going to have to shovel the driveway and it’ll probably end up being her

apart from that she loves the snow

she’ll take a bunch of pictures of it to post on facebook in an unhinged uncaptioned photo dump

she’ll make the two of you an unhealthy amount of coffee or hot chocolate or tea whatever you’re feeling , you’ll develop an addiction to it with the amount she’s giving you . but “you have to stay warm” in her opinion , and also it makes her feel all aesthetic pinterest girl

she’s one of those people that has a collection of heavy knitted blankets that are worth like $500 each and she puts them to use ‼️‼️‼️ you’ll be BURIED in comfort she will make sure of that . no one gets cold in this house

also when it starts to really hardcore snow she’ll just go outside and stand there and watch. you know that tiktok of the woman making fun of american southerners who get a tornado warning and go stand out to see the tornado? that’s shauna with the blizzard

LOTTIE

you have to literally beg her not to go fucking “give the wilderness blood” bc girl sees one snowflake and is like omg il veut du sang

that being said lottie matthews is at heart a rich girl with 10,000 pinterest followers and when it snows , sunshine honey wellness center becomes a place of AESTHETICS

im talking the two of you will be laying in bed with heavy blankets and a record will be playing and lottie will have 3 or 4 candles lit

the two of you reading classic novels in bed <3

she sees heavy winters as very spiritual. a time to recharge and reset and be calm. she’ll coerce you into doing a couple of guided meditations with her that are themed on spiritual guidance and recharge

when you lose power tho she has a complete meltdown. not that she uses electronics much but when she realizes the stove doesn’t work and that the blender for her smoothies won’t work things go downhill so fast. you have to hook up the generator just so she can make a smoothie for her anxiety that came because she couldn’t make smoothies. girl is a mess

TAISSA

you’ll be taking care of her all week because she gets sick every winter without fail

doesn’t matter if she got a flu shot, covid shot, you name it . first snowflake comes down and she’s off to the doctor

but it gives you an excuse to sort of hold her hostage at home and cuddle with her and watch movies you’ve been meaning to watch together but haven’t since she’s been busy with the campaign

she actually gets kind of excited in the snow storm if the power goes out because it feels like camping. she will get frustrated with no TV tho , but if sammy’s there with the two of you she’ll go all non deadbeat dad for once and the two of you will make a blanket fort with him and all the other shit kids like to do

will try to order you guys a pizza and then get confused when the pizza place doesn’t answer. you have to remind her there’s no power before she goes on a tangent about stores having weird hours and how everyone’s so lazy

VAN

will NOT go out to shovel snow. you’re going to be doing that thanks she’ll be re sorting her movie collection to find some good blizzard themed movies for the two of you to watch

she’ll also go all autistic about the history of snowstorms and you’ll come back in from shoveling and get a lecture about some random snowstorm in some country you’ve never heard of from fucking 500 BC.

her house has a shitty heating system so you spend most of the time under blankets together but that’s not such a bad thing <3

she makes you watch her favorite winter movies, and if the power goes out and you can’t then the two of you will spend the night playing drinking games or playing cards or something like that

she won’t outright tell you to wear her jackets but she loves when you get cold and grab one of her sweatshirts/jackets to wear. she also does that 2000s movie boyfriend thing where you get cold and she’s like oh here take my jacket and while it’s so cliche it’s cute when she does it

NATALIE

tbh girl probably learned abt the snow storm bc she woke up covered in snow somewhere and was like oh it’s snowing huh

but anyway

she’d probably spend the duration of the snowstorm at your place because can you imagine staying out a blizzard in a motel??? no thanks

she’ll raid your booze and you’ll get drunk together by the fire. she might have some weed on her too if you’re lucky

you’ll listen to music together, she has better taste but she will still listen to your music, you take turns playing each other different songs you think remind you of each other

she WILL throw balls of ice at any kids that walk by. you will be having a lot of angry parents at your door the next day.

MISTY

is lowkey a prepper so she doesn’t care that much if there’s a snow storm. if the power goes out she can think of 50 different ways to get it back on

she loves to watch it snow out the window and show caligula

she’s definitely the one you want to spend a blizzard with

she absolutely will not let you leave the house until you’re wearing 20 layers of clothes

she’ll try to write poetry about the snow storm but it just sounds like a daunting ancient prophecy. when she shows you tho you obviously say it’s amazing and you love it because she worked so hard on it

[olderthannetfic]

So I had a question, it's not exactly related to fandoms but it's how I found out I guess?

(Tw :incest mention, actually first and second cousins irl )

(if you don't want to answer or read this I completely understand, it was just something I really feel bad about and wanted to know an outsider's opinion I guess.)

I live in a country where first and second cousin marriage is accepted and happens. Not that much but you can see one or two in families, usually. Basically, my culture doesn't see cousins as close enough to consider it incest. ( Anything closer is of course not allowed). So when I entered fandoms I saw a lot " if you think incest irl is OK dni " and I was like of course it's not ok and moved on. That's till I found incest to most of Tumblr ( or Americans? I checked the world map and it seems cousin marriage is allowed in most places but not in some places like some of America and some countries like China , Korea ) include first and second cousins too. Now I feel confused. There is of course a biological risk for their children but they usually go to doctors to check if they can have children or not. So I have not managed to think it's wrong of them to marry. Should I force myself and change my opinion on this? I read somewhere that cousin marriage is not considered incest in some places (BC of their culture) and people should accept that, but I don't think people are willing to do that?

Idk , I really feel bad about this .

(also from what I gathered most religions are not against this , which didn't help me to get an answer either)

Again I understand if u don't answer.

--

Dumb, terminally online children in fandom care about this.

Normal people who've read a 19thC novel ever or looked at actual US laws know that even in the hives of the worst "GASP! EVERYTHING IS INCEST!" views, actually, lots of people don't give a fuck about cousin marriage.

This is a complete non-issue, but you should pre-emptively block anyone who whines about cousincest because their other opinions are probably also worthless and annoying.

[zadig-fate]

For those wondering about the origin of the Bojan "Nie Wieder Berlin" story mentioned in my last post (since @punknoodle-4 asked), it's a reference to the 2004 American sex comedy film Eurotrip, specifically this scene:

For non-German speakers: the English subtitles are not accurate (in many ways). When the truck driver says "Nie wieder Berlin!", it actually translates to "Never again Berlin!" ("Nie wieder" / "never again" is a common expression in German.)

Bojan apparently loves this movie (I guess the whole band does?? that tracks though ngl it seems like their humour) and this scene seems to be the first thing that pops into his head when he hears "Berlin".

So when I first met him before the Halloween show in Vienna and asked if they had plans to come to Berlin, he immediately asked if I'd seen Eurotrip (I had) and made a joke about this scene. If that was all, it wouldn't be much of a story, but...

