#tendency to act flamboyantly

[clxckwork-sun-n-moon]

clockwork I am so normal about this specific prompt:

"your lover gets clingy when sick so now you've to deal with their adorable, bubbly but sick, half dozing version. you love them, so no complaints"

WAIT ANOTHER ONE FOR YOU

"or your lover's sick habit is being too stubborn to let someone else help"

these were very cute and I couldn't not combo them together

Sick Days || Default (Moon & Sun x Reader)

Part 1.

Animatronics don't get sick. This was something you've known for a long time. It was practically knowledge before you even knew about animatronics as entities themselves. Common understanding followed that a being without an immune system or biological functions couldn't physically get sick.

And yet, you were witness to animatronics being sick.

There tended to be variations of ailments. Sometimes the joint mechanisms seized up, almost like a cramp. Sometimes some muck or well-aimed glitter package got in the face, interfering with the eye camera lenses and endoskeleton interior. Sometimes it was a general matter of wear-and-tear. You likened it to your aging phone at times, the way that sometimes it would jump from 50% to 13% battery, before staying on 6% for the next two hours until it died abruptly. When reflected into an animatronic, you would be witness to the individual suddenly slowing down out of nowhere, acting rather shaky and fatigued, almost as if suffering from being severe lightheaded. This would drag on and on until out of nowhere the individual would shut down and leave you with a haphazard pile of limbs. Or they would allow themselves to go back to either a servicing team down in the basement or just their charging pod.

Whenever it seemed to start happening to the Glamrocks, they would be quickly shepherded away by another member of staff before some precious guest in attendance had to witness their favourite rockstar going off-script, so you weren't entirely certain if the effects were the same among all the animatronics. But with Sun and Moon, you had hands-on experience for certain - especially since getting them to Parts & Services to get their battery checked was a no-no until the daycare was cleared, alongside a whole world of other issues to manage. It could leave you in a heavy pickle....quite literally, if it came to physically carrying them around. Neither of you were in a good position if their limbs decided to buckle and stop being of any use.

While that was all the physical side-effect of the battery issues, you couldn't help but notice certainly behavioural effects too. Ones that definitely reminded you of people when ill.

Part 1a. - Sun

The day was winding down to an end, and you were not trying to hide how glad you were of it. Six hours of racing after kids, no matter how sweet or bubbly they were, could not be looked happily upon when you'd realised that Sun was beginning to seem droopy and sleepy about three hours into your shift.

His shoulders slouched inwards, curling inwards more like Moon than his usual bouncy tall self. Even his sunrays seemed to be melting, although you were certain was just a trick of your eyes following along with how slumped over his full body posture was. You were well-learned of his tendency to flamboyantly trip over, to the delight of the little ones, but by the time he'd stumbled and face-planted at least four times within the space of an hour, you were getting the picture that this wasn't a jester routine. Even a few of the kids were cautious in coming over to help him back to his feet.

"How's your battery doing, Sunny?" you asked him as he wobbled over towards your desk.

"Just fine, sunshine! Abso-doodley-lutely fine! We're having a wonderful, wonderful time!" he replied, voice warbling slightly in and out of pitch.

You stared back at him, unconvinced. His slouching shoulders curled in further, like he was trying to shrink back into the ground as he squeezed his hands together.

"There may be some technical difficulties going on," he mumbled.

"You feeling up for a Parts & Services visit?"

"Not at all! Fit as a fiddle!"

"That wasn't an actual question. You're going after this shift."

"But sunflower!" Sun leaned in over the desk, getting very close up to your face. His grin had shifted down into a woeful expression, eyes a little wider as if going for the world's best/worst puppy dog expression attempt. "What if I don't need to go to Parts & Services? What if - What if I just need a nap?"

"You...You've told me multiple times you can't sleep."

"Just a small nap. Just a little sleep." Lifting his hand, Sun squeezed his thumb and forefinger together, neverminding the fact he was nearly draped over your shoulder. Glancing him over, you let out a long sigh.

"Fine. We'll see how you're doing after a recharge boost," you said with a gentle smile, poking his cheeky. Immediately he straightened up, hands flying up into the air before he brought them back down and around you, pulling you into a tight hug.

"Thank you! Thank you sunshine! There's a reason you're our favourite, our loveliest sunflower," he chirped away, before promptly slumping completely against you.

"Is Mister Sun okay?" one of the kids running by asked you.

"He's fine. He's just a bit tired," you reassured them, slinging an arm around Sun to shift him better and so he wasn't outright crushing you. He giggled quietly, his voice box echoing and repeating himself: "lovely, lovely, loveliest sunflower, favourite sunflower". This perhaps you could live with.

You'd expected him to go back to running around with the kids, even in this state, but he seemed perfectly content to perch on the desk. Taking on-board his dizziness and mindless happy mumbling, you sat forward more to keep better watch. But then you felt weights clench around your waist, and glanced down to see Sun's arms locked around you in what looked like a loose hug but felt like a metal trap.

"It's okay, I'm staying here," you reassured him. A static-y grumble was the response, but his grip loosened more significantly. It certainly made it easier to help sign out the children when pick-up time arrived, although it was harder to explain why the daycare attendant was hooked onto the assistant and not...doing attendant things. The general explanation of 'the battery started running out earlier than expected' was frowned on but not argued with. Just another reason for people to complain about animatronics being put in charge of things like childcare.

But soon enough, it was just you and Sun in a large empty daycare, and you were faced with the next challenge - getting a blanket of an animatronic from the ground floor to the celestials' upstairs room where their charging pod was located.

Part 1b. - Moon

When you heard Moon's familiar chortle, you could hear something was different. Off, more like. The key was off-kilter, warbling in and out of his usual tone like someone was trying to shove his voice box in and out of auto-tune.

"Hi Moon," you called out into the empty and the dark, swinging your flashlight around slowly. No sign of a drifting shadow or red eyes bobbing around the ceiling.

Another chuckle, this time closer.

"Hello friend," Moon whispered through the air. "Shh, shh, quiet now. Quiet for sleepy times and resting. Naptime, we're going to have naptime."

This was a lot more disjointed and rambling than Moon's usual level of disjointed rambling. Squinting up, you glanced around more nervously. Was the virus ticking back over? That usually came with more aggressive behaviour though and right now all you were getting was incoherent giggles and mumbles about sleepy and rest - oh.

"Did Sun overwork again today?" you asked Moon. One of the major downsides of two AIs in one body was that if one AI ran the battery charge down a lot without taking pause to recharge, then the other AI had to deal with the low battery issues. And that meant you had to deal with a mildly delirious Moon.

