#let this be a PSA that if you agree that this is ‘sexualizing teenagers’ to for the love of god unfollow and block me

[fruitchakra]

what's the post u were accused of 'sexualizing teenagers'??? 😭 some ppl are so extra in fandom because they have no power irl...

behold the masterpiece:

[aegor-bamfsteel]

Hi! I'm a fan of Dorne, a supporter of Aegon VI, so I don't see much reason to join the fandom, but I've spent enough time to find Aegon Blackfyre having horrible deaths. I often see R's attitudes justified, since then I think there's a lot more to rebellions than what's been presented so far. That said, how do you think Rohanne and Daemon's first date went? How did she feel at court? Or your wedding? The reaction to childbirth? Anything about both of them, please!

By the power invested in me as a member of the ASOIAF fandom (aka: none), I give you, Anonymous, the right to enjoy whatever characters you want to so long as you abide by proper fandom etiquette (don’t tag hate, don’t send anon hate, try not to vagueblog, etc). In all seriousness, just because you are a fan of Aegon VI and Dorne doesn’t mean you are obligated to dislike the Blackfyres. Personally, I like some aspects of Dorne (though I think its writing could be better) and I don’t think Aegon VI is a Blackfyre. We’re all different people, so the many characters of ASOIAF will impact us differently. If you feel that your fandom circle obliges you to hide your personal opinions of a character/setting for fear of being ostracized, then that circle has become toxic and I recommend you leave it. If you’re interested in reblogging neutral to positive content on the Blackfyres, you should be able to do so without reprisal. Discourse on fictional characters should never devolve to the extent that real people are harmed.

Now that the PSA part of the ask is done with, let’s get into your questions on Rohanne. I’m pretty excited you decided to ask me, because I don’t get a lot of asks on her since @xenowlsome decided to take a break from fandom, and she’s still one of the most interesting minor characters of the era due to her place in the story. She and Daemon seemed to have had one of the happier marriages in Westeros despite just 12 years together; I’ve previously compared them to Ned/Cat in how they were strangers when they wed, but had a successful political marriage in building their love “stone by stone” (tragic ending aside).

Answers to your Daemon/Rohanne questions under the cut:

How did Daemon and Rohanne’s first date go? A lot of my experience with ASOIAF fic comes from Jonsa, so a comparison to the Salty Teens AU—essentially two teenagers have to get married for political reasons but don’t get along at first, but are sexually compatible—seems reasonable. Daemon and Rohanne don’t have a lot in common (he’s a 14 year old martial prodigy and an unjumped illegitimate son of a corrupt king and an imprisoned Queen with a famous old lineage; she’s older��I headcanon 16–legitimate niece of the Archon and comes from a culture where the actual citizens don’t really fight and wealth is more important than birth), they don’t even speak the same native language (headcanon is they spoke High Valyrian to each other until Daemon learned Tyroshi dialect more throughly and Rohanne learned fluent Westerosi. They usually spoke Tyroshi at home, because they were worried about spies), they both had to get married because their powerful relatives wanted them out of the way (for Daemon because Da3ron II wanted him in a powerless position because he’d fear he‘d rebel; and Rohanne I headcanon due to her uncle wanting to punish her more ambitious mother and her father agreed due to an inheritance dispute), so I don’t think they hit it off right away. I think their initial meeting was probably formal and awkward, surrounded by relatives and courtiers; Rohanne was not impressed with this tall, seemingly endlessly cheerful boy and Daemon is intimidated by this seemingly elegant, severe older girl with the Tyroshi purple hair. It wasn’t until after the relatives were gone and they’re in either their new lands or Tyrosh (if you think that I did they lived there for a few years after the wedding while at least some lodgings were being built) that the two could let their guard down and start trying to understand each other. If I can borrow another early Jonsa trope, probably Rohanne’s pregnancy with twins brought them together by revealing their insecurities but also the desire to make the marriage work. So I think their first date was a night in, they brushed each other’s hair, maybe Daemon reads to her in Tyroshi, then she reads to him in Westerosi, both of them made comments about the material and the reader’s elocution, and they ate a plate of cold meat and olives washed down with soft cider. Maybe it wasn’t a grand date, but it was the start because each could tell the other was trying.

How did their wedding go? Probably awkward and formal. Both of them probably had emotional baggage regarding weddings and relationships. Rohanne’s family flat out forbade the bedding (Tyroshi don’t follow that custom). Daemon was upset because his siblings weren‘t there (although I guess Elaena was) to support him/say goodbye whereas Rohanne had her father and sister who weren’t emotionally equipped to deal with all these strangers and say goodbye to her. Possibly being married in the Sept of Baelor didn’t help either of them. But I think the consummation went better than the wedding in spite of the families’ expectations, partly due to them being alone but also having to rely mostly on body language. Daemon showed consideration for Rohanne’s personal space and Rohanne let herself be vulnerable. Canon seems to indicate they were compatible in this respect.

How did she feel at court? Rohanne was probably not liked by most of Da3ron’s court because of her status as Daemon‘s wife, her “low birth” in coming from a non-Valyrian family without a surname, and her refusal to convert to the Seven (considering no Essosi woman ever converted to marry a Westerosi man before, so I don’t think Rohanne did). Then she starts having many children very quickly, which freaked out the “Daemon is going to rebel any minute” crowd. I imagine she was treated similarly to Larra Rogare, except she didn’t have the advantage of a crown Prince as a husband or several influential male relatives close by (and Larra was still miserable). Instead of being able to hide how she felt behind an interpreter, or bury her feelings in the latest fashions (no shade on Larra here; just pointing out the class disparity), Rohanne had to work with a much smaller income and probably had to face the hostile court without Tyroshi allies. Daemon was probably a big help; even though he learned to brush off “bastard” insults before the age of 10 with a smile and a joke, it’s part of the knightly code to defend women so I can’t imagine he’d take slights to Rohanne (especially if she brought them to his attention) very well. Aegor too understands what it’s like to be an outsider and not want to socialize with the court, and at the very least won’t fault her for not fulfilling all the social obligations (I see them as good friends and allies due to being introverted but passionate). But many of the court spaces were sex-segregated, so she’d have to look for female allies. If there were any Tyroshi women at court (some of the Dornish in the MUSH RPG married Tyroshi), I could see her seeking them or their daughters out. I headcanon Redtusk as a Summer Islander exile (he‘s got Tusks, so to me this is obviously an elephant hunter. Crakehall!Redtusk doesn’t seem right due to Da3ron’s Kingsguard Roland Crakehall), so she was at least familiar with his wife Princess Xiwani. Another option is Princess Elaena, who was good with money, so I can see her having a relationship with a mercantile-minded Tyroshi woman. Maybe Elaena’s daughter Jeyne was also a friend (particularly if she was a Blackfyre supporter). The Butterwells are also looked down on for their origins as dairy farmers, so Ambrose Butterwell’s daughters before they wed might’ve been companions (maybe she helped arrange their weddings? At least the Costaynes seemed faithful Blackfyre supporters, and one of the daughters married Lord Costayne). And of course, she was grateful to the Velaryons. Any families with young children probably got at least acquainted with her and her pack of kids. I don’t think she was ever fully comfortable with the ethos of the court or even some Blackfyre-supporting men (thinking about House Peake due to their proud lineage and Fireball), but she learned how to stop treating many of them as potential enemies (the ones who she felt deserved it).

What was her reaction to childbirth? Empress Maria Theresa of Austria, the mother of 17 children, seemed to have easy labor pains. There’s a story that she was so devoted to work that she gave birth at her desk and, after the baby was dried off and sent away, kept writing! I figure Rohanne’s experience with childbirth was also relatively painless, given how many children she had and how moontea was always an option. The simplest in-universe explanation is that Rohanne just really loved children and wanted a houseful of them. I headcanon she grew up as the child of separated parents (yes, they allow easier separation in Tyrosh) whereas her other aunt and uncle had a big happy family, so she wanted to raise give her kids the Happy noisy childhood she didn’t get (the tragedy being that after Redgrass…) I think her naming her daughter Calla—in real life, a Greek word that means “beautiful”—speaks to her delight at having a baby girl. She loved those children and treasured them all. That’s why losing them was so painful for her.

