#out of everyone who is going to be affected poc are going to be hit the hardest

[spaciebabie]

im seeing a lot of "queer people dont kill yourselves" posts and yes, i agree but also poc folks dont kill yourselves. you're needed in this space just as much as the white folks are. we will get through this hand in hand together

[userparamore]

hi! genuine question - why is it a disappointment that pmore performed at eras tour? i’m very neutral on taylor swift so i don’t really know the issues surrounding it. thank you in advance ❤️

i'm no taylor swift stan so i don't really want to, or have the energy to mention everything. but from a paramore fan perspective it's disappointing bc it's makes them come across as hypocrites. i've talked about this before and i don't want to get into it again but they've spoken up about climate change, hayley even jokes about root being about our planet "running out of time", they've partenered with REVERB on their this why tour (which i guess is a little greenwashing-ish but better than nothing). but this ends up being ungenuine when you tour with the artist who releases the most co2 emission out of every celebrity. the fact that she sued the kid who called her out for this, i think says alot about her as a person. paramore preaches about the shows being a safe place for everyone; all poc and lgbtq+. but then they tour with the prime example of white feminism, who only speaks up/comments on things if it affects her. and again with paramore claiming to be more political during the this is why album cycle, and expressed multiple times how important the diversity of their fans are etc. it does not seem genuine when they're praising an artist like taylor swift as much as they have been doing. i think that saying of: if you want to know someone, just look at who they choose to spend their time with, is very true.

another part of this and i think this is probably the biggest one for paramore fans in general is that the tours during this is why didn't include europe mainland (or asia). they toured only in uk&ireland for this is why, and then in interviews said they did an european tour. is the european tour in the room with us now? anyway, the last european mainland tour was jan 2018, and had only 3 dates that wasn't in the uk out of 8. so the last real european tour was summer 2017 with 18 dates. 6 of them was in the uk&ireland and 4 of the rest of the european dates were festivals leaving only 8 "real" concerts in mainland europe. lots of the countries on the eras tours, like italy, poland, switzerland etc paramore haven't played in over a decade (aka during the self-titled era). to have waited this long for them to tour and then for it to cost close to 400 dollars for a nosebleed ticket, if you even get a ticket, does not feel great. another thing is that for some of these countries paramore have made 2 albums since the last time they toured, and they've never had the opportunity to hear any of the songs from those albums live. as the opener act on the eras tour, paramore played 9 song. most of these were their greatest hits. as a paramore fan you obviously want to go to a concert to see them perform, but for that amount of money i think it's reasonable to want to hear other songs than still into you, ain't it fun and misery business. the setlist was catered to reach non-fans, and that's fine honestly, it would probably be worse for them to play songs "nobody" had heard, than the one's that had commercial success and makes them be able to have some crowd interaction.

either way, i don't think people would've been as disappointed by this tour if they had also announced an solo european tour. the argument that this will get them new fans and make them a bigger name doesn't hold water in my opinion bc paramore are already a big band. they're already a band who can sell out tours and big venues on their own.

[kittyt-hexxed]

Book Two of Hexed - The Fury of Zaun (Vi × POC!Reader) - Ch.22

Act 2: Chapter Twenty-Two: A Happier Time

Warnings:Vi uses a gun, fun before shit hits the fan, hanging with siblings, the fearsome four, Vi’s Birthday

Summary: Vi’s birthday comes around faster than planned so you decide to surprise her with some fun!

Jinx’s birthday passed, and she rambled about all the fun she had with Vi for a week. She even confessed that she didn’t mind her sister calling her Powder and that it felt nice to hear her name after so long. You were relieved they finally got to see each other after so long. You had scolded her for not warning you about her visit to the Kiramman’s home but didn’t hold it against her. After all, you knew that sparkle in her eyes would dull the moment she sequestered herself in her workshop. With their connection restored, Jinx would be thinking about her issue with the shimmer more than ever. It was also plaguing your mind, but you couldn’t focus on it.

You were in the thick of winter and still dealing with the effects of the snow on the city. Thankfully, everyone at least had a thick blanket and proper clothes for the cold. People were huddled up in homes together as there weren’t enough places yet. It was on the list of things to do once the ground unfroze. The citizens had wanted to begin now, but you refused to let them. Neither you nor Sevika wanted anyone getting injured or dying due to the cold slowing their movements down. You were relieved that there was enough space to go for now.

With such a busy time, you couldn’t resume your dates with Vi. You tried not to let it affect you, but it got you a little sad. Your work in the brothel kept you occupied as well, with more people craving the warmth of another’s touch or to shake off the loneliness of the gloomy weather. Some people just wanted a cozy place to curl up for an hour and you were happy to oblige. Running the city was hard work, but you couldn’t be happier.

That also includes your continued business relationship with Renata. The older woman was a breath of fresh air when she treated you like a normal person and not Zaun’s leader. You were lounging in her bed, wrapped up in silk sheets as she ran a hand down your spine. Your body was buzzing from the afterglow that came with being intimate with her. Coming down from that high reminded you why people were so eager to fill up your books.

“Do you have any plans for the day?” Renata questions as she watches you sit up and stretch. The silk blanket fell back onto the bed and grabbed your attention briefly before you looked at her.

“Today is my lover’s birthday.” You say, feeling a little giddy upon saying those words, “I’m planning on taking her out somewhere to relax.”

“You should get going, then.” Renata snaps her fingers and the door opens. Gloria walks in with a bright smile and a change of clothes for you.

“Good morning, Y/n.” Gloria greets you, handing over the clothes you keep at the manor.

“Good morning, Gloria.” You greet her back, standing up to get dressed, “How is your brother? Keeping his hands clean?”

“As clean as they can be. I still catch him with the occasional necklace.” She huffs, earning her a chuckle from Renata.

“He hasn’t caught the Enforcer’s attention yet, and that’s what matters.” You flash her a smile, buttoning up your pants and straightening your shirt out. You promised to meet Ekko and Jinx outside of the Enforcer’s HQ. A risky plan that felt like tempting the beast, but the only person who knew Jinx was Jinx was Caitlyn. Besides, it gave Jinx a thrill to walk around Piltover in plain sight without getting recognized. You said goodbye to the two women with Renata telling you not to pass up a moment alone with Vi. You laughed and told her you’d take the chance if one appeared. Thanks to Renata being aware of your abilities, there was a secret room in the manor that you were able to rift out of. It only took you a few moments before you were emerging on a Piltoven rooftop overlooking the Enforcer’s HQ.

“Hey, sis!” Ekko greets you from above. You look up and see him sitting on his hoverboard, Jinx perched on his lap. You raise an eyebrow at them, earning you identical grins from the duo.

“You two seem cuddly.” You state, watching Jinx hop down so Ekko can land.

“I got bored so I asked him to spin me in circles.” Jinx says, obviously lying.

“Uh, huh.” You nod, pretending to believe her. Although the look they give you shows that they know what you’re doing. Neither of them had yet to admit their feelings for the other but it was painfully obvious. But, you weren’t going to mettle in their business. There was a reason they haven’t come forward and you wanted them to do it on their own time. After all, they gave you and Vi that space when you were younger. The brief memory of them spying on you in the hallways makes you chuckle.

“So, do we know if she’s inside?” You question, moving to the edge of the roof.

“She walked in ten minutes ago and hasn’t left.” Ekko says, looking at his watch, “Caitlyn left two minutes ago so she’s in there without her.”

“And, I’ve got her cake!” Jinx holds up a small eight-inch cake that she had got up early to bake.

“Great! Let’s go.” You grin and make your way down the building with the two. You walk across the street to the building, careful to not run into anyone on the way. With the Treasury being gone, more people were out and about doing other tasks that would have been fulfilled by the workers there. You felt slightly bad about the workers not having their jobs, but it was one step to quality for everyone. Besides, it would keep them safe once the war broke out. The Treasury would have been an obvious target once it started.

The Enforecer’s HQ was a gaudy building meant to stand out from all of the others around it. A few enforcers littered the front steps smoking cigarettes or nursing a cup of coffee while they talked to the ones smoking. It screamed that law enforcement worked there. Once entering the building there was a wave of heat that had you unzipping your coat. The Enforcer at the front desk gave you a firm look as you stopped in front of him. As if he expected you to start causing trouble where you stood. You have to center yourself so you don’t throw a dagger at his face.

“Can I help you kids?” He looks at you with an annoyed expression.

“I have an appointment with Vi. Private information, I’m afraid.” You say sweetly, trying to keep a straight face knowing that the two behind you are trying hard to keep themselves from snickering. The Enforcer’s face morphs from annoyed to nervous and he nods his head.

“Sorry, I didn’t realize she had any appointments.” He clears his throat, leaning down to press something, “Her desk is all the way to the left once you go through those doors. She’s right in front of the Sheriff’s door.”

“Thank you.” You flash him a smile before walking through the door he indicated. You wrinkle your nose at the strong smell of coffee as you do, raising an eyebrow at the sheer mess in front of you. All of the desks were littered with piles of papers, some even on the floors while Enforcers worked at their stations or talked to each other. You head to the left, aware of the Enforcers’ gazes on you as you do. There seemed to be more of them the closer you got to Vi’s area. It wasn’t difficult to spot the woman with her hair being a beacon for those who knew her.

A soft smile made its way onto your lips as you watched her work. A pen twirled in one of her hands as she wrote on a piece of paper with the other. It didn’t take a genius to see that she was bored out of her mind. She didn’t even bother to look up as you stood in front of her desk. Not until Jinx placed the cake onto the desk and over the paper she had been so focused on. Her head jerked up, her gaze landing on her sister first, “Powder?!” Vi gasped and her gaze moved to you and Ekko. He waved at her, a smirk on his face that matched yours.

“Ekko?! Y/n?!” Vi’s eyes looked like they might pop out of her head.

“HAPPY BIRTHDAY!” All three of you shouted at the top of your lungs. Vi was out of her chair so fast that it fell over with a loud thud, but the sound didn’t phase her. She shouted happily as she threw her arms around the three of you. You yelped as she squeezed you together in a tight hug that you knew would leave a bruise.

“Vi!” Ekko wheezes, “My ribs!”

“Shit. Sorry, Little Man.” Vi curses, letting you go but her grin doesn’t falter, “Why are you guys here?”

“It’s your birthday, stupid!” Jinx hits her shoulder, “We’re here to celebrate!”

“What do you have in mind?” Vi tilts her head, “Anywhere is better than here.”

“We set up some stuff in the Undercity.” You hold out a hand to her and she takes it, “All we need is you.” The two of you hold gazes before you lean in and kiss her cheek. You notice a slight shiver from her as you do.

“Well, what are we waiting for?” Vi grins, grabbing her coat from the other side of her desk, “Get me the hell out of here.” Jinx cheers and grabs the cake as Ekko glances at his watch.

“Five minutes.” He mutters and you nod. The four of you make your way to the front of the building. The Enforcers pay even more attention to you now that Vi is with you. She lets go of your hand only to grab your waist and pull you into her side. You glance at her in surprise and she gives you a wink. Even though the Enforcers are interested in what’s going on, none of them make a move to ask. You pass by them without issue, at least until you reach the front desk.

“Hey!” The guy shouted in alarm when he saw you, “Vi, you’re not sup-!” Vi reached under the glass and shoved the guy in the chair. He fell over with a loud shout that made you all snicker.

“Later, Greggory!” Vi waves him off, giving your waist a small squeeze in the process. You’re out the front door and making your way across the street as Ekko mutters the countdown under his breath. You reach the alley between the two buildings just as he says zero. Vi watches curiously as you all turn to look at the HQ. Caitlyn is seen making her way through the crowd and up the stairs into the building.

“You timed that?” Vi asks, her eyebrows raised.

