#respecting names and pronouns is the bare minimum.

[system-to-the-madness]

A Warm Welcome - Dazai Osamu x Reader

Pairing: Dazai Osamu x Reader (can be read as any gender, no pronouns used) Genre: fluff Word Count: 2 493 Warnings: Dazai level of suicidal thoughts, food Summary: Dazai comes home to a warm flat and a homecooked meal A/N: For those who don’t know: kotatsu are those Japanese tables with a heater and a blanket

Dazai Osamu had gotten used to coming home to cold and dark apartment and no one to welcome him. Not that he had ever made the experience of coming home to a brightly lit up and cozy apartment with a warm welcome. Really, he usually was only glad to have a home to come back to in the first place.

Now that he was standing outside his front door, key in hand, eying the slither of orange light that crept through the gap between door and floor, he wondered who had broken into his apartment and turned on the light. He knew that he hadn't forgotten to turn it off. In the morning, when he had woken up, it had already been light outside and at night he barely ever turned it on to begin with, preferring to make his way around in the dark.

So, who was in his flat now? Had one of his enemies found him and was waiting inside to kill him? Honestly, after the day he had had, Dazai would gladly show his murderer-to-be where he kept the kitchen knives, should the other have been forgetful enough to not have brought a weapon.

But what would you say? Would you be sad if he died? Or would you be mad at him, for walking into such an obvious trap? Why did he even care about what you would think? You were his co-worker, nothing more.

Well, his co-worker, who he had been enamoured with from day one, who he had never treated with anything but utter respect, in whose presence he kept his suicide-talk to a minimum, because he had once seen how it upset you. And you were the only co-worker whom he had told about Oda, the only co-worker, who had ever gotten him anything for Valentine's Day.

It had been a cute, light pink box with a heart on it, and handmade chocolates inside. You hadn't signed your name, only a card with the word "Enjoy!" but he knew your handwriting well enough to know the box had been from you; he didn't need Ranpo to figure that one out. And you hadn't told him they were just friendship-chocolates either, which meant they had been the real deal. Valentine's Day had only been last week, so he hadn't yet had the chance to gift you a bag of chocolates back, and he wasn't sure about how to go about it either. He wanted to be so much more to you than just a colleague, but he could hardly ask you out out of nowhere, could he?  Well, not that any of this mattered anymore, with his sealed fate waiting behind the unlocked door of his flat.

He sighed. Of course it would never work out between you and him anyway, you were too perfect for a suicidal maniac like him either way. So, he twisted the doorknob and let himself into his flat.

"I'm home," he announced loudly to his intruder, before he even realized that his flat smelled deliciously of food, or that there was soft music playing from the kitchen. What kind of assassin would put on a soundtrack to commit his crime? Oh no, he was going to get murdered by an absolute nutcase, wasn't he?

"Welcome back!"

Dazai startled at the sound of your voice. Why were you here? You were in danger with the assassin around, weren’t you? Or were you the assassin? What had he done to upset you enough to warrant you wanting to kill him? Apart from his everyday behaviour that was. Had you expected an answer to the Valentine’s Day chocolates earlier?

“You’re just in time for dinner! I made curry,” you let him know, poking your head into the short hallway with a grin before disappearing back into the kitchen.

Diner? Curry?

You weren’t here to kill him? What an unexpected turn of events…

Confused, Dazai toed his shoes off in the genkan and slipped past the door into the living area. You had set up two bowls, two sets of chopsticks, spoons and cups on the kotatsu in the area Dazai usually used as his living room. You had even plugged it in already. Dazai couldn’t remember the last time he had used this thing. It had come as part of the flat, but usually Dazai ate in a café, restaurant, or the convenience store, and even when he ate at home, he never had plugged in the kotatsu. It always gave him the feeling that the soft blanket keeping the heat trapped under the table would cause a comfort he didn’t know how to deal with.

Blinking a few times, trying to make sense of the situation, he turned towards the kitchen, where you were standing at the stove, stirring something in a big pot. It smelled delicious.

“I hope it’s okay I let myself in.” you spoke over your shoulder in Dazai’s direction. “Kunikida called and say you had a… well, a day, and I thought it would be nice if you got to eat something proper tonight.”

“Why Curry,” Dazai asked, ignoring his increasing irritation. Kunikida had called you to tell you to look after him? Did he even have time in his so tightly planned schedule for things like such a call? And how had he even noticed? Did this ideal-obsessed former math teacher actually have a heart after all?

“It’s the comfort food, isn’t it?”

Dazai got distracted by the beeping of an electrical appliance on the kitchen counter. A rice cooker? Dazai didn’t own a rice cooker (doubtlessly proof of how much he cooked on his own). Had you brought your own rice cooker just to cook for him?

“Is it,” he asked back, finally remembering to answer your rhetorical question.

“Well, I’ve never met anyone who doesn’t love curry on a cold winter evening.”

Right, cold. His flat wasn’t cold as it usually was when he came home. Instead, you had turned on the AC in the kitchen. Dazai wiggled his toes in the plain black socks he wore. He could actually feel his toes for once.

“I’ve never thought of it like that,” he admitted.

“If you have a different comfort food, I can try making that for you next time,” you offered.

Next time. Next time. He liked the ring of that.

“I don’t really have a comfort food,” Dazai mumbled, almost hoping you hadn’t heard him over the humming of the extractor fan. But of course you had, your movements stopping for a moment and Dazai could already hear you asking ‘Why not? What kind of food did your mother always make for you? That’s probably your comfort food’, but the question never came. Instead, you continued stirring for a moment before you replied.

“Then I’ll just make all kinds of different foods for you, until you’ve found a comfort food.”

Dazai swallowed hard and nodded, even though you couldn’t see him.

“Okay,” he agreed.

It was such a strange idea, such a weird concept, to come back to a home that was not dark, but instead lit up by the gentle light in the kitchen, to a flat that was not cold, but warmed by the AC that had been turned on, to a person welcoming him home, to warm food, the promise of a full stomach. Was that really what other people got to experience every day? This gentleness of someone else, directed only at him? How had he never thought about how nice something like that would be? How much more precious life would feel with someone who cared?

“I’ll- I’ll go take off my jacket…”

Quickly apologising himself from the kitchen, he disappeared into the bedroom. In one quick motion he slipped out of his coat, throwing it into the general direction of the wardrobe, and ran his hands through his hair while pacing up and down. What was going on with him? Why was it so important to him that he had come home to someone waiting for him? No, not someone, not anyone. You. Dazai exhaled with a small sigh, stopping in his tracks. The worrying, the overthinking had time for later, he decided, now all he had to do was enjoy the food you had made for him.