Thanks for the ask! If you’d like to talk about any of your own Daemon/Rohanne headcanons, my ask box is always open. Don’t be afraid to create the content you’d like to see.

[discoursecatharsis]

I’ve gotten more than one anon ask from a teenager, paranoid that they’re a pedophile or a predator for crushing on a peer 2-3 years younger than them. Because anti-shippers/fandom purity police constantly use the term “pedophile” for ships between teens 2-3 years apart, it’s no wonder why real teens are confused and terrified. So I wanted to make a post with proper definitions of these terminologies and link to some sources, so that maybe it’ll reassure some other poor teen out there that it’s perfectly fine for them to crush on their schoolmate.

First I’m going to get this out of the way: I’m talking about crushing and dating and having a romantic relationship. Sex between a legal adult (18 and up) and a legal minor (17 and down) could be illegal depending on the age of consent where you live, and any Romeo and Juliet laws that may or may not be in place. That’s way more complicated, so I won’t be touching on teenage relationships where sex is involved. While I’m on this subject though, a quick PSA: if you’re under 18, do not take/send nudes at all. You could be charged with child pornography for “self-producing” your own nudes. As dumb as that sounds, it happens. I don’t agree with courts that do it, punishing hormonal teenagers for having hormones is dumb, but it still happens. It’s not worth it, don’t do it.

One more thing: I’m talking about relationships between peers in the same age group. Between two young adults, adolescents, or teenagers. Note that there is some overlap between these groups (i.e. 15 year old is a teenager and an adolescent but not an adult, while an 18 year old is all three, while a 20 year old is only a young adult). I’m not justifying age gaps that are obviously wrong and illegal, like a 30 year old and a 14 year old, so please do not put words in my mouth.

Moving on to the topic at hand...

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If the only “concerning” thing about a relationship is a minimal age gap between two peers in the same age group, the relationship is probably okay.

The existence of an age gap alone does not make someone a pedophile or predator or child groomer. Intent needs to involved. Ill intent. Along with other abusive, predatory, manipulative behaviors.

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Let’s break down some of these terms further:

A pedophile is attracted to prepubescent children. If the younger party in the relationship is not prepubescent, the older person is not a pedophile.

Here is the criteria for being a pedophile, as defined by the American Psychiatric Association.

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/conditions/pedophilia

If there is less than a 5 year age gap between teens (i.e. a 15 year old and a 19 year old), there is probably not an issue.

If however, for example, an 18 year old is attracted to someone who’s 13 and still prepubescent, there may be an issue there and the older teen should seek help or talk to someone about it. This doesn’t mean they’re a bad person. If they haven’t hurt anyone, they’ve done nothing wrong. It may just be a disorder that they have no control over, so that’s why it’s a good idea to seek help for it.

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Moving away from “pedophilia” now. What about people who prey on (i.e. are intentionally seeking to harm) teens who are post-pubescent? That person is not a pedophile, but they are a predator or a child groomer.

Which leads to the next point, what are some examples of “ill intent” when it comes to predatory relationships? What exactly is a predator or a child groomer?

This site lists the definition of grooming, along with some red flag behaviors.

https://www.d2l.org/child-grooming-signs-behavior-awareness/

First I want to point out the word “deliberate.” You can’t accidentally groom someone, like I’ve seen multiple fandom police claim. Posting properly tagged and flagged nsfw fanart on a public forum like tumblr or twitter that allows nsfw content is NOT grooming. Grooming is a deliberate act. It involves intent. If an adult is sending private DMs of nsfw sexual fanart to a minor that they KNOW to be a minor, that is completely inappropriate and grooming behavior. Same goes for any nsfw sexual talk, like an adult having a nsfw rp chat with a minor, that’s wrong too. But simply posting/liking/sharing nsfw fandom content on a public website is not grooming.

That link has a longer list of red flag behaviors, along with examples, but here are three I want to especially point out.

A lot of these sites seem to write their info with the focus on young children being groomed, going by the language they use (”child’s natural curiosity”). But teenagers can definitely be groomed also, in the same ways. If an older partner is taking advantage of a vulnerable teen due to an abusive home life, or trying to isolate them from their family and friends, or overstepping any emotional/physical/sexual boundaries, that teen is very likely in a dangerous situation and needs to confide in a trusted friend, and eventually in a trusted adult, about it.

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I also wanted to share this source as well, just as a general example of other signs of abuse in a relationship. The National Domestic Violence Hotline has a chart that lists common behavior patterns of an abusive, manipulative partner.

https://www.thehotline.org/is-this-abuse/abuse-defined/

This chart uses the example of a male abuser and a female victim, but they have another page and chart for lgbt+ relationships.

As their site says, this can apply to anyone. Age, gender, sexual orientation, it doesn’t matter, anyone is capable of being an abuser or being a victim. Notice how this has similar tactics as the child predator/groomer red flag list too, such as isolation.

Also notice the different manipulative behaviors in this chart. This chart is just a good rule of thumb for red flags in any kind of relationship, be it sexual, romantic, platonic or familial.

Here is another source that lists more red flag behaviors, but more specifically for teenage relationships.

https://www.teendvmonth.org/resources/signs-teen-dating-violence/

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With that in mind, here are some hypothetical scenarios. Let’s use a specific example of a 18 year old high school senior (12th grade) dating a 15 year old high school sophomore (10th grade).

This relationship could be bad if the senior is using the sophomore for their own personal gain. Taking advantage of the fact that the younger person is inexperienced when it comes to dating, and using that fact to manipulate them into a relationship. Maybe the senior isolates the sophomore from their family and friends, makes them feel guilty for wanting to hang out with friends, makes them quit their after-school sports activities or forces them to cancel plans with friends so that they can spend more time together. Maybe the older teen controls how they dress or what they do, or makes them do things that they’re uncomfortable with. All of those are signs of an abusive relationship. If the older teen doesn’t care about the younger teen or about their feelings and is just using them, obviously that is an unhealthy, abusive relationship. (*It’s important to note though, that this exact thing can happen between two people of the same age too. A partner who’s the same age as you can also be controlling and abusive. It can happen with friendships too, it doesn’t have to be limited to dating relationships.)

On the other hand, this senior/sophomore relationship very well could be a perfectly healthy one too. Maybe they are in the same after-school club and bonded through that. Maybe they’ve already known each other and have been friends for years, maybe their families are friends, etc. And they’ve recently started crushing on each other and decided to date. As long as they respect each other, it’s fine.

That’s why you need to know what is going on in a relationship before you judge. An age gap by itself is not proof enough that a relationship is bad or abusive or predatory. One of the partners needs to have ill-intent, and exhibit these abusive red flag behaviors.

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So to sum up everything, if the ONLY thing in a relationship is that there is an age gap, but both people are otherwise peers and in the same age group/range, and none of the above red flags are present, your relationship is fine and you have nothing to worry about. You know you’re a good person, your partner is a good person, you have family and friends supporting the both of you, you care about and respect each other, then you’re fine.

