#i feel like i did not sufficiently make my point in this case

[corviiids]

[...]

[lemurchick]

Another 'wonderful news' from Russia for your consideration! This week, the BRICS forum on traditional values took place in Moscow. And it was fucking insane.

In short, the opening meeting was BRICS countries representatives verbally jerking off on how well they oppress or plan to oppress their people especially women. The only person who bothered to contradict this narrative was Egyptian female writer Doha Mustafa Assy.

I will translate some quotes from the russian article. https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/7311174

Russia: "At some point the roles for women have begun to change towards independence and self-sufficiency. We, of course, love and respect our women very much, but we want them to pay more attention to their families, men and children. We do not want them to strive for business, politics, economics, power, or culture. <...> The main traditional value is the preservation of natural purpose, where a woman continues the family line and a man inspires her to give birth to children."

Pakistan: "Any traditional religion upholds and promotes social values and traditions. No father would want to harm his family. No mother would want to break up or disintegrate her family. This <rejection of family values> is deliberately imposed on us and promoted by some power circles”

Ethiopia: "In our country it is traditionally women who do the cooking, teaching children and other family duties. So the man's role is not as big as the woman's, and this tradition gives the man the freedom to behave like a child." (?????)

Uganda: [This country experience is “extremely important to the discussion of legislative protection of religious values,” emphasized russian politician Dmitry Kuznetsov, referring to the fact that in Uganda same-sex relations are prohibited, and in some cases violators face life imprisonment or even the death penalty.] “We did this to make sure that the country would be preserved. I would encourage countries to behave in such a way that the culture that exists in each country is not imposed on others.” btw Brazil and South Africa representatives didn't say a word here even though their countries legalized same-sex mafrriage years ago.

Brazil: "Marriage in no longer a goal for our citizens and the country has the highest divorce rate in history. Meanwhile, children are most often left with their mothers, with fathers unwilling to take part in their upbringing. As a result, many Brazilian boys are growing up without a father figure and 9% of male inmates in prisons don't even know their father's name. Shifting the balance in favor of women leads to the fact that the position of feminism is growing, and the number of people who identify as LGBT people is growing.” At the end of his speech, he marveled, “This is my first time in Russia, and I didn't know you guys were so conservative. I'm so happy, it's so impressive!” He also admitted that “the people of Brazil know nothing about Russia,” and Dmitry Kuznetsov promised: “We will come to you and tell you all about our saving conservatism.”

Egypt: As I mentioned in the beginning the only person who actively argued against this trend was Doha Mustafa Assy. She said: "We on the contrary has a struggle against patriarchy. Tradition and religion are not on women's side, they help men. A lot of women in Egypt ask for divorce only because they feel like slaves at home. He (the husband) has the right not to let her leave the house according to tradition. BRICS is India, it's China, it's Russia, it's Egypt. We are very different. And maybe what you are trying to do in Russia has already became a problem for us”.

To be honest I don't know what will come out of this forum. Maybe it's just empty posturing, maybe BRICS countries just sent people who had free time on their hand here as a formality. But I despair reading these quotes; twenty years ago we sent a singing duet posing as lesbians to Eurovision; ten years ago I was watching lesbian drama Blue Is the Warmest Colour in a full theater. Soviet Union gave women some attempt in an equal rights in fucking 1917 and we were the first country to send a woman in space. What happened? How has it turned this way? We are now friends with some of the most patriarchal countries in the world and with fucking North Korea. They are planning to remove the Taliban's terrorist status.

What the hell.

[olderthannetfic]

www.tumblr.com/olderthannetfic/771823370694213632

You need the say the bit about the way canon treats characters way louder because I really think that the way the character is... framed, I guess? accounts for huge chunks of it.

I remember when the Disk Horse was about Finn vs. Kylo Ren from the Star Wars sequel trilogy and I got called racist for trying to point out that Finn was always framed as the comic relief/unserious by the canon. He has a character arc in the first movie, but his emotions and his trauma and his personality are mostly played for laughs (ha! ha! Black janitor guy is scared because he's a coward! - and him being a janitor is a change that came pretty late, he was originally meant to be the top of his class). OTOH Kylo Ren has the camera linger on his anguished face while sad music plays and he monologues about the moral conflicts that he's facing.

The average viewer/reader - especially in the case of visual media - doesn't really stop watching to form non-prejudiced independent opinions on every character (and really shouldn't if your narrative is well-constructed!), that'd take up too much of their mental bandwidth! They let themselves be guided by how things and people are framed, so of course they'd see Ren as Serious and Tragic and Finn as the funny guy, which is inherently less sexy to most people!

Same thing with F/F: when canon treats its women with any degree of complexity and gives them the sort of character traits that are conductive to blorbofication people are all over it!

My dash's been drowning in Rhaenycent for a year now, and that's a show that arguably sorta botched its female characters in the attempt to make them complex! But it doesn't matter, because they set up all these juicy dynamics and the fans are all over it!

Fans LOVE Claudia from IWTV even though the tragedy of her canonical role is that the guys always sideline her for each other.

I went to the Anora tag after seeing the movie and saw a bunch of Anora x reader fic in between the gifs the same way I did for Feyd Rautha from Dune or any other feral unhinged character fans love imagining themselves having sex with (and then blocked it lol).

Like, my taste in women and men is exactly the same but the large majority of characters that fit it are men, because we just don't get a lot of women who are composed, charming rogues on the outside and crippled traumatized messes on the inside, with a narrative that gives this sufficient weight, and also lets them be feral and unhinged. And I actually prefer minority characters because where I'm from I'm from a minority group myself, but again, most of them don't fit the bill personality-wise or framing-wise.

Fandom's a hobby and it's meant to be fun - I'm not gonna be constantly swimming uphill from what the canon is trying to present to me just because a character shares a demographic category with me. I think this is the case for most people, really.

--

My read on a lot of this is that people are sad about the status quo (fair) and are lying to themselves that the culprits are nearby where they can reach them.

If we confront the fact that the real source is the director or the cinematographer or the studio head, it all feels so much more insurmountable.

Of course, one can opt for niche, indie media, but a lot of people don't want to do that, so they fall back on this shitty coping mechanism of pretending that they can yell at the people around them and effect meaningful change.

[perseephoneee]

adventures in catsitting (castiel x reader)

a/n: basically i just had this thought of castiel catsitting my cat (her name is Butters, and yes, she's featured in this fic) and it made my brain go all mushy bc i just love him so much. anyway.

masterlist | let me ship you with your fav characters | join my taglist

Watching a cat shouldn’t be too hard, for all intents and purposes. Watching your cat, earning your favor, well that would just be a bonus. Unfortunately, Castiel doesn’t understand cats that much.

“Okay, that should be about it,” you said, hands on your hips as you looked at the angel next to you. He was carefully analyzing all the different things you laid out on the counter: toys, food, meds, etc. “Any questions?”

“She eats baby food? Not cat food?” Castiel clarified, pointing to the turkey Gerbers still in its twelve-pack on the counter.

“Well, she’s a baby, and it’s better for her stomach,” you chuckled.

“I thought she was a grown cat,” Castiel says, confused. He looks over at said cat, a stocky cream-colored Persian you referred to as Butters. To him, she seemed to be full-grown.

“Every cat is just a little baby, even when they’re grown,” you give Butters a scratch behind her ears, and she lets out a meep sound reminiscent of what you dub ‘a sad trumpet.’ Castiel still looks confused. “Never mind….will you be okay? It’s just for two days while I finish this case.”

“I will be sufficient,” Castiel almost puffs out his chest at this.