When he came back into the kitchen, you had just scooped some rice into the bowls that had been standing on the kotatsu. Taking a glance at Dazai, you giggled.

“Your hair is all messy,” you laughed, making him run his hands over his hair self-consciously. Oh dear, was he blushing? “How much curry do you want?”

Dazai stepped behind you to the stove, placing one of his hands at your waist, not missing the way your breath hitched. At least he wasn’t the only one out of their depth here. Glancing into the pot before you, he couldn’t help the way his mouth started watering. In a thick, brown sauce, that smelled deliciously of many different spices, he could make out pieces of onions, potatoes, and carrots.

“As much as possible,” he chuckled, brushing his nose against your hair, and pressing a quick kiss to the shell of your ear before he drew back.

Instead of an answer, he received a chuckle that warmed him even more than the warm air from the AC already did. Standing beside you, he waited until you had finished topping the rice with the curry, and handed him a bowl, before he followed you to the kotatsu and slipped in opposite you.

It seemed like he had been right in the assumption that you had turned it on, because his legs, up to where the blanket was pooling around his hips, immediately got engulfed in comfortable warmth. He didn’t even realise he was sighing until the gentle sound of your soft giggle reached his ears.

Blinking his eyes open, having closed them in bliss, he quickly sat up straight, grabbing the chopsticks you had laid out for him and folding his hands.

“Thank you for the meal,” he announced with a smile that was a bit too bright to be quite genuine. He wanted it to be genuine, but how could he ever bring across his gratitude for you taking care of him like this?

“Thank you for the meal,” you replied, and Dazai could feel your eyes on him as he picked up a piece of carrot, covered in the brown sauce.

As soon as the food touched his tongue, his throat closed up. Not in the way it would have if the food was disgusting. Quite the contrary really. The carrot had been boiled soft, the sauce added a rich, spicy flavour to the sweetness of the vegetable. It tasted like heaven. And it had been cooked by you for him. How could he ever find a way to express to you how much this meant to him? His nose was itching suspiciously with the burn of rising tears, but he willed them away, and instead focused on chewing and swallowing his first bite, the food immediately starting to warm up his stomach.

When he looked up from his bowl, he noticed you had also started eating, focusing on your food rather than on his reaction.

“I think, you don’t have to cook different foods each week for me to find my comfort food,” Dazai said, making you look back up at him. Quickly he scooped some more curry into his mouth.

“What do you mean,” you inquired, you head gently tilted to the side.

“I think, my comfort food is curry,” Dazai admitted, “as long as it’s made by you.”

His heart definitely skipped a beat it shouldn’t have skipped at the away you were smiling at him now.

“Is that your way of asking me to cook for you again?”

For a moment Dazai was tempted to answer the way he always would have. Something cocky, something that hid the way you had wormed yourself into his sad heart. But with the flavour of the curry you had made just for him, lingering on his tongue, with the warmth that spread from his stomach, he just couldn’t seem to pull on his usual mask.

“I know it’s a lot to ask, but…”

“It’s okay,” you smiled, and Dazai felt you nudge your food against his knee under the kotatsu. “I’d be happy to cook for you again. Oh! We can make it a weekly date! Curry-Tuesday! How does that sound?”

Dazai nodded, quickly focusing back on his bowl, before you could see the emotions that threatened to overwhelm him and drag him under.

“A weekly date,” he asked instead.

“Yeah, I mean like- oh! Not like that, I mean like a-”

“Why not like that,” Dazai asked. “I think I’d like it better if it were like that.”

 “You mean, like-”

“Like you, letting me take you out on days when you’re not making curry, that is.”

For a moment you were quiet, quiet enough for Dazai to fear you could hear his loudly beating heart over the quiet humming of the AC.

“I still gotta make up for the Valentine’s chocolates you gave me, right,” he added.

“So… curry-cooking dates and other dates? That sounds like a lot of fun,” you finally answered, and Dazai couldn’t care to hide the sigh of relief that escaped his lips at your agreement, his heart settling down at least a little bit.

“It does, doesn’t it,” he laughed, finally looking up from his bowl again, meeting your eyes. Even in the rather plain light of his living room, your eyes glimmered brightly as if they were shining from within.

You nodded in agreement, biting your lower lip, before you broke into a giggle.

“What?” Dazai watched you both in confusion and amusement, as you flopped backwards against the floor.

“Just-,” you shrugged, before leaning back up on your elbows. “I’m just happy, ‘s all. Am I not allowed to be happy?”

Dazai stretched out his legs under the kotatsu, nudging his feet against yours and letting you intertwine them with one another.

“On the contrary, my love,” the nickname slipped over his lips without his permission, but he couldn’t be bothered to correct himself at the sight of how bashful you grew. “We’d have a problem though if you weren’t.”

You laughed again, covering your face with your hands as you sat up properly again and shook your head.

A/N: It’s Curry Tuesday, because is Japanese that’s an alliteration (curry = カレー - karee, Tuesday = 火曜日 - かようび – kayoubi), also: this is actual karee-kayoubi footage right here

Dazai kept his eyes on you a moment longer, trying to memorize your flustered and amused reaction before he dedicated his attention to the curry again. There was something so infinitely soft and comforting of coming home to finding you waiting for him. Sure, the food was nice, but it was only meaningful because you had made it for him. Because you had turned on the kotatsu and the AC to warm up the flat. Because you had welcomed him home.

Tags: @un-lawliet

[h3ll0k1ttiez]

HAIII WELCOME TO MY ACCOUNT!!

My name is Alixya (or Alix, or Ali!)

I’m 22 years old and my pronouns are she/her!!

I’m new to tumblr, I’ve used it before as a kid but never really USED it. I’m excited to start learning how to make cool posts on here lolll xD

My account is a safe place for everyone as long as you aren’t: racist, lgbtphobic, xenophobic, MAP or any other variation, etc. Extremely basic bare minimum DNI.

Minors are welcome here, just please respect boundaries! no flirting!

I’m not sure what I’d describe my style as! Probably a scene, emo, grunge mixture. It depends on the day :o

Some of my fav game: sims 4, Roblox, Fortnite, overwatch, animal jam classic

Some of my fav bands/artists: Pierce the veil, sleeping with sirens, bring me the horizon, korn, Alice In Chains, Kesha, rehab, and System of a Down. I have an extremely broad music taste though, and listen to almost every genre!

