#dont focus on what is politically correct so much

[theevilicecreamsoda]

Btw accepting neurodivergent people shouldn’t always be saying everything correctly and using all the correct words and stepping on eggshells all the time… I see it a lot and tbh? It annoys me. It feels too formal! I want to be able to joke about it and talk about without someone always saying neurodivergent when referring to just me or like going quiet when I bring it up… it makes me feel uncomfortable and I feel like i can’t bring it up with other people

[cannibal-nightmares]

Seven

"Sounds like you were having a day. That's what my mom used to call it when she got her wires crossed."

Spirit hosts his home for a weekly weekend dinner between just he and Stein.

Wrote this to process some things over a couple of months, and, much to my surprise, it helped a lot. I didn't originally intend for it to see the light of day, but I ended up enjoying the ending. please dont whack me lol aaaaa

Soul Eater - Stein x Spirit (ship is up to interpretation, SFW) // OOC Stein, domestic fluff, caregiver-esque Spirit but not really, non-verbal stein, agereg!stein?, hurt/comfort, this piece goes nowhere Word count - 2,018 -- [AO3 link]

Sometimes he got like this, uncharacteristically unresponsive, even when it was in his character to be unresponsive. There was a heaviness to his slow breath and a glaze in his eye that left more to be remarked, unfocused on settling dust particles in a dimming sunbeam.

That afternoon, he was slow to pack up his things from the infirmary and the lecture hall. Spirit had waited outside on the massive steps, as he so often did, noting how much time had passed with the slight inclination for a second cigarette, the first one lit after he realized the misstep in timing as it was.

A hup, standing up and turning to step back inside to check on his meister, and, finally, the professor met the evening sun with a distant gaze.

"What took you so long?" Albarn jested.

Stein almost didn't answer. "'Just lost track of time. You could have gone home without me, you know."

Spirit chuffed, but his light-hearted expression tugged to shift as Stein's tone painted the air.

"Nonsense, silly. When else would I get to yammer to you about work?"

Franken exhaled shortly with a forced polite twinge to his brow and waved them both along down the stairs. It was fast-obvious each and every step felt like a free-fall.

They carried on in silence.

The two took turns hosting their homes on Friday nights for shared dinners, recuperation, and wherever else the evenings would take them. Over the year they had been doing this, they found their belongings spread out between each other’s apartments: It was disorganized, but Stein was good at keeping track of things like insects in a web by snippets of pictures and content within his memory.

“Hey, Stein?”

“Hm?”

“I think it’s your turn this week.”

The professor looked up from his thoughts, realizing he took them paces in the other direction towards Spirit’s place.

“Oh, I guess that’s right.” He took pause, unsure of how to apply grace in correcting the mistake, attempting to casually redirect their path when Spirit brushed his sleeve.

“Franken,” he caught his gaze, eye contact visibly shattering his meister’s focus, searching for a more tangible tell. “Let me cook tonight.”

Something somewhere in Stein wanted to argue for the sake of consistent routine, but something else was at the forefront of his decision-making. A beat, and he nodded with an unchanged expression but a softness like that of gratitude in his eyes. He very clearly wanted to express something more verbal, though too long of a pause discredited him from an intended gesture; he closed his gape and readjusted his glasses, thereafter rubbing tired knuckles to his temple, soothing something lost.

“Hey, are you okay?” Spirit had his heels off the ground to tilt his head to his partner, a firm hand to Stein’s bicep; Albarn knew how delicate touches often did more harm than good for grounding techniques.

Acknowledgment flickered in Franken’s reflection, and he was able to re-track, rubbing the back of his neck now and meeting his weapon’s face before quickly splitting away.

“Yeah, I think I’m just… Having a day.”

Spirit squeezed his shoulder. “We don’t have to do dinner if you’re not feeling up to it—”

“No, it’s fine.” Stein cut him off insistently. “I want to.”

The whole truth of the matter was he felt safe with Spirit. He imagined he’d probably sit at his desk or go to bed if he had gone home, but a force within him did not want to be left alone. He wanted Spirit’s company as though his life depended on it.

The death scythe smiled gently. “Off we go, then.”

Paces to the east side of town painted approaching walls in golden-orange sun. The quiet neighborhood looked like a dollhouse come to life at this part of the evening, the streets about to brim with dinner plans and weekend celebrations. In their delay, they had just missed the usual ebb of rush by the time school got out. A silent cyclist passed by.

“Stein…” Spirit was hesitant to cut through the quiet. “I know you don’t like me asking, but…” He brought both of his flat and open hands out in front of himself, paralleling each other, starting apart wide and ending nearer together in the middle of his abdomen, a furrowing questioning stark to his countenance.

There was a sharp shard of annoyance in Stein’s quiet sigh that resulted, but a reasoned defensiveness in his eyes shone years worth of experience he desperately wanted to rewrite.

“You don’t have to answer. You know I only ask because I want to care for you. And I know it needs some practice from both of us.”

Stein half-glanced over to his side, and then back to Spirit. He waved his hand for his focus then nodded his fist at the wrist.

Albarn chuffed but then corrected himself. Do you know why?

The professor wanted to sigh again. Do you know why?

Spirit was only half-confident in the response. Too, he wasn’t sure what would be stepping on his partner’s toes.

I think so.

Winter has… Stein exhibited an uncertainty in his hands, signing the gesture for MIXED, then corrected himself to CONFUSION. He shook it out. “Dissonance.” His voice trailed by the third syllable, already having started small.

Spirit rubbed his meister’s back. I know.

"I'm going to lie down for a while… If you don’t mind.”

The death scythe helped the coat off his partner’s shoulders at the doorway, his limbs heavy and tired.

“Not at all. Should I start dinner and wake you when it’s done?”

He knew he wasn't going to be able to taste anything, and that eating might end up being a chore to the point of nausea, but Spirit knew--they both knew--that a meal and some rest was definitely going to help him think straight. It was obvious Stein thought to deny it, but eventually managed a lost nod.

Spirit exhaled in resolution, taking a moment to squeeze his hand.

“When did you last eat?”

Stein opened his mouth to begin speaking, but nothing came out. He blinked away a tightness in his chest and touched his thumb first to the side of his chin, then his ear.

Yesterday.

Typical he'd skip breakfast. Spirit nodded.

“Is there anything you’d prefer?” He had to admit to himself he knew the questions were making his guest tired.

The professor paused, then slipped his hand from Albarn’s grip to click at his screw, eye contact gone distant beyond them both. Spirit half-mindlessly petted the back of his knuckles to Stein’s forearm to return gentle focus. From nothing, he was clearly becoming overstimulated.

No worries. “I’ll figure something out for us, dear.”

Stein forced a readjustment to meet the side of Spirit’s neck. “Thank you, Spirit.” He flickered sincere eye contact from emerald to aquamarine, held the moment for just a beat, then slunk off to the hallway, too fuzzy and scrambled to worry if the message was received.

Spirit was no stranger to these spells, twicefold: One in seeing Stein in these states before, and another in his own first-hand experience. Well, Spirit corrected his own thoughts, he didn’t exactly understand the non-verbality and shrinking ego from a first-person perspective, but that pit of unprecedented and unanticipated emptiness was certainly no stranger. They had profound moments together that led each of them towards new coping mechanisms, unexpected craftiness in both defense and in aid like that of brugmansia bloom. Sometimes the weekend meals were bargaining, reminders to themselves that they both were human through the reflection of the other.

He knew exactly what to make for dinner.

Spirit tapped the guest bedroom door with soft knuckles, and gently peeled it away from the frame. As his eyes adjusted to the dim, he realized no one was in the neatly made bed.

“Stein?”

He stepped back out to the hall and nudged his own bedroom door that was slightly ajar, eyeing blankets mussed but still no professor to be found. The room took moonglow and the air tasted sweet with chilliness, inviting Albarn to push the door further to see the parallel sliding glass cracked open. On the balcony, his meister sat criss-cross, looking out through the wrought iron railing down to the street.

“Hey,” he made his presence known before stepping out to the cement, an immediate shiver overtaking him. He sat comfortably next to him and followed his trajectory. “What are you looking at, Franken?”

Stein had his arms folded in on themselves awkwardly, but pried one from the knot to out point to the sidewalk of the bistro adjacently below. He made loose hands that seemed to grab at themselves in the center of his body, but Spirit wasn’t able to follow.

“I’m… Sorry, Stein, I don’t know that word.” Albarn said aloud while signing along.

The professor refocused on his partner with a tiny curious twinge to his brow and gestured movements with his hands that looked similar to the last. A pause, and he clarified.

“Stories.”

He looked back out to the street and Spirit followed the trajectory. Gesturing to a man in a blue suit chatting to a woman on the curb, Stein nodded upward.

“What do you think he does?” His voice remained ever-quiet. He then signed the word for “WORK?”

“By the looks of it, maybe… A business man. He has a briefcase.”

Stein shook out his hand to hold a misplaced sigh, but consoled the impulsion by meeting his bolt. He didn’t crank it, though, fingers left in temptation. He unfolded his legs to bring knees to his chest, his raised elbow to rest propped up against them, the other arm squeezing his legs tight.

“I think he’s living a double-life. Maybe that’s his wife, maybe it’s not. Maybe he is a businessman—probably a paper-pusher--but he does something else on the side that she doesn’t know about. They’ve planned a date, but, last second, it has crossed the plans of his second employer. He has to figure out how to cut the dinner early before she realizes that’s not his normal weekday briefcase.”