"Busy Sun, busy as a bee. Buzzing here and there and here and there and - " Wire spun rapidly from overhead, and you had enough sense to step backwards quickly as Moon literally dropped down into where you'd been. "Hello!"

"AH!"

"Shhhhh." He swung forward, still dangling off the wire, pressing a finger against your lips. "Quiet time, starlight."

"Sorry," you whispered back. This was something you could deal with, being a bit quieter than usual. "Are you okay, Moon?"

"Sleepy, sleepy." Moon started to hum the intro lines to Mr Sandman as his wire continued to unspool, finally landing him on the floor to stand up on shaky legs. On instinct you offered him an arm to keep him steady, and he wrapped both of his arms around your shoulders.

"Good starlight, sweet starlight," he mumbled, beginning to nuzzle into the top of your head. "You'll see us through the night."

"I know you're on rota to do security, but I really think you need to recharge tonight instead," you said firmly.

"How can I sleep when my starlight is out tonight?" Moon warbled, voice modulating back in and out. His fingers ghosted over your cheek, tendering cupping your face as he pressed his face-plate to your head in what you assumed to be a kiss. If your torch were switched off you could probably have lit the way with how your cheeks were glowing. Without further comment, you wrapped your arms around Moon's arms and began to trek through the Pizzaplex, carrying the animatronic like a large, painfully heavy backpack. So long as he didn't realise you were carrying him back to the celestial's room (and in his current condition, you highly doubted it), you were in the clear to fumble along and listen to sweet nothing mumbled against your ear.

Part 2. - You

Animatronics could not get sick, technically speaking. You however were fully at risk of whatever viral illness or flu or cold came drifting your way from the crowds of people that swarmed through the Pizzaplex on a daily basis. And you did. Often enough that you ran out of sick days within the first five months of your starting year, and shifted instead for coming in wearing a high-grade face mask and with a bottle of hand sanitiser clipped to your belt. It was rarely bad enough that you considered needing to go via the walk-in doctor's clinic on the way home, it was more general coughs, headaches that would frequently transfer into migraines, and a plethora of other non-lethal symptoms.

The one ease of guilt you could get through was altering your work schedule so you would be far away from other people. Evening shift cleaning up after guests, night shift of security work, early morning prep work. Anything so you'd be out of the way but still able to plow through your work hours.

Unfortunately your coworkers couldn't carry infections or sicknesses and therefore made sure you were aware of their upset.

You pushed a janitorial cart into the daycare area, having peeked through the windows to make sure any and all people had left. Sun was in the process of his own clean-up, filing scattered papers into drawers of the craft cabinet and picking up stray crayons off the floor. Hearing the door open and close behind you, he swivelled back upright, head going through a spin at the sight of you.

"Hello sunshine!" he chirped.

"Hiya Sun," you replied, hoping that your rasping throat didn't carry too badly, that he wouldn't notice. But the facemask had to have been enough of a giveaway if your tragic vocal chords weren't, and Sun's head slowly tilted to the side.

"You're not seeming very chipper there," he said, setting another drum onto a stack but still cautiously looking over you. Trying to ignore the watchful stare, you began to replace trash bags from the various bins around the daycare.

"Oh, I'm fine. I'm functional," you called back, waving an airy hand as you dropped a full trash bag into the cart. "Just don't expect me to be very chatty."

"Hmmm..."

When Sun didn't respond again, you assumed he'd gone back to his cleaning up. But once you turned back around, several bricks of coloured paper in your arms, he was so close behind you that you very much dropped the paper blocks with shock.

"F- Sun!" you hissed, ducking down to grab the paper with Sun swooping down to assist. He shuffled the wrapped blocks onto the desk next to you, and pressed his hand against your forehead.

"Mmm...higher temperature than normal," he said quietly. "No coughing, inflamed throat - "

"It's just a run-of-the-mill cold. See, I've got this on." You tapped your finger against your mask. "No worry about it spreading."

"Cute." He tapped your mask also. "Freddy design."

"Well, you have to wear Fazbear employee appropriate facemask covers if you come in with one, and the merchandise shop apparently doesn't stock Sun and Moon ones," you explained with a huff of disappointment.

"Shame, shame. But you're still sick."

"Not too sick."

"Admittance from the guilty!" Sun slung his arm around you, the long limb managing to wrap around your shoulders and up so he could pat the top of your head. "You are sentenced to mandatory rest break with frequent hydration! We have refillable bottles and a water stand just for these reasons."

"I need to finish off my checklist, Sun! I can't just...sit in the daycare until my hours are up," you said, wriggling free of his grip and returning back to bringing out the restocking items.

"Why not?"

"Because I'll get a warning if I don't? And too many warnings means no more job." Setting the last pack of coloured pencils on the desk, you gave him a warm look. His hands squeezed together over his chest, head tilted to the side as he looked down at you with....disappointment? Sadness? It took the nugget of guilt in your chest and amplified it.

"Sun."

"Yes, friend?"

"I'm going to finish up my checklist, except for my last daycare things, and then I'll come back and finish my shift here. Maybe my last few chores will take up the rest of my hours."

"Okay. Thank you, sunshine." Leaning down, he bopped the nose of his face-plate against your forehead. "Take it easy, and come back here right away if you start feeling worse." His hand cupped your cheek, thumb rubbing slow circles before he nudged at your shoulder. "Go, go on friend. Don't stay too long or I might change my mind."

With one last smile over your shoulder, you shuffled your janitor cart back out from the room. The rest of your duties blurred by - not because they were fast to do, but because your head began to ache and turned your perception of time into a funk of molasses. By the time you finally returned to the daycare doors, the lights were out behind the large windows. A new pang of guilt hit you, that you weren't able to say goodnight to Sun before Moon stepped out.

Pushing open the door, you switched on your flashlight to light the way back over to the storage cupboard. Just a couple boxes of restocking left, snack bars for the kiddos, which was a good thing because from the looks of it there were only half of the snacks left. No immediate sign of Moon which was normal. But as you shut the cupboard door, you felt arms wrap around your waist and promptly drag you upwards.

"MOON."

"Starlight needs to rest."

"That was my last task I - WHY AM I-" Your half-yelled words of indignation are cut short by your throat trying to twist itself inward, pain turning into dry coughs.

"Last task means no more tasks for you to do. Now you rest." You were vaguely aware of the walls blurring around you, whether from speed of ascent or your mind deciding it was time to check out, that this was far too much to deal with. Moon finally came to a stop, setting you both down on the balcony overlooking the daycare. Inside it was dimly lit, and...cleaned? Set up? A pile of blankets and pillows had been put together in one corner of the room, with a handful of snacks and two bottles of water.