That’s all for now! Thank you for reading this or liking my stuff :’)) baiii!! >:3c

[strawb3rrysweetheart]

Freak.. (Vox x transmasc reader, Hurt/Comfort)

I look my mom in her eyes. Her previous words ringing in my ears. 'you're what?.. trans? you're taking my little girl away?.' tears build up in both our eyes. "You're killing my little girl.. you.. murderer" tears run down her face. Shes shaking. "Killing her? I'm saving her.. your little girl was drowning and I saved her" I say while my mascara starts to run. "N-no.. you're taking my child from me." she starts to sob quietly, shes trembling now. "Mom-" i start to say "Don't.. call me that" she cuts me off. "I still am your child.. all thats happening is i'm saving myself" I try to reason, but its no use.. "You.. have taken my child away from me. Get out. Get out of my house.." She starts to scream. I flinch at the yelling. "You're taking away my family and home from me..?' I wipe away the tears. "No.. I'm saving myself from you .. the murderer of my child.." she says coldly. She starts to raise her hand to hit me. I run. Out of that house, my "home". Run into the rain. I don't know where i'm running. All I care about is getting out

➢ ﹔୭ ˚. ᵎᵎ➢ ﹔୭ ˚. ᵎᵎ➢ ﹔୭ ˚. ᵎᵎ➢ ﹔୭ ˚. ᵎᵎ➢ ﹔୭ ˚. ᵎᵎ➢ ﹔୭ ˚. ᵎᵎ➢ ﹔୭ ˚. ᵎᵎ➢

That was years ago now. While running I got hit by a car, I bet she felt sorry after that. I ended up in hell. I'm not entirely sure for what.. all I know is that when I first ended up here I was distraught. I soon end up working under voxtech. Rising up the ranks to end up being vox's personal assistant. Ever since the incident with my mom I repressed me being trans. Everyone in hell was under the impression I was a women. It was its own mini hell inside of the already existing one. "(Fem Name)" Vox calls. Snapping me out of my thoughts. "Yes sir?" I call out as I walk towards him. He looks... concerned.. its strange, He doesn't look like that much. "Are you trans?" He asks. My heart drops. How did he know. How could he have figured it out? I bite my tongue to repress tears. "What makes you ask that?" I ask in a hushed tone. "Well.. you always seem uncomfortable with feminine terms and pronouns, and you seem to hate being called by your name" He says, with a strange amount of concern. I try to read what he'd get out of this. Why would he support me? Of all people stealing his dear assistant away from him.. "Yeah.." I mumble. Bracing myself for the screaming. But he doesn't.. "What are your new name and pronouns" he asks with sincerity in his voice. I'm confused.. why would he care? I'm a freak, not someone to be respected.. "(preferred name) and (preferred masc pronouns)" I mumble. He nods. "Okay.. why do you look like you're about to cry" he raises an eye brow, his sadistic nature creeping into his voice. "You.. support me?" I ask confused. "Well no duh? Your name and pronouns are the least of my concern" He waves his hand dismisivly. "You.. see me as a man?" I question. "And you don't?" He retorts, That takes me aback. Of course I don't.. I'm a freak. And yet here he is supporting me nonetheless.. Tears slowly start to fall. He looks up at you with a confused look. "Has.. no one supported you before?" He asks. I shake my head. No. I was rejected the one time I tried to admit it to the person I thought I could trust most. He stood up from his desk and wipes away my tears with his clawed finger. "Don't cry.. Its the bare minimum." He says.. and..and then, he kissed me. I kissed him back. The kiss full of a range of emotions. It was passionate and full of meaning. I don't care what this means.. Because its him

•〰️﹒𝓍୨୧𝓍﹒〰️••〰️﹒𝓍୨୧𝓍﹒〰️••〰️﹒𝓍୨୧𝓍﹒〰️••〰️﹒𝓍୨୧𝓍•〰️

[dra-and-sdra2-hot-takes]

Harassing your best artists does not a good fandom make

disclaimer: i won't be naming the two artists who were harassed for obvious reasons, and i won't be naming any of the specific person(s) who did the harassment both because they* don't deserve credit and because i don't want to start a fight with them* but to give a lesson to both them* and people who stood idly by and let it happen.

these two artists are some of my favorite in the fandom. while they're both still somewhat active in the fandom, [artist A] has said they* feel disillusioned with the fandom based on its treatment of them* and, well, i can fucking see why! and while i haven't seen [artist B] comment on the harassment directly, i can imagine they* aren't enthused either.

i've had multiple people in this fandom tell me personally that people have come into their inboxes and told them to unfollow/block A and/or B because they're* "problematic" for reasons including but not limited to "drawing nsfw of the another cast" [as if they aren't fucking confirmed to be adults]

and, to top this layer cake of the disgusting treatment of these two artists, i have literally seen, and i am not the least bit joking here, someone's DNI including the line "if you support [artist A] or [artist B]... DNI, they're gross" the audacity. the fucking nerve. to put two random tumblr/social media users in their* shitty little '~do not interact~' list. two users who have done nothing wrong and whose only crime is drawing fiction

setting aside that harassment is.... you know.... always wrong, all the time. this is not how you build a good fandom. there are other good artists in the fandom. but A and B are my as well as many others' from what i've observed. they do a lot of good in this - and i cannot stress this enough - very small fandom.

if you do not like these artists (or any other artist), say it with me now, block and move on. add their usernames to your "filtered content" list if you absolutely musn't see them*. although the claim i've seen of their* mere mention being horrifically triggering for certain people is... odd, to say the least, and reeks of attempted ostracism, just like the backtalking they* recieved in random people's dms.

and of course it is not just these two artists experiencing bs like this in the fandom but their situation speaks to how such a toxic fandom like ours treats even our best and britest.

conclusion: stop harassing people. that's the bare minimum. perhaps don't mention people by name in your 'dni lists'. and realize building positive community is necessary for this and any other small fandom to thrive.

*they/them/theirs pronouns used exclusively to anonymize the people involved in this story because the identities of the people here is not the point. i'm not trying to use an incorrect pronoun for anyone involved here, just protect their identities.

p.s.: i don't control you, dear readers, but i can at least ask you please don't speculate about the identities of anyone i mentioned in the post. kthx

[ID: This blog has no DNI. Please be civil and respectful to everyone under my posts!]

[emorty]

Alright fine. I'm sorry...that you think you deserve an apology. WELL THAT'S RI- No, seriously,though. I'm sorry, I'll respect your pronouns. But if you still act like an annoying little smartassy shit,I will do something that I haven't thought of yet. But you won't enjoy it. I might...I dunno,make the Omega Device again,or UM....Idk 💀💀💀 - Teen Rick with a copy and pasted apology.

Apology not accepted. It's the bare minimum to respect pronouns and chosen names. This isn't even an apology, you just said 'oh, I guess I'll respect your pronouns' and then essentially threatened to erase me from all existence if I try to call you out for your bullshit again. The only way I'll accept this half-assed dogshit "apology" is if you stop talking to and about me.

[acesgarden]

Being openly nonbinary in a friend group of mostly cishets is hard.