A month later in Wrocław, I happened to be standing nearby when another German girl asked Bojan if they were coming to Berlin, and then he asked HER if she'd seen Eurotrip (she hadn't), and he tried to explain this scene to her and make a joke about it, but he didn't remember the correct German phrase so I think he just confused her lol. So when I talked to him next, I taught him the expression "nie wieder Berlin" and what it actually meant (since the subtitles weren't quite correct) and he thought this was really funny and kept repeating it because he's silly like that hahaha 😅

Then a few days after THAT was the Prague show, which was kind of a disaster, from the pre-midnight queue drama to the show itself, which started really late, then electricity went out a few times, and they also had to stop the show because a girl passed out. After the show they went pretty much straight to their bus but still passed by us, so I called out "what do you think Bojan, is it nie wieder Prague now?" and he laughed and hugged me (this man hugs everyone, no wonder he's constantly sick) and said "no, it's definitely wieder Prague!" (= "Prague again").

So last week when the band actually DID come to Berlin (where I live), I took inspiration from @izpira-se-zlato 's infamous Hojan shirt and decided to make Bojan a "nie wieder Berlin" shirt, which I gave to him during soundcheck, and he loved it 😅

And we even got a post-show selfie 🫶🏻

So yeah, that's the full story behind the "nie wieder Berlin" reference (and I've seen people making "nie wieder Berlin" bracelets so I guess it got around???).

Now when Bojan sees me hanging around outside after their gigs, he greets me by shouting "NIE WIEDER BERLIN!!" and I guess there are worse things I could be known for 🤷🏼‍♀️

[marshbarks]

if the south park boys were all animals, what's your headcanons for their species and why? can be furry or just normal animals

i've answered smth similar before, but i only did the main 5 + i have alt ideas and reasonings so!!

stan - a dog, of course. a bigger breed, something that he could reasonably say "i'm a wolf" about even though he is literally not a wolf at all. he's extremely loyal and has strong emotions, and as someone who has had a husky for a number of years, i think they have matching personalities and complexities. the ONLY downside to my affection with him being specifically a husky is that it means he doesn't get stupid floppy doggy ears. so perhaps a husky mix. he needs to look wolflike enough to claim being one, but still be like.. a silly puppy! (he could also genuinely be a wolf- like my tsot stan IS a wolf, undeniably- but i think its more fun if overall he is just a dog who is wolfkin) kyle - my first thought is always a sheep or a sheep/goat hybrid, but i've become fond of deer kyle as well! though.. dragon kyle has become very prominent in my things w/ adrian ( :3c ) and i think he's so fucking cool and awesome as a dragon. why is he a dragon?? because he keeps going "i am a human being." when his friends talk about fursonas and he won't make one but he thinks dragons are cool. fox kyle is fairly popular in the fandom but other than a personal attachment to both kyle and foxes making my heart go '!' every time i see it, i don't personally really like fox kyle on a character level? cute for visuals and i think there's a couple fun jokes to be made, but he's not really much of a fox guy to me. eric - cat or raccoon! obviously. there's not really much other choice, i'll be so honest. maybe a big cat or a non-domestic cat, but he's always like a little guy on your floor who stares at you and waits to be petted and bites you when you pet him because youre never doing it right. i think, like stan, he's most likely a cat who is raccoon kin. thinks they're so cool. if he had the warriors books when he was younger (and was actually assed to read them), he'd be so fucking sick about these cats. kenny - mustelid. i've always leaned into ferret kenny specifically! why? good fucking question. i don't know. but kenny is very rodent coded without feeling like a rat/hamster/guineapig/bunny, y'know? has ratlike qualities but doesn't really Fit. would NOT be a mouse. ferret or a weaselly guy feels right. also because it makes me happy butters - a doggy, too! something medium sized, more likely. lab or a retriever type. a Good Boy who is so naive. knows how to listen and wag his tail and be good, gets confused a lot, whatever. arroouou ruuruuruuu arr arruuu [sound of butters sob-barking from good times with weapons]

more under the cut bc this post got big :3

craig - hyena! or a very calm wolf! why? because i think he's cool. mainly the hyena thing is for adrian and i just fully agree because it feels right. the concept of him being a wolf is PURELY to make stan mad. tweek - a birddddd my little tweeter.. ♥♥♥ i just think he's very bird coded. i think a canary sounds good for him, warning of danger (even if it isn't really there). might be hybrid with something else, but he's MOSTLY bird. maybe a gryphon? would be a cheetah in that case i think. cheetah/canary. actually yeah that fucking rules he's a gryphon holy shit. clyde - lion. he's strong and proud (but also kinda a coward!!!! yay!) and i think the idea of clyde being a lion and thinking he's got SO MANY GIRLS THATRE HIS is so funny bc of the way the girls kinda toss him around. tolkien - not a lion. maybe a cat, honestly? he's so.... Normal. he's just such a normal guy. i could easily see him slotting into role as a cat. like your typical american shorthair. very average and normal critter that you gotta get to know to learn exactly the ways his personality works and differs from things. jimmy AND timmy - both parrots or parrot-adjacent birds! this is adrian's suggestion, because parrots are very smart and community focused and care about each other. i think the idea of these two being birds who bond over time is so cute. also because i got the thought in my mind of jimmy helping timmy find sweaters to cover up plucked feathers :( used to be VERY stressed out and then he found a friend and now he's doing a lil better.

wendy - rabbit wendy is my favorite, but i think she could work as a cat. but rabbit makes me happiest. maybe a hare, actually? type thing that looks like she's a little prey beast but will kick your ass into next week if you don't watch out. sigh.. i'm so in love with her.. lets her be small and sensitive while still being able to, at any point, stand up for herself. bebe - liger. pretty and everything, but doesn't quite fit her role like she could. specifically like.. a low-expression one, stripes that only show off in certain light. very low contrast markings. enough to not fit in Perfectly amongst other lions, but not enough to visibly be a tiger. this is to mirror her struggle with brains and beauty and trying to have both without becoming reliant on her beauty- but not disowning or dismissing having 'pretty privilege'. sighhh i love bebe a lot i love her so fucking much. heidi - bunny.. she's just a little rabbit. small and scared. trying to do her part and be good! trying. hybridized with a goat, freaks the FUCK OUT when her horns grow in because she's not supposed to have those. legally i suppose she is a jackalope except she is a bungoat. nichole - bearrr i just think she'd be so cute as a bear.. i don't even have a good reason for this. i associate her with bears and sunflowers. sun bear..... aoawouahghgg.. red - iguana??????????????????????????? i dont know why. that's what my mind said to me.

henrietta - sheep!! one of those multi horned ones. as satantic as an ungulate can be. firkle - cat! if it wasn't conformist to read warrior cats, he'd be kin with scourge i think. would want to be that. purple collar, obviously (personally i think the rainbow is the best choice but firkle would NEVER) pete - big cat of some kind. this thought is undeniably influenced by 6ftkyle's stuff, i love the idea of him being a tiger so fucking bad it makes me sick okay. black and red stripes??/ fuck OFF thats so COOL he would look so sick. people would call him edgy emo and he'd get so fucking MAD. michael - dog. one of those tall dogs with curly fur. de-facto leader type. they also look very distinguished and cool to me. but he's still a dog, y'know? has little quirks that pop out sometimes that you're like ohh you're just a puppy doggy aintcha. mike - dog! chihuahua type. big ass fuckin ears. says he's part bat.