"...That for me?" you asked, sluggish in comprehension.

"Yes." Moon's hands pushed into your back, ushering you forward.

"I - I really don't think -"

"Rest until shift is up. You promised Sun." Goddammit, you had done that, hadn't you? With a slow exhale, you sank down into the pillow pile, watching as Moon settled down right behind you. It didn't take much effort on his part to make you lay down against him, a pillow under your head and a cool hand across your forehead.

"Thank you," you murmured. Moon's eyes flickered down, gentle red and white, and his smile softened.

"Rest," he insisted. You complied, letting your body slump down into the cozy nest, Moon's lullaby ticking through your ears.

[inspectorspacetimerevisited]

Despite (or perhaps because of) his tendency towards ham and cheese,

fans cheered Robin Hood when he appeared in ‘Android of Sherwood’.

[oceangenasi]

D&P and Merther for the shipping ask game???

Yax I would die for you except you’d probably stop me from dying with your EMT wizardry and then where would we be

🖤 D/P 💙

1. What made you ship it? I have eyes? But seriously, I like to joke about how my ships are either softboys and their badass women or queerbait m/m angst.... and then there’s this shining exception. A canon m/m ship that gets a love story and a happy ending :’’’) I started watching the show very casually, knowing David was queer but not that D/P was endgame and then the next thing I knew I had ascended to another plane of existence

2. What are your favorite things about the ship? I am never not thinking about the Dynamic... it’s the complementary aspects of their personalities for me!

You’ve got David: flamboyantly queer and deeply dramatic, who’s had intense emotions his whole life that have scared people away but he’s also brave and unique and creative and wonderful. He’s everything that Patrick didn’t know he needed. He’s been hurt a lot of times and he almost doesn’t believe that he’s capable of being loved so wholly and completely. Enter Patrick.

Patrick is so straight-laced and repressed and invested in being well-liked that he had built up a whole seemingly perfect life that was making him deeply unhappy. I don’t think that even Patrick knew he was capable of loving David the way he does, because he hadn’t cast off his old life and gone on that emotional journey until he met David. His “you make me feel right” speech is my favorite bit of the entire show. Patrick found himself in finding David.

They balance each other: Patrick grounds David, providing him the unconditional love that David can flourish with, and David brings beauty and color into Patrick’s life.

I also adore how much casual intimacy they get on screen, all the kisses and shoulder touches. It’s incredibly healing to watch after so much queer angst and suffering, when we get representation at all.

3. Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship? Yeah, Patrick’s not perfect. I get very pissy when people trash David for his actions surrounding the barbecue and/or the wedding and imply he was being unfair/selfish -- because even if he was, Patrick has a responsibility to communicate his concerns if he wants David to respond to them. Patrick has a tendency to avoid/repress his feelings and that can be incredibly damaging in a relationship if not addressed. David can’t read Patrick’s mind, nor should he be expected to. He doesn’t need to magically intuit Patrick’s distress from Patrick’s micro-expressions or whatever the fuck -- Patrick needs to step up and tell David when he doesn’t like David’s behavior. Yes, I’m projecting like hell when it comes to this but it is something that made me furious during season 6 and the discourse surrounding it.

------------

💙 Merthur ❤

1. What made you ship it? I watched the first episode and was like “oh wow this show is even gayer than I’d heard it was.” No but seriously... fellas, is it gay to be literally and canonically someone’s other half? Fellas, is it gay to stare intensely into each other’s eyes at every given opportunity? Fellas, it is gay to dedicate your entire life to serving and protecting someone? Fellas, is it--

2. What are your favorite things about the ship? ah jeez where do I even start... Arthur is Merlin’s whole world. Merlin’s magic is “only for Arthur” and Merlin’s magic is... everything he is. I literally don’t know how you could read that as Merlin not being in love with Arthur. I genuinely and honestly think this interpretation is backed up by commentary by the actors and writers: Merlin loves Arthur, and that’s not even a point of debate. I adore Merlin as a character (son boy baby sweetheart sunshine child) and his unwavering faith in Arthur, his dedication, his tenderness, the years spent protecting someone who didn’t even know how much Merlin had done for him.... it gets me good.

And then there’s what Merlin is to Arthur! Setting aside the stuff Arthur doesn’t know about, which I will talk about in a moment, Merlin is possibly the only person in Arthur’s life who has always, always treated him as a person first and a prince second. Merlin’s unwavering faith and freely given friendship are because he sees the best in Arthur, not because of Arthur’s hereditary right to the throne. Merlin is Arthur’s first and truest friend -- I know the knights and Gwen care for him, but there is a component of social discrepancy to their relationship that Merlin simply has ignored. Merlin’s disrespect is because he fundamentally views Arthur as his equal, which is a gift Arthur didn’t even know he needed. Arthur was touch-starved, emotionally repressed, and incredibly lonely before Merlin came into his life. (Yes, the similarities between my two OTPs are well-known to me.) Just because Arthur struggles to express his emotions (thanks, Uther) and doesn’t have the same plot opportunities as Merlin to show how much he’d sacrifice for Merlin, doesn’t mean he doesn’t love Merlin as deeply as Merlin does him. This is why I like writing Arthur POV so much -- I like describing how fundamental and immutable a concept Merlin is to him. He takes Merlin for granted, yes, because there is literally nobody else that he is so vulnerable around or trusts so completely. This is why the magic reveal was so temporarily devastating to Arthur -- it broke something he’d built his entire life around. Or at least, that’s what he thought.

3. Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship?

Canon is a trash fire and I hate a lot of things about season 5, because it had some stellar opportunities that got rushed and squished by the way they timed the plot.... but I actually really, really like the finale. I think that considering what they’d done with the plot up to that point, it was brilliantly executed and gorgeously acted. There wasn’t enough time to do everything I would have liked with the magic reveal*, but in the last episode they hit every one of my buttons at least once. Arthur witnessing a competent Merlin, Arthur experiencing realistic grief and anger but being able to see how deeply Merlin loves him... Setting aside the plotholes and the timing, the people who made the show realized what was critically important in the finale, and it was digging deep into the relationship between Merlin and Arthur. This is why it completely and totally wrecks me, incidentally, and why I can’t watch the last part of the episode because it actually unhinges me too much. I’m not joking, I went into some kind of grief spiral the first time I saw it that took me a literal week to recover from. I care about things too much and feel my feelings too intensely, but we been knew.

