#i've had a lot of feelings about support and healthy communication and this is the result

[drdemonprince]

it's very weird for me because I hear all these stories from my peers about how they were preyed on, about how they were spending all this time stopping older women from killing themselves or being groomed. I recognize that there were people who tried to do this to me, but I generally rebuffed them. it was offline where my mother was abusing me emotionally and (I've come to realize) sexually, gaslighting me into literally thinking she could read my mind, and it was online where I was treated like a real live person with agency who could experience pain

so when I hear my peers saying "oh it's horrible for kids to be on the internet unsupervised, it's all full of groomers," I'm like... the people grooming me were the people outside the computer. the yaoi sex RP at like age 12 was actually a welcome escape because I was treated like a human

Yeah, I'm with you. I had a lot of adult online friends when I was a child and teen and it actually all worked out great for me.

When I was in 4th grade I was active in AOL's video game community, participating in caption contests weekly, and the host of the contest liked my humor so much that he gave me a dedicated spot on the site. He and several of the other games writers were completely supportive and appropriate with me -- they treated me like a funny kid and made me feel like I had something valuable to say, and never crossed boundaries.

After that I was super active on the Invader Zim Obsessives Anonymous forum, which was mostly populated with preteens but was run by a 25 year old woman. She was a big sister figure to many of us, answering our questions about what getting drunk felt like and what it was like to drive a car when we had questions or needed details for the roleplays we were writing. I wrote little raps based on each week's Invader Zim episode and she made a special thread for me to do it and cheered on all our creativity.

I was also really active on virtual spaces like There.com, Gaia Online and Second Life. I went to virtual dance parties with adults as well as teens, traded items, attended game nights and other events, and chatted with them on voice or via text. Sometimes I'd hear an adult talk about their real life problems that I couldn't fully understand but it didn't feel any different from like interacting with a real-world neighbor or friend's parent.

Throughout high school I was on other forums filled with both adults and kids -- the asexuality forums, several Zelda forums, etc. A writer in his 50s even asked me to start contributing to his politics & culture blog when I was 16, after enjoying some of the writing I had about atheism and politics on my Myspace. He & his fellow writers on the blog mentored me as a writer and helped me feel confident in what I had to say and that I had the right to say it.

If I hadn't had all these supportive adults in my life, virtually, I would have been a lot more ignorant about the world, more socially isolated, and I wouldn't have the ironclad confidence that I have in my writerly voice. I am the product of dozens of adults encouraging me, seeing the promise in me, promoting my creative work as something worth paying attention to, and taking my interest in the world seriously.

The only near miss that I had was when I was on Myspace, where an adult man almost groomed a 16-year-old me for a "modeling photoshoot" in his basement. I had a bad feeling and bailed. By then I'd had enough healthy experiences that I knew when something felt off.

I mourn for the old days of the internet, pre social media, and I do not think it harmed me at all to have free and unmonitored internet access. It was never the internet that was the problem anyway -- it was the social conditions that kids are typically trapped inside of.

[amethystfairy1]

Regarding the Iskall Situation...

I've received a lot of asks wondering about what my take is on it, and since I'd prefer to have it all taken care of in one swoop so we don't have to continue to focus on it, here's my stance on the subject.

A: Yes, I have seen the credible evidence from Kasszki, I read the doc they posted, and I feel awful for them and the other victims that they had to deal with this. I'm glad to hear that the Hermits and others were supportive of them and helped them handle this situation in as professional a manner as possible. I have also seen the credible information from False that Stress left for her own separate reasons.

B: I strongly denounce Iskall's behavior, and I have absolutely zero intention of supporting him as a creator ever again.

C: Please don't pester the creators or the victims. I said it in my initial response to this situation before we knew what had happened, but my opinion remains the same here. Any information we get from the Hermits is a privilege, not a right. Hermitcraft and it's associated fandoms are well known for being healthy, good spaces, and I'm proud to be a member of this community. Now our money is where our mouths are. Please don't feed into the rumor mill, please continue to support the Hermits as you always would and don't pry or demand more details from them. This is a very difficult situation for all of us, and I'm certain it's even worse for all of them. Please keep in mind the Hermits are all grown adults, many of them had professional careers before they joined Hermitcraft, and they are handling this in as professional a manner as they are able. I applaud them for that. As their fans, we need to do the same.

What are my plans for Iskall and Stress in TTSBC?

Understandably, I've received several asks about what I plan to do about Iskall and Stress's characters in TTSBC. I've answered them individually, but I just want to put this here as a one-stop spot for what my stance is so it's clear.

I've always been a 'character not content creator' author. My characters are just that, characters. Does that mean I can completely remove them from the creators upon which they are based? No, of course not. That's not how this works, either. So here's my plan moving forward.

The two stories that heavily feature Iskall in TTSBC, "Run with It' and "Carry me Home Tonight" will remain up. They are timestamped with their dates of posting which was long before any of this came out, and again, they are very clearly meant to be characters, not the creators.

Iskall will be removed from the TTSBC: Wiki, and I will not be writing any new content for his character.

Does that affect the plot of TTSBC? Yes, it does. I'm not going to pretend it doesn't, and those of you who have followed the series at length can likely see where the issues arise...but I'm an author, and I can pivot. I also have an awesome little team behind me of @silver-sunray, @boo-the-ahh, and @khoirkid who are helping me to make sure TTSBC carries on smoothly despite this unforeseen struggle.

Stress will not be removed from the TTSBC: Wiki. As I mentioned in an ask earlier, her role in the story is very minor, and I hadn't planned for her to have any other pieces to herself outside of Hermit-a-Day May anyway...so aside from specific instances where it might be necessary to mention her, she will not be making any more major appearances. This is mainly because I'm a Hermit/Traffic/Empires writer, and I plan to stick to that notion unless future events cause me to pivot otherwise.

Lastly, I would appreciate if we could avoid anymore asks about the situation. If there are any further updates I'm sure I'll find that out on my own, I'm very active in this fandom and I see things pretty quickly when they spread, so if any new things related to this situation spring up, while I greatly appreciate your concern for me and my work, please don't send it to my inbox or in DM.

I'm very saddened by this, as I'm sure many of you are. Hermitcraft and it's associated fandoms have been my safe space for many years, through some of the hardest moments of my life, and with the mess that MCYT has proven itself to be at times, it felt like we were untouchable here. But like Doc said, the Hermits are good, and they are strong. And as their fans and supporters, we need to be the same.

Be good, be strong, and let's make sure our lovely community continues to be the positive space it always has been.

-Amethyst

[jammatown919]

The Netflix Family YouTube account just released a "Ben and Gia's best moments" video and it made me realize something.

The comparison of Bengia to Yasammy didn't start in season three. The very first mention of Ben's girlfriend, way back in season one, was part of Ben's response to Sammy's concerns about Yaz not answering her phone. Sammy is worried and fretting, while Ben claims that he would not be in his relationship in the same situation. The next time we hear about Ben's girlfriend, Ben is alluding to his own relationship struggles to comfort Yaz about the argument she just had with Sammy.