Spirit went speechless and searched Stein in a received child-like wonder, the game falling into place.

“Oh, look, he did it!” Albarn chimed as the two characters parted ways from each other. Stein grinned, but felt inclined to hide it.

“What about her?” Spirit pointed to a woman at a table on the sidewalk with a relaxed hand to her jaw, looking out to the road in absent thought.

“What about her?” Stein passed the baton.

“She’s…” He hesitated, thinking. “She’s a usual at this cafe. She has the menu memorized like the back of her hand, but pretends she doesn’t think it leaves more to be desired. She fantasizes of having a restaurant of her own where everything is cat-themed and… And involves calamari somehow...”

Stein glanced to Spirit and once he finally caught a returned look, he laughed a single amused chuff, their expressions matching pink in the dark. They both shivered.

“What do you think they think we do?”

“I guess that depends how much you’re out on this balcony.”

Almost as if on cue, they made eye contact with the lady at the table who happened to look up at them.

They waved.

Dinner is ready.

Stein freed his hands from their anchors. What did you make?

Spirit’s smile was warm. Breakfast.

Something of surprise lit up in the meister’s eyes.

Do you want to eat out here or inside?

Franken wasn’t sure what to do with his hands until he decided on tugging to Spirit’s sleeve, then taking his left hand in both of his own, bringing folded knuckles to his temple, shielding his eyes momentarily with a sweet grin. Albarn confessed the regression was in a way alarming, but he felt the genuine comfort start to radiate off of Stein in their shared company. He let his hand out of his meister’s grasp to sweep through his hair and pull him into a hug.

“Let’s go inside.”

[pumpkinsy0]

Headcanons for Mexican American Dallas who feels a bit self conscious about not being seen as conventionally attractive? (Bonus points for Tim comforting him)

mexican american dallas makes a return,,, whats good man,,,

•OK BEFORE I START ALLOW ME TO EXPLAIN, dally being self conscious isnt him exactly hiding those attributes of himself, he doesnt hide it, but that doesnt mean he LIKES it, he makes self degrading comments and ppl pass it off, but if u squint, its pretty obvious he is self conscious, but if u told him that he’d laugh at u for a multitude of reasons

•also i dont think his self hatred is just contained to himself, hes not above not making comments about others and their features, but its not really out of genuine malice and hatred for what he is, its just like a,,,deep rooted self hatred, pls tell me u get what i mean

•NOW when it comes to dally back in brooklyn, part of what made him feel insecure was that he just didnt grow up w ppl that looked like him, he grew up in a mainly white neighborhood so nobody rlly looked like him, thats also kinda y hes not connected to his culture id say

•im gonna say that if theres one part about him be’d rlly focus on in particular, id say he doesnt like his nose that much and right after that is his hair and how curly it is, dally canonically doesnt grease his hair and i imagine for this that his hair being curly is part of the reason y, it takes quite a long time to do it

•bc he doesnt grease his hair and thats like, a kinda big part of the greaser culture, he feels a bit like an outsider for it. hes not connected to his mexican heritage and hes not 100% “committed” to being a greaser either in his eyes, so i feel like that messes w him a bit. some times he even watches pony or soda grease their hair and focuses on it being straight, soda and pony r the ones in the gang ppl see to have “tuff hair” and dally thinks their hair being straight is part of the reason y it is

•dally would even go as far as to call johnny lucky for having straight hair, its comments like those that show that he has a bit of self hatred

•id say dally compares himself to the curtis bros quite a bit actually. theyre seen as the “golden family” amongst the gang, and how they look isnt lost amongst dally at all, dally thinks hes just a complete lost cause bc of how he looks and how he doesnt have a chance bc of it, so he rlly doesnt even try to accomplish anything in particular and kinda, does whatever, like a “nobody cares for what i do, so why should i” thing

•id say tim, kinda feels the same way???? but the difference w him is, he tries to still make something of himself. yea he feels like hes not getting as far as the curtis’ would, but he still tries to do his own thing, and he tries getting dally to do the same sometimes, he doesnt push him, but he does plant the seed

•now if hes pale, this is a COMPLETELY different case scenario, but if hes tan, i think he’d look at the curtis bros and just feel a type of way, he doesnt say anything about it, but he doesnt rlly like being near the curtis bros for too long, hes had ppl make comments about how he looks near them, and it annoys him more than anything, so he keeps his distance from them physically, but i think johnny being there helps him a lil

•ok ifffff im not wrong, pls correct me if i am, not too well versed on this topic, but the chicano movement started in like 1965???? somewhere in the 60s, so i think it would b interesting if dally caught wind of it, and it kind of inspires him??in a way??? i hope what im saying makes sense, like it inspires him to look at things differently about the world and himself, considering the movement talked about political AND social issues (like i said, correct me if im wrong or feel free to switch this up a bit, trying my best here💔💔)

•idk if u like,,,,hc the shepards to also b mexican american or if u just want them to stand in like #pocsolidarity, but maybe it was tim who introduced it to dally, and dally was like “mannnn shut up, im not trynna hear that rn” but dally would lowkey b thinking about it a bit more

•going back to that earlier hc, i think what really makes tim pay attention to what dally says IS bc of the comments dally makes towards ppl who look like him, its especially true if u wanna make the shepards mexican, bc most of the comments he makes is towards tim and curly, he even does it to johnny but not as much honestly, but ESPECIALLY the comments he makes towards curly bc of curlys obviously curly hair and how dally feels about his own, that makes tim think, what is UP w this guy

•honestly, i wouldnt say tim “comforts” him, but he does sure make dally think about what he says bc sometimes he just responds w “what is ur problem w it”, at most the closest he gets to comforting is when dally makes a comment about himself and tim calmly goes “i dont mind the look”

[snail-studios]

OK SO YOUR OCS! I've been staring at them for maybe too long and I have some polite enquiries (hopefully)!

So first: names? I think you brought them up earlier but my written charcter recognition skills are terrible and I forgor ;_; And also if you're comfortable sharing, what's the gist of the story that they're in? What sort of relationships/family dynamics do they have/come from?

Also! I'm really fascinated by the appearance of the character on the right! Are the circles and red details on her face birthmarks? Or tattoos? Or something else? And I might be reaching here... but does she have a slight turned eye? I have a (now corrected) one so its very possible I'm imagining it, but either way the details on the eyes are amazing.

Hope the drive wasn't too hard on you! If you're going on holiday I'm also going to the beach for a few days so. snap!

Maybe... more oc content in the future?? 👀

Names! I don't have a name for the girl on the left, but on the right her name translates to.....number six ;) i usually refer to her as 六Liu!

The gist of the story is somewhat post-apocalyptic, with a heavy focus on my main character (you'll have to scour my blog to find anything of her lol) trying to find her sister :> Liu's dynamics are ...interesting? She has a loathing for Fei (our main girl) but also so much love and adoration for her. 😭 but really she doesn't have any feelings for her? Since. She's not completely human 👀👉👈

The circles are painted on and meant to be reminiscent of old dolls, and the markings are branded onto her 'skin'!!

I dont know if she has a turned eye, but it would definitely make sense for her to have one! And thank you!!

The drive is still happening 😭 I'm going to visit my extended family, which is...eh? It's warm where I'm going though, which i greatly appreciate ❤o(︶︿︶)o

[mqfx]

so a passing thought about post-canon sangcheng occurred to me & i would like to receive any wise counsel you'd like to give on my thought processes... 🙇‍♂️ they're a little disjointed. disclaimer that i havent read the novel in a while!

im not super convinced by the idea that nhs was able to control eeeeverything that occurred in his Great Revenge--i imagine a lot of it was incidental and opportunistic.

im not clear on whether jiang cheng would figure out that there was a masterminding aspect to the grand finale at the temple at all, bc while i think he's smart! he's also, like, so uninclined to overanalyse things that might uncover something painful for him (see: wwx's behavior post golden core transfer--unless you have to adjust for shixiong admiration/how jc places wwx on a competence pedestal? if wwx says he can handle it he can handle it, until he doesnt handle it so hard he dies. i guess.)