You’re not a pedophile or a predator or any awful thing like that. Remember, those are deliberate acts and involve ill-intent. Please don’t let fandom police scare you. They’re internet strangers, they know NOTHING about you or your personal life or your relationships or your home life or your upbringing or your family and friends. They’re judging you based solely on the fact that there’s an age gap, and nothing else. They have nothing to go by. They’re not trying to educate others on healthy or unhealthy relationship dynamics. They’re just instilling fear in people to back up their own moral superiority or ship war or whatever tf is driving them to be like That and spread misinformation and make inaccurate generalizations. And they don’t seem to realize or care how dangerous it is that they’re telling teens that they’re predators when they’re not. They don’t care about victims. If they did, they’d be spreading helpful advice, but instead they’re just spreading fear and misinformation. Please stop listening to them. And please for all that is good, don’t take advice from them. Talk to adults in your personal life, if not a parent, then an older cousin or an aunt or uncle or teacher or counselor. Or Google it and find reputable sources for yourself. That is much more reliable than taking advice from people who throw around the word “pedophile” to describe a ship between two teenage anime characters. People need to use common sense and look at relationships on a case-by-case basis. And anti-shippers/fandom purity police are unable to do that.

To fandom police: stop telling teenagers that they’re a predator or pedophile for dating their schoolmate who’s two years younger than them. It’s none of your business, and don’t give me that “but if they’re hurting themselves or others, I need to say something” BS. You’re a stranger, you do not know their personal lives. You know nothing about what is going on except that an age gap is involved, that’s it, and that is not enough to jump to such a drastic conclusion and serious accusation. It’s not your place because you don’t know their life or their situation. Also frankly, it’s damn weird and highly inappropriate for you to be inserting yourselves into the personal lives of some random teenager on the internet that you don’t know (especially if you’re an adult). You think shippers are gross for “being invested in the love lives of fictional teens,” yet here you are trying to control the love lives of real life teens. Please get some perspective.

Edit: Another point I forgot to mention, so I’m tacking this onto the end.

Stop acting like all teens x-years-old are the exactly same as every other teen who is also x-years-old. “I’m 18 and I would NEVER date a 15 year old because they’re practically a baby and I’m such a mature adult already and-” Good for you, you want a cookie? Repeat after me: not everyone is the same as you. One 18 year old might be socially awkward but nice and with no dating experience at all, and would fair well with dating a 15 year old who also is in their first relationship. Another 18 year old might be really responsible for their age due to circumstances in their family life, and are fully capable of handling themselves and dating a 21 year old college classmate. Everyone is different. Two people of different ages may just “click” with each other, they’re on the same wavelength, or they have similar experiences, etc. Just because you personally wouldn’t date someone 2-3 years younger/older than yourself doesn’t mean 1) that it’s wrong, or 2) that others wouldn’t be okay with it for their own personal (and valid) reasons.

Again: it is not your business to interfere with an internet stranger’s personal life and relationships when the only thing you have to go off of is “there’s an age gap.” I’m begging y’all, please look at this with the nuance that it deserves. It is not black-and-white, and your black-and-white thinking is really messing up teenagers and making them feel bad about completely normal and healthy age-appropriate crushes or desires to date someone else.

[marta-trashmouth]

PSA

Let’s hear another bell about this situation ok?! ok. In the past 16 hours or so in the Goldflitch fandom @mandarinastronaut started a defamation campaign against one of my friends. It started with a PRIVATE conversation they had. In this conversation my friens said that is not so uncommon for a 16 years old to be in a relationship with a 19 years old. I already know that some of you are already screaming “OUTRAGE” but let me talk about the socials view about this topic. An average brain is fully formed at the age of 25 years old, in the teenager years the brain is in a gray zone. Some can grow fast and some even at 18 are like 14 years old brats. In an environment where you start high school at 15 and end it at 19/20 is not so uncommon to see 16 years old and 18/19 years old people interact or even more. In my country the legal age is 18 so I can understand when someone wrongly sais that a 18 years old person is an adult, but this doesn’t mean that it’s true. Legal age and being adult are two different things.. I am in my 20s, am I in legal age? yep. Am I an adult? GOD NO. Don’t make me believe that every 18/19 years old feels adult right now because it’s not true. So in not about feeling adult you may say, maybe it’s more actually be in legal age, that mean that a 17 years old couldn’t be with a 18 years old in this case. So what makes us adult? 

Back to what happened they keep chatting for some time, she even asked them if the conversation was making them unconfortable. She was litterally so worried that she wrote in a friend group chat that she was so worried that they would be disappointed in her and her point of view. They said that they was not really unconfortable and keep chatting until they didn’t respond anymore. They blocked her everywhere and it would be ok, my friend was devastated, but I could understand. What I couldn’t understand was what they did. They did a post accusing her to be a sexual predator. I could understand their point of view but you can’t just defame someone who you don’t agreed with. They posted about her being manipulative just because she was genuinelly scared of their reaction. We asked help to put down that post all the night. Nothing happened the post is still there and my friend saw that. She was heartbroke, so devastated that she had to leave this platform even if that means leaving one of her few safe place because it wasn’t safe anymore. That post is ruining her life, we tryied to contact them to explain that they can’t just defaming whoever they want accusing them to be sexual predator. They blocked us all. They didn’t respond. But then they made a worst post. They literally took private decontestualized texts and posted them. That’s not only a disgusting thing to do to your so called “soulmate” (a person you say you cared so much about and even made sexual jokes to (you can’t hide your texts or crop them out, we already have them all)) but it’s also illegal. She is talking to her parents to report these law violations because what they did is bullying, it was just an excuse to play the good role. They hid themself behind a social justice warrior excuse of a person. But tell me, do you really thing that all you dais is true? Do you really thing she is such an horrible human begins? She’s not, she’s sweet, gentle and didn’t desrve such a backstabbing from someone she was opening to, someone who keep telling how much loved she was. The worst part was that she believed it, but you only see what you want to see. You didn’t even confronted her, too scared. 

[weregonnaneedmorewhiskey]

Social Media:Guilty in the court of public opinion. The problem with cancel culture and its toxic nature and why I have a major problem with it

DISCLAIMER: If you read parts of this and not the whole thing and type a “rebuttal”. Just save your time and don’t do it because you don’t the smoke

Ok before I start, I would like to say this. 1. If you are an ignorant person who cannot accept the opinions and thought of others then don’t read this. 2. If you don’t take the time to look at facts, then don’t read this. I don't have time for you and 3. If you are to crucify people then you can just go. I just gave you some warnings already so why is your ass still here?! Ok I have a love/hate relationship with social media. I think social media can be great in terms of communicating with others and making friends online and of course sharing memes and funny videos because those are fantastic. Social media can be great for displaying people’s interests and talents. I myself have a photography blog alongside this one and some people have made a career from social media. However like all good things, it has its ugly side. In the last year or so, a trend has appeared on social media and that's cancel culture. I myself have never taken part in cancel culture myself as I thought it was toxic, immature and petty in most circumstances. I'm definite that cancel culture will come to an end (hopefully this year) but for now, we have to deal with it on our timelines. Anything that is either taken out of context, blow out of proportion or is a simple mistake will face the court of public opinion. The social justice warriors of the internet, the holier than thou folks will decide your fate.

First and for most, we all need to remember that we are all human. We make mistakes and we learn from it. I am not better than the next person as I have made my fuck ups at the end of the day but we all grow and evolve. I have several problems with cancel culture. If a person makes a mistake or has made a mistake in the past, that does not give you the right to ruin them. By doing so you are no better than the person who’s made a mistake and you are ruining a person’s life. Prime example, Kevin Hart and the Oscars. Kevin Hart was forced to step down as the host for this year's Oscars ceremony due to some homophobic tweets from 2009. Whilst I believe that homophobia is wrong, Kevin has moved on from a tweet that he made almost a decade ago in which that comments probably wouldn’t have taken as seriously. Kevin has grown and evolved but the court of public opinion has forced him to step down from the role due to the mass controversy. If you are searching through old tweets from 2009, you clearly have an agenda to ruin a person’s life because you are blinded by your hatred and do not want to see someone have success. This role was an amazing opportunity for Kevin but because of this toxic era of being overly PC, it was taken away because people wanted to hold his past against him and not acknowledge his evolution. 