mole - shockingly, not a mole! i think he'd be a cat. like a weird cat who digs holes, but a cat. not your typical domestic shorthair. maybe a forest cat, actually? :thinking:

douglas - cat, but he'd be like.. a catboy. i couldn't see him as full furry. he'd be your nasty dirty grimy indoor catboy boyfriend. he's awesome augh. dogpoo - unsurprisingly, a doggy. i think he'd be one of those breeds that isn't like.. DEAD without care, but needs care to be at their prettiest, so he's always a little fucked up looking and dirty. fur a mess... english for some reason.....

while most siblings can be The Same as their other siblings, i do think ike would be like.. a little hamster...... id ont know why. he's such a little hammy to me.

the cotswalds are designer toy breed dogs. bradley (cartman sucks) is an antelope. gary harrison is an extremely proud golden retriever with perfectly groomed fur. damien is a jackal, obviously. pip is a bunny i think. kevin stoley is a devon rex. leslie is a cat but she looks ai generated. thomas (tourettes) is a pitbull. tammy warner is a fox.

and scott malkinson has diabetes (i think he'd be a cat)

[destiny-in-the-universe]

Pride Headcanons

It’s June 1, y’all which means I can write about my silly little blorbos being under the rainbow all I want! Not that the headcanons were somehow different before hahaha but anyway!

I’m going to be using the Secret Quartet because I can- and honestly they are my biggest comfort and hyperfixation right now, so why wouldn’t I write with them?

Danny Phantom;

👻 Danny is trans. I mean look at him- but no, this just fits with his character. Honestly I could talk about this in a completely separate post but genuinely he would be FtM

👻 In canon, he seems to prefer women more than men, but Danny is somewhere in the non-het umbrella. He gives me pan vibes, like it’s genuinely the last thing he cares about and it’s more about chemistry than anything else

👻 Danny’s parents are 100% supportive if he ever chose to come out. There is no homophobia in this household, you cannot convince me otherwise

👻 Overall, Amity Park is accepting. In no universe would they ever turn someone away for being not-cishet

👻 Danny used to bind using ace bandages and completely forget he was wearing them- based on an old comic I found, I like to imagine that if Vlad were to find out, he would immediately pay for Danny to at least have a comfortable binder. You also cannot tell me he wouldn’t try to offer paying for Danny’s bottom surgery (with a price of course)

👻 None of the ghosts would ever deadname Danny. Ever. Not even Dash would-

👻 Much like Danny, Jazz is definitely non-het; she’s bisexual- gender is the least of her concerns when it canes to romance, but she also seems to be a bit more sapphic leaning. I said what I said /lh

👻 Danny would never forget someone’s preferred name. He makes it an entire point to remember them and use it correctly- let alone pronouns

American Dragon: Jake Long;

🐲 Jake is cis- i don’t see him as being anything other than cisgender unfortunately but he’s an ally and I will stand by this until I disappear from this earth-

🐲 He doesn’t really care for labels and will never use them, but Jake isn’t exactly heterosexual. Gender is the last thing on his mind when he’s dating, but he’s only really dated Rose so I think he’s ever so slightly confused at the moment on his preferences

🐲 Jake would attend Pride. 100%

🐲 If Jake ever came out to his family, they would 100% be understanding- they’re many things but assholes isn’t one of them. They would likely sit him down and make sure to know how to most make him feel comfortable but other than that, neither Jonathan nor Susan would ever make Jake unhappy

I honestly don’t have as many headcanons for American Dragon, but- this is the best I could come up with!

Miraculous Ladybug;

🐞 Marinette is more than likely cisgender- she’s still an ally; that would never change. She makes sure to protect trans folk and everyone in between

🐞 I like to think Marinette doesn’t care for labels, and just dates depending on personality and compatibility than attempting to assess it on gender

🐞 She would never forget someone’s pronouns or preferred name. Sometimes there are accidental slip-ups because, well- it’s Marinette with ADHD (I will talk neurodivergent headcanons in a separate post) but she always apologizes if she messes up!

🐞 Marinette has attended Pride events as both her civilian persona and heroine identity to help support those who need it- this is canon now

🐈‍⬛ Adrien is trans. This is not up for negotiation (/lh). There is just something about him that screams trans

🐈‍⬛ He has no idea if he likes men, women, both or anything in between. Adrien is a little bit sheltered, give him time he’ll come around

🐈‍⬛ Honestly, Adrien would be an ally first before realizing he’s trans or non-het. He would be allowed to attend Pride events because Gabriel isn’t that much of a horrible person- at least not with Pride. Gabriel is not the type, in this essay I will-

🐈‍⬛ Adrien finds being Chat Noir completely freeing- it’s almost like binding in a way,

🐈‍⬛ Adrien was given his first binder buy Nino. He eventually received a second one from Marinette, and he cherishes both dearly- but sometimes he forgets to take them off

Randy Cunningham: 9th Grade Ninja;

🧣Randy is trans-coded. I can’t explain why, but there is no way that boy is cis- (Howard likely knew before he did, I was there obviously. I was uh, Randy’s coat /lh)

🧣He’s unlabeled when it comes to sexuality and romantic orientation. Randy doesn’t know because he has only ever crushed on girls so far but he also keeps smiling like an idiot at Howard and gets ridiculously flustered. He doesn’t know what to make of it-

🧣Randy has never attended a Pride event- at least not yet. He hopes to one day

🧣Randy binds- he does use a binder as Howard actually bought one for him as a birthday present; before that he used to wear ace bandages which wasn’t ideal in the slightest but he was dealing with horrible dysphoria at the time and didn’t want to accept he was only a kid

🧣Being the Ninja somehow helps him cope with his dysphoria

🥷 Finja- is he cishet? Hahahah no, absolutely not. Cis? Maybe. Heterosexual? This man gives asexual vibes! This is canon now ~ a fellow ace

🥷 I don’t think Finja would have used labels in his youth. Especially if it wasn’t entirely the norm back then but if he were in present times- he might’ve, though I think he would just vibe

🥷 Finja honestly might be on the aromantic spectrum, but more so demiromantic or grayaromantic than not dating at all!

🥷 Oh you can bet Finja would be completely accepting of Randy being trans

(author’s cut: more will be written for Finja later! I simply have words stuck in my brain that won’t fully come out!)

