#be enby do crime

[just-an-enby-lemon]

If you are an "Odysseus deserves to be crying every day in Calypsos island for seven years." fuck you. No he didn't. Yes, Odysseus is a fucked up guy. No he didn't deserve that. Even if he wasn't my babygirl, pet liar, he would not have deserved that. I wouldn't have said that even to Theseus and I hate that bitch so fucking much. No one, no one, deserves to be a victim!

[headlamprey]

I officially am accepting applicants for a Partner in Crime. You will share a bed with me. It will be platonic. You will help me uh YAKNOW assist with certain things​. Definitely interested in your ideas as well. HMU to be my Partner In Crime

🔨⚒️⛏️🪚⛓️🗡️🚬

[hazzzyrider]

The only kissinger i'm interested in is kissinger balls tonight

[sometimesthereishorse]

02/23-2023 🦄 Horse: Enbony-corn Reference by Helen Peppe

Unicorn requests are open! 💕

if you're able to provide a flag for reference that'd be great, but it's not a necessity.

[vyridianvoidelf]

It is pride month. Time for a big gay momento.

Be gay. Be trans. Make gay and trans stuff. But most importantly stay alive, please. With puppy eyes.

[noctsys]

I'm going to be so crimes and do so many gay

-Ark

[a-hot-hot-mess]

WE DONT TALK ABOUT THIS ISSUE ENOUGH:

NON-BINARY ISNT RECOGNISABLE AS A GENDER IN MANY MANY COUNTRIES

INCLUDING PROGRESSIVE COUNTRIES AND PLACES SUCH AS NORTH AMERICA AND MUCH OF EUROPE

EVEN PLACES SUCH AS AUSTRALIA WHERE NON-BINARY IS RECOGNISED, FOR MANY LEGAL DOCUMENTS IT IS NOT AN OPTION AND NOT CONSIDERED IN LAWS.

[thedead-poet]

I think cats are just a new form of flagging.

[0rionz-belt]

its hard to think that there was at least a week of my life where I balanced marching band, my rock band program, writing, drawing, and theater on top of high school. I talked to people, both friends and unfamiliar with no issue. And i never thought anything of it.

5 years later and I can barely function doing even 3 of those things. i miss being an artist.

[luaminesce]

Me: Revolian? What the hell is that?

-Finds it's basically just TERF rethoric, casual transphobia, and homophobia in a progressive-sounding package-

Me: ...Why am I not surprised at this point...?

[cadaveerie]

I'd like to point something out to Dragon Age fans, especially fanartists, in the nicest way possible:

Taash doesn't have a small waist. Taash doesn't have boob armor. Please guys, could you consider drawing the bodies of people you perceive as women like they actually are? Pleaseeeeee.

A lot of people doing fanart have been giving them both, and while it's not a crime or anything, can we for once let characters read as female not have those tropes? Especially when they're not like that in canon?

Obviously I do not condone harassment because of how anyone draws a fictional character, so I'd ask you don't target specific people about this... I just think that it's already rare to get these characters that don't have tiny waists and boob armor, so it'd be nice if this was more widely respected. I ask you to consider why it matters, and why it's questionable to have the one character like this be changed.

And also, not that related, but still somehow related to how Taash is perceived by fans: Taash has been referred to by 'she' and 'they' pronouns by the devs, so I'd just ask people to keep it in mind as well, and the possibility that they might not be a woman. That and the fact that both their writer and actor are non-binary and go by they/them, and that apparently Trick Weekes has expressed in the past their desire to write only trans characters (I've heard this multiple times, but I don't have the source. Let me know if you do.) I also think that the way Corinne Busche talks about their arc sounds incredibly trans-coded to me, but that's another discussion. Obviously, we don't know Taash's gender yet, they might not be enby at all, but it's still a nice thing to keep in mind since we lack the information to indicate the opposite, and there's some other to at least suggest the possibility that they might be trans, and perhaps even have a coming out arc.