"Great! You're the best, Cas," you pat his arm, grabbing your duffel bag and leaving out the front door. Castiel stands still briefly before looking at the fluffy creature beside him. Wide yellow eyes peer up at him, blinking. He looks back at the detailed paper you wrote, ensuring he got everything. He wanted to make sure he did his best.

It was around night that Castiel started to worry. He had entertained Butters for a sufficient time, then sat with her on the couch while she watched a movie. (You said that she liked Finding Nemo, so Castiel put it on. He found the movie to be strangely sad). It was her dinner time, and Castiel had put out a scoop of baby food as required, except that it had been hours, and she wasn't eating it. She was sitting on the couch, letting out gentle purrs and seeming fine. Still, Castiel was concerned. He decided to call Dean for answers.

"I think something is wrong with the cat," Cas said into the phone. "It won't eat its dinner. It's just sleeping."

"I'm sure it's fine," Dean sighed, obviously not wanting to be a part of this conversation.

"If there's something wrong with the cat--"

"Cats are weird. They don't always follow set schedules," Dean groaned, feeling agitated. He took a second before responding. "Is it fine otherwise?"

"...Yes."

"Then the cat is fine," Dean replied. "Call me when something actually useful pops up."

Dean hung up, and Castiel looked back towards the cat. It had woken up, blinking its eyes at the angel. It let out another meep, tucking its paws underneath it. Castiel gave it a pat on the head.

"Your food is over there," Cas pointed towards the food bowl. Butters just meeped again. "I just told you where your food was." Another meep. "I don't understand."

Butters, eventually exasperated, got up and jumped off the couch, walking over to Cas. She rubbed against his pant legs, walking back and forth and making more noises. Castiel gave her a few pets, showing a small smile when she responded happily to his ministrations. She rolled over, showing her belly, and Castiel gave it a few hesitant strokes. Eventually, Butters grew tired and walked over to her food bowl. The angel let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding. 

You came home after two days, finding your cat and your angel sitting on the couch watching Luca on the TV. Both of them looked equally enraptured. 

“You survived,” you smiled, earning Castiel's attention. He turned towards you with soft blue eyes, and your heart skipped a beat. 

“It meows a lot,” Castiel stated, looking toward the feline companion beside him. She let out a meep in response. 

“She has lots of opinions,” you chuckle, walking over and giving a big squish to your cat. She purrs happily, even letting you boop her nose. Cas looks at you both fondly. Without really sparing a second thought, you leaned over, kissing Castiel’s cheek and enjoying when a red flush coated his face. “You’re the best, Castiel.”

Cas sat there for a minute, even after you’d gone to the kitchen for some water, even after he couldn’t feel your lips on his cheek anymore. All he could think was that if catsitting meant getting a kiss, he’d have to catsit for you more often.

[entomolog-t]

Silly lil brainrot thats stuck in my head cause everyone's been talking about sizeshifters lately (AND I AM HERE FOR IT)

Just image a character looking for a roommate to help split rent, but their spare room is stupidly small. They put an add out, and get a few people coming by but no one wants that cramped of a bedroom, no matter how cheap they make it-

Until someone does.

They're frankly surprised- they figured at this point it was a lost cause but the person seems weirdly delighted??

Odd.

They are overjoyed at the price too- and character A can understand their joy- given the size of the room they were getting desperate price wise.

A week goes by and everything seems fairly normal. They put a lock on their door, but that seemed pretty standard when you're moving in with a stranger. They're clean, friendly, and pretty fun to be around- just a little forgetful, but who isn't?

By the second week though, Character A is noticing some weirdness. B doesn't seem to eat... They never see them cooking, theres nothing in the fridge, and they don't seem to go out for food either.

When A brings it up B brushes it off, saying they have a minifridge in their room and a lil personal stove. It seems like a good enough excuse until A realizes they've never seem them do dishes. Ever.

By the third week A is convinced theres something weird about B. They have to do some repairs on B's room and when they go in they're just in shock. It looks even smaller than before- B having put bookshelves along almost every wall- but theres no books in the shelves. Its all...

Miniatures?

Fantastically intricate rooms, ranging from something out of a fantasy castle, to influencer mansion type rooms. The longer they look, the weirder it seems though. The rooms are all connected- slides, bridges, ladders... Did they have a pet mouse or something??

Spying one room with a hamster wheel, A is convinced that B has the most spoiled pet in the world. Although... they never mentioned having a pet. Not that it was an issue, but A made it pretty clear that they should tell them if the have a pet in case of a fire or any type of emergency.

And then A sees it- or well, more accurately, doesn't see it.

They ... they dont have a bed??

Sufficiently weirded out but trying their best not to judge, A starts on whatever repairs they have to make, only to realize the project is not going to be a one and done job.

They let B know they'll have to go back into their room later this week and they work out a date and time-B assures them they'll be out of the house and will leave the door unlocked.

The day rolls around and when A goes to start the repairs they grimace. B forgot to leave their door unlocked. They really didn't have time for this. They give B a call, but it goes straight to voicemail.

With a sigh, they grab a credit card. It looked like a cheap lock anyways. Slipping the card between the door and frame they manage to bypass the lock with ease. It really was a cheap thing...

As they go to start the repairs, a little bit of movement catches their eye.

A small lump curled up under the covers of a massively luxurious bed.

Awe! So they did have a mouse!

and it slept under the covers?? Adorable.

It had to be pretty well trained if it didn't have any sort of actual cage? Maybe it was a rat? They could be pretty smart... though it was small.

Curiosity peaked, A pinches the tiny covers in their hand- not without noticing how incredibly soft and high quality they are- pulling the covers back.

A small hand rips the cover back, and they here a muffled

"Five more minutes..."

Eyes wide, they freeze, the world around them feeling frozen in this bizarre moment. A second passes. Then another.

The tiny figure in the bed bolts upright, head turning to A.

Their eyes lock in the most awkward dual realization.

"What are you doing-"

A interrupts them, holding up a tool.

"Repairs were today."

B nods, eyes wide.

"I uh... I forgot about that."

_____________________

I JUST THINK IF I WERE ABLE TO SHIFT SIZES I WOULD BE LIVING THE MOST LUXURIOUS LIFE

"BuT eNtO, DoNt YoU wAnT tO bE bIg?"

Yes obviously, but in this economy?? In the privacy of my own home I'll subsist for month off of 10$ in groceries thank you very much.

[strangelittlestories]

When one of the last fairy godparents died on my doorstep and passed on their domain to me, they made one crucial miscalculation: I was terminally un-magical.

Now, you might think I mean ‘terminally’ figuratively here. But you would be astonished how quickly foisting a fairy legacy onto fully mundane folks can produce lethal consequences.

In this case, the issue was the wishes. That’s a fairy godparent’s job, right? You’ve got a number of godchildren, selected because they are in some way magically deserving, of interesting destiny, or unfortunately cursed. These kids will usually have some problem that can be solved by tactical wish application.

But if you’re a normal mortal, you will likely spend your first week on the job in active denial about the wishes that start turning up. It’ll just be one or two at first, faintly glowing like stars beneath your skin, carrying with them the gentle suggestion that now might be a great time to start transmogrifying root vegetables into modes of transport.

Then more of them turn up. And they get brighter, bigger, more insistent. Suddenly, your skin is filled with a galaxy and there is no quantity of cleverly applied scarves and no amount of expensive concealer that will hide it. It’s as if your insides have become student accommodation and the residents have decorated with an improbable number of fairy lights because it will look good on the ‘gram.

You start getting sensory migraines that paint flows of impossible colours across the world. Your teeth feel like they are constantly vibrating and you can always taste cinnamon. You can feel your liver and your liver feels wrong. You look in the mirror and you seem to be moving in stop motion, winking in and out of reality.