While the comparisons of them in season three, Bengia being happy while Yasammy is struggling, didn't feel great to me, I do think I understand the reason now to be comparing these couples in any capacity. For the most part, I think it's to make Ben a better-equipped support for Yaz and Sammy.

He knows what it's like to be in a long-distance relationship where communication with his partner is probably not as frequent as either of them would like. He understands that aspect of their struggles better than anyone else. I do think Brooklynn is going to be a useful perspective as well, but Brooklynn's relationship with Kenji was ruined by the mistakes that were made. We also need the perspective of someone who has figured out how to maintain a healthy relationship. Both of them are going to be important for Yaz and Sammy to take notes from.

Especially in season one, Ben brings up his relationship in support of Yasammy. He tells Yaz he gets it, he knows how hard relationships can be, but "it'll work out, you and Sammy have a good thing going". While it's less explicit while he's talking to Sammy, there is still some semblance of "I've been in your shoes". He doesn't necessarily say it, but there's an air of telling her she doesn't need to fret so much about Yaz, and considering that her fretting and coddling was one of the primary things that drove Yaz to leave Texas, that is an important thing for her to hear.

In season three, we get to see a lot of Ben and Gia being happy and not a lot of Yaz and Sammy being happy. But I think there will be a payoff to that. We now know 100% that Ben is in a real, healthy relationship and have a better understanding of his position and how it can be used to advise others. He's always been the OG Yasammy supporter, after all.

We probably won't see Gia again next season, but her influence could be really good for the Yasammy reconciliation because of how it allows Ben to offer his perspective.

[whitemoonselena9b4t]

The blackpilled feminist knows that trying to advocate for the liberation of all women is pointless. Most women continue to choose to be with men, and this is unlikely to ever change. As a result, it’s impossible for them to be trusted to center girls and women, when they can’t even manage to center themselves in their own lives. They’re obsessed with the hormonal high of sex with men, and unwilling to understand that there are other, healthy ways to get high on life without participating in a harmful lifestyle. They’re unable to focus on actual freedom and empowerment for females, because they’ve each chosen to be a slave with a master. Being with men psychologically damages them. It rots their brains so that their men (and sons if they have any) always take precedence before the suffering of women and girls.

Radical feminism is no longer what it was, and I find it unlikely that it will ever get back to it's roots. I can no longer stand to be identified with this cosplay clusterfuck which has become a form of choice feminism. They’re bored, and likely desensitized due to multiple experiences with men, so they decide to pretend they’re part of a marginalized group, so that they can feel special, in fake victim-hood.

They can call themselves radical feminists and I won't complain anymore, because I've accepted that it's no longer a serious movement. Those traitors are disgusting and I hate them for everything they’re taking from girls and women.

I welcome conversations with all females, including tifs, and have left anon on.

I made a Female Separtists community on here, so feel free to join or share as relevant.

I plan to not talk as much about the radfem vs. blackpilled thing going forward, but if you need to vent about it, feel free to continue, and I will publish your ask.

I'd also like to talk about other things, so feel free to send asks about spiritual topics, or your favourite films, books, or whatever random topics which are not limited to having to be feminism-based.

~

Radfems & Blackpilled Feminists Who Support Evil Acts

A lot of you atheists are not going to like what I have to say.

With no grounding in decency through the recognition of the human spirit, you lot have a habit of claiming that you don’t care when males get raped. Some of you even behave as if those acts are good things.

If you had respect and basic compassion for life, you wouldn’t be behaving that way.

It’s not who the act is being perpetrated against, it’s the very principal of what the act itself means and the lifelong misery that it causes.

How dare women support this demonic act being done against anyone, particularly considering that we’re usually the victims of it?

I want to make it clear that my blackpilled feminism doesn’t come from the evil cesspit that some others are channeling.

It’s time for a lot of you to self reflect. Is this really the type of person you want to be? Recognizing how evil rape is when perpetrated against women, but then contradicting yourselves into thinking it’s ok when it’s done to males?

Some of you claim that it can make men learn not to do it to girls and women, but that’s ridiculous.

You don’t see how that’s just continuing a cycle of degradation?

You don’t teach people how to be good through abuse. Even young children know that.

I don’t support religion, but I also don’t support this dead-inside atheistic type of nonsense.

“Kick me out” of your blackpilled feminist club if you feel the need, but I will never say that rape committed against anyone is ok, much less something to be hoped for and celebrated like a lot of you sick women are.

If you have that type of mindset then unfollow me and get therapy.

[daisylovestickles]

Taking A Break (Trigger Warning Ahead)

Hi lovelies! I usually don't post serious stuff like this but I feel like my mental health has taken a major dip in the last week. All of my posts will take a pause for now and will be stored in drafts until further notice. I will still be online today (Saturday, December 7th) in case any of my mutuals want to exchange discords to keep in touch. After today is over, I am logging off until the new year.

Everything that happened with yourgigglebugmaya has really put me in a state of shock. We were close friends, and most of you know that we even met up in July for a session with a mutual friend. To say that I feel betrayed and disgusted is an understatement. Up until Tuesday, I had that sickening feeling in my stomach, and I wasn't sure why it was there. Until 1:00 am that night/early morning. A massive trauma had unlocked in my brain of when I was groomed at the age of 15. It had been in the very back of my brain for the last ten years and all of it seemed to unravel at once. I am talking to my therapist heavily about it, and still trying to process all my emotions around it.

I've been noticing a lot lately that people have been questioning my intentions with who I session with, and how my romantic partner feels about it. As much as I would like to say that it is none of your business as to how this dynamic is working, it's come to my attention that I've needed to clarify a few things. My romantic partner is not in the community, nor will he ever be. He is very supportive of my journey of wanting to explore this part of my life, both SFW and NSFW. He is very happy that I have found a community of people. You don't need to question whether he is okay with certain things I do. Before every session we have a discussion on what is going to happen, as well as reassurance that I will always come back to him when that session is over, because he is the only one I will ever love romantically. Have we had to discuss certain things as I'm learning more about myself? Of course! But they are healthy and respectful.

Please be respectful of my decision to log off over this next month. I never wanted it to come to this, but I need to focus on myself for a while. Love you all 💛

[equallyreal]

Transmission Received: The Call Is Coming From Inside The House And I'm Mad About It

Or, a response to National Novel Writing Month's stance on Artificial Intelligence.

But before we get into that, a quick story update: I actually haven't been working on much of anything lately due to some IRL issues going on (nothing too serious, don't worry, I am still alive and healthy). The Edge is going to be on a soft break until I get my energy levels back up to serious writing levels, but I will continue to make update posts to keep people in the loop about how well I'm recharging.

Unfortunately for the people behind National Novel Writing Month, while my energy levels might be low, my spite levels are always at an all-time high, and they are fully fueling me to take down their official position on AI. But first, a timeline.

I wake up to a message in a group discord I'm in with a screenshot of National Novel Writing Month making some...interesting comments about their position on AI.