“Of course.” Ekko says as if it’s obvious, “Can’t have Blue get spotted. Come on, we can leave at the top of the building.” You and Vi let your siblings go up before you and you follow behind them. Vi watches you attentively as you walk up to a wall and press your hand against it. A rift opens and she lets out a soft gasp. You knew she’s seen them before but this would be her first time using one. You couldn’t help but straighten up in pride at her amazement. This was, after all, your magic. Something that you wished you could share with her some more.

���After you.” You motion to it. Jinx grabs her sister’s hand and practically runs through as Vi yelps in surprise. You and Ekko laugh, exchanging a look before he steps through and you follow behind. Now that you’ve retrieved Vi, the excitement you’ve been trying so hard to hold back breaks through. The plan was to bring her to the Rapids. Everyone had already been made aware of the plans and made their own to keep the place clear until nightfall. Sevika was the first one to come up with an excuse as she didn’t want a confrontation with Vi. Not yet. The rest had followed wanting to give your group some privacy.

You walk over to the edge of the cave where the others are standing. You glance at Vi’s face to see her eyes wide with shock. Gently, you nudge her and she shakes her head slightly to clear her thoughts.

“What is this place? Where is this place?” Vi questions.

“I created it. You’re looking at the home for the Furies of Zaun.” You admit, not wanting to hide anything from her, “Everyone’s out currently, so it’s just us.” You grab her hand and she follows you across the bridge. She looks all around as you walk and you feel a little nervous. You created this place. This was your pride and joy and you wanted her to love it as much as you did.

“How long?” Is all Vi can manage in her distracted state.

“This past year.” You say.

“Y/n, I…” Vi looks at you, trailing off as she meets your eyes.

“You…?” You try to prompt her to continue what she was saying but she doesn’t. She continues to gaze at you, her eyes softening the longer she looks.

“We’ll go grab the weapons!” Ekko grabs Jinx as the two of you break eye contact and they sprint for her workshop.

“I think we made him uncomfortable.” You chuckle.

“Weapons?” Vi furrows her brow.

“Think of this as a way to let off steam.” You grin getting a more confused look from her. The two of you sit down together and get comfortable while you ait for your siblings to come back. After being apart you had so much you wanted to say, but you felt content with the silence between you. It was a habit you developed from spending so much time in Piltover together. It was safer to stay quiet than talk about something someone might overhear. Vi ran a hand over your hair, her fingers rubbing the base of your horns and you have to do everything to keep yourself from purring contentedly.

“I missed you.” Vi whispers, leaning over to kiss your temple.

“I missed you, too.” You lift your head to kiss her chin.

“I didn’t expect this, you know.” Vi sighs, “I haven’t celebrated my birthday in over six years. Honestly, I forgot it was today.”

“We’ve never forgotten.” Ekko says as they approach, “We would light candles today.” That was all he needed to say for her to understand. Vi exhales heavily and you can’t help but feel bad for her. You knew the past few years weighed heavily on her chest. You couldn’t imagine missing out on so many birthdays and being reminded that your family is gone at the same time. It’s why Jinx came up with this in the first place. She wanted to celebrate her sister’s birthday but she knew Vi wouldn’t want the traditional way of doing it.

“But, that’s why you’re here!” Jinx chirps, tossing her folded rifle at Vi, “We’re not mourning this time!” Vi catches it and inspects it, her eyes sparkling in a way you knew all too well. You giggle. She and Jinx really are sisters.

“Is this what I think it is?” Vi smirks and Jinx nods enthusiastically. For the next few minutes, Jinx excitedly shows her how to open up the rifle and walks her through all the parts. She wanted to challenge Vi to a competition, so she let her get a few test shots off before Vi handed it off to her. Jinx shot down the crystals you had arranged the night before while Ekko kept track of the points. The prideful look on Vi’s face watching her sister made you smile. She praised Jinx for her shots, asking her to do it again so she could see how far her sister had come. You didn’t mind taking a backseat while the sisters interacted. It warmed your heart to see it in person rather than hear about it. If you closed your eyes, it would be just like when you were kids.

“Alright, Vi. It’s your turn.” Jinx reloads, handing off the gun to her sister.

“Are you sure about this Pow?” Vi questions but takes the gun.

“It’ll be fine. Y/n will make sure we don’t get hit by any stray bullets.” Jnx teases her, making everyone laugh.

“Here I go.” Vi gets into position, her finger off the trigger as she lines up a shot. You sit up in interest, narrowing your eyes at her relaxed posture. She should be nervous, not giving off this much confidence. You’re practically holding your breath as her finger squeezes the trigger. The cracking sound of crystal echos through the air and Vi’s immediately shiting her sights before you can register it. More crystal shatters as your brain starts to catch up. You’re captivated by Vi as she shoots down all of the crystals hanging up with ease. Your jaw drops as she whirls around, shoots at the wall, and the bullet ricochets somewhere before the crystal above Jinx’s head shatters.

“HOLY SHIT!” Jinx screams, ducking as pieces of a shattered crystal rain down. You and Ekko burst into cheers, shocked that Vi managed to snipe that crystal the way she did. Vi lowers the barrel, checking to make sure there’s no more ammo before she puts the safety on and puts it down. Jinx was on her butt, her jaw dropped open as Vi holds a hand out to her with a smirk.

“When did you learn how to use a gun?!” Jinx interrogates her, “How did you learn that?! How did you keep that from me?!”

“Mom.” Vi chuckles, “I grew up with a gun in my hands before mom realized my fists hurt a hell of a lot worse. I kept up with it in secret after Vander took us in. The more ways I knew to protect you, the better. Besides, you can’t fight someone when you don’t know how their weapon works.”

“Why are you so fucking hot?” You blurt out, blushing furiously when everyone looks at you. Vi laughs and kisses your forehead as you hide your face in embarrassment.

“Go again, I don’t believe you at all!” Jinx shouts and yanks her sister away. The real competition began and you and Ekko were roped into it. Ekko failed miserably, not used to a gun like that at all while you did okay but nowhere near the two sisters. From there you moved on to melee weapons where you and Ekko excelled. While Vi and Jinx held their own, they were down before long and you and Ekko duked it out. This was thrilling to you. You couldn’t help but think back to when you were younger and you could tell the others were doing the same. Nicknames you haven’t heard in years were tossed around, and shoving and playing dirty came out as well.

Then it came time for hand-to-hand and Vi swept you off your feet before you could blink. You gaped at her, startled that all of your practice and training failed you so spectacularly. Ekko and Jinx burst out laughing before Vi did the same to them and now you were the one laughing. That turned into another competition to who could land a hit on Vi first. You were the one to succeed when it came to that. Overjoyed that you landed a hit on Vi, you weren’t prepared to be lifted off the ground and thrown over her shoulder.

“VI?!” You scream as she takes off running. Confused, you look around to see where she's going and you recognize the location. “NO! NOT THE LAAAAKE!” You scream as Vi jumps off of the swimming dock and into the water below. You’re plunged into the freezing water and you swim up to the surface as soon as you get your bearings. Vi’s laughter greets you as you break the surface and you whirl around to splash water on her.

“You asshole!” You laugh, feeling your body shake in the cold water.

“LOOK OUT!” Ekko shouts, giving you and Vi enough time to move away as he and Jinx jump in with you. You squeal as you’re splashed with more cold water. Vi swims over to you, wrapping her arms around your waist and pulling you close.

“Is there anything else planned?” Vi asks as the other two surfaces.

“FUCK! THIS IS COLD!” Jinx screams before she starts laughing.

“There was one more thing but that requires us to be warm and dry.” You huff as Vi chuckles. You get out of the water and run for your rooms, dragging Vi along with you. Your room is nice and warm, quickly heating your frozen body from the run up here.

“Clothes off.” You tell her as you unbutton your shirt.

“I like it when you’re demanding.” Vi teases you, pulling her shirt off. You swallow, seeing that her abs are way more defined than the last time you two had sex. Now that she was stripping, you could tell that Vi’s muscles had gotten bigger. The coats you’ve been wearing made it hard for you to notice any changes in her body.

“You look good.” Your soaked panties drop to the ground, “Did you start working out more?” You grab two towels and hand one to her.

“There’s not much I can do in the snow, so I’ve been spending more time in the gym.” Vi drys off her body and your eyes can’t help but follow the towel. You feel the arousal curling through your body but you shake it off. As much as you wanted to have a quickie with her, this was supposed to be a night for all of you. You could set up another time for that.

“It shows.” You tear your eyes away from her to open a drawer. You kept clothes for Vi in your room. It was a little embarrassing secret of yours. You've always held out hope that she would come home and you wanted to be prepared. “These might be a little tight.” You give the clothes to her.

“I can deal with tight clothes.” Vi shrugs and gets dressed. You do the same, making sure to grab two coats since they were soaked. You toss the coat to her and she pulls it on.

“Come here.” You tell her and she does. You grab her shirt in your hands and whirl around, slamming her back into the wall, and kiss her. Vi makes a sound as you do, but grabs your hips and pulls you into her. A shiver goes down your spine as you makeout. You’ll never get used to this woman.

“Well, that was a way to warm up.” Vi breathes out, a smirk making its way onto her lips.

“I love our siblings but I’ve been wanting to do this since we picked you up.” You briefly press your lips to hers, again. “Let’s not miss our next date, yeah?”

“Agreed.” Vi nods and you let her go. “So, where are we going now?”

“Home.” You say, getting a cute, confused look from Vi. She didn’t ask any more questions as you met up with the others. Nor as you take her to the gateway and let Jinx and Ekko walk through first as you cover her eyes. You walk her through and Vi tenses under your grasp as you emerge on the other side. She takes a deep breath, her hands gently grabbing your wrists and pulling them away.

Vi gasps, her eyes becoming watery as she sees her childhood home in front of her. Jinx spent her time fixing the place after Ekko told her what happened. You helped her to repair things so it looked like it was never destroyed in the first place. And, Ekko got the Firelights to clean up the mess that was Silco’s stupid signs. With your efforts, those ravaged by Shimmer had been given a proper place to live so the fissure was back to the way it used to be. Except for a few small things.

“TADA!” Jinx jumps and does jazz hands as the string lights she added to the building light up. Vi walks forward without a word and they step aside so she can go inside. You follow her and smile at the decorations. A table had been fixed up and on it was a small cake along with a few wrapped gifts. Vi stays silent as she looks at the cake and you worriedly share a glance with Jinx.

“Vi?” Jinx says softly. You hear Vi sniffle and when she turns around you can see that she’s crying. She throws her arms around her sister, hugging her tightly as she lets the tears fall.

“Powder. Thank you.” Vi cries and that’s all it takes for Jinx to start crying, too. You smile softly, touched by the emotional scene and Ekko rests his head on your shoulder. Your brother gives you a sideways hug as you wait for their moment.

“Sorry.” Vi chuckles embarassedly, wiping away her tears.

“Don't worry about it.” You and Ekko chorus.

“So uh… who wants cake?” Jinx asks, trying to lighten the mood.

“I do.” Vi grins, “Cut me a slice?”

“Me too!” You tell Jinx, jumping onto Vi’s back and making her laugh.

“I’m never saying no to cake.” Ekko grins, holding up a plate. You get your slices and sit around the small home, talking and listening to Vi tell stories about her childhood. Jinx was too young to remember much about living here, but what she did remember was enough. Laughter filled the air as the cake was eaten and Jinx nearly fell over when she realized it was gone. You had so much fun that Vi ended up falling asleep on the floor of their home, curled up with a smile on her face.

[meraki-yao]

You don't have to post it if you don't want to, you can also block me or delete it's ok, I just need to vent because this situation is hitting rock bottom and I can't stand how people don't want to see the problem:

In short: there is a video of the q&a where the female producer gets Casey pronouns wrong when talking about them. It's totally ok to point this out and give respect that Casey deserves BUT who was given the main blame? Taylor obviously, despite him also using the right pronouns during the panel, is guilty of not correcting the woman in front of everyone so he's bad again.