I just ask that you consider these things at least. It matters to a lot of people, for good reason.

source: [1] Taash's picture, Corinne using they/them for Taash and talk about their arc.

[elswing]

actually you know what if rings of power is going to be catching strays from bigots no matter what they do (i.e. the unforgivable crime of implying maybe galadriel knows how to use a sword or that poc can exist in middle earth outside of racist caricatures) i think they should just throw themselves fully into it. celebrimbor and annatar fucking nasty in a 7 minute montage. throw LaCE out the window so elves can have homosexual marriages. cast more canon characters as poc even if their pj trilogy counterparts were white. make the blue wizards enby. canonise the lesbian harfoots and make them co-founders and the first mayors of the shire (they combined surnames that's where the proudfeet came from. Btw.)

[smilesheartshugs]

Gender shenanigans ideas with the bat fam:

Tim and Cas are both enby in the sense that “yeah people put me in this box but I don’t really have another box to go to so might as well be this.”

Jason never felt comfortable in his skin, but it wasn’t until be got dunked in the magical green buff juice. After the rage has cleared up and he’s in an area where he could stop and think he realizes that he may not be a boy. But because of his physique and how necessary he is for crime ally he doesn’t think he can change it. He doesn’t even let himself try out other pronouns. *no he can’t be a girl what are you talking about? Girls can wear the pretty skirts and he can’t*

Dick is gender fluid though usually male or male adjacent. He feels comfortable in his own skin and wears what ever he wants whenever he wants.

Duke was very very young when he found out he was trans and his parents let him transition so you that he just kinda forgets that he’s not cis. No one knows he’s trans but he just genuinely forgets to tell people. He’s been doing his own testosterone for like two years before his parents got jokerized so it kinda just fell through the cracks. He doesn’t feel the need to tell people either he’s just kinda there.

Babs is mtf and confident with her self.

Steph thought she could be enby for a period of time but she’s a cis girly pop. She just doesn’t like being treated like she’s less than and has no interest in “traditional female value” (cough cough misogyny)

Damian is a guy, he has never thought to question his gender. He was told he was a guy since birth so clearly he must be a guy right? Right?? Well he’s obviously not a girl, not that he hates wearing skirts or makeup he’s just not a girl so that means he’s a guy.

[magical-grrrl-mavis]

Games you can play instead of D&D

Pathfinder/Pathfinder 2e: Same concept as D&D but by a better company. You are an adventurer in a high fantasy setting. Character creation combines a race and class.

Mutants and Masterminds 3e: Action-focused superhero RPG, uses starting points to buy equipment and skills and build powers by combining effects. Character creation can take a bit to get used to but there are many sourcebooks with helpful examples to use, there are countless pre-built characters online, and a slew of official books containing just about every DC Comics character you can think of to play and interact with.

Vampire: the Masquerade: You are a vampire in the shadowy gothic underbelly of modern society, struggling against any number of threats, kindred or otherwise, while trying to keep the existence of vampires a secret and struggle against your own bestial nature. Will you retain your humanity? Or give in to the beast. High focus on roleplay and social intrigue.

Monster of the Week: A rules-light game based on the Powered By the Apocalypse system that recreates the experience of shows like Buffy, Supernatural, X-Files and Warehouse 13. You play as a Hunter investigationg supernatural mysteries and fighting monsters. Player characters are based on archetypes from this genre (Professional, Monstrous, Spell-Slinger etc) (this one's my favorite! :D)

Masks: A New Generation: Play as a young superhero finding their place in the world. The game creates a coming-of-age story as you grow and change in response to your actions and the people and events around you. Character creation reflects this by focusing on your characters personality, struggles and strengths while being more loose about your actual powers.

Girl by Moonlight: Magical Girls (boys, enbies etc) through a queer lense. You play a magical guardian grappling with destiny, love and the heartbreaking duality between who you are and who the world says you are. Split between four genres you can choose from-classic magical girls, dark magical girls, psychological conspiracy and... mecha. I guess. (I'm gonna be honest I haven't looked super deep into those last two yet). Characters are based on archetypes from magical girl stories, some with very obvious inspirations.