While going to tumblr to see if anyone else is talking about this, I find this post my @the-pen-pot featuring the screenshot I saw. In the responses, I see @darkjediqueen saying that the article had been updated @besodemieterd giving some information that I'm going to keep secret for now because it creates a truly amazing punchline.

I get off tumblr and read the updated article.

I feel a deep rage in my soul that cannot be tamed by group chat participation, and I click the "write a post" button.

So, with that out of the way, let's break this down, shall we?

The original post, as seen in the screenshot of the above post, contained the following two paragraphs:

NaNoWriMo does not explicitly support any specific approach to writing, nor does it explicitly condemn any approach, including the use of AI. NaNoWriMo's mission is to "provide the structure, community, and encouragement to help people use their voices, achieve creative goals, and build new worlds—on and off the page." We fulfill our mission by supporting the humans doing the writing. Please see this related post that speaks to our overall position on nondiscrimination with respect to approaches to creativity, writer's resources, and personal choice.  We also want to be clear in our belief that the categorical condemnation of Artificial Intelligence has classist and abelist undertones, and that questions around the use of AI tie to questions around privilege.

This was all I saw when I first heard about this, and this on its own was enough to tap into my spite as an energy source. The second paragraph, in particular, was infuriating. "People who argue against AI are classist or abelist" is a terrible take I've seen floating around AI Bro Twitter, and to see it regurgitated by an organization that is supposed to be all about writing was, to put it simply, a lot.

But, as noted in the timeline, I did see that they had updated the article (about two hours ago as of me working on writing this), so I went to the updated post to see what was said. Somehow, it had gotten worse. I'll be addressing the updated post on a point by point basis, so if you want to read the whole thing without my commentary, here you go.

The first paragraph is the same was it was in the screenshot. The first major different is an added paragraph that begins like this:

Note: we have edited this post by adding this paragraph to reflect our acknowledgment that there are bad actors in the AI space who are doing harm to writers and who are acting unethically. We want to make clear that, though we find the categorical condemnation for AI to be problematic for the reasons stated below, we are troubled by situational abuse of AI, and that certain situational abuses clearly conflict with our values.

First off, I find it a big troubling that while they discuss bad actors in the AI space, they won't acknowledge that these same bad actors are often the ones pushing the whole "being anti-AI makes you morally bad, actually" accusations with the most fervor.

Second, why are you not more strongly discussing and pushing back against the "situational" abuse of AI? Why is the focus on how using AI can be good, actually, rather than acknowledging the fears and angers of your userbase around how generative AI is ruining an art form that you claim to want to help foster? I have a theory about this, but we're saving that for a bit further down.

The paragraph concludes:

We also want to make clear that AI is a large umbrella technology and that the size and complexity of that category (which includes both non-generative and generative AI, among other uses) contributes to our belief that it is simply too big to categorically endorse or not endorse. 

The funny thing is, in a vacuum, I don't have a problem with this statement. They're not wrong: AI is an umbrella term with a lot of complexity to it, and I can see how people would be hesitant to condemn the technology as a whole when there are uses of it that aren't awful. If their whole statement had been this, I would have less of a problem with it (still some of a problem, sure, but I wouldn't be writing a lengthy blog post about it) But they had to delve into how Being Against AI is Morally Bad, Actually, which is where the post continues from here.

The last big change between the screenshot and the updated article is in this paragraph:

We believe that to categorically condemn AI would be to ignore classist and ableist issues surrounding the use of the technology, and that questions around the use of AI tie to questions around privilege. 

This is much less strongly-worded than the original paragraph. If I had to guess, they got a lot of criticism regarding the original sentiment (namely, assuming that disabled and poor people can only make art if a machine does it for them is actually way more abelist and classist than saying generative AI is bad), and dialed it back through this rewording. They could've just worded it this way from the beginning instead of saying the dumbest possible thing they could've, but whatever.

I don't know if the rest of this was in the article from the beginning or if it was added later, as the original screenshot I saw only showed the first two paragraphs. Regardless of whether this is them trying to cover their asses by explaining logic they should've explained from the start or if this was always here, I still have major issues with these points, so we're going to address them next.

(As a quick full disclosure note: I had to transcribe the rest of the article instead of copy-pasting it because I lost the ability to do so at about this point in the blog writing process. I don't know what happened or why, I just wanted to let you know that almost all typos are my fault, but beyond that I recorded the text as-written at the time that I had the article up in another tab. I promise.)

Classism. Not all writers have the financial ability to hire humans to help at certain phases of their writing. For some writers, the decision to use AI is a practical, not an ideological, one. The financial ability to engage a human for feedback and review assumes a level of privilege that not all community members possess.

You may note that they are discussing the use of AI at what seems to be the editing process. As someone in my group chat pointed out, National Novel Writing Month has nothing to do with editing, and everything to do with writing. The only way you can currently use AI for the act of writing is if you use generative AI to do it for you, which is, I think we can all agree, not actually writing and is actually bad. This emphasis on editing ties into the punchline, which we'll be getting to shortly.

On a final note before we proceed though, I would like to carry over an argument about this matter that is used in the small business/handcrafts sector: If you can't afford it now, save up for it. Don't devalue the work of other people (in this case, editors and things like sensitivity readers or beta readers) by saying it's too expensive and I can get it cheaper on Shein by using AI. Save up and support your fellow workers if it really means something to you, or just do the editing yourself and hope for the best. (Disclosure: I don't have an editor. Or a beta reader. I can't say my writing is the most polished all the time, but I get by just fine.)

Abelism. Not all brains have the same abilities and not all writers function at the same level of education or proficiency in the language in which they are writing. Some brains and ability levels require outside help or accommodations to achieve certain goals. The notion that all writers "should" be able to perform certain functions independently or [sic] is a position that we disagree with wholeheartedly. There is a wealth of reasons why individuals can't "see" the issues in their writing without help.

First of all...just say "disabled." I promise your hands will not fall off if you type that word.

Second, level of education should really fall under the class bullet point, but that's just me nitpicking.

Third, I would argue that the real goal here shouldn't be to say "no using AI is fine, actually", but rather to a) dismantle the idea of what writing "should" look like in order to make it more inclusive, and b) fight back against people who bully imperfect writers. Those are actually more noble goals than propping up a corrupt industry by using the disabled as your scapegoat.

Fourth, the dangling "or" is not a typo I take credit for. It was in the article as of me transcribing it. If I had to guess, there was more to this sentence at some point, and they just didn't fully delete the thought.

Fifth, funny how this is once again more about the editing process of writing and not the writing part. Even more funny when we view the final point.

General Access Issues. All of these considerations exist within a larger system in which writers don't always have equal access to resources along the chain. For example, underrepresented minorities are less likely to be offered traditional publishing contracts, which places some, by default, into the indie author space, which inequitably creates upfront cost burdens that authors who do not suffer from systemic discrimination may have to incur.