And a dozen little tinny voices are hovering the back of your mind insistent that *only you* can solve their problems. These problems may seem inconsequential - a boy who really needs to go to the ball, a girl who needs horseriding lessons, a teen who for some reason needs to avoid arts and crafts - but the longer you ignore them, the more you *know* in your bones that they are vital.

Speaking of vital: this is roughly when the banshee showed up to let me know that the sheer quantity of magical potential in my body was now approaching ‘fae nuke’ levels. Apparently, if I did not start bleeding off some of the excess, this would get *very bad* for me and everyone around me.

In short: the critical mass of wishes contained within my pitiful mortal flesh was acting like a magical black hole. It was sufficiently aetherically dense that my body was becoming more a part of the Faerie realm than the mortal plane. If it reached the tipping point, it would effectively become a portal between worlds.

This wouldn’t be too bad for an actual fae. As the banshee explained, this was one of the ways fairy godparents got around. They call it ‘wishful blinking’

But I was not built for containing a magical wormhole, so yeah … fae nuke.

So … I started granting wishes.

Making dreams come true without magic, by the way, is a *whole production*. I called in every favour. I utilised every skill. I pulled elaborate cons. I tricked parents into hiring me as a party planner/tutor/life coach/etc. Then I used the income to hire help. The banshee even pitched in (we ended up getting drinks a few times).

Eventually, there were enough of us that we needed a home base. So I bought a warehouse/office space.

And that’s how I started the first ever Wish Fulfilment Centre.

---

Thanks to a Word of the Month Club member for the prompt of "Wishful".

Want to submit your own words to be used as puns in my stories? Consider supporting me on Ko-Fi with a recurring donation https://ko-fi.com/strangelittlestories

[prettyboykatsuki]

✮ tags ; gn!reader, sock(?) fetish...? it's like foot fetish adjacent i guess and but she is wearing frilly socks, dirty talk, established relationship, implicit nsfw but nothing happens, 18+

✮ wc ; 1.4k (WTF LOL)

✮ a/n ; don't mind me. going through something. this is miserably self-indulgent but it's ochako so i figured you've guessed that

Ochako would never applaud your subtlety.

If she's playing devils advocate, she'd say that you're not usually trying to be very subtle anyway. Between the two of you, she's the shy one. Most of your firsts have been as a result of your personality - sufficiently anti-social but smug and forthcoming when you need to be.

She was the one to coax you into actually asking her out, since you weren't sure she'd be happy with someone like you. But the confessing and kissing and having sex are all a result of your brusque honesty and inability to keep your thoughts to yourself.

Usually, if there's something you want, you'll just ask her. She'll get on your case out of embarrassment often enough - but she loves you and she loves being praised. If there's some particularly perverted fantasy you want to act out with her, well... she can do it with a little bribing.

You're not much for hints, but you are good at hiding things. Usually. You managed to plan an anniversary trip completely in advance even with her hectic hero schedule which is something to be commended.

But it's rare, in any case, to see you be uncertain about something. It's not like you just stare at her and not say anything. She'll challenge you about that tendency often and you always smirk so sly and say what you think.

She's never really seen you act like this. She doesn't know what to make of it.

She thinks she would've known by now if you had some kind of foot fetish at least.

You've been staring at her legs all day to start with, but she noticed about an hour ago that your eyes kept drifting to her feet. You've had sex enough times for her to know what you like and you've never really shown any special appreciation towards them other than a kiss or rub. It's tender and intimate, but it doesn't feel rooted in the lust of a fetish.

It's the fifth or sixth time in the last hour you've looked over the edge of your laptop screen and traced her legs. It's hard to notice when you've been doing it so often.

"What are you staring so hard at?"

You startle at the confrontation, even though you weren't engrossed in your work. It's subtle, your eyes widening just a touch before going back to the screen unfocused.

"Uh," You sound...awkward. And a little nervous. It's a little unusual for her, since you're a difficult person to truly embarrass. "Nothing really."

She pouts at you. "You're a bad liar. You've looked at me so many times today. At my feet," She says, leaning back on the couch with her legs completely spread. You do it again and look away just as quickly. "Did you gain a foot fetish over night?"

When you don't respond right way, her eyes open wide. She looks at you as you turn your head - suddenly sheepish. "...Did you really?"

You shake your head, trying to find the words to explain. You open your mouth only to close it again, rubbing your temple as if finding the words is stressing you out.

Now she's really confused.

"It's not a foot fetish, necessarily? It has to do with," You swallow something in the back of your throat. "...with what you're wearing. I guess?"

"What I'm wearing?" She looks down her legs and looks at the socks she's wearing - brand new and frilly. All white lace bunched at the cuff and white cotton down to the toes with a little pink bow on the back, She lifts her legs up and points her foot out. "These?"

Your face flushes like a deer caught in headlights and Ochako feels herself jolt in surprise before a smile breaks out on her face. It's hard to hold in her laughter, though she's not laughing at you as much as she is your reaction.

"Don't laugh at me,"

"I'm not, I'm not," She assures, giggling to herself. "It's just... of all the perverted stuff you ask me to do, this is what gets you?"

You cover your face partially with your hand, forcing yourself not to look down or around. "It's a little weird even for me."

She hums. "I don't think it's weird," Slowly, she pulls her knees up close to her chest, arms hugging her legs glancing down at her feet "I'm just not sure what you like about it."

You stare again, at her legs then at her feet. You're a distance away but you scoot in a little closer - your hands reaching out just far enough to touch the frill around the cuff. Your eyes go lidded, pressing the lacy material between your fingers.

"It's pretty." You say first. There's a shift in the air that makes her breath hitch though you haven't said or implied anything lewd at all. Really haven't touched her either, which makes her blush. You have the effect on her, or something. "It's girly and cute and looks nice on you. Plus you have toned legs so it suits you. I like the way they match with your pajamas, too."

The sudden wave of praise makes Ochako shiver. She buries her face in her arms, frowning - skin prickling with heat. "Jeez. You're so simple."

She moves herself. Instead of her seat opposite the couch, she crawls down to where you sit on the floor and pushes the coffee table away from you. Barely glancing at your laptop, she shuts it and sits in front of you instead - occupying the space between you suddenly. You glance at her, surprised, before laugh again.

She leans back on her palms, pulling her legs up and placing both of her socked feet on your chest. Her back is supported only by the sturdy chestnut table she moved out of the way to sit. Your hand rests on her calves - right where her ankle extends. Your thumb rubs the bare skin. Her face grows hotter, air thick with tension.

"You have more to say, right?" A bid for attention. You nod your head. "Then say it,"

"It's kind of dirty," You hum. Ochako can feel her heart rate start to tick up as your hand slides down to be over the tops of her feet. You look down at where she's placed them on your chest so affectionately she can already feel the dull pulse start between her legs. "But I always think about what they look like when they're the last things left on you."

She makes a face at you. You crook your neck to kiss just the outside, right at the toe of her socks. It makes her blush more than she expects and that makes you laugh. Your voice is thick, genuine desire making her want to keen a little. She wants you spoil her, but you already know that.

"Like," You pretend to think, locking eyes with her. She doesn't know if she could get more red, but she feels she does. "If I were to strip you down to everything but these, that'd look really lewd right? It's like that."

"Is that what you want to do?"

You nod at her easily. "Seeing you bent over the side of the couch , on the tips of your toes. Or maybe laying on your stomach with your legs up so I can fuck you more properly. It's a nice image, I thought."

She pouts at you, almost perpetually - shoving a foot against your cheek as she does. You laugh at her as she does.

"You're such a pervert."

"Sorry." Your voice is warm and tender but not really all that apologetic. She huffs, turning your head to one side.

"It can't be helped, then." She says, one eyes closed and cheeky. You laugh at her good-naturedly.