Oh, and an even spicier opinion on later seasons/the finale: I don’t think that Morgana “isn’t really evil” or that her fall was “unnecessary.” I think that Morgana was indeed capable of being a fiercely good and loving person, but I also think that people with the kind of anger she carries can be dragged into some very dark places. I don’t think it was unrealistic, I think it was painful to watch, and there’s a difference. She didn’t get the support she needed -- she was gaslighted, manipulated, and tortured -- and I think that the same person who could be good in another situation is absolutely capable of becoming monstrous, considering the hand she was dealt. I have very similar opinions on her as I do on Anakin Skywalker, which is to say: her evil was both believable and tragic. She was a product of her circumstances, but her actions are not excusable, and she is responsible for how she responded to her trauma.

*I can and will read every damn magic reveal on ao3 because it’s really important to me that Arthur understand what Merlin has done for him. Truly, truly conceptualizes how crucial Merlin has been in helping him build his kingdom. That’s the one thing that I wanted to see so badly that never happened in canon.

[lesbianrobin]

☕️ steve’s beautiful character arc

god bless you for sending this ask also i am so sorry this is gonna be long as FUCK and it’s not gonna be REMOTELY coherent

TL;DR: steve’s arc is the second-best in the show behind el, largely because he maintains his crucial traits and motivations while changing his actions and beliefs to try and be a better person

okay to start off i’m obviously biased as fuck because steve is my main hoe and i love him to death. that being said i genuinely think steve has the most solid character arc in the entire show save for el, and i think the biggest factor in that is the fact that joe keery has been so involved in the shaping and direction of steve’s character ever since he was cast. obviously every actor brings a lot to their character, but what’s unique about steve is that he was initially meant to be a true villain and die in s1, and joe convinced the duffers to change that. joe’s done an excellent job of keeping steve’s most basic traits consistent as the writers developed his character so that Steve feels real.

what makes steve’s character arc so good and believable is that, at his core, he... doesn’t really change That much? throughout the show, his defining character traits never really change: he’s loyal, he pays a lot of attention to other people and what they think of him, he’s more of a doer than a thinker, he has some issues with his father, he doesn’t have a personal vision for the future so he tries to stick to the designated path of “success,” and he wants to be a good person. what changes isn’t necessarily his intrinsic motivations, but his actions and thought processes, which makes for an excellent character arc!!

to start off with: controversial opinion, but i don’t think steve was That much of an asshole in s1. he was definitely an asshole! he just wasn’t evil or a total piece of shit like b*lly. he was just a dickhead high school kid, yknow? he was short-sighted, selfish, and didn’t take anything seriously. at the same time, he clearly cared a lot about other people (and what they thought of him)- demonstrated in little things like him sharing his lunch with his friends without them even asking, and the fact that he went to apologize to nancy after he blew off her concerns about barb because he was too preoccupied with not getting in trouble. he goes along with the crowd and does whatever he thinks he Should do, like letting tommy and carol vandalize the marquee (i can’t recall the exact dialogue but i think he says like “i shouldn’t have let carol do it” or whatever anyways it wasn’t his idea but he didn’t stop his friends). the fight with jonathan is steve’s only real Asshole moment for me. obviously he was dismissive of barb being missing which was shitty but he had no real reason to think that barb was dead yknow? he was approaching the situation from the stance of a teenager in a small town where bad things don’t usually happen. he was blinded by his own petty concerns of getting in trouble, and while insensitive to nancy, i think it was an understandable offense for a teenager (and one he apologized for).

and... since i Must address the camera thing... i personally think steve 100% had the right to break jonathan’s camera. of course he said some shitty things that he didn’t need to, and a lot of people argue that since jonathan was taking pictures of nancy, steve had no right to be outraged on her behalf, but i disagree with that argument. just because nancy was willing to forgive jonathan doesn’t let him off the hook! he was in steve’s backyard, taking pictures of an intimate moment through steve’s bedroom window. steve’s privacy was violated just as much as nancy’s. so, even if you don’t think that “sticking up for nancy” and being protective of her was a valid motivation, i still think it was justified. so yeah anyways.

back to the fight!!! steve lashes out and says like the meanest shit he can think of to jonathan because he’s so deeply hurt by nancy’s perceived betrayal and he Wants to get into a fight, which goes along with his deep sense of loyalty, preoccupation with what other people (his shitty friends mostly) think of him, his tendency to do whatever he’s “supposed” to do, and his desire to act rather than sit around and ruminate. some guy sleeps with your girlfriend, you’re supposed to kick his ass, and if you don’t then you’re a pussy, and if you can’t hit him to let out the anger and heartbreak then you have to sit in it and think about it and feel it. so basically what makes steve so cool is that these traits of his fuel both his biggest mistakes and his biggest hero moments!!

what many people see as steve’s total 180 at the end of s1 is actually, in my view, very consistent with his character up until that point. he went to nancy’s house to apologize earlier in the season, and this time he does the same thing for jonathan, because he’s realized how shitty he was and he knows that he doesn’t want to be that guy. once he’s there, he’s worried about nancy (consistent with prior protective/concerned behavior), and of course he chooses to run back inside! he cared enough to look up jonathan’s address and go to his house at night just to apologize after jonathan beat the shit out of him just hours ago, which is pretty serious- as someone who clearly feels guilt pretty deeply and wants to make things right, someone confident in his athletic ability, someone who thinks he might love nancy wheeler... why the fuck would he not go back in the help them?

his development in s2-s3 is a lot more about, like, being better to himself than it is about being better to others like it was in s1. at the beginning of s2, he basically defines his future in relation to nancy and his father. after he gets his heart broken (and i’m not gonna go into why he and nancy were incompatible bc that’s a whole other post and this shit is already ungodly long) and loses his “king” reputation, dustin and the other kids give him something to believe in, fight for, and care about. something that has nothing to do with the prescribed outline for success (popularity, sports, marrying a nice girl, working in the family business) that steve’s been basing his whole life on. he still misses nancy by the end of the season, but he’s realized that their picture-perfect future was never gonna happen, and he’s content with her finding her true happiness even if it’s not with him. also when he takes dustin to the snow ball he’s super encouraging and when he notices that dustin is feeling insecure, he shuts that shit DOWN and reassures him that he looks amazing which is just... so precious...