Now let’s get to how cancel culture is effecting the legal system. We’ve all heard the term “innocent until proven guilty”. In terms of the legal system, this is still true but for social media, this isn't the cause. Cancel culture has pronounced people to be guilty into proven innocent. People are no longer reading the facts, they are immediate to jump to conclusion, therefor inspiring this title “guilty in the court of public opinion” This is extremely dangerous. Social media should have no influence in the judicial system WHATSOEVER unless the person has committed the crime on Instagram Live (a man who raped someone on Instagram Live was recently found not guilty, just letting you know. What a fucked up world we’re living in huh?). When it comes to a case, people need to look at the evidence that has been presented and not from outside influences especially if it turns out shock horror that the person is actually innocent and then they’ve been sentenced to 25 to life. 

This leads perfectly leads into my next point. So if you've been on Twitter in the last 24 hours then you would have seen that Chris Brown was detained in Paris for several hours on a rape complaint. Now before I go into this and break this down, if you are expecting me to drag Chris and call him a piece of shit and xyz, you can stop reading this now because I’m happy to let you know that I am a fan of Chris and have been since his debut. Now when this report broke out, I immediately went and read the whole report because we look at facts in this household. As soon as I saw that the “accuser” had done an interview with Closer Magazine France and went to The Shade Room, I immediately raised an eyebrow because why would you go to a tabloid before going to the police? This rang some serious bells and red flags and reminded of another incident involving Chris.

 Back in 2016, a woman went to TMZ to say that Chris had held her at gunpoint. Again if you were held at gunpoint, then why are you going to a tabloid? Eventually LAPD found out that this was a false allegation and Chris was released from jail and the charges were dropped. Another thought that popped across my mind is that “I don’t think Chris is that stupid to do something like with the amount of negative press he's had in career over the last decade and I can’t see him doing something like especially since he has a daughter who is his life and who has helped him grow up significantly” . Bear in mind Chris has not made a public appearance since October when he attended Diddy’s Halloween party and his public appearance are few and far between now within the last few years with Royalty in his life. He mainly stay at home or is on the road. Paris fashion week is the first public appearance from him in months. 

The accuser then went on to Instagram to say that she was not raped by Chris and he was not even present at the club that it was claimed that they met. Several eyewitnesses also went to social media to confirm that the allegations were false and that Chris never had an encounter with this woman and that he has never been alone at one point during this Paris trip. (PSA can we you know go to the fucking police to give statements to prove someone is innocent or guilty instead of going to social media because you are screwing with someone’s livelihood here!). Of course the court of public opinion came and gave their two cents on the situation and they pretty much proclaimed that Chris was guilty without looking at the facts. 

Now if you are about to say “well look at 2009?” Yes Chris made a mistake which I don't agree with but we also need to remind/enlighten ourselves that the Rihanna incident was A FIGHT and both parties were wrong. She should have not hit him and he shouldn’t have retaliated. (side note: can we hold women accountable of when they are abusive towards men because there is a serious gender bias when it comes to abuse in relationships and we need to remind ourselves both genders can be abusive). He has also evolved from that and showed genuine remorse for the situation. The majority of social media were on Chris’ side in regards to this situation and he was eventually released from police custody when the French police found out the accusations was false and issued an apology to Chris and told him that he was free to leave the country. Chris’ lawyer has said that he intends to sue for defamation of character rightly so and Chris has also gone to social media to deny the allegation. Chris’ situation sparks several different issues. The first being in regards to social media. It is extremely dangerous and toxic to contribute to a false narrative without looking at the fact especially with a charge as serious as rape and even more the silence upon it being revealed that accusations were false just shows how DISGUSTING people can be since many people wanted this accusations to be true. 

This shows the type of world we live in that people WANT a woman to be raped all the expense of not liking someone. I cannot associate myself with people who think like this when they are actual rapists such as R Kelly who is yet to be charged for his NUMEROUS crimes against underage black girls despite concrete evidence and a tape but yet we can arrest Chris on a false accusation and several eyewitness and hotel footage to show that he didn't commit this crime? Kevin Spacey and Matt Lauer are also rapists who careers have ended but have yet to be charged for the crime despite once again having concrete evidence and eyewitnesses. The president of the United States is also guilty of sexual assault and is on a recording bragging about his crimes like its a badge of honour. Brett Kavanaugh is walking a free man despite also having concrete evidence and eyewitness confirming his crime. Asia Argento, a victim of Harvey Weinstein was discovered to be guilty of sexual abuse after a young man came forward about how he was abused by Asia as a teenager. Harvey Weinstein is awaiting trial for his numerous crimes. Why can't the court of public opinion keep the same energy they had for a man who was innocent for those who are guilty. Secondly in light of the Me too movement, to accuse someone of a crime as serious as rape is extremely dangerous to their career and their character, a person’s life can be destroy at the expense of an opportunist. Additionally to lie about rape is DISGUSTING! This is what stops ACTUAL rape victims from coming forward because we have people who lie about it and the true victims aren't taken as seriously as a result. I would also think in light of the Me Too movement and Surviving R Kelly, people would pay more attention to the facts now before we “cancel” people.  Personally I think that if you lie about a offence as serious as rape, you should go to jail and get sued because you are evil and karma will come to you. What if this your brother or your son or uncle or dad etc who was being accused of this crime? How would you feel if everyone thought they were guilty because of a mistake they made a teenager that has nothing to do with what they were currently accused of? Just think about that for a moment. 

To end this I think Chris deserves an apology, one of them being from Eve after her comments on The Talk and that he should not only sue the women who lied but should sue media outlets such as TMZ and The Shade Room for defamation of character and let's remember this: innocent until proven guilty and look at the facts (in this day and age we really need to do this)

Update: Malibu Dollface made a video pretty much explaining everything I feel about cancel culture. Please watch and support him because he’s amazing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ah4ZfxTqT5s

[fabermemorialrink]

some mistake, part 7

Last part of chapter two! Chowder’s back, and we meet some new friends!

Also, a quick PSA: if I ever screw up with regards to race/gender/sexuality (or anything else), please don’t hesitate to let me know so I can do better! I want everyone to have a positive reading experience. Thanks!!

Chowder’s reaction to Dex bleeding on his shoes was a complex cocktail of fascination and disturbed worry: the cherry on top of a very informative face journey that Derek studied like visual poetry as Dex caught him up to speed. Like Derek, Chowder emphatically refused to stop visiting, which they proved so often that Dex had to kick them out after they skipped a team game night.

More often than not, Derek and Chowder head over to see Dex together, though there are times when one of them is too busy with work to go. Derek loves being part of a trio, but he also appreciates the time he gets to spend with each of his friends individually. Chowder’s roomie is often out and about socializing, so Derek takes to setting up a base camp on C’s floor, where they study and philosophize together. Most questions are open-ended and profound (who would win in a fight, Mr. Rogers or Elmo? would you rather sleep on legos or have a splinter in your tongue?), but the most important question of all cycles back into rotation every few days:

What’s up with Dex and the forest?

Chowder thinks it’s better not to prod, but Derek can’t leave it alone. It’s a secret, but the kind that Dex is willing to entertain guesses about. He archly shoots down Derek’s suggestions that he might be a woodland nymph like the girls, and repeatedly insists that if he had any kind of therianthropy, he would have already shifted and eaten one of Derek’s limbs in annoyance.

It comes up again in conversation when Derek’s helping Dex cut up invasive vines again. Knowing that the forest is alive puts this activity in a new light; Dex tells him that he knows which plants belong to the woods, and which ones the forest considers a threat, so Derek just follows suit and rips out the roots he’s instructed to. There was a lingering uneasiness at the thought of touching the plants again at first, but they’re in the outer ring, where the light filters in, and Dex promises that if anything tries to grab Derek again, he’ll hatchet it right off. Maybe he should be more freaked out, but he can almost feel the truce between himself and the forest now. At the very least, Dex’s presence always makes him feel at ease.