This one really pissed me off, because the indie author sphere is actively under attack by the use of AI. AI-created scam books on Amazon's kindle publishing platform are increasing and actively stealing attention and money away from human authors (see this article). Sci-Fi magazine Clarkesworld had to shut down new author submissions due to the influx of AI generated stories, and while the head of Bards and Sages cited physical and mental health problems as a reason for shutting down the company entirely, having to weed through AI generated submissions and the way such bad actors are impacting the industry were listed as the final straw. There are probably even more examples of this, but I only did a cursory google search to avoid being here all day.

Simply put: AI is not helping authors who have to go to the indie space in order to escape systemic problems. It is actively killing the space instead. I don't want to sound doom and gloom, but if this keeps up, these authors aren't going to have anywhere to run to. A refusal to condemn the ways in which AI is impacting these spaces does, in my opinion, make you complicit.

On a final note, you might notice that this point is seemingly once again focusing on editing, not writing. Which means it's time to unveil the punchline pointed out by besodemieterd, the response that made me lose my mind:

They made this bullshit up to justify them getting into cahoots with an AI company called ProWritingAid, it's all over their instagram.

I immediately ran to factcheck this...and it's true. ProWritingAid is, in fact, a more in-depth Grammarly that uses AI for its functionality. They are a sponsor for National Novel Writing Month, and the first three posts on their instagram are dedicated to this partnership.

I completely back up besodemieterd's belief that they wrote this article to justify their taking this sponsorship. If I had to guess, they started taking a lot of flack for taking ProWritingAid as a sponsor and wrote this article in order to defend their decision to do so without actually saying so directly.

I don't want to shame NaNoWriMo for taking sponsors on the whole, as they do need money to stay afloat. However, taking an AI company as a sponsor and then defending their stance by essentially calling people with concerns about this morally wrong and bad is, as the kids say, clown behavior. This is clown shit. It's laughable, it's cringe, it's incredibly disheartening. It's so, so bad.

The next paragraph is just about how they "see value in sharing resources about AI and any emerging technology, issue, or discussion that is relevant to the writing community as a whole." Since my stance on this can be summed up as "AI bad and platforming it is bad", I'm going to skip over this paragraph. I will, however, address their last paragraph:

For all of those reasons, we absolutely do not condemn AI, and we recognize and respect writers who believe that AI tools are right for them. We recognize that some members of our community stand staunchly against AI for themselves, and that's perfectly fine. As individuals, we have the freedom to make our own decisions.

So, basically, you're incapable of saying "no" to money and decided to lean into the talking points of bad faith actors and refuse to address the destruction that generative AI is wrecking on the writing world in order to justify why you took a certain sponsor. In taking this middle of the road, individual choice-ass response, you also threw human editors and beta readers under the bus by justifying the use of technology that actively removes them from the space. You are making the writing world a worse place, which is absolutely crazy when writing is supposed to be the thing you're all about.

Truly amazing. And they're doing this on Labor Day, too.

In conclusion, I will be dead in the dirt before you spot me participating in National Novel Writing Month again. Which is probably for the best. My life can only handle so many self-imposed deadlines. I guess I should be grateful to them for removing one from my plate.

[nataliescatorccioapologist]

Who would each Yellowjackets character be in The L Word Universe?

Nat - Shane

We all saw this one coming. Nat would definitely be the ambiguously gendered noncommittal heartbreaker of The L Word sphere. Like Shane, she is kind and looks out for those she cares about but her troubled childhood has made her put her guard up. Shane and Nat both push people away because they don’t believe they are worthy of love and have never had a healthy example of a relationship so they hop from girl to girl before things can get serious. Not to mention the bounty of self-destructive tendencies these girlies both have. And with Nat’s cool mullet she would definitely kill it as a hair stylist.

Taissa - Bette

Bette and Taissa are both the powersuit-rocking politicians of our dreams (with matching crumbling marriages.) Tai is known for taking her ambitions a bit too far, and, like Bette, her work consumes her personal life until it falls apart. Neither of these girlies know when to stop, even if it alienates them from the ones they love.

Lottie - Marina

I think Lottie would definitely be the mysterious sexy bar owner that speaks mainly in poetry snd gives supposed straight girls sexuality crises (all while having a secret wife). Like Marina, Lottie has an aura of ethereal mystery around her and can be a little off-putting in how calm and collected she is even in situations that call for a little more freaking the fuck out. Lottie would definitely find some straight girl deeply in denial and send her into a sexuality crisis spiral while acting completely innocent about it.

Shauna - Jenny

Okay don’t be mad at me, it’s at least a little true. Shauna and Jenny are both a little too obsessive, impulsive, and emotional (and they’re both deeply struggling with compulsory heterosexuality). At any given moment you will find them in a corner furiously journaling their dark feelings instead of communicating them. Shauna would definitely be the one to go a little crazy after falling in love with a woman for the first time. And both Jenny and Shauna have their emotional support himbos that they use to deny their homosexuality: Tim and Jeff.

Jackie - Dana

Jackie would definitely be the closeted sports lesbian that is terrified of the public (and mostly her rich, uptight parents) finding out about her queerness. Like Dana, Jackie is under a lot of pressure to be "perfect" and comes from a wealthy, preppy background with rich parents who have high expectations. I also definitely think Jackie would be a tennis girlie. Jackie and Dana are the baby gays who are constantly checking out women but don't know how to express their queerness yet. And they both have a complicated homoerotic relationships with their best friend (Dana/Alice and Jackie/Shauna). Jackie and Dana are both very supportive and fun-loving, they just need to get out of the closet.

Van - Finley

Butch kings! Van and Finley are both little goofsters that fill my heart with joy. In The L Word universe, Van would definitely be the that friend that is there to make all of the gays smile but is hiding a lot of pain and trauma behind a comedic mask. Van and Finley have a serious problem with joking instead of confronting serious feelings but we still love them.

Misty - That girl that's obsessed with Shane in the Pilot episode

Okay so I don't think Misty really fits anyone in The L Word so I'm giving her Lacey, that girl that is concerningly obsessed with Shane (Nat) in the first episode. This girl hooks up with Shane once and then she's tracking her down at parties and finding all of her hangout spots to harass her and get her attention. And I think in an L Word AU, Misty would definitely hook up with Nat, Nat would ghost her, and Misty would go insane like that.

*Anyways should I write a Yellowjackets The L Word AU fic? Because honestly I've been thinking about it a little bit too much.*

[marydswitchduet]

Directory Updated*

*Last update 5/16/25

If nothing else, I've always prided myself on being able to find a lot of random info to absorb. Very akin to Samwell Tarly, in more ways than one. Dominantlife once had a library of a bunch is BDSM guides and how to either developed by them or curated by them if they were not the author.

Idk about anyone else but I could use one of those again.

So below are links to my reposts of guides, info, directories, information, and anything else with more than one link that I feel anyone would benefit from having easy access to. Some are BDSM, some are D/S, some have AB/DL elements, maybe some of them mix for you

For the record, I'm sharing content I've reposted but none of it was created by me.