ANYWAY. i dont think jc would be friendly, or maybe he wouldnt like that he Was friendly with nhs if he thought nhs intentionally put jin ling in danger. im not sure if nhs DID! but im thinking in circles about whether jc would think that would have been the case. in my mind he is both endlessly capable of knee-jerk trust recindication (is that a word.) AND trust extended way past reasonable limits. but do you think that would be discussed (with jiang cheng loudly in tears about it in front of many rubbernecking witnesses, mdzs style?) at all? the most i can imagine is jiang cheng yelling obscurely around whether he can trust nie huaisang! clarifying details & inside voices are for the next generation.

i feel like there something to be said about how he trusts wwx with jin ling's safety, too...

this kind of doesn't have a conclusion im just interested in what you think of post canon sangcheng en generale-- it feels like a very different relationship from anything i can imagine in like... cloud recesses era. they're both miserable i think 😀 but actually post canon jiang cheng is doing better than usual than he has been for a long time, in a sense, and nie huaisang is probably thinking he should be doing better.

sorry this is so long!

ok firstable i must address "rescindification" bc it compelled me and apparently the noun form of "rescind" would be "recision" or "rescindment". heeheehee

now my thoughts on the matter:

2019 me wouldn't have agreed with this but remember 4-5 years ago i was only a college sophomore and was less capable of independent thought. since i was more caught up in fandom back then i generally went along with the headcanon that NHS Planned Everything, especially since it gave him more BAMF-ness(??) to, i guess, make up for the fact that he's not a "strong" cultivator. i would Like to delete the fic i wrote about it then but people like it a lot and i'd feel bad just taking it down. it's kinda like my sorrows of young werther (in that goethe regretted his first published work. not that im like goethe ew)

2023 me obviously thinks that's kinda eeehhh and i agree with you more now bc (flips through my memory of Hot Strategist Tips) no plan survives contact with the enemy. nhs wouldn't have been as effective if he had clear strict play-by-plays from the get-go. i think overplanning is what got jgy, because he kept stacking plots to cover his tracks but nothing makes a crime obvious quite like a cover-up

(unrelated question: if you're stark naked in the street, do you cover your ass or your balls? the correct answer is, you cover your face.)

as jgy's narrative foil and winner of that year's political oscars, nhs wouldn't make those exact same mistakes. not to mention, his strength (i think) is in recognizing patterns and doing the least amount of work for maximum effect--the hallmarks of the "lazy" (efficient) genius. plus it's not like he was starved for opportunity (again, bc jgy really was doing too much..... he really could've not gotten caught if he would just focus on the damn infrastructure)

also re:jc yes you're right my man's the king of repression and sublimation lol the whole "who is the REAL mastermind" would be the LEAST of his problems right nyeow!!! he has to help his nephew secure the succession and keep those scheming little rats of jinlintai away from jl, THEN he has to reckon with the fact that his brother is back, which comes with 15+ year old unopened baggage. wouldn't it be funny if he's like, an old retiree before nhs even tells him "yeah it was me lol" and that's finally the thing that kills him LOL sorry

ok that aside let's imagine a scenario where jc gets a whiff of an inkling of an idea that NHS Risked JL's Life (whether he did or not is irrelevant in this case). i'd like to believe that as an older sect leader, like yeah sure emotionally he's stunted like evel kneivel* but at the very least he should have the presence of mind not to scream at a fellow sect leader in the streets about Serious Accusations. (he is not as logical about wwx in canon because that's his big brother and no younger brother is ever logical about his big brother. also he knows wwx well enough that he can trust wwx Wouldn't Endanger Kids)

*get it. bc evel kneivel was a stuntman

imo jc would go in circles thinking "but no..... nhs wouldn't do that" then "but that's what i thought about jgy too......." and then working himself up to a froth. this will probably result in the most intense assessing death glares and some shady little quips in public. coin toss whether jc would decide to confront nhs about it privately. at least for as long as jl hasn't fully settled in on the role yet, i highly doubt jc would let his guard down for anyone, even nhs. maybe wwx

postcanon sangcheng...... keep in mind i have shipper goggles on. but they're not getting married babes im sorry if i'm keeping it realistic they both have Duties to fulfill and they live in a Society where they don't have time to...... governance is not just Paperwork, it's their lived reality and not everyone has the privilege of a living family to hold down the fort while one goes off traveling (@ lwj, but he can do whatever he wants forever). not saying that they'll get married to other people and have babies, mind you. especially in societies based on martial strength i think it would be less important to have an Unbroken Bloodline than it is to pass down sect techniques

at the end of it IF there's a romance then they're living off of stolen time, sneaking around during hunts and conferences. and i highly highly doubt it'll be a soft epilogue my loves they are two jagged broken people who have given up too much and gotten back so little. they are not gonna make each other better, but hey the consolation is that they also can't make each other worse! at least they'll have someone else who somewhat Understands what it's like. "miserable but not alone" is a boon if you've lost everything else that mattered

[manie-sans-delire-x]

I think you're decontextualizing too much and talking from a privileged point of view. I'm not arguing with the objectivity of what your point is, but it's a very bland flat hill to die on, in my opinion. People can totally agree to disagree, but the whole "good luck living this way" or "it's never gonna happen" is nothing but a shrugging off problems just because they don't belong to you.

Of course trans folks have deeper issues, we've been fighting in a society that, by default, does not accept us and we're forced to explain our very existence on a daily (or whoever cares to, to be honest I dropped that one ball there). So that's why it's important to make people who are coming from said privileged spots (mind, I'm not using the word "privileged" to hop on a high horse and offend anyone) understand how some things are very easy adjustments to make to accommodate minorities. And you don't really need to know/profoundly understand /why/ it's important for them, you can simply trust it is if they say so.

It's like saying "why would I use City money to build a stupid ramp when wheelchair users can struggle a little and learn to climb a 3 inches step" or "why would I stop staring at that person's ass if it's out and it's natural for me to look at it" because you want to be better and it's not that deep.

Yet again, agree to disagree if adding "assigned at birth" is such an inconvenience. No one is word obsessed, but personally speaking I'll bend the usage of my language as much as I can to make sure everyone around me is comfortable and feels safe, I don't care and need to know why.

How am I decontextualizing or talking from a privileged point of view? I mean I suppose I am in that I am not trans? I'll give you that.

Why is my point of view a bland hill to die on but insisting on changing female/male to afab/amab isnt?

No I just truly believe and came to the realistic conclusion it will never happen, not in any of our lifetimes at least. Do you really expect that this is going to become the new normal, in every country and culture? Seriously?

Yeah damn straight Im shrugging it off, I cant help people who are determined to be unhappy over word choice. Its not my problem, as you said. Everyone elses life will go on as normal, only they will be stuck on this and being unhappy, only hurting themselves.

Changing a language is not "very easy adjustment", not at all. I mean clearly, or else all this fighting wouldnt be happening right? And ok, say English changes. What, now every other language in the world has to change? Oh boy, thats going to lead to a lot of confusion and fighting. Sounds kinda problematic too, to insist other cultures and countries have to change their languages to match the more enlightened English. Colonist vibes.

Lets have realistically attainable goals. Lets focus on what really matters- like violent hate crimes against transpeople. People who are sooo passionate about political correctness and word choice should maybe, idk, do something real to help. Volunteer or work to help transpeople. But see they dont actually care about transpeople, they just get off on the self righteousness and false sense of moral superiority.

Its not about understanding why its important to them, I understand that it is. But unfortunately, reality doesnt give a shit about peoples emotions or whats important to them. (and clearly its not ok to disagree, because then you get labeled as a terf or whatever else new acronym...)

If you want to compare it to that, its more like if people in wheelchairs insisted that all stairs should be banned- ramps only- and you cant call them disabled anymore, everyone else is un-disabled. Society will never build itself around to a minority population, and shouldnt because it makes no sense.

Its not about "doing better" or peoples feelings. This is the main difference in thought process I think- some people view it as a moral social issue, some people view it as a issue of reality and logic.

What is a female? What is a male? A woman? A man? Whats the differences between them? Whats the difference between sex and gender? Are trans people actually transsexual or transgender? Is it even possible to be transsexual since you will never have the desired sex's gametes? Can someone be a female man or a male woman? At some point we need some god damn definitions. We cant just make words mean whatever we want them to.

Why not just have females, males, and transfemales and transmales?? Men, women, transmen, transwomen. That makes way more sense. Why would the majority and a whole ass language change to fit the minority? And even with the use of "cis", "trans" is still in use so attaching "cis" is pretty redundant either way!

[rainbowgothdisaster]

im rambling about webcomics i read below the cut to get it out bcuz i never talk about them but i do have feelings i wanna get out

these are just the ones i am currently reading, anything currently on hiatus or that i stopped reading during the many period of my phones being broke is not included. and we are going by the normal and correct 5 = mid bcuz that is how math works. also dont take this too seriously.

i want to be a cute anime girl- 8/10, serialized, trans coming of age story including discovery coming out and transitioning

i was concerned with the language at first but there was no need, its been genuinely delightful. her sisters and parents are lovely, she has two friends from before and a new friend/love interest and they're good. i prefer focus on the main character but the current mall trip has been fun. updates are small and for a long time were just four panels before the artist started experimenting

down to earth- 7/10, serialized, slow burn romance

the only slow burn romance where the romance is the most important aspect to me that i read, i dont usually read slow burn so im not burnt out on it. the creator is a big dickkori shipper which is very obvious in how zaida and kade interact. i want more suzy, i love her. updates are pretty big but every single one ends on a cliffhanger which makes them feel short.

lesbiampires- 8/10, episodic, lesbian vampires. obviously.

ruthless vampires so when hunting there's lots of blood which i appreciate <3, the different species of vampires are neat but i dont really pay much attention to the specifics? daph cant go into light but can turn into a giant bat monster, nika can go into light but is limited to a normal bat, the side characters have their things going on. wish yoon was more prevalent but i think im just so focused on daph and nika, and then nisha and anya have their thing i just dont end up noticing her much? updates are normal length

lore olympus- 6/10, serialized, slow burn romance and trauma recovery story

i........ have criticsms....... but the way this series deals with persephones trauma is really important to me. i dont find demeter a compelling character at all and wish wed drop the helicopter mother stuff. i think obsessing over the differences between the story and the mythos is pointless. i like when apollo gets shut down but i think we should drop him and focus on persephones recovery. idk. it makes me happy but if it suddenly stopped i dont think much would be lost. oh yeah the romance is fine, its very formulaic which is fine when you have so many other aspects to a story. updates are fairly long.

emmy the robot- 6/10, serialized, i dont fucking know how to classify this one. political?