"What a good girl you are, Ochako-chan,"

She feels her heart flutter, positioning herself to sit on her knees so she can kiss you. Her hands support her in front, arms wrapped around your neck as she flutters her lashes. "The best?"

You hum, pressing a hot kiss to her jaw. "The best. Let me see more of you, okay?"

"Okay," She huffs, a little annoyed by how easy she is. "I don't mind keeping the socks on."

"Good girl." You praise again, throaty and just barely thick. "My very good girl."

Ochako doesn't mind your lack of subtlety, she thinks. The throbbing between her legs is enough to prove she likes when you're very, very forward.

[temporal-discounting]

Apparently some people over on the hellsite formerly known as Twitter have described Ed as a psychopath. Many people have pointed out the racism inherent in this take - and while I wholeheartedly agree with that, I would like to focus here on what psychopathy actually is, and why it is absurd to apply that label to the character we see on our screens in OFMD.

To preface this, I am a research psychologist by training and have done some work on psychopathy. I am by no means an expert, though, so any corrections to how I have represented psychopathy here are welcome. This will be quite a long post, so I'm putting the rest under the cut.

OK, so what is psychopathy? The truth is, it has a very messy status. It does not appear in the DSM-5, which is the diagnostic manual for psychological disorders. Someone with psychopathic traits would likely be diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder (ASPD). But psychopathy as a construct is widely used in the scientific literature - especially clinical and forensic psychology - and it is used to describe a specific type of personality that overlaps with, but is distinct from, ASPD.

At the core of psychopathy is a lack of empathy and remorse; psychopaths see others not as fully realised people with rich inner lives, but as instruments to be used in pursuit of their own goals. Violent behaviour is not necessary or sufficient to be a psychopath but many psychopaths will use violence as a tool to further their own agenda, and they will not feel bad about it.

While 'diagnosing' fictional characters is a folly, in this case I think there is clear canonical evidence that Ed is not a psychopath.

Ed does not lack empathy. He empathises with Stede immediately - the very first thing he does when Stede wakes up is to reassure him that his crew is OK.

And there are numerous, non-Stede examples too. We see Ed empathise with the crew following the fuckery, with CJ when he lies about being mutinied, with Fang when they go fishing together...

Does Ed lack remorse? Very clearly not. His remorse over killing his father is absolutely fundamental to his character. And that remorse has led him to build up walls around the violence he has perpetrated and ordered as Blackbeard ("I didn't kill those guys, the fire did").

Ed's behaviour towards Lucius and the crew from 1.10 through to 2.2 could be construed as using violence instrumentally to achieve one's own goals. But the narrative makes it pretty clear that this behaviour is attributable to an acute mental health crisis - not to an innate personality type. And crucially, he feels remorse about this behaviour. He tries to make amends. He tries to do better.

Finally, Ed's entire arc of wanting to leave piracy behind would be very difficult to reconcile with him being a psychopath. He is unwavering in this desire from the moment we properly meet him - so much so that he is willing to leave behind the only person he has ever loved.

In summary, Ed is empathetic, he is plagued by the violence he has committed, and he wants to be a better man. These traits are wildly inconsistent with a psychopath.

So, er.... thanks for coming to my TED talk, I guess?

[schrodingers-deadbitch]

Half A Corpse

Chapter One

The soft hum of the radio filled the silent car ride, the four bodies inside somewhat anticipating what was to come. It had been a couple of days since they had left the ruins of Amity and were making their way to their new home in Gotham.

If any of them had their own way they would have stayed in Amity and mourned what they had lost. Every Amity Parker would have, even Dan. But with some prompting from none other than Clockwork, they all made their way to their new homes. Where was that? Wherever their hearts took them.

Most, like the Nightingale's, left for Gotham. Others, Metropolis. Some strayed from the trend and moved to places like Central City or even far into the countryside. But it was as Clockwork said, and they went where their hearts took them.

���This place smells of death.”

Jazz couldn't tell if her sister was complaining or not but she wouldn't blame her if she were.

“Haven't you been to Gotham before?” She asked, her eyes drifting upwards to the rear view mirror to look at Dani, only to see her sitting upside down. “Also if you keep that up I'll be the one going to jail not you.”

“It was actually the first place I went because I thought it was interesting,” She said while shifting herself into an upright position “but I could sense that it was someone's haunt so I didn't intrude.”

“Good thing you didn't. She doesn't have the ability to deal with many of the issues within her city but Lady Gotham is a powerful spirit nonetheless, and doesn't do well with outside ghosts.” Dan stated, putting down his book to give his full attention to his little sister.

“Well if that's the case why did she let us in?”

“Because Clockwork and I asked very nicely.” Danny yawned at her. He was still waking up from his nap. He was very, very tired.

Dani didn't ask any more questions. She was already off of that topic and was now observing the city around her. She was completely enamored. Fascinated by how well both the modern and gothic architecture complemented each other. To her (and probably everyone else in the car);

“It gives dark academia vibes, ya know! Just modern. And with lots of crime.” Her voice filled with awe and wonder.

“Excusing the fact that you've been on the internet too much as of late, it would have been better if there was a little more sunlight.”

They all couldn't have agreed more. True to every Gothamite's words, the sun did not shine in Gotham. And with all the smog, probably never will.

From there on the car ride was filled with convocation. Everyone had something to say about their new city. Their new home.

***

Danny never thought that he would be having a conversation with Sam about what it meant to be low-key but here he was.

“Yeah, I know you said that you wanted something low-key but there was no way I was going to let you guys live in some shabby apartment. So I bought a place and renovated it for you guys.”

Danny rubbed his temples feeling a headache coming on. “Yeah okay I thank you for that. But what's the cafe, book shoppy thing down bottom huh?”

“Well you guys said that you wanted to be self-sufficient.” Sam stated as if that would answer his question. Based on pure context alone it did.

"Sam, you know we literally live in a place called Crime. Alley. Right? I know we border the Narrows but that's not the point.”

She sighed. “You guys refused my help because you said it would ‘feel like using me’, “ Danny could just hear the air quotes from over the line, “but let's face it! Jazz is doing college full time and you and Dani will be going to school. The only person left to work in Dan. And no offense to him but he looks shady AF.”

A shout came from the other side of the house informing them that no offense was taken.

“Anyways,” she continued “Dan looks hella shady. And from what I can tell, no one's gonna hire a shady person. Especially if they come from Crime Alley or the Narrows. The only work he would probably get is from a shady garage or joining a gang and doing straight up crime.”

Danny sighed and shook his head, plopping himself into one of the beanbag chairs Sam furnished the house with. She had a point and she was also painting a clear image in his head about how that would work out.

“Besides, I set up a protection circle after renovations were finished and I've gotta say it's the best work I've done yet.”

He could feel Sam's pride through the phone. She was probably puffing up her chest like a peacock.

“Yeah I felt it coming in. I don't know shit about magic but I could tell that it was pretty good. What does it do again?”

The next hour was filled with endless chatter between the two. It became even longer once Tucker joined the conversation.

Jazz couldn't help but watch her little brother talk so animatedly with his friends. He just looked so happy. Like everything that had happened to them didn't even happen. It was kinda unnerving. What she was seeing here, the happy go lucky boy she saw in the orphanage all those years ago, and what she saw a couple back just wasn't adding up. That couldn't have been her brother. It couldn't. But it was.

Her breathing was becoming ragged as she started to shake. She sighed in relief feeling the presence of Dan beside her.

“He's going to remember, you know.” He said, handing her a cup of jasmine tea. She took it gratefully and Dan continued. “Clockwork said that the seals would break eventually-”

“He also said that he needed a trigger.” She snapped at him. After a moment of realization she apologized. He continued.