as he finds people to care about and things that bring him real joy in life (basically the kids and robin), steve also grows more and more expressive throughout the show, dressing more stylishly/flamboyantly, allowing his hair to become more and more wild, and goofing around/laughing a lot more. he’s basically a fucking angel in s3 and he finally lets go of all the high school bullshit that he was allowing to define him! he’s still very loyal, still pays very close attention to the people around him and how they feel, but now this is less about protecting his reputation and more about being a good friend. much like how he reassured dustin in s2, he prioritizes robin’s comfort and happiness during the bathroom scene in s3. he still acts fast in a pinch and tries to do the right thing whenever possible, always taking responsibility for his mistakes, and even though he doesn’t have a vision for his future, he’s okay with living in the moment and enjoying his life even though he hasn’t attained traditional “success” of any sort. he still has all of the same core character traits as he did in s1, he’s just learned how to be kinder, less selfish, and less concerned with fitting into a certain mold.

so yeah uh this was a goddamn mess and i’m sorry and i hope it all makes sense!!! thank you again for asking lmao

[itsmyhugbear]

more anon responses re: taako and femininity. just as a little reminder, this blog isn’t active as an art blog any longer, though I’m not gonna ignore messages or anything ha ha. please check out my main or twitter if you’d like to keep following my art!

lotsa discourse ahead, I mentioned yesterday I wasn’t interested in censoring my thoughts for the sake of palatability anymore, so I’m just gettin real salty over here. apologies!

I appreciate this message but am not quite sure how to interpret your meaning, since the sentiment you’re referring to - that for men, gay isn’t synonymous with flamboyance and effeminacy - is kind of different to what I was discussing and in fact my Taako is pretty effeminate, I draw him in skirts and dresses or fashion normally seen as womanly quite often, and as a character he is quite flamboyant and effete! I wasn’t discussing the choices Taako would make in presentation but the choices I make in depicting his facial structure and physique. I’m not sure that the prevalence of soft ‘womanly’ features, wide hips, narrow shoulders etc in real life gay men is necessarily an issue people on tumblr are debating either way lol. But certainly the prevalence of those things in depictions of gay men is an issue, ergo with BL manga and stuff, where one participant seems to always require wide eyes, a heart-shaped face, narrow shoulders, small hands etc - in short, features that are generally associated with women, and with the descriptor ‘beautiful’. 

Of course I agree that many gay men do not present or behave in a flamboyantly feminine way, I’m not sure anyone is debating that. As it were Taako is a gay man who is flamboyant and feminine. I was arguing that the tendency of fandom to depict him as ‘beautiful’ in a womanly way, independently of his presentation and behaviour, can be read as pretty homophobic. Like it speaks to a deeply entrenched discomfort with a man, who looks and acts like the socially constructed image of ‘a man’, exhibiting untoward ‘girliness’. In the same way, those who are invested in his identity as an unapologetically gay man sometimes feel the need to try and defend him from allegations of femininity, as though being flamboyant or effeminate in presentation is something that detracts from his maleness or otherwise undermines his male identity. Of course not all gay men are feminine, but the fact that many do not want to be associated with that stereotype speaks to internalised homophobia in its willingness to throw men who do conform to those stereotypes under the bus, to position them as “the wrong type of gay” for not assimilating.

And obviously Taako’s written and acted by a straight man and there is all sorts of analysis and critique to be done on the choices he made for Taako. But Taako exists, is complex and funny and intelligent and flawed, is so loved and important to so many people, in many ways is the driving force of the entire narrative - it was his quick thinking that saved Magnus in Wonderland; he’s the one who restored the connection between the Material and Astral Planes; he killed John; he was the only one to see outside of Lucretia’s and Lup’s respective plans at the crucial moment! And he’s an effeminate man who expresses unapologetic attraction towards other men and wears skirts! That’s kickass! He has a shrill falsetto drawl and he wears skirts and he is “the wrong type of gay”, and he’s one of the most iconic heroes in fiction for decades! Is it that deep? Am I responding in a reasonable, measured way to a podcast man who cast fireball with his butt? No it isn’t and no I am not! But it means a lot to me that he exists and is a man and it bums me out to see him emasculated by fandom sometimes!

(also - I realise I was responding to a lot of stuff you didn’t even say anon and I apologise, I know we’re in agreement, I was just using your message as a springboard to talk more about stuff that’s been on my mind for a while!)

I’m glad you like my depiction of him! Being that I’m cis I feel like any statement I make on Lup’s design could be pretty fraught so I’m not gonna, but I do draw Lup with boobs. I kinda feel like it’s not for me to make statements on how trans women should or shouldn’t express their femaleness... I mean hopefully my drawings of her speak for themselves! I definitely do agree though that neither Taako nor Kravitz needs to be depicted as ‘the woman’ of their relationship, lol. Thank you so much for your kind words!

I NEVER THOUGHT OF THIS BUT I LOVE IT?

[recentanimenews]

Der Werwolf: the Annals of Veight, Vol. 3

By Hyougetsu and Nishi(E)da. Released in Japan by Earth Star Entertainment. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Ningen.

The author described this as being a “slow” volume, which is a bit of a stretch given that one third of the way in our heroes are fighting a kraken. The plot of this book is essentially “Veight goes around to the rest of the Southern Territories and convinces them to join forces”. One area has the aforementioned kraken that needs to be taken out. Another, a town made of labyrinths designed to trap enemies, is already being targeted by the villainous Senate, and Veight and company have to convince people that a) they’re not responsible for the assassination of the ruler, and b) stop all the assassins who are. Fortunately he has help from a number of old friends as well as a new character, Parker, who is… well, he’s Brook from One Piece. Though he can at least disguise himself as “not a skeleton”. The puns, unfortunately, are still there. That said, does Veight even need help?

Veight continues to be the best reason to read these books. We’re used to harem protagonists that are clueless about the girls who like them, but Der Werwolf has little to no romance as of yet, so with Veight it’s more “he is unaware of his nature”. It’s not clear if he’s doing this deliberately to avoid the issue or not, but Veight’s tendency to pick the most dangerous solution has been noticed by most of his subordinates, and they aren’t very happy. It’s especially funny when he chastises others for the exact same thing, and is somewhat amazed when called out on it. To be fair, Veight probably COULD take out everything that goes against him by himself. We see more of his ludicrous “I can use magic and am also a werwolf” combos here, and they’re enough to get an enemy army to run away in fear.

The rest of the characters are not as good as Veight, sadly. I’d mentioned Parker was Brook from One Piece, and am wondering if “undead skeleton + puns” is a thing in Japan. There’s also a viceroy who decides, to make himself stand out, to act flamboyantly gay, and all the little stereotypical tick boxes are checked there, but fortunately he only shows up near the end. And we also get a glimpse of the Senate, which seems evenly divided between “evil” and “stupid AND evil”. Probably the best new character was Shatina, the daughter of the murdered viceroy, who starts off as a terrified teenager but, by the end of the book, has to be talked down from turning her city into a tool to get monstrous revenge on all those who have wronged her. The author would seem to agree, as the short story after the main book has her and Firnir, the centaur girl, bonding as they explore the underground labyrinth below Shatina’s own labyrinth of a city.