📕Nomicon - or “Nomi” - is agender! They do not associate themself with a gender and use literally any pronoun- including neopronouns

📕Nomi would be completely accepting of gender and sexuality- and anything in between- they are completely supportive of Randy coming out

📕Nomi is however, asexual! I do think Nomi would be aroace but you can headcanon whatever you want- though when you’re a centuries old sentient book, well, things change

📕If Nomi was human, they would 100% be attending Pride- this is not up for debate. They would

📕Nomi is fiercely protective of Randy- in my human AU’s, it is 100% guaranteed anyone who displayed transphobia or any other form of bigotry toward him would immediately be roundhouse kicked in the face

📕Human! Nomi would give zero fucks and decide to wear dresses- but honestly, they wear outfits that reference the book version of herself. They wear whatever the hell they want, do not care in the slightest

Additional Headcanons;

Howard doesn’t openly seem to care about Pride because he’s a stubborn little shit, but everyone knows better than to mess with Randy- because those who do are met with a fiercely protective, homosexual totally-cis Howard Weinerman

Whatever the fuck McFist and Viceroy have going on isn’t straight-

McFist would host Pride themed events specifically during June and seemingly forget about it for the rest of the year- does he do this to be homophobic? Nope! He just genuinely doesn’t flaunt being not straight that he also isn’t aware of

Viceroy is bi. This is not up for negotiation

Mort is straight but completely supports his children in whatever they want to do with their life

Sam Manson is completely unlabeled. She doesn’t care

Tucker? You can’t tell me that boy is cis

Alya makes blogs in support of Pride and does make them year-round because she is an ally and I will stand by this until the day I cease to exist (which is never)

Gabriel does do Pride events but much like McFist, he doesn’t them 24/7 or year-round- the only difference is I’m pretty sure Gabriel’s cishet

I can’t think of anything else tbh! Enjoy the mess that is these headcanons-

[arcielee]

Interview With a Writer

It is that blessed time when the wonderful and talented Miss Maggie, @inthedayswhenlandswerefew, gives us some behind-the-scenes insight to her latest brilliant narration. [Feel free to check out the Spotify playlist of all the songs mentioned and let me know if I forgot one!]

Here is masterlist to my Interview With a Writer series and the other talented individuals who allow me to continue this self-indulgent series! 💜 Picture(s) source.

Name: inthedayswhenlandswerefew

Story: 1968

Paring: modern Aemond Targaryen x female!reader, modern Aegon Targaryen x female!reader

Warnings: 18+ mature themes. Be mindful of chapter warnings.

Where did the idea for 1968 come from?

I am a high school social studies teacher by trade, and my absolute favorite class to teach is American History. The 1960s and 70s were actually one of my weak spots when I got my first teaching job back in 2020, so I ended up researching a lot about that period of time and got absolutely obsessed with it. In my American History class, I spend a whole lesson on JUST 1968, because so many important events happened in that year that are emblematic of broader trends and tensions.

One day I was re-reading one of my favorite books, The Other Mrs. Kennedy by Jerry Oppenheimer, which is specifically about Bobby Kennedy’s wife Ethel, but also gives a lot of insight into the Kennedy family generally and what it was like to live through that era. The idea of using this setting as a fic AU occurred to me, and I ruminated on it for a few weeks while finishing up Napoleonville.

Eventually, I had a revelation of the ending of 1968 (true to my usual pattern), and then knew I’d have to write the fic! I was actually really worried about all the political and historical details being too boring and/or confusing (especially for non-U.S. readers), so I was relieved that so many people gave it a chance. 🥰

Honestly, it was brilliant with the similarities to the Kennedys and Targaryens in the story. Were there any historical cameos in 1968 that you enjoyed channeling? Or perhaps struggled with?

I find LBJ super fascinating, and I feel that because of the Vietnam War he really doesn’t get a fair assessment when people look back on his presidency. His work for civil rights and the Great Society (SNAP, Medicaid, Head Start, Job Corps, PBS, etc.) was truly revolutionary, and as someone who grew up in poverty and benefitted from a lot of those programs, I don’t think LBJ’s contributions get the recognition and praise they deserve. I perceive him as a haunted sort of figure, and I really enjoyed his cameos. (To be clear, he was also super problematic and bizarre personally, and I don’t mean to excuse any of that 😂).

As for someone who was difficult to write about…honestly, the George Wallace research I did was super depressing, so while he was necessary to include, I didn’t really enjoy working on those parts!

Was there anything in specific that inspired your Reader portrayal?

Io is a bit of a composite sketch. Ethel Kennedy was known as doggedly committed to her husband’s career above all else (despite eventually being the mother of 11 children!!), and I think that inspired Io’s single-minded determination to help Aemond win the election in the first few chapters. Ethel was traditional in the sense that her husband was the center of her world and made all the important decisions, as was expected of women of her social class in that time period. But Io is also a manifestation of the counterculture of the late-60s. She is young, educated, genuinely progressive politically, and likes to party. She tries to reconcile the expectations of her family/time period and her actual personality by intentionally choosing a husband with whom she can have an equal partnership making the world a better place. And…we all know how that worked out.

[Photo Ethel and Bobby Kennedy, m. 1950]

Can you explain your interpretation of Aegon? How does he compare and contrast to Aemond? What drives them? Why are they the way that they are?

In 1968, Aegon is 40 years old, and so his role in the Targaryen political dynasty is very well-established: once his family realized he couldn’t be weaponized for their purposes, he was largely disposed of, and lives this aimless, uninspired, self-loathing sort of existence. He does have some genuine love for his family—missing Daeron and feeling guilt over him being sent to Vietnam, a vague sort of fondness for Mimi and the kids, distress when Aemond is shot in Palm Beach, an apology of sorts to Alicent by performing “Mama Tried” at her birthday party—but Aegon exists on the periphery, and he knows this, and while he doesn’t want to be a politician the rejection still stings.

At first, he perceives Io as yet another person who makes him feel inadequate and unloved; and in fairness, she is cruel to him, in fact more so than Aegon is to Io in return. It is noteworthy that in Chapter 1, she viciously criticizes Aegon in front of everyone in the waiting room (“if someone had to get killed tonight it should have been you”), but he doesn’t return fire until they are alone (the infamous cow comment), and even then he seems to regret it immediately.

Aegon, fundamentally, is more sad than mean. When in Chapters 2 and 3 Io abruptly reveals herself to be someone who is vulnerable, wounded, abandoned, and kind of a hippie lowkey, Aegon begins to perceive her differently, and she becomes an opportunity for him to be truly understood, protected, and loved for the first time in his life.

I think we would all describe Aemond as ambitious and ruthless, determined to prove that he is the best to compensate for deep, lifelong insecurities. He is a progressive politically because he sees a path to build a winning coalition, and perhaps in small part because of the whole Greeks-being-despised immigrants thing. But in 1968 there is a sense that you never fully understand who he is as a person. This is intentional! 1968 is Io’s story, and she never gets to see the whole Aemond. She sees parts of the picture, but never the full image. As awful as he is to Io, there is also a side of Aemond that truly (even if in an…unorthodox way 😂) loves Alys and their child, and there are clues that Alys understands him like no one else can (that Ouija board message… 👀). He’s by no means a good guy, but he is multifaceted. I think the stress of the presidency, and his long separation from Alys, ends up softening Aemond a bit, hence him defending Io’s reputation and ultimately letting her go.

Did anything inspire your other OCs? Specifically "The Ones Who Married In" club?