“CW doesn't do anything uncalculated Jazz I just want you to know that.”

“What do you mean by that?” She asked, her voice quivering a bit.

“He had a whole life before he met you, Jazz. One he doesn't remember. That should say something sis.”

He walked away before she could say anything else.

@emergentpanda-blog

@epilepticnerd

@justwannabecat

@wind02summer

[madelynhimegami]

Ringo Ando Guide

As a reminder, you're free to request which characters I do these of! I've started the next one, but after that I don't think I have more on the docket. So please feel free to suggest! And/or ask relevant questions.

Anyway,

Ringo Ando has an insatiable curiosity. Her quest for knowledge is never-ending and she always wants to learn more.

Academically, her greatest strengths and interests are in math and physics, but this does not necessarily limit her to those subjects.

By default, Ringo tries to maintain a chill demeanor.

She speaks pretty normally, but has a tendency to utilize precise diction, even when it's not needed.

And sometimes she'll just say something completely off-the-wall and keep going like it's no big deal.

Ringo has a relatively high surprise threshold, but when she does get surprised she goes 0 to 60 pretty much immediately.

When this happens, her filter gets knocked loose and she speaks without processing her words before they're already out.

The one surefire exception to that low-surprise threshold is ghosts. Just mentioning them upsets her. She's also not crazy about environments that look like they might end up involving ghosts.

Being in the presence of a ghost usially results in either a meltdown or a BSOD.

While Ringo says she dislikes them for being unscientific, that's a cover (because of course it is, the girl uses magic).

The truth is her grandmother terrified her with ghost stories at a young age. One story in particular was about the ghost of a young girl that cheerfully spoke in puns before murdering her victims.

Speaking of her grandmother, the apple she carries around in manzai is from her.

When something manages to catch Ringo's interest, she tends to laser focus on it so she can hypothesize and/or experiment with it.

A sufficiently interesting thing will make Ringo excited.

When excited, she'll start singing an improvised song based on her situation. These songs often include spelling out a keyword (with English letters).

She's also prone to laughter when excited. This laughter can range from "eager giggling" to "mad cackling."

The more excited she gets, the more likely she ends up getting carried away by whatever she's doing.

Like forgetting her surroundings, or taking others for granted.

Things that tend to excite her are * Mysteries, puzzles, problems, and the solving thereof * Experimenting * Experiencing scifi and fantasy tropes firsthand * Sonic the Hedgehog and Space Channel 5 (probably other Sega franchises too) * Magical girl tropes * Adventures * Discovering and experiencing things that broaden her horizons

If it's not clear by now, Ringo Ando is a huge nerd.

Her boundless enthusiasm for learning means she tends to have a stronger memory than others, where spacetime shenanigans are concerned.

Her memory isn't perfect, though. Case in point, Ringo is absolutely terrible at remembering names. So she usually refer to people by descriptive nicknames for the most part. The exceptions are her closest friends. And Satan.

In fact, she always addresses him as "Lord Satan," whereas most of the cast just sticks with "Satan." My guess is because she gets a thrill out of being able to unironically call somebody "Lord Satan."

Your regular reminder that Ringo does not dislike Ecolo and considers him a close friend, and she did so before Ecolo ever did. In her own words, Ringo says that Ecolo isn't a bad kid.

Being the daughter of greengrocers, Ringo is very health-conscious when it comes to food.

She also knows how to cook fairly well… but her experimental tendencies combined with health focus means that she'll end up making something weird (but technically healthy!) anyway.

Ringo will, apropos of nothing, narrate out loud, like she's addressing an audience that isn't there. This includes expository introductions of characters as a greeting ("If it isn't my childhood friend and lifelong neighbor, Maguro Sasaki!")

Sometimes she does just refer to people by their full name. Might be because of the narration, could just be something she does.

Ringo's vision, at 20/4, is literally superhuman and on par with birds of prey.

Experiments she's performed in her physics club include sending chocolate through spacetime (successful), making a philosopher's stone with fruits and vegetables as ingredients (unknown success/failure), and figuring out what Ecolo is made of ("heck if I know").

But other than all of that, Ringo is a perfectly ordinary teenager.

[stillness-in-green]

Finding Fascism in My Hero Academia (3/4)

Part 3 is now publicly viewable to non-members, with Part 4 (the final and longest part) now available for paid members. Part 3 excerpts below the cut! This week they represent a particularly small part of the whole, which is close to 8000 words.

Points in this section: intellectually dishonest rhetoric about one's enemies and the effect this has on one's wartime efficacy, Peace Is Never An Option, contempt for the weak (read as: everyone beneath you in the hierarchy), and the cult of the death-seeking hero.

Point 8: Enemies are simultaneously strong and weak.

Primarily manifests as hyping up the ostentatious wealth, force and/or influence of the enemy while also convincing followers that the enemy is weak enough to be defeated.  Eco—who is a bit vague here, frankly, not providing any specific ways in which Ur-Fascism characterizes its enemies’ weakness—notes that the followers being made to feel humiliated is an important factor; I take this to imply a narrative that convinces followers that they are being perceived as less-than, that their enemies are looking down on them for their comparative (and/or alleged) simplicity, sobriety, or lesser reach.  The dichotomy, in any case, is a mindset that leads to difficulty in wars because of an inability to objectively assess the enemy’s strengths and weaknesses.

Meta-Narrative: (...) It’s hard to say what the meta-narrative being “bad at war” would look like.  The story falling flat?  Misidentifying its own core themes and thus failing to resolve them?  Losing popularity compared to its peers in Shonen Jump?  Being savaged by reviewers?  Wide swathes of its own fandom disagreeing with its messages?  If the story’s own Villains are the “enemy” the series is engaging in misleading rhetoric about, what does it mean for the story to be bad at fighting them?  What would it mean for the story to lose to them?

We might say that every reader who disliked the story—or quit reading it before the end—because they sided with the Villains over the Heroes is someone who judged that the Heroes lost, or at least that they didn’t deserve to win.  That seems a fair way to define the story losing to its own antagonists.  Did that happen?  Well, obviously the fact of me writing all this means I think it did, but MHA certainly had and retains an enormous fanbase who seem to have liked the ending just fine—I’m not unique, but neither am I in the majority.

We might also define the story losing to its own antagonists as the story failing to overcome the challenges those antagonists posed.  I’d argue—and much more vociferously—that that happened, too.  The story raised a bunch of systemic issues up to just past the halfway point, then abruptly refocused its attention on All For One and tried very hard to convince the readership that killing AFO plus implementing vaguely expressed intervention measures targeted mainly at children is a sufficient response to its driving conflicts—it very much is not.

—(…)—

Point 9: Pacifism is trafficking with the enemy./Life is permanent warfare.

Being built on fear of the enemy, fascism must always have an enemy.  This means, however, that there’s no vision for peace after ultimate victory.

Team Hero:  (...) While it’s clear that we’re meant to read the ending as progressing towards peace, and that this is something Heroes in general desire—most explicitly summed up in Tokoyami talking about Heroes working to make their own jobs obsolete, quite as if he's forgotten that Heroes also do disaster rescue work!—the ending is either too cowardly or too driven by the needs of pleasing its fanbase to truly show us a world that needs fewer Heroes, or a different sort of Hero.

If Deku truly believed that being a teacher is more meaningful to him than being a Hero, why not step down to focus on that rather than refining a power suit that can really only accelerate the production of quirk-emulating military hardware?  If Ochaco truly wants to make a difference via her counselling program, why not retire from Heroics and make the program her full-time job?  If Shouto really wants to explore who he is, rather than pursue the person he wants to become, why not take a sabbatical, trusting that the world will keep spinning and people will get the help they need even if he takes some time for himself?