“How’s it going? Not too tough for your delicate poet’s hands, is it?” Dex calls over across the grove. The sleeves of his plaid shirt have been rolled up, and his hatchet and lantern have been put aside next to Derek’s calc homework that Dex was looking over - dangling from the lantern’s wire handle are his crab keychain and a small bottle filled with a rainbow of miniscule origami lucky stars that Chowder gifted him. There’s dirt all over Dex’s knees and hands, but his posture is loose and he seems content. It's a good look for him.

Derek makes an obscene gesture in his direction. Dex wholeheartedly refuses to believe that Derek would ever drop his gloves during a game, citing Derek’s chill masquerade and elegant piano student fingers which would surely shatter on some goon’s cheekbones. Derek’s not big on fighting either, but he resents the implication that he couldn’t at least hold his own to defend his teammates.

“What, you wanna have a go at me?” Dex says with a grin, straightening up to his full height, which is still obnoxiously taller than Derek.

Derek snorts, kicking a clump of roots and dirt toward him. “Don’t go crying to Chowder when I whoop your ass, you skinny bastard.”

“Right, like you wouldn’t trip over your own head while trying to throw a punch. I’m not going to fight you, pretty boy.”

The way he says those words isn’t much different from the Wicked Witch of the West calling Dorothy ‘my pretty,’ but it causes a curl of embarrassment in Derek’s stomach anyway. Dex does this sometimes - calls Derek pretty in that wry tone of his. But it’s not pointedly sarcastic, like the way he gets when he’s intentionally needling Derek about rich people stuff, so Derek is left wondering what it’s supposed to mean. He knows he has nice eyes, and that he’ll hopefully grow into the good facial features he inherited from his parents, but currently, he’s just kind of plain, and full of teenage awkward. Nothing close to pretty.

Still, when Dex says it with a hint of smile Derek’s dumb guts do a strange twisting thing where he thinks they might turn inside out, accompanied by a tightness in his chest from being put on the spot. Not chill. But it's probably good for him to get it out of his system now, in preparation for the far future when someone really does compliment him so he doesn't look like a total loser.

Still, it always gives him a second of pause, throwing a hiccup into his thought process and leaving him scrambling for words, like now. “Are you a witch?” he winds up asking, apropos of nothing, still stuck on the thought of Dex zooming around on a broomstick and cursing young girls from Kansas.

“Am I a witch,” Dex repeats, raising an eyebrow. Derek almost goes to change the subject, then thinks on it a moment, and decides he actually does want to hear the answer to this.

“Yeah, or a wizard? Or whatever the preferred terminology is.”

Dex’s brow wrinkles, and he shakes his head like Derek is a particularly foolish child. “I’m not a witch, Nursey. Where’d you get that idea from?”

“Never mind. Are you a cryptid?”

“What-”

“Animals or creatures known only through anecdotal evidence, like the sasquatch, or-”

“I know what a fuckin’ cryptid is, you dope, but I’m not some kind of goat man-”

Derek chuckles at the expression Dex is sporting. He looks utterly offended. “I was thinking more like the Dover Demon? Glowing orange eyes, weird-ass hands…”

“You’re dead to me,” Dex laughs. And he pointedly ignores Derek for the next ten minutes until Derek literally jumps on him. He successfully catches him, arms wrapped tight around Derek’s middle, but keels over when his knees give out.

So, no progress on that end, but Derek isn’t going to forget about it anytime soon.

Winter is wild and blustery this year, and Dex decides they can’t meet his friends until after all the snow has passed. Derek tries asking a few times, but Dex always buries his face in Derek’s latest history essay and starts commenting loudly in order to ignore him. There finally comes a day in February where Derek and Chowder show up on Dex’s figurative doorstep bundled to the nines and freshly brewed bribery hot chocolate. The snow isn’t anything more than a crisp flatbread layer under their boots (which Dex has also bled all over) but he still glares crossly at them nonetheless, trying to shoo them back to the dorms until they force feed him some hot chocolate.

“Dex. Bro. French Vanilla Truffle. Extra marshmallows.”

“Alright, fine, fine, get in here.” Dex finally concedes after he swallows three boiling marshmallows whole.

They stop by a spring that begins in the inner ring, though the other end of the water seems to disappear into a haze of shade and foliage. The water is frosted over in shattered panes of ice; Dex crouches down at the embankment and cards his fingers through the weeds as he peers under the surface, but stands shortly after and waves them along.

“She’s not in right now. We’ll have to catch her another day,” he says, and switches on his lantern.

Derek and Chowder link arms when they enter the heart, taking care to follow Dex carefully. Today, the heart is less terrifying, giving off just an aura of general unwelcomeness, but Dex’s steps are sure as ever, like he’s walked this unmarked non-path over the roots and through the maze of trunks a thousand times. They have to readjust to the wildlife noises again, but what’s even weirder is the sound that Derek finally notices coming out of Dex.

It starts off as a kind of uneven hum, but builds up to faint words he can hear when he concentrates.

“Interplanet Janet, she's a galaxy girl…”

“Are you singing Schoolhouse Rock?” Derek asks, trying not to sound as horribly giddy as he feels. He can get Dex to sing with him sometimes: mostly classic rock and Beyonce and pop hits from the mid-aughts. But Dex rarely begins on his own, no matter how much Derek waxes lyrical about his nice voice, which aggrieves Derek to no end.

Dex freezes for a split second, then keeps walking like it never happened. “Uh. It’s been stuck in my head for a while.” Probably since Chowder first started complaining about his independent science paper about new planets, Derek guesses.

“Oh, the grammar ones are the best! I like the adverb song,” Chowder says, starting to hum the starting notes.

Derek can practically see the shock of discomfort running through Dex’s spine, like electricity through a live wire. “It’s catchy, but a little too barbershop for me…”

“Oh my god, they’re not even a quartet,” Derek says in exasperation.

“Still…”

“What about Conjunction Junction?” C suggests next, which Dex agrees easily too, and then they’re off, Dex in a pitchy falsetto and Chowder’s tenor lowered to a raspy growl. Derek holds his breath, not trusting himself not to say something dumb and provoke them into stopping. Chowder has a way of getting Dex to do things that Derek never could in a hundred lifetimes, probably because C has secret mutant powers of persuasiveness and friendship and undetectable bullshittery.

Their duet continues into “Do the Circulation,” complete with Chowder spinning Dex around on his arm in a sloppy swing-dance, and Derek curses the forest gods and anyone else listening for not letting his fucking phone work out here, because when else will he ever get the chance to record this masterpiece? They both just look so charmingly happy, and Derek’s heart swells with it.

He almost forgets where they are until the darkness lightens slightly and the smog of flora opens up into a tiny clearing with a cottage nestled right in the center. It’s the very picture of a stereotypical fairy-tale cottage, covered in climbing ivy and magenta blossoms, built of gray stonework and wooden accents, complete with curved roof tiles and wall mounted lanterns that light the area with a homey glow.

“Uh,” Chowder says, mouth falling open. “So how many houses are hidden in this pocket dimension forest?”

“Not as many as you think,” Dex says, releasing Chowder’s arm, and turning to make sure he doesn’t lose Derek before they enter the house. “Bits? You home? I brought my friends,” he calls, rapping his knuckles against the heavy wood door.

“Come on in!” comes the response, with a slight southern lilt.

Dex pushes the door open and lets the other two in first. The inside is just as adorably quaint as expected from the outside, with a fireplace in the den, cacti on the windowsills and bundles of dried herbs hanging from the ceiling, and an enormous kitchen where a very busy blond is hustling back and forth, his arms cradling a glass bowl. The scent of peaches and sugar fills the brightly lit room, and Dex directs Derek and C to sit on a plump gingham couch in front of the fire. Right after they sit, Derek catches sight of three strange objects bobbing their way through the air toward them.