KINK AWARE PROFESSIONALS DIRECTORY MADE BY TEDDYBEAR-WITHME

Healthy Sexual Communication:

Faking Orgasms

Taking Your Tongue Cross-“Cunt”-try (Cunnilingus Tips) below

50 Things Public Sex Ed Probably Never Taught You

Naughty Games

Roleplaying Resources

SAFE WORDS AND CONSENT

AB/DL:

DIAPER FLUFFING: LEARN IF YOU DON'T KNOW!

How to Make Your Own Pullups From GoodNites

What to do when regressed alone

How to Make Adult-Sized Baby Diapers

Why Your Partner Likes Diapers and May Want to Wear 24/7

Increasing Diaper Discipline Involvement

Unique Scenarios w/ BDSM Flavor

Discovering Your Partner's ABDL Identity & Supporting Them

Hypno Collection

More Hypno Files

Wearing Diapers in Public - Tips and Tricks of the Trade

AB/DL Stores

Diaper Training: Different Mental Stages

Question List: What Diaper Discipline Elements Do You Want?

5 Rules for Treating ABDL Women/Girls

DIAPER TRAINING TIPS/TRICKS:

False Control Syndrome

Diaper Training Exercises

Learn to Mess Your Diaper Anytime & in Any Situation

Different Mental Stages of Diaper Training

AB/DL Stories:

OmNomNomDom’s AB/DL Fiction Index

MD/lb Stories & Creators (Paddedlittleparadise)

Letting go by All4thedips

Humblevisions Story Directory

Nursery School by all4thedips

AB/DL Little Space:

Making Us Feel EXTRA Little

Baby Diaper Look-Alikes

How to Make Diaper Checks MORE Humiliating

The Perfect AB/DL Diaper Check: A step-by-step guide

Amazing Blogs and Where to Find Them

Things to Say to Your Diaper Wearing Little

Making Her Feel Little

Q's to Ask Your Little Boy

25 Things All Mommies Say

Top 10 Things a Spouse can do for Their ABDL Partner

Building Your Little Kit

Ways to put your Little to Sleep

Deciphering Little Moods

20 Kinky Things Most ABDLs Crave More Than Oxygen

50 Ways to Make Your Little COMBUST🔥

CNC Ideas for Littles (below)

5 Tips to FULLY Regress

Sex Toys:

Guide(s) [Spanking, gags, rope tutorials, etc]

Gag Inspiration

Lucy’s Fantasy Dildo Shop Link MasterList

Toy Vendors & Creators

FERAL FUCK'S ALTERNATIVE SEX TOY SHOPS (Another Directory, warning)

Making a Tail Plug

BDSM:

Breathplay Guide

Measuring yourself for a chastity cage

A Guide to Spanking & Impact Play

How Hard is TOO Hard (Spanking Reference)

Spanking Tips

Basic Rope Harness Graphic

How to Make Your Sub Feel Owned

Wax Play Graphic

Guide to Butt Stuff

Dom/Sub Language:

What to Say Other Than "It's Too Much"

D/S Prompts, Scenarios, and Phrases

Femdom

Controlling Your Male Sub

Torture Idea

What Straight Men Need to Know About Pegging

Pegging Positions to make it better for everyone

Prostate Milking in Chastity

Femdom Ideas, Thoughts, & Scenarios

AFTERCARE:

Dom Drops Aftercare

This will likely be continuously updated as I find things, will add dates for when updated

[killbenedictcumberbatchagain]

Update to my situation. So I have been living at my dad's for some weeks now. There's been a lot of adjusting, trust needing to be rebuilt, habits needing to be broken. I'm having an ok time, but there are still a lot of things bothering me. After fleeing most of my personal possessions are gone. The lease is no longer in my name (hilariously, it's now in my Ex-roommates name. ISN'T THAT SO FUNNY) and any hopes at getting my deposit back are slashed. There are several things I need to replace. I don't feel safe returning to that apartment to retrieve them.

Not only that but I left a Lot of important documents like my birth certificate and SSN which I inexplicably could not locate when I looked for them, as well as storage devices and phones. I found that my Facebook was accessed from a phone I'm no longer in possession of and my emails continue to be compromised. It feels like a hopeless situation and I've been deterred/discouraged from seeking legal recourse. I feel lost. Years and years of artwork are out of my hands. My equipment is at the apartment and who knows if it hasn't been scrapped or sold. I know I shouldnt mourn material things but the way my sense of security, my own private sanctum is no longer a place I can return to, affects me deeply. Someone impersonating my father has been adding me on Facebook over multiple duplicate accounts and she lied about contacting my family. Compromising video has been sent to my dad and stepmom. They've been gracious but it's still humiliating and deeply disturbing that this happened to me. I don't feel I deserve this.

I received my final gas bill and the amount is for $425. If I ever hope to rent again here, I have to pay this. My former landlord is not communicating with me in a timely fashion. I'm trying to get on SSI and hopefully return to a sense of normalcy and independence. I've been seeking stability after the many traumas and changes I've had to face. it's honestly a challenge to find motivation right now and I'm masking a lot of my pain. I feel alone.

I still need help. If I'm to create a life for myself that is healthy and sustainable I need help. Please, if you've seen what I've experienced then don't hesitate or second guess and give. I am just tired right now. You've showed up for me before, please do it now.

cash.me/$tomi1

Venmo: tominova

PayPal.me/tominova

[odessadenby]

Thinking about all of Twenty One Pilots' (studio) albums in terms of the cycle of mental health. Here's my interpretation, though yours may vary. These are also broad strokes about the themes of the album as a whole, obviously there's a ton of nuance within the individual songs.

Below the cut for my followers who don't care about TØP

Vessel: the young adult years when you're struggling and feeling different from the people around you, like there's someone wrong with you. You're questioning yourself, your faith, everything.

"I'm semi-automatic, my prayers' schizophrenia"

Blurryface: early adulthood when you're entering the "real world." The struggle of finding your footing as you try to make a living and develop relationships. Your anxiety is worse because you're supposed to have it together now, you're disappointed in yourself and the life you were promised.

"Wake up, you need to make money!"

Trench: delving into your psyche and trying to figure out who you are and why you feel the way you do. Slowly realizing that others are like you and maybe you can find ways to get better.

"In Trench, I'm not alone."

Scaled and Icy: choosing the wrong ways to cope and "fix" yourself. Masking, toxic positivity, using substances-- acting like everything is perfect and you can be the person everyone expects, but you're crumbling inside. You're reaching a low point.

"Everybody relies on synthetic highs..."

Clancy: the relapse. Sometimes you feel like you're back in the place you started and you're scared, but you're getting a little better at recognizing what's healthy and what's unhealthy for you and who you can rely on. It's about committing to coming back and doing the work, not looking for a quick solution anymore. It's also about reflecting how far you've come.

"Make and oath and make mistakes/start a streak you're bound to break/when darkness rolls on you/push on through"

I think in future albums we will see more about mental health, even outside the context of the Dema story. Probably about that commitment to examining the self, finding community support, healing, and maybe providing that support for others.