Scum and Villainy: Play as a roguish outlaw in a galactic society run by an oppressive force. You are the Han Solo of this story, smuggling and doing crimes and mercenary work aboard your own starship.

Killer Ratings: You and the other players are the insufferable cast of a cheap ghost-hunting show and have found yourselves in over your heads as you've wandered into an actual haunted location. Play as you explore the site and are most likely taken out one-by-one, returning as vengeful spirits to further terrorize your former cast-mates.

[lemniscate-graphics]

Help a disabled bi enby pay for car repairs!

Hi guys!! Life has been kicking me in the shins the last few months, but today I went to get groceries and this is what greeted me!

That's my engine *and* transmission oil! Mechanic has quoted me 1400 total to replace the oil pan gasket, transmission gasket, and valve cover gaskets, which all decided to go at the same time! Granted, my Cherry Bomb is an '07 so we were expecting to have to shell out for something soon, but this hit us between paychecks, and the next check also needs to pay rent and a psychiatrist visit I cannot resechedule because it's related to my disability claim for work!

I'm opening unlimited simple sticker commissions between today (Aug 20, 2024) and September 5th 2024, $10 per sticker, up to 8in/10cm length and/or width, max two colors (I know the Ghostbusters sticker has three, but I am limiting this run to two colors to keep it simple.) Here are some examples:

I prefer to either use existing IP logos like the ones here, common slogans or phrases (like 'Fuck The Police', 'Eat The Rich', or 'Be Gay, Do Crimes'), or work with you to create a unique design, unless I can directly ask an artist if I can use their work for a one-off sticker. For example if you show me a fandom sticker designed by another artist from like Etsy or something and want me to duplicate it, I MUST be able to OK that with them.

I am not taking shirt commissions at this time.

Not only can I not afford to buy the shirts, but I don't have a way to guarantee good-quality prints at this time. My aim here is to churn out something I know I can make quickly and at a good quality, and I cannot do that with shirts right now.

My paypal is rlmckin@gmail.com. You can also just donate if you don't want a sticker! If you want a sticker, DM me or send me an email at lemniscatevinyls@gmail.com so we can get things sorted! If I do not get a DM or Email, I will assume you just want to donate and will NOT make you a sticker!

Thanks in advance, every cent will help!

[a-student-out-of-time]

The Post-Tragedy Horrors of Despair Time

Hello everyone, Mod Bubbles here!

This Halloween, I decided to do something a little different. Rather than a dedicated post or song parody, I've decided to share a worldbuilding analysis. A pretty fortuitous one, since we've recently completed Chapter 2 of Despair Time.

I'm sure it's no exaggeration to say that DT is a pretty dark fangan, especially within its own context. I wouldn't say it's as grimdark and nihilistic as some people are convinced it is, but there's some elements to it that I feel are worth analyzing going forward.

See, it's been established that DT is set within the Hope's Peak continuity. This would mean that the canon games sans V3 (and if you want to have fun with it, other fangans like the Another series) have all happened here.

According to a Q&A, DT is set around 70-80 years after the end of the Tragedy, so if you wanted to estimate based on in-universe dates (such as Makoto's Hope's Peak brochure saying 2010 in the earliest version of the game but 2014 in a re-release), that would put it sometime around 2080 to the mid-2090s. Veronika backs this up in Chapter 2, when she mentions the Tragedy happened "almost a century ago."

Why do I bring all this up? Because if you looked at DT, you'd probably never guess it was that deep in the future. I know I didn't at first. And this is all by design, but it goes beyond simple cosmetic details. Allow me to explain to you why this is probably the darkest timeline that could've happened after Class 78's victory over Ultimate Despair.

___________________________________________________

Modern Stagnancy

So if we look at the obvious, the world of DT looks pretty much identical to our own, which should be a good thing. When you consider that this is set after The Biggest, Most Awful, Most Tragic Event in Human History- an event that saw societal collapse, wars happen for the sake of destruction, massive pollution, rampant murder, and countless killing games- then it almost seems utopian.