Because while yes they use my correct name very few use the right pronouns. I’ve got so tired of correcting them, even the ones who’ve known me the longest. (Not my bf though, he does the bare minimum of using the right pronouns.)

I know I should say something. I know I look fem presenting because fuck I don’t care what I look like. I shouldn’t have to look a certain way for the respect.

But, they also don’t get me, no one shares the same understanding I have, the feelings, the experiences, the countless nights of questioning and overthinking of it all. Because they’ve never had to go through them. The harassment and bullying, the technical stalking or suffering and alienation.

I was treated like a joke, something to mess with and rile up, something akin to a toy.

Now I don’t face it, but I still feel the affects, because deep down I don’t think i’ll ever fit in. Because I have experiences and understandings they won’t ever get.

Im a blob, shapeless, as hard as I try to imitate another shape something will always feel wrong.

Because i’ll never be a circle or a square, il always be the blob of the group.

[dystxpiansims]

Hello! I don't like to do this, but I think it needs to be done.

If you heard about Equiliberty, you probably heard about Jocelyn Flores, or Moe, or 2thedoe, or whatever her names are. I really didn't want to make this post, but seeing how she made a whole blog just to talk trash about other servers and people who are "harassing" her after her other blogs got taken down, I feel I need to say something and let others know what they would be joining into.

First I'd like to make a pointer here; Natalia does not take their time to dedicate "talking shit" about Jocelyn or whatever she goes by now. She only posted what felt was necessary to let others know what is going on behind closed doors that Jocelyn wants to keep pushing away as nothing and act the victim. Yes, maybe some of us said some things in the past, but what Jocelyn is doing is not cool.

What's really sad is I thought Jocelyn was an amazing person, but after all the things I've seen, I take it back. Sure she can be cool when she's not showing her true colors, but she can't own up to what she's done and take responsibility, and instead says she apologizes and then makes an entire tumblr blog dedicated to shit talking others and calling any other sims 4 equine communities/servers "competition". Your server isn't the only one, ma'am. Which shows one of the posts she's made on it below:

Secondly; what you're doing IS making a drama post by keeping it going. If it truly bothered you, just ignore it and keep going on with your life than wasting your energy on making an entire blog to be nasty towards others? You made your point, you block them, you go on, not have your 'friends' stalk them to keep you up to date with what's happening and keep stirring the pot by adding to your hate blog. And you're not transphobic??

Uh, I hate to break it to you but this:

This is the definition of transphobic. How can you say you want to respect them, but you don't want to even call them by their pronouns? You OBVIOUSLY don't respect them enough if you refuse to call them what they go by. Calling them by their desired name is the bare minimum, but it don't mean you respect them.

This may be an opinion, but this is a HARMFUL one. There are no "two genders". If you believe in science, then obviously you're not studying it hard enough. Sex? There is at least six:

X – Roughly 1 in 2,000 to 1 in 5,000 people (Turner’s )

XX – Most common form of female

XXY – Roughly 1 in 500 to 1 in 1,000 people (Klinefelter)

XY – Most common form of male

XYY – Roughly 1 out of 1,000 people

XXXY – Roughly 1 in 18,000 to 1 in 50,000 births

"Sex refers to biological attributes that distinguish organisms as male, female, intersex and hermaphrodite. Gender is a social construct, encompassing various psychological and social characteristics that collectively define individuals as men, women, non-binary or trans, etc." So obviously you don't believe in science enough to actually do your research, I presume? Don't make an "opinion" if you've never done any research on this type of a topic.

Yes, this is how we will run our community by making sure the person that has hurt multiple people don't join back and cause more problems. If someone causes you trauma in your childhood and you finally get away, would you want them to just come back in your life? I don't think so. Somethings CAN be forgiven, but obviously this is a big thing that hurts a big community, and you can't even take responsibility and give a lame apology to actually apologize for hurting others, but instead just to cover your tracks and protect yourself, along with "clearing out people who don't feel serves the server any purpose anymore" and in the midst of your breakdown, you ban this person who didn't do ANYTHING except check their balance because you weren't happy at the time.

Oh, by the way, here's the thing that I was referring to with the competition and once again dragging another server down in this "quote unquote" not a drama post. No one is poaching members from the server, they're doing that on their own. They're not going to stay in a server with someone they don't feel comfortable with. But AI generated logos? I was there during the time and I don't remember any AI generated logos? I remember a conversation about AI generated images and Jocelyn not agreeing with banning them or not seeing anything wrong with it and not seeing the point in getting angry over it.

No one attacked the server, Jocelyn. Everything that's been said was towards you who has ruined the server for everyone, even to the point removing general because you couldn't handle being called out and instead was lashing out at the others and acting the victim in the chat, deleting anything that even mentioned it or asked a question. OH! And kicking someone out of the server for simply asking a question for you to clarify what you said.

Only server I've ever had to walk on eggshells and scared to interact on was in Equiliberty - but that was because of you, and that's why I left. I was scared to interact after your little meltdown because if someone said anything there was a possibility of getting banned for no reason. But these servers? They feel truly like home and not once has there been any problems, and they actually listen to the members when there's a suggestion made.

Anywho, onto yet another post she had made!

No one has made accounts just to harass you - it's more like you who has done that, huh? And useless tumblr posts? It's pretty useful to me to avoid someone like you who can't seem to let things go and keep it going and not even take responsibility of your actions.

Quite sad you won't even take in other peoples words when trying to tell you there isn't just "two genders". No one is making the LGBTQ+ more important than the "other factors" but we're tired of not being taken serious and being brushed aside as if we're nothing but garbage. Yes, we all matter equally, but to go out of your own way to downsize the importance of this is quite astonishing. To be going around saying "it's just my opinion" and very clearly saying you won't be calling someone by their pronouns because what YOU see isn't what they identify or feel like or even "pass" as but yet you still "respect" them really shows the type of person you are and to lie to cover your own ass too on top of it. Uh huh. I sure as all hell don't feel respected, you've lost all my respect for you.

Many people have posted straight from the source of where things were said and done, so you're right! Never assume! People know who you truly are now, ma'am.

And here she is with her saying her other accounts have been deleted and ofc this being her first post! Totally not drama posts, right?? RIGHT?? So, there's my proof of her verifying this whole blog is dedicated to harassing others and talking shit and trying to turn it around on the ones who tell and show the truth. Have a good life Jocelyn, but sooner or later, others who are sticking around you and protecting you will realize who you truly are.