Maybe that's why I love this band so much. I feel like I've gone through each of these phases. I'm almost as old as the band and so for me Clancy, especially songs like "Oldies Station," really reflect where I am in my mental health journey and life overall. It feels like we've had a lot of parallel experiences, which is neat. I think wherever you are in your journey you'll probably connect to a different era of their music.

[evermarch]

Rando question because of your old name. What were your thoughts on bloodlines? I've never been able to get tea on it from another person because, sadly, not many people know it exists in my orbit.

omg. god knows how many years i had a vampire academy url and i got like no va asks. this is my time. this is my moment. i'm so sorry in advance that this is going to be more than you bargained for.

okay so. i enjoyed bloodlines a lot. i know many people in the fandom love bloodlines even more than va. that tends to be because of sydrian. for me personally, while bloodlines is a great read that explores some fascinating concepts and relationship dynamics, it doesn't hit for me quite as well as va does for a number of reasons.

first, the development of The Lore is excellent. in particular, i love seeing the effects of everything that changed in va play out in the background. from the moroi combat movement and the bloodborne strigoi resistance from restoration to the to the political fallout of lissa's ascension to the throne, everything that happened becomes so much more substantial and impactful. it feels like meeting the alchemists and the dhampir community in blood promise—the vampire world expanded from rose's little circle in the US to the international community in a way that made her struggle with her responsibility as a guardian feel much more real.

as an extension of the worldbuilding, i love how flawlessly sydney's internal struggle with breaking out of her conditioning to accept magic and growing to care for the moroi intertwines with the development of the universe. the witches are an excellent addition, because they bridge the gap of a potentially insurmountable power imbalance (due to compulsion, as we see with the whole dabbling thing) between moroi and humans (read: sydrian). sydney is empowered to overcome the fear component of her alchemist upbringing, which opens the door for her to have healthy relationships with moroi and dhampirs. that's especially in contrast (and comparison to) trey and the warriors of light. we also get to see the power and depth of the alchemist organization, especially within the family unit, which emphasizes just how brave sydney (and marcus) have to be to fight against it.

however, the overarching plot (particularly toward the final few books), sort of falls flat. ruby circle is definitely rushed and under-edited, and doesn't feel like a natural continuation of the series up to that point. alicia is a boring villain with no real build-up or depth. she is not remotely compelling, which is saying something in a series where every character, good and bad, faces a universal struggle against an enemy race with no redeemable or non-evil characteristics. like, the anonymous person calling the tattoo parlor was right. there. use it to set up something better! and sydrian going from barely together to married to becoming parents without any substantial intra-relationship struggle as a result of those changes over the course of like...three months (much of which sydney was in captivity) is...a choice.

on that note, the character development is a bit of a mixed bag for me. from jill and neil to ms. terwilliger and even abe, almost everyone grows in such fascinating and often unexpected ways. yet, sydney herself blows them all out of the water. the way she goes through the essential unlearning phase of "i know logically i'm wrong, but it still feels like i'm right" is a masterclass in deprogramming. how she learns to let go without dumbing herself down or losing touch with the things she values and cherishes about herself? life-changing for me, personally. also. let it be known that if jackie and malachi have no supporters, i am dead.

but i do feel let down by many of the characters in this department. namely, zoe. believe me, i was not expecting her to turn into a vampire supporting anti-alchemist hippie like her sister. her primary flaws are explained extremely well, and for those i don't fault her. but i cannot name a single time she is not, at the very LEAST, unpleasant. it makes sense why sydney loves her. it is consistent with who sydney is (see: keith's eyeball) that she is so fiercely protective over zoe. but zoe doesn't really have any good moments with sydney which might explain why sydney actually LIKES spending time with her. it's especially jarring in comparison to sydney's general disdain (which i read as jealousy and resentment) for carly, who she classifies as "useless." carly's one scene is more compelling than a whole book (and then some) of zoe.

much more importantly, though, adrian to me is a bit of a letdown. first, i do want to say that i like sydrian, and in particular sydrian through fiery heart and in the epilogue. i liked adrian's character in va and was excited to see him grow. but...he never really seems to do so. undoubtedly, rose was nothing close to perfect in how she handled the adrian situation, especially with everything in last sacrifice. but to paint rose as this evil seductress who he graciously forgives while never ONCE acknowledging the ways he treated her is astonishing. the fact that he doesn't reflect on it even when what he does to nina mirrors what rose did to him? and to never once acknowledge the way he's used his privilege as a royal to perpetuated harms against "lesser" races (which INCLUDES the way he otherized rose as a dhampir and put her life and career at risk by using her as a pawn against his parents), even when sydney discovers his past with dabbling?

yes, adrian develops tremendously with regards to his family, his mental illness, and his addiction. but we never really see him value his recovery and health as something important not just to sydney, but to himself. despite having the knowledge and the means to seek treatment, he spends half of silver shadows spiraling down a path of self-destruction while sydney is trapped. and, there's good reason for that—he has to go off the meds to try and reach her with spirit. but he acts as if he's the only one who cares about sydney (or him, for that matter) and goes at it alone. he doesn't think to call sonya to ask her to help him get off the meds responsibly? or, knowing what he knows about avery lazar, consider what the consequences will be for jill? and on top of all that, not even bother to defend his relationship with sydney to his mother?

healing is not a straight line, but adrian's actions in silver shadows just erase all the progress he made before that and then some. which would be fine, and also interesting, if only he'd made improvements to himself after that. but the most i can say about adrian by the end of ruby circle is that he knows HOW he needs to change and is extremely willing to do so. which is great! but we never actually get to see it happen. and if you're going to have dual narration and promote adrian from the love interest to a main protagonist, we've got to see him grow. that said, the glimpse we get of him in the epilogue demonstrates to me that he DOES go through that development, and it makes me much more optimistic for his and sydney's futures. i just really wish we'd gotten to see it happen.

[acti-veg]

Hey, I see a lot of your posts recently, and I've been scrolling back through your blog looking for answers to various questions, this really the first time I've ever really questioned my beliefs in regards to animal products and I've had several pop up, firstly, what about hunting? Deer have a habit of eating themselves out of a habit if left unchecked, and even in areas where we've reintroduced wolves and bears, it doesn't seem to be enough and I've personally known people that for them, hunting was the only way to ensure food on the table. Also I feel like a lot of vegan arguments try to remove humans from the category of animals, and it seems to want to put us above death and ignores some human features, like our mouths which resemble other omnivores, how do I handle these questions?

Hey anon, I’m glad you’ve approached this with an open mind, far too few are willing to do so. I’ll break this down into sections as it may end up being a long one.

Hunting

Deer don’t eat themselves out of a habitat when they exist as part of a healthy ecosystem. When we do introduce natural predators to keep numbers down, we generally only grant permission for far lower numbers of predators than the carrying capacity of the ecosystem.