Cities have long since been rebuilt, the skies are clear, there are functional trains, movies, celebrities, schools, music, art, Ted-Talks, the internet, all the trappings of normality. And that's really the problem.

Once the recovery efforts were underway, the goal of those in power was to rebuild things exactly as they used to be. Bear in mind, the world looks like our modern day, yet this is set deep into the late 21st century. In that context, the world almost seems stunted in its growth or even that it's regressed, given that CDs and DVDs are used rather than USBs or digital downloads.

Not only that, but this extends to societal attitudes as well. Nico was the victim of bullying over their status as an enby by everyone who knew, including their own father. It's almost the 22nd century and anti-LGBTQ bigotry like this still exists.

In that context, it feels less like the world is recovering and more that it's been stuck in its pre-Tragedy status quo, right down to continuing the Ultimates program that contributed to The Tragedy in the first place. And who would be motivated to do that?

2. Hope's Peak And Their Kin Are Stronger Than Ever

Probably one of the most contentious aspects of DR3's ending is that, after everything the people in charge of it were responsible for- exploiting their students, covering up crimes, human experimentation- Hope's Peak Academy was rebuilt by the survivors, now with Makoto as headmaster.

Now, one could make the argument that Makoto is a better example of hope and thus better suited to lead the school to follow its stated ideals than the Steering Committee ever was. That very well may be true, but as they also proved, nobody stays in charge forever. And now, because of his decision, Hope's Peak isn't contained to Japan.

There now exist Hope's Peak branches in every major country on Earth, with two in the United States. Teruko and co. are students of the East Coast Division's 27th class, meaning that one opened almost thirty years ago. This would also mean that Japan's Hope's Peak would have seen over 150 classes since its inception.

I bring all this up because, as has been made very clear by canon, Hope's Peak is a terrible place even in concept. When you remove the idyllic aspect of fostering talent and guaranteeing its students are set for life, the truth is that ultimates are stunted in their development. They're only encouraged to excel in their particular field, whether they really want to or not.

In addition, Hope's Peak has always quietly held this belief that only people with talent hold any worth; those without talent are just "ticks" who leech off the success of their betters. Characters like Byakuya and Nagito echo those very same sentiments, this extreme elitism that encourages people to view the "99%" as inherently inferior.

Even if you wanted to say Makoto managed to undo that idea, can we really say this divide would never come up again? No matter how many years pass or how many divisions of Hope's Peak are set up across the world? That seems really far-fetched to me.

Consider Min's bonus video. As she explains, she was never scouted by the school. Instead, America's Hope's Peak announced something called the Ultimate Contest for Eminent Students, where eligible high school students would be allowed to take a test, the best of whom would be admitted to the school when they graduated. The catch is that they had 12 years to prepare. Min, who was only 5 at the time, wasn't initially going to participate, but then the founder of a company called XF-Ture Tech approached her family- who was quite poor- and wanted to sponsor her in exchange for her participation.

She spent her entire life preparing for that test. And when she passed, she realized it was all really just an experiment to create their ideal version of the Ultimate Student. She even doubted that she was the best in terms of raw score, just that she met their desired expectations by cutting out everything else in her life for that test.

It also extends beyond just Hope's Peak itself. Those with power and influence now hold a strangle hold over the most vulnerable people out there, as we can see with the Lacroix family.

Rose wanted to help her family out of their financial limitations using her painting skills and her photographic memory, which lead to her becoming an art forger. However, at 15, she was found out and her family faced tens of millions in fines. This would've been the end, but then they were bailed out by a billionaire named Richard Spurling, founder of the Spurling Foundation. In exchange for clearing her charges, Rose had to sign a contract that meant she doesn't own the rights to anything she paints.

She hates what her life has become, where she can only ever really paint things at the whims of the Foundation because it was the only way her family could survive that mountain of debt. The exploitation there is undeniable.