[steakout-05]

(quick clarification: this post is specifically about neurodivergent transmeds refusing to use people's neos out of an apparent disrespect and using their neurodivergence as an excuse to legitimately be mean. feel free to add more stuff onto this in the replies!)

hey guys don't mean to be queer on main but i think people using their neurodivergency as an excuse to misgender people isn't ok actually.

i've seen stories of quite a few people who use the fact that they have ADHD (or some other condition that may cause memory issues) and can't remember things well as an excuse to "forget" someone's neopronouns, even after being asked by that person multiple times to refer to them with those pronouns. this isn't ok on so many levels.

first of all, i think it's incredibly guilt-trippy to make someone feel bad about accidentally being ableist by expressing themselves, when in reality, they haven't done anything wrong at all. using funky and obscure pronouns is not ableist in any way just because some people might have issues remembering them, and i think the take that neopronouns are ableist, especially for that reason, is an incredibly ridiculous and purely situational excuse to be mean.

that's like if someone told you their name, and then you got mad at them for using that name because you struggle to remember it and you demanded them to use a name that's easier and more convenient for you to use, rather than the name that the other person feels comfortable with. that's not an accommodation, that's just being an asshole.

second of all, some neurodivergent people (such as autistic people for example) struggle with change and complex concepts like language and pronouns. it's hard to get used to using neopronouns or someone changing their pronouns sometimes, especially when it happens for the first time because you're so used to it. however. finding change hard is NOT an excuse to misgender someone for your own comfort. someone's deeply personal identity should not be the cost of your own convenience, and refusing to acknowledge and respect that identity by not doing the bare minimum that is using their pronouns is incredibly close-minded and harmful.

third of all, the way someone chooses to express themselves is literally none of your business. someone uses pronouns that are confusing and seem grammatically incorrect to you? none of your business. someone's using "stereotypical" pronouns that "make the queer/autistic community look silly"? not your problem. we're all a little silly.

if you're neurodivergent and you find neopronouns, or any pronouns, difficult to remember or understand, here are some tips you can try instead of being mean:

make a fun little chart of people's names, their pronouns and how to pronounce them (ex. Name | Pronouns | Pronounce)! colour code them, use stickers and drawings, anything that will help you remember which pronouns someone uses. stuff like whiteboards and docs can work well for people who frequently change their pronouns or have a lot of them. making the chart fun, personalised and memorable can help a lot with memory issues for a lot of people.

try practising saying or typing their pronouns, whether that's in the mirror or in group chats. there's some really good pronoun dressing room websites that help illustrate how to use more obscure pronouns in conversation.

feel free to ask people! if you can, ask them what their pronouns are and how to pronounce them. i'm sure they will not be mad and will gladly help you learn :) (though please remember to not out someone and their pronouns if they are in an unsafe place. make sure they feel comfortable first before asking/telling someone about their pronouns because some spaces can be really bigoted and unsafe unfortunately.)

make a character that has neopronouns! making an OC that you get attached to can help you familiarise yourself with the concept and referring to that character frequently with their pronouns!

hopefully this is helpful. if you end up seeing anyone in the neurodivergent community use their neurodivergence and an excuse to misgender someone, please block them and don't start an argument. bigotry will not be tolerated in this community or on my blog.

disclaimer: this post is NOT saying that having memory issues/issues with change makes you a bad person, nor does it make you intentionally ignorant and rude. this post is specifically about people who willfully refuse to respect and use someone's correct pronouns on the basis that they're neurodivergent and find them confusing, and choose to intentionally misgender people for their own comfort/convenience.

edit: also!! i should add that this post isn't saying that nd people who legitimately find neopronouns as a concept difficult to grasp (such as people with learning disabilities) are bad people either! that was something i didn't think of when writing this because this post is more about neurodivergent transmeds/transphobes i've seen in the queer and nd communities specifically, but yeah!! i think accommodations absolutely should be made if a neurodivergent person finds themselves having communication difficulties related to neopronouns because some disabled people actually cannot use them. for extra clarification i have added a disclaimer at the beginning of this post. (thanks to @zolf for pointing this out in the notes)

[arisatominakos]

rylla is so gorgeous wtf

THANK U FOR ENJOYING MY LOSER HERE IS A GIF I MADE FOR THIS ASK OF WHICH I WILL ABUSE TO TALK ABOUT THEMST.

i do have a tag for him over at my oc aesthetic sideblog @localskeletons but im bad at rb'in stuff there. there is also a very old version of some old lore info but most of the meat there is the same. anyways fun facts time:

rylla is genderless. rylla does not actually care about gender & tends to shrug when asked what her gender is. they also go by all pronouns. rylla has also had top surgery but thats p much as far as he will go in terms of presenting. like rylla does the bare minimum needed in life.

wet, pathetic, useless, wizard prodigy. while once upon a time( recently ) rylla had some sort of hold on her life & was a functional person in a position of respect & power, all of that fell out the window the moment they were tossed out of the wizarding guild. not that he wasn't lazy before, like rylla is the type of person to do what is needed or what interests them. magic is interesting, magic was a passion. now rylla is just apathetic bc she's pissed off about being screwed over by p much everyone around her except her bestie frye.

is a leo, specifically tho she was born eleint the 4th or august 4th

rylla is able to mask the weave around him. rylla really hates being noticed or rather doesn't like the attention from being so talented with magic & when i say shes a prodigy i mean it. she has high mana naturally, he is able to create new forms of magic, the weave flows around rylla effortlessly. because of this rylla has found a way to mask it down so that it's hard to tell she's capable of much. this pisses gale off.

specifically rylla's color palette is to match fall / autumn colors. rylla is the end of summer & the beginning of fall. browns, oranges, yellows, dark dark greens, reds, golds--- all of those rich rich warm jewel tones are their colors.

rylla's hair is not white, it's blonde. rylla is adamant that shes blonde. like, stubbornly so.

rylla's sexuality is: yes, please.

tends to prefer the name rhea or rylla rather than idrylla.

[upupandawcy]

(ALBA BAPTISTA, CIS-FEMALE, SHE/HER) - is LUZIA OLIVEIRA late to class again? how does the 21 year old FRESHMAN expect to get their degree in ART? professors say that they are QUIRKY but i heard that they are IMPULSIVE. hopefully they’ll make it to graduation! - gray, 30+, est, she/they

SPORTS & CLUBS: lgbtqia+ club. art club. theatre ( prop/set design )

STATS;

name: luzia isabela oliveira nicknames: luz, lilo pronouns: she/her age: 21 birthdate: apr 11th zodiac sign: aries sun. cancer moon. pisces rising sexuality: pansexual major: art major positive traits: romantic. creative. bold. compassionate. volatile. temperamental. sensitive. self-centered. sports & clubs: lgbtqia+ club. art club. theatre ( prop/set design )

DETAILS;

Luz comes from a warm and loving family of nine. yep. Nine. she’s the fifth of seven kids and is sandwiched between two sets of twins. 