This is largely due to public discomfort at the re-inclusion of predators, but the real political pressure comes from two parties - hunters and ranchers. Hunters want deer numbers to be large so that they can hunt them, and ranchers want predator numbers to be low so that they don’t interfere with their profits.

Keep in mind that these ecosystems existed for hundreds of millions of years before the arrival of humans and the mass culling of predators and prey. In a healthy ecosystem, as deer populations increase they can support more predators, whose numbers grow. If the predators become too many, there is not enough food to go around, fewer predators survive and litter sizes decrease to compensate. The balance is righted and maintained by natural systems, it is only when humans interfere or reduce the land available for wild animals (largely to make room for grazing land) that this becomes a problem.

There are vanishingly few people living in industrialised society who rely on hunting as a food source. For subsistence hunting communities, such as some indigenous groups and remote coastal communities, fishing and hunting may well be necessary for survival - I don’t know many vegans who have any problem with that.

Veganism is about doing what is possible and practicable to avoid animal exploitation, if it is genuinely not possible for you to survive on plants then that is very much covered within that definition. For people who recreationally hunt though, hunting licences cost money, weapons and ammunition cost money - for most people, the calories they could gain from cheap plant-based staples would be far cheaper than those they could gain from hunting.

Humans as Above Death

Honestly, I see this argument come from non-vegans far more often than vegans. Vegans are vegan precisely because we don’t believe we a separate to, or superior to, non-human animals. However, the idea that we’re in the same food chain and we’re just like non-human animals is a fantasy that hasn’t been true for 50,000 years.

The agricultural revolution removed us from natural ecosystems, and the Industrial Revolution that followed it removed us even further. It is hard to imagine being further removed from death than to buy the corpse of an artificially created species that was selectively bred, drugged and raised in industrial conditions, who you have not only not hunted but never even seen, wrapped in plastic by a large corporation.

Veganism has nothing to do with denying death or ignoring human features. Humans are omnivores, sure, but that is just an arbitrary species categorisation. It means we can subsist on both plant and animal matter Does the fact that we have canine teeth create a moral justification for causing harm to other animals, on the basis that the blind and amoral process of evolution gave them to us? Surely not.

Conclusions

Vegans know that we aren’t above death and we aren’t separate or above other animals. Humans are highly intelligent and technologically advanced apes, but we’re still apes. We seem to only want to acknowledge this fact when it suits us though, when we want to hunt or eat other animals. But we’re not hunter gatherers, we’re consumers who shoot animals with guns or buy their flash pre-slaughtered and pre-packaged.

However, that same technology and economy have now given us the option to choose to cause less harm. We know beyond any reasonable doubt that most humans can now be perfectly happy and healthy while never purposely harming any animal ever again. We can choose to not only survive, but thrive while minimising the impact we have on animals and the planet we share with them. So why wouldn’t we do that?

[ssvnormandysr-1]

Something I've seen talked about a lot is some people calling Gale abusive, manipulative, or toxic for being occasionally passive aggressive or saying things that seem like guilt tripping. And you know what? Yes, he does get passive aggressive. Yes, he does have some unhealthy communication style. AND these do not necessarily mean he is abusive.

There's a difference between abusive (continued and consistent harmful behaviors to exert control over the other person) and unhealthy (sometimes being passive aggressive, communication not being completely open and free). In fact, if I had to guess, he may not even realize that his behaviors are not healthy. His passive aggressiveness or "guilt tripping", I feel, are reactions to his precious relationship with Mystra. When your attachment figure is high and mighty and do not acknowledge or respond to your needs or is very withdrawn or withhold love/praise unless you do something, people are gonna start to develop strategies to get their needs met - pouting, begging, acquiescing, etc etc - this can manifest as such unhealthy behaviors. Similar to how when children have withdrawn parents, they do all sorts of things ranging from making themselves very endearing or acting out to make them pay attention.

Do I think that this is 100% mystra's fault? Not necessarily. After all, she is a god and probably had lots of other things to care for and one mortal man among many other chosens (and who knows, potentially other lovers) likely wasn't on the highest of her priority list. But that doesn't mean the damage wasn't done. And I still believe that as a god Mystra should've known better than to be involved with a mortal romantically with such huge power differential.

Going back to the original point - such unhealthy strategies can absolutely get better and be changed when you do have a partner who responds to your needs, who is engaged, who doesn't withhold love, because that means you no longer have to survive the way you did before. You no longer have to elicit or win love from your partner because that love is already there. Such corrective emotional experiences can lower the defenses and build up healthy communication and relationship. With Tav, and hopefully other supports in his life, I think Gale can do so, too.

idk lots of people really seem to take just one part of certain characters and make them super evil or absolutely innocent - and they're not. None of the characters are. And that's the whole point especially in Gale's romance - he is a flawed human being, he made and still makes mistakes. And those are what it means to be a mortal, actually, and all parts of him still deserve love and compassion. He can be accepted as he is and still move towards positive changes.

[kazooie]

There's a big problem created by fatphobia, and that is that it's almost impossible, if impossible, to find "safe" weight loss methods.

I want to lose a bit of weight, because I don't want to be too heavy for an electric scooter or wheelchair, and because it'll relieve some of the pressure on my damaged lower back, but you can't just google "safe weight loss methods", because people hate being fat so much that they don't care if it's safe or not.

Ozempic ate my muscles and left me so much more disabled than I was before, I genuinely believe it caused my heart condition, and is the reason I can barely walk.

Surgeries hurt in similar but more irreversible ways, making your stomach smaller or bypassing it, making it drastically more difficult to absorb nutrients and medication.

Exercise is not something everyone can do safely, I'm one of those people. I can exercise in small bursts, but have had exercise intolerance since being on ozempic. I was never a very fit person but I used to run on a treadmill with relative ease, that all went away so fast.

And of course, dieting. So many weight loss diets that are called healthy are just dangerous, especially if you're diabetic or have insulin resistance, or celiac's disease. Intermittent fasting can be very dangerous for diabetics, and most weight loss diets are based around low calorie intake, which is basically just being malnourished on purpose.

All I want is safe advice on how to lose just 5kg-10kg, without starving myself, without depriving myself of a decent meal when it's often all I have to look forward to, and without injuring myself with exercise that my muscles aren't ready for, but fatphobia has made it impossible for me to find any support for this.

As a side note, and I don't want to sound disrespectful because I have a lot of respect and admiration for the fat positive community(and this is only based on a couple of discord servers I've found, I'm sure it's not the community as a whole) but fatphobia has made it very difficult to even find help in that community, one discord server I'm in basically demonises the idea of losing weight on purpose at all, making me feel like I'll be called out for internalised fatphobia if I ask for advice. The extremes that fatphobia has created makes it a bad time for literally everyone.

I just want people to care about my fat as if it's part of my body, instead of seeing it as a weed that has to be poisoned, starved, and ripped out, without any regard to how that harms everything around it.

[tricksterpale]

Farewell

It feels strange to write this. I've had this blog for over 10 years now. But the time has come for me to say goodbye.