But this time we're not talking about that handful of idiot Nick fans, we're talking about the rwrb fandom that says they love him so much but once again for the umpteenth time they threw him under the bus without thinking twice even though he had no fault. And it will be the third time that the same fandom has exaggerated something against him, subsequently causing serious problems ( like racism and homophobia and doxxing which took place in december where everyone then washed their hands of it pretending nothing happened and they did nothing wrong)

And I'm so tired of reading that we just have to ignore that social because that social is the most active and followed and we know Taylor a few days ago saw stuff and posted and today Casey saw and posted a story. That social causes damage and everything they bring there is seen and affects all of them. So no it's not enough to ignore and put our hands over our eyes and just talk about how beautiful the sky is and I'm so tired and sad and heartbroken because every day even unconsciously they make it more and more evident that there isn't the same affection and respect for both, it's not true, one will always be seen with a critical eye "yes you are beautiful, perfect, so sexy, wow how beautiful these photos BUT you are a bit problematic, BUT you should be better than that, BUT you should learn better, oh disappointed but not surprised" and it is obviously always the poc man who has to be better who has to do better even when he does absolutely nothing wrong.

And this comes from the people who say they follow him and love him. It's no longer possible, that man has been attacked every single day for months, now he must also fall into the transphobic category because he didn't correct another person in front of everyone even though HE had used the right pronouns. But do we realize that this shit fucks up your mental health in the long run? But why doesn't anyone realize how serious the situation is? I cannot take it anymore and I feel like I'm screaming into the void and witnessing the moment when everything will get worse and fall apart and then we will be here sad because it didn't have to go that way for him

…Woah.

Jesus Christ what the fuck.

Okay um, here we go. This is a monster of response to write but here I am.

I’m gonna start by saying I am not a direct witness of any of this. I didn’t know about the misgendering issue during the Q&A, I didn’t really notice it when I watched the Q&A myself yesterday. I’m not on twitter and I don’t follow or look at Taylor or Nick’s tags. All insults I seen regarding the boys are either from assholes trying to bother me or from people who want to talk about the phenomena, both in my inbox.

Regarding misgendering Casey:

Firstly I’m gonna state the obvious and say of course it’s a bad thing to misgender someone. Don’t do that

However I will also say this.

In regards to the extent of reaction: it’s not always done in malice. And in this case, I think it’s a genuine slip up, which happens. I had to consciously remind myself to deliberately use the right pronouns after my friend came out to me as non-binary. I had to correct my friend using the wrong pronouns when talking about our mutual non-binary student. It’s not ideal, but it happens. It’s not mean, it’s just careless. And please note that I’m not saying it’s ok to misgender someone, no it’s absolutely not but I also don’t think this case calls for a big reaction.  If someone maliciously, deliberately, publicly and repeatedly misgenders someone, that’s problematic, that should be called out by the masses to this extent. This, we should acknowledge, make a note, and move on. I think there’s some cases where the reaction to certain issues are massively disproportional, this is one of them.

In regards to Taylor not correcting Sarah and being targeted for it: Firstly, Taylor didn’t misgender them, Sarah did. Taylor used the right pronouns. In fact when they hung out in New York last August, Taylor used the right pronouns on his Instagram story. Secondly, he might not have picked that up. Thirdly, even if he did, it’s awkward to suddenly cut off a monologue, let alone one from friend or not, is someone on a higher level than you, to correct a mistake that doesn’t directly affect comprehensive. Fourthly, bystanders are encouraged to step into situations, but they’re certainly not obligated to. So placing the blame or putting so much blame on Taylor is ridiculous and unfair.

In regards to Casey’s Instagram story: I understand where the connection comes from but honestly… I think there’s also a possibility that that’s just a post that Casey saw and wanted to share without reference to this issue. They don’t have Twitter, and it’s been several days since the screening. Truthfully, everyone involved seems really friendly with each other, and how this very project is advocating for LGBT rights, I don’t really believe that if they were aware of the misgendering, they wouldn’t apologize to Casey.

So replying to the “You don’t have to post it…” anon, I agree that putting any blame on Taylor is kind of ridiculous in this case, just like what happened in December. I think there’s a portion of “fans” that are fucking around with this and genuinely hurting him, but there might also be a portion of people who have a problematic/complicated perception of this type of situation, and it’s not targeted specifically towards Taylor. Either way I disapprove with what they’re doing, but here’s a hypothesis.

Regarding the damage these stuff causes:

I’ve addressed the insults thrown at Taylor multiple times by now. And I kind of agree with “I hate that there are idiots…” anon that really disgusting insults thrown at Nick tend to be overlooked, it’s not like there’s no Nick haters, there is. But because of the inherent racism, attacks on Taylor are much more obvious. Either way it’s cruel and disgusting and the boys don’t deserve to be thrown insults like that, nor do they deserve to have people enact cruelty in their name. Rarely is anyone deserving of that, and in the case of these two boys who have been proven to kind and wonderful people, it’s definitely wrong.

I’m tired of reading and seeing these bullshit on social media as well, which is why I actively avoid it, but “You don’t have to post it” anon, I definitely understand and share your worries of this fucking up the boys mental health.

But the sad truth is that we can’t decide what he can see and what he can’t. We’re just gonna need to trust him, to believe that he knows how to regulate the exposure of response he gets, that he knows what comments matter and what don’t, that he knows how to take care of his mental health. He actively avoids twitter, so I think he has an idea on what he can engage with an what he shouldn’t. Same goes with Nick, all we can do is believe he knows his mental health and how to regulate it. Meanwhile, those of us who aren’t assholes, we’ll show them all the love we have for him. I think public figures all struggle with this to some extent, so when they stepped into this career, I believe they saw this as a possibility, so they’re prepared to some degree. That doesn’t make any of this okay, but again, ultimately, we’re not people directly in their lives. We can’t do anything else practical.

Ultimately I want to say, be kind, compassionate and considerate. We can’t control what others do, and truth be told when it comes to the majority of the haters, I don’t think calling them out will change anything. They have their mind set. So the best we can do, is manage and control what we say and do, and to some degree, what we see and engage with.

[daydreamerdisease]

So this is a thought post to this lovely podcast episode featuring @sleepstxtic on the @fanficmaverickpodcast about the POC experience in fandom. I don't actively listen to podcasts much, but she shared about it in the @harrypocter discord server and had me intrigued (which I HIGHLY reccommend you check out)!

Podcast episode here: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4B79Q1LLzt96tcLTjec84v?si=7hYs-rxAQDSp4LToiv7i4w

I'm adding my thoughts below a read more, because it can get long, but please let me know if there is a more accessible way to do it!

Note: I have shit memory and I'm hard of hearing. So there will be no quotes because, unfortunately, there are no transcripts (a convo for another time about disability and fandom maybe?). I'll try my best to be concise and not misrepresent anything said but, please do correct me if I say something wrong!

Most of this is not in any particular order to the podcast itself, and definitely just the tip of the iceberg of this topic, so there is absolutely so much left unsaid. Please feel free to add your own thoughts, experiences, etc.

First off, it's unsurprising and I agree, but it is interesting that we don't tend to read fic that are specifically about POC even though we do enjoy the idea overall as POC. I do have to wonder how much of that has to do with the fact that we are not already written into canon itself and how that might affect how we interact with fanon/headcanons? It might be different depending on the fandom, but for HP, the few characters we do get are certainly not the ones we focus on overall. It is kind of changing with Harry (and James, typically) being headcanoned as Desi, though!

I have to agree though, that fanfic isn't really about being the most "correct" representation of anything, and that fandom is not inherently activism. It can certainly help facilitate it (see Fandom Trumps Hate, for example) but ultimately it's about having fun and engaging with the works and others who enjoy it, whether fanon or canon. Not even us POC are 100% actively trying to include the "best" representation in all our works all the time. Sometimes it isn't about that at all, sometimes it's the entire point of a piece of work. But it varies and can be a bit of a spectrum of inclusion! And that's ok.

I also loved the point about how there is no one specific representation that is going to indicative of everyone's experience. Humans are so diverse. There are certainly things that are going to hit more people than others (and things we can conclude is offensive too usually) but wholly universal experiences don't really exist for a lot of, if not most, POC. I believe when you narrow it down, by things like where you're living and stereotypes that most people know, it can get very specific. But POC are not a monolith and neither are their experiences.

I absolutely vibe with the idea of seeing the richness in culture within fandom though?? It's one of the ways that I absolutely engage in fandom myself. Whether for perspectives on being POC, things like sexuality and gender, and including all the intersections. I really do think the HP fandom pockets I've been part of are some of the most diverse and richly creative spaces I've been in?? Sometimes they are niche corners but not always! It is just so vast, has touched so many parts of the world, which means that the creators are diverse too. Even if we don't write it explicitly into our work, it can influence it, because of who we are.

I do think that fandoms like HP are kinda unique for being that way though. It is so huge and long lasting (maybe even immortal lol) and not a lot of fandoms are like it. It has been given the time and space to grow, to change, and for the people in it to do so.

But also the idea of using fandom/fanfic as a medium for being diverse when we're surrounded by things that are not that way is absolutely amazing. Whether you're POC or not, it is deliberately creating a space for that diversity!

It makes it possible for some of us, like sleepstxtic and I, to even realize we can see ourselves in these fanworks we consume. That we can freely create them and tangibly be part of this space we're in.

Also, the absolute enjoyment of sharing culture with each other!! Of learning together, of creating a space to learn, is so important. Especially for those of us who are sometimes disconnected from our family's cultures or heritage, who are more assimilated, etc etc for so many reasons. It is so important to be able to question and learn from each other. Especially using characters like Harry, for instance, who is so painfully wrenched away from his culture. We might not always find someone with our 1:1 experience but it does open the door for being able to find connection to our own heritage and culture. It can be painful and absolutely lonely and finding that place within fandom can be so healing. 😭

I definitely think we are still growing as a fandom, we have plenty more to learn when it comes to encouraging and including POC and what we have to give to the fandom, but I am happy to see us having these conversations!

And I loved learning about sleepstxtic's culture during this podcast, the way she fell into writing fanfic, and the thoughtfullness put into it. Thank you so much for sharing your experience with us!

I hope you all check out the podcast episode but either way, what are your thoughts and experiences? I'd love to hear what other people have to say, whether negative or positive, and if you wanna share your favorite POC-centric fanfic/fanart recs...

👀 I won't turn those away!