i def preferred the before stuff but im enjoying emmy seeing what the poverty stricken areas are like and learning how privileged the delairs are. i wish the updates were longer bcuz i feel like when your updates are short its hard to have a point? i know there's a point about the difference between Madeline and the new girl and how they're growing up. but i just cant get super into it before the episode ends.

my dragon girlfriend- 5/10, mostly episodic, sapphic romances

it used to be so much better. i loved when it focused on chisty (human) and dani's (dragon) relationship. i loved it when it focused on every webtoons staple quirky girl and shy girl side character romance slow burn, especially bcuz its catgirl x vampire, that's literally made in a lab for me. callie and olive are great. love them. casey is fun. i like her being flustered around louis and discovering shes not straight (seems late considering her roommate but good for her). but the updates being 4 panels is really holding it back. like completely. character who didnt grow up in society being socially inept is fun comedy. but only for a little while. nonhuman characters being territorial is fun comedy. but only for a little while. i am so tired of it. its been going on for so many months bcuz the updates are four panels so it takes forever to get somewhere. i mean the recent thing with louis saying her fav tea is venison wouldve been funny 3 months ago but it is so bland and boring now. dani being jealous and callous is so bland and boring now. weve been on the same like 2-3 days since august. PLEASE move on.

death becomes you- 7/10, serialized, adventure fantasy with some romance slipped in their

the artist draws porn of the two main characters which is what drew me to this comic. im just not a big fan of adventure fantasy but the characters are so charming (and hot) that its fine. im really wanting the brother in law to show back up boy is fiiiine.

batman: wayne family adventures- 8/10, episodic, you know this one. just funny comedy.

this is what got me into batfam. obviously. some episodes are just not interesting to me but its saur good. i do dislike one of the artists bcuz the difference between some episodes is jarring for me (like how stiff characters can be, how...... trim? bruces face can look?), but the arts still good just not for me. i know its batfam focused but my fav episodes are when other characters show up. obviously. im a birdflash and core four shipper why WOULDNT i like their episodes?

a city called nowhere- 6/10, generally episodic but rn were on a specific storyline, its a simple horror comic.

a city with creepy stuff where the best way to stay safe is look the other way and prepare properly. nothing really stands out, it truly is a simple horror comic. a general criticsm of merryweather comics is that everyone is a big tittied anime girl, but i read for merry's writing not the artists he employs. i mean as the leader of the company he should be getting some more diversity in there (no it doesnt matter if the artists are women), but seeing as theyre silly comics im not suuuper concerned. i havent kept up with any longer series so idk if they do better in this regard.

[lexa-griffins]

I really don’t see adc looking that different from 2016 (when they filmed S3 finale) to march 2020 though, i barely notice any difference tbqh. for me it was just the makeup that was different, i feel like if we were to see lexa the same [look] as when she died, i would barely notice the difference. i can tell especially when watching FTWD, throughout the seasons she looks the same except maybe for her final episodes when she had to look terminal. but when i see some video edit of alicia in fear i’m literally unable to tell what episode/season that frame is from. i think she looks much more grown up now but that’s also due to her blonde hair. lol omg you’re so right!! inconsistency was their thing, especially with the tattoos 💀 although correct me if i’m wrong but someone asked adc about lexa’s tattoo and she gave some kind of explanation (i wish i could remember it) and idk if that was true or just wanted to be polite or smth but they honestly were just soo lazy on those things, and god!lexa hair still annoys me!! like how could they not remember how to bread her hair??

Thats so funny because to me the difference is evident but i wouldn't know how to explain it. But even like season 4 of ftwd Alicia already looks wildly older than season 1 Alicia or even Lexa to me!

If i recall correctly she says its her interpretation ot something? Like she says that maybe Lexa added to it after Mount Weather because it was an event of significance to her but im not sure if that is the confirmed reason or just Alycia's own justification for it. But might as well run with it because if not it makes it more infuriating to see the tattoo change.

I know Lexa's hair was complicated as fuck with the braid pattern and i think they had extensions for it too so maybe that's also the difference it god!Lexa's hair but some times it really did look lazy. That damn runaway braid during the s3 finally haunts me, cannot focus on the damn clexa scene without it staring at me.

(Not that we ever really see Clarke's bare back but im sure the few glimpses we got of it since the first episode of s3 that deep wound from the panther that would have definitely been permanent is no where to be found. They probably dont even remember it exists. Ftwd might have been shit but at least they didnt forget Alicia's heart tattoo!)

[isaacathom]

accidentally prompted myself to reconsider the lotmv story, so thats fun

the premise, such that it was, was that Seora was a demigod of light, and had funky light magic. And there was a weird magical darkness that had corrupted the land, and she was one of a whole class of people who keep it at bay. But that 'bay' is pretty politicised, and at some point the whole forced to live with the magical darkness kidnap Seora to make her fix things for them. And then a whole lot of shit happens.

And that's... fine? i guess. but i think it could be better, and part of that is just. telling the big grand politics angle to leave. there was a lot of weird geopolitics happening and we dont need that.

the changes arent unprecedented, since i tried to fix the story earlier too lmao.

what i think id prefer is something a bit more. social?

In a reconsidered lotmv, Seora is still a light demigod, and still has these very specific duties that she's been practically raised for since birth. There's strict duties and hierarchies and so on, things she can and cant do. She has a 'boyfriend', a bodyguard called Roderick, who has absolutely has no interest in but cannot very well reject, because to do so would be stepping out of the social agreement. it would cause problems for them both, but mostly for her. So she's stuck in her job, and in a "relationship".

At some point, she is contacted by Esther, who is a member of a group trying to fix the magic goop problem - a group whose reasonable requests for aid keep being denied. The two start a very careful correspondence, each bound by the norms around them.

An idea comes into focus. Seora would like nothing more than to help them, but the binds of her position stay her hand. She cant do anything. And if she acts out and voices her support, she'll be stripped of whatever "authority" she had while remaining bound.

So, to get Seora into the correct locations, a kidnapping will be staged. The group will kidnap Seora, bring her back to their place, and "force" her to help them. Once she's done what she needs to do, the group will suddenly become amenable to any of the negotiations presented by Seora's people, and they'll return her. She'll not be harmed, her reputation will be preserved, everythings fine.

For the optics, to make it seem that she's unwilling, they'll need to play up some things. She understands this going in. That they'll need to skirt the line for the greater good. She has her part to play.

And what she doesnt reckon with, prior to agreeing to everything, is on falling in love with Esther. And Esther doesn't either.

And that's a problem. Because if Seora starts getting too comfortable, enjoys herself too much, then the whole part of the operation intended to preserve her reputation fails. Because, well, now she looks willing. And that defeats the whole point.

So the two of them are stuck in a complicated dance of the various expectations of them, what they need to do, what roles they have to serve, and what they want.

Because, for Esther, Seora's help is essential. She's the one person that was on board. They need her magical skills. Esther was willing to risk being caught kidnapping her, because the end goal is very important to her. And now she's in love. And that risks the whole fucking thing.

Strictly, this could have all been "present" in the original version of lotmv, but its a slight reframing to be about those expectations and complications. There's still the issue of what exactly Esther's group is, how they fit in/oppose Seora's. In the original, they're different countries. i feel like that still wooorks? two countries who are not on speaking terms, a group within that countries military (?) who feel they have no other choice. there's some little worldbuilding... bits that make things weird, but its workable, i think. maybe? idk

[heymrsamerica]

I was asked yesterday about how to make classrooms friendlier for neurodivergent students and there’s sooo much but I will try to squeeze some thoughts on here:

Fostering an environment for learning and fostering an environment for compliance are two different things. 

1. Do not ever expect students to make eye contact with you. I hated being forced to make eye contact and that teachers assumed I wasn’t listening if I wasn’t looking at them. I learn best when I DONT look at you so I can actually focus and process your words. And this is very common for Neurodivergent people. Autistic listening is still listening!

2. Do not expect the class to give verbal responses if you need students to respond to something! If you need a response from the class (like to know if they are listening or ready for the next steps), you can ask them to do a gesture like a thumbs up, touching their nose etc.. 

3. If possible make a designated space in your classroom as a mini sensory area. If it’s in your budget and affordable to you as an educator, please try to Have a variety of fidget tools that cater to different sensory needs (squishy, soft, rough, buttons to press, spinny etc.) and noise canceling headphones, and light sensitivity glasses available in that spot.

If those aren’t in your budget, maybe try cheap coloring books from the dollar store or have some books there (maybe you can get some from a library) that they can read.

Allow them to go to that spot at any time, but set boundaries of fidget tools though! (Such as use these just for yourself, don’t fling them at other people to be silly or they will have to choose another fidget tool.) I call them fidget tools instead of fidget toys if I’m intentionally using them around kids who are learning that it helps disabled people and it’s not just a cool toy. It also helps when kids may be getting a bit silly with it to the point where it is distracting and you can politely redirect them by asking is the fidget TOOL helping or distracting? If it’s distracting, don’t punish them! We don’t want them to associate shame with those. Just say that it’s great that you like them but let’s wait until break to play with it since we are working right now. (When working with children, but especially neurodivergent children, it’s much better to focus on what they CAN do instead of what they shouldn’t do. It creates a positive environment while still setting healthy boundaries. It’s better than an adult barking “no don’t do that.” And autistic kids hear that so much. 😞

4. Be really flexible with assignments. No, not just with deadlines. Be flexible with how the layout of your assignment is! For example, if a student is having a really hard time writing an essay about the assigned topic due to their disability, ask them if they would like to instead record a voice audio/video with them explaining the assigned topic and you would grade their response based on the CONTENT that they said.

