#gemma rambles

[gemmahale]

Okay, I'm home, I've been on the road for the better part of 4 hours today due to a miscommunication and a cancelled event, and I've had this rant brewing.

Being Anti-Military and Pro-Veteran are stances that can mutually exist.

Games like CoD and whatever other FPS/Military Simulation game is out there is propaganda. It’s meant to make you want to sign up or support military action.

The military (I’m speaking specifically to the US, as I am most familiar with them by proxy) uses some incredibly underhanded techniques to ensure they have the warm bodies soldiers they need to keep the system working as intended.

This includes but is not limited to: promises of paying for education, aspirations of “seeing the world”, provision of job security, access to healthcare, a stable job and housing, etc. They use things like “patriotism” and “glory” and “security” to lure people in.

And then, when that person is wholly and completely reliant on the military - for a paycheck, housing, healthcare, you name it - they spit them back out into the world with a "thanks a lot and good fucking luck."

Into a world where:

Financial support for care has been axed and axed and axed again under "budget cuts"

Care is secured with red tape so thick you can tightrope walk across it

Care is denied for things the military caused (by saying "it didn't happen while you were serving".) *Yes, that's a direct quote from a doctor to one of Kallen's peers. When assessing a life-altering injury sustained while they were in country overseas, it was deemed as "non-service related injury”.

In comparison to civilians:

Veterans are ~40% more likely to be homeless.

Veterans are ~80% more likely to suffer from untreated mental and physical health issues - PTSD, hearing loss, nerve damage, etc.

Veterans are ~60% more likely to turn to addictive substances - alcohol, drugs, etc.

Veterans are ~70% more likely to commit suicide.

This isn’t limited to combat vets. Logistics specialists, administrative specialists, IT specialists all get screwed when they leave.

Ask just about any veteran that has served, they are incredibly likely to be staunchly anti-military.

The military causes a tremendous amount of damage to every person involved, even if they aren't aware of it at the time.

It’s a cult, it’s an abusive relationship, it’s predatory. Treat it as such.

Support veterans, advocate for their care. They made choices you may not agree with, but they made them because of what they thought the military was offering to them. Many thought they were doing the right thing for their country - that was the lie they were fed from 9/11 on (in the US). Then they were chewed up, spit out, and left for dead by the same people that made all those promises to them.

Here are some US-based, apolitical Veteran Support groups (many have International chapters/members):

22 Until None - 501-C3 that provides support to veterans by veterans. There are local chapters on Facebook that are all active and are listed on the website

Disabled American Veteran - Veteran help association; involved in legislation and local assistance, connections to VA advocates to help navigate the VA

Wounded Warrior Project - 501-C3 charity supporting disabled veterans.

Note: I am absolutely not doing the "not all servicemembers" thing here. I'm saying "veterans are living with their choices, and still deserve access to care."

[gemmahale]

Kallen and I do something similar called "Satellite Time" - we both do our own things in the house, but every half-hour or so we check on each other - just a simple "You good? I'm good." *kiss* before we fuck back off to what we were doing.

That check in usually coincides with one of us getting a snack or some water or changing what we're doing, but it has a very similar effect of no pressure on either party.

so judging by how astonished people are by it every time we explain it to anybody, it seems like my wife and I might really be onto something here

during the pandemic, we invented something we call "astronaut time."

when it's astronaut time, it's like we are two astronauts wearing the big helmets, moving around the station on totally separate tasks. one of us is outside the space station and one of us is inside the space station. our radios do not work and we have no way of communicating with each other. we might see each other through the lil porthole windows, but we ignore each other because we both have different things to do.

"astronaut time" is how we get total privacy when we live in the same apartment. I will pretend you don't exist. You will pretend I don't exist. we have a nonverbal, zero-contact signal for when astronaut time is over (usually "I'll draw a smiley-face on the whiteboard in the kitchen when I'm done"). No talking, stay out of each other's line of sight, we are actively avoiding each other, unless you are currently experiencing a medical emergency goodbye.

it has been. a godsend. imagine living with your partner and being able to close every single tab in your brain related to social interaction. no fear of being interrupted by a "hey, quick question--" or "sorry to bother you, but do you know where the scissors are?" or "did you want something to eat, too?" Once or twice a month, we look at each other lovingly, hold hands, and say "baby I think I need some astronaut time tonight," and the other person goes "okay cool. bye! have a nice night!" and nobody's feelings are hurt and we both go and have a lovely evening completely by ourselves.

like idk it's a small thing but it's made our lives so much nicer, so if you and your partner/roommate are both people who sometimes need total privacy in order to recharge, maybe try it

[susellesie]

no dentist's office. no writing christmas cards. no taking flights. a world where every pain or minor annoyance is dismissed as your consciousness is replaced with a different version of you. a life without pain, or agitation, or monotony. and conversely, a life full of only that for every version of you who experiences the chores you wished to evade.

forget skipping work or school or birth. try everything. never experience anything that expires a negative emotion. the ideal consciousness sold as a product for the price of a version of you that you'll never meet.

but it doesn't matter. you carry the hurt down with you. in your hands, in your mind, your mouth. the grief mark experiences carried into his innie, gemma feeling the pain she experienced in the rooms even after she's been severed.

it doesn't matter. you carry it with you.