[majorbaby]

im poc and i have a hard time watching mash at points when it comes to the treatment of klinger and the korean characters. not bashing it — it’s a favorite and it was a product of its period — but i wish people cared about issues like that like they cared about the mash shipping discourse of the week — the scope just seems very narrow and from a place of … idk ignorance. sorry for this rant rip :(

my short response to this is: unfortunately shit's hitting the fan right now because of the creation of some version of the trapper vs BJ poll once on the hour, which i maintain, just makes everyone unhappy. there's one going around (you know the one) that is a major upset because the frontrunner is losing and the few who delight in repeated confirmation of the same information are experiencing what it's like to lose (in a highly scientific tumblr poll), for the first time, and therefore things are getting even uglier.

i hope we all come to our senses soon but tbh, so many fandoms have been ruined by ship wars, i'm not confident that we shouldn't be bracing for impact...

no worries about the vent. i'm especially interested in racialized voices in fandom, provided people are willing to put themselves out there. i'll take any opportunity to talk about race on MASH, usually at length. long answer below:

i’m gonna take this apart a little:

im poc and i have a hard time watching mash at points when it comes to the treatment of klinger and the korean characters

i can sympathize with this. it’s one thing to watch something that is racist and another thing to be in a fandom environment where that stuff tends to go largely over peoples heads, and not always maliciously, but because if you’re not affected by something and you haven’t idk, gone to film school, then you may not blink.  it can be very un-fun in a smaller fandom.

i’ve talked at length about how the “S1-3 = immoral and unwatchable, S4-11 = good and pure” is just about the whitest thing i’ve ever heard, but i’ve recently also been thinking a lot about how sex, women and marriage are treated in the early years and… i don’t agree that the later years treat women better, as an overarching statement.  

i maintain that the most egregious narrative crime that MASH committed was having its pro-army moments in the later years, and that’s my opinion. but no era of the show is free from instances of astounding racism and additionally, it does set itself up to stumble into these moments that aren’t “racism” against any one individual but are still prioritizing the experiences of the white main cast over the korean people, in a show about the korean war. 

additionally, some of the casting quirks/lack of continuity are distasteful in some instances and completely fine in others depending on who’s involved. white guy playing multiple generals across different episodes? a non-issue, or potentially a comment on the hivemind of army drones, carrying out their duties without a second thought of the impact they’re having on others. a handful of non-korean, east asian actors playing 100 korean characters across the entire show? hard for me to see how this doesn’t reinforce the idea of the asian monolith, which was another factor in the brutal slaughter of korean civilians during the korean war. 

you have to ask yourself, is it worth it? am i getting something of value from this show that outweighs the parts you’re gritting your teeth to get through? i’ve decided that i do and it sounds like you have too, but there are still a few moments i find completely unwatchable – not many, but they exist. the last five minutes (not including the epilogue) of S03E01 The General Flipped at Dawn is one example – I was so uncomfortable with the minstrelsy at the end and the idea that they had to go that far for everyone to believe that steele was unwell was too much for me to ever rewatch. henry and hawk are appropriately disgusted, and the MP seems to be as well, but I just can't stand to look at the expression of officer williams’ face when it happens. it’s not worth it! i feel similarly about the scene in S06E21 when winchester refers to finding the right woman to marry to be about finding the right kind of “breeding stock” after margaret confides in him about her troubles with her in-laws. it was unnecessary. 

but i wish people cared about issues like that like they cared about the mash shipping discourse of the week 

you can do both. i’ve definitely done both. i try to stay out of it because i think shipping wars are a net negative for fandom communities, but the thing is, shipping biases are also not free of our personally held biases, and it grinds my gears when those personal biases take precedence over what is being said in the narrative. i’m hearing “it’s just a headcanon” a lot but more and more it is unclear to me what being asserted as a headcanon and what is being asserted as intentional messaging within a narrative. i am not saying anyone needs to give a shit about the canon, that’s not really my thing. but i do think we need to be able recognize what the canon is saying. 

for example, it’s important i be able to point out that episodes like the Kids, Kim and Yessir that’s our baby are saying “our white heroes care so deeply about these nameless korean orphans, aww isn’t that sweet” so that i can talk about why the non-korean writers can be so sure it will evoke a certain emotional response in a largely white, American audience. perhaps that is annoying to people but i think it is far more annoying to watch tv while brown and see people who look like you being orphaned or brutalized or what have you without any agency, so that they can be rescued by a white person. 

i appreciate that you might need to vent about how you feel and that’s completely justified, but i’ve also found that those who feel they are targeted by such complaints just feel antagonized and “called out” and become even less responsive to your perspective. i’ve tried to deal with it another way by caring about the things that i wish more people cared about (#race on MASH) and i’ve generally found that the response to that work has been positive. 

fandom is never going to be a place where shipping isn’t the dominant activity. every once in awhile a post floats around about how someone wishes there was more genfic, or more fics about women characters or racialized characters, or that xyz racist thing wasn’t turned into an uwu shipping moment for the nearest couple of bland ass white dudes. and as someone who does love a good uwu shipping moment, when i see posts like that, i mostly look the other way. in my mind, there’s enough work out there that is meant for me, so i don’t take it personally when someone else out there is venting about their experience, which happens to be in the minority. it’s in poor taste for the winning side to gripe about the 1% of time we have to see something that isn’t for us. 

there could be some value though, in talking about the intersection of “shipping discourse” and “race issues” rather than seeing them as two opposing sides. i have a whole post about it i’m working on, but it’s interesting to me that the canonical romantic plot at the forefront of GFA (Klinger and Soon-Lee) is largely untouched in discussions about romance in GFA. 

I have eyes and ears, I know what “I’ll never be able to shake you” sounds like and I’m not trying to take that from anyone – I’m gonna ask for some grace here as a brown gay man myself and tell you that I’m not trying to pit gay love against love between two racialized characters. but it’s important that a character like Klinger, a Lebanese man played by a Lebanese actor, on the most-watched series finale of all time, got to be the romantic hero of the episode. That was a hell of a choice, and it was done intentionally, in a good way. I’m here in 2023 and asian men are still routinely emasculated or otherwise seen as “not an option” wrt sex and romance – to echo a similar statement delivered by Nurse Kellye in s11e01 Hey look me over!. And this is without even really talking about Soon-Lee for now, because I’m going to save that for my “Klinger and Soon-Lee are the romantic leads of GFA” essay. 

I’d also say that i don’t need anyone to care “as much” about xyz as they do about shipping, because as i mentioned before, you’re gonna be in for a bad time if you have that expectation - i say that with love! but it would be nice if people cared at all and didn’t go around shouting down or vagueing at anyone who dares to point out that MASH, like any other thing, isn’t free from criticism. i’ve used h*rry p*tter as an example before because not everyone was shocked that JKR is a massive TERF and a racist and antisemite. people have been talking about her bullshit since the books were published, and some fans are still even willing to separate JKR the person from her books, as though they didn’t come out of her, and as though there aren’t clear examples of her various biases against marginalized people woven all throughout her books. 

so while i wouldn’t say people are ignoring race in favour of shipping discourse, i do think it’s fair to say that race is largely ignored and when it does get talked about, i feel a sort of… resistance. i am frustrated right now by a post i saw that seemed to take a shot at people who try to talk about the real war that happened in korea on a show that is set during the korean war because i don’t know what to make of it. i’m not encouraging anyone to go around yelling at people who are having fun with their lil fanfics and posts and stuff, but i also don’t think it’s an epidemic that is worth vagueing about, and then that post getting quite popular rubs me the wrong way, which perhaps it shouldn’t, i just don’t know what it’s in reaction to because to be honest with you i don’t see a lot of people talking about the war in this fandom? 

for me it comes down to having some level of self-awareness, which we’re called to do in the real world in any communal space, and i wish would apply more to fandoms. like, we recognize the social status and privilege of the “BNF” right? so who’s on the other side of that? who’s at the table, who isn’t etc, all conversations that should be had in all spaces. respectfully, if possible. 

thanks for the ask. i hope you can seek out some people who are supportive of your views and willing to chat with you about them. 

[sillimancer]

I'm sorry but I disagree with you about Imane/Angela situation. The Italian media had already been claiming that Imane is transgender, but this lie wasn't as widespread as it became until Angela and her reaction to the fight. Now, I'm not gonna judge her for quiting the fight and for crying ( maybe her emotions got the best of her) but to fall on your knees sobbing and saying repeatedly it's "unfair" and refuse to shake hands with your opponent and then go to media and talk about how you "never been punched so hard in you life' when you are literally a professional boxer is just bullshit behavior. She knew exactly what she was doing especially since there were already lies being spread about Imane by her country and by the daily mail where a journalist she is aquatinted with and took picture with right after the match works there. ( Btw she is apparently friends with many right wingers in Italy including Meloni who also called Imane a man) Angela also took her time to finally apologize and "put the record straight" saying she was crying about how unfair fate was and how her nose was already broken that's why she was hurt bad not because Imane hit her hard. She only done this after Imane's moment was completely ruined and her womanhood questioned by everyone. This tactic Angela done is very familiar to POC that's why a lot of us are calling this shit, because she isn't the first white woman to cry and behave in certain way that will have the media vilify a woman of color. So, no I don't think she is innocent in this mess she was aware where her actions are gonna lead.

It sounds like I just didn't have enough information then, which isn't a surprise. I am familiar with white women tears as a concept and have seen it play out in the media before, it just didn't look like that was happening in this specific situation.

But I'm also not too proud or stubborn to admit I'm wrong if I am. I don't know the company Carini keeps and if she is weaponizing her own misfortune to torment a Khelif for racist and transphobic reasons then that's shitty and she should stop.

The anxiety/frustration I was venting came from the flavors of internet gossip I've seen, which made it look like Carini was being turned into a symbol of transphobia that she didn't deserve. My understanding was that she wasn't a transphobe, just immature and recovering from a trauma. I'm still not fully convinced that isn't what's happening here, but I don't want to say that at the expense of women of color, because frankly this affects them more than me.

Thanks for weighing in though. Even if it sounds like I'm hand-waving I do appreciate your perspective. I whined about people being too quick to react emotionally literally in that post, this was a good reminder that I'm not immune to defensive/emotional reactionary behavior.

[titaniamegalomania]

Part I: Being a POC while in the Harry Potter fandom

This was supposed to be a happy tumblr. Just my art work for fanfics but no one's reading this so I'm going full scorched earth. I remember when I was a kid and I read about Hermione. She had unruly curly hair and my mind thought she's black like me. I loved Hermione despite her many flaws in the book and trust me. She had a lot none of that movie Mary Sue business. When I saw her in the movie and she was white, it broke my little heart. But I love Harry Potter. I can live with it I with it. I can watch it. 

In the stage play that everyone hates, Cursed Child, she was black. My brain went there is hope. Then I read a blog on here can't remember the name of Black Hermione. I thought it added climaxes to her character being black in the UK in the 90s dealing with racism then going to a magical world and dealing with that too the layers. She thinks she escapes, but it's worse and now the kids that hate you have magic. And the way she dealt with S.P.E.W. would hit differently, but that would require nuance that JK Rowling doesn't have unless it's a white person being treated like a minority. I mean look at the house elves. 

I probably wouldn't have looked deeply into any of this without Princess Weekes. I haven't even gotten to poor Cho Chang. In the books Cho Chang is that cool sporty girl. She's Scottish Chinese. But to others, she's not really Scottish and to people from mainland China, she's not really Chinese. She is SBC Scottish Born Chinese. It doesn't really affect her character at all, which is nice. She's Chinese just to be Chinese. She acts like a typical teenage girl whose boyfriend dies, then dates Harry, who saw it happen and she wants to connect with him about it. But Harry is not very emotional, and it's his first girlfriend. He fumbles the ball. Then Cho's best friend, Marietta Edgecombe, snitches to Umbridge. Harry and his friends are like nope if it was over before it's over over now. Not to mention that horrible date on Valentine's Day she had to make Harry go to, and he talked about meeting Hermione later. Read the room, dude. But the movies oh they assassinated her character. 

Cho has less screen time and personality. She is more reserved. She is the one that tells Umbridge about the group but because of truth serum. And that ruined her to the point the actress was bullied, and she wasn't allowed to talk about until recently. And yet people deny that she was bullied. This poor girl. The racist came out of the woodworks and it was a child actor. Why were they bullying a child, it's just sad? 

And Padma and Parvati’s dresses were dreadful. Like they could have easily asked the actresses for input or even for one of their dresses or used one as an example. Or get a consultant something. Atleast Cho's dress was traditional, showing her culture and still cute. Were they trying not to upstage Hermione or did they just not care? I mean, they had the budget. 

Part Two: Coming because of stupid character and word limits.