“Um,” Derek says. “I’m not imagining that, right?” He elbows Chowder, who turns to gape at what is apparently a few glasses of iced tea floating their way.

“Y’all like tea, don’t you? And I don’t mean that gritty, bitter nonsense you serve up here-”

“Sweet tea sounds great,” Derek says automatically as a glass settles into his confused hands. Dex catches his own, and guides the last glass into Chowder’s grasp, the other boy being too dazed still to do anything but stare in the direction of the kitchen, where whisks and butter and sugar are spinning in a waltz around Bitty. On the counter, peaches fall neatly into segments, pits falling to the side. Flour begins threading through the air like a curtain of snowfall, obscuring their sight for a moment before it settles down into his bowl, the whisk still dancing.

“Thanks, Bitty,” Dex says, jolting Chowder back to reality. He calls out a thanks as well, before chugging half his glass in one go, and sinking deeper into the couch.

Derek sips slowly at the tea in silence as he starts to piece together the scene before them. Flying objects usually means magic. And magic means...

“Wait a second- Bitty’s a witch? Didn’t you say witches didn’t exist?” he asks, whirling on Dex, who’s leaning casually against the wall.

Dex and Bitty share a look, then a short laugh at Derek’s expense. “I just said I wasn’t a witch. You made your own inferences from that. Wrong ones.”

Bitty shakes his head, sending his bowl to settle gently on the counter with a wave of his hand. “Oh, Dex, you didn’t tell them? Wait just a second, I’ll be right over,” he says while hurrying to wash his hands at the sink.

“Nah, Bits, I thought maybe you’d wanna show ‘em yourself. Though, I think you kinda already have.”

Dex smiles briefly as Bitty dashes around his kitchen in a flurry, before turning back to Derek, who makes meaningful Eye Contact with him, but all he does is scrunch his mouth and shrug.

“What?” he mouths silently back, and Derek throws his hands in the air. Chowder continues to be slowly absorbed by the couch.

Bitty finally arrives, holding three pies in his arms. “Now, Dex never did tell me what your favorite pies are, so we’ll have to make do with these for today, but I promise I'll have something special for you boys next time you come around.” He places the pies - French silk, lemon meringue, and apple - on the table, then waves his hand absently toward the kitchen, summoning plates and silverware.

“I didn't want you flipping out and making a thousand pies. You know you always over-bake when you know guests are coming. Anyway, it's rhubarb for Nursey and honey walnut for Chowder.”

In short order, Derek and Chowder learn that Bitty is much, much older than looks, definitely a witch, and quite possibly the greatest piemaker in all of New England. Bitty preens under their compliments, and has no trouble answering the barrage of questions they pelt him with, or dodging them with practiced southern flair, but he’s much more interested in learning about “Dex’s darling little friends.”

Dex has to finally excuse them so they can leave the forest before it gets dark, but they don’t escape without each of them taking a pie for the road and the promise to return again soon. Bitty starts rattling off all the sweaters and birthday mini pies they’re going to get, and Dex has to physically drag Chowder out the door, since he’s too amiable and polite to know how to leave Bitty’s orbit.

Derek is stopped on his way out by a strong hand to his elbow, and he’s afraid (slash hopeful) that Bitty is going to try and unload another pie on him, but he only gives Derek a smile.

“I just wanted to thank you two for being such good friends to our Dex. I know he can be a bit cantankerous, but I think you’ve really brought him out of his shell, Nursey. All of us in here have noticed just how much he talks about the two of you. I’m glad we could finally meet.”

His approval feels significant, like Derek’s passed some sort of test. Derek swallows, and offers his sincerest smile back. “Thanks, Bitty. He’s- he’s one of us. He’s my best friend.” There’s more he wants to say, but from the way Bitty nods, it seems like he understands even without words.

Dex introduces them to The Falconer and her boys a few days later. She lives in a house on a small outcropping at the edge of the heart, her flock scattered in trees and small satellite houses nearby, except J, who resides with Bitty when he isn’t transformed.

She shakes Derek’s hand with a firm grip, and he trusts her instinctively. Something about her brown eyes and messy bun give her an aura of put-together trustworthiness, and from the way she handles Tater when he swoops down to land on her shoulder, it’s for good reason.

“Only J is actually a falcon,” Dex explains as they sit on her porch watching J and Tater circle each other in the air in the more open space of the inner ring. “Tater’s a white-tailed eagle. Snowy’s a snowy owl.”

“Wow, wonder where he got the nickname,” Chowder snorts, and Dex grins.

“Yeah. There used to be a few others - Thirdy, Marty -  but their curses ended, so they left. Marty, at least, was also a falcon, so that’s where she gets the title, I guess.”

“So they’re just cursed? For thirteen years? Because of some old family bullshit from like a zillion years ago?” Chowder tries to clarify, and Dex nods.

“Something like that. I never really got the specifics, but yeah, it’s like some primogeniture fairy curse thing. The Falconer’s been watching over them in here for decades now, so they always send the next in line back here to roost when he transforms for the first time.”

“And no one’s ever looked into breaking this curse?” Derek asks, raising an eyebrow when Dex just draws his knees up to his chest and makes a non-committal noise.

“Some curses can't be broken.”

“No way, dude. Every clause has a loophole. Every bad deal has a way out. And every curse should be breakable. Otherwise, how could we ever hold onto hope?”

“How could we,” Dex echoes, staring up at the loose feathers that flutter down like errant flakes of snow.

They meet the flock over the course of several days, since their human hours don’t always align with daylight. J, as a human, is reserved and broadly Canadian, but there’s a quiet warmth in his eyes that really comes out when he’s with Bitty. Tater is gregarious and friendly, Snowy more calm and settled, but none of them hesitate to gently chirp Dex when he makes introductions, spouting off things like “finally, we are meeting Dex’s frogs!” and “so this is who you’ve been skipping flight practice to hang out with, eh?”.

“I can’t even fly!” Dex exclaims, and J laughs, leaving the room to help Bits in the kitchen.

“That’s why you shouldn’t skip practice,” Snowy says through a bite of honey walnut pie, and Dex flings a fork at him. It stops in mid-air, accompanied by a “what did I tell you about throwing my good silverware?” from Bitty.

Dex mumbles an apology and sinks back into the couch between Derek and C.

“Hey, why are we your frogs?” Chowder asks, and Dex coughs awkwardly and takes a sip of his tea before explaining.

“Uh, there was a year I rescued some frog eggs and watched over them that spring.”

“Dex watches tadpoles like mother hen, every day sitting at Lardo’s pond,” Tater says, crouching on the rug to imitate Dex staring into the water.

Dex ignores Chowder’s “d’awwww” and mutters out, “Yeah, so now they call any of my rescues ‘frogs’. And you guys are, like, the frogs, I guess. The rest are just people I helped back out.”

“That’s mad adorable. Frogs, C, how about that?”

“It is adorable,” C agrees. Dex buries his face in his hands and they slide in toward him to sandwich him on the couch more securely.

“This was a terrible idea,” he mutters as Chowder rests his head on his shoulder and Derek steals the rest of his coconut cream pie.

Terrible idea or not, Dex does reluctantly bring them to meet the nymphs when winter starts to fade into spring. Camilla, an athletic blonde dryad with a wry sense of humor, shows them her tree: a towering, conical red spruce. Dex points out the nearby tree that J accidentally damaged that time he changed back to a human while perched on a thin branch.

April’s grove of yellow birches is located in the far end of Lardo’s spring, the bare grass underfoot dotted with translucent violet flowers. She regards them sternly as Dex introduces her as a nymph of groves, “not a dryad,” as she emphatically insists.

“Oh, like an alseid?” Derek asks.