[raviposting]

Also. How fucking terrifying is Gemma's entire life? Everything that Helly was experiencing in season 1 Gemma is experiencing in every single life. One innie is forever at the dentist. One trapped in this hellish marriage cosplay. One in a constant near-crash scenario. The innies don't get anything else. They don't even get to have their own hair. And Gemma never gets to leave. She comes out of these rooms in pain or fear and never knowing what is happening to her in these rooms. There's no escape for her in any life that she has, except for Ms. Casey, the only innie who's expressed some happiness where she was and the only place where she gets to see Mark, and even then she doesn't know and gets forced back into the elevator. She's stuck in these rooms where these white men are playing these constant mind games with her and beating her down and there's just never a chance of her getting to leave and it's just so painful she is literally just stuck in Hell.

[gemmahale]

Ficbook.net and Unauthorized Translations - An Update

Update to the update: some of the fics have been removed! 🎉 This happened before I finished this write-up even!

You may have seen this post last night about some CoD X Reader fics having unauthorized translations posted to the Russian site ficbook.net. @karlachismylife was monumental in helping me understand what's going on, and there's some explanation in that link from her POV as well.

Basically - multiple people have copied and translated fanfics into Russian and hosted them on ficbook.net. They're rough translations, some going as far as to use literal translations for turns of phrase. Most likely, they were run through a translation software (Google Translate or similar) and then roughly edited. (Juju mentioned that there is a subset of jobs in Russia where that is your job description. 😖)

Most of them have come from Tumblr posts, some from AO3. Very few had attribution beyond "tagging" the original author. (Aka - no consent was given for these translations.)

@syoddeye took the time to compile a list found here (google sheet). At the time of writing, 65 fics CoD x Reader fics were found - we know there's more but we only have so many knives in a day. (Sy did not look into slash fics either.)

Authors that have been tagged in the comments: I'm sorry you found out this way. I wanted to tell you in person, but given Tumblr's likelihood of thinking I was spamming you, I felt that this was the best option to alert you, provide you with options, and let you determine how you wish to move forward.

So what can be done?

If you already have an account, please report the fics! I'm told that spamming reports gets it taken down. Also consider messaging the author and ask them to remove them - they do not have the author's consent to publish them.

If you want to make an account and report the linked fics, you can. I have chosen not to, because I don't want to give Ficbook any extra support I otherwise might by doing so (clicks, ad views, account numbers).

If the author does not have closed comments (or you have an account), you can leave a comment on the fic.

Russian: Автор оригинала лично подтвердил, что не давал разрешения на перевод и публикацию. English: Author of the work personally confirmed that they did not give permission to translate and publish.

Finally - check in on your author friends that are on that list. It's devastating to find out your work has been plagiarized, translated and hosted somewhere else without your consent. Reblog their work, share comments, hype them up!

A couple of notes: (Juju correct me if I've fucked any of this up 💚)

The posters are likely not making money off the unauthorized translations. The website and their owners definitely are (ads, "premium features", promotion tools, etc.)

Ficbook.net is the biggest Russian language fanfiction platform - somewhat akin to AO3, but it doesn't have a great reputation within Russian circles because of the stealing and underhanded practices the owners use.

AO3 is banned in Russia, and Tumblr is one of the few places Russians can easily (aka without VPNs and Mirrors) read English version of fanfic.

CoD isn't the only fandom affected - there are dozens that have more posted, and we only scratched the surface in our list.

Finally, if you want to translate works, TALK TO THE AUTHOR. A lot of folks don't like having their work shared without their consent. Even if you feel like you are doing a good thing spreading it to a wider audience, YOU NEED THE AUTHOR'S CONSENT. If they've deleted their presence and their stories from hosting sites (tumblr, AO3, etc) - you don't get to pretend you're doing them a favor by reposting them. Respect their decisions.

[gemmahale]

Thank goodness for this post because I just had to go back and change 4 paragraphs to the right tense.

Better 4 paragraphs than 4 pages.

You should only write in present tense with extreme caution.

not because it's bad or anything but because if you do it even once you're going to be editing the bits where you shifted tenses out of your writing for the rest of your life

[emmas]

Mark s spent his entire life imprisoned at work for his outie’s emotional convenience, mark s has Been looking for gemma all season long, mark s had his feelings And life belittled by outie mark in this very episode and he STILL chose to save gemma, he had that whole convo with helly about wanting more time together but he STILL finished cold harbor he STILL went down to the testing floor and he STILL escorted miss casey out the door and freed gemma.