[specterthief]

THANK YOU oh my god. sorry for the incoming rant that is only tangentially related to the original post (because you already covered it—joe and cherry wouldn't have let anyone call the police and they obviously would have just lied to the the people at the hospital about how cherry got injured)

but. look. people have been coming to S for years with no trouble from police because adam has been keeping them away to protect the people who are all skating illegally there, when he hasn't been attending S in enough years that most of the regulars have never seen him (so it's clearly not just about protecting himself.)

when the police do show up despite the protection measures in place, it's a huge deal, and all of the main characters, joe and cherry included, immediately run

because S is an underground scene full of people who are marginalized in society, whether just because of skating, as is a recurring theme—

—because they're non-japanese POC or multiracial (a very small minority in naha that's disproportionately represented at S, it's uncommon to see a background shot that doesn't have at least one Black person)—

—because they're openly queer, which is by far the most obvious allegory but is also just shown in the show, with everyone's non-reactions to adam swooning and talking about love and marriage to a guy, the (dub-exclusive but still at least worth mentioning) drag bar influence and "bitches, bros and nonbinary hoes" explicitly presenting S (and adam personally) as trans-friendly, and also this guy being a legend:

even the amount of people in the background that have dyed hair and obvious piercings and tattoos would be people who'd be visibly "outsiders", when people with tattoos are still frequently barred from public spaces like bathhouses and gyms in japan

the police are not the protagonists' friends here!!! S is a very countercultural underground community space that is inherently illegal and populated by people who are already marginalized in some way or another and would be disproportionately affected by being implicated in it. every single person at S is breaking the law every time they're there, no one at S is going to want to be the one to call the cops and potentially ruin the lives of everyone involved, especially not on the person who's solely responsible for their beloved community even having this space without being harassed by police in the first place (as we see the teens, both reki and langa and the dk trio in flashbacks, having problems with even when they're just skating out in public places at night.)

and even if someone were to call the cops and S was raided successfully, who would be more likely to face the worse punishment? because i'm pretty sure all the POC and queer people and punks would have a harder time (at the very least legally, if not necessarily personally, given adam's family) than the wealthy, beloved local politician from an old money family who has experience handling bribes to cover exactly this. and those are the people adam was protecting by keeping the police away from S for the years that he wasn't doing anything but watching, because they're his community too.

and on top of all that... there's no reason to think anyone at S would want to call the cops on adam anyway, certainly not unless he went way further than he does in the show. seriously, when he does hit cherry people are freaked out but that's it, because getting severely injured is a risk that everyone at S is taking and their standards for what's considered a reasonable amount of violence includes shadow throwing bombs at people and threatening to personally break reki's arm hardly earning a comment, and five guys trying to gang up on langa with weapons just getting called "fighting dirty." it's an extreme sport. violence and injury is part of it. yes, adam goes too far, most obviously in episode 11 (and it's only when it's far enough into that race that it's obvious he's just wailing on reki one-sidedly that people start to be like "holy shit stop", and even then no one even implies calling the cops is an option) but the bar to cross for people potentially outing everyone there and putting themselves and all their friends at risk of criminal charges to try and maybe get the cops to go after a guy whose real name and face they don't even know, where if he was arrested and punished it would destroy their subculture that they all love because he's the only reason it's able to exist as a community like this, would have to be pretty damn high

in conclusion here's reki nearly running over a cop

Imagine you work in one of the hospitals in Naha. It’s past midnight, visiting hours are over, you’re probably expecting car accidents or something of the like to be the only problems you might face.

But then, all of a sudden, a dude without a shirt on comes in running with a dude in ninja cosplay bleeding from his head in his arms followed by a guy in KISS cosplay.

You then realize that the bleeding man is the Sakurayakishi Kaoru, a well known calligrapher who is always showing up on TV and is known for his AI Calligraphy.

Now, here’s a question.

How the fuck did nobody call the police?

[absolutelyfizzing]

angels and demons

warren worthington x reader fluff

@shuckfaced-fangirl Hi! can I request a warren worthington x female mutant reader where her powers are shadow summoning? So I guess everyone in the school kind of views her as some sort of demon? With a lot of fluff? Thank you!!

Description - Y/N is a shadow summoner and is isolated from her peers. Warren helps her see that not everyone fears her and that she is worthy of affection.

warnings - its so fluffy. fem pronouns. some angsty stuff (isolation, depression, sadness), one innuendo, devastating fluff, warren being an angel. i tried to make it POC inclusive, please let me know if it feels restricting or excluding and i will edit it.

word count - 3700, i got carried away

A/N - im so sorry this took so long, i took a break from writing while i am working on moving to college. i will still be spotty for the next few weeks but hopefully, i will post a few more things in that time and then get back on a normal schedule. also, thanks so much for this request, i had a lot of fun writing it and i hope it is something you enjoy reading!

MASTERLIST

You walked through the halls with a lowered head. You knew that you made others uncomfortable and so you chose to try to make yourself as small and unthreatening as possible. You had been 'gifted' powers with which you could manipulate and create darkness. You were a shadow summoner. That wasn't a name that many found reassuring or comforting.

There were a few who could see past it and who was close to being what you might call friends but those people were few and far between. There were overwhelmingly more people who believed that you must have been a scary and mean person, that you were some sort of demon. This couldn't have been further from the truth if one were to look past appearances. Your shadow was larger and darker than that of your peers and it trailed behind you with a mind of its own, moving and growing without you even meaning for it to happen. Your hands were constantly covered in something darker and dustier than the rest of your skin, a deep and pure black. It trailed from the tips of your fingers and faded on your forearm so it looked as though you had just dipped your arms into a chimney or that shadows were crawling up your arms.

When you first got them, you thought they were sort of cool. They made you look sort of goth and that was fun. That feeling quickly faded when you saw how others, even your family, reacted. They said it was a curse from hell. You were barely convinced otherwise.

You sat away from others at the school during free periods. During lunch you sat alone and in the sun when you could, you hoped it might make others be less scared of you as it might make you look brighter but your shadow, dark and ominous, maintained a spot near you. You wore clothes that made you look more approachable to try to maintain that you weren't scary. Your brightly colored outfit didn't ever seem to work though, no matter how hard you tried.

You looked down at the food in your hands, the sandwich only half-eaten, and you noted your hands. They were so normal looking, your nails were well kept and you thought they were a good size. That they might even be a good size for someone to hold. The only thing was the unnaturally colored dust that seemed to cover them. It was a cool black, it glistened and sparkled in the sun when your fingers moved. It never moved or transferred to anything else, always stuck securely to your skin. You were distracted by the way your fingers seemed to shine when a shadow came near yours, wings outlined in it. You looked up to see a tall blond boy above you with curly hair and bags under his eyes. He nodded to a spot on the grass near you.

"Do you mind if I sit here?"

You shook your head and even scooted away from the spot to give him more space despite the fact that you were in a large field.

"Do you want me to move?" You asked gently, wondering if maybe he wanted this particular spot and you took it from him unknowingly.

"I mean, I think that would sort of take away the whole point of me trying to sit with you." He smirked and you felt blood rush to your cheeks. "I like your hands" He hummed and you looked at him in shock. When his eyes met yours you tilted your head a bit.

"They don't bother you?" You tried to speak softly.

"No, I think they're awesome. They make you look punk." He smiled and you felt the corners of your mouth tug up a bit too.

"I like your wings." You almost mumbled as you allowed your gaze to move to the large feathery wings behind him. They moved in the wind and you found yourself wanting to run your fingers through them. "They make you look like an angel." You smiled and he groaned dramatically.

"I'm trying to look grunge." He pouted and you giggled a bit. At the sound, he looked up at you and blushed a bit. "Maybe we should trade."

"If I could trade you I would. Everyone is scared of how I look." You gazed back at the grass.

"I'm not." His simple statement made butterflies erupt in your stomach and you smiled a bit. You looked back at him and made eye contact for a moment.

"What's your name?" You asked and he maintained his gaze into your eyes. It was the most contact or conversation with someone else you'd had in a long time.

"I'm Warren." He smiled a bit and stuck a hand out to you to shake. You looked at his hand in shock. Nobody ever voluntarily touched your hands. Most of them worried that whatever was on them would spread. You hesitantly brought your hand to his, purposefully giving him plenty of time to remove his hand if he felt uncomfortable. But he didn't. Instead, your hand reached his and he shook it before letting go as if it was no big deal.

"I'm Y/N." You smiled a bit more and you felt a giggle come out of you from the joy of realizing this wasn't a dream, that someone was trying to talk to you and they weren't afraid.

"Is my name that funny?" He teased.

"No, I just-" you paused to think, "it's been so long since anyone has done this with me."

"Talked to you?" He questioned, obviously expecting you to say no and explain what you meant. Instead, you just nodded and his heart clenched for a moment. "Well, you can stick with me then."

"I don't know if you want your reputation to take a hit like that."

"My reputation is 'the angry and damaged kid', I'm sure it can handle the breaking news of me talking to a nice and pretty girl." He reassured before he even realized what he was saying. You could have cried at the feeling that rose up in your chest.

After that day, you stuck to his side like glue and he took no issue with it. The more you got to know him the more you appreciated the fact that he had taken you in. With his help, over the coming months, he helped you develop a stable friend group. That group included people like Ororo and Jane who had heard rumors about you and never bothered to check and see if they were real. They apologized profusely, especially Jean as she felt like she could have easily found out that you were kinder than she thought with her abilities but just had never done so, and you gladly accepted, just happy to be within a group.

You and Warren had developed a reputation. He was overly protective and gruff while you were overly nice and empathetic. You balanced each other well and if you were honest, you were in love with him. That always felt weird to say, you'd never been in love with anyone before but every second you spent with him made you more and more sure of your feelings.  

When you and Warren were together, you would daydream about what it would be like to be in a relationship with him. Being held by him and wrapped in his wings. Getting to play with his unkempt hair. Holding his hand.

Sometimes he would try to encourage you to hold his hand. He would hold it out to you when he was helping you jump down from somewhere high. He would ask you to hand him things and then make decisive contact as he took it from you. He knew that it meant a lot to you, you practically gasped and blushed every time he did it. He had never met anyone so touch starved. He wanted to give you all the affection that you craved.

Unfortunately, Warren was rather oblivious, especially towards things like feelings and emotions. He had no clue that you had any interest in him, even though he hoped you did every day. If he wasn't so attached to your friendship, he might ask you out. Instead, he tried to maintain a friendly distance so he didn't cross any lines while also being as affectionate with you as he could be. You followed a similar path.

The person caught in the middle of this was poor Jean Gray. she had watched you pine over each other since you met and had heard every thought that went through both of your heads. She knew you would never complain or ask for help about anything so she liked to keep tabs on your thoughts every once in a while to make sure you were okay. Still, she tried her best to not listen very often or when you were thinking about anything very personal, she honestly did. But she was a romantic. All she wanted was for you two idiots to get together but you were both oblivious. She decided, probably 3 months into you becoming friends, that she had to do something about it.

She was sitting on your bed while you sat across your bedroom on your small couch. She fiddled with her thumbs while she tried to ignore your constant thoughts about Warren, his hands, his wings, his smile. She was exhausted. she took a small breath while she planned how she would try to say this to you.

"Do you want to know what I heard today?" She called and you looked up at her from the book you were pretending to read.

"Do you mean heard or 'heard'?" You laughed and she rolled her eyes.

"Either." Then she tilted her head. "Both."

"Yeah, I wanna know! What's it about?" You asked while leaning forward in your seat. Jean always had the best gossip to tell because she could literally hear it.

"Warren." She stated simply and watched your reaction. You flushed and stopped breathing for a moment.

"Wha-" you stuttered, "what about him?"

"That he has a thing for you." she winked and you flushed even more.

"You're lying." You assured, a questioning look on your face.

"I'm not and I'm tired of watching you two longing after one another while the rest of the school watches." She smiled and your heart picked up.

"I thought I told you not to look in my head!" You scolded but you weren't actually all that upset. You knew that it was very hard for her to control.

"I cant help it! Both of you think so loud. And I wouldn't have to anyway, Ororo mentioned it to me the other day and she definitely cants read minds." She giggled and you smiled a bit.

"Does he actually like me?" You almost whispered in disbelief.

"Yes! He's been obsessed with you since you started talking."

"But like he would want to actually go-"

"Y/N, I swear to god. If you don't go and talk to him right now I'm going to have a fit." She laughed and you glared at her.

"Okay okay fine, I'm going," you grumbled as you stood and walked toward your door. "If you are wrong I'm gonna be so upset with you."

She just laughed again and you started to walk down the hallway. You thought he might be in his room or outside. You decided to check his room first.

You knocked on his door but you were met with silence. You tried the handle and it moved.