She’s adopted, but it wasn’t something that was kept from her. Her mother died of complications just after childbirth and Bruno, her mother’s brother, and his wife, Angelina, took her in and raised her as their own. She’s never felt othered by her parents though there is some discourse between her and her “siblings” from time to time. 

Being the first girl, she was spoiled quite a bit. Sort of. It became clear the older she became the less she wanted to be treated differently than her brothers. She was the embodiment of the ‘one of the boys’ tropes. She loved being outside, fishing, getting dirty and fighting. Whatever the boys could do, she could do better. 

It wasn’t until the second set of twins came along that Luz began to settle a bit. She stopped worrying about keeping up and started going at her own pace. 

She’s a handful. Everything she feels, she feels deeply and sometimes suddenly. Her attention span typically falls on the short side or she’s so engaged in something, she loses herself in it. 

Art is a major outlet. Painting, sculpting, dance, poetry, you name it, she’s dabbled in it. She is always always drawing, if only to keep her hands busy. If you’ve been in the commons, library or quad the same time as her, you’re probably in one of her sketch books.

School wasn’t as difficult for her as one might think. She got the grades, it just took a looooot of refocusing. Lots of turning in work late or doing the bare minimum only to bring it up at the very end. Teachers either love or hate her. 

Actually most people love or hate her. And she’s ok with that. She’s not out here trying to make everyone like her. She doesn’t believe in liking everyone either. But she tries to at least be respectful/amicable. Until you piss her off. In that case, it’s not great.

She can get loud, her anger coming in the form of saying shit she doesn’t mean, throwing things, storming off and most iconically tears. She’s gotten a better hold of her temper in later years, developed a longer fuse, but every now and then….

Boxing and martial arts helped. And you know, regular art.

She’s sold some paintings in her home town and some around the globe. Not anything insane but it was enough that she didn’t head off to college right away. Instead she traveled around the states, living out of her car or motels, creating.

She chose Timber Creek because of its art program, though she really doesn’t know what she’ll do with an actual degree. She just kinda wanted to see what she was missing and she doesn’t hate it. She hopes to kinda figure out some sort of ambition here. Though to be honest, she’s not sure she’ll last long enough to actually graduate.

WANTED CONNECTIONS;

can I say everything?

a best friend. artist buddies. unlikely friends. drinking buddies. muses. positive influences. a tutor.

annoyances. frienemies. oil & water. bad vibes

flirts. one night stands. fwbs. crushes. ewb. make out buddies. dates. once you have her attention it can be intense but she falls in and out of feelings quickly. wants to find that person though and isn't afraid of trying on every shoe till one fits

like this and i'll come to you for some plotting.

[aroacemisha]

About Me & The Blog!

Hi! My name is Misha (he/him). I’m a queer Russian artist and writer [art & writing tag: #misha’s creative stuff; original characters/stories tag: #misha’s original stuff]. Born in February 10, 2004. I’m also an atheist and likely neurodivergent.

I also like The Owl House. I have an AU [tag: #retired leaders au]! It’s focused on Belos, Steven (the AU version of Steve), Hunter and Kiki, aka the Wolf Fam, and they’re the characters with the most significant changes. More info about the AU can be found under the #rlau info tag. It’s a good uncle AU btw.

Small summary: The Day of Unity turned out to be a massive disaster, and once Belos finally returned from being stuck in the Human Realm with Hunter and the Hexsquad, he publicly admitted to his lies and resigned. The other highest ranking members of the EC - Hunter, Steven and Kiki - left with him, hence the AU’s name, and the Empire dissolved.

Some more info about the AU can be found in this post. I’ll make a proper, better structured info post eventually.

[Edit]: Since I changed my username, the link in the long thread no longer works. Here is the updated link.

If you’d like to ask anything, whether it’s about me or my content, or if you just want to say something to me, feel free to send an ask!

I have a positivity tag: “#positivity”, and I’ll link it here if you wanna scroll through it.

I’m not really into n$fw content, but some (mostly mild) stuff might show up, mainly in text form or character dialogue. I tag non graphic/less graphic stuff with “#cw: suggestive”, and more graphic stuff with “#nsft stuff”, though I’m not 100% sure on where the line is for me.

(I also try to tag triggers, generally with “#cw: [thing]”, like “cw: flashing” or “cw: blood”, and some are censored like “cw: sui mention” and “cw: sa mention”. If there’s anything you’d like me to tag, send me an ask)

A few more things, in no particular order:

Do not repost/reupload people’s art without permission. If you like an artist’s work and want to have it on your blog, press the “reblog” button (the recycle looking button). If you want to share it on a different platform, just don’t, unless the artist gives you permission. Or just post a link to the work instead of the work itself!

And stop with the “idk who made it, I found it on Google” bs - don’t post the work you found, and if you want to share it, do reverse image search and find the author and share their work the proper way instead of stealing. Have the bare minimum of respect for the creator.

“Do not repost” also applies to downloading someone’s work, tracing or editing it, and then posting that version. It’s fine to trace art as a form of study/learning, but only if you either keep it to yourself and don’t post it, or you get the artist’s permission to post the traced/edited version.

Please tag your ships when you post content with them. It helps people who like it find it, and helps people who dislike it avoid it by filtering the tag. This includes “OC x canon” stuff (tag the specific OC/ship btw, not just “OC x canon”), “s3lf insert x canon”, and I’d say especially “x read3r”, or frankly, any kind of read3r insert stuff, even if it’s not ship.

Pr0shippers will get blocked. “Pr0shippers/anti-antis/c0mship/pr0fic” or whatever you call yourselves, get out. If you treat p3do and inc3st relationships as some kind of “cute/fun tropes”, or you willingly associate with people who do, I want nothing to do with you. This includes people who ship distant relatives (you are still shipping relatives and doing so knowingly)

No, this does not mean I’m some kind of puritan who doesn’t want dark topics to ever be touched on in media, it just means I think they shouldn’t be watered down into a “cute/fun trope” and should be approached with sensitivity.

If you’re an exclusionist, you’re not welcome here. This includes people who tag “queer” as “q slur”, as well as label and pronoun policers. There will be people whose identities you don’t understand, and that’s fine, leave them alone. Stop doing our oppressors’ work for them. Queer discourse also comes and goes every few months and it’s always the same “trust me bro my exclusionism is totally legit this time bro this group of queer people is totally evil and harmful bro just trust me”

“Tme/tma” (transmisogyny exempt/affected), are meaningless labels that do nothing but cause infighting within the trans community about who has it “worse”, or who has “privilege”, when no one does. A violent anti-trans bigot is not going to ask your pronouns before assaulting you if they perceive you as trans (or any kind of queer). Drop the labels if you use them. Also read this post by an intersex person.