And people are MAD at him? For choosing to spend a few extra minutes with the woman he loves? Before they are both inevitably caught? Before their life inevitably ends?? Hilarious.

[mychapel-004]

outie mark getting shady when helena called gemma by the wrong name in that fuckass chinese restaraunt and then turning around and calling the love of mark s' shitty loser life "helleny".... i fear you got what was coming to you i would have malicious complaince'd my way through this bullshit save-your-wife plan too

[gemmahale]

Okay - re Ficbook.net and the (unauthorized) Russian translations.

I spoke with @karlachismylife (who is a gem and a delightful person).

You have to have an account to report fics there, and the author that I was told about has locked comments.

If you want instructions (and to make an account), I'm happy to help you with what needs to be done. Basically, it's spam the report until the system locks you out.

Juju's gone ahead and:

messaged the author about it, asking them to take the fics down since they don't have author approval.

messaged her friends (who are also Russian and have accounts) to report the works. (note: it is also very late/early in Moscow, so it may be a bit before they wake up.)

She told me (verbatim) that it is a very bad translation - it is not adapted to Russian and used a phrase verbatim instead of the intent.

Most likely, this person threw it into Google Translate, adjusted some of the super egregious stuff, and threw it up. It happens in other fandoms too - to the point there are ads out there looking for people to do exactly what this person has done.

If you're one of these people that has copied works over to ficbook.net or similar sites, I hope you perpetually stub your pinky toes and your shoes are always a little leaky/socks are always damp. Fuck you.

People put so much love and passion into their work and you decide to try and make a dollar off their back (when in the US, fanfic cannot be monetized)? How disgusting, awful, and shitty of you. That is how you lose those fics and those authors in the first place - by plagiarizing, copying and translating works without consent.

I'm sorry I don't have more concrete actions for us non-Russians to take - I was hoping making an account wasn't necessary, but I refuse to give that site more clicks and revenue and accounts that support them.

[gemmahale]

It's actually the vibration from the bees that triggers the pollen to drop from the tomato flowers - it's a technique called sonication. Using a vibrator/electric toothbrush replicates that high frequency vibration and triggers the flower to release the pollen from the anthers onto the stigma.

Tapping behind the flower can have similar results, which might be the "shaking" Derin refers to. (I pictured grabbing the vine and shaking it like it owes me money, so I wanted to clarify!)

You can hear the vibration in this video - it's close to 400 Hz (~400 vibrations per second).

[mychapel-004]

it's very interesting seeing the range of opinions about mark s and if he was fair in leaving gemma to be with helly, but ultimately i don't think many people are deeping the Actual Consequences of creating an innie.

mark scout brought an entire person into existence. it's incredibly similar metaphorically to childbirth, he even lashes out at mark s and calls him a child for not trusting him. his innie's life is a Real one, as real as his life outside, just because they're the same person doesn't mean it's fair to ask him to throw it all away to benefit his creator. innie mark has just as much of a right over their shared body as outie mark.

he was created out of grief for this woman, and he did his duty in getting her off the severed floor, but if outie mark wanted a version of himself to exist who wasn't choking on gemma's ghost, he has no right to complain that innie mark isn't willing to sacrifice the lives of everyone he knows for her.

the markhelly or markgemma of it all is kinda the least interesting part of it, rather this whole season has been focusing on the bodily autonomy of innies and their right to live their lives. they were brought into this world as a convenience, but they are still real people. just like children, they cannot be controlled or forced to live that life a certain way to benefit their creator.

[kissesforjackie]

the double orpheus and eurydice symbolism!!!! what do you MEAN mark might have kept going if gemma hadn't turned around and made him realise this isn't what he wants!!!!!! what do you MEAN mark might have kept walking if he hadn't turned and seen helly behind him!!!!!!! WHAT DO YOU MEAN!!!!!!!

[andillwriteyouatragedy]

girl i'm coming

[gemmahale]

That book profoundly shaped my worldview and shifted it dramatically.

I should go back and re-read it.

[dracoj]

*mark voice* yeah i work at dead wife industries, on account of my dead wife. fuck off if u think my dead wife is there

[ed3lsgard]

btw the ppl who diminish mark and helly’s relationship to an “office situationship” are literally doing the same thing as lumon. acting as if innies aren’t actual people and their feelings don’t matter. the office and work is their entire world and life, it’s all they know, so of course it’s an “office romance”. the show has shown us multiple times that innies are their own person, that their feelings and experiences matter, despite what some say. so it would be incredibly hypocritical if they set up markhelly just for them to not end up together in at least some form.

also, even if they were to get gemma out, it’s not as if mark and her can ever go back to the way things were. narratively it would make no sense for the show to have them reunited and have their relationship go back to normal. mark wont be rewarded for escaping from his grief. now i have no idea how things will go, but i genuinely doubt any of it will be an easy fix.