Did the final volume need yet another two-page spread of Class 1-A leaping collectively into action?  Did it occur to Horikoshi at all that having twenty-one Heroes fly across town to jump one (1) desperate, panicked carjacker of normal human dimensions actually makes society look more saturated with Heroes than ever?  Particularly since that scene goes on to depict the triumphant Heroes standing around chit-chatting with each other, blithely unconcerned with the emotionally distraught criminal being hauled off by police, exactly the same as we always saw Heroes doing in the bad old days before the world-changing altruists of Class 1-A decided to try reaching out to Villains?

—(…)—

Point 10: Contempt for the weak./Popular elitism.

The group identity is built on pride in the group and the group’s strength/superiority, breeding contempt for those outside the group.  However, this goes all the way up, such that leaders of the group at all levels are contemptuous of not just the out-group but also the people beneath them in their own group’s hierarchy.  Particularly if the Leader gained their position by force, they’re predisposed to believing the people they thus conquered (their own) both need and “deserve” to be ruled by a strong Leader.

MLA: Half a point.  The MLA very obviously meet the bar for the first part based on their quirk supremacist ideology.  Even back in Deika, you had Re-Destro (who otherwise focuses exclusively on the high-minded ideals of Liberation rather than the ugly might-makes-right rhetoric found elsewhere in the group) scorning Twice for his sentimentality and Shigaraki for his lack of ideology.  They also show a good amount of in-group/out-group contempt—they’re dismissive of Villains, have a furious disdain towards Heroes, and, while this is more isolated to the second war, can also be pretty contemptuous of common civilians!  However, I don’t think you see the second point, popular elitism.

As much as some fans talk about e.g. Re-Destro and Trumpet lacking respect for their followers, I personally don’t see that in the story.  The MLA leadership is somewhat pragmatic about them, to be sure, but never contemptuous in the way they are towards people outside their group.  (...) Shigaraki accuses Re-Destro of hiding in his tower, removed from the hoi polloi, but we don’t have to take Shigaraki’s word on this.  Re-Destro was not out in the scrum for the same reason President Roosevelt wasn’t on the beach in Normandy on D-Day.  He still fought when he had to and still expressed his rage about his followers’ deaths when Shigaraki—who RD was planning on killing, and with no one else around to hear the answer!—asked about them directly.  In every other case besides Skeptic, the MLA leadership is right out there in the field alongside their people.  Compare this to someone who really is contemptuous of their followers, like Overhaul or All For One, and the difference is night and day.

—(…)—

Point 11: Everybody is educated to become a hero./Cult of death.

The Übermensch part of the deal.  The mythological hero is exceptional by definition; Ur-Fascism would have such a figure be the norm for everyone.  This is linked strictly to the glorification of death: everyone seeks to be the ideal hero, and for the ideal hero, the ideal endpoint to a heroic life is a heroic death, the ultimate reward.  See the pursuit of Valhalla in Mad Max: Fury Road for a prominent recent depiction.

Team Hero: Yes to the first part and some concerning undercurrents regarding the second.  Like, there are obviously lots and lots of people in Hero Society at large who don’t grow up to be Heroes, who aren’t seeking a valorous death, all that, but this category’s consideration is about specifically Heroes, and, obviously, yes, Heroes are educated to become heroes.  It’s literally called My Hero Academia.  The HPSC, of course, gets less of this, but they still encourage and cultivate it at every turn—even their own secret child soldiers still have to be Heroes by daylight!

As to the cult of death, you could make an argument—and by no means a weak one!—that Heroes qualify based solely on three points: All Might’s Pillar ideology, U.A.’s Plus Ultra mantra, and Mandalay’s comment that there’s “no better way for Heroes to meet their end” than the “honorable death” of dying in the line of duty.  But I don’t think that all of these quite add up to the remaining half-point.  All Might is the top Hero, but he’s only one Hero all the same; U.A. is the top Hero school, but still only one Hero school.  Mandalay delivers those lines in a solemn enough way that it would be child’s play to read them as a platitude she told herself until she believed it, far more than something that’s actually a matter of chapter-and-verse Hero dogma.

Indeed, lots and lots of Heroes quit as soon as things really start getting difficult!  So while there are elements there, I think people who really believe that Heroes ought to embody this are mostly the hardcore zealots like Stain; it’s less evident in the body of Professional Heroics at large. Tellingly, nowhere in any of the main characters’ classes do we see death being linked to the Heroism they’re learning!

—

Read the rest here!

[transmutationisms]

i have a handful of anonymous asks in my inbox right now asking about harm reduction as applied to eating disorders that their loved ones are experiencing. i'm not answering these individually, both because it would get repetitive and because i don't know your loved ones and can't give them personal advice, but i did want to say a few general things on this topic.

the basic principles of harm reduction are the same in regards to EDs as anything else. the point here is not to force a person to stop doing something dangerous (this is impossible) or even to pressure them to stop (this also doesn't work, and will often have the effect of making you into a person they don't feel safe around and can't turn to for help, thus actually decreasing their access to support and resources). instead, the goal of harm reduction generally is to give people the knowledge and resources they need to engage in risky behaviours as safely as possible. the reasons people do things that are physically or socially harmful to them vary, obviously, but in general these behaviours are serving some purpose in the person's life, like providing emotional 'blunting' they need to deal with otherwise intolerable circumstances, or meeting a physical need for specific substances. harm reduction meets people where they are, beginning with the premise that they deserve basic respect, dignity, and self-determination, whether or not they continue to engage in behaviours that may be endangering them.

some baseline harm reduction strategies for EDs could include:

take necessary safety precautions if (over)exercise is a feature of the disorder, or if you are at risk for fainting; ideally, have someone around (or reachable by phone) who can help in case of injury

do your best to compensate for any micronutrient deficiencies resulting from food restriction; dietary supplementation may be necessary

know if any substances/pharmaceuticals you may use (recreationally or not) can affect you more strongly, faster, or more dangerously on an empty stomach; here, harm reduction for EDs will overlap with harm reduction for drug use

know the signs of electrolyte imbalance and resultant cardiac events, particularly in EDs involving purging by laxative use or self-induced vomiting; keep a stockpile of items like sports drinks/gels that can rapidly replenish electrolytes; know where to seek emergency medical treatment and how to recognise when it may be vitally necessary

monitor long-term health risks, like bone density loss, tooth enamel damage, hyperglycaemia (in cases of diabulimia), &c. note that both this step and the above require finding medical practitioners who will treat patients non-judgmentally and without threat of institutionalisation

....and so forth.

harm reduction plans are highly individualised: they depend on the person's own goals and desires. a harm reduction plan might include strategies for engaging in ED behaviours less frequently or intensely, and may even include a long-term goal of recovery. however, harm reduction has not 'failed' if the person doesn't want to, or can't, reduce frequency or severity of behaviours right now or ever. ED harm reduction that does include goals for reducing behaviours, without necessarily trying to eliminate them entirely, might include strategies like:

purge less frequently; avoid or reduce flushing and chew/spit

reduce food restriction by raising calorie limits, not counting calories at all, eating certain 'fear foods', &c

identify triggers for restriction, binging/purging, &c; try to avoid those triggers (& possibly enlist assistance doing this)

ask someone trusted to eat with you if this would help you, for example, become more comfortable with eating non-restrictively, and turn eating into a social connection rather than a stressful event

consume a sufficient amount of food regularly and consistently <- this is the bedrock of all recovery work

again, though, the particular strategies in a person's harm reduction plan will depend on what they want to implement and are capable of doing right now. a person who's not ready for any step that asks them to engage in fewer behaviours, or to engage in behaviours less frequently, can still benefit from a harm reduction approach if they're interested. this is a conversation that should always be approached non-judgmentally and with the understanding that any harm reduction plan depends on the person's own capacities and goals. harm reduction is not about telling someone else what would be 'best' for them in an 'ideal' world. it's about meeting them where they are right now.