If you attack people for criticizing cops, billionaires, large corporations, etc, gtfo. Go lick those boots elsewhere.

Russia/Putin stans/apologists are also not welcome here. Same for those who are “neutral” or think that “both sides are bad” (no they are not). And if you’re one of those people who act like Ukraine has no autonomy and is only resisting because the West is pushing it to do so, sincerely, go fuck yourself.

That’s about it I think. Though remember that you won’t fully know all of my beliefs from a couple sentences or even a couple paragraphs.

(Edit: For TOH fans, filter “#huntl0w negative” if you don’t like seeing negativity towards the ship. I try not to mention it much, but occasionally I voice or reblog criticisms of the writing (it’s pretty bad if it’s meant to be romantic), and some behavior from particularly aggressive fans. Btw in case you’re wondering, no, I don’t like L*nter, they are a canonically familial relationship)

[This post gets updates sometimes]

[laura-the-locust]

My sister visited, because mom had surgery and she wanted to see how well mom's recovering.

I didn't really interact with her, because she doesn't accept me.

For example, while leaving, she said "bye, [deadname]!"

And so I immediately responded " My name is LAURA!" (There was no hesitation in me. I'm proud of that.)

I'm sad it's like this. I miss her. Dad I don't care about, but I miss my sister.

But I can't have a relationship with someone whom I told "my name is X" and they replied "no."

Respecting my name and my pronouns is literally the bare minimum.

[nb-fowler]

Important thing for cis people to remember: it's not just about the pronouns, the names, the bathrooms, the clothes, the representation, the sports, etc., though it is still very much about those as well.

It's about feeling respected and feeling actual love in this world. It's about not having to be afraid to be who you are. It's about preventing kids from growing up depressed because they live in a world that ultimately either despises their existence or merely tolerates them but doesn't accept them. It's about having a decent quality of life and being able to look forward to the future.

It's easy to try to reduce people's lives to a set few things and look down on them for wanting such "pointless" things, because it's hard to accept that it's not just about those things. Rather, it's about the problems that you yourself are causing by refusing to give them even that basic level of respect.

By refusing to acknowledge that the things you view as trivial actually matter to people and improve their lives, you keep a distance between yourself and them. That makes it easier to justify your lack of actual respect towards who they are.

If you say you're accepting of a person's identity, but become uncomfortable when they express themself ("Are you sure you really wanna wear that out? Wouldn't you much rather something like this that I picked out?"), or you attach an astrix to any affirming statement you give ("I think it's good and valid that you want that, buuut—"), or you refuse to even do the bare minimum forms of respect that they ask ("I'm just not comfortable calling you that. You'll always be 'X' to me!")... You're not accepting them.

[inaturalist-propaganda]

absolutely hilarious

They hid another one of my posts and I only discover this while copying text for the email I'm writing to CAOS!

Archived link.

= = =

May 30, 2023, 10:16pm 9

Astra_the_dragon said:

I will note that slow mode and temporary closing of threads is not a punishment – it is buying time and preventing a thread from spiraling into further chaos when people get heated. it’s the right thing to do, assuming that when the dust clears, decisive action is taken.

The problem is that the thread was only put into slow mode, and then later closed, after the tension had already ended and the conversation moved on. Both times, the “negativity” was already over.

The only reason it became “negative” once more is because yet another post came through misgendering me, with the staff liking that post rather than saying a simple, “Hey, you were asked to stop, so stop.”.

Putting the thread in slow mode and then closing it even after the conversation had moved on was punishing us for calling out bigotry, whether it was purposefully intended that way or not.

The last few posts before the thread was closed was talking about ways to try out pronouns. No one was being mean or getting heated.

And the fact that us calling out the bigotry in the most civil way possible for what we’re reacting to being treated as worse than the bigotry itself? Inexcusable.

Calling someone transmisic when they’re purposefully misgendering you is not name calling, and treating both sides as though we’re equally at fault and equally doing harm is just victim blaming.

[ID: The meme from the show Gravity Falls of Dipper looking at a piece of paper, which has now been edited to be blank, saying, “Woah.”. The paper has been edited to read, “In all cases, be respectful to every person here, whether LGBTQIA+ or ally.”.

Dipper then looks up at someone offscreen, and continues, “This is worthless!”.

His hat has been edited to now be in the colors of the trans and nonbinary solidarity flag, with stripes of purple, black, blue, pink, yellow, white, yellow, pink, blue, black, and purple.

End ID.]

It’s not enough to just say “if someone asks you to refer to them in a certain way, please respect that choice” while liking the post where someone continues to misgender me and defends doing so, without doing anything to remove these bigoted posts.

If you want to say the posts should be left up for posterity and as a learning opportunity, you can quote them in a new post that says saying things like that are not okay.

The fact that four normal users had to intervene and defend me while the staff did nothing but punish everyone after the conversation was already over is not okay. The fact that all the staff and mods who interacted here equated both sides and tone policed is not okay.

Respecting trans people’s pronouns is not difficult, and it is the absolute bare minimum required to be a trans ally.

With the reaction the staff/mods gave here, it honestly would have been better if you’d done nothing. Normal users had already stepped in to the correct the misgendering and defend me and other trans people, all the staff and mods did was tone police, victim blame, acting like responding with annoyance to purposeful misgendering is “too extreme” even though we were all being perfectly civil. Trust me, I could have been swearing up a storm and throwing around insults but I didn’t. Neither did anyone else.

It’s almost Pride month.

No one expects people to be perfect on the first try but you do have to listen when you’re told that what you’re doing is harmful. Everyone here is assumedly an adult, many of you probably older than I am, and you should know by now that “I don’t care who started it” just punishes the victim.

Next time something like this happens, the posts misgendering the other user (or even just a hypothetical person) need to be removed, and a post by a mod saying “Misgendering of any kind will not be tolerated”. It’s that simple. That’s all you had to do.

And if you’re going to shut the thread again now because we’re being “too negative” that’s just going to prove you don’t actually want to support trans people, you just say it for show. Supporting trans people means shutting down misgendering, not shutting down a thread when the conversation has already moved on and we’re helping eachother try out new pronouns :|

I would have enjoyed being featured on iNat for Pride month but until the staff/mods actually put in the effort to recognize bigotry when it’s staring them in the face and learn to respond accordingly rather than pretending all sides in every conflict are equally at fault and equally harmful, that’s not going to happen. I’ve already got my profile that anyone can read.

Letting iNat show me off to show how inclusive the site is when they won’t even stop someone from misgendering me is just…no. iNaturalist isn’t inclusive just because the userbase is diverse, not when someone misgenders me and the corrections to this misgendering are treated as worse than the misgendering in the first place.