If that sounds “easy” I really need you to pause and think about why that bothers you. If the goal is for students to LEARN rather than comply with traditional education standards, wouldn’t the goal of the assignment be to make sure they understand the content and material that’s being taught? I think students can explain content and material in voice recordings OR in writing. And don’t grade their voice Audio based on their speech. Only focus on WHAT they are talking about and if it’s correct and what you were looking for in the goal of assigning this in the first place.

5. Make peer group projects OPTIONAL. If they can’t do the peer group project option, have another option for them to choose.

6. Allow students to stim. And if you do allow them to stim, do so without making them feel embarrassed or bad about it. If the students stimming is genuinely disruptive, find out if the stimming is caused by some sensory distress in the classroom and try to alter it (example: dimming lights) or tell them in private you are glad they feel comfortable stimming AND lets explore alternative stims that can make you comfortable while you’re in a room with other people who have sensory needs too. It could be a chance to direct them to the sensory area in the class too.

7. Let them slouch. Or even lay down while listening and working. Or even walk around a bit while you teach. You don’t need to sit up or sit still to be able to learn.

8. If you know in advance that you were going to have an autistic student, find out from their support team what their interests are and what ways they learn best. Find out if transitions are hard for them and what makes it easier for them. Take time to learn about their special interest so you can try to bond with them to establish trust that you are a safe person to present as their authentic self.

9. For the love of G-d, please let them use the restroom (ALL kids, not just neurodivergent) when needed. Autistic kids actually statistically struggle more with GI issues and also statistically struggle more with urgency urgency or incontinence. We cannot control this. Forcing us to suffer by refusing our request to go to the restroom so you can finish your lecture is really,harmful. Physically and emotionally. I promise you we are not hearing a word of your lecture if we need to go but you say no. 

Autistic listening is STILL listening.

Autistic learning is STILL learning.

I’ll scream it from the mountains.

Via The Activist Autistic on Facebook

[archer3-13]

State and religion is a pretty contentious topic in regards to fire emblem three houses, to the very least. you have the objectively wrong people claiming rhea runs some sort of continent wide theocratic hell state, you know people who dont actually understand what a theocratic state is and have little actual experience with even just fictional representations of theocratic hell states.

and you have the objectively correct people who note that fodlan in no way resembles and functions as a theocratic state and the closest thing to state and religion intermingling is in fact edelgard starting up a state run religion in some of her endings.

but instead i wanna focus on a comparison thats never really brought up. namely on how fodlan, church of seiros and all that actually stacks up to the most well realized theocratic state in fire emblem

namely the begnion empire.

as early as por, its made fairly explicit that religion is a big deal in begnion. not only is it the place of origin of the ashera faith, a religion that permeates not only every level of beorc faith but seems to hold some sway/influence in laguz society as well albeit without the same ties to a church organization as in beorc society. ontop of that, its stressed that begnion is the origin point of not only all beorc civilization on tellius, but all laguz society, barring goldoa and serenes, as well. Atleast one highly important religious site, the godesses tower, exists in begnion as well which would draw even more sway ontop of the dominating political influence begnion seems to hold over its satellite states.

which would draw the first important point of comparison between fodlan and tellius. states and sovereignty. a common point of discussion in regards to three houses is how much independence the states of fodlan hold from each other, the aforementioned objectively wrong people would argue that the states of fodlan are under the insidious control of the church of seiros and by extension rhea. How i've never actually seen a good explanation for, and its a pretty easily refutable claim just by looking at how fodlan actually operates and its history. in fact the whole premise of of three houses relies on how the three nations compete with each other as individual powers.

compare to how the sovereignty of begnion, crimea and daein relate to each other. in por, its noted as highly unusual and outright criminal that daein attacked crimea before making an actual declaration of war, and that such a declaration would have needed approval by begnion. in RD, its implied theres a genuine legal precedence for begnion to march through crimea lands, and daeins efforts to reestablish its independence require begnions approval. additionally it is effectively stated on mutliple occasions that begnion is massive in terms of military power and resources compared to the other nations, enough so that they can pretty handily roll crimea and daein over if they wanted to [atleast on a theoretical level].

This brings us to the most defining aspect of begnion, its political structure. the begnion empire is a theocratic state, where political representatives such as the emperor and senate, simultaneously hold religious positions such as apostle or bishop [and also peerages such as duke]. this can be seen in the dress of begnion senators [all of them are in the bishop class line] and in assertions made during RD that the apostle and emperor are traditionally one and the same [though its noted that its not a legally binding obligation, but still the dominating pattern of history].

This is in very stark contrast to fodlan and three houses, church and state are different entities and that is constantly emphasized. the church exists on neutral ground independent of any state, it has operating branchs in other countries that operate independent of the central church. Given catherine and hanneman, it seems that its not uncommon for church officials to renounce or divest themselves from peerages or positions of power in other countries political systems. Note that the church of seiroses forces are exclusively consisting of volunteers and is the most multi-ethnic force on the continent. by comparison, begnion senators levie private armies of soldiers from their own lands or through their extensive coffers, ontop of the authority they can exercise over begnions standing professional army and effectively forcibly conscript the services of ordinary citizens or other lesser church members. [it should also be noted the begnion is emphasized as highly class stratified compared to the other countries, something multiple characters note frequently, another contrast to the church of seiros having common born and noble born soldiers on equal footing of authority, with only a degree of dissent and bullying from some upper class members against lower class members like alois, enough so that alois felt the need to prove himself but not enough to prevent alois from effectively becoming the second most important figure in the knights of seiros, and eventually commander himself in NON CF ENDINGS].

[fisherrprince]

do you have more thoughts on keyblade fighting that you need to put somewhere, because i have two hands ready to catch Should The Need Arise

anon: hey I heard you mention you’d analysed the combat styles in KH and what you said in the tags was already alluding to really neat stuff, but I for one would love to hear more of what you came up with!! so if you ever wanted to share any of your analysis then the floor is yours

aHAH, MY EXCUSE!!

Okay, so first some words on “standardized wielding styles”. These are styles shared by Terra, Aqua, Vanitas, Riku, and Xehanort and every other scala and daybreak kid. I will make the argument that the red style is the fanciest standard style, while the purple is seen often to make it easier on the little chibi sprites. BUT, I cannot discredit Eraqus, who uses the purple variant in bbs, nor can I discredit half of the Foretellers (Gula and Ava, at least, use this. Invi and Aced use the first type). So, two standard styles. For simplicity, let’s say one for primary offense, one for primary defense. The standard offensive style really wasn’t popular before Scala-era society.

check this difference out, specifically between ava invi and gula:

then between eraqus, hermod, and xehanort, and eraqus and terra.

These two were likely popularized and standardized for education in Scala ad Caelum for their predominant lack of obvious weak spots.

After this, we have unique styles. Those include Sora Kairi and Xion’s (similar to standard defense, but more mobile at the expense of form — Kairi takes after Sora but less confident, she hasn’t been hit that heavily yet), Ven’s (backhand, heavy range and mobility), Roxas’ (modified for two keyblades, but takes after Sora), and Axel’s (taught himself, comfortable with chakrams).

So! Let’s go.

.

Standard (offensive)

All styles have sub-variations, of a sense. Different wielders can choose where their keyblade points, and how they hold it exactly, based on what makes them most comfortable. Terra and Aqua point theirs downward, while Vanitas and Riku hold theirs above their head. What is recognizeable to this style is a hand for the sword, and a hand for guarding/blocking/items/magic.

It’s incredibly efficient. With only one hand on the weapon, you not only free up a hand for other things, but increase your range of movement with said weapon. Test it out yourself! The keyblade hand is always your dominant hand, held behind you for increased power when attacking (since you lose a significant amount of it by choosing not to grip with both hands). This style also decreases the speed of the defense you have, but with that increased mobility and swing power, along with a hand free to brace against the keyblade (defense strength up!), it makes up for it. Many people who use this also have strong barrier spells — both a testament to their preference for coverage and an acknowledgement that any directional block will take a little longer and be weaker if they try it with one hand.

The pointy end, though. What difference does it actually make, the height it’s at?

I think it’s half a matter of attack style preference and half intention. Riku, Vanitas, and Xehanort stab quite a bit. Aqua and Terra slice more. Not that they don’t do both, but it’s the first instinct. Aqua and Terra are also likely taught to hold their keyblade neutrally, in a safe position, until someone starts attacking. It’s polite! Eraqus also holds his one-handed, neutrally, until he gets into position. Riku and Vanitas learned to fight assuming everyone was out to fight them. Invi and Aced may like this style because of range (i hc she’s blind and strikes very very quickly, and he’s already very powerful with just the one arm and wants better motion).

and on character specifics: Terra often switches to two-handed, to copy his dad and add extra power to his hits without always sacrificing the empty hand. Vanitas likely was forced to relearn how to fight, as instead of solely being trained to be better at withstanding, he was constantly being made to better his own attacks. The moves Xehanort uses would best be replicated in the same style. Vanitas is wild for holding the massive spiky x-blade like that.

Now, what‘s good on this style does not correlate to what’s bad in the other. The two standard styles simply have different ways of dealing with each con they create or taking advantage of each pro.