"Warren?" you paused, "I'm coming in," you warned and pushed the door open. When you looked inside, he wasn't there. You took a moment to gaze around his room, it wasn't the first time you had been in there but every time was a bit exciting as you got to see all of the things he had that represented him. He had a boombox and a CD collection on his dresser. Some of his clothes were thrown around his room haphazardly and some of his drawers were open. You looked at the wall next to you where he kept photos that you took. You would carry around a camera or take pictures on your phone of everyone around campus. He always asked for them and then printed them out so he could hang them up. He had even managed to get a couple of you. You smiled a bit before heading back into the hallway, closing the door behind you.

You instead moved towards the door to get out onto the lawn where you thought he would probably be. He often sat under the big oak trees or on the roof if he wanted to get away from people. When you made it outside, you looked around for him.

"Y/N!" you heard him shout. You turned to look for him and saw his silhouette flying from the roof. You paused to admire him and his wings. He always looked so angelic to you. So powerful. You thought about how your power emanated darkness. That you would never appear angelic to someone and would more likely look like a demon. You looked down at your hands for a second, a habit you had when you were thinking about your powers. They sparkled a bit in the sun but it did little to quell the distaste in your mouth.

Suddenly there was a shadow in front of you that was not part of the darkness that surrounded you.

"Y/N?" he asked gently. "Are you okay?" he tried not to startle you. Being empathetic wasn't something that came naturally to him, but he tried extra hard around you. he noticed the way you were staring at your hands. The growth of your shadow as you thought about your powers more. He moved to touch one of your hands but you flinched back a bit. He brought his hand back and looked at you with concern. "Whats wrong, angel?" He asked lightly and you looked up at the pet name. He had started calling you that soon after you became friends. You thought it was out of irony but he really was convinced that you were some sort of angel. He also loved the way that your eyes would light up when he said it. You stared at him for a moment in silence.

"Do I scare you?" You asked quietly and your voice shook. He looked surprised by your question and you were surprised too. You didn't know why you were suddenly getting emotional. Why this was now all you could think about. Why it had to come up now when you were trying to express your feelings for him. Instead of responding he reached out to your hand, holding onto it when you let him, despite flinching away slightly. He started to walk, leading you toward the same tree you had met under. Once you both reached it he sat down and looked up at you, waiting for you to sit down too. You did, maybe a bit farther away from him than you needed to be.

"Do you think you scare me?" he asked genuinely and you took a second to think, looking back down at your hands which were now pulled back into your lap.

"I scare me," you stated simply and paused.

"That's not what I asked."

"I don't know." You mumbled. "I think I freak everyone out. Including you I guess." Your voice was quieter than you meant it to be. you really hadn't thought about it in a little while. It had been on your mind plenty when you first started talking to him. You were extra conscious of not pushing him to be around you or near your shadow. You knew that he would move away if he needed to but you also had so many memories of everyone around you fearing you, running from you, telling you that you were a curse. Instead of responding he held his hand out in between the two of you, palm up. You knew that he was inviting you to take it but that he wouldn't push you to. Instead of taking it, you placed your hand near his on the ground and he left his next to yours, not trying to take it if you didn't want him to.

"You don't." He let out, sounding sure of himself and slightly pained. "You don't scare me." You looked at each other. He had tears in his eyes. He was never one to get emotional so you were surprised. "Do I scare you?" he questioned, already knowing your answer but trying to prove a point.

"Of course not." You sighed.

"You have a lot more reason to be afraid of me than I have to be afraid of you." he looked at your hand again. "I'm the one who has a rough history, I'm the one who is angry and has a reputation of being aggressive."

"But, Warren, your mutation is-"

"Mutation has nothing to do with it, Y/N." he sighed. "You have control over your abilities, I have control over mine. The only difference between us is our personalities and I have never had any reason to fear you or dislike you. You're the kindest person I know and everyone in your life who has let you think that there was something wrong with you was terrible. And that was on them."

Your hand reached for his and you laced your fingers together. He squeezed your hand and ran his thumb over the back of it.

"I love you." The words came out of your mouth faster than you could think and you sucked in a breath, almost hoping he didn't hear you. When you glanced up at him he had a gentle smile on his face. He brought the back of your hand up to his face and kissed it before placing it against his cheek.

"I love you too, Y/N" He reached out for your waist and pulled you toward his lap, giving you plenty of time to give him a sign that you were uncomfortable. Instead, you put your leg over his waist so you were straddling his thighs. You held one of his hands in between you and fiddled with his fingers, admiring how your hands contrasted with his. Somehow, him holding your hand made it seem less out of place. You almost felt pride.

You were suddenly surrounded by warmth and shadow, the sounds of the quad around you becoming muted. You looked up around you and his wings were wrapped around the two of you, closing you off into your own little world. You felt the urge to reach out to them but you had never asked. You had never seen him let anyone touch them and you didn't want to make him uncomfortable.

"Go ahead." your eyes snapped to his in shock.

"Warren, you never let any-"

"I want you to," he admitted and it was true. He had thought many times about asking you to run your fingers through his wings. He would never complain about it but they were a little high maintenance and also sensitive. He never let anyone touch them because most people weren't gentle or he didn't trust them. He knew though that you were the gentlest person on Earth and that he could count on you to be careful.

At his reassurance, you smiled a bit. You reached a hand out to the part of his wing next to his shoulder. You both gasped a bit when your fingers made contact. Warren was a bit surprised at how sensitive they were to your touch and it had been a long time since anyone but himself had touched them. You were entranced by how soft they were. The feathers were delicate and there were so many. You were very careful in how you moved your hand along his wing, looking at him often to see if he was uncomfortable. As you were carding your fingers through his feathers, one came out. You gasped slightly horrified that you had hurt him.

"Hey, it's okay!" he rushed out as he saw your panic. "They just sort of... shed sometimes." He almost seemed embarrassed. Feathers would come off occasionally and he would often have to brush through them himself to release all of the loose feathers, sort of like brushing your hair. He reached to pick up the feather and held it in front of you for you to take. You gladly did and you twirled it in your fingers. "Maybe sometime, if you wouldn't mind, of course, you could help me brush through them?" he asked quietly and you smiled.

"Yeah of course. They seem like they might be a lot of work." you were touched that he trusted you to do that and you thought about how hard it must be to take care of them by himself when they were so big and most of his wings were behind him.

"You should see what it's like to shower with them," he grumbled and then his eyes widened at what he had said. He hadn't meant it to be an innuendo but now he was worried he offended you. Instead, he looked into your eyes and you fell into a fit of giggles.

"I might have to take you up on that offer." Your gentle gaze made him blush. He had never felt this comfortable with anyone. This safe. He decided right then that he would do anything you ever asked of him.

After that day, you and Warren became the cutest couple at the school. You were opposites in multiple ways and your relationship was more wholesome than any of your friends could handle. You got more confident in yourself and your abilities and he allowed himself to be more vulnerable. everyone agreed that you were a match made in heaven.

[sanjarka]

let's say you've been put in charge of a new thg adaptation, whether it's a new film series, a miniseries, or a tv show. you get complete creative control. what's one scene you would definitely make sure to include that did NOT make it into the movie @anonymousinpanem

/thank you for tagging me 🌷/

so, if i were in control, it would definitely be a television show, with three seasons and nine episodes (three chapters per episode) in each. and the casting - poc for the seam and actual teenagers for katniss, peeta, gale... i'm deleting nothing and no one.

/also, in my hypothetical universe, i'm inviting literally everyone who worked on dark netflix, cause if they can make a tv show about time travel to somehow make perfect sense than i need them and i trust them/

now, to actually answer the question, it would have to be an everlark-related scene since i'm an everlark trash okay (and their love story is so crucial to the main narrative that you'd have to rewrite the book if you removed it, so showing how and why it's so special is important!)

It's difficult to choose only one because their love is idk, like so consistent? it's always there in some form, and even the small moments that may appear insignificant to others are still so necessary. anyway from thg it would be the cave scene in it's entirety idc i need it all, from cf stay with me - always (i'm sorry but where is katniss being in love with peeta's eyelashes?) and from mj, it'd be katniss's dream about that moment (i want all the dreams and flashbacks, especially the ones with her dad - he's so essential to her and so alive in her heart, and i want to see him).

/you can stop reading here cause i just can't stop and technically i an cheating cause this scene was in the movies but it.was.so.bad. and much much shorter than it was in the books/

the bread scene.it was like what? two minutes long? believe me, i understand the time constraint and my maybe unrealistic expectations, but it is so detailed and vivid in the books that if you haven't read them you get absolutely nothing from it in the movies. nothing.

and i want to see every single thing. i want to see katniss and prim in school, finding out that their father is dead. i want to see her mother's succumb to depression and how it affects her children. then i want to see them struggling and katniss attempting to hold it all together but falling cause she is only eleven years old! things continue to deteriorate as time passes, to the point that they are on the verge of dying.

then as her last choice katniss goes into town and knocks on people's doors, begging them to buy her and prim's old clothes, and no one does anything (then we could also see that folks who live in town have a different appearance than she does and are better off, and we can see and feel the class/racial divide in d12, and how, despite the fact that they are all oppressed, people of color still suffer more - so when peeta helps her we are actually surprised that a ”rich” white boy actually cares and notices).

and again, we can see how near she is to death - how skinny, tiny, fragile, and young she looks. she's hungry and desperate. she's searching through the bakery's trash when peeta's mother sees her, yells at her, and is just plain cruel. then behind, we see peeta and how healthy he looks compared to katniss. but he gets a determined look in his eyes cause he understands what's going on and that he just needs to help her.

then katniss, tired, and crying, and scared, falls underneath the apple tree and gives up. then we hear a crack, a hit and see that peeta's mom has hit him because he burned the bread and that she is also cruel to her own child. but while that's just another day for him katniss look at the scene shocked because her parents never did that (are we even aware how rare that is!) and then he is throwing the bread and we see her confused look like - you gave this to me? on purpose?

then she's running away in the rain and she get's home and makes prim, her and her mom(!) eat together like a family for the first time since her dad died.

the next day at school, katniss is staring at peeta, wanting to thank him, but he's surrounded by friends, he's a merchant, and he has a black eye because of her, and how do you even properly thank someone for not only saving your life but also the lives of your sister and mother? so she averts her gaze, embarrassed, but now peeta is the one staring, and then he sees her picking that dandelion. then her and prim are picking them and making a salad, things are slowly starting to change for the better and that's where it stops. that is the end of the bread scene.

i know it's too much, i get it, but this moment needs to be done right if we are to completely understand everything about katniss and peeta, and i want it all.

[strssed-out]

Cancel Culture and “Educating” On Twitter

WARNING: THERE IS A LOT OF BIAS AND OPINIONS IN THIS, I WAS JUST RANTING MY THOUGHTS ON TWITTER.

thank you and enjoy :D

Before quarantine, many content creators were not as big as they are now—Dream, Tommyinnit, Tubbo, Ranboo, Corpse, so on so forth. They have grown enormously ever since the start of lockdown. With growing that fast in under a year, a vast fanbase starts to form as well. Twitter has now almost wholly controlled the MCYT fandom (Minecraft Youtubers) and having at least one to two things on the trending tab about their content creators. Many things can go wrong with a huge fanbase. But having a fanbase that is controlling a big social media site makes it worse. We have seen some of those moments throughout this year.

Twitter has two sides when they want to give content creators criticism. It’s either “educating” them with threads or just bluntly saying how they need to get better. However, both things start with the “trigger warning” represented like this: //(insert content creator name) neg. The neg is short for negative. Many of those negative thoughts get trending whenever a content creator does something their fandom doesn’t like. It’s almost expecting them to be perfect. They analyze every tweet and move their content creator makes. Once they finally find them trip a little, they announce it. Now there are some relatively rare times where Twitter is correct. As in making content creators stop some type of ACTUAL hurtful behavior. (when I refer to actual I mean behavior that affects EVERYONE on social media, not just Twitter. So, when people on other social media sites are talking about it, and are having similar views.) In this situation, you would expect them to use the educating type of idea. Well, no. Twitter users like to make it more threatening, and from what I understand, it makes the content creators understand better…? This is just wrong and disgusting to find these tweets about these small mistakes these content creators make.