After much thought and many quiet moments over the 2 year long hiatus spent reflecting, I’ve decided that I’m leaving this account. I’ll leave this blog up, for the sake of memories, for the archives of what was once a vibrant, welcoming place for me and for so many of you. But this will be my last post.

The gw2 fandom here on tumblr in particular, this place that I once cherished and found sanctuary in, no longer feels like a safe and healthy space for me, or for the work I want to share. And so, I find myself at this crossroads, saying goodbye not out of anger or resentment, but out of a quiet need to protect myself and my art.

I will still create. I will still share my work in other spaces, where I can breathe a little easier (and post work that this platform prohibits). But for now, and likely indefinitely, I need to step away from this blog in particular.

The years have not been kind to any of us, have they? The world has tilted in ways we never expected, dragging us all into its churning tides. The world has been harder, scarier, less stable with each passing day. A lot of us have lost things—people, or perhaps just the sense of comfort and security we once took for granted. Some days it's felt like nothing is safe, not even the things that I once believed would always be there.

It’s hard for me to ignore the way the fear, the uncertainty, the instability of the world around us has seemingly seeped into this space as well, turning what once felt like a refuge of comfort into something more toxic. I see the same things happening here that I see out there: endless conflict, divisiveness, quick and damning judgements based on differences of opinion and perspective, walls instead of bridges, cliques, lack of critical thinking, and a constant undercurrent of tension that makes the idea of posting here feel less and less safe for me. It feels as though the tumblr fandom community has become rife with the very things I came here to escape once upon a time. This blog is no longer a place I can find peace in.

These past 5 years in particular have forced me to expand and withdraw in ways I didn’t anticipate. In the beginning when I made this blog, there were the sparks of creativity fanned into blazes, the feeling of being connected to a group of like-minded souls, all of us sharing our love for Guild Wars 2, for art, for storytelling. There were certainly issues, but overall the things that made us different were the same things that brought us together. But as time wore on, it became clear that the fandom had lost something that once felt vital to me. The space became crowded with tension, with a kind of noise I no longer felt equipped to tune out. What once felt like a community that embraced differences in perspectives began to feel like a place where I was on edge, unsure of whether the next post or interaction would be one of support or of conflict.

It’s hard to admit this, but perhaps it’s not just the fandom that has shifted. Perhaps I have, too. The person I was in 2014 isn’t the person I am now, and thank god for that. When I first joined this space, I was looking for connection, for a place to share my work and my passion for Guild Wars. I wanted to be part of something larger than myself. But the world has changed, and so have I. The things that once fed me now leave me feeling hollow, anxious. The echoes of the past still linger, but the resonance isn’t the same. The goals and inspirations I once had feel more like a memory, a forgotten song that no longer moves me or serves me.

This isn’t to say that I regret any of it. I’ve learned so much, about myself and about others. I’ve seen incredible art, met incredible people, and shared moments of joy with many of you. Those things matter. They’ve shaped me in ways I can’t even fully express. But the person I am now can’t exist in the same space I once did. I no longer see the world, or this particular internet corner of the GW2 fandom, through the same lens.

The past five years especially have taught me that change isn’t always comfortable. Sometimes, it’s painful. Sometimes, it’s lonely. But it’s real. And it’s necessary.

My perspective, my sense of what’s important, of what matters, has shifted. The things I once valued here no longer hold the same weight. Like I said, I will leave TricksterPale up. I just will not be posting or logging in here again. For those who know my handle on discord, you can always find me there. You are more than welcome to poke me, even if it's been a long time. But otherwise, you can keep up with my art and musings on my newly created bluesky account from this point forward. I do not have an Instagram or Twitter anymore.

I don’t know what the next chapter looks like, but I know I’m not the same person I was when I first opened this blog. And for that, I’m grateful.

Take care of yourselves, and remember—change is inevitable, but it’s also a chance to grow into something new. Something better. And sometimes, part of that growth is being willing to let go and move on from things that no longer serve you.

[witchesofvaliant]

A Call to Action for our Community

So. I'm not fully back, I will be soon, but I see some things that I can't just stay quiet about.

This will get into religious trauma, tw for that, but I just want to say some words to the community of HelPol, pagans, witches, and anyone else just willing to read this. And I'll give you the general idea now. I want to send a message to all in this communities and even those outside of it that might be seeing in from the outside, those either carrying an interest or in their own corner of the internet, that this NEEDS to become a healthier space for all, and we all need to combat the toxic ideas that are out there together. Not through bickering with each other, and not through telling anyone that things should be one way or the other. Think of it as PSAs versus an entire government. The point isn't control, it's health & safety overall.

Keep reading for the full explanation! ♡

This might not be super organized, it's almost 4 am. However, I've seen a lot of toxic attitudes and actions throughout the communities I've mentioned above (HelPol, paganism in general, witchcraft), and it hurts to see so many suffering or being hurt by the unhealthy ideas circulating all over the internet at this point.

How do I identify "unhealthy"? I'm not doing this based on my preferences or personal beliefs. I'm doing this based on things that have shown evidence to be unhealthy for people's lives and mindsets, no matter the person.

There's a LONG list, I won't give the entire thing, I'll post more in the future on this, this is the intro and the start for this movement.

Now, I'll start at the beginning. I was raised in a strict Christian household, and I still live in one to this day. I've had to forge my own understanding of what healthy religion is, breaking fully away, mentally, spiritually, and emotionally from the attitudes that my family showed and taught me, and engrained in me a very hateful and exclusive mindset towards others in the past. It's trauma that doesn't just go away, so I'm working on that every day, but seeing it propagate even in religious/spiritual spaces that aren't tied to Christianity, to still push forward an idea that is reminiscent of Christianity and the toxic kind of it, is honestly a heartbreaking thing, as I see many that end up falling into these practices, either because they have not deconstructed from a Christian background, or those that have shown them these practices have not deconstructed themselves. And I think we need to dedicate more to helping others understand how to deconstruct, what that even is, and what does religion look like when it doesn't let itself be tainted by a toxic perspective.

I say this especially as there are a LOT of pagans, polytheists, witches, and otherwise, that have come from cult backgrounds or other religious trauma (Christian or other), and it's a disservice to not do our best to ensure that our communities are as safe as possible, especially from misinformation and toxicity.

So what is all this?

This is a call to action to everyone that can do their best for the community they're in to work together to provide a lack of misinformation and toxicity to any space that we can affect.

I'd highly appreciate any questions, comments, or asks you have on the subject, but even more, I'd love to have a chat and with your help, I'd love to post more on best practices in the community that we can possibly have.

I'll do my part, of course, and I'd rather this is less an organized group, and more an encouragement and another source, hopefully among others, that people can have in their back pocket to know what a healthy environment looks like and feel more supported than in danger, stressed, or defensive.

I'd love any ideas anyone else has on this, and thank you for reading this rant/PSA, hopefully it doesn't fall on deaf ears, and have a lovely day or night!