(Here’s an interesting side note — Gula uses standard defensive, but in this instance, swaps. One hand… likely to display confidence! Wrong move, but hey. He got cocky. He’s also doing it wrong, and swaps back to two-handed to take Aced’s attack.)

.

Standard (defensive)

The main detriment of this style is the lack of ease of long range movement. Hold a wrapping paper tube out in front of you with both hands, then run. It goes to the side, or tucks in to your stomach, right? Dodge. Your legs will get in the way unless you know where to move that sword. It requires, interestingly, a little more discipline. You’d think Aqua would like that, but no, she wants movement and practicality, and she loves magic, and remember that you must take a hand off this style to grab a potion. You’d think young Eraqus wouldn’t, but remember that he’s a fancy royal lad.

The main draw, though, is tankiness, readiness, and power. You don’t need to move as much if nothing dares hit you! Ava and Gula might be attracted to this style because they’re not as physically strong, but want protection in close-quarters fighting. Using this style when your muscles aren’t as big but you still want to Hit Things Good, or when you want to be a boy you can’t knock over with a pail of water (horse stance rules), is probably solid advice.

Traditionally, this is a lot less like fencing, and a lot more like a samurai sword or kendo. Your blade is held in front of you, giving you very easy access to blocks and frontal attack/defense. In losing some twirly spinniness, you gain power and minimize your opponent’s ability to parry and block.

you gotta dodge master Eraqus so mcuh

All styles will swap between one and two hands for different moves. Eraqus, notably, swaps to a stance very similar to Xehanort when channeling a metric ton of magic.

Both of these styles require a degree of upper body/core strength, as does all swordfighting. I would be interested to see someone whose keyblade style relies on leg strength.

.

Sora, Xion, and Kairi

please look at the difference between the foretellers’ or eraqus’ two-handed grip and Sora’s. Do this with your shoulders and a top-heavy object.

They’re both in a hard stance, but hon. What are you, a gremlin? Anyways, a traditionally taught master would have… better form, even if it’s harder to learn at first. It’s habitual. Sora nearly crouches, and holds his keyblade back-pointed with two hands, which makes it easier for him to dodge roll, push off his feet quickly, and pull off those spinning combos he loves. It‘s really gonna hurt his muscles, in the future, though, since he’s doing a squat for like…. hours. Pulling on those shoulderblades and neck. Xion, too. Replicas had better have correct muscle dynamics. Kairi is brand new, so… maybe Aqua can teach her how to hold a sword so it doesnt hurt you.

Okay, now look at the grip itself. Held in front versus held to the side-back. They’re really attempting to combine both standard styles subconsciously, giving themselves more attack power while really wanting to keep that hard defensive parry, wanting to prevent all attacks to the front while also wanting mobility. It’s working for them really well, they fight like an anime character, and manage to get the best of both, with a minor sacrifice of length range that they don’t care about. We’re flexible and full of magic, baby! Holding the blade like this makes it pretty easy to let go with one hand without sacrificing that crouched defense position.

Now, Sora, specifically, is very adaptive. He’s had two keyblades, claws, guns, yo-yos, and a giant shield, to name a couple. He retains a bit of that alert crouch no matter where he goes, but Sora knows how he wants to attack and how to balance that with the most effective way to use his current weapon. He’s a smart kid! Sora has the most ridiculous shotlocks, which are also probably due to not always wanting to go standard for it. He also prefers to keep his focus on the enemy, which is evident in his reprisals and lack of very many effective “escape” moves.

Xion is very similar to Sora, but she does have some moves that are all movement. She switches to one handed for strikes a lot — using two for defending, one for smacking. In her data battle I’d swear some of those heavy hits are claymore-like. But anyways, since we’re magic, Xion cares not for the laws of exhaustion, and will ping about as a ball of light everywhere. Short range? Up in your business. Mid-range? In your business with one hand. Long range? Throws a boomerang. Hit her? No you dont. Ball of light. She’s above you and wants to bash your head in. (Vanitas also does this! A lot. It’s an easy way to catch someone off-guard. I’ll argue that the soras are very tough and strong, but not tanky. they want to avoid being hit a lot)

Another interesting note about Kairi. I say “unconfident” not because she doesn’t hit hard, but because her stance is also often tilted back, ready to dodge. It’s two handed, but almost all her moves are one. She does love spinning and throwing the thing! It looks like she’s been taking notes from the wielders she knows. It would be easy to teach her a standard style, I think. See here, she lets go on the strike, and by trying to do both, actually ends up with an advantage (being confusing) and disadvantage (losing both the power of two handed and versatility of one handed).

A counter to Sora and Xion is difficult to pin down. Time? Probably. Lack of heating pads. Something that takes all their attention is about the only way to get a sneak attack in, and then you have to hit hard. A counter to Kairi would be anyone who can knock her off balance. She needs a sturdier stance. .

Roxas

Roxas is interesting. He takes after Sora for the one blade. Wielding two, however, nets him a totally different way of fighting. Roxas’ clavicle muscles n… deltoids and stuff must be Ironclad. Also, two handed means you are very fast and sharp all the time. He has the advantage of standard defense (horse stance), and the advantage of offense (range of one sword, but twice).

Roxas generally attacks in two ways — simultaneous hits, and follow-up hits. Either he hits with both at once, or hits hard with the first one, and adds the second one as a bonus smack. He can attack by hitting in opposite directions with the two, like a drum, but that will be a little awkward and leave him prone to being tangled. That established, the follow-up hit method means he spins a bunch. As do we all.

Roxas gets a little complicated because we are not in the real world. We have magic and turning into light and physics that let you become a circular saw. So, typically, disadvantages would include: being unable to let go of a weapon to grab something or use an item, having just a very big silhouette to attack on, having difficulty with close-range attacks because Oathkeeper and Oblivion are kinda long, and convenience. Roxas gets to dodge #1 (keyblades can be unsummoned) and #4 (keyblades can be unsummoned). Speaking of dodging, he also gets to skirt the difficulty of dodging and rolling with two swords because he turns into a beam of light. But he can’t dodge how difficult it is to use two swords effectively — he needs to concentrate on fighting, and nothing else, or he risks messing up. He has to be very, very coordinated, and undistracted. Luckily he’s pretty good at making his opponents shut up, most of the time. Blocking is another thing — theoretically his blocks could be strong, but Roxas has no real brace: crossing your blades and taking a hefty stab might smack one of them back into your face. He mostly uses reversals and dodges, because of this.

The takeaway to this is Roxas is built for speed and power, and he is very strong. He’s a mid- to far- range fighter who if you’re not careful can snap you in half if you’re too close (be SO careful of that cross blade scissor).

A perfect counter to Roxas would be a tank that can grapple, and also be very distracting. If you can take hits, be talkative, and get close enough to stop his blades, you have a chance.

.

Ventus

This is a bizarre choice, my guy, but I get it.

Backhanded weapons are very impractical for a lot of... attacking, mainly in mid-range combat, and Ven likes to either fight very close or throw the keyblade like a boomerang (and hey, backhand gives it a good whip for throwing). His attacks aren’t meant to one hit KO, but they do come with a bit of power to them, especially on the backslash. Like holding a knife for gouging. It’s for very close defense — pretty good when Wayward Wind and Missing Ache have hooks.

Backhand also, while retaining that empty hand for potions and guarding, gives you an extreme coverage boost. By which I mean Ven’s sword hand now has a nearly 270 degree sweep of “I see you, don’t touch me”, very quickly, based on just flicking his wrist. It sacrifices a ton of strength/sturdiness, but you don’t need that if you’re dodging. You also don’t really need to block, which is slower, but relatively sturdy when Ven does it, as he blocks with mostly the chunky hilt between crossed arms. He sacrifices (again) a bit of strength for coverage — an attack would hurt his arms, not his chest, if he were hit head-on.

His attacks often have him flip the blade around in his hand, too. Quick swaps between standard moves and backhand ones. Basically, Ventus is built for moving, protecting himself, and quick attacks that wear down the enemy, not outclass it. Likely because he’s good at fighting, but everyone he’s fought hits harder than he can! It doesn’t matter how he holds it, getting hit will hurt. So he just. Doesn’t. He’s not a buff little guy — but he is a persistent one. Ven very likely made this up on his own, in Daybreak, and it was too hard to fix his whole style, but it was enough to correct most of his form so he doesn’t hurt himself too much. He is going to have to really stretch that shoulder and wrist (maybe get a brace), though. At least his neck is ok. … not sure about his knees tho dang boy that crouch

A perfect counter to Ven would be someone big and fast, who hits hard mid-range. He’s already been sparring with Terra, though, so when in doubt, try scruffing him?

.

Axel

Theres not a ton to say about him — he‘s not a swordfighter. He uses his keyblade like it’s a frisbee. Because that’s what he’s used to! His neutral is behind his back on his shoulder, which is terrible for readiness, but okay for chucking the thing. It’s good it has a sort of… ripstik like… boomerang quality.

Axel’s fighting style is completely made up, like most of the self-taught wielders’. His strengths lie in some of the benefits of standard offensive style (one-handed), and some of the same coverage stuff as Ven, having a cocked wrist most of the time so no one can sneak up around him without risking getting whacked very quickly, and having an interesting range due to the pointy end being basically on a spinny swivel wherever his hand moves. He’s not going to be good at close-range and he knows it — his attacks are mostly distance. And the guy has ZERO defense, combined with zero coverage when idle, so it’s for the better.