Talking about those content creators. Each of them resolves the problem(s) differently. It’s either writing a lengthy apology on Twitter or apologizing on stream. Sometimes, their apologies are well made, and Twitter is happy. But if they are not good enough, people would tweet things as in, “what a half-hearted apology” or “what type of apology is that”. Usually, those apologies that aren’t the best are like that because of constant Twitter pressure. Yup, who would have known. If a content creator is still active during the trending of their name, like trying to get a video out, Twitter will start attacking them. In short, Twitter expects the BEST apology in a short amount of time. What they don’t understand is that content creators also need to figure out what the hell they did wrong. It’s not easy. Twitter doesn’t understand the stress of having thousands of people constantly attacking you on the spot. Twitter just thinks they know.

Now, you see how I keep referring to Twitter and only Twitter. Well, on other platforms like Tumblr and Youtube, people have very different opinions compared to Twitter. If it’s something to do with people of color (POC), Twitter is the one to over-react in these types of situations, while POC on other platforms seems to just laugh at that joke. Most of these “over-reactions” are because most of these people tweeting are white, not POC. Pretty much, it’s just white people speaking for POC. To make it clear, if you are someone who is ACTUALLY hurt by what the joke targets, go ahead and voice your opinion. It's just, I HATE IT when white people speak for POC. Expressed by many POC, they don’t like that and never will. So, in short, Twitter is just a place with overly sensitive users. (haha)

Now, my opinion on this whole thing. As a POC, most of these jokes that seem to hurt Twitter are honestly not that bad; they are pretty funny. Sometimes, I don’t understand how people get so overly sensitive over those jokes. I'm not saying that you can't hate on them. It's human nature, you gotta at least dislike something in life. I've seen it many times, people on Twitter like to put a trigger warning to the person and content creator Schlatt. Haha, yea, A REAL PERSON. I get it, he has made some REALLY messed up jokes, that I don't even find funny, but putting a trigger warning. Come on now. The real problem with Twitter I have had for a long time is how they can take things WAY TO FAR.

Two good examples are the Karl Jacobs drama and Tommyinnit drama. Karl Jacobs is a friend of the famous Youtuber, Mr. Beast, and a part of the DSMP (Dream SMP). Some old tweets were resurfaced about Karl supporting a content creator that has said slurs and very racist jokes. Of course, Twitter starts their routine by trending the two words, “karl neg.” This is trending for a few days. Eventually, Karl begins to stream for this whole drama on Twitter. His apology was acceptable, but the thing that pissed me off was when someone had called Karl asking him if he had eaten. Twitter had affected Karl’s health, causing him to starve himself. This is quite similar to what happened to Tommy. Twitter had affected his health, but instead of apologizing, they use that against him. Tommy streams on his alt account, and the stream was just a QandA stream. Eventually, they hit the topic of “tommy neg.” (He streamed a day after tommy neg was trending) He starts apologizing but started mixing his words up. He was very nervous and anxious about the whole thing. Why do you think he was scared? Twitter! Haha… He starts going on the topic of him going to therapy. A few minutes, tommy neg is trending AGAIN. Two days in a row. On the first day, there were some good tweets about whatever Tommy had done, but the second one was just stupid remarks towards Tommy. People on Twitter used his anxiety and therapy talk against him. They were still getting mad at him. This was vile to see and read. Who has the guts to use someone’s mental health problems against them? Oh well, that’s Twitter for you. Continuing about Tommy’s alt stream, there were multiple times when he looked like he would have a panic attack or just start breaking down. His whole stream lasted for about an hour. Eventually, tommy neg was filled with people with the same opinions as me. Such as how horrible it was to see people use his therapy against him.

In short, Twitter has become a very toxic place for both people in the fandom and their content creators. They are affecting mental health as well. Having many white people speak on our behalf in these jokes or stereotypes is tiring. We understand you have the privilege, but please use that privilege when it is ACTUALLY needed. Honestly, I find it so funny yet heartbreaking that white people are over here trying to "teach" a GAMER about how to be better when they can use that "white privilege" for other topics that are ALSO discussed on Twitter. (yea! other topics are discussed on the platform! I was even surprised) The DSMP fandom on Twitter is just a place of overly sensitive users.

- a POC

[cafffine]

Hey guys, I’ve decided to stop publishing Saltcoats for a number of reasons. I'm aware that many of you are going to initially be let down or confused, but hopefully once you’ve read through this post you’ll understand why this had to stop. I’ll try to hit all my points, but of course if you have any questions pls feel free to dm me or reply to this post.

DISCLAIMER: Ending this fic was a decision I came to by myself! No one asked me to do this, though many did help, and if you have something to add please do not bring other tumblr or ao3 users into the conversation unless they’ve explicitly said they’re ok with that. It’s a draining and heavy topic (not to me, but for those affected) and I don’t want to cause anymore unneeded distress.

Also, I’m the only author, all the problems with this story were created by me, and were biases I should have recognized and acted on much sooner. I’m very thankful to all the people that have reached out to me about the negative impacts on this fic, but it really does come down to: I wrote and published a story that was fundamentally ignorant of its setting and racist. So now I have to do my part to apologize and educate myself/take accountability.

First off, this was a flawed concept to begin with because I was trying to do a low fantasy setting with aliens in period clothes and a work of historical fiction at the same time, and those are not things you can go halfway on.

Historical fiction that centers around people of color has a long history of simply going race-blind and faking diversity by giving poc the roles of white people in Eurocentric stories and erasing their identities. (This article about Bridgerton explains the problem better than I could.) And it was something I tried to avoid by still having the Fetts written as immigrants from Aotearoa (NZ), but completely missed the execution on because I didn’t commit to full historical accuracy in all characters and aspects of the story. Meaning, I might as well have gone race-blind because you can’t pick and choose what to include, it’s just as racist.

This creates situations like the Fetts being immigrants facing real life oppression while the Organas, also people of color, are unaffected by the social climate and living as members of the British upper class. That’s not accurate to any version of history and ends up wiping clean any point I was trying to make about race and oppression. That also extends beyond the Fetts, I was not addressing how the american characters come from a country that still allows for the ownership of slaves, the British oppression of Scottish people and their culture, or even an in-depth look at real Queer communities of that era. (and more)

Given the real life historical climate in the 1850s, a multi-racial story like this one is not successful, and is racist in its ignorance of the struggles of poc, immigrants, and the intersectionality that had with class and crime.

In addition, the Fetts being written as criminals, even if it is framed as a morally correct choice*, is still playing into negative racial stereotypes that shouldn’t have been ignored.

* I should add, I don’t mean to make it sound like i’m creating excuses for myself when I give explanations for some of these choices such as “but it was framed as morally correct”, that doesn’t lessen the damage being done, it’s still racist, I guess I'm just trying to show why so many of these things went overlooked for as long as they did, and how easy it is for white/privileged people to find mental loopholes around racism when you’re not being sufficiently critical of yourself.

On another note, the Fetts being indigenous immigrants to Britain in the 1800s is not something I should have tried to tackle in fanfiction - a medium that often lacks nuance and can easily end up romanticizing or glossing over most heavy topics. This goes for period typical homophobia, addiction, and class struggles as well.

That being said! I’m not implying that any of those things should be completely ignored in fanfiction. Addiction, for example, is something very close to me that I do still want to explore in fanfic for the purposes of education and normalization, I’m not telling anyone what not to write, just checking myself. Because in a story like this where literally everything is so heavily dramatized and also applied to characters of color by me, a white person? It’s only going to end up being out of place, lacking in historical accuracy, and wholly disrespectful.

Another major problem I wanted to address is the relationship between a rich white person and a poverty stricken poc. That's a bad stereotype to begin with, but then I tried and failed to frame Obi-Wan as ignorant and biased to a point where his social status plays into the theme of class critique. But, if he’s still being written as Cody’s love interest, all his negative characteristics are ultimately going to be ignored and excused by the narrative (by me).

I’m not trying to end this conversation, I’ll always be willing to talk about this to anyone who’d want to say/hear more, but I don’t want run the point into the ground with over-explanation.

So, in conclusion, this fic had to stop and be broken down into the problem that it was. All white authors who write for the clones need to be hyper-vigilant about the fact that we are creating narratives for poc, and that our inherent racism is always in threat of being baked into in the stories we publish and spread to an audience. I was in the wrong when I wrote this story, and it should never have gone on for this long. I apologize for both my actions, and to anyone I may have hurt along the way.

This is getting posted on ao3 in the fic, and then, for now anyway, the fic is going to be deleted after a week. I’ll leave this post up and answer everyone unless it's someone trying to change my mind. Also, if I ignore an ask please send it again, tumblr might just have deleted it. I don’t want to try and bury this or run from my mistakes, I just don’t think that leaving the fic up where it can still find an audience will do anyone any good. Thank you for reading

If you're interested here's some resources I've been using to educate myself further:

What caused the New Zealand Wars? - An excerpt of the book by Vincent O'Malley of the same title. It gives a good summary of the violent colonization and oppression of Māori people and their culture by the British empire.

NZ Wars: Stories of Waitara (video) - Very educational documentary about the NZ wars and British colonialism. There are some historical recreations that get violent so pls watch with caution.

Historical American Fiction without the Racism - Tumblr post by @/writingwithcolor that talks specifically about Black people in the 1920's, but makes a good point about race and historical fiction in general. I'd recommend any post from this blog, especially their navigation page just a lot of great resources

Who Gave You the Right to Tell That Story? - An article about writing outside of your race that includes a diverse series of testimonials

History of Scottish Independence - Details the colonization of Scotland by the British empire, sort of long, can cntrl + f to "The Acts of Union" for a more direct explanation.

The best books on Racism and How to Write History - A list of well written and diverse works of historical fiction and why they are good examples of representation

I have a lot more that I can share if you're interested (x x x x) but this post is getting a bit too long.

[suchplausibilities]

That episode of Zoey’s (and Simon’s announcement last episode) was extremely well done. They’ve always done a very good job at being inclusive, but come on. I’m black. I trust no television show -  especially a network television show - to handle an in-depth discussion of race. And if they manage to do so decently, I definitely don’t expect for them to to address it from more than one angle. So, it was a very nice surprise.

What I really loved:

Zoey not getting it. At all.

Zoey thinking that she got it for a large chunk of the episode

Zoey making a series of false steps in an attempt to be the White Savior

Zoey not getting that she was hearing, but not really listening to Simon

Zoey needing to be told outright that she had no idea what she didn’t know, who her friends really were, and that it was degrading and self-indulgent to think that she did

Zoey realizing that saying “I’ve got your back” was not only a phrase full of empty words - it was insulting

How clear it was at the end of the episode that, even though she’d made huge strides, there was still more for her to learn

Simon making decisions he personally felt comfortable with, and not letting Mo or Tatiana speak for him, just because they all share a race

Every song being sung by a POC (or a collection of POC)

The songs not being enough for Zoey to really understand

Mo pointing out a. how exhausting it was to be expected to explain to a white person how to be less racist, and how it was not his job to do so b. how it was demeaning it was to be defined by his race to the point that he became the person she ran to when she needed advice on how to talk to another black person and c. how he made her own up to her reasons for running to him

Tobin making it clear that rocking the boat by speaking up  was too big of a risk, and that laughing at and going along with the racist jokes - no matter how much it hurt - felt worth it if it meant keeping his friends and his job

Simon blatantly explaining that being a black man in this country meant making himself smaller make sure that everyone else stays comfortable, and that he’ll always be a step below a white person when it came to what opportunities he would have.