Der Werwolf’s most impressive feature continues to be its readability – you never get bogged down in prose the way you do in so many other light novels. I look forward to seeing more of Veight being ridiculously overpowered and totally unaware of it.

By: Sean Gaffney

[profoundradiance-blog]

38 4 34 9 32 6

CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT QUESTIONS /// OPEN

4. What is their size and build? How does it influence how they use their body, if it does?

Joan is rather tall for a woman, standing around five foot nine. She has a slender figure though, only weighing one hundred eight pounds. Although she does have some self-image issues, she is also aware that most people find her attractive, so she uses that to her advantage when it comes to flirting or getting what she wants. She finds her height inconvenient, however, and wishes she was shorter.

6. What are they like in motion–in different environments, and in different activities? What causes the differences between these?

If an environment is not stressful for her, Joan can be playful and pleasant company. While she acts snooty, she also spoils others and takes advantage of her wealth to help if she feels it’s right. However, if an environment is stressful for her, or she is forced to do something she doesn’t like, Joan can get very temperamental and feels threatened by her lack of control.

9. How do they manifest energy, exhaustion, tension, or other strong emotions?

She works. Most people do not notice her tendency to occupy herself, but she tries to keep herself busy. Otherwise, pent up emotions can evolve negatively and cause her to lash out at others. While it still happens, she tries to avoid it, hoping to tire herself out before reaching that point.

32. Do they have any “props” that are a significant part of their life, identity, activities, or self-presentation somehow? What are they, how are they used, and why are they so significant? How would these props’ absence impact them, how would they compensate, and why?

Joan did not always wear so much makeup or dress so flamboyantly. It makes her feel secure, like the image that she creates through it is one that she is safely putting up. If she does not go out of her way to present herself to someone, then it is a symbol of vulnerability and trust from her end.

34. How do they understand the world–what kind of worldview and thought processes do they have? Why?

People are cruel and will try to shove her down. Due to being bullied so intensely during high school and having her trust betrayed, Joan thinks she always has to fight back and keep up a specific facade in order to not be taken advantage of. Letting people into her life is difficult for her because of this.

38. Is there anything they wish they could change about their worldview or thought processes? What, and why?

She wishes that everything was easier, that she could be as innocent as she was when she was still a child. Now though, Joan thinks that she sees people for who they really are, which makes it impossible for her to hold that mindset anymore. 

[stillshrine]

Gay Homophobia

“(...) Gay men’s homophobia may sound oxymoronic, but it’s increasingly apparent in a culture that prizes masculinity and derides campness. You can see it when gay men who conform to stereotypes by worshipping Beyoncé, quoting RuPaul or dressing flamboyantly are met with a wince or said to be letting the side down (...). Increasingly, it appears that the divide is no longer between heteros and homos, but gay men who separate into ‘camp’ and ‘straight-acting’, a term that implies a degree of posturing. Take Giorgio Armani’s recent comments. The designer, who was in a long-term relationship with architect Sergio Galeotti until the latter’s death from AIDS in 1985, said in an interview in April that ‘a man has to be a man’ and gay men ‘do not need to dress homo-sexual’ (...). Two weeks earlier, the gay actor Russell Tovey had caused a similar furore when he spoke of his relief at attending a tough school that allowed him to escape his destiny as a ‘really effeminate, tap-dancing freak’. (...) Comedian Alan Carr has said that ‘the most homophobia I get is from gays’. Camp-shaming isn’t reserved for celebrities [only]. I have a friend, (...) who says he’s had men approach him in bars, only to ‘tell me that I’m too camp as soon as I open my mouth’: ‘It’s depressing to see gay men attacking each other, when we should be allies.’ Queer performance artist Scottee — who hosted a variety showcase called Camp (Live!) — admits to feeling shunned by the gay scene. (...) The strapline for the gay scene is ‘no fats, no femmes’. Where (...) [c]omments such as ‘If I wanted to go out with a girl, I’d date women’ abound within gay circles and feed the notion that to be camp is to be intrinsically unsexy. What’s behind the phenomenon? (...) Matthew Todd, editor of Attitude, (...) suggests that such prejudices have a similar root when expressed by gay people as straight: ‘Gay people grow up hearing the same messages that straight people who end up being homophobic hear,’ he says. ‘There aren’t magical ear plugs that gay kids are given to stop them absorbing society’s homophobia, so naturally they internalise it.’ ‘In our society we have these fixed gender norms, which we’re expected to abide by,’ agrees Guardian columnist Owen Jones. He believes that the root of gay camp-shaming lies in a pervasive sexism resulting from gendered expectations. He draws comparisons with how feminism benefits men, by freeing them from restrictive norms, and how a decrease in homophobia would similarly benefit straight men. ‘I’d go as far as to say that most homophobia directed at young men growing up is directed at straight men. Straight men who are seen as not athletic or aggressive enough are dismissed as ‘poofs’. The biggest killer of men aged 18 to 50 is suicide, partly because men are afraid to seek help for fear of being seen as weak or effeminate.’ William, 29, a gay graphic designer, tells me he ‘can’t stand the spectacle of Pride’ because ‘all those men dancing on floats don’t speak to me about my life. Most of my friends are straight; I hate the idea of them thinking all that glitter and camp has anything to do with me. I find it all quite embarrassing.’ This embarrassment, says sex and relationship therapist Dr Joe Kort, may be rooted in gay men’s often complicated relationships with their own masculinity: ‘Gay men are taught from a young age that they are not manly enough, inferior and wrong. There’s a tendency to become hyper-masculinised and express prejudice toward other gay men who don’t ‘pass’ as straight.’ This isn’t, he says, a phenomenon unique to gay men: ‘We see this in other minorities, too — it is called lateral discrimination. Unconsciously, we do to others what was done to us.’ Todd adds that apps such as Grindr, rather than connecting the community, are contributing to its division by fostering camp-shaming. ‘If you’re looking for a relationship, you aren’t expecting perfection. When you’re just looking for sex, you want the fantasy — and that’s when people become obsessive about wanting straight-acting or masculine men. It puts unbearable pressure on everybody. On top of this, if you don’t like that you are slightly effeminate or camp, and you come across people who are even more so, that can trigger your own shame. (...) What can be done about this? Jones says he has an ‘unashamedly positive view’ when it comes to the progress made by gay people. The hope is that as homophobia in the world at large decreases, it will have a knock-on effect for young gay people, who will naturally internalise less shame and be less prejudiced towards each other. This may already be happening, says Todd: ‘I think there’s a growing awareness that bars and clubs aren’t enough and gay people need a sense of community. There’s a movement — visible in the emergence of discussion groups such as A Change of Scene at the Soho health clinic 56 Dean Street — where we confront issues that gay people don’t talk about. The more these issues are out in the open, the easier they are to resolve.’ (...) In the short-term, LGBT activist Peter Tatchell suggests becoming more conscious of how personal prejudices affect behaviour: ‘There’s nothing wrong with having a preference for masculine men. What’s wrong is the disparaging way camp men are often put down, ostracised and dismissed.’ And if more gay men can begin to recognise and confront their own homo-phobia? Well, then that’s something we can all be proud of.” — Joe Stone. “Does London have a homophobia problem within the gay community? (2015)” Standard Magazine.