Distance-wise, though, he rocks. Treating the blade like it’s a flaming throwing weapon means his idle is actually great for sudden flick-tossing and attention-guiding for sneakier attacks, and his stance itself (…nonexistent) serves a different purpose: bait. Basically a big "come hit me". Fun, when you have a lot of fire magic and two friends who are beasts and love to take advantage of a distracted enemy — distance on the blade, proximity on the burning.

A perfect counter to Axel would be someone pinging around very close <—> very far and circling him incessantly. Like, data Xion could wreck him, as he has to wait for the boomerang to come back -- he no longer has two spinny wheels. Also someone with water magic.

.

SO! In conclusion! Having a teacher who teaches you correct sword usage rather than instinct may detract from overspecific styles that benefit you most but leave weak spots, but your muscles and your oversights will thank you. Everyone is glad we have the power of the Mouse and anime on our side.

Keep in mind again that I have done cursory research, and have had minimal actual sword instruction, I am not an expert and this is all for fun anyways :]

[brightlotusmoon]

From The Autistic Activist on Facebook:

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https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid02TG9it5M39PejwbxHoFvnZVkvrpViBx6AacqVMExyo42fh8QpqUgLsgYm5VkoaLuRl&id=100057358603530

I was asked yesterday about how to make classrooms friendlier for neurodivergent students and there’s sooo much but I will try to squeeze some thoughts on here:

Fostering an environment for learning and fostering an environment for compliance are two different things.

Not all neurodivergent students have access to being diagnosed, so let’s make these ideas the default for all students since with accessibility, nobody loses.

1. Do not ever expect students to make eye contact with you. I hated being forced to make eye contact and that teachers assumed I wasn’t listening if I wasn’t looking at them. I learn best when I DONT look at you so I can actually focus and process your words. And this is very common for Neurodivergent people. Autistic listening is still listening!

2. Do not expect the class to give verbal responses if you need students to respond to something! If you need a response from the class (like to know if they are listening or ready for the next steps), you can ask them to do a gesture like a thumbs up, touching their nose etc..

3. If possible make a designated space in your classroom as a mini sensory area. If it’s in your budget and affordable to you as an educator, please try to Have a variety of fidget tools that cater to different sensory needs (squishy, soft, rough, buttons to press, spinny etc.) and noise canceling headphones, and light sensitivity glasses available in that spot.

If those aren’t in your budget, maybe try cheap coloring books from the dollar store or have some books there (maybe you can get some from a library) that they can read.

Allow them to go to that spot at any time, but set boundaries of fidget tools though! (Such as use these just for yourself, don’t fling them at other people to be silly or they will have to choose another fidget tool.) I call them fidget tools instead of fidget toys if I’m intentionally using them around kids who are learning that it helps disabled people and it’s not just a cool toy. It also helps when kids may be getting a bit silly with it to the point where it is distracting and you can politely redirect them by asking is the fidget TOOL helping or distracting?

If it’s distracting, don’t punish them! We don’t want them to associate shame with those. Just say that it’s great that you like them but let’s wait until break to play with it since we are working right now. (When working with children, but especially neurodivergent children, it’s much better to focus on what they CAN do instead of what they shouldn’t do. It creates a positive environment while still setting healthy boundaries. It’s better than an adult barking “no don’t do that.” And autistic kids hear that so much. 😞

4. Be really flexible with assignments. No, not just with deadlines. Be flexible with how the layout of your assignment is! For example, if a student is having a really hard time writing an essay about the assigned topic due to their disability, ask them if they would like to instead record a voice audio/video with them explaining the assigned topic and you would grade their response based on the CONTENT that they said.

If that sounds “easy” I really need you to pause and think about why that bothers you. If the goal is for students to LEARN rather than comply with traditional education standards, wouldn’t the goal of the assignment be to make sure they understand the content and material that’s being taught? I think students can explain content and material in voice recordings OR in writing. And don’t grade their voice Audio based on their speech. Only focus on WHAT they are talking about and if it’s correct and what you were looking for in the goal of assigning this in the first place.

5. Make peer group projects OPTIONAL. If they can’t do the peer group project option, have another option for them to choose.

6. Allow students to stim. And if you do allow them to stim, do so without making them feel embarrassed or bad about it. If the students stimming is genuinely disruptive, find out if the stimming is caused by some sensory distress in the classroom and try to alter it (example: dimming lights) or tell them in private you are glad they feel comfortable stimming AND lets explore alternative stims that can make you comfortable while you’re in a room with other people who have sensory needs too. It could be a chance to direct them to the sensory area in the class too.

7. Let them slouch. Or even lay down while listening and working. Or even walk around a bit in the back of the class (so it’s less distracting to others) while you teach. You don’t need to sit up or sit still to be able to learn.

8. If you know in advance that you were going to have an autistic student, find out from their support team what their interests are and what ways they learn best. Find out if transitions are hard for them and what makes it easier for them. Take time to learn about their special interest so you can try to bond with them to establish trust that you are a safe person to present as their authentic self.

9. For the love of G-d, please let them use the restroom (ALL kids, not just neurodivergent) when needed. Autistic kids actually statistically struggle more with GI issues and also statistically struggle more with urgency urgency or incontinence. We cannot control this. Forcing us to suffer by refusing our request to go to the restroom so you can finish your lecture is really,harmful. Physically and emotionally. I promise you we are not hearing a word of your lecture if we need to go but you say no.

10. Timed tests often induce a lot of anxiety for those of us who have slower processing. Timed tests doesn’t actually show what we’ve learned. So please stop doing those. If you have tests, maybe have a few different formats of the tests and each student can choose which format. (Open response, multiple choice, voice recording etc.)

Autistic listening is STILL listening.

Autistic learning is STILL learning.

I’ll scream it from the mountains.

-

[sakadov]

Yok’s art will be beutifully dark and brutal with this movement. I dont know if the production team will show us the end result of it but i hope they will, because my expectation is quite high for this.

Contrary to the artsy vibe this word give, Proletariat is actually a literature guy. Rooted from a Latin word Prōlētārius transleted as “non-royal offspring”, it later be used in ancient Roman empire to address the lowest class of the society. “Proletarii”, those who dont have wealth nor power.

As some french philosopher, Hugues Felicité Robert de Lamennais, wrote a paper about it and interprated it as “Modern Slavery”, it then frequently mentioned by Karl Marx—the father of communism. And by that, the term “Proletariat” is widely used in political theory.

So Yok’s question here is contradictive from what i believe—

“Why can’t we convey beauty via the auffering of the proletariat?”

Because the suffering of the proletariat is not supposed to be pretty, Yok. Because it’s ugly. And we have to get rid of things we consider ugly.

Then there’s Expressionism, the art part of his project title.

I dont know much about art but im still gonna talk about it so if anyone who study/understand art happen to read this blog, please do correct me if im wrong.

Expressionism is a modern art style which dont exist until 20th century. Just like its name, this style is supposed to expressing the artist’s inner emotions and fantasies.

Expressionism is capturing object in distorted shape, strong colour, and bold brushwork because it supposed to exaggerate the reality, in purpose to touch one’s emotion and feelings.

Whatever the object is, they cant survive the nightmarish of expressionism.

See? Expressionism is already eerie to begin with, let alone the tragic object to be used as the muse such as Proletariat.

Though, Expressionism was never consider as a bad movement of art, unlike how Proletarian describe a not good thing that ever exist in this world.

So yes, if Yok wanted to draw proletariat in expressionism style, it will be beautifully painful and cruel. Two things contradicting to each other. Interesting. Very interesting.

And the way Yok intended to focus on nudity doubled my adrenaline! How will it be? What kind of revelation he’ll pour into his project?

[jemmo]

it's not an ask but some idea or observation that i want to see if you noticed too. it's about the wife/husband scene in the hospital with pran and pat talking about the terms. when i was first watching i really felt like it was long coming and when pat said he was confused and it was not serious for him i believed that too no question. it was that scene at episode 3,,my beloved,, at the bus stop that really shows you both of their sides but on a more lighter level. at the time it was airing lots of viewers were questioning why would p'aof use these terms and others were pointing to the way pat switched the terms over and even said we're two boyfriends. at the time and with the two few other times it'd come up i felt like this all was building up towards something and that the series still didn't deliver its point. it was so beautiful to see not only the discussion but that it already had foot in the story and you did see both of their povs from the very beginning. how pran didn't like this really and how also you totally believe pat didn't see past the fun or playing around of it. just appreciating the craft behind writing pat and pran.

thank you so much dear anon for pointing this out to me bc thinking about it now, i too also really appreciate how this specific point was built up to through the whole series. also sorry it took me a while to respond but i have some tuff i do wanna say about this bc it brought to light some things i hadn't thought about before. bc the thing is, while yes this was poking a bit of fun at the kinda tired out husband and wife trope in bl and also raising it as a topic for discussion, it didn't at all feel preachy to me.