something important to note about EDs is that efforts to restrict food and food groups and to shrink body size are considered extremely common and 'normal' in much of the contemporary popular culture, and are frequently encouraged and prescribed by medical practitioners. this means that even when you are worried about someone with a self-endangering ED, there is often a considerable risk that, in trying to help them, you might still be promoting or acceding to the same fatphobic logic that can fuel the ED. if you, for instance, think that pursuing intentional weight loss is generally benign or healthy; if you have ideas about what size a person's body 'should' be based on things like actuarial charts; if you think that some foods are universally 'bad' and need to be restricted or eliminated; if you think that food should be 'earned' or compensated for by physical activity—stop, do not pass go, and do not try to dispense any kind of advice, harm reduction or otherwise, to someone struggling with an ED. you are not capable of being a resource here unless and until you are committed to a politics of fat liberation, disability rights, mad liberation, and anti-racism. you are not reducing harm if you are contributing to further entrenching the cultural beliefs and economic mechanisms of fatphobia and body fascism that the ED itself thrives on.

(**i am not saying that all EDs start or end with the desire to be thin as articulated through white supremacist body ideals, but it is a very common feature at this moment in history, and having these ideas reinforced, including through the lens of medical fatphobia, can certainly contribute to or worsen already-present behaviours and thought patterns where EDs are concerned.)

harm reduction also means giving a person the knowledge they need to evaluate their own goals and needs. in regards to EDs specifically, lots of public health communication is confounded by industry-funded diet and 'obesity' research that prescribes food restriction, compensatory exercise, and other recognisably 'eating disordered' behaviours, especially to fat people. many people with EDs, and their loved ones, may not even realise how many misconceptions they have learned about body size, nutrition, and the health risks of EDs. some basic places to start learning about these things from a weight-neutral / fat-liberationist angle that i would suggest include: christy harrison's podcast 'food psych' (her book is also decent but treads a lot of the same ground); gwyneth olwyn's work; lindo bacon and lucy aphramor's papers on 'health at every size'; jennifer gaudiani's book 'sick enough', which is a good starter resource on the medical effects of EDs. note that none of these resources are working within an explicitly harm reductionist framework, and imo make some missteps in this arena! but they still contain insights and information that can be useful to those who are interested in harm reduction, and to those with EDs generally.

harm reduction can be a tool to recovery, or a step on that road; it can also be an alternative for people who are not ready to seek recovery, and who may never be ready. the reality is that you cannot force someone to stop engaging in behaviours they rely on to live, whether drug use, EDs, or anything else. harm reduction proceeds from this place and from a fundamental commitment to respect for people who are generally already suffering. when approaching a loved one, you may or may not be able to initiate a conversation in which you express, eg, that you are worried about them hurting themselves, and would like to offer whatever emotional or material resources you can to help. but you have to go into any such interaction understanding that they may very well already know all of the risks of what they're doing, and may have other reasons they can't or don't want to stop. if you're trying to impose your will on them---by force, pressure, or coercion---you're not doing harm reduction, and you're most likely alienating them and turning yourself into a person they don't feel safe around where these behaviours are concerned.

[beardedmrbean]

Residents of Chicago are blasting Mayor Brandon Johnson over the city spending more than half a billion dollars on sheltering migrants, with one telling the Democrat to his face during a City Council meeting that he’s the "worst mayor in America." 

The criticism surrounding Johnson and Chicago’s New Arrivals Mission – which so far has cost the city $574.5 million since its inception in August 2022 – comes as the mayor is trying to overcome a $1 billion budget shortfall by the end of the year. The City Council held a meeting Monday during which residents voiced their opposition to an approximately $60 million property tax increase floated as one way to help close the gap. 

"I got a great way what we can do with this budget. First, let's start with cutting off illegals getting free everything, free housing, free schooling, free food. Yeah, let's start with that. That'll save us a lot of money," one woman told Johnson. 

"Let's start there. Then, let's start with you. Your salary. You are going down in history as the worst mayor in America. Let's start with cutting yours. You making too much money," she continued. 

CHICAGO TEACHERS UNION SLAMS NEWSPAPER THAT CALLED THEM OUT FOR THEIR MEMBERS’ CHRONIC ABSENCE

Another resident told Johnson that she is an immigrant who came to the U.S. legally and that she is "very, very embarrassed for what my other fellow Latin American citizens are doing in this city on behalf of the people that work, on behalf of the people that pay taxes, on behalf of the people that contribute to the city. 

"I like to make clear that not everyone is the same. These people came with a wide door open, and they feel entitled to many things that nobody has. There are U.S. citizens suffering from poverty," she said. "There are U.S. citizens on public aid, and these people are here just enjoying the benefits, becoming delinquents, and they have no consequences." 

At one point in the meeting, a resident asked Johnson for his "undivided attention." 

"So this just proves to you the lack of leadership that you show in this city. You can't even give me straight eye contact," he said. "Now I'm going to let you know now, the people of Chicago, we're done with you. 

Johnson’s office said in April that the goal of the New Arrivals Mission is to "provide short-term, emergency shelter to manage this humanitarian crisis, while making long-term investments in the City’s capacity to handle future challenges related to displacement and emerging migration patterns.

"Since August 2022, Texas Governor Greg Abbott has bussed hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers across the United States. The City of Chicago has received the third-most asylum seekers of all major cities in the country, behind New York City and Denver, with nearly 39,000 new arrivals arriving in the City," it added at the time. 

"The City of Chicago, in partnership with the State of Illinois and Cook County, has worked to support new arrivals on the path to self-sufficiency by providing basic necessities including food, temporary emergency shelter, urgent medical care, education, vaccines, and case management and resettlement supports," the city also said. 

As of the end of this year, the New Arrivals Mission shelter system will be phased out. 

"This transition is in line with the sharp decline in migration to Chicago and our current budget realities," Johnson said in October. "We are shifting to a more cost-effective, equitable, and strategic approach that addresses homelessness for all who need support in the City of Chicago." 

Johnson’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday by Fox News Digital. 

[tumblingxelian]

So, I wanna tackle this "resentment" angle, in a general "Does Yang actually express trauma via resentment as outlined in a recent debate regarding her feelings about Tai's parenting. IE, the claim is that when Yang is traumatized she is prone to resentment, leading to sniping, anger and shouting.

Long story short, Yang does sometimes response to trauma & hurt with some degree of anger. However it is far from universal or her default, instead it is extremely situational. In all instance I've seen of Yang responding to trauma in such a manner there were two elements in common:

1: The pain was recent - Blake abandoned her recently, she lost her arm recently, Ozpin lied recently, ETC.

After she had sufficient time to process the pain and trauma however, Yang's responses tend to be more a quiet resigned state. Such as when the prosthetic came, or when she discussed Raven leaving her, or when discussing having to hold the family together alone.

2: The anger is a defense mechanism - Yang can be angry its one of my favorite things about her, but her anger is situational & in control.

She gets frustrated and overwhelmed in the Emerald Forest, lets her anger out to blow off steam & calms down. She gets angry when Blake is endangering herself but only uses enough strength to make her point then hugs her. She's angry when Weiss is hurt but she still fights strategically by destroying the ground so Neon can't skate & turning Flynt's weapon on him.

These are trends that continue through the course of the series.

When Yang is used to a sort of pain or grappling with trauma she is generally just quietly sad about and rarely all that expressive unless forced to be or overwhelmed.