I didn’t sit down and plan what sorts of characters would be in the “The Ones Who Married In” club. I was possessed by these random visions of them: a perpetually drunk Mimi, a perhaps not too bright but very sweet Fosco, and Malibu Barbie but make her Polish Ludwika, and I was thinking: “These people are ridiculous, this will never work!” But then when I thought about it more, I realized that Mimi, Fosco, Ludwika, and Io all serve strategic roles to help advance Aemond’s career, and so it would make sense that Otto and Aemond cobbled them together and shoved them into the family portraits. I ended up really loving them, but they weren’t a big part of my original outline for 1968. 🙂

How would Io rate them based on her friendship with each of them?

Fosco is definitely #1; they connect on an emotional level that is deep but also largely unspoken. Ludwika is a close #2; she’s Io’s shopping buddy but also witty, supportive, and very feminist in her own way. And then Mimi is a distant #3. Io pities Mimi and feels loyalty to her as a fellow Targaryen, and goes out of her way to try to protect Mimi from her own self-destructive tendencies. But Io, as a collected and self-reliant person, also has difficulty understanding and dealing with someone as messy as Mimi. And of course, once Io realizes she is super into Aegon, that creates some one-sided resentment of Mimi!

Do you have a feeling of what happened after chapter 12? What is the ending you vaguely see with Aegon and Io? What about Aemond and Alys?

Where I end a fic is really the last clear image I see of the characters, so I sadly don’t have a lot of specifics to offer. What I do feel is that Io and Aegon have children of their own (like, several children, maybe even 5+ children) and Aegon is present for their early years in a way he wasn’t able to be for his kids with Mimi. Io is a stepmom to Aegon’s OG kids and has a good relationship with them, but she’s only really close with Cosmo.

I also sense that Aemond has basically no contact with Io or Aegon, which makes sense considering his abuse of Io and the lifelong fury Aegon would therefore have towards him. Aemond is happy with Alys and their son (as happy as someone like him is capable of being); he does the ex-president thing and settles into a largely ceremonial role and advises Democratic politicians, although he is not very friendly with President Reagan.

And then my wild theory is that a Daeron/John McCain ticket ends up winning the 2000 election and the War On Terror plays out completely differently!

And finally... 1968 seemed to pour from you like a fever dream. Does this mean something else might be coming to continue the Maggie's Suffering Sunday tradition?

1968 did seem to fly by, despite it being a longer fic at 12 chapters! I do have something planned for this Sunday... 😉 All I can say for now is that it is very weird, totally unexpected, and tonally a mashup of Comet Donati and When The World Is Crashing Down.

Does that seem impossible?? Think again 😏 I will be reblogging hints until Sunday! I hope you enjoy this new journey 🥰🐍

[k1ranishf4]

Ethnicity in JJBA

I love that Araki decided to use different ethnicities for his characters and I could talk about it all day, to be honest.

Like, it all started with George I, Dario, Jonathan and Erina, and George II and Lisa Lisa as British people and then Joseph decided he likes Italians.

Boom: half-British half-Italian Holly Joestar who married a Japanese musician = half-Japanese, quarter Italian and quarter British Jotaro Kujo.

Jolyne is half-American, quarter Japanese and one eighth Italian and British each.

Josuke: half-Japanese and half-British, just like Giorno.

The only difference is that Giorno’s living in Italy because his mother said “yo I have a thing for European men” and married an Italian who forced Giorno to say goodbye to his Japanese origin.

As for his half brothers, all we know is that their mothers were all American. But I like to think that Rikiel’s mother is/was black, just like I do for the Costello sisters.

I have to admit, I was confused at first when I saw that Gloria didn’t have dark skin or dark hair like Hermes before I realized that they could be mixed, and the same goes for the Pucci children. Plus, it’s canon that Ermes is Mexican (I’m just not sure if half- or fully) and Pucci is Italian or Italo-American, which are also little details that I really love.

One thing that will always have a special place in my heart is Avdol being Egyptian. It has never been mentioned, but I like to think that he’s also muslim. Which is really important to me since I haven’t really seen a piece of media from non-muslim parts of the world that represented muslims accordingly. They’re either shown as terrorists or don’t exist at all. So this was extremely refreshing and he’s also black AND canonically OP af?? I love.

Japanese Noriaki Kakyoin with red hair? Now that’s what I like to see. I think he’s also a part of the Has Been Bullied Club and he was a very lonely child, so being with the Crusaders must’ve been really important to him.

Not to forget our beloved Frenchman Polnareff. I love how he switches to French just to emphasize things or when he’s too frustrated to even think in English. I relate a lot to that, especially because English is my third language of six languages in total.

I’ve also seen the headcanon of Rohan possibly being Indian or having Indian ancestors and while I don’t agree with that, it has actually crossed my mind when I heard his name for the first time (cliché, I know I’m sorry). It could also be that his parents just liked the sound of the name and that’s all to it, which I think was more the case.

Little things like these give me the freedom to headcanon whatever I want.

For example, I love the thought of Holly learning English and Italian from her parents and then teaching those to Jotaro, who then taught Italian and Japanese to Jolyne.

Or a crossover where the other JoJos and GioGio meet Jodio and Hermes starts laughing her ass off because of the Spanish meaning of the word jodio.

Or, on the angsty side of things, Jotaro being bullied by older students because he’s “only” half-Japanese. Just like Giorno was bullied (although I do not remember if it actually was because of his heritage, but I think so).

Not taking Part 7 – Part 9 characters into the equation because I haven’t finished reading Steel Ball Run yet, which means I didn’t even think about JoJolion and The JoJoLands.

[coochiequeens]

Just JKR striking a nerve by speaking the truth

JK Rowling criticised Neil Gaiman after he denied sexual harassment allegations. Gaiman released a statement refuting accusations of non-consensual sex, expressing regret over past behavior. The accusations span several years and locations, including New Zealand. The allegations first emerged in a podcast and a police report has been filed against Gaiman.

JK Rowling took another dig at British author Neil Gaiman on Wednesday after the rape accused released a statement denying the sexual harassment allegations by eight women.

"Grok, show me an example of DARVO," wrote Rowling on X, sharing a screenshot of Gaiman's statement on the rape charges.

What is DARVO?DARVO, which stands for 'Deny, Attack, and Reverse Victim and Offender,' is a manipulative tactic that abusers may employ to avoid taking responsibility for their actions and to discredit their victims.

This tactic involves denying any wrongdoing, attacking the credibility of the survivor, and reversing the roles of victim and offender. When using DARVO, the abuser may claim that they have not done anything wrong and instead portray themselves as the victim of abuse.

This role reversal can create confusion and make it challenging for others to determine the truth. By employing this tactic, abusers aim to shift the blame onto the survivor and avoid facing the consequences of their actions. DARVO can be a powerful tool for manipulation, as it can cause survivors to doubt their own experiences and make it more difficult for them to seek support or justice.

Gaiman denies ever engaging in non-consensual sex. Releasing a statement denying he had ever engaged in non-consensual sex after a magazine this week published allegations from several women, the 64-year-old author of 'The Sandman' comic book series and novel 'American Gods' said he had watched stories about him circulate on the internet for months with 'horror and dismay.'

“As I read through this latest collection of accounts, there are moments I half-recognise and moments I don’t, descriptions of things that happened sitting beside things that emphatically did not happen. I’m far from a perfect person, but I have never engaged in non-consensual sexual activity with anyone. Ever,” Gaiman posted on the social media platform Tumblr.