No matter where you look, there's still exploitation and experiment abound with the school, corporations and the wealthy. And if you think the Spurling Foundation sounds bad here, they're implied to be responsible for something much worse.

Which is also brings us to Xander. See, there's a curious detail when we first meet him in the prologue:

And I agree. Xander being the Ultimate Rebel really doesn't fit him, as he's better described as the "Ultimate Revolutionary." Except there's no chance Hope's Peak would call him that, instead paying lip service to the idea in a digestible format to still support the status quo.

Xander is an activist who works to oppose corruption, but the ones who benefit from corruption wouldn't want him to flaunt that. It's a subtle but very clever detail that shows those in power still maintain a hold even over their beloved Ultimates.

They probably had no issue throwing the obviously corrupt under the bus to save their own hides, and raised Xander up with a quasi-supportive title. It gives them a chance to look like they're supporting what he's doing while still tying an element of a "rebellious child" to his image with the name.

Had Xander survived, he had a good reason to want to bring them down, especially the Spurlings.

3. Illness and Poverty

Xander's bonus video clued us in on what I believe is one of the most important parts of DT's continuity: the fate of the town of Chariton, implied to be where he lived. It seemed to be a small town, home to a couple hundred or a couple thousand people, where the only hospital for miles was "dinky, understaffed" and barely able to handle a minor flu outbreak. They were completely unprepared for what became known as the Chariton Incident.

When he was around 14, the town was hit by a disease that caused those infected to decay from the outside in; their limbs would stop working before their organs did, meaning they would just lay there and feel themselves slowly dying. So many died that nobody was left to move the bodies, so they were left where they fell, rotting in the summer heat.

The cause of this outbreak? A contaminated river that served as the town's water source. Chariton was an impoverished community, where people had no money to treat their water, get medicine from a nearby city or to even move out. It's also implied, based on Xander's anger, that Duke Spurling was partially responsible and that he got off the hook, which may be what drove Xander to become the Ultimate Rebel. Especially when you consider he's the only surviving member of his family.

Duke Spurling is, as the named implies and Dev has confirmed, the younger brother of Richard Spurling. The money and influence needed to get his brother off the hook is the very same that has the Lacroix family under his thumb.

So as we can see, Chariton was a major event in DT's canon. Not only does it showcase corruption, it also showcases understated but still prominent problems in the post-Tragedy U.S. If you pay attention, you'll also notice Teruko, Min, and Rose mention poverty playing a role in their lives.

As we can see, poverty plays a major role in their lives, and that extends beyond a personal level. Chariton's poverty is why the incident happened at all, and a big reason is because it's also an example of a medical desert.

"Medical desert" is a term used to describe regions whose population has inadequate access to healthcare. This can be all healthcare in general or in specialties such as dental care or pharmaceuticals. This is an especially prominent problem in rural areas, but it can affect urban ones too.

If that sounds implausible to you, today it's believed that around 30 million Americans- over 1% of the population- live over an hour from a hospital. Can you imagine how bad the problem is in a world after The Tragedy? All the damage to infrastructure, established institutions, the economy, and the population? I doubt Chariton was the first to see something this bad.

Ace's execution gives us more clues. In the Death By Illness section, there are several newspaper clippings on the wall, most of which are readable. One flashes on screen saying "Unexplained Illness Kills Thousands," which I believe is another reference to Chariton (why else would it flash on screen?), but there's more as well:

"More people are dying of cancer than ever before"

"Flu season claims thousands of lives"

"Falling rates of survival for hospitalized patients"

"Antibiotic-resistant infections a growing threat in this hospital"

One is harder to read, but I believe it mentions Chronic Kidney Disease being tied to an early death

Now, the interesting thing is that most of these are modern headlines, and they can be pretty misleading. The cancer one is actually based on the fact that more people are living longer lives, thus are reaching ages where they develop cancer due to their cell infrastructure breaking down naturally. It doesn't mean there's more cancer cases overall across all ages.