[ogxref]

ON PLATFORMS & THE ALT-RIGHT / New York Times

The platforms’ sudden action in response to outpouring of public grief →  at first glance resembles a moral awakening and suggests a mounting sense of responsibility to the body politic... 

You could be forgiven for seeing this as a turning point for these sites, away from a hands-off approach to the communities they host and toward something with more oversight / regulation... → An inside-out version of this analysis has been embraced by right-wing users: these bans a violation of their free speech. But both are incomplete accountings of what happened.

The recent rise of all-encompassing internet platforms promised something unprecedented and invigorating: venues that unite all manner of actors (politicians, media, lobbyists, citizens, experts, corporations) under one roof

Online platforms offered unprecedented freedoms for their users → but these freedoms could be taken away at any moment, for any reason

In the process of building private communities, these companies

had put on the costumes of liberal democracies → borrowed the language of rights to legitimize arbitrary rules, creating what the technology lawyer Kendra Albert calls ‘‘legal talismans’’

Legal talismans → legal terms of art invoked for their weight but often divorced from law. They impact online platforms and how we can move beyond legalities to systems that are more considerate of all users.

Costume of liberal democracies → What better way to avoid liability and responsibility for how customers use your product? It was also good marketing. It’s easier to entrust increasingly large portions of your private and public life to an advertising and data-mining firm if you’re led to believe it’s something more...

As major internet platforms have grown to compose a greater share of the public sphere, playing host to consequential political organization (not to mention media) →  their internal contradictions have become harder to ignore

“It is worth noting that the platforms most flamboyantly dedicated to a borrowed idea of free speech and assembly are the same ones that have struggled most intensely with groups of users who seek to organize and disrupt their platforms. A community of trolls on an internet platform is, in political terms, not totally unlike a fascist movement in a weak liberal democracy: It engages with and uses the rules and protections of the system it inhabits with the intent of subverting it and eventually remaking it in their image or, if that fails, merely destroying it.” What gave these trolls power on platforms wasn’t just their willingness to act in bad faith and to break the rules and norms of their environment → it’s their understanding that the rules and norms of platforms were self-serving and cynical in the first place. After all, these platforms draw arbitrary boundaries constantly and with much less controversy (against spammers, concerning profanity or in response to government demands). These fringe groups saw an opportunity in the gap between the platforms’ strained public dedication to discourse stewardship and their actual existence as profit-driven entities, free to do as they please. 

Despite their participatory rhetoric, social platforms are closer to authoritarian spaces than democratic ones → It makes some sense that people with authoritarian tendencies would have an intuitive understanding of how they work and how to take advantage of them...

Alt-right getting kicked off the internet → Their persecution narrative (the most useful narrative they have and one that will help spread their cause beyond the fringes) was written for them years ago by the same companies that helped give them a voice...

THE ALT-RIGHT WANTS TO BUILD ITS OWN INTERNET / Slate

“After Charlottesville, Nazis, white supremacists, and the alt-right have become a lot less welcome on the web. So they’re building their own.”

What’s new about that latest group of bans → rather than Facebook, OkCupid, or Airbnb revoking individual and group accounts, the internet’s gatekeepers are now kicking out whole organizations

“Free Speech Tech Alliance” → wants to build an alternative infrastructure where the alt-right wouldn’t be burdened by the social-justice priorities and liberal values of Silicon Valley, nor by the arguably monopolistic powers of the major nodes of the information economy, like Facebook, Google, Apple, and their peers

We may think of the web as an abstract, open field owned by no one in particular (a legend grounded in its origin as a government project, as well as our tendency to imagine its hard-wiring the way we do other communications infrastructure, like cable or radio airwaves) → but the internet is really a series of core services, most of them privately owned and managed, that host content and give users directions to find it. If those core service providers don’t want something on the internet, they can do a pretty good job of disappearing it

There are already the alt-right Counter.Fund (crowdfunding platform), Hatreon (free speech–centric Patreon alternative), Metapedia (alt-right-friendy Wikipedia), Wasp.love (alt-right dating website)...

We don’t know whether the alt-right will be able to bring its dream of a second internet to fruition, but its complaints about censorship have underscored an essential truth → Control of the internet is effectively centralized among a few massive companies (something these tech giants may not want you to be aware of)

Fox News’ Tucker Carlson → “Google should be regulated like the public utility it is, to make sure it doesn’t further distort the free flow of information to the rest of us.”

Former Trump aide and Breitbart executive chairman Steve Bannon → has also argued that tech platforms should be regulated like utilities

The alt-right is calling out the essential tension of the major internet companies, which espouse “don’t be evil” philosophies and want to “bring the world closer together” yet also owe their popularity (and profits) to an internet where seemingly anything goes, until they say it doesn’t

“The early ideal of the internet was that of a great commons where all kinds of diverse opinions could be shared, where people could come to understand each other and to be convinced of new, challenging ideas. That particular utopian wish list may have always been naïve, but the notion that an open internet should not be controlled by a small group of corporations beholden only to shareholders continues to hold sway for a reason.”

[deniscollins]

How Hate Groups Forced Online Platforms to Reveal Their True Nature

If you were a Facebook executive, would you ban pages with names like ‘‘White Nationalists United’’ or does this violate freedom of speech on the Internet: (1) Yes, (2) No, (3) something else (if so, what?)? Why? What are the ethics underlying your decision?