She kept a smile on her face in V8 even as she was grappling with the idea Summer had been mutilated into a Grimm monster until Ruby's ow defensive anger forced her to break the mask.

The times she uses anger are because the hurt is very recent or someone is actively stamping on her trauma; like Raven did in the tent. It is a defense mechanism against pain she hasn't fully processed.

Conclusion:

So, in that regard & with that in mind, I don't think Yang not expressing overt resentment of Tai indicates much of anything about their relationship.

Its well established Yang tries to cover for her anxieties by adopting a cheerful façade and to keep others happy. & that in most cases, when she is dealing with trauma, especially longstanding trauma, she's usually resigned and sad about it rather than bubbling with resentment and snark.

So no, I don't believe Yang having to keep the family together and her ensuing parentification was a brief period, long since dealt with. (Ruby outright says Yang raised her) If anything it seems that she has just accepted the situation for what it is because what else can she do?

[demonicnarwhale]

So for my first project in my Proprint class, we had to make 5 separate prints (draw or photograph something then print it on a 17x22 paper, same thing as last semester) so here's my stuff!!! Oh! And the prompt was basically anything but monochromatic or black and white, but we can either use one or two colors

They're all based on my Small Town AU because I thought it'd help get my ideas for this AU thingy situated a bit, and cuz it's fun

The first one to start us all off is Doc Scratch! The one and only, the catalyst (if you will) of this small town turning to shit. It's basically him bringing a sort of day of reckoning thing going on. But not like reckoning in the idea that they're getting judged by god or whatever. In this case, Scratch himself just plays around in this universe (this is the "bad" ending). Basically, the townsfolk begin to turn and hurt each other (reasoning will be explained in the 2nd project tehee and the wording here is like this just so I don't spoil too much) (also the top is just the different edits I came across and thought looked pretty)

Motifs / Symbolisms:

- The time on the clock reads 3:19. So specifically Genesis 3:19 is pretty much just when Adam and Eve are cast out of the Garden of Eden. The idea here is that Scratch will turn this thriving and self sufficient, almost found-family-like town into a big ol' graveyard. That paradise they all have come to enjoy and build a community together? Buh-bye!!! Cast out! Into the miseries!!!

- The picture of the oil painting is of The Agnew Clinic 1889 painted by Thomas Eakins. The painting was commissioned in honor of David Hayes Agnew, a pretty well known and respected surgeon of his time, a leader in a way. And I just felt like Scratch would have some of these "lesser" known art pieces of important figures of the past around his house. (Die would approve of this painting I believe)

- The apples are purposefully way too round, almost Christmas tree ornament looking. It's to allude to this feeling or idea of something being too perfect, but very off putting. Basically Doc Scratch himself. He's a man that's a part of the town but also not there. He's a total enigma for everyone and most people will chose to just accept that and just be cordial with him, that placid and simple smile just has something deeper going on teehee

- The card he holds is a nod to tarot ones (obvious I know but I ain't no tarot or star signs believer so I had to search up which card would make sense here). So seven of swords just means betrayal so haha on the nose

- There was gonna be a violin added but I just wanted to get this drawing done so I said "screw that". The reason why I was gonna go with the violin is cuz that idea of "haha Scratch is another name for the devil" and I remembered a song The Devil Went Down to Georgia which I fuckin dig. Also the idea of the devil having a violin playing contest with a kid is so fucking funny cuz he got his ass kicked. (oh yeah and just the idea of the devil being associated with the violin)

So yeah! I just had a lot of fun just coming up with this drawing and doing a little breaking the frame/boarder with the small apple branches reaching into the top box.

What can I say? I love marine associated themes so of course I gotta draw Trace and Fin. Oh and the sketches (or draft) I did just made me feel so proud and happy. Cuz even though it's a bunch of mumbo jumbo, it all just managed to flow out really well with this one. It's a shame that the digitalized final piece isn't as impressive to me as my sketches. The two compasses are also pointed at 3:00 and 5:00 cuz, ya know. That's their numbers. The fish from bottom to top are sockeye salmon, moray eel, tunas, and I didn't look at one fish for the ref with the top one but let's go with red snapper.

i sadly had to rush this one as it was getting close to critique day (aka the 26th) and some of my other classmates needed to print too so I didn't want to get in their way and such later on. (originally we had to make 5 prints but he saw not a lot of people would be able to so he cut it down to just 3. And so I already had 3 prints done so why not just let everyone else who really needed to print, print)

So this print was going to have PM, AR, and WV doing their own things (as seen in the first draft) but I changed things up so it'd be simpler and allow me to work on the last 2 prints. But hey! At least WV's there!! And then I was messing with shadows and the last one just looked really funny. OH! Oh and the 2422 was when PM made her appearance in the webcomics (at least, that's what I think or recall) and since that's her plane, it was a little nod. And this is her logo thing (still being worked on but you get the gist of it)

I do however feel hella bummed that I wasn't able to keep the mechanic tidbits (for AR) in this drawing since I hate drawing cars, the tools I tried drawing didn't fit the look of the finalized drawing. I'm sorry AR </3. Oh and I completely forgot about WV's lil torn up red flag, but it wouldn't really match i feel anyways in the end results. WV being a farmer, PM a mail woman hence the stamps, and AR being a (car) mechanic!!!

Ok so that's all for now, I'll upload the 4th and 5th print and photos of them all printed in another post since this is fuckin lengthy

PT2 HERE

[anghraine]

Tumblr posting isn't the hallmark of activism and no one is obligated to talk about Palestine on here. That being said, it sure is interesting that you never mentioned Israel's ongoing genocide until you decided to make a post about how antisemitic people who do talk about it can be (and provided no example, so it's vague enough it serves no purpose whatsoever, can't be argued with of learnt from).

I did wonder if that would be someone's takeaway (and even that it would likely be on anon), so this response was already largely prepared.

In any case, my fandom account is not the totality of my existence, even online, and particularly not at the moment (I used to talk about politics more here, but don't tend to use this account for that kind of thing these days; I've also barely acknowledged the Trump/Harris election that will directly and drastically impact my own life and which I'm following closely). I mentioned the grotesque antisemitism directed at Jewish people regardless of whether they're Israeli or not, mainly coming from people who have no more stake in what happens in I/P than I do, because it's become so common over the last year in fandom spaces and conversations, and is therefore relevant to this account. There are no genocides happening specifically on Tumblr, but there are people here using Israel to present their pre-existing antisemitic ideas as leftist praxis and to air them more openly.

In addition to that, I don't generally feel the need to Be Seen Having a Take on matters I'm not especially familiar with—particularly as a US American, since we tend to be too quick to share our super important center of the world opinions on other countries' geopolitics regardless of how much we know or understand about them—until I've had time to think, research, and phrase what I want to say. Once I was more familiar, I wanted to be clear that I consider Israel's actions horrific and that, simultaneously, I find the increasingly regular fandom antisemitism I've seen intolerable and unjustified (and I did feel these needed to be in the same post to avoid being misunderstood even in good faith). I kicked my post out of drafts because at that point I'd seen enough to feel equipped to do so and felt it was sufficiently clear about where I stand, and because (as I said in my tags) of a specific and particularly abhorrent display of antisemitism I saw on Tumblr yesterday.

I also did not feel the need to duplicate and broadcast specific instances of antisemitism (much less that one) in order to dunk on it or whatever. Broadly though not universally, I prefer talking about overall patterns that bother me more than litigating isolated instances, even when it's ... like, annoying trends in Pride and Prejudice fanfic or something, but all the more when it's a systemic social problem. And given that I have a number of active Jewish mutuals who would see my post, I didn't want to inflict it on them all over again. If you think I would find something grotesquely antisemitic that's actually totally fine, then you're free to find someone else to follow.