Gaiman, said he had read back message exchanges he had had with his accusers.

They still read like 'two people enjoying entirely consensual sexual relationships and wanting to see one another again,' he said.“And I also realise, looking through them, years later, that I could have and should have done so much better. I was emotionally unavailable while being sexually available, self-focused and not as thoughtful as I could or should have been. I was obviously careless with people’s hearts and feelings, and that’s something that I really, deeply regret,” Gaiman said.

Most of the allegations relate to occasions when Gaiman was in his 40s or older and living in the United States, Britain and New Zealand. One of the accusers, Scarlett Pavlovich, told New York Magazine she met Gaiman through his then-wife, US performer Amanda Palmer, on a New Zealand island where the couple lived with their son in 2022. Pavlovich alleges Gaiman abused her several times starting the night they met. Some of Pavlovich’s allegations were first made public six months earlier in the podcast. She told the magazine she filed a police report in January 2023 accusing Gaiman of sexual assault.Several of Gaiman's works have been turned into movies and television programs.

[liquidorcard]

For those curious, "First Nations" is the term typically used to denote people "native to the Americas," here in Canada (which sometimes but doesn't always include Metis and Inuit people, who are different enough to often be addressed separately.)

I understand and respect why "Indian" is still a commonly used term in the USA, but that term isn't really as practical here. There are a LOT of Indians here. . . As in, people from India/people with Indian heritage. My own family is part indo-guyanese and I remember at four or five years old being very confused as my mother tried to explain to me First Nations people weren't also from India/the Caribbean. There are some organizations and stuff that still use that term, some First Nations people who will call themselves Indian as a cute little nickname in a non-formal context, but it's very rapidly fallen out of cultural parlance here-- "Indian" to mean "native." As a person who is NOT First Nations, I will say personally I'm so used to Indian meaning Indian from India when I hear a First Nations person refer to themselves as Indian it takes my brain a second to compute what they mean.

No one but known Ameriboo Lily Orchard in Canada calls themselves a "Native American." It's got the same cringe factor as someone calling a Canadian black immigrant from France an "African Anerican." Yes Canada is part of the Americas, but we are not American. Same way Mexico is part of the Americas, but are not American. Don't see anyone calling them "native American."

If I may add, as someone who admittedly has no right to have an opinion on the matter, I do personally appreciate that the term gives at least some respect to the fact that they are NATIONS (plural), not a single identity. I think America would do well to adopt the term "First Nations" as a formal way of referring to First Nations people, but-- again. Not my place here to really drive that point home.

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: Kate Cohen

Published: Oct 3, 2023

I like to say that my kids made me an atheist. But really what they did was make me honest.

I was raised Jewish — with Sabbath prayers and religious school, a bat mitzvah and a Jewish wedding. But I don’t remember ever truly believing that God was out there listening to me sing songs of praise.

I thought of God as a human invention: a character, a concept, a carry-over from an ancient time.

I thought of him as a fiction.

Today I realize that means I’m an atheist. It’s not complicated. My (non)belief derives naturally from a few basic observations:

The Greek myths are obviously stories. The Norse myths are obviously stories. L. Ron Hubbard obviously made that stuff up. Extrapolate.

The holy books underpinning some of the bigger theistic religions are riddled with “facts” now disproved by science and “morality” now disavowed by modern adherents. Extrapolate.

Life is confusing and death is scary. Naturally, humans want to believe that someone capable is in charge and that we continue to live after we die. But wanting doesn’t make it so.

Child rape. War. Etc.

And yet, when I was younger, I would never have called myself an atheist — not on a survey, not to my family, not even to myself.

Being an “atheist,” at least according to popular culture, seems to require so much work. You have to complain to the school board about the Pledge of Allegiance, stamp over “In God We Trust” on all your paper money and convince Grandma not to go to church. You have to be PhD-from-Oxford smart, irritated by Christmas and shruggingly unmoved by Michelangelo’s “Pietà.” That isn’t me — but those are the stereotypes.

And then there are the data.Studies have shown that many, many Americans don’t trust atheists. They don’t want to vote for atheists, and they don’t want their children to marry atheists. Researchers have found that even atheists presume serial killers are more likely to be atheist than not.

Given all this, it’s not hard to see why atheists often prefer to keep quiet about it. Why I kept quiet. I wanted to be liked!

But when I had children — when it hit me that I was responsible for teaching my children everything — I wanted, above all, to tell them the truth.

Their first atheist lesson was completely impromptu. Noah was 5, Jesse was 3, and we were sitting on the couch before bed reading from “D’Aulaires’ Book of Greek Myths,” a holdover from my childhood bookshelf. One of the boys asked what a “myth” was, and I told them it was a story about how the world works. People used to believe that these gods were in charge of what happened on Earth, and these stories helped explain things they didn’t understand, like winter or stars or thunder. “See” — I flipped ahead and found a picture — “Zeus has a thunderbolt.”

“They don’t believe them anymore?” No, I said. That’s why they call it “myth.” When people still believe it, they call it “religion.” Like the stories about God and Moses that we read at Passover or the ones about Jesus and Christmas.

The little pajama-clad bodies nodded, and on we read.

That was it — the big moment. It was probably also the easiest moment.

Before one son became preoccupied with death. Before the other son had to decide whether to be bar mitzvahed. Before my daughter looked up from her math homework one day to ask, “How do we know there’s no God?”

Religion offers ready-made answers to our most difficult questions. It gives people ways to mark time, celebrate and mourn. Once I vowed not to teach my children anything I did not personally believe, I had to come up with new answers. But I discovered as I went what most parents discover: You can figure it out as you go.

Establishing a habit of honesty did not sap the delight from my children’s lives or destroy their moral compass. I suspect it made my family closer than we would have been had my husband and I pretended to our children that we believed in things we did not. We sowed honesty and reaped trust — along with intellectual challenge, emotional sustenance and joy.

Those are all personal rewards. But there are political rewards as well.

My children know how to distinguish fact from fiction — which is harder for children raised religious. They don’t assume conventional wisdom is true and they do expect arguments to be based on evidence. Which means they have the skills to be engaged, informed and savvy citizens.

We need citizens like that.

Lies, lying and disinformation suffuse mainstream politics as never before. A recent Washington Post-ABC News poll found that 29 percent of Americans believe that President Biden was not legitimately elected, a total composed of those who think there is solid evidence of fraud (22 percent) and those who think there isn’t (7 percent). I don’t know which is worse: believing there to be evidence of fraud when even the Trump campaign can’t find any or asserting the election was stolen even though you know there’s no proof.

Meanwhile, we are just beginning to grasp that artificial intelligence could develop an almost limitless power to deceive — threatening the ability of even the most alert citizen to discern what’s real.

We need Americans who demand — as atheists do — that truth claims be tethered to fact. We need Americans who understand — as atheists do — that the future of the world is in our hands. And in this particular political moment, we need Americans to stand up to Christian nationalists who are using their growing political and judicial power to take away our rights. Atheists can do that.