The only one that's not true is the falling rates one. Which suggests that not only was it Chariton, but healthcare infrastructure in general after the Tragedy seems to be a mess.

See, I was assuming that these articles are identical to what we see today. But it's also possible that the cancer one is now literally true, and it could be because The Tragedy was rife with this kind of horror. We know that terrorism, coups and wars happened for no reason other than to spread despair across the world.

Could you imagine how many nuclear, chemical, biological and radiological weapons were used? How many diseases and hazardous materials were seeded into the environment? If it's unsafe to drink tap water after a serious hurricane or earthquake, how bad is the problem when contamination is the goal?

And this doesn't even touch on how disturbingly easy it would be to spread long-term illnesses such as HIV or CJD in contaminated food and medical supplies. Some diseases have latency periods that last decades, meaning they could still be killing people even by the time DRDT is set.

Antibiotic resistance is also a very real and serious problem. Even today, some strains have become immune to even the strongest antibiotics available. This has given rise to Vancomycin-Resistant Enterococci or VREs, which are immune to basically every medication we can throw at them.

Now, it's still possible to deal with them, such as with naturally antimicrobial metals or experimental treatments such as CRISPR and Phage Therapy, but in a world that saw such a massive hit to everything? I'm certain antibiotic-resistance bacteria have become much more serious, potentially resulting in epidemics over the years.

And when these things happen, it's always the poor who suffer the most.

4. Lethal Repetition

Now we come to the most obvious example, something highlighted by the same reveal that DT is set nearly a century into the future:

Veronika, who provided us with information on the effects the Tragedy still has, apparently has never heard about The Killing School Life.

Now, it's important to keep in mind that most of the Killing Games in DR were pretty secluded and motivated. SDR2 was only broadcast to Future Foundation with the goal to allow Junko to escape into the real world, for example. However, DR1's Killing School Life was broadcast globally as a means to break humanity's hope by showing the Ultimates slaughtering each other. Instead, Makoto and co. managed to reinvigorate the world's hope and played a pivotal role in ending the Tragedy.

...And yet Veronika apparently hasn't heard any of it.

Now, there's two possibilities here, neither of which are good:

One is that the Mastermind has removed their knowledge of previous killing games, specifically. Now, I actually consider this an unlikely explanation because, not only does Teruko seem to vaguely remember the Killing School Life happened, but what's the goal in doing so for the participants?

The canon games all had solid reasons why the other masterminds erased the participants' memories: the revelation that they'd been killing their friends, the fact that their past identities were supposed to be undone to save them, even the fact that they weren't even who they were supposed to be in V3.

But what's the purpose of suppressing the memories of the Killing School Life in the participants themselves? Especially since this game is also apparently being broadcast to the outside world, although we only have MonoTV's word on that. Is it to undermine everything the survivors achieved or to get the participants not to consider the same strategies?

The other, more plausible explanation to me is that the mastermind isn't the one who erased their memories. The outside world did.

It's possible that, in the decades since the Tragedy and the drive to return things to the status quo, knowledge of the Killing School Life has been suppressed. It would be so easy to blame Makoto's decision to rebuild the school, but it's just as plausible that his attempts to genuinely reform the school were undone over the years.

Corporations and those that came after had a vested reason to improve their own reputations, and why would they allow their connection to the Tragedy to remain public knowledge? The entire thing began as a revolution of lower classes against the rich before it became a whirlwind of mindless violence.

So what does this mean for DT? This is more hypothesizing on my part, but I'd say this could tell us a lot about the potential motivations for this very killing game. Could it be someone trying to remind the world about this event and how we got here? Is it more retribution against the wealthy? Is it someone who was inspired by Junko to slaughter her friends? Or is it something else entirely? And what role does Teruko have if someone involved is so hellbent on trying to kill her?

For now, we can only speculate. But I can tell you that, based on what we've seen here, DT is probably the darkest future we could've gotten out of the canon series.

Happy Halloween, everyone!