“Yeah, actually,” April says, looking almost impressed, her pretty mouth curving with a hint of a smile.

“Of course you would know that,” Dex says.

And Lardo, she whose bro-itude holds no parallel, they finally meet on a slow afternoon after midterms. She emerges halfway from the water to meet them, resting her arms on the bank.

“Your old frogs were cuter,” she says brightly, leaning her cheek against one hand.

“They're plenty cute,” Dex tells her automatically, then pauses, squints, and changes his mind. “No, sorry, you were right. These two are...eh.” He makes an ambivalent motion with his hand, and Lardo nods sagely.

“Disrespectful to say that,” Chowder scoffs, “when you have two of Andover’s most eligible bachelors gracing you with their presence all the time.”

“He’s been over-exposed,” Derek says. “Kinda hurts my feelings, honestly.”

“Well, when you two dreamboats are done complaining, Lardo can give us a tour.” Dex rolls his eyes when Derek tries his best smolder on him and gives him a gentle shove.

Lardo is sweet and sharply funny, and much more knowledgeable about art and literature than Derek would’ve expected from a naiad. Dex explains after another visit that almost all of the forest’s denizens can leave, though whether they want to varies from person to person. The flock tends to travel together, just in case one of them transforms out of cycle. None of the nymphs can travel more than a few miles from their true bodies, but it’s enough to be able to go to the library or the movie theater. They never do meet Jenny or Mandy; all Dex will tell Derek is “they’re around somewhere” whenever he asks.

Over the remainder of sophomore year, they hang out with Dex’s friends several more times. Derek doesn’t know when he starts noticing it, but it feels like he understands Dex better now, after seeing who he is when he’s with the others. It’s not that Dex is a different person, but some of that always present distance that even Derek can’t close disappears when they’re in the heart with his friends.

It’s to be expected, he supposes. They’ve known him longer than Derek has, but still, he wonders when they’ll reach the day when Dex will feel as free around him. Not as long he feels he has secrets he needs to keep, but Derek won’t press it. As it is, he appreciates how much more open Dex already is, now that he and Chowder know about the woods. It feels like they've grown closer.

“What is it? My hair weird or something?” Dex asks when he catches Derek looking one day. He'd just been laughing about something April muttered under her breath as J walked by. Derek had been transfixed for a moment, watching the soft lamplight of Bitty’s porch lanterns casting bronze over Dex’s face while a wheezing cackle escaped his mouth. It's an extremely stupid noise, but it's endearingly free, and Derek feels for a moment like there are no more walls standing between them. Here he is, light-hearted and golden in the darkest part of the woods, and Derek can almost see all of him.

“Nah, just thought I saw a bug,” Derek lies, and Dex frowns.

“Ugh, mosquitoes,” he says, annoyed. “You might want to start wearing bug spray; they're relentless out here, and you have a scratching problem. Better to prepare now, or we’ll have to spend all summer slathering calamine lotion on you.”

Derek agrees absently, thinking about how odd it is that a flower can bloom in the darkness.

When the year ends, Derek returns to the city with a promise to come back with cotton candy, since Dex hasn't had any for well over a decade.

Over the summer, Derek finds himself missing them more than usual. He's overseas with mama for a good chunk of vacation, and doesn't have the chance this year to visit Chowder. August feels like it drags on, and though he loves hanging out with his New York friends, he can't help but wonder what Dex is up to for the summer. At least he can call and skype C, though their time zone difference and Chowder’s bizarre summer sleep schedule make it difficult sometimes.

But Dex could be doing anything. On the nights when no one else is in the apartment but himself, Derek wishes more than ever he could convince Dex to come see him. Maybe he could help cure that guilty brand of loneliness that afflicts Derek even when he's surrounded by people.

Maybe Dex will finally feel like he can be all of himself around Derek.

[brxknqce-blog]

Rules

1. This blog is:

Semi-Selective: Everyone is welcome to follow, however I might be a bit choosy about whom to follow back. IM and inbox are openfor everyone though, so feel free to drop by.

Multiship: I’m a shipping whore and open to any sort of relationship, from platonic to romantic. If you’re interested in shipping, ask away. In the off-chance I say no to a ship, please DO NOT try and force a ship. In Canon Verses, romantic relationships will be exclusively with Akira Kurusu / Persona 5 Protagonist muses, both male and female. With the way I write him, I can’t really see this muse falling for anyone else but Akira in those verses. Regarding platonic relationships and AU Verses, however, consider this blog multiship. I headcanon my muse as homosexual, so romantic ship will occur only with other male muses (the only exception are fem!Akira muses).

Multiverse: Interactions with different muses tak place in a different verse, unless it’s agreed between muns to have a group RPs in which multiple muses interact with each other in the same verse, or the mun has a multimuse blog or various rp blogs and wants to have their muses interact with mine in the same verse. Same goes with shipping, each ship takes place in a different verse, so there’sno cheating involved.

OC-Friendly: OCs and Self-Insert muses are more than welcome! There’s an entire verse dedicated to Persona OCs, so if you want to join the party, feel free to, you’ll be welcomes with open arms!

Crossover-Friendly: Muses from diffeent fandoms are more than welcome here as well. I might take a little longer to follow back in case I’m not familiar with the fandom it comes from (see rule #20 for fandoms I’m familiar with). Like above, there is an entire verse for Crossover characters, especially if you have a Persona 5 AU verse.

NOT Ship-Exclusive: If we ship our muses together, you’re not obliged to be exclusive with me, especially given my muse being an AU. You’re free to ship with whoever you want to, and that includes other Goro muses. It’s fun to see how differently a muse interact with the same individual roleplayed by someone else. 

2. I’m 21+ and open to RP smut, which will be tagged and put under ‘read more’ if necessary, as long as the other mun is at least 18+ and comfortable with it as well. At the same time, I’m more thanokay if you’re not comfortable with smut, just let me know.

3. If I say no to a ship, please don’t try and force said ship on me.

4. I’m not much comfortable with teenage/adult romantic relationships. There might be exception to this rule if our muses seem to have good chemistry, but by default my muse’s relationships with adult muses will be strictly platonic. Even in case it were to become a romantic ship, I’d rather the age different be no more than 10 years between our muses.

5. No godmodding (controlling my muse yourself) unless we both discussed the plot of the thread/RP via IM beforehand and you know how my muse would act in that specific situation.

6. No metagaming (using knowledge of someone’s muse that a character has no way of knowing) outside of dash commentaries.

7. Do not reblog my OOC posts, Rules, About, Verses, Headcanons, Tag Dump etc. or threads you’re not involved into. Seriously, it's annoying as hell, so do. Not. Do. It!

8. IM and inbox are open for anyone, be it for plotting, asking random questions IC or OOC or just chatting and getting to know each other. I love to plot and chat via IM/Discord and will not hesitate randomly popping into your IM/inbox. You have been duly warned ^^

9. Speaking of which, I’m okay with RPing via Tumblr IM and Discord as well. If we’re mutuals, feel free to ask for my Discord-ID. It’s easier to reach me there than on Tumblr.

10. I don’t care about reply length, just write whatever you feel like. Mun is perfectly okay with one-liners, para, multi-para and drabble-length replies, whichever floats your boat.

11. When you reply to a thread/RP, please tag it with this blog URL if you can so I can be notified when you reply, since she happened to have lost threads because either her or her RP partner missed each other’s reply.

12. Please let me know if you want to drop a thread or RP, and at the same time I will let you know if I want to drop a thread or RP.

13. Triggers will surely be present given the game rating, the muse and the setting of this blog and will be tagged accordingly as ‘tw:’ (ex. tw: blood). Trigger warnings will be tagged even if mentioned. If you have a specific trigger you’d like to have tagged, just ask away.