(editing jess (yes im editing this) just to say this became something else, i discuss some stuff about society and media and go on many tangents hence the read more bc i feel like some ppl dont care about this stuff. and this is all just me ranting, my thoughts, im no professional, and dont know shit so take from it what you want)

i dont want to get too deep with this bc i am in no way the kind of person to have the final say on these things, but i watch way too many video essayist on youtube while knitting for hours talking about the kinda 'state of play' of this whole internet culture we're in, and i find it interesting to look at. bc i think there's this thing with what i'll lovingly term 'wokeism' that it provides a sense of superiority. ppl online or even when talking person to person in these kinds of spaces can often make themselves feel better than others, wiser, more aware and understanding bc they were able to pint out 'well actually that thing is problematic' or 'actually you cant say something like that' or 'that isnt socially acceptable anymore'. and that can be fine, bc at the end of the day you are making other people more aware, but you can't lie that it sometimes makes you feel good to know i'm better than all these other people who haven't fixed their problematic views. and this is one of the things that contribute to leftist spaces being demonised bc they jump on everything every word every term, they all have to be politically correct. you know the classic 'you cant say anything these days bc some randomer on twitter might come from nowhere and attack you for saying the wrong thing'. and thats the thing i wanna focus on. it comes from nowhere. and applying that to media, thats why some of these shows that claim progressive ideals can feel performative bc a statement that basically boils down to 'feminism is cool' or 'trans ppl are ok' just seems to come from left field. bc then ppl that are more closed minded watching that media are less likely to be receptive to those ideas, bc they're just being chucked at them.

what bad buddy does with this whole husband and wife thing, and on a larger scale with the whole feud being a perfect metaphor for queer experience, is they integrate their messages so so so well into the story so that its much more invisible when they're being made, and yet they're so much easier to take in, so much more digestible for the audience bc they aren't outright, one time only messages. they're part of the story, they're woven throughout, they're in the theming. and when the show makes you care about its characters and plot then weaves in these ideas, you kinda take to them without a second thought. like when i watched that hospital scene of pran saying he doesn't care for the label, i was just like 'lol yeah that is kinda dumb why should they have to use those words'. what i did not think was 'wtf where has this come from why is there suddenly this psa on the husband and wide labels in my fluffy hospital scene???'. you see??? and thats bc little nuggets of this message had been placed throughout the story. think ep 3 our beloved. the scene is playful and yet we still get a clear message pran doesn't want he's not comfortable with feminine labels. and its not some big song and dance, the word 'PROGRESSIVE' isnt written in lights behind them. its just a dude making his preference known, and thats totally cool. also in this scene we get one of countless displays of green flag pat being comfortable 'playing a woman'. and again, we dont need the words 'fuck toxic masculinity' to be tattooed across pat's forehead. bc its not purely about pat being that way to combat that issue. yes there's an element of pat being that way to go against toxic masculinity, but again its not performative. its just pat. its the way he is, its part of his character, its developed naturally from his personality. it fits. it isn't a psa being stuffed where it doesn't fit. this isnt trying to fit the triangle into the round hole. its a triangle already being in the triangle hole.

and i could go on and on, about this thing and that thing that is handled in a similar way. i could be like yeah the mention the wife thing at the start of ep5 and in ep9 in pran's room. but we all know that. what i do wanna still say is that i love that its such a non issue. its a non issue as in pran has dismissed this before but not felt the need to raise it any further bc its not like he despises it and more so he knows pat doesn't have any real ill intention behind it. as we hear later, he's saying it just bc he thought it was the thing to say. he thinks i wanna be closer to pran and i already call him my boyfriend, so what else can i say to show we're closer than that. but when pat's said it a couple of times, pran takes the opportunity to just be like btw im not really cool with that its not my vibe so yeah. and he doesn't bring it up with any heat, he's not attacking pat. he's not even outright saying the words 'i dont like this label. pls stop'. and still you can read all that even when he starts the conversation with a jokey vibe and uses their established dynamic of teasing each other to make pat understand why he doesn't like it. and then they both laugh, bc at the end of the day it was just dumb. they were trying to do this thing that society told them was the thing to do in relationships but it wasn't working so they don't need it. they don't need dumb, kinda outdated and gendered words just to prove to the world they're close. they know how close they are, and thats enough for them. and at the end of the day, isn't that what queer people have always been doing?? saying fuck what society wants me to do, i'm gonna live my life according to my own terms. i don't need your meaningless milestones routed in heterosexual relationships to validate my relationships. as long as me and my partner are on the same page and happy with that, i dont need anything else.

and let me end with saying that if ppl like these terms or ppl like seeing couples in bl use these terms, that doesn't make them dumb, or behind the times or problematic. some ppl just like stuff. and let me also state that the husband and wife labels do not have to be any comment on tops or bottoms. first of all, those terms are similarly tired out but also fine to use if you vibe with them. but a wife does not equal a bottom. and a wife does not equal the feminine one, or the one that does traditionally feminine things. and i would so love to see bl tackle this. bc a top can be a big strong man but also want to be called a wife, just as a bottom can do the cooking but also want to be called a husband. and switching does exist. and i so get switch vibes from like everyone in bad buddy bc thats what ppl are like. they can change what they like to do, dont put them in a box. and i love this kinda meeting place between these two kinds of labels. bc a rejection of husband and wife demands you to acknowledge that this is two men in this relationship (and it also kinda goes against this whole self-insertion thing that bl started out with as a female written and focused thing where you had a defined wife/bottom character that you could replace yourself with), and a lack of any outright top and bottom coding takes you away from this fascination ppl have with sexual positions. bc at the end of the day, why does it fucking matter?? if you like it one way or the other thats cool, but thats not something we should have to broadcast to the world. and nor should it be what you fixate on for characters. if theyre gonna be intimate, care more about the emotions and connection, nots what being put where. intimacy isn't a matter of someone giving and someone recieving, its coming together. and thats not to say it has to always be so emo, sometimes you just wanna do stuff. but even then, what goes where, it aint all that important.

basically tl;dr labels can be cool or not, its all up to personal preference and thats every individuals right. bad buddy knows how to share its messages without slapping you across your face with their 'wokeness' and then patting themselves on the back for ticking off something on their representation list. awesome writing. awesome messages. they're actually fostering nuanced discussion of these things. p'aof i love you.

[sleevesareforlosers]

how did each of the diner residents react when cherri disappeared (was captured) before sing??? you mentioned it briefly in one fic but do you have any extra thoughts??? (for extra heartbreak, thoughts on this + babychild au/angie??)

ah! alrighty

(im not putting this under a cut but its long so uh. <3)

so as mentioned here (just in the linked chapter but if u want to read the whole fic i wont stop u) the girl cries for weeks. she's seven at the time and her family getting dusted has been a major (not unwarranted) fear since she like. started to understand the state of the world. so naturally it hits her hard, she gets Way more nightmares about the rest of the crew getting caught, her powers start manifesting more bc of the stress, she puts up a fight when people try to go on runs, its really not good. the rlly like. tough thing abt it is that no ones 100% certain what happened to cherri but they know he hasnt been mentioned in any traffic reports which is a Good indicator he isnt dead. still, no one wants to give the girl the potentially false hope that hes still alive (and therefore coming back) so they mostly just. avoid talking abt him around her bc its nearly guaranteed to set her off

poison got angry. i dont know if anyone's picked up on it yet (heavy sarcasm), but pois is Really protective and Really invested in his relationships and lashes out when he feels threatened in regard to either of those. losing cherri after being in a crew with him for eight years absolutely fucked them up bc as much as they were never his biggest fan, they started considering cherri family (subconsciously) within like. a few weeks of him getting to the diner. this was a MAJOR blindside, cherri was absolutely not the kind of guy that would just up and vanish and so when he did, the part of pois that thought it was intentional got mad At cherri for hurting the crew and the girl and also got mad at himself for "falling for it." yes, a deeper part of pois Knew that cherri hadn't just left, and that part was really fucking worried for him, but all those feelings got a bit muddled in the wake of everything and left pois just fucking seething

jet and ghoul had very similar reactions actually. theyve both been in the desert long enough that deaths and disappearances are kind of expected? like obviously it fucking hurt, they both loved cherri so much and the first two things that everyone thought when they found him gone were "he's dead" followed by "he went back to waveriding" and both of those are like. horrible things to have to think. jet was the first to break down and sob when they found cherri was gone and ghoul was next. after that, while poison was working through all his rage where he couldn't hurt anyone else, the two of them spent a lot of time sitting together, not really doing the comfort thing bc we know ghoul hates that but at least giving each other someone to sit with and process and plan for like, what to do next. after a few weeks 'what to do next' was accept that cherri wasn't coming back, that they couldn't find him, and that they should probably put his mask in the mailbox.

and no one was more opposed to that idea than kobra. after the initial two weeks or so where he sat on the roof, chainsmoked, and wouldn't look at, let alone talk to anyone other than poison, he got worryingly insistent that they were going to find cherri. it was like the only thing he could focus on was getting cherri back, absolutely scary to watch the way he refused to consider the fact that cherri might be gone. he wouldn't even really get mad when anyone talked about cherri in the past tense, he'd just kind of correct them with a confused look and mention that he "heard someone saw him in two last week, I'm gonna check it out." might've gotten a little less careful in firefights, a little less polite during trade deals, but mostly everyone else was happy that he was talking and eating again, they wouldn't mention it.

also okay for angies au i'm still kind of figuring out what the timeline looks like for that bc if i didn't shift anything at all she'd be two for cherri's disappearance/sing and that complicates how i KNOW her and the girls relationship is. BUT i can share a fun fact that If her au actually existed and If i wanted to think about how it worked with sing, cherri's disappearance followed by the girl getting captured within three months (give or take) means that the four wouldn't be willing to leave her alone while they went into the city, not even with doc and pony, and ghoul would've stayed behind with her.