Fortunately, there are a lot of atheists in the United States — probably far more than you think.

[ Ellen Weinstein for The Washington Post ]

Some people say they believe in God, but not the kind favored by monotheistic religions — a conscious supreme being with powers of intercession or creation. When they say “God,” they mean cosmic oneness or astonishing coincidences. They mean that sense of smallness-within-largeness they’ve felt while standing on the shore of the ocean or holding a newborn baby or hearing the final measures of Chopin’s “Fantaisie-Impromptu.”

So, why do those people use the word “God” at all? The philosopher Daniel C. Dennett argues in “Breaking the Spell”that since we know we’re supposed to believe in God, when we don’t believe in a supernatural being we give the name instead to things we do believe in, such as transcendent moments of human connection.

Whatever the case, in 2022, Gallup found that 81 percent of Americans believe in God, the lowest percentage yet recorded. This year, when it gave respondents the option of saying they’re not sure, it found that only 74 percent believe in God, 14 percent weren’t sure, and 12 percent did not believe.

Not believing in God — that’s the very definition of atheism. But when people go around counting atheists, the number they come up with is far lower than that. The most recent number from Pew Research Center is 4 percent.

What’s with the gap? That’s anti-atheist stigma (and pro-belief bias) at work. Everybody’s keeping quiet, because everybody wants to be liked. Some researchers, recognizing this problem, developed a workaround.

In 2017, psychologists Will Gervais and Maxine Najle tried to estimate the prevalence of atheism in the United States using a technique called “unmatched count”: They asked two groups, of 1,000 respondents each, how many statements were true among a list of statements. The lists were identical except that one of them included the statement “I believe in God.” By comparing the numbers, the researchers could then estimate the percentage of atheists without ever asking a direct question. They came up with around 26 percent.

If that’s true or even close, there are more atheists in the United States than Catholics.

Do you know what some of those atheists call themselves? Catholics. And Protestants, Jews, Muslims and Buddhists. General Social Survey data back this up: Among religious Americans, only 64 percent are certain about the existence of God. Hidden atheists can be found not just among the “nones,” as they’re called — the religiously unaffiliated — but also in America’s churches, mosques and synagogues.

“If you added up all the nominal Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, etc. — those who are religious in name only,” Harvard humanist chaplain Greg M. Epstein writes in “Good Without God,”“you really might get the largest denomination in the world.”

Atheists are everywhere. And we are unusually disposed to getting stuff done.

I used to say, when people asked me what atheists do believe, that it was simple: Atheists believe that God is a human invention.

But now, I think it’s more than that.

If you are an atheist — if you do not believe in a Supreme Being — you can be moral or not, mindful or not, clever or not, hopeful or not. Clearly, you can keep going to church. But, by definition, you cannot believe that God is in charge. You must give up the notion of God’s will, God’s purpose, God’s mysterious ways.

In some ways, this makes life easier. You don’t have to work out why God might cause or ignore suffering, what parts of this broken world are God’s plan, or what work is his to do and what is yours.

But you also don’t get to leave things up to God. Atheists must accept that people are allowing — we are allowing — women to die in childbirth, children to go hungry, men to buy guns that can slaughter dozens of people in minutes. Atheists believe people organized the world as it is now, and only people can make it better.

No wonder we are “the most politically active group in American politics today,” according to political scientist Ryan Burge, interpreting data from the Cooperative Election Study.

That’s right: Atheists take more political action — donating to campaigns, protesting, attending meetings, working for politicians — than any other “religious” group. And we vote. In his study on this data, sociologist Evan Stewart noted that atheists were about 30 percent more likely to vote than religiously affiliated respondents.

We also vote far more than most religiously unaffiliated people. That’s what distinguishes atheists from the “nones” — and what I didn’t realize at first.

Atheists haven’t just checked out of organized religion. (Indeed, we may not have.) We haven’t just rejected belief in God. (Though, obviously, that’s the starting point.) Where atheism becomes a definite stance rather than a lack of direction, a positive belief and not just a negative one, is in our understanding that, without a higher power, we need human power to change the world.

I want to be clear: There are clergy members and congregations all across this country working to do good, not waiting for God to answer their prayers or assuming that God meant for the globe to get hotter. You don’t have to be an atheist to conduct yourself as if people are responsible for the world they live in — you just have to act like an atheist, by taking matters into your own hands.

Countless good people of faith do just that. But one thing they can’t do as well as atheists is push back against the outsize cultural and political power of religion itself.

That power is crushing some of our most vulnerable citizens. And I don��t mean my fellow atheists. Atheists, it’s true, are subject to discrimination and scapegoating; somehow we’re to blame for moral chaos, mass shootings and whatever the “trans cult” is. Yes, we are technically barred from serving as jurors in the state of Maryland or joining a Boy Scout troop anywhere, but we do not, as a group, suffer anything like the prejudice that, say, LGBTQ+ people face. It’s not even close.

Peel back the layers of discrimination against LGBTQ+ people, though, and you find religion. Peel back the layers of control over women’s bodies — from dress codes that punish girls for male desire all the way to the Supreme Court striking down Roe v. Wade — and you find religion. Often, there isn’t much peeling to do. According to the bill itself, Missouri’s total abortion ban was created “in recognition that Almighty God is the author of life.” Say what, now?

Peel back the layers of abstinence-only or marriage-centered or anti-homosexual sex education and you find religion. “Don’t say gay” laws, laws denying trans kids medical care, school-library book bans and even efforts to suppress the teaching of inconvenient historical facts — motivated by religion.

And when religion loses a fight and progress wins instead? Religion then claims it’s not subject to the resulting laws. “Religious belief” is — more and more, at the state and federal levels — a way to sidestep advances the country makes in civil rights, human rights and public health.

In 45 states and D.C., parents can get religious exemptions from laws that require schoolchildren to be vaccinated. Seven states allow pharmacists to refuse to fill contraceptive prescriptions because of their religious beliefs. Every business with a federal contract has to comply with federal nondiscrimination rules — unless it’s a religious organization. Every employer that provides health insurance has to comply with the Affordable Care Act’s contraceptive mandate — unless it’s, say, a craft supply store with Christian owners.

Case by case, law by law, our country’s commitment to the first right enumerated in our Bill of Rights — “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion” — is faltering. The Supreme Court has ruled that the citizens of Maine have to pay for parochial school, that a high school football coach should be free to lead a prayer on the 50-yard line, that a potential wedding website designer can reject potential same-sex clients. This past summer, Oklahoma approved the nation’s first publicly funded religious school. This fall, Texas began allowing schools to employ clergy members in place of guidance counselors.

You don’t have to be an atheist to worry about the structural integrity of Thomas Jefferson’s “wall of separation between Church & State.” You don’t have to be an atheist to think that religion should not shape public policy or that believers should have to follow the laws that everyone else does. You don’t have to be an atheist to see that Christian nationalists are using “religious liberty” to perpetuate much of the discrimination Americans suffer today.