14. Speaking of triggers, I don’t really have any, although I get uncomfortable about topics like divorce, child abuse/neglect and domestic violence. They’re not triggers for me, but I’d be grateful if you could still tag them for me.Thank you in advance.

15. I’m also not really comfortable RPing angst. Hurt/comfort is okay and my go-to type of thread, but angst isn’t really my cup of tea. Given the blog’s contents, it might be present, but I’ll tend to keep it down to a minimun unless I really feel it and the thread calls for it.

16. I’m always happy to turn asks into threads, so feel free to let me know if you’d like to turn a specific ask into one.

17. This is not a spoiler-free blog, given it takes place after one of the game’s endings and reveals major endgame spoilers, and spoilers will be left untagged unless they’re in regard to another fandom. To avoid non-Persona spoilers, look for the rivers in the desert [spoilers] tag.

18. No hounding/pressuring for replies/answers. I won’t do the same with you and asks the same courtesy from you. If I haven’t replied for a while, you’re welcome to ask me via IM. Chances are I’m busy with real life (I’m an university student currently finishing my last batch of exams necessary to get my degree), my computer/phone don’t work, I need more time to come up with a proper reply or I’m working on my other RP blogs. If you don’t find me there, you’ll surely find me over at my personal blog, @delphine-le-dauphin.

19. I’m up to interacting with duplicates, so if you’re another Goro mun and want to interact, you’ll be welcomed with open arms. I love multiverse mayhem XD

20. Regarding crossovers, here’s some of the fandoms I’m into and know very/decently well:

Harry Potter

Pokemon (mainly games)

Other Persona games (including spin-offs such as Arena/Arena Ultimax and Dancing All Night)

Ace Attorney (the whole series, including Investigations, except for Phoenix Wright vs Professor Layton)

Fairy Tail

Naruto

Artemis Fowl

Danganronpa

Ouran High School Host Club

X-Men Movies

Marvel Cinematic Universe

Lollipop Chainsaw

Ace Attorney (this one I’m still getting acquainted to though)

21. I headcanon my muse as an abuse survivor that went through various forms of abuse (emotional, physical, sexual...) in his backstory, so be warned that there might be mentions of rape / sexual assault, child abuse / neglect and bullying, always tagged as explained in rule #13, but never explicit scenes, as I myself don’t like writing / RPing such scenes.

22. For more rules / psas, look for the oasis in a singer land [psa] tag.

[notanicequeen-blog]

Bookworm Reviews: Go Ask Alice

Guest starring my cat, because hoping to keep her out of frame is a very naive hope.

Apologies for... wobbliness. One of these days I will figure it out.

Transcript under the cut.

Hi! I'm Elsa. And this is a bookworm.

Today I'll be reviewing Go Ask Alice. According to the book cover it's by ~*~Anonymous~*~, but about thirty seconds of digging reveals that it's by Beatrice Sparks, who made something of a hobby out of publishing fake diaries of troubled teenage girls and then trying to pass them off as the real deal. A pretty disingenuous move, but whatever, it's a bit late to complain. The book came out in 1971. Either way, I'm not a fan. Both of that specific marketing choice, and of the book in general. We'll get to that.

Like I said, it's presented in the form of a diary. Despite the popular assumption that the diary belongs to Alice, while we know the diarist was a teenage girl--she was fourteen when she started keeping the diary--we don't actually KNOW her name. There is a vague allusion that her name might be Carla, but she never says her name outright, and the only Alice in the book is a different character entirely who only shows up briefly. Granted, a few adaptations and various different cover blurbs have only encouraged people to think that the diarist's name is Alice, so it may as well be.

That also bothers me, if you hadn't guessed. The book is not actually written in anything approaching the way I would envision a real teenage girl to write in her diary, so I'm pretty sure her name could have been worked into it with only a modicum of added clumsiness. Then again, giving her an actual name probably would have made it easier for people to figure out that it wasn't a real diary. Kudos to Beatrice for covering her tracks.

Anyway! Summary. I'm supposed to do that.

So, whats-her-name starts keeping a diary, initially about the general things you'd expect a teenage girl to keep a diary about. Her family moves when her dad gets a new job, though she goes back to her original hometown to stay with her grandparents for summer, and she goes to a party where she has a very pleasant LSD trip after unwittingly drinking spiked soda. Encouraged by that initial experience, she mingles with some of the partygoers more in the future, does more drugs, and then loses her virginity while tripping on LSD. From there, due to various related and unrelated worries in her life, she winds up hooked on sleeping pills.

She befriends a girl named Chris and the two of them date college boys, deal drugs for those college boys, and then run away together when they realize those college boys are just using them. In San Francisco, Chris gets a job at a boutique, and despite the girls' determination to stay clean, they start taking drugs again and get introduced to heroin courtesy of Chris's boss Sheila and Sheila's boyfriend. After being sexually assaulted by Sheila and her boyfriend, the diarist and Chris run off to Berkeley, where they start up a jewelry shop, because I guess that's something two teenage girls can just… DO. Pretty well, as it turns out. But despite their success, they decide they miss their families and go home.

Despite their determination to stay clean (again), peer pressure and family trouble leads to them relapsing, and then they're on probation when they're caught in a police raid. The diarist runs away again, hitchhiking for a while, prostituting herself to pay for drugs, and being homeless for a while until a priest gets her back to her family. Once again she's determined to stay clean, though she faces hostility from former friends for that decision. When she calls the parents of one of those former friends because she showed up high to babysit, her former friends threaten her, harass her and her family, and drug her against her will. Her resulting bad trip leads to both physical and mental damage, and she's sent to a psych ward until her dad can prove that her recent trip was forced upon her and not done of her own volition.

Once she's home, things seem to be going well! She's getting along with her family. She has new friends. She has a boyfriend. And now we're going to get to why I hate this book. So, I'll warn you in advance: I'm about to read the last two pages of the book to you.

[BOOK EXCERPT: I'm scared witless inside about going back to school but in my head I know it's going to be all right because I have Joel and my new super straight friends and they'll help me. Besides I'm much stronger than I used to be. I know I am. I used to think I would get another diary after you are filled, or even that I would keep a diary or journal through my whole life. But now I don't really think I will. Diaries are great when you're young. In fact, you saved my sanity a hundred, thousand, million times. But I think when a person gets older she should be able to discuss her problems and thoughts with other people, instead of just with another part of herself as you have been to me. Don't you agree? I hope so, for you are my dearest friend and I shall thank you always for sharing my tears and heartaches and my struggles and strifes, and my joys and happinesses. It's all been good in its own special way, I guess. See ya.

The subject of this book died three weeks after her decision not to keep another diary. Her parents came home from a movie and found her dead. They called the police and the hospital but there was nothing anyone could do. Was it an accidental overdose? A premeditated overdose? No one knows, and in some ways that question isn't important. What must be of concern is that she died, and that she was only one of thousands of drug deaths that year.]

Don't get me wrong, I'm not upset that she died. I'm upset that it came right the fuck out of nowhere. The book was an enormous anti-drug PSA, but rather than show us that horror show up until the end, rather than letting us watch her fall apart until there was nothing left, the author turned into a chicken shit and pussed out, and gave us the laziest, least satisfying ~*~LOOK HOW TRAGIC~*~ epilogue I have ever seen. I hate this book, and it is largely because of these last two pages.

Granted, those two pages aside, it's not really a GOOD book by any means. It's preachy and ham-fisted and awkward. The writing is clumsy and clunky. It has a point to make and it drives that point home with the grace and subtlety of a flying toolbox. Plus, the fact that it's a diary means that only the diarist really gets any characterization. But despite all of that, I was rooting for her by the end. I wanted her to either put her life back together, or go down kicking and screaming.

And then the author shit on it.

Don't read this book. It's not worth it. There are better written, less insulting anti-drug PSAs if that's what you really want. Go read Theories of Relativity by Barbara Haworth-Attard.