Simon not mincing words as he told Zoey that her disregarding his being black meant that she was ignoring a vital part of him, and that expecting him to do the same in order to keep his job (and to maintain the status quo) meant that she was part of the problem

The board only being convinced to change when they saw that the social media presence had made the problem too public and to big to sweep under the rug

No pretending that they could be moved by a heartfelt speech - Simon’s points were all about making a company in a shaky situation not completely ruin their public image

Allowing Zoey to actually be part of the problem

The design of the show - the songs helping her to notice things she might not have noticed - means that every episode is inherently about her, but I think this episode was the first in which none of her actions directly affected the outcome (besides maybe asking Tobin why he laughed along with the racist jokes, but, even then, that was likely just the tipping point, given his actions at the open forum and his conversation with Simon). Tobin and Simon did the heavy lifting here, while she walked around hearing songs and realizing how much she didn’t understand and slowly learning

No b plots to distract from the important stuff

Tightrope, which really hits the nail on the head: not everything’s fixed, but they’re better. You take the time to celebrate your wins when you get them (and suffer your losses when they happen), but also don’t let them blind you to reality

The fact that Zoey’s affection for Simon seemed to really turn a corner here, now that she is beginning to see who he is as a complete person.  She had a crush, and they’re friends, but it wasn’t ever going to be anything but shallow until she stopped seeing only half of him

*Of course, Simon saying what he did during the press conference had already opened up the can of worms - him retracting his statement would have just made it worse. And, in reality, the company would have done exactly what Simon said: SparqPoint would have written a press release in which they admitted that they were short-sighted and apologized profusely (basically what they did in the show) in unwittingly condescending ways, given managers quota of POC hires, implemented a series of mandatory racial sensitivity courses, and given Simon to a “promotion” that included a raise, lots of busywork, and a contract that limited his ability to interact with the press. I’ve gotta say, though - the positive outcome fit the plot line very well, so I am happy to share in the optimism.

I just really hope that this doesn’t turn into a Very Special Episode for Black History Month that goes on to ignore the problem completely from here on out. Jaded, given that they’ve handled Mo and his story relatively well over the seasons? Maybe. But come on. I’m black. I know how this usually goes.

[thyon-nero]

So. How do you feel about the litjoy crate strange the dreamer collection? The art with the setting and places is beautiful, and I love the miracle for breakfast art. On the other... the characters just look... a bit white? All the godspawn has a POC parent... no way they all look Eurocentric. Idk. I feel like I will regret not collecting it, but I already have the books and it seems kinda a waste...

Hi! Thanks for sending this in—I didn’t know that litjoy was making a Strange the Dreamer collection so thank you for bringing it to my attention. And sorry for taking so long to respond! I had quite a bit to say and wanted to make sure that my thoughts were at least a little coherent. Since tumblr doesn’t like links in posts, I’ll be dropping the litjoy link in the replies for people to see what we’re talking about. Also, to the anon who sent this in, I’ll be using the generic pronoun “you” to talk to everyone reading this, so don’t feel like I’m calling you out specifically!

Your ask brings up several good points for discussion that I’m going to try and apply to a broader conversation. Namely, the whitewashing in art and consumerism in the book community. I’m only one perspective so please feel free to continue this conversation in a respectful way: if there’s one thing that Strange the Dreamer should have taught us, it’s that only through communication and understanding can we resolve conflict.

First of all: the Eurocentrism in the art. I’m not sure what policies are for reposting the art on a separate site, so I’d encourage everyone to look on the litjoy website to see it for themselves.

Is the art beautiful? Yes. Does it depict characters canonically described as brown with Eurocentric features? Also yes.

Although Weep is a fictional place, we can still fairly easily draw some parallels between the people of Weep and real world people and cultures. Off the top of my head, @readingbooksinisrael made a post (linked in replies) noticing how the words at the beginning of each chapters sounded Semitic, @inkwingart created incredible artwork of Sarai (linked in replies) without the Eurocentric features of the official art, rightfully calling out the differences between how the characters are described and how some artists choose to depict them, and I’m sure that others have spoken on this as well.

Despite the written portrayal of the people of Weep and godspawn as non-white, it’s easy for artists to avoid depicting them with non-Eurocentric features and only use blue skin as a defining feature.

Within the broader art community, I’ve seen conversations on how to depict characters of different racial and ethnic backgrounds without just changing the skin color and keeping all of the other features identical. Some art styles (typically more cartoony and stylized) definitely do draw all characters with the same face and rely on clothing, hair, and other distinctive characteristics to tell them apart. But this isn’t really enough. When artists provide enough detail to show Eurocentric features but consider using a different shade of brown (or in this case, blue) to be “enough” in terms of drawing diversely, they aren’t hitting the mark.

Ultimately there is no “right” way to visually depict these characters. However, I would encourage artists to think deeper about their designs and question why they chose certain features for certain characters, and if these features are consistent with the source material. I’d like to give the artists involved with the litjoy crate the benefit of the doubt and assume that they weren’t thinking about the implications of their art erasing the godspawn’s brown heritage, but unless any of them have made a statement, I think it’s up to everyone to decide for themselves whether these portrayals are worth supporting.

(That being said, I do adore the landscapes! It’s incredible to see these magical places brought to life. Highly, highly recommend looking at the art just for that!)

I also want to talk a bit about consumerism within the book community and whether this set is worth it, especially if you already own the books. Please keep in mind that I don’t intend this as a callout for anyone or a be-all-end-all for this discussion. My thoughts are my own and do not affect how you spend your money!

Personally, I’m not the sort of person who buys more than one copy of a book. With my current living situation, I don’t have infinite room for books and I (tragically) don’t have the money to buy every beautiful book I see! Although I only own Strange the Dreamer and not Muse of Nightmares, I still won’t be buying this collection because I know that the second copy of Strange the Dreamer will just be collecting dust on my bookshelf and taking up space from other books that I don’t already own copies of.

As of writing this (March 14, 2021) preorders haven’t opened yet so I don’t know how expensive this set is, but if you don’t already have the books and want them, this looks like a great set that’s definitely worth looking in to! However, and here’s where I circle back to your point about regretting not collecting it, I personally don’t think it’s worth buying just for the sake of collecting everything to do with this series.

If owning these editions will make you happy in the long term and you have the resources to purchase them, go for it. I think it’s important to remember though that regardless of which editions you own or whether you’ve read the books through your public library, you still have the story. This world and these characters will always exist in your mind! That being said, I think a lot of people within the book community look to special editions, different cover art, and other merch as a way to become closer to the stories that we love. Even though these may offer new visuals or (in some cases) deleted scenes and extra written material, they don’t change the fundamental story. The experience of reading these stories doesn’t depend on owning special editions. Ultimately, if you’re buying multiple copies of a book, you’re pretty much only paying for the experience of having a pretty cover on your shelves. There’s nothing wrong with that (I know I’ve been guilty of paying extra for a slightly prettier cover!) but that’s the only thing you’re missing out on when you don’t buy these editions.

Especially with the rise of BookTube and Bookstagram as ways of seeing what other readers’ shelves look like, I’ve noticed people putting more stock into what others own as opposed to what they’ve read. Although not perpetrated by everyone in the community, there is some pressure to own all of your favorite books and have the fanciest editions to show just how much of a fan you are, when ultimately that doesn’t mean anything. The person who owns every special edition and the person who checked out their library’s copy can both love the story just as much. We as readers shouldn’t have to “prove” our loyalty to different stories or authors to enjoy them. It’s perfectly alright to not own your favorite books or everything by your favorite author! It’s the experience of reading these stories that brings us together as a community, not the experience of buying everything relating to these stories.

All that being said, it’s still a personal decision whether you want to buy these editions or not. Do what brings you joy! And if that’s owning these books, more power to you. If anyone wants to chime in with more thoughts on the artwork or whether these copies are worth buying, I’d love to discuss it further and have an open discussion. We all have different perspectives and can learn so much from each other through respectful conversation.

[qqueenofhades]

Do you think the technology/internet/broad access revolution we are in will change things for POC, queer people, racism, etc?

I think it's obvious that it already has? If you're asking whether technology/social media will change things re: marginalised people for the better, the jury is still out, and we're at a critical tipping point (both in America, but also worldwide) as to whether empirical reality, critical nuance, and acceptance of facts that don't fit your preferred worldview are going to have any continuing relevance to our political and social systems whatsoever. The internet has done a lot of good things, but the instant social media became a place where a) competing ideological narratives and outright fake news were all treated as equally valid, as long as it drove traffic and made money, and b) the owners of these platforms absolved their duty to control them with a shrug of "free speech," we were destined to go down this path, where we all inhabit custom-made information universes where we only ever interact with like-minded people, any critique becomes a sign of insufficient loyalty to The Cause, and collective civic responsibility no longer exists, but is instead replaced by downright sociopathic ultra-libertarian selfishness packaged as "individual freedom." (Just witness how some people have behaved during Covid, refusing even the slightest restrictions, even if making sacrifices would help save other, less fortunate people.) Not to sound like a grumpy old woman, but I think the impact on the real world was truly devastating and, in the short term at least, genuinely irreparable.

The internet has done us the service of connecting and empowering marginalised people who would never have met each other otherwise, providing the entirety of human knowledge at the touch of a button, raising visibility, and so forth. However, we are at an absolute crisis point of whether we're going to let people behave, act, legislate (and try to legislate for others) according to their preferred Facebook feed-version of reality, because see again: the monetization of information, no matter what kind of information, was always going to lead to this. We are just now realizing the devastating consequences of large segments of society walking around in their own personal universes and simply rejecting tenets of empirical reality that do not conform to their own ideology. The problem is, when a lot of people (on both the extreme right and the extreme left) live in lulu-land because of what they consume online, it inevitably affects everyone else. Social media makes it incredibly and poisonously easy to enter an entire information ecosystem that reinforces itself, therefore self-justifying itself in an entire universe of total bullshit, and once people get into that echo chamber, it is very hard (albeit not impossible) to get out.

So, you say. This all sounds awfully pessimistic. What would I do about it? Well, this is the part where I have to say that while I have ideas, and they're things I try to do for myself, it's not anything I can pull off alone. I have talked at length about how the humanities (and their attendant critical thinking skills) have been repeatedly, deliberately, and extensively devalued in late capitalism, precisely because they a) don't generate Production For The Machine and b) encourage people to ask awkward questions about power and control. As long as people aren't explicitly taught how to push back on this stuff, or aren't able to reject something -- even if it fits with their Ideology -- because it isn't true, we're going to be stuck in this mess. I'm not optimistic that legislative efforts against Big Tech will have any effect. I'm glad that at least we saw, however completely terrible it was/is, the stark result of alternate-universe grievance politics on January 6, and in the conservative media loudmouths dogpiling on the Covid vaccine as an attempted way to hurt those liberal sissies who believe in science. It's no coincidence that the states with the lowest vaccination rates are deep-red Trump-supporting southern states. It's only now, as the pandemic resurges in those exact places, that (once more out of expediency) the conservative "news" is finally, tepidly endorsing the idea that huh, maybe you should get vaccinated.

Anyway. The relentless monetization of social media at the expense of any kind of moderation for hate speech, the encouragement that you can post anything you want and never face any consequences Because Free Speech, and the way that we have all seen the vast and horrifically ugly prejudices that the social media universe has both exposed and cultivated anew... it's all pretty much a giant shitburger, if you ask me. I don't know how to quickly fix it. It's way too easy to exist in a bubble, to horrifically bully strangers you will never meet, and to have real and terribly detrimental consequences on our offline lives as a result. The internet obviously isn't going away, but if we don't seriously grapple with the kind of anti-citizens it's made us, I'm not sure what's going to happen, or if it's anything we should want.

I would like to think that we will slowly learn to use this awesome power more responsibly, and reverse some of the incredible damage that has been done, but if that does happen, it'll come when we've already hit rock bottom. Again, it has done good things: the worldwide protests after George Floyd's death, for example, would have been completely impossible without modern technology, in any number of ways. But if it's going to be a concrete social good for all of us, let alone the most vulnerable among us, we have so very far to go, and the global systems in place have absolutely no interest in enabling a reversal of the current trends. So. We will see, but I'm not too hopeful.