If you want iNaturalist to actually be Inclusive™ and welcoming to Queer people, including trans people, including nonbinary people, including nonbinary people who use pronouns you don’t like or understand then an apology needs to be made, the situation has to be brought to more people’s attention isntead of swept under the rug (you don’t have to use our names, just say “one user” “a trans user” ect.), you (general you) need to explain why your response was wrong so you can show that you actually understand what you did wrong, then you have to do better.

It’s 2023. Anti-trans legislation is being passed in the USA that’s literally making being trans punishable by death. Removing two posts that misgender a trans user after multiple normal users who have zero power have spoken up in correction and defense is not asking anything but the bare minimum.

The iNaturalist staff need to decide whether they think purposeful misgendering is a simple “difference of opinion”, or hate speech. And if you decide it’s simply a matter of opinion, then you better make it clear that you don’t have trans users’ sides and the rainbow on the icon is just as shallow as any other corporate pridewashing for June.

Do not hide or remove these responses just because they’re “too negative”. If you aren’t willing to be told what you’re doing wrong, or admit that you’ve done wrong, you will never be able to do anything right.

Anyways I made free icons for allies to use anywhere you want. They’re public domain because I made them and I hate capitalism and I say so. You can download them here:

"https://archive.org/details/proud-ally-diagonal-flag-pins-and-icons"

and request more flags / specific labels to ally with by PMing me here or just commenting on the web archive page if you have an account. You can buy a pre-made pin from my Threadless shop too, they’ll appear here when I’m done uploading them (which will take half an hour probably)

= = =

Go ahead and explain to me what part of this post is more offensive, aggressive, or inappriate than purposefully misgendering trans people when you know it's wrong the week before Pride month.

[potatopossums]

i have spent so much time in an environment that does the bare minimum to respect my name and my pronouns and that has done so much for me.

i don't think that cis people can understand how traumatic it is to hear about fucking m@tt w@lsh still exists and hosts events to talk to people about how trannies are delusional.

yes, let's just inundate our trans friend's feeds and therefore make Facebook completely unsafe by sharing traumatic content of this rich white guy trying to make fools of us on live television, for the masses, so transphobes on the internet can replay clip of us talking and laugh at us for being our authentic selves in front of the most hateful and vitriolic audience we have ever known. because that is what the trans community needs right now. /sarcastic

m@tt w@lsh doesn't give a shit about why a trans woman says she's a woman. he doesn't care about her answer. he wants to humiliate her and us along with her. and you know what? i am tired of giving anyone platform to do that. it is not humiliating to be who we are. we are wonderful people with wonderful names and wonderful lives. we deserve to be called who we say we are. we deserve to be called by the right pronouns. and we deserve to be given these dignities and more.

we shouldn't have to fight against people who care so little about us. we should not have to convince anyone of our right to be here, our right to exist and prosper.

we deserve to be here and we are not going away, and no one will ever erase us.

assholes, terfs, and other clowns in the notes will be blocked, no questions asked. this is not your discourse post. your hatred is not welcome here.

[rjalker]

Excerpt from my fic, (archived link) of me fixing shit.

(Evrim's an OC because we don't know the names of any of Dr. Mensah's other kids yet)

none of this is spoilers because none of this is canon, which is the whole problem. This is me fixing the nonbinary robot stereotype.

Evrim looked startled, probably because it had never heard Murderbot sound so undeniably happy before. Murderbot didn’t even think it had ever actually felt this happy before. Not even when it had first hacked its governor module. That moment had mostly been filled with terror that it was about to get fried/caught and disbelief that it had actually worked.

It couldn’t remember the last time it had felt this...comfortable. 

Not even the disappointing loss of its shoes or jacket could defeat this pure and utter relief.

It had forgotten how much it loved being able to hide its face. It had been forced to adapt, but every second of that forced adaptation was miserable and filled with stress. It had been pretending it was okay with letting humans see its face, pretending so hard that it had even almost convinced itself that it was fine with it. It had been forced to put on a mask every moment humans were around, and now, finally, in what felt like forever, it no longer had to maintain that mask, at least not while it kept this hood up.

Because here was the proof that it wasn’t actually fine with letting humans see its face. It wouldn’t be feeling this joy if it had actually been happy with the way things were before.

It wondered if this was how Evrim had felt, how Evrim had to still feel, being nonbinary but being perceived as something else. Coming out to Murderbot was just the first step of a thousand. It would have to tell its parents, its friends, its extended family, its aunts and uncles and other friends of the family, everyone it interacted with through the feed...

In some ways, Murderbot was lucky. It had never had to convince people to see it as being an “it” rather than a “he”, “she”, or even a “they”. No one even knew it had been assigned a binary gender, since one of the first things it had done after hacking its governor module was going into the company system to alter its pronouns and gender assignment to “it/its” and “agender”.

The company insisted on assigning constructs genders in order to make them “less frightening” to clients. That never actually worked, though, but they kept trying. Fortunately for Murderbot, company employees were just as lazy as it was, and only did the absolute bare-minimum required for their jobs.

Even if any of the company employees had noticed its pronouns and gender assignment being changed, none of them ever bothered to correct it back or question it. They weren’t paid enough to care about some random SecUnit’s pronouns or gender, assuming they were even paid at all.

When Dr. Mensah had come in, metaphorically kicking and screaming the whole way, to pick up Murderbot, it had been relinquished while being referred to as the pronouns listed in its information: it/its, with Dr. Mensah being none the wiser that they’d ever been anything else.

And that was just the way Murderbot liked it. If it had its way, no one would ever even know it was trans. Because then they would have no excuse to try to question its gender.

Well, in theory anyways. Some of the more persistantly stupid and obnoxious ones tried to do it anyways, sometimes, usually the patronizing and infuriating kinds that assumed that because it was a construct, that meant it didn’t know anything about anything and needed a human friend to teach it things like ‘slavery is bad’ like it didn’t already know that.

These kinds of people usually tried to assign it he/him pronouns, for whatever fucking reason, and much more rarely she/her, or they/them. Because according to assholes who only pretend to respect people but actually don’t, it/its pronouns are bad and objectifying, even when you’re the one telling people those are your pronouns.

Murderbot was lucky enough that most humans who knew it was a construct automatically referred to it as an it, the way it wanted them to.

Evrim, though, wouldn’t be that lucky. It was a human, and humans were fucking stupid about these sorts of things. Oh, sure, on Preservation they’d probably be nicer about it than on other planets, but Murderbot had no doubt that people would be upset by Evrim’s choice to use it/its pronouns, even though those same people would probably have been supportive if it had decided to use they/them, or te/ter, or any other nonbinary pronouns besides it/its.