But atheists can do one thing about the country’s drift into theocracy that our religious neighbors won’t: We can tell people we don’t believe in God. The more people who do that, the more we normalize atheism in America, the easier it will be — for both politicians and the general public — to usher religion back out of our laws.

Okay, but should you say you’re an atheist even if you believe in “God” as the power of nature or something like that?

Yes. It does no one any favors — not the country, not your neighbors — to say you believe in God metaphorically when there are plenty of people out there who literally believe that God is looking down from heaven deciding which of us to cast into hell.

In fact, when certain believers wield enough political power to turn their God’s presumed preferences into law, I would say it’s dangerous to claim you believe in “God” when what you actually believe in is awe or wonder. (Your “God is love” only lends validity and power to their “God hates gays.”)

So ask yourself: Do I think a supernatural being is in charge of the universe?

If you answer “no,” you’re an atheist. That’s it — you’re done.

But if you go further: You’ll be doing something good for your country.

When I started raising my kids as atheists, I wasn’t particularly honest with the rest of the world. I wasn’t everybody’s mom, right? Plus, I had to get along with other people. Young parents need community, and I was afraid to risk alienating new parent friends by being honest about being — looks both ways, lowers voice — an atheist.

But, in addition to making me be honest inside our home, my children pushed me to start being honest on the outside. In part, I wanted to set an example for them, and in part, I wanted to help change the world they would face.

It shouldn’t be hard to say you don’t believe in God. It shouldn’t be shocking or shameful. I know that I’m moral and respectful and friendly. And the more I say to people that I’m an atheist — me, the mom who taught the kindergarten class about baking with yeast and brought the killer cupcakes to the bake sale — the more people will stop assuming that being an atheist means being … a serial killer.

And then? The more I say I’m an atheist, the more other people will feel comfortable calling themselves atheists. And the stigma will gradually dissolve.

Can you imagine? If we all knew how many of us there are?

It would give everyone permission to be honest with their kids and their friends, to grapple with big questions without having to hold on to beliefs they never embraced.

And it would take away permission, too. Permission to pass laws (or grant exemptions to laws) based on the presumed desires of a fictional creation. Permission to be cruel to fellow human beings based on Bible verses. Permission to eschew political action in favor of “thoughts and prayers.”

I understand that, to many people, this might sound difficult or risky. It took me years to declare myself an atheist, and I was raised Reform Jewish, I live in the Northeast, I’m White, I work at home, and my family and friends are a liberal bunch. The stakes were low for me. For some, I fully concede, the stakes are too high.

If you think you’d lose your job or put your children at risk of harassment for declaring your atheism, you get a pass. If you would be risking physical harm, don’t speak out. If you’re an atheist running for school board somewhere that book bans are on the agenda, then feel free to keep it quiet, and God bless.

But for everyone else who doesn’t believe in God and hasn’t said so? Consider that your honesty will allow others to be honest, and that your reticence encourages others to keep quiet. Consider that the longer everyone keeps quiet, the longer religion has political and cultural license to hurt people. Consider that the United States — to survive as a secular democracy — needs you now more than ever.

And the next time you find yourself tempted to pretend that you believe in God? Tell the truth instead.

[fanficfish]

hetalia: my hc on nations and personalities

...beyond the stereotypes!

okay okay hear me out okay hc brainrot midnight time im jacked on caffeine and the night is young aight

so lets get this straight: so first off i imagine the nations are like 96% "stereotypes of ttheir nation" (e.g. the more people think or are americans that digest too many burgers, to more likely it is America himself eats attrocious amounts of burgers. The more people say Germans are swrious, the more likely Germany is a serious dude. etc. the normal stuff we all know off.)

but the other 4%? That's the nation's "person" side, seperate from their "nation" side. It varies a little depending on country ofc but that's prob the average.

E.g. hungary and austria "divorced" but they clearly care for each other. They can't be together for literal reasons but the non-nations parts of them wouldn't mind at all.

prussia is knwon aa a great warrior so that's what he is. But his non-nation half has self doubts and the need to keep an eye on his family. Like llease, Prussia how did you know what Austria wears and eats??? I get a feeling this wasn't in the mdidle of WW2, probabky right before if i had to geuss. Austria wouldn't have moved in with Germany and by exention aprussia yet....and he waa following the dude....prussia is an overprotective helicopter parent of an older brother, canon.

France and his distaste for technology. Exhibit A: french music was consistantly the one doing the weird innovative stuff in my music history class when it wasn't Schoenberg. Besides that, i could see France not liking tech as much due to being literally a thousand. Heck, i'm pretty sure half the old nations are a bit iffy about it just because "wdym now i can't just didappear lff the grid without anyone getting cocnerned and i need passports and phones and shit?" Except maybe Denmark, China, and Japan. Those three are 100% ipad kids in old men bodies.

iceland oozes gen z. enough said. The man might be obsessed with finding tourists and his northern lights and his weird museums but the thing where his beothers are throwing plates at his door and he's like "hell noooo"? The one where he's going off to make friends over ding-dong soup with the ASEAN dudes? That's allll Iceland, the person. Far as i could find there os no iceland-malaysia embassy and closest it got was relations with indonesia. (I highly recommend checking out the iceland-diplomatics-relations wiki page. There's a very interesting factoid under the list for Asian countries i think many of you will be interested in.....but per my own doctrine, this is a Hetalia hc post and not a Politica post.)

america and his animals. That goes for estonia too. Americans are no adopting whales and aliens as pets (well maybe the donate-and-save-an-animal program but we aint keep them in the house) and i doubt estonians keep talking mochi they found randomly in a disty corner. I'm fairly certain most Eatonians don't hell "latviaaaaaa!!!!" When things go wrong either.

austria getting lost is just a him thing. That's not normal for austrians, music part is very much influenced by his people. His preference to chopin might be him though since Salzburg is in Austria and that's Mozartland. Also, Chopin is Polish.

I won't even start with the clusterfuck called Russia but Japan daydreaming about Switzerland? Yeah that was Japan's non-nation side getting really weird. Japan understandably was just as confused himswlf considering for the most part he has no prpblems being a "stereotypical japanese dude".

need i mention Italy, who has a huge crush on Germany m/hre despite him literally changing in basically everything (because that's the natire of a nation), and just likes the guy as long as he exists?

I also choose to believe Sweden can grow a beard if he really followed the stereotype (no seriously. Why os the image i get of Sweedish guys just dudes with beards? Someone has a really nice sweden somewhere ln this site where he has a lovely beard and it just makes him look like the embodiment of sweeden, no questions asked). But he doesn't like it, which fair o imagine beards aren't fun when stiff gets stick in them or whatever, so he just shaves or leaves some stubble. Def not cuz Asians and beards is just not really a thing so Hima prob just didn't draw beyond the stubble.

Latvia being a secret brainiac that plays mental chess against himself while doing other stuff, all hidden under an alcoholic who can't get rid of his past. Pretty sure his blabbermouth thie is his own personality. I did see somewhere that there's a steretype that Latvians have six toes and i kinda wanna just believe Latvia got that one too cuz why not!

theres others im sure but yeah. Those are the knes i came up with and im gonna sleep now bye lmk what you think