White supremacist marchers had not yet lit their torches when the deletions began. The ‘‘Unite the Right’’ Facebook page, which had been used to organize the rally in Charlottesville, was removed the day before the event was scheduled, forcing planners to disperse to other platforms to organize. And then, in the hours and days after a participant drove his car into a crowd of counterprotesters, killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer and injuring at least 19 others, internet companies undertook a collective purge.

Facebook banned a range of pages with names like ‘‘Right Wing Death Squad’’ and ‘‘White Nationalists United.’’ Reddit banned, among others, a hard-right community called ‘‘Physical Removal,’’ an organizer of which had called the weekend’s killing ‘‘a morally justified action.’’ Twitter suspended an unknown number of users, including popular accounts associated with 4chan’s openly fascistic Politically Incorrect message board, or /pol/. Discord, a chat app for gamers that doubled as an organizing tool for the event, and where a prominent white supremacist had called for disrupting Heyer’s funeral, rushed to do cleanup.

The clampdown extended beyond the walled gardens of social platforms to a wide array of online services. The Daily Stormer, a neo-Nazi site that promoted the march and celebrated its fatal outcome, was banned by the domain registrar and hosting service GoDaddy, then hours later by Google’s hosting service, then lost access to SendGrid, which it had used to deliver its newsletter; PayPal cut off the white nationalist Richard Spencer’s organization, which later lost access to its web host, Squarespace; Airbnb removed the accounts of a number of Charlottesville attendees before the event, and released a statement saying that ‘‘violence, racism and hatred demonstrated by neo-­Nazis, the alt-right and white supremacists should have no place in this world’’; by Wednesday, Spotify was even expunging ‘‘white supremacist’’ music from its library.

The platforms’ sudden action in response to an outpouring of public grief and rage resembles, at first glance, a moral awakening and suggests a mounting sense of responsibility to the body politic. You could be forgiven for seeing this as a turning point for these sites, away from a hands-off approach to the communities they host and toward something with more oversight and regulation. An inside-out version of this analysis has been embraced by right-wing users, who have wasted no time declaring these bans a violation of their free speech. But this is an incomplete accounting of what happened and one that serves two parties and two parties alone: the companies themselves and the people they’ve just banned.

The recent rise of all-encompassing internet platforms promised something unprecedented and invigorating: venues that unite all manner of actors — politicians, media, lobbyists, citizens, experts, corporations — under one roof. These companies promised something that no previous vision of the public sphere could offer: real, billion-strong mass participation; a means for affinity groups to find one another and mobilize, gain visibility and influence. This felt and functioned like freedom, but it was always a commercial simulation. This contradiction is foundational to what these internet companies are. Nowhere was this tension more evident than in the case of Cloudflare, a web-infrastructure company. Under sustained pressure to drop The Daily Stormer as a client, the company’s chief executive, Matthew Prince, eventually assented. It was an arbitrary decision, and one that was out of step with the company’s stated policies. This troubled Prince. ‘‘I woke up in a bad mood and decided someone shouldn’t be allowed on the internet,’’ he wrote in an email to his staff. ‘‘No one should have that power.’’

Social platforms tend to refer to their customers in euphemistic, almost democratic terms: as ‘‘users’’ or ‘‘members of a community.’’ Their leaders are prone to statesmanlike posturing, and some, like Mark Zuckerberg, even seem to have statesmanlike ambitions. Content moderation and behavioral guidelines are likewise rendered in the terms of legal governance, as are their systems for dispute and recourse (as in the ubiquitous post-ban ‘‘appeal’’). Questions about how platforms like Twitter and Reddit deal with disruptive users and offensive content tend to be met with defensive language invoking free speech.

In the process of building private communities, these companies had put on the costumes of liberal democracies. They borrowed the language of rights to legitimize arbitrary rules, creating what the technology lawyer Kendra Albert calls ‘‘legal talismans.’’ This was first and foremost operationally convenient or even necessary: What better way to avoid liability and responsibility for how customers use your product? It was also good marketing. It’s easier to entrust increasingly large portions of your private and public life to an advertising and data-mining firm if you’re led to believe it’s something more. But as major internet platforms have grown to compose a greater share of the public sphere, playing host to consequential political organization — not to mention media — their internal contradictions have become harder to ignore. Far before Charlottesville, they had already become acute.

In a bracing Vice documentary about the rally, a man identified as a writer for The Daily Stormer told the reporter Elle Reeve, ‘‘As you can see, we’re stepping off the internet in a big way.’’ He saw the turnout as confirmation that what he’d been a part of online was real. ‘‘We have been spreading our memes, we’ve been organizing on the internet, and so now they’re coming out,’’ he said, before digressing into a rant about ‘‘anti-white, anti-American filth.’’ This sentiment was echoed in active and longstanding far-right communities on Reddit and 4chan and adjacent communities on Facebook and Twitter.

It is worth noting that the platforms most flamboyantly dedicated to a borrowed idea of free speech and assembly are the same ones that have struggled most intensely with groups of users who seek to organize and disrupt their platforms. A community of trolls on an internet platform is, in political terms, not totally unlike a fascist movement in a weak liberal democracy: It engages with and uses the rules and protections of the system it inhabits with the intent of subverting it and eventually remaking it in their image or, if that fails, merely destroying it.

But what gave these trolls power on platforms wasn’t just their willingness to act in bad faith and to break the rules and norms of their environment. It was their understanding that the rules and norms of platforms were self-serving and cynical in the first place. After all, these platforms draw arbitrary boundaries constantly and with much less controversy — against spammers, concerning profanity or in response to government demands. These fringe groups saw an opportunity in the gap between the platforms’ strained public dedication to discourse stewardship and their actual existence as profit-driven entities, free to do as they please. Despite their participatory rhetoric, social platforms are closer to authoritarian spaces than democratic ones. It makes some sense that people with authoritarian tendencies would have an intuitive understanding of how they work and how to take advantage of them.

This was also a moment these hate groups were anticipating; getting banned in an opaque, unilateral fashion was always the way out and, to some degree, it suits them. In the last year, hard-right communities on social platforms have cultivated a pre-emptive identity as platform refugees and victims of censorship. They’ve also been preparing for this moment or one like it: There are hard-right alternatives to Twitter, to Reddit and even to the still-mostly-lawless 4chan. There are alternative fund-raising sites in the mold of GoFundMe or Kickstarter; there’s an alternative to Patreon called Hatreon. Like most of these new alternatives, it has cynically borrowed a cause — it calls itself a site that ‘‘stands for free speech absolutism’’ — that the more mainstream platforms borrowed first. Their persecution narrative, which is the most useful narrative they have, and one that will help spread their cause beyond the fringes, was written for them years ago by the same companies